LSLFBW: Chapter 56

The next morning, as soon as Qi Bai opened the door, he saw Lang Ze sitting outside the cave peeling animal skins.

Qi Bai rubbed his eyes while thinking he was hallucinating. “Where did you get this prey?”

“I just caught it, but it is a bit smaller.” Lang Ze paused before saying, “You said you would make barbecue for me.”

Qi Bai returned to the cave yesterday and unexpectedly found a broken pottery jar and half a jar of charcoal. The two of them had to deal with it. It was at that time that he agreed to help cook a delicious barbecue for Lang Ze.

However, Qi Bai hadn’t expected Lang Ze to be so resolute and swift. He only took a nap, and Lang Ze had already brought the prey back to the tribe.

If it wasn’t for the fact that everyone had already discussed it yesterday and Lang Ze had to stay in the tribe during the day to be vigilant, Qi Bai would’ve thought that Lang Ze was skipping work to do extra business.

“Cook cook cook!” Qi Bai’s eyes lit up. After all, who could refuse a freshly roasted roe deer?

The roe deer that Lang Ze brought back was small, but it couldn’t be cooked in the cave. Qi Bai cleaned the snow on the stone platform, piled charcoal neatly on the ground, and crossed and twisted the sticks together to make two brackets on the ground.

Once Lang Ze cleaned the roe deer, the two of them used a long wooden stick to place the whole roe deer on a race. They applied seasoning on it and rotated the wooden stick to roast it.

Soon, half a round little face appeared on the edge of the stone platform and asked with envy, “Are you making any new food? It smells so good!”

Qi Bai smiled at him, raised the oil brush in his hand, and said, “It isn’t new food. I just brushed a bit of oil and seasoning on the outside of the barbecue.”

Shu Lin sniffed and slowly descended. Then Qi Bai heard his anxious voice, “Where is our meat? Let’s make some oil too!”

Qi Bai listened to the quarrel between Shu Lin and Xiong Feng. Then he suddenly thought of a question.

This wasn’t right. The height between their two platforms must be at least three or four meters. How did he appear there just now?

However, Lang Ze on the side didn’t care at all about how Shu Lin appeared and disappeared. He cut off a piece of the roe deer’s hind leg meat with a bone knife. Seeing that Qi Bai was still stretching his neck to check, he put the roasted meat directly into Qi Bai’s mouth.

Qi Bai’s face was full of doubt, but he still obediently accepted Lang Ze’s feeding. Lang Ze then retracted his hand in satisfaction and continued to slice the roast meat.

This morning, it wasn’t just Shu Lin. The smell of cooked meat filled the entire valley. Everyone drooled when they smelled the fragrance.

It was a strange thing .Even though the ingredients were similar, Qi Bai’s food seemed to taste much better than others. Maybe this was due to everyone’s different talents.

Of course, Qi Bai and Lang Ze didn’t only make barbecue. They didn’t forget that there were still two people from the Xishui Tribe lying in Ma Ling’s cave.

Qi Bai couldn’t help sneezing. He was currently cooking ginger soup for the two frostbitten beastmen.

In fact, Qi Bai in his previous life really liked drinking ginger soup. Of course, he was referring to the type with rock sugar and red dates. As for this ginger soup without any impurities, it was better to give it to someone who needed it more.

Qi Bai took out a large bamboo tube that he usually used to fetch water. He poured it full of hot ginger soup and went to Ma Ling’s cave with Lang Ze.

Qi Bai walked into the cave and saw two people staring at She Li, who was sitting the stone pot, without blinking and gulping constantly.

At this time, the stew in the stone pot was already cooked. However, before serving the stew, She Li deliberately took a pinch of salt from the animal skin bag and sprinkled it into the stone pot.

The two men’s breathing seemed to stop along with this bit of salt. It wasn’t that they had the intention to snatch it away, but it was an involuntary anticipation.

She Li picked up two bamboo bowls and served them a large bowl each.

Qi Bai took a careful look and found that the bowl was mostly water, with only some shredded meat and a few pieces of radish.

Even with this, the two beastmen held the bamboo bowl as if it was a treasure. The older horned beastman, Ma Tian, used his still trembling hands to bring the hot soup to his mouth. He took a small sip and said in a hoarse voice, “Beast God bless you, Beast God bless you.”

