Chapter 168

Chapter 168

Beneath the cliff, it was pitch black. A cold wind howled through the canyon, loosening chunks of snow that rolled down the slope with increasingly loud echoes.

Lang Ze stared at the dark valley and suddenly said, “There was once a time when our tribe hosted envoys from the Lower City. One of the young ones was the child of the city lord.”

Lang Pu replied with a hoarse voice, “Ah, yes, that did happen.”

Back then, under Lang Ze’s father’s leadership, the Silver Moon Tribe was the most powerful force on the grasslands. Even envoys from the Lower City stayed within Silver Moon territory.

That summer, all the tribes from across the grasslands came to Silver Moon to pay respects to the envoys. Lang Ze and Lang Kuang had just come of age and spent every day receiving guests from different tribes. That kind of prosperity—they might never witness it again in their lives.

Lang Pu looked into the distance and suddenly smiled as if recalling something. “Do you remember? That little city lord got beaten up while staying with our tribe. The leader of the envoy group searched for a long time but never found the culprit.”

“Mm,” Lang Ze responded lightly. “I was the one who hit him.”

Lang Pu was stunned, then burst into laughter, tears nearly streaming down his face. “Good hit! He deserved it!”

That brat hadn’t even come of age yet but strutted around the Silver Moon Tribe like he owned the place, even demanding that the chieftain and his mate kneel before him. Even though no one had ever seen such a “ceremony,” his arrogant expression made it obvious that this was a form of humiliation.

To be honest, plenty of people in the tribe wanted to beat him. But the leader of the envoy group was truly formidable. Even in a powerful tribe like Silver Moon, perhaps only the chieftain and his brother could stand against him. And yet, that powerful envoy leader still bowed and scraped before the little city lord. It made people wonder—if just an envoy group was this strong, how terrifying must the Lower City be? Let alone the cities above it?

Lang Pu wiped his eyes. “So how did you manage to pull it off? And how did they not find you?”

Lang Ze’s lips curved into a faint smile. “During a shift change between their guards, I covered him with a piece of beast hide and hit him directly.”

Honestly, the kid couldn’t even take a punch. Lang Ze hadn’t even used full strength before the little city lord was crying and begging for mercy under the hide.

And no wonder. To mask his scent, young Lang Ze had soaked the beast hide in a prey’s dung pit beforehand. When he threw that thing over the kid’s head, the stench nearly knocked the boy out. On top of that, Lang Ze had grown up well-fed and strong—no ordinary brat could match his strength.

As a result, when the city lord’s son and the envoy searched for the “culprit,” they were convinced it had to be an adult horned beastman. No one ever suspected Lang Ze, who was still under ten years old at the time.

Of course, Lang Ze hadn’t pulled it off alone. “I threw the punches, but it was Lang Ji who gave me the signal.”

Lang Pu shook his head and slapped his leg. “I always said you were the most mischievous one out of the bunch—and Lang Ji was always tailing after you. If he got into trouble, it was because you led him there…”

It was a risky stunt. If they’d been caught, the Lower City people definitely wouldn’t have let them off easy.

But Lang Pu’s voice gradually grew quieter.

What use was reminiscing now? The chieftain, the priest, Lang Kuang, Lang Ji… they were all gone, one by one.

Just as Lang Pu began to sink into sorrow again, Xi Zhou’s voice called out from behind:

“Lang Ze, we found a lot of stone flowers behind the rocks. The chief asked me to call you over.”

Lang Ze replied and turned around. Before leaving, he looked at the dazed Lang Pu and said,

“As long as we’re still alive, they won’t be forgotten.”

“Don’t forget—beyond the North, more tribes are waiting for us. We must find them and build a stronger tribe. One that fears no one.”

Footsteps on the snow grew fainter and fainter, until silence returned to the canyon. Only then did Lang Pu face the bottomless cliff and roughly wipe his face.

He waved the chunk of venison in his hand. “See this meat? Such a big piece. You guys can’t eat it, so I’ll eat it for you. The hunting party leaves again tomorrow morning. I won’t be coming back here.”

Then, he began to devour the meat ravenously. The wind in the canyon moaned, as if softly echoing his words.

Meanwhile, Hou Yan handed a half-broken stone flower to Lang Ze. “Tun Quan found this wandering around in the middle of the night. He stepped on it and broke it.”

Tun Quan protested, “Grandpa Chief, I wasn’t wandering around. I saw a shadow and came to check.”

Hou Yan gave a noncommittal grunt.

