Chapter 304

The entire City Lord's Residence was an inverted "U" shape. From the outside, it looked like a single structure, with only one protruding entrance at the front.

The City Lord's Residence currently had only one floor, but it boasted over a dozen rooms. The central living room had a ceiling height of seven or eight meters, making it the largest single-family residence in the city.

Of course, just for Qi Bai and Lang Ze, two people certainly didn't need such a large house. However, the City Lord's Residence served a purpose far beyond just housing the city lord's family; it was also a public-facing symbol and needed to function as a place for receiving important guests.

For instance, the leaders of the three tribes currently visiting Heiyao, especially Shu, the Little City Leader of Qingchi—strictly speaking, Lang Ze should properly host them.

However, the circumstances this time were somewhat special. They had all traveled together for over half a year, and Shu and the others had already freeloaded plenty of food and drink along the way. Furthermore, Heiyao's City Lord's Residence wasn't finished yet, which was why this hosting duty had been postponed.

The two walked through the empty main gate, surveying the Residence, which was still just a rough shell.

"This is the living room. Later, I'll design a few large sofas and a coffee table to place right here in the middle," Qi Bai ran to the left side of the house as soon as he entered, gesturing. "Further inside will be our study. I want to make those two walls into tall bookshelves. Eventually, our bamboo scrolls and documents can all be stored on them."

Lang Ze watched Qi Bai, who was as happy as a child, and cooperatively said, "What kind of wood do you want to use for the furniture? I'll go cut some in a few days."

Qi Bai quickly nodded: "We really need to prepare the wood soon. It's perfect timing to let the wood dry now. When we're free in winter, we can start making the furniture."

To the right of the entrance were the dining room and a large kitchen that wouldn't feel crowded even with ten people standing in it.

As two foodies, Qi Bai had put considerable thought into designing the kitchen.

Two large ovens embedded into the walls, two open-flame stoves, a large island in the middle of the kitchen for quickly preparing food of different flavors.

There were also hidden storage rooms and cabinets embedded into the walls. Once suitable cabinet doors were installed later, all their food and tools could be stored away.

Directly opposite the main entrance was a pass-through reception hall with four doors. Usually, with the doors open, it connected to the living room outside.

The room had fireplaces at regular intervals, all connected to heating walls huo qiang. Even for such a large house, there was no need to worry about cold in winter.

Inside were long corridors leading to both sides of the house. The left side was Qi Bai and Lang Ze's living area, the right side had several separate guest rooms, each equipped with its own bathroom.

Qi Bai squatted in front of a drainage pipe and casually dropped a small stone. The stone clinked and clattered down along the edge of the pottery pipe.

Qi Bai clapped his hands: "Shu Lin and Lu Guo did a great job with this!"

The drainage pipes were Qi Bai's biggest concern for the entire house.

Given Heiyao's current manufacturing level and Qi Bai's existing architectural knowledge, creating a complex drainage system was definitely impossible.

However, making channels with a slight incline using pottery pipes wasn't too difficult, and such pipes were absolutely sufficient for now. With them, all wastewater could be directly discharged into the septic tank behind the house.

Qi Bai patted the ground contentedly. Their life had finally entered the "semi-automated" era.

Of course, pottery pipes weren't as sturdy or durable as plastic or metal pipes. Qi Bai still didn't dare use them for toilet connections, so they still had to use cat litter box-like toilets.

Ahem, in a certain sense, him using a cat litter box was somewhat fitting.

After looking over the new house inside and out, the two finally left, reluctantly.

No matter how perfect the renovation plans in Qi Bai's mind were, the beast world sadly lacked ready-made furniture stores. This process was destined to be long.

With the City Lord's Residence as a comparison, the house they currently lived in instantly seemed somewhat cramped. Not to mention anything else, just Lang Ze's tall and broad frame made moving around together with Qi Bai while cooking a bit difficult.

That evening, the two made four dishes and one soup. Having been away for so long, the seasonings Qi Bai had taken were mostly used up. Towards the end, they had to use them sparingly. Finally back in the tribe, Qi Bai unconsciously cooked with a much heavier hand.