Qi Bai was suddenly reminded of himself when he first arrived at the Black Mountain, and his attitude towards them subconsciously softened a lot.

“This is the medicinal soup prepared for you by our tribe’s priest.” Qi Bai pointed to the bamboo tube in his hand. “I will pour this medicinal soup into the stone pot, and you must drink it all today.” There was charcoal under the stone pot to keep the temperature of the ginger soup warm.

They hadn’t expected that the Black Mountain Tribe was not only willing to give them food, but the high priest was even willing to give them medicinal soup. The two of them nodded repeatedly and immediately drank the hot soup that Qi Bai had handed them.

The moment Ma Song took the first sip of the medicine, he felt pain in his mouth and throat. He endured the pain and swallowed the medicine. Soon, his whole body started to feel hot. Even his limbs, which had been itchy, felt much better.

The priests in the Beastmen World weren’t just the medium for communication with the gods. They often had multiple roles.

Just look at Yang Luo and it could be seen that he not only understood mathematics and geography, but also mastered medicine and a simple calendar. In an era without writing, this knowledge could only be passed down orally from generation to generation among priests.

Therefore, if a tribe didn’t have the inheritance of a priest, it would be difficult for them to run in the dark and they wouldn’t be able to find the direction to move forward.

Ma Song stared ahead in a daze, his nose a bit sour. He didn’t know that Qi Bai made ginger soup for them. He thought it was all the priest’s skill.

Both of them were tribes living in the north. The Black Mountain Tribe lived a prosperous life due to a great priest, while their Xishui Tribe was like a dying old man.

Even if the Black Mountain Tribe helped them get through this crisis, what about the future of the Xishui Tribe?

No one knew that a small bowl of ginger soup could leave such a deep impression on Ma Song’s heart. Of course, no one could’ve imagined that this small impression would completely change the fate of the entire Xishui Tribe.

Qi Bai saw that Ma Song kept staring at him after drinking the ginger soup. He blinked and was about to ask if Ma Song was feeling uncomfortable anywhere.

Then Lang Ze, who was standing nearby, grabbed his arm and said, “Let’s go. We still have a lot of things to do today.”

“Huh?”

Regardless of how turbulent Ma Song’s heart was right now, Qi Bai walked out of the cave and had no time to care about their thoughts. After all, Lang Ze was right. It wasn’t just today, but every day in the future. Everyone would be busier.

It was because the priest, Yang Luo, had made up his mind to build the entire wall within two ten-days.

Qi Bai silently calculated in his mind that they were supposed to burn two batches of bricks a day, but now the workload would double. Of course, this was all based on the premise that he quickly built a larger brick kiln.

Qi Bai had no objections to this point. Building a larger brick kiln earlier could be considered a precautionary measure.

Everyone currently thought it was safer to live in the mountains without worrying about the impact of floods, but it was impossible for a big flood to happen every year. Looking at the satisfaction of the tribe members with the kiln mud houses, it was only a matter of time before they were successfully persuaded to build houses.

The kiln mud house was the wooden shed that Qi Bai had planned to reinforce a long time ago, but it was delayed for many days due to the sheepfold issue.

Clay mixed with hay was directly pasted on the inside and outside of the straw curtain of the wooden shed. Since there was a fire burning all the time in the house, the mud house seemed to dry faster than the shed in the sheepfold.

Of course, during this process, everyone selectively ignored the smoke coming out of the mud walls. After all, even if it was a bit choking, it couldn’t beat the warmth in the house.

Some of the children would even go to the place where the smoke was leaking to smell the scent of hay and dirt.

This was just the work at the kiln. They also had to prepare food for the sheep, make huge wooden doors for the tribe and the hunting team had to go hunting.

In short, even though there was so much frozen snow outside the tribe, the Black Mountain Tribe had the enthusiasm to melt the ice and snow.

Ma Song and Ma Tian seemed to have entered another world. It was a world that wasn’t quiet and dull due to winter.

There was the sound of knocking on wood outside the cave, the sound of sub-beastmen going out to collect in groups, and the sound of young sub-beastmen shouting and playing…

Of course, what made them unable to hold back their curiosity and struggle to get up to check was the thunderous cheers in the tribe at this moment.

At this time, it was already the afternoon of the third day since they arrived at the Black Mountain Tribe. Ma Song opened the bamboo door that hadn’t been opened for a long time. He was first blinded by the light of the snow from the mountains. Then he was shocked by the scene he saw.

