LSLFBW: Chapter 53

Qi Bai and Niu Yong lay on the opposite side of the mountain wall where the food was usually placed. This was the farthest distance and the best viewing angle from which they could observe the four-eared sheep eating.

Since the sheep entered the sheepfold, Qi Bai would put food into the valley every day. He deliberately distinguished the locations of each placement, so he only needed to find the order in which the food was placed.

Qi Bai took out a few small stone slabs from the animal skin bag hanging around his neck. He found one of them and started to count the food pile under the cliff.

Niu Yong looked at the strange symbols on Qi Bai’s stone slab and asked in confusion, “Bao Bai, what is drawn on your slate?”

Qi Bai’s eyes didn’t leave the flock as he explained, “I put food in a different place every day, and I handle the food differently every time.”

“For example, that pile of weeds,” Qi Bai said while pointing to the first pile of weeds he put down. “That pile of weeds was just left on the snow to dry for a day. The sheep didn’t eat them, but they didn’t have much hostility either.”

Qi Bai pointed to the second pile of grass. “I used this pile specifically for comparison. It was only air-dried for half a day. After putting this grass down, the sheep became noticeably restless and even covered the grass with snow.”

Qi Bai hadn’t expected this. After all, Qi Bai thought that they would just stay away from food they didn’t like. Unexpectedly, the sheep had a very bad temper. They used their horns to push the weeds on the ground hard, crushing them. It was only when the flying snowflakes covered the food completely that they stopped.

Fortunately, the sheep hadn’t shown signs of wanting to commit suicide, as Lang Ze said. But since then, Qi Bai completely believed that these sheep could smell odors he didn’t know.

Qi Bai thought of this and changed the subject, asking, “Do you remember when the sheep entered the shed on the day they were first driven into the valley?”

The ones in charge of the guarding work of the sheepfold were Niu Yong and a young beastman called Ci Yi. If Qi Bai remembered correctly, it was Niu Yong who was guarding here on the night when the sheep first entered the sheepfold.

Niu Yong frowned and thought carefully for a long time. Then he replied, “It seems that it snowed heavily that day. In the second half of the night, the sheep seemed unable to withstand the wind and snow so they went into the shed.”

Qi Bai nodded. It seemed that what Lang Ze said about the beastmen’s smell taking a day to dissipate was right. What Niu Yong said was almost the same time they had built the shed the day before.

After that, Qi Bai no longer tried to shorten the time for drying food. He instead started to control other variables.

For example, leaving the food for two days, using a small amount of wood ash to absorb the smell, or even like the batch of food that was put out yesterday.

Those foods were washed with clean water squeezed with stinkweed juice, and dried for a day.

The reason why Qi Bai thought about using stinky grass juice was just to give it a try.

After all, no matter how many days Qi Bai left the food to dry, the head sheep’s reaction was always calm. It wouldn’t bury the weeds like crazy or allow the other sheep in the flock to eat it.

Qi Bai came up with this idea when the children were playing pranks with stinkweed. He thought of fighting poison with poison. He didn’t believe that the smell of the beastmen would be worse than stinkweed. He hadn’t expected this idea to actually work.

It was just that these four-eared sheep were really picky. It took a lot of effort to process them like this. Qi Bai felt that these sheep really lived a more refined life than the beastmen.

The sheepfold of the Black Mountain Tribe was very large. Now some of the sheep were digging in the snow with their noses, trying to find food buried in the snow, while other smaller sheep were huddled tightly in the shed.

Qi Bai looked at the head sheep who was guarding outside, blocking the other sheep in the flock and only allowing the pregnant ewes to come up to eat. He touched his chin thoughtfully.

Since these foods were used for experiments, Qi Bai wouldn’t put out too much of each kind. He watched the four ewes finish eating the experimental grass No 7 and snapped the stone slabs together.

It didn’t matter if they lived a refined life as long as they could eat the food. Once he had complete control over the sheep, he would make sure they learned to go out to graze on their own and return home on time.

Niu Yong was also very happy at this moment. “They really finished eating it all!”

Wouldn’t this mean that Qi Bai’s words about raising the sheep would come true?”

Qi Bai smiled and said, “It seems okay. You continue to watch here. If there is anything wrong with them, immediately return to the tribe and inform me.”

“Okay!” Niu Yong replied loudly. He was now more familiar with these sheep than the children in the tribe.