Shadow? On this whole mountaintop, there was only one wind-shielded peak. Nowhere else to hide. Could prey have climbed up from the back cliff? That cliff was nearly vertical, even steeper than where Lang Ji and the others fell.

Tun Quan shut his mouth. He hadn’t seen anything in the end. He just tripped on something on his way over and accidentally stepped on the flower.

Lang Ze held the broken stone flower up to the moonlight. It was colorless—but strangely, it let the moonlight shine through.

By the time the hunting party had finished gathering the entire deer herd, night had completely fallen. The flowers, lying in the snow, blended right in. No wonder the scouts missed them earlier.

If Qi Bai were here, he would’ve exclaimed, “Isn’t this crystal?!”

But Qi Bai wasn’t here. Even if he were, he couldn’t explain why crystals would look like snow lotuses.

Lang Ze lifted the flower to his nose. A faint fragrance lingered on the petals.

He had always wondered what was so special about this rather barren mountain range that drew the deer herds across such vast terrain.

And not just deer—something was off about the giant ape too. The one they killed was thinner than expected.

Normally, even in winter, such fierce beasts could find something to eat. And with a herd of deer practically delivered to its doorstep?

Yet it never left. It just crouched there, guarding, driving off anything it saw as a threat.

But the hunting party hadn’t seen anything strange during the day. Could these stone flowers be the reason?

Lang Ze frowned. But what use could they possibly have?

Truthfully, he thought wind spirit flowers looked better than these.

Everyone else seemed to agree. Horned beastmen liked bright, colorful flowers. These near-invisible ones didn’t impress them at all.

“Tell everyone not to approach this area,” Lang Ze said, pocketing the flower. “We’ll delay departure until daylight. Then we’ll return here.”

At dawn, behind the wind-shielding boulders, two large bonfires were lit. Four beastmen stood by, roughly sprinkling salt crystals onto the roasting meat.

Originally, the hunting party had planned to rest only half the night and leave before dawn. But who knows what Tun Quan and the others did last night to change Lang Ze’s mind? Now they could enjoy a slow breakfast.

What those four horned beastmen didn’t know was that just a little ways behind them, everyone else stood frozen, staring at the snow.

Under the morning light, the crystal flowers refracted soft hues of light, casting a faint purple glow across the snowfield.

That’s right. In the darkness, Lang Ze hadn’t seen clearly—these flowers did have color. In the center, their stamens held a hint of violet, which gradually faded into the petals.

Tun Quan swallowed and glanced at Lang Ze. “What do we do?”

Without a moment’s hesitation, Lang Ze said, “Pick them.”

Even though he didn’t yet understand their purpose, it didn’t stop him from claiming them. He had a gut feeling—they held a greater power.

Others might not know, but Lang Ze did: divine wood water—used to polish bird bones—was made from the combined sap of five sacred trees. Once prepared, it turned into translucent crystals.

With that in mind, there was no way he’d pass up these flowers. They were only about palm-sized, and not that many grew here anyway.

Hu Qiao carefully pried one from the stone. Strangely, these flowers had no roots or stems, like they bloomed straight from the rock. The snow here was thin—just enough to cover the petals, but shallow enough to spot them with a careful eye.

Though not skilled at gathering, the horned beastmen spent half the morning on the mountaintop, making sure not to leave a single flower behind. Only then did they start heading down with their prey.

They had hunted one giant ape and forty-six deer. Four had been eaten; forty-two remained.

Yesterday, in the search for their lost kin, Xi Zhou had hauled all the rope from the sleds up the mountain. Now it came in handy.

The deer were tied one after the other, then kicked downhill. With the right direction, a whole string of prey would slide down with ease.

Their descent route followed the snowy slope right next to where the giant ape had triggered an avalanche.

But after yesterday’s slide, there wasn’t enough snow left on the summit or slope to cause another. The way down was surprisingly smooth.

At the foot of the mountain, they found the buried sleds and worked together to tie the frozen prey tightly in place.

Niu Shuo and Ma Song recalibrated the direction with Lang Ze. The neatly ordered party was ready to set off again—only this time, the newly formed vanguard had just eight people.

Lang Ze stood at the front and cast one last glance back at the mountain peak.

In that fleeting moment, he thought he saw the same flickering shadow as the day before.

Niu Shuo walked up beside him. “Shall we go?”

Lang Ze tossed his fur cloak onto the sled. A massive one-horned wolf materialized beside him. He threw his head back and howled.

“Let’s go.”