LSLFBW: Chapter 61

Everyone enjoyed the meal to their heart’s content. At the end, Yang Luo didn’t forget to distribute the divided fish to everyone.

After returning home, Qi Bai first took Chuan Chuan for a walk in the nearby forest before he started to process the fish. Since they had been lying on the snow for most of the day, all the fish were hard.

In order to prevent the smell of fish and meat from mixing together, Qi Bai didn’t put the fish directly into the stone jar where he usually stored food. Instead, he swept the washbasin next to it clean.

Since the water outside was almost freezing now, Qi Bai’s basin hadn’t been used since it was made. Now it could serve as a temporary refrigerator.

He arranged the fish in the rattan basket in order according to different sizes and types. Finally, he covered it with a stone slab.

Qi Bai returned to the cave and took off his fur hat and gloves. He held them to his nose and smelled them. Sure enough, there was a fishy smell.

Qi Bai walked to the bamboo rack and made sure that the clothes he washed two days ago had been dried. He planned to take a bath before going to bed and to wash the fur coat on his body at the same time.

Qi Bai only had two sets of animal skin clothes. The weather was so cold that washed clothes could only be dried by the fire indoors. This meant he had to be careful every time he changed clothes.

After pouring hot water into the small bathtub, Qi Bai changed into his beast form and jumped in.

Chuan Chuan saw this from where he was lying quietly on the hay and wagged his tail. Then he continued licking the warm milk that Qi Bai had given him.

After all, such a scene happened every two days. Chuan Chuan had become accustomed to the fact that his master occasionally turned into a little snow leopard of similar size to him.

Qi Bai still had wet hair as he threw the clothes he had taken off into the bathtub, scrubbed them clean with wood ash, and hung them on the bamboo rack in the room.

After making marks on the stone slab for calculating the date, Qi Bai could finally crawl into the animal skin quilt.

A charcoal basin was placed under the bamboo bed. Of course, for safety reasons and to allow the charcoal to burn longer, a large stone slab was placed on top of the charcoal basin, leaving only some gaps for oxygen to enter.

Therefore, the animal skin on the bed was warmed by the charcoal fire. Qi Bai couldn’t help rolling around twice on the bed.

He stretched out his hand and waved to Chuan Chuan. Chuan Chuan obediently walked to the head of Qi Bai’s bed. Qi Bai touched the soft fur and spoke to Chuan Chuan softly before unknowingly falling asleep.

Qi Bai’s life became regular again. He walked the sheep, burned bricks, fed the sheep, and made the wooden doors. Qi Bai could always be found in every corner of the tribe.

It wasn’t just Qi Bai. Everyone in the tribe put in their utmost effort.

Even so, Yang Luo’s request for everyone to build the wall within 20 days after the people of the Xishui Tribe left was indeed an impossible goal.

Nevertheless, Qi Bai was very satisfied with everyone’s progress. After all, according to his initial calculations, the work would take at least 90 days to complete. Now it was completed one month ahead of schedule. This was already a remarkable achievement with the current productivity.

Today, the entire Black Mountain Tribe, plus the kiln on the right side of the mountain wall, were all blocked by a high wall made of red bricks. In addition, the walls had been further raised to form two lookout towers at the places where the mountain walls were connected on both sides.

There were no neighboring high mountains around the Black Mountain, so they could easily observe the situation outside the wall from the tribe. However, no one could peek inside from outside the wall.

A small door was installed on the side of the main gate for the tribe members to enter and exit on a daily basis. It was an extra wooden door carved out of the bricks, with a bolt embedded in the bricks on the side of the wooden door which could only be opened from inside the tribe.

Of course, even though it was a small door, this wooden door made of round logs was more than two meters high in order to match the tall figures of the horned beastmen.

At this time, except for Niu Yong, who was watching the sheep in the sheepfold, everyone gathered in the square in front of the collective cave.

It was because the main gate of the tribe that Qi Bai and Ma Shu had been working on for over 10 days was finally completed. Now it was time to install the wooden gate.

Qi Bai stood opposite the crowd and shouted to them, “Get ready, bring it up.”

The huge gate was slowly lifted up. In order to keep balance, all the beastmen carrying the door maintained their human form and walked step by step towards the only gap in the wall.

The outermost log of the wooden gate was the thickest and longest. Its function was the most important because it was the supporting column stuck between the soil and bricks.