Qi Bai returned to the tribe and went straight to Yang Luo, who was supervising the work beside the wall.

After half a month of construction, nearly one third of the wall had been built. Since it had been sunny and snowy in the past few days, Yang Luo increased the speed of firing bricks in the kiln. Now the tribe could produce not only a batch of bricks in the morning but also another batch in the afternoon.

The work of building walls was originally done by the horned beastmen who had to get up early in the morning. Now the sub-beastmen had gradually learned how to do it. During the time when the horned beastmen went out hunting and training, the sub-beastmen could use the fired bricks to build the walls.

Yang Luo had just helped move bricks out of the pottery kiln and was now guarding beside the horned beastmen. He couldn’t build the wall by himself, but he was very familiar with the work process and could tell at a glance who made a mistake.

When Qi Bai found him, Yang Luo was whispering that the space between the bricks laid by Hou Yan was too wide. Hou Yan smiled and didn’t refute it. After listening to the words, he took the brick down, scraped off half of the lime mortar where Yang Luo had pointed out and put back the brick when he saw Yang Luo nod reluctantly and say that it was okay.

Qi Bai saw that this was the perfect opportunity as it saved him a lot of trouble of splitting up to look for Hou Yan. He told the two of them that the sheep were finally willing to eat the food, and Yang Luo no longer had time to blame Hou Yan.

“Beast God!” Yang Luo almost burst into tears because of the news. Watching the sheep getting thinner and thinner today, Yang Luo thought more than once that he should kill all the rams as soon as possible to salt the meat and leave only the pregnant ewes.

But Lang Ze and Qi Bai both disagreed.

Lang Ze also mentioned that once these rams were killed, the ewes would likely die even faster. This finally dispelled Yang Luo’s dangerous idea.

Therefore, even though he heard that the food needed by the sheep was very troublesome to prepare, he didn’t hesitate at all. “Quickly, go to the kiln and call everyone here. Except for those who are building the wall here, everyone had to go and dig the stinky grass.

Yang Luo glanced at the people who were still working and said, “Forget it. I’ll go find someone myself.”

As he said that, he hurriedly ran towards the tribe. He ran a few steps before turning back. Hou Yan readily handed him the bear bone staff that he had dropped by the wall. Yang Luo took it and left without looking back.

Qi Bai looked at the bricks in Hou Yan’s hand and said jokingly, “How many bricks did the tribe leader lay wrong again today?”

Hou Yan smiled and shook his head. “You and Lang Ze can keep your temper, but the priest has been frustrated these days. Coming to trouble me is also considered as doing something.”

Now it wasn’t only Qi Bai. Even Niu Xi and the others stacking bricks nearby started laughing.

Everyone was now very skilled in this job and few people made mistakes.Therefore, every time Hou Yan saw Yang Luo walking towards the wall, he deliberately made small mistakes to allow Yang Luo to be distracted, making him worry less about the sheep.

After leaving the wall, Qi Bai didn’t delay and hurried back to the cave. He carried out the rattan basket he usually used for collecting and explained to Hu Huo that he was going to collect food for the four-eared sheep.

Hu Huo immediately waved his hand and said, “Go ahead. I almost understood what you said about the ‘mortise and tenon joint.’ I will keep trying to do it these days. The sheep are more important, so you don’t have to worry about me.”

Qi Bai nodded heavily. Hu Huo was a very attentive and studious person. Even with the simplest straw rope, he could do his best wholeheartedly. Therefore, Qi Bai felt very relieved to hand this matter over to Hu Huo.

Qi Bai arrived at the kiln and saw many people carrying rattan baskets with excited expressions. They didn’t see with their own eyes the sheep eating the food that Qi Bai fed them, but they found it incredible just hearing the news.

“Bao Bai, you are so awesome!” Yang Ling praised sincerely. After all, if the sheep could really survive in the tribe then he and Shu Lin would be the first to benefit.

According to Qi Bai, once the ewes gave birth, they only needed to steal the ewes out of the sheepfold every day to milk them before putting them back in the sheepfold.

The beastmen no longer had to go out into the wild to look for new pregnant beasts every few days like before. Every spring, many beastmen in the tribe would go out to look for pregnant beasts and never come back.

Shu Lin nodded hurriedly and said, “Bao Bai, Priest Yang Luo asked us to dig for food for the four-eared sheep, but I don’t know what they eat.”

