Chapter 188 - (Part 2)

Two bone-wheeled carts rumbled slowly up the trail toward the tribe, climbing halfway up the hillside.

A dozen or so cubs dashed ahead of them, laughing and shouting, “It stinks! It stinks so bad!”

In the blink of an eye, the carts followed the wild cubs and rolled through the tribe’s main gates.

Since the tribe had begun cultivating farmland, the activity area for the clanspeople — especially the children — had expanded. From the front gates to the foot of the mountain fields, once school let out, laughter and play echoed everywhere.

The tribe’s gates, which had once stayed tightly shut and only opened for hunting parties, were now opened every morning and closed at night — open all day.

The area around the gates had become the liveliest part of the entire tribe.

Yang Luo was out drying medicinal herbs in a winnowing basket. He reached out to stop the charging cubs. “What’s all the noise about? I’ve heard you shouting for ages and still can’t make out a word!”

Li Li giggled and covered her nose. “It stinks, Grandpa Priest. It stinks!”

Yang Luo glared at her. What do you mean “Grandpa Priest stinks”? The old priest doesn’t stink, thank you very much.

But then the smell hit him.

As the two carts rolled into the tribe, an indescribable sour stench wafted in with them. Yang Luo quickly gathered up the basket of herbs and stashed it in the fodder room, then stormed off toward the gate, fuming.

Since the big communal kitchen had been built, it was more convenient to process ingredients near it. Lately, hunting teams had been butchering their prey right under the perimeter wall.

But now that the weather was hot, all that blood left behind created two problems — the smell was awful, and it could breed bacteria. And considering this was right by the main entrance, where everyone passed daily, hygiene had to be taken seriously.

So a dedicated butchering shed had been built — backed up against the wall, with bamboo blinds for two sides and a big straw mat in the center where the butchering was done.

Next to it were a few big rattan baskets filled with ash from the stove — which they sprinkled after each butchering session to help sterilize and remove the smell.

Right now, the carts had stopped beneath that very shed. The group from Ma Ling’s hunting party was proudly showing off their haul to the curious crowd.

“Wow! So many birds!”

“With all those bones, we can make a ton of bird-bone knives, right?”

The original 50+ people from the Heishan tribe all had bird-bone knives by now. It was an open secret. Those knives made everyone jealous — especially the wolf and ox clans who knew just how precious bird-bone tools were.

“Ma Ling!!”

Yang Luo’s voice boomed with righteous fury, sending a shiver down Ma Ling’s spine.

He turned with a guilty smile. “Priest Yang Luo! Look, we brought back bird bones!”

But Yang Luo didn’t even glance at the bones. Instead, he rushed over to the cart decked in dark, foul-smelling blood. “My cart! My beautiful cart!”

The other horned beastmen who’d gone to Red Bird Island with Ma Ling all quietly backed away, trying their best to pretend they weren’t involved.

Qi Bai happened to arrive at that moment. He wrinkled his nose — the stench was so thick it was almost solid. He could barely keep from gagging. The poor clansfolk were actually leaning in to get a closer look.

Yang Luo, still furious, began smacking Ma Ling’s back with his bear-bone staff. “These two carts I gave you were the best in the tribe — so you could travel quickly! And look how you ruined them!”

Ma Ling stretched his neck, pretending to wince. “We couldn’t stop the meat from rotting!”

Red birds’ meat wasn’t edible — it started spoiling as soon as the bird died. Within hours it turned sour. And these birds? They’d been killed days ago. The meat wasn’t just rotten — it was practically sludge.

Qi Bai glanced at the cart — it didn’t even look like meat anymore. Just globs of rotting, muddy paste.

Yang Luo bared his teeth. “Couldn’t you have at least rinsed the meat before tossing it in the cart?! Or lined it with dry grass?! Look! Just look at it! The wood’s ruined!”

No wonder Yang Luo was livid. The carts were mostly made of wood, even the core parts of the bone wheels were connected with wood. After soaking in all that blood for days, parts of the boards had already started to rot.

And Ma Ling’s group had been rushing nonstop. They had no idea the rotten meat was corrosive — their noses were already desensitized from the smell, so they didn’t even notice what was happening.

Thankfully, the most precious part — the actual bone structure — was still intact. Bone didn’t rot.

Ma Ling grabbed the reins. “We’ll wash them right now! We’ll scrub every bird bone spotless!”

“I’m coming with you!” Yang Luo huffed.

As Ma Ling and crew hauled the carts away, Yang Luo waved dramatically. “No food leaves the kitchen until the stench clears out of here!”

Then he barked at the gawking clanspeople, “Spread plant ash all over the ground — now!”

Ugh. With these careless fools around, it was impossible to stop worrying.