They inserted this log into the reserved hold made of stones and mortar before filling the gap with mortar. This way, the wooden gate could rotate with the help of support.

It was pretty much what Qi Bai had expected. Since the wooden gate was very heavy, it was very troublesome to open and close it every time. It wasn’t suitable for daily use.

The small door was installed the same way, and Qi Bai locked the door from the middle with three large bolts.

After so many days of hard work, the Black Mountain Tribe’s first line of defense was finally completed.

The tribe members had already seen the prototype of the wooden gate made by Qi Bai and Hu Huo, but they were still deeply shocked when the wooden gate was pressed against the wall and required the efforts of two or three people to open it.

Unlike turning mud into bricks, this was wood. If they hadn’t joined the Black Mountain Tribe, they never would’ve believed that such a large and heavy piece of wood could be spliced together and manipulated by the tribe members to open and close it at will.

Just as everyone was amazed by the ingenious structure, the little beastman, You Yun, pointed at the closed gate and suddenly said, “We are locked up like the four-eared sheep!” This caused a burst of laughter.

“You are both right and wrong,” Qi Bai explained with a smile. “We keep four-eared sheep in captivity to prevent wild beasts in the mountains from eating them. We build walls to prevent our people from being attacked by wild beasts and beastmen. This is correct. However, never forget that as beastmen, we have wisdom. We can make wooden gates and we can also open wooden gates. Therefore, we are not locked up. We are protecting ourselves.”

You Yun nodded, not quite understanding.

Hou Yan smiled. “Okay, Lu Guo and a few others, follow me to the kiln to get the mortar. We need to paste the wall before dark today.”

After so many days of recuperation, the flesh on Hou Yan’s legs, which had been torn off by wolves, had finally grown back. Now he could finally throw away the wooden stick and walk around freely.

As the chief of the Black Mountain Tribe, Hou Yan didn’t talk much. But every time there was work that needed to be done, he would be the first to rush forward. Qi Bai had just mentioned that they should plaster the wall, and Hou Yan had already started to make arrangements.

The wall of the Black Mountain Tribe might’ve been completed, but the red bricks were too conspicuous in the mountains and forests. Qi Bai and Lu Guo had been adding sand of different colors to lime mortar in the past few days. This was Qi Bai’s expertise, and they soon mixed the mortar into a color similar to that of the trees and soil.

For the beastmen, who had been working as bricklayers for more than two months, the work of plastering the wall with mortar wasn’t a difficult task at all. In just half an afternoon, the entire wall had been freshly painted.

After the tribe wall was built, the happiest people were the children in the tribe.

Due to the wolf attacks and heavy snow, Yang Luo and Zhu Zhu no longer allowed them to run around as freely as in autumn.

Normally, their activities were basically limited to the open space in front of the kiln and the collective cave. It was because these were the places where adults were always working.

Thanks to the installation of the gate, the inside of the wall had become a safe, enclosed space. This made the energetic little beastmen very happy. They ran around and played around the adults working at the wall as if they would never get tired.

Bao Xing, who was running at the end of the group, looked at the wall that had been painted smooth. He tilted his head before he suddenly reached out and pressed on the wall.

Niu Xi, who was finishing the work, quickly picked up Bao Xing and tapped his nose. “Don’t mess with it.”

Niu Xi used the slate to scrape some mortar again and filled Bao Xing’s small handprint. However, Qi Bai suddenly thought of something as he watched from the side.

Why was this scene so familiar to him?

Qi Bai finally realized what it was. Then he turned to the person beside him and said, “Lang Ze, let’s make a signature wall!”

Lang Ze nodded almost without hesitation. In any case, the work of plastering the entire wall had been completed. There was still some mortar left that they could use at will.

As for what a signature and signature wall was, Lang Ze had learned to look at the finished product first before asking about the new words Qi Bai would say from time to time. Then he would ask questions about the parts he didn’t understand.

Qi Bai did what he said. He looked at the wall carefully before choosing the location of the signature wall right in the middle of the tribe’s main gate and small gate.

They found some thin branches. Lang Ze pressed the branches against the wall and QI Bai tried to fix it with mortar. After all, if he wanted to do something then he should make it look good. Qi Bai planned to make the border of the signature wall into a three-dimensional shape.

