Qi Bai carried a bamboo tube for drawing water on his back, held washing utensils in his hands and walked towards the waterfall wearing his newly made straw sandals.
On the small path leading to the waterfall, many tribe members fetching water came and went.
Sun Qing and Sun Yuan were each carrying two large bamboo tubes and walking towards the tribe.
Qi Bai smiled and called out, “Sun Qing, Sun Yuan.”
The two of them quickened their pace when they heard Qi Bai’s shout. “Bao Bai, what’s the matter?”
Qi Bai asked them, “What do you think of the numbers we learned a few days ago?”
Sun Qing’s eyes lit up. “Can we still go to your cave to continue learning?”
“There is no need to go to my cave.”
Seeing Qi Bai shaking his head, Sun Yuan’s head lowered like a frosted eggplant.
Qi Bai had rarely seen him react so strongly, so he rubbed Sun Yuan’s head with his hand. “A few days ago, I just wanted to teach a few of you to try it first and see if you like it or not. Since some people like it, starting from this afternoon, I will teach at the stone wall in front of the collective warehouse every day.”
“Really?”
“Of course. I want to trouble you to tell all the tribe members about this. Anyone who wants to learn can come.”
A big smile appeared on Sun Qing’s face. “Great, we can learn to count to ten from now on!”
Qi Bai snorted. “Counting to ten is nothing. From now on, each of you must at least count to a hundred. Otherwise, don’t go out and say that you are my student.”
Sun Yuan’s mouth opened slightly, but his words came out of his brother’s mouth.
Sun Qing stared at his hands in a daze. “One hundred, how much is that?”
Qi Bai showed a row of small white teeth. “You will soon know how much one hundred is as long as you are willing to learn.”
“We will definitely study hard.” Sun Qing looked closely at Qi Bai before pulling Sun Yuan and running back to the tribe. “We will go and inform all the tribe members now!”
Qi Bai raised his hand to his mouth and shouted, “Thank you in advance.”
Qi Bai first washed himself clean downstream. Then he walked upstream, placed the bamboo tubes under the waterfall, and filled all six bamboo tubes with water.
Three of the barrels of water were poured into the water tank. Qi Bai carried the remaining three directly into the small vegetable garden and watered it.
The bamboo door of the duck coop was opened. The three ducklings flapped their wings as if they knew the way there and ran into the bamboo house next door.
On the third day after the three ducklings hatched, Qi Bai finally cracked the shell of the fourth duck egg. As expected, the little duck inside had died early. Qi Bai dug a hole outside and buried the egg that had already struggled to develop halfway.
To be honest, Qi Bai was already very satisfied to be able to hatch three ducklings in an environment like the Beast World.
The three ducklings with straps on their feet walked in a swaying manner and soon ran to Chuan Chuan’s side.
There was a big difference in the fur color between male and female ducks. The males were brightly colored while the females had gray feathers.
However, Qi Bai had never seen the ducklings of other ducks. He couldn’t be sure whether these guys would always stay like this or would grow up and grow new feathers.
Qi Bai poured the last remaining fresh water in the bamboo tube into the basins of Chuan Chuan and the ducklings. Then he touched the fur on Chuan Chuan’s neck and said, “Other sheep need to be shaved, but you have me as your backer. You don’t need to be shaved. How about it? Don’t you think it is impressive?”
Chuan Chuan didn’t realize that Qi Bai was tricking him and rubbed Qi Bai’s palm happily.
In the morning, he went out with the gathering team. Then Qi Bai returned to the tribe and took a nap. He rubbed his eyes and sat up on the bed when he heard the sound of someone opening the door next to him.
Qi Bai stretched his body and picked up the black slate and white stone from the bamboo table. “Lang Ze, I’m going to the tribe to teach everyone how to count. Do you want to come with me?”
Lang Ze had obviously just returned from hunting, and his body was still covered in moisture. It was obvious that he had been at the forefront of today’s battle, and his body was splashed with blood. He took a shower as soon as he came back.
Lang Ze casually took out a piece of the water of the sacred trees from the cabinet behind him and said, “Let’s go.”
Qi Bai smiled upon seeing this and walked down the stone steps with Lang Ze.
The tribe’s collective warehouse was originally the collective cave where everyone lived together. At this time, the open space next to the collective warehouse was already filled with members of the tribe.
The children became the center of the crowd. Each child was surrounded by several adults who kept asking them how to count.
Yang Luo and Hou Yan sat on the outside of the crowd.
The expression on Yang Luo’s face was relatively normal. After all, these numbers weren’t a big deal for him.
However, Hou Yan’s expression was somewhat serious. He had to adjust his animal skin coat from time to time.
Qi Bai and Lang Ze separated in front of the crowd.
As usual, Lang Ze found a corner with few people and sat down. Without any hesitation, he started to play with the water of the sacred trees in his hand.
The people sitting around Lang Ze were curious about what was in Lang Ze’s hand at first. Soon, their attention was attracted by Qi Bai, who was standing in front.
Qi Bai inserted the black slate in his hand into the depression of the stone wall. He picked up the white stone in his hand and quickly wrote a long row of numbers on the slate.
“These are the numbers that the children have learned in the past few days. Starting from today, I will teach you. It doesn’t matter if you can’t learn it in one or two days. We will learn slowly until we can remember these numbers. After everyone has memorized it, we will learn more knowledge.”