Full and satisfied, Qi Bai stroked his round little belly, propping his chin up with his hand. "After we came back, wasn't there something else we were supposed to do? I feel like we forgot something..."

Lang Ze, who was hanging clothes, paused and turned around.

The two looked at each other.

Fox Xiao!

Right, they had forgotten about Fox Xiao.

The wick of the oil lamp on the table flickered, casting a pool of light in Fox Xiao's room.

Qi Bai and Lang Ze had just sat down when Fox Xiao couldn't help but ask, "Did you find the Land of Prophecy? Did you find the key?"

Although Fox Xiao was trying hard to appear calm, Qi Bai could still see the anxiety on his slightly childish face.

Lang Ze said, "We found the place you mentioned."

Fox Xiao's eyes lit up, only to hear Lang Ze continue, "But there was no 'key' there like you said."

"How is that possible?" Fox Xiao asked urgently. "You found the Land of Prophecy, how could there be no key? Did you not search carefully enough?"

Qi Bai explained: "Lang Ze and I suspect the 'key' you saw in your prophecy wasn't an object, but a person."

Fox Xiao sat down, tilting his head. He thought for a long time before saying, "It was a very strong guidance. I didn't know exactly what was there. Maybe it was a person."

Qi Bai and Lang Ze exchanged a glance, then nodded to him.

Regardless, without Fox Xiao's warning this time, they might have missed meeting Ji, who lived in seclusion. And without Ji's involvement, everything that followed might have changed.

At the very least, they couldn't have completed the purge of Wan Gu with such minimal casualties.

Qi Bai said, "No matter what, you rendered great service this time and proved your prophetic power to us. The city will reward you. What do you want?"

After nearly a year, this was the moment Fox Xiao had been waiting for: "I want to enter the Temple of Worship! I want to be a priest!"

"Entering the Temple of Worship is possible, but you're still far from becoming a priest. Go to the Temple first as a Jiyi - ceremonial assistant/acolyte. Your training will be long," Qi Bai said, shaking his head with a smile. "As for other rewards, Priest Yang Luo will distribute them to you after you enter the Temple."

Heiyao City's Jiyi were essentially the priests' assistants, helping them perform ceremonial duties.

Fox Xiao agreed without any hesitation.

Being able to enter the Temple of Worship was already a tremendous happy event for Fox Xiao. As for the position of priest, he had just said it offhand and hadn't expected Qi Bai to agree.

Before leaving, Qi Bai suddenly turned back and asked, "Fox Xiao, do you have any other brothers or sisters?"

Fox Xiao was stunned for a moment, then nodded: "I have an older brother, but he was lost a long time ago."

"Can I know what his name was?"

"Xuan."

After Qi Bai and Lang Ze left, Fox Xiao silently repeated that name to himself: "Hu Xuan." (Tiger Xuan)

After leaving Fox Xiao's house, Lang Ze asked, "What's wrong?"

"For a moment just now, I felt Fox Xiao and Ji looked somewhat alike," He had thought Ji looked familiar after seeing him without a beard; now that he thought about it, it was probably because his eyebrows and eyes somewhat resembled Fox Xiao's. Qi Bai shook his head. "But the names are different. Maybe I was mistaken."

By seven or eight o'clock in the morning, more than half of the shops on Trading Street were already open.

Small food stalls set up a few tables on the street. Steamed buns, wontons, vegetable rolls, fried dough twists... all sorts of aromas wafted everywhere.

Shu sat at the entrance of the Tofu Workshop. On the table was a plate of cut soft tofu, with a small dish of soy sauce beside it.

He clumsily held chopsticks, trying to pick up the tofu and dip it in the sauce. It wasn't easy; Shu tried several times without success.

Ma Liang glanced at him and knew this guy must be out of money again, killing time here waiting for his clansmen to return and settle his bill.

Sure enough, after half an hour or so, a group of people ran over, sweating profusely. The leader held a leather bag.

"What took you so long today?" Shu snatched the leather bag from Ren's hand. It contained the soybeans they had exchanged for their game.