Qi Bai just hadn’t expected that such a simple border would take more time than painting half the wall.

Still, it was all worth it. Looking at the three-dimensional frame with some patterns, Qi Bai was eager to be the first person to put his handprint on it. “That’s it.”

As Lang Ze wasn’t paying attention, Qi Bai disappeared on the spot and turned into a beast. Seeing the small figure struggling in the animal skin coat, Lang Ze hurried forward and rescued the little snow leopard.

Qi Bai gently rubbed the back of Lang Ze’s hand to show his gratitude before jumping toward the wall.

However, when the snow leopard looked up at the signature wall and looked at his own short legs, he sighed. He had forgotten that his beast form was that of a dwarf.

Lang Ze felt his leg being tugged on. He looked down and saw the snow leopard grabbing his fur coat with one of his front paws while pointing the other paw at the signature wall.

Lang Ze had seen countless beastmen in both beast and human form. However, he had never seen one who could make his heart beat so hard with just a simple movement.

Lang Ze’s Adam’s apple moved slightly under his fur coat and he suddenly felt a bit at a loss.

Qi Bai looked at Lang Ze, who didn’t react for a long time. He tilted his head and looked up with some effort.

No way, he didn’t believe that he and Lang Ze had no tacit understanding at all.

Of course, Lang Ze understood what he meant. Soon, he leaned over and held the little snow leopard in his arms.

Qi Bai saw this and rolled comfortably in Lang Ze’s arms. Then he continued to reach out to the signature wall, indicating, ‘Please take me to the wall quickly.’

As Qi Bai moved, a round, fat mark like a kitten’s paw was left on the first wall of the Black Mountain Tribe.

Qi Bai jumped down from Lang Ze’s arms, got into his fur coat, and quickly put it on. “Look, this is my signature.”

Qi Bai looked at Lang Ze expectantly. “You can also put your paw print on this wall. If everyone in the tribe puts their paw prints on this wall, this will be the signature wall of our Black Mountain Tribe!”

Lang Ze nodded unnaturally. Then he changed into his beast form, stretched out his front paw, and pressed his paw print next to Qi Bai’s paw print. It was as if he was guarding the little snow leopard.

Qi Bai looked at the wall with satisfaction and ran to the tribe members to introduce his signature wall. Thanks to the demonstration of Qi Bai and Lang Ze, this small wall was soon covered with various animal paw prints.

Niu Yong, who was watching over the sheep, rushed back to the tribe after receiving the news. After he left his hoof print on the signature wall, the wall finally had all the animal-shaped prints of the 54 tribe members of the Black Mountain Tribe.

Qi Bai applied another layer of mortar on top of the signature wall border. Then he carefully wrote the character ‘Black Mountain Tribe’ on it with a branch.

“What is this?” Someone asked.

“This is the name of our tribe.”

“What is the name of our tribe? Is it the totem of our tribe?”

Qi Bai scratched his head. He just wanted to leave a commemoration. He hadn’t thought too much about it when he wrote it. Now he didn’t know how to explain. After all, the totem of the tribe couldn’t be determined arbitrarily.

“Why is our tribe’s totem so complicated and hard to tell what it is? How can others identify us?” Someone else asked.

Qi Bai thought about it. Then he drew three triangles in the middle of the Black Mountain Tribe words. The middle triangle was higher than the two sides. It looked like the character ‘Mountain (山).’

This time, someone recognized it immediately. “It is in the shape of a mountain. This is the Black Mountain Tribe.”

Yang Luo looked at the word ‘Mountain’ and nodded. Then he decided, “This is the totem of our Black Mountain Tribe.”

“Wow! We have a totem!’

“I’ve never seen a totem before!”

“Me too. Our totem is so beautiful…”

At first, the tribe members didn’t quite understand why the chief led people to cover such neat and beautiful red bricks with earth-colored mortar.

However, now looking at the words written by Qi Bai and the totem that Qi Bai ‘created’ for the tribe, everyone firmly believed that even if the surface had turned the same color as the land, there must be no other wall in the world more beautiful than the one in their Black Mountain Tribe.

Unlike the tribe members who always wanted to look at the totem on the wall, Qi Bai hurriedly finished his meal and went to the collective cave while holding a large stone slab.

He clearly remembered that he offered to help everyone living in the collective cave dig caves.

The moment the wall was completed, he came over with the finished drawings.