Chapter 240

Early the next morning, as Wolf Ji and Yun Jing led the oxcart convoy rushing toward the Xishui River, Qi Bai also brought the leaders of the four tribes and Wei from the Giant Wind Tribe to a plain several kilometers away from Black Mountain.

Qi Bai stood on a large rock, gazing into the distance.

This was a vast plain covering nearly a thousand square kilometers. With the naked eye, one could only see endless grass and forests merging with the horizon.

However, back when the Black Mountain tribe had just arrived in the north and was searching for materials to make lime mortar, Qi Bai and Wolf Ze had already traversed the entire plain and the mountains beyond.

The Black Mountain Plain was surrounded by mountains on all sides.

To the east stood the towering peaks of the Black Mountain range, with the Black Mountain tribe’s territory located in the northeast corner of the plain.

The west led to the iron-rich Crimson Mountain Range, while the north consisted of resource-rich mountains, including Sweet Potato Mountain and Pine Forest Mountain.

The southern part of the plain was the essential route from the north to the Eastern Barbarians and Northern Wastelands. Compared to the high mountains to the east and west, the south was dotted with more hills.

Across the plain, besides the Man-Eating River to the north, there were many rivers and lakes of varying sizes. Even after a year of drought, they still nourished the wilderness’s creatures.

Guarding such a natural treasure was Qi Bai’s confidence in building a city.

Easy to defend and self-sufficient, anyone seeing such vast land would find it hard not to feel a surge of ambition.

However, Qi Bai withdrew his gaze and refocused on the large rocks marking the ground below.

No matter how expansive the territory, they couldn’t utilize it all now.

With an estimated population of less than 15,000, Heiyao City wouldn’t even need a hundred square kilometers, let alone nearly a thousand.

Though Qi Bai regretted not being able to go all out, for the tribal leaders, the scale of Heiyao City far exceeded their imaginations.

Yun Tan, flushed with excitement, said, “The land we just walked through will actually become part of Heiyao City.”

When they saw the city model on the sand table, they were merely impressed by its grandeur. But now, standing there in person, they truly understood how different a city was from their former tribal territories.

Though just a corner of the plain, Heiyao City’s outer walls spanned 16,000 meters. It had taken Qi Bai over two hours just to lead the five tribal leaders around the perimeter.

Qi Bai nodded and gestured for everyone to follow him toward the city center.

While creating the sand model, Qi Bai had already thoroughly familiarized himself with the city’s terrain. The large rock he had stood on earlier was one of his markers.

The entire city was divided by Qi Bai into 25 districts, each covering a thousand acres.

Aside from the residences of the city lord and high priest, the other 23 districts included seven commercial and workshop areas, one administrative district, one city warehouse, one military barracks, and twelve residential districts.

Although twelve residential districts were designated, most were reserved land for the city’s future development.

According to Qi Bai’s plan, the fully constructed Heiyao City would accommodate at least 200,000 people.

Of course, even if the population someday exceeded its maximum capacity, the current city could easily serve as an inner city and expand outward.

But that day was so far in the future that Qi Bai doubted he would live to see it, so there was no need to worry about it now.

For the present, given the current population of the five tribes, they only needed to focus on building four residential districts, which would be more than sufficient.

The four residential areas Qi Bai selected were the plots of land on either side of the main commercial street after entering through the southern city gate.

Qi Bai said, “This street is the southern Vermilion Bird Avenue, which will also be one of the city’s main commercial streets. The tribespeople living on either side will also be close to the western White Tiger Avenue and the eastern Azure Dragon Avenue.”

Heiyao City was a square-shaped city with two main roads running north-south and east-west, intersecting at the center. Qi Bai named the four main avenues Azure Dragon, White Tiger, Vermilion Bird, and Black Tortoise.

The tribal leaders and Wei had no objections to the locations Qi Bai had chosen, but they were utterly confused by the names he had given the roads.

