Qi Bai brought the children to the tribe’s square and found the tribe’s gate open.
A group of beastmen entered the tribe, escorting a fully stacked cart.
The one walking in front of the cart was a huge rhinoceros. His two big ears constantly swung back and forth like a fan. Anyone could see the rhinoceros’s proud steps.
It wasn’t his fault for showing off. After all, among their group, his beast form was the only one that could move freely in the dense forest while pulling the cart. So after entering the Black Mountain, everyone else lost the qualification to pull the cart.
Qi Bai looked around and found that Lang Ze was indeed not in the team, but he didn’t panic.
It had always been the tradition of hunting teams to leave one or two people behind to cover the rear and hide traces of blood and their actions.
At this time, everyone had walked to the center of the square. The horned beastmen with a saddle on their bodies lay on the ground and turned into human form. They quickly put on the animal skin at the top of the rattan basket. Under the skins were the eggs of the red birds, firmly fixed with hay.
The weather was getting warmer, and these young beastmen were full of energy. They might be wearing animal skin clothes but they didn’t look out of place.
Those who were a bit more particular would put on trousers, while those with more heroic personalities would simply tie the animal skin coat around their waists, covering the animal skin skirts made of fur.
The shoes that required straps weren’t worn. Everyone walked barefoot on the ground and turned around to quickly begin to untie the straw ropes tied to the cart.
After rolling up the wrist-thick straw rope and moving the hay away from under the rope, everyone realized that the reason why the cart was piled so high was due to the two fairly large prey hidden behind the rattan baskets.
Everyone took the rattan baskets and prey off the cart.
Qi Bai guessed that the rattan baskets on the cart should be filled with red bird bones. After all, compared to the caution when putting on the saddle, everyone was much more casual when moving the rattan baskets on the cart.
It was only when the cart was completely empty that Xi Zhou, still in his beast form, slowly walked towards the cart shed next to Hu Huo’s cave.
Xi Zhou only turned into human form after delivering the cart to the destination. Qi Bai greeted Xi Zhou and asked him about his experience of using the cart.
Qi Bai originally wanted to refer to the driver’s opinion and make improvements to the subsequent production of the cart.
However, Xi Zhou had no objection at all. He waved his hands excitedly and said, “Bao Bai, this cart you made is really useful! It is like I have infinite power as long as I put on the straw rope. I can move any amount of prey!”
Qi Bai smiled. “Are you trying to show off to me that you’ve become stronger?”
“My strength has indeed increased.” Xi Zhou laughed and pointed at the cart. “It must be because the Beast God blessed our cart.”
Qi Bai smiled and shook his head. “I can take a look here by myself. You go and get busy.”
“Oh, okay.”
Xi Zhou nodded and rushed into the crowd without looking back. He wasn’t busy at all. He just wanted to play among the crowd.
Qi Bai walked around the cart several times and finally stopped in front of the wooden wheel. He touched the edge of the wheel with his hand.
“Such a wooden wheel won’t last us long.”
Qi Bai looked up and found that Lang Ze had quietly come behind him without him knowing.
There was a thin red line on the side of Lang Ze’s face. It must be an accidental scratch during the battle with the red birds.
In fact, the young beastmen who came back from the Red Bird Island this time all had some injuries on their bodies. It seemed Lang Ze wasn’t just talking when he said that everyone should hunt the red bird independently.
Qi Bai nodded. “Yes, I still underestimated the destructive power of gravel roads.”
This wasn’t the modern world with smooth roads. Even though the wood Qi Bai chose was very tough, it had already shown signs of wear and tear after just this one outing.
Such a cart would be fine to use near the tribe. Even if something went wrong, they just needed to fix it in time.
But now they needed to use carts to transport supplies to the trading day and back to the tribe. A one-way journey would take at least 30 to 40 days. These wooden wheels definitely wouldn’t be able to hold up.
They couldn’t repair the wooden wheels on the road, so they had to bring extra wooden wheels. However, these wooden wheels were made of solid wood and weren’t light. It was completely putting the cart before the horse.
“I can try to make a bone wheel using the bones of the red bird.”
Lang Ze’s words interrupted Qi Bai’s thoughts.
Qi Bai quickly realized what Lang Ze meant and his eyes widened slightly. “Can you change the shape of the red bird bones at will?”
Lang Ze nodded. “It is no different from making a bone knife.”
Qi Bai thought about it carefully before shaking his head. “Making such a bone wheel requires too many bones. We can’t afford it for the time being.”
“However—” Qi Bai patted the wooden wheel under his hand and said to Lang Ze with a smile, “We can make a simple modification.”
At this time, Hu Qiao’s voice came from the middle of the square. “Bao Bai, Lang Ze, come here quickly. The priest is going to distribute the supplies!”
Qi Bai clapped his hands. “Let’s go. We will move the wooden wheel back to the cave later.”
Under the two big trees in the middle of the square, the rattan baskets brought back by the bird hunting team were arranged in two rows.
Qi Bai could hear children shouting from a distance. “Grandpa Priest, we can count. Let us help you count.”