“Okay!”
“Beast God!”
“Thank the Beast God!”
Qi Bai smiled at Hou Yan, who was still a bit uneasy. He turned to everyone and said, “Then let’s get started.”
The clouds in the sky gathered and dispersed with the breeze. The shadows of trees in the mountains and forests were mottled, and a faint fragrance of flowers wafted over.
However, the time in the shadow in front of the stone wall seemed to be sealed. All sounds from the outside world couldn’t be heard.
It didn’t matter whether it was Yang Luo and Hou Yan, who were originally sitting outside the crowd but were now squeezed in front of the crowd, or Lang Ze, who was holding the water of the sacred trees and was originally just curious, not learning to count seriously.
Everyone could only hear Qi Bai’s voice. At this moment, to all the members of the Black Mountain Tribe, this voice was like the divine voice of the Beast God.
Qi Bai looked up at the colorful clouds in the sky and pinched the white powder in his hand. “Let’s stop here for today. We will go back and eat before the sun sets. We still have to train later.”
Everyone suddenly woke up from their dream and started discussing with each other with great interest.
Qi Bai and Lang Ze were walking in front. Seeing Lang Ze lowering his head in thought, he couldn’t help asking, “Is there something you didn’t understand?”
“No, you speak very well.”
Qi Bai blinked. This was his first time being a teacher to so many people. He was actually very nervous. Fortunately, no one seemed to notice. “Then what are you worried about?”
Lang Ze said, “I was just thinking that if I can learn words, perhaps I can make signs that are easier to distinguish directions. This way, the target will be clearer when the hunting team goes out.”
Qi Bai had gone out with the hunting team several times, so he naturally knew what type of marks they left behind.
No matter whether it was making scratches on trees or destroying some bushes, the marks the beastmen now made mostly overlapped with the behavior of their prey.
The advantage was that they could hide themselves in the dense forest, but the disadvantage was obvious. If the traces were discovered several days later, the breath of the prey and beastmen would’ve dissipated, so it was difficult to judge whether these marks were left by their companions or not.
Qi Bai patted his chest. It was just a simple design. “Whatever type of mark you make, I can help you draw it. It is guaranteed to be clear and simple. We can understand it at a glance, but others definitely wouldn’t be able to tell.”
Lang Ze clenched the water of the sacred trees in his hand and agreed softly. “Okay.”
The two men returned to the cave. The whole afternoon, Lang Ze basically spent time with the water of the sacred trees in his hand. He wanted to reinforce the wooden wheel and make bone knives for the tribe members to use, so time was actually very tight.
Qi Bai took Lang Ze’s arm and stopped him from going further into his cave. “Eat here with me.”
He pointed to the two small rattan baskets on the table and said, “In any case, your food is already here with me.”
The temperature wasn’t too high now, and they started to have a surplus of prey brought back.
Every morning, Yang Luo would process the previous day’s prey. He would salt the excess meat and dry it in the shade. He would cut up the rest of the meat and separate it together with the food brought back by the gathering team. They could receive a portion as long as they returned to the tribe.
Since the hunting team had irregular times when they returned, Qi Bai helped Lang Ze bring food back to the cave every day.
Qi Bai opened the rattan basket. Today, each of them received a large piece of fresh pork as well as some fresh wild vegetables and berries.
Qi Bai just planned to have some simple barbecue.
He first cut off the outermost layer of fat on the pork. There wasn’t much fat on the wild beast, and even the pork was mostly lean and chewy meat. Qi Bai planned to use this fat to make some lard later.
Charcoal was placed under the large stone slab. Qi Bai sliced the pork belly and arranged the slices one by one on the edge of the stone slab.
In a short while, dinner for two was ready.
However, Lang Ze wasn’t so relaxed. Even when he was eating, he never let go of the water of the sacred trees in his hand. After all, this thing would slowly harden as soon as the force was released. He didn’t know what the principle was.
After dinner, a bonfire was lit in front of the tribe square, and the tribe members began training spontaneously.
Yang Luo looked around and found that everyone was present. Then he signaled Diao Lan to ask everyone to gather together.
Yang Luo’s face looked deep and mysterious under the flickering firelight. “The Black Mountain Tribe is a tribe blessed by the Beast God. The Beast God hates beastmen who reveal secrets the most.”
Yang Luo’s eyes swept across Qi Bai, turned to Lang Ze’s palm, and slowly looked into the eyes of each tribe member.
Yang Luo’s eyes gradually became wet and he opened his hands in a trembling manner. “Remember the scene when we first arrived here? My children, we should be grateful to the Beast God and grateful for our current life.”
The tribe members remained silent, but everyone’s eyes were filled with nostalgia for the past and anticipation for the future. Even Qi Bai’s heart was filled with anxiety and excitement.
Everyone knew that their small tribe was now enjoying a life that perhaps many large tribes couldn’t enjoy.
Yang Luo withdrew his hand. “As long as the strength of all the people in our Black Mountain Tribe is gathered together, we will be invincible!”
“Invincible!”
“Protect the Black Mountain Tribe to the death!”
This wasn’t just a vow uttered from the mouth, but also a mark engraved deep in the hearts of everyone present.
It was eternal loyalty!
Under the scorching sun, a group of more than a dozen beastmen were walking on a mountain path and pulling three carts.
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