Ren wiped the sweat from his forehead and gestured with his chin towards the back: "The Songwu and Shengling people also went to exchange game at the same time today. We were a bit late, and the Heiyao people made us queue up."

Trading Street accepted all kinds of goods in exchange, and beast meat was naturally accepted.

However, the weather was too hot now. Slaughtered game wouldn't stay fresh for long, and these picky Heiyao people wouldn't take it then.

Fortunately, there was a shop at the very edge of Trading Street that accepted game. As long as it was freshly hunted game, you could take it there for slaughter. The shopkeeper would separate the hide, bones, and meat, weigh them all, and help exchange them for non-perishable soybeans.

Of course, that shop also charged a small service fee, but it wasn't much—just a portion of the offal.

Remembering this, Shu scooped out a large spoonful of soybeans from the leather bag and said to a beastman beside him: "Go, use these beans to get some marinated food lu wei and flatbreads. I've been waiting all this time, only eating this rather bland tofu."

The beastman took the beans and quickly ran towards a stall in the distance.

These days, following their Little City Leader, they had already strolled through the shops in Heiyao City several times. He couldn't afford other things, but he could find the food stalls with his eyes closed.

After instructing his subordinate, Shu forgot his earlier complaint about the tofu being bland. He picked up the piece of tofu he had been struggling with for ages, dipped it in soy sauce, and savored it deliciously: "Yummy, really yummy. How did the people of Heiyao City come up with so many delicious foods?"

"Ma Liang!" Shu shook the bag in his hand. "Quick, bring your *dou* measure! I want to buy ten more pieces of tofu! And soy milk and tofu pudding, give me several portions of each!"

The people sitting at the table couldn't help rubbing their hands. Shu couldn't eat ten pieces of tofu by himself; these were definitely for them.

No wonder they were willing to follow the Little City Leader wholeheartedly; he was truly generous to his guards. Wherever they went, he never let them just watch.

Ren, watching the leather bag that was half empty in the blink of an eye, sighed: "Little City Leader, we can't go on like this."

When they arrived in Heiyao, each of them was relatively well-off. But now? Shu had spent all their resources. Even the feathered bird bone knifes the City Lord's wife had given the Little City Leader was traded by Shu for a wood-flower patterned garment. Now, in such hot weather, he still wore it reluctant to take it off). Wasn't this spending money to suffer?

Ren was lucky he didn't know the term spendthrift, or he would definitely plaster it on his Little City Leader's forehead right now.

"What now? Haven't I already restrained myself a lot like you said?" Shu pointed at the table. "Look, I'm not buying other things now. I'm just using the game we hunt to exchange for some food. Isn't that okay?"

Ren said: "But the hunting season will be over soon. If we continue staying here, we won't even have food for winter."

Shu felt a headache coming on. He turned around and saw a horned beastman nearby sniffing hard at the tofu pudding Ma Liang had brought.

This tofu pudding was topped with fried soybeans, chopped scallions, and small dried shrimp. Just smelling it was incredibly fragrant. If you poured a ladle of soy sauce or marinated meat juice over it, it could really make someone die of happiness...

Shu slapped the horned beastman on the back of the head: "All you know is how to eat! The Guard Captain is speaking!"

The beastman shook his head unconcernedly and honestly voiced his thoughts: "Little City Leader, this place is really good. I don't want to leave either. But the Guard Captain is right; our game really isn't enough. I say we should go back to Qingchi first. We can go back and bring more goods. Then we can stay here as long as we want and won't have to exhaust ourselves hunting every day."

Shu nodded at first, then seemed to remember something and slapped him again.

The beastman looked at Shu wronged, not understanding why he got hit again.

Shu pointed at his nose and scolded: "Want to stay here forever? Why don't you just join Heiyao City outright!"

After saying that, he got up and left without looking back.

The beastman who had just returned with the marinated food and flatbreads looked at Shu's retreating back, then at the food in his hands, caught in a dilemma. He shouted loudly: "Little City Leader, where are you going? Aren't you eating the marinated food?"

Shu waved his hand irritably: "I'm going to find Bao Bai. Don't mind me, eat it yourselves."