It turned out that Yang Luo was arranging Tu Ya and Hu Xue to distribute supplies. These little guys heard it and surrounded them.
Yang Luo raised his eyes and glared at them. “Nonsense, how can you count? Don’t make trouble here.”
Bao Xing held Yang Luo’s leg and tried to show off. “Yes yes, it was Brother Bai Bai who taught us. Look, this is one, two, three, four. We can all count to four!”
Yang Luo originally thought they were just talking nonsense. Then after listening carefully, he found that these kids weren’t bragging.
“We can not only count, but also write!”
As he spoke, a child wrote a few symbols on the ground with his fingers.
“This…” Yang Luo turned his head with a look of shock towards Qi Bai, who was walking toward them. He pulled Qi Bai aside and whispered, “How could you teach these totems to others so casually? Won’t your teacher blame you?”
Seeing Yang Luo’s mysterious look, Qi Bai couldn’t help lowering his voice. He pointed to the signature wall with everyone’s paw prints on it. “Grandpa Priest, do you remember the pattern on it?”
Yang Luo couldn’t forget. This was the totem of their tribe. Yang Luo had spent a long time learning to imitate it. “That isn’t actually a totem.”
Yang Luo looked at Qi Bai in shock. “If it isn’t a totem, then what is it?”
Qi Bai glanced at Lang Ze, who was standing in front of them and blocking the gazes of the tribe members like a small mountain. He swallowed and tried to make his voice sound more serious, “This is writing. It is the glory bestowed upon us by the Beast God. It is the wisdom that every beastmen should learn.”
Yang Luo’s eyes almost popped out of his head. “Really? Why didn’t you mention it before?”
Qi Bai clenched his fists guiltily. In the past, he only thought about improving material life, and never thought about building spiritual civilization.
He pondered on it and said, “The time wasn’t right yet…”
Yang Luo saw Qi Bai’s hesitation and seemed to realize something. He placed his hands together devoutly and murmured, “That’s right, the Beast God must be testing our Black Mountain Tribe.”
Yang Luo lowered his hands and stared straight at Qi Bai. “Now is the time for our Black Mountain Tribe, right?”
Qi Bai was stunned for a moment. Then he replied firmly, “Yes!”
Qi Bai and Lang Ze held the supplies they were given and walked toward the cave along the stone steps.
Qi Bai leaned sideways and pushed Lang Ze hard. “Laugh if you want.”
However, Qi Bai became anxious again when he turned around and found that Lang Ze was really grinning. “Hey!”
“Tell me, was what I said today too outrageous? Based on Grandpa Priest’s reactio;n, do you think he will continue to ask me about the source of this writing?”
Lang Ze shook his head. “Everything we have is given by the Beast God. The Beast God is the source of everything.”
QI Bai made an ‘oh’ sound with a lack of confidence.
Lang Ze asked, “Is the map also drawn with writing?”
Qi Bai became excited when speaking of this. “No, that is a painting. Painting is different from writing.”
Lang Ze listened quietly as Qi Bai talked about painting and art. Once he said he was tired and wanted to drink water, Lang Ze said, “Your previous tribe must’ve been a very powerful tribe.”
Qi Bai raised an eyebrow. This wasn’t the case. His China had a history of 5,000 years. It was one of the most ancient civilizations on Earth. It wasn’t the most powerful tribe.
However, these boastful words were destined to be hidden in his heart. Qi Bai patted his chest. “If you are interested, I can teach you all of these.”
The two of them had a simple dinner. before Lang Ze moved the wooden wheel of the cart to the front of the cave. Qi Bai took out the red bird bones he had been allocated and placed them all on the stone table.
Qi Bai picked out a piece of red bird bone and placed it on the outer ring of the wooden wheel. He gestured and asked, “Can you make this bone very thin and cover the wooden wheel with it?”
“You mean to suggest wrapping the wooden wheel with red bird bones?”
“Yes yes! You said before that you wanted to build a red bird bone wheel, but there is no need to go to such trouble. The structure of this wood is very stable, but it isn’t resistant to wear and tear. This can be solved by adding a bone ring.”
Lang Ze nodded. “Okay.”
Qi Bai said happily, “I was thinking that if there is no other way, I can just wrap the wooden wheel with animal skins. At most, I can just bring a few more pieces of broken skin. If we use them to cover the wooden wheel with red bird bones, it will save a lot of trouble!”
However, these bones were so thick, and each bone was of a different size. Qi Bai was actually quite curious about how Lang Ze was going to make these bones into thin pieces.
It was just that the production of bird bones was a secret of other tribes, so Qi Bai wouldn’t ask too much about it.
Then Lang Ze turned back to the cave and took out something wrapped in animal skin.
Qi Bai asked curiously, “What is this?”
Lang Ze replied, “This is water of the sacred trees.”
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i wonder what that sacred water is. thank you for the chapter
Thanks for the chapter! An outer ring is not enough. If I remember correctly from the images I saw, metal was used in all the high friction areas, like the middle of the wheel where it turns.