“There aren’t many plants that can be collected this season, so I just picked a bit of each.” QI Bai carefully recalled his observations of the ewes eating just now and said uncertainty, “But they seem to eat everything. Even the hay I put down seems to have been eaten up.”

At this time, Diao Lian said from where she was standing nearby, “Try to find some grass with wide leaves.”

Qi Bai, Shu Lin, and the others nodded obediently.

Diao Lan wasn’t a talkative person, but at the same time, she often mentioned some knowledge that no one else understood. In short, they generally wouldn’t make mistakes if they listened to her and understood her words.

Now most of the people left in the tribe were sub-beastmen. Even the young beastmen were taken out by Hu Meng to carry clay, so Yang Luo divided everyone into two groups.

He led a collect team to collect plants while Qi Bai was taken by the little beastmen to collect stinky grass.

That’s right. It was the little beastmen who took him there because this plant, which could almost make a beastmen faint if placed directly under the nose, was a toy that the children had accidentally discovered.

Qi Bai was brought to a sheltered area by them. After pushing away the snow, he found that the land here was much moister and softer than other places.

Stinky grass was a plant that grew close to the ground. Its appearance was somewhat like a broccoli floret, and its texture felt like seaweed. It was bright green in color, and each plant was only the size of a palm.

Judging from the appearance alone, this plant with a springy and smooth feel was actually quite dreamy and beautiful.

Of course, the premise of all of this was that they couldn’t be careless enough to crush the flower heads of the stinky grass.

“Wow, it stinks!”

Qi Bai heard Bao Xing’s happy voice.

Li Li was amused by Bao Xing and also reached out to deliberately crush a small round bag. Then she placed it under her nose to sniff it, giggled, and said, “It stinks so much.”

Qi Bai stuffed the animal skin to plug his nose even more. He really couldn’t understand the interests and hobbies of these children. It seemed that the smellier it was, the happier they were.

However, he had to admit that it was thanks to these children who loved smells that his sheep farming business had made a great breakthrough.

He thought so in his mind, but Qi Bai still subconsciously moved in the direction of Sun Yuan. This little horned beastman was probably the cleanest person in the entire tribe. Once he came to Sun Yuan’s side, Qi Bai felt that his breathing had become much smoother.

The moment Qi Bai squatted down, he saw Sun Yuan, who had his hair cut by his brother with a stone and looked like it had been gnawed by a dog, holding stinky grass in his hand and looking at Qi Bai expressionlessly. Before Qi Bai could shake his head, Sun Yuan had already crushed the stinky grass in his hand.

Sun Yuan looked at the green juice flowing on his fingers. Soon, he looked up and said to Qi Bai, “This doesn’t smell good.”

Qi Bai nodded with a sad face. “Yes, it smells bad. Don’t learn from them.”

Sun Yuan nodded coolly, threw away the stinky grass in his hand, and carefully washed his hands on the snow.

Qi Bai was actually a bit surprised that Sun Yuan would take the initiative to talk to him.

After all, from his perspective as a modern man, this child might have some psychological problems. His reaction to the outside world was much slower than that of ordinary children, and he didn’t like to communicate very much.

Fortunately, it didn’t seem to be serious and hadn’t affected his normal life.

Sometimes, Qi Bai even thought that this child, who was always a beat slow to react, was very cute.

In particular, this serious and cool little face really looked like a little wolf pretending to be an adult…

Qi Bai was digging the stinky grass while thinking. He didn’t notice that the corners of his mouth were curved up high.

After all, stinky grass was just an ingredient added to water to soak plants. The smell was very overbearing, so they didn’t need to collect a lot.

However, when QI Bai and the children returned to the tribe while chatting and laughing, they found that the beastmen who were originally building the wall were no longer there.

There was an eerie silence and tension in the tribe.

Qi Bai frowned and whispered to the children, “Go to the kiln to find Lu Guo. Stay in the woodshed, and don’t go out.”

Children might not know how to observe the situation around them, but they could keenly perceive the emotions of adults.

Bao Xing and the others listened to Qi Bai’s instructions and nodded seriously. They lined up and ran to the right side of the Black Mountain.

Qi Bai walked towards the front of the tribe. Before he had gone far, he saw a hunting team, which had been out on patrol, carrying two people and hurriedly running into the tribe.

Qi Bai’s heart skipped a beat, and he hurried forward.

What happened? Was someone injured?