He saw more than a dozen strong horned beastmen dragging two huge prey into the open space of the tribe.

During the days when the horned beastmen of the Xishui was almost unable to hunt due to a lack of food, the horned beastmen of the Black Mountain Tribe not only brought back prey but also sent out a hunting team of only a dozen people.

Their beast forms were covered in blood, but Ma Song knew it was the blood of prey. It was because he saw no pain in their eyes. Instead, it was all exhilaration after the battle.

Among the beastmen, Ma Song spotted the black horse at first sight. He knew it was Ma Ling, a beastman whose beast form was also a horse. At this moment, he was filled with uncertainty.

His father, the most powerful beastman of the Xishui Tribe, was the tribe leader, but he didn’t have the terrifying spirit and graceful figure of Ma Ling.

However, Ma Ling was just an ordinary beastman in the Black Mountain Tribe. He wasn’t even the captain of the hunting team.

Looking at the Black Mountain Tribe members who were so excited about food, Ma Song couldn’t help thinking of his own people. He turned to the silent Ma Tian and said, “It is time for us to leave.”

Qi Bai wasn’t surprised by the news that the two people from the Xishui Tribe were leaving, nor did he try to keep them just because their injuries hadn’t healed yet.

If the members of the Black Mountain Tribe were suffering from cold and hunger, he definitely wouldn’t be able to recuperate peacefully in a warm cave.

But when they proposed to exchange salt again, they both showed an embarrassed look. “We originally traveled with the animal skins that the tribe accumulated, but those animal skins have been lost in the wind and snow. Can we…”

Ma Song gritted his teeth and begged. “Can you please give us some salt first? Just a little bit will be enough. Once we return to the tribe, we will immediately bring more animal skins and bones back to the Black Mountain Tribe.”

Yang Luo stared at them deeply. Just when Ma Song and Ma Tian were getting restless, he turned around and nodded to the two people at the entrance of the cave.

Ma Ling and Ma Shu dragged the two large rolls of animal skins into the cave from outside.

Yang Luo waved his hand and asked, “Are these your animal skins?”

Ma Tian knelt down in front of the animal skins and cried bitterly. “Yes, the chief divided the animal skins in the tribe into four parts and distributed the last bit of food with salt to the eight of us. He asked us to look for salt in four different directions. These are the animal skins that our tribe has accumulated for a year. I thought we had lost them…”

Qi Bai smiled. “If you use these animal skins in exchange, the priest and tribe leader will agree to give you two bamboo tubes of salt and ten days of dried meat. This is enough for you to return to the Xishui Tribe.”

Ma Song and Ma Tian fainted while searching for the animal skins in the snow after it fell off. Ma Song secretly wondered if the Black Mountain Tribe had found the animal skins since they had also found the two of them.

But for the beastmen, only the strong had the qualifications to negotiate. The people of the Black Mountain Tribe rescued them. Even if they hid the animal skins, he and Ma Tian had no ability to resist.

They hadn’t expected so many animal skins to be returned to them on the day they were leaving.

Ma Song sighed in his heart. Yes, the Black Mountain Tribe was such a powerful tribe. It must have countless animal skins. Why would they covet the animal skins of the Xishui Tribe?

Ma Song asked with red eyes, “We don’t want dried meat. We just want salt. Can we exchange the dried meat for salt?”

“Even if I give you more salt, it will be useless if you can’t find food on the road and can’t bring it back to the tribe.” Qi Bai shook his head and handed out two bamboo tribes. “The priest has already calculated it for you. This salt is enough for your entire tribe to survive the winter.”

Ma Song looked at the two bamboo tubes full of salt and couldn’t hold back his tears. He clenched his right fist and hit his chest hard. “I, Ma Song, swear on my life that the Xishui Tribe will always be loyal to the Black Mountain Tribe!”

Yang Luo couldn’t help looking at him with admiration. “Remember what you said today. The Beast God will punish every tribe that betrays their oath.”

Qi Bai and Lang Ze stood on the high wall and watched the two skinny horned horses, each carrying a bamboo tube wrapped in animal skin, staggering but walking forward with firm steps.

It wasn’t until their figures disappeared that Qi Bai smiled. “I think they look like they will be our good friends.”

Lang Ze looked at one of the rows of horseshoe marks on the ground and nodded reluctantly.