Black Tortoise, Azure Dragon, and Vermilion Bird—these three names were just awkward to pronounce, but why was the western avenue called White Tiger?

Especially for the three tribes from the Northern Wastelands, they didn’t think tiger beastmen were particularly impressive. At the very least, Xiong Han, whose beast form was a giant panda, claimed he could defeat those not-so-bright Xushan beastmen.

Moreover, they had never seen a white tiger before. They had, however, seen white wolves and pure white leopards on Qi Bai and Wolf Ze.

In their opinion, the streets should be named after the city lord and high priest’s beast forms—White Leopard Avenue, White Wolf Avenue. Names like that would be much more fitting.

Qi Bai felt a bit embarrassed. He couldn’t very well tell the beastmen that these were traditional names from his homeland, Huaguo, and that using them made the city feel several levels more prestigious.

“Ahem,” he coughed. “These four animals aren’t ordinary beast forms. They are the names of four guardian divine beasts. With them watching over us, our city will be peaceful.”

Hearing Qi Bai’s explanation, everyone’s expressions toward the streets became reverent.

Before they could associate the divine beasts with the Beast God, Qi Bai quickly took out the small wooden tokens he had prepared beforehand. “Anyway, since everyone agrees to build residences here, let’s draw lots to decide each tribe’s location.”

He said to Lu Yan and Wei, “You two tribes will share a district. Any objections?”

Unlike the other three tribes, which each had over 3,000 people, the Giant Deer Tribe now had only about 1,500 people, while the Giant Wind Tribe had just over 500.

Of course, the Giant Wind tribespeople were larger in human form and would need bigger houses than ordinary beastmen. Even so, the two tribes sharing one residential district would be more than enough.

Wei and Lu Yan shook their heads, indicating they had no objections. They selected Lu Yan as their representative. After Lu Yan drew the general location, the two would draw lots again to determine their final positions.

Qi Bai had them use drawing lots to decide their locations mainly to ensure fairness.

Although these four residential districts were similar in size, there were still many differences upon closer inspection. For example, some were closer to different workshop districts, and two had rivers flowing through them.

These might seem like minor details, but they would或多或少 affect daily life.

However, the others didn’t seem to care much about the distance to the river.

Xiong Han said somewhat indifferently, “The water pipes the Black Mountain tribe made from large bamboo are much better than the stone jars we used before. Our Battle Bear Tribe can live anywhere. Even if we’re farther from the river, it’s no big deal.”

But Qi Bai took this issue very seriously. Even ignoring water usage, drainage was a must-consider.

Short-term heavy rainfall or accumulated snow from long winters could flood the city.

Not to mention a beastmen city—even modern cities on Blue Star could be submerged during torrential rains.

Although this year had been dry, the impacts of the heavy rain late last autumn and the heavy snow last winter were still fresh in everyone’s minds.

To prevent floods and facilitate daily water use for the residents, the living water within the city needed to be replanned.

Qi Bai’s initial idea was to renovate the river flowing from the southwest corner to the northeast corner of the city.

In addition to building some artificial canals connected to the river for drainage, he also planned to divert a branch from the river in the city center, linking the inner city river to the pond southeast of the city.

Of course, even with the inner city river and its branches, water access would still be troublesome. Qi Bai was already considering how to dig wells.

But well-digging was a technical skill that couldn’t be mastered overnight.

Even after the city was built, wells could be added later, so there was no rush.

Before that, Qi Bai was most concerned about how to use the living water in the city to make residents’ lives as convenient as possible.

It could be said that before formal city construction began, Heiyao City still faced many major projects.

These renovations would inevitably impact the construction of the residential districts, so even the Black Mountain Tribe would participate in this lottery.

Where everyone ended up would depend on luck, saving a lot of unnecessary trouble.

Hearing Qi Bai’s arrangements, the five tribal representatives nodded in agreement.

“High Priest, don’t worry. No matter where we end up, we’ll work hard.”

“Yes, we’ll definitely dig that branch river quickly.”

None of those present were fools. Although they didn’t understand terms like “sewage,” preventing the city from flooding was indeed important.

The three tribes from the Northern Wastelands might not have experienced mudslides from heavy rain, but they had lived through rainy seasons in the past.

Yun Tan, in particular, felt a sudden clarity.

Tribes like Yun Valley, which lived in valleys, suffered disasters every few years. While not enough to submerge the entire tribe, it was unavoidable for tribespeople to wade through water when going out.

Just thinking about such a beautiful city being destroyed by floodwaters made their hearts clench.

They must build it! Definitely build it! Whether canals or rivers, everything must be built properly.

Although the beastmen didn’t understand these concepts, they had one great advantage: once they recognized someone or something, they would wholeheartedly accept and complete it.

Perhaps it was because they were like blank slates that they could more easily accept things completely beyond their understanding.

Coupled with the beastmen’s formidable execution ability, they often achieved results beyond expectations.

Hou Yan, Xiong Han, Yun Tan, and Lu Yan stepped forward and each drew an upside-down wooden token from Qi Bai.

As they turned the tokens over, the residential districts for the five tribes were decided.

The Black Mountain Tribe and Yun Valley Tribe drew lots for the left side of Vermilion Bird Avenue, while the Battle Bear Tribe and the Giant Deer-Giant Wind alliance ended up on the right side.

After drawing lots and confirming their respective plots, the group hurried back to the threshing ground.

No wonder they were in a rush—the land each tribe had been allotted was still covered in weeds and scattered rocks. Before building houses, they needed to clear their assigned wasteland.

For these tribes, now was the time to race against the clock.

The beastmen from the three tribes who came for the trade day, except for Yun Jing who took a few back to Xishui to lead the migration, had set up temporary tents outside the dormitory area.

The tribespeople hadn’t yet received news about Heiyao City, so they didn’t quite understand their leaders’ instructions.

The trade day had lasted until late last night, and almost all the supplies the Black Mountain Tribe had put out had been exchanged by the three tribes. It seemed there was no reason for them to stay at Black Mountain anymore.

Seeing their leaders return in a frenzy, telling them to grab their tools and head out, they were even more confused.

“Chief, why are we helping the Black Mountain Tribe with work?” a Battle Bear beastman asked, puzzled.

Xiong Han kicked him. “Why worry about unnecessary details? Just work hard. I’ll go ask the Black Mountain Tribe’s food manager if we can eat with their tribespeople.”

The beastman, forgetting the footprint on his loincloth, happily ran off to inform the others.

The food from the Black Mountain Tribe’s cafeteria yesterday had been incredibly delicious. If they could keep eating that, he wouldn’t ask any more questions.

Hu Xue agreed without hesitation to Xiong Han’s request.

The large kitchen now prepared food for over 3,000 workers daily. Adding another hundred or so people was nothing.

The key was that after Xiong Feng and Shu Lin became contractors, she could also take on food supply work. It was definitely a good business opportunity. She wondered if the Yun Valley and Giant Deer Tribes would also want to order meals from her.

Meanwhile, Qi Bai had already left the threshing ground.

Qi Bai didn’t need to worry about clearing the wasteland for each tribe—he just needed to oversee the final decisions. Now, he was heading toward Black Mountain.

That morning, while he and the group leaders went to the city site, Yang Luo held a small meeting with the priests and shamans of the other four tribes within the tribe.

Each priest on the beastmen continent inherited different priestly methods and shamanic arts, meaning that even for the same festival, there could be significant differences among the five tribes. These needed to be gradually unified.

Today, the priests mainly discussed the upcoming Courtship Day. They needed to draft a general plan for High Priest Qi Bai to finalize.

However, as soon as Qi Bai stepped through the tribe’s gate, Zhu Teng, who was patrolling the wall, jumped down.

Zhu Teng looked around nervously, then said quietly to Qi Bai, “Leopard Bai, Wolf Ze and the others captured Ma Liang. They want you to come to the training ground as soon as you return.”