Chapter 213

The massive white wolf ran across the grassland covered with withered wild grass.

His limbs were long and powerful, each push-off carrying a unique rhythm. His white fur gleamed with a sharp silver light in the cold wind, like a meteor, more like lightning.

Behind the giant wolf, a herd of agile horses spread out in a wing formation.

"Clip-clop, clip-clop."

The beastmen crossed flatlands, climbed mountain paths, leaped over potholes, racing like the wind toward the tribe's direction.

Everyone was hurrying on their journey, except for one person currently curled up in animal hides, comfortably showing their little belly.

Over the past year, Lang Ze's beast form had grown considerably larger. Now, the big wolf stood nearly three to four meters tall, with paws bigger than Qi Bai's head. Even if Qi Bai rolled around on Lang Ze's back in human form, there would be plenty of space.

However, after leaving the Xishui River and confirming they wouldn't encounter outsiders, Qi Bai immediately turned into his beast form with great delight.

Lightening Lang Ze's travel burden was only one reason; more importantly, he wanted to enjoy his mobile little nest ASAP.

The small wooden nest made of wooden boards had grooves on the bottom four corners, allowing it to be tightly secured with grass ropes behind the saddle.

This way, when Qi Bai was in human form, this small wooden nest on the saddle functioned like a chair back.

And when he transformed into his beast form, he just needed to paw open the small wooden door to instantly have a warm little nest.

Calling it a "little nest" hardly did it justice; Qi Bai felt it was practically a small wooden house.

The small wooden nest was over half a meter tall, with thick animal hides spread on the floor. Qi Bai could even turn circles and bounce around inside.

Besides the spacious interior, the three wooden walls of the small nest had movable small wooden windows, ensuring Qi Bai could observe the surroundings even from inside.

Under the leftmost small window, there were four small drawers fixed to the wall, their handles carefully carved into leopard paw shapes.

These didn't contain Qi Bai's usual charcoal pencils and bamboo pieces; those were hung in bamboo baskets outside the saddle, not worthy of "entering the house."

Just watch: the little snow leopard, hugging its big tail, revealed the small claw tips hidden in its paw pads, hooked the edge of the handle, and easily pulled the drawer open.

Without even lifting its head, it skillfully hooked out a piece of jerky. The little snow leopard hugged the jerky with both paws, sniffed it at the nose tip.

Mmm, five-spice flavor.

Crunch, crunch. The little snow leopard tilted its head, chewing on the crispy beef jerky that crumbled easily, the tip of its tail beside its ear swaying contentedly left and right.

The four small drawers, from left to right, contained beef jerky, pork jerky, shredded squid, and dried red fruit.

So, although it was a business trip in the dead of winter, as for hardship—at least for Qi Bai, it absolutely didn't count.

After all, when in the tribe, Qi Bai had to manage a host of tribal affairs every day, spinning like a little top from before dawn until night. But now, his life was so滋润 (comfortable/pleasant), he almost needed to prop up a tablet in front of him to play "Leopard Cuts Fruit."

Qi Bai,胡思乱想着 (letting his thoughts run wild),乐得龇出小尖牙 (grinned happily, showing his little sharp teeth).

He could be so carefree mainly because he had a good partner.

Just before they set off, before Lang Ze brought out this little wooden nest, Qi Bai had no idea when Lang Ze had made it.

Qi Bai felt Lang Ze was already busy enough coordinating the patrol team. The exquisite craftsmanship of this little nest clearly took a lot of time and effort.

The surface of the little wooden nest was polished smooth and细腻 (fine), even carefully coated with tree oil. Qi Bai felt that even across the beastman continent, he couldn't find a better-made little nest than his.

Even so, Lang Ze wasn't satisfied.

Lang Ze felt a wooden nest was only usable in winter; it would definitely be stuffy and hot in summer. In this aspect, wood was far inferior to bird bone.

Bird bone had a cool feel similar to jade but was incomparably sturdier than jade. Making a small nest from bird bone would surely make Qi Bai live more comfortably.

Unfortunately, even though the tribal warehouse still had quite a bit of bird bone, it was all already allocated for weapon making.

Lang Ze now somewhat wished the Red Birds would return to breed soon. When they did, he would definitely hunt several large Red Birds to make an even prettier little nest for his partner.

Qi Bai, at this moment, didn't know Lang Ze had such a奢侈 (extravagant) idea. That was bird bone! Bird bone that cost several prey animals for just a small handful of bone daggers!

Lang Ze actually planned to make a nest from bird bone to carry on his back. This couldn't even be described as ordinarily wealthy; it was practically like carrying a small gold mountain around for a stroll.

But the Red Birds had already left their breeding grounds. Thinking about this now was useless.

Just at this moment, the little snow leopard ate its fill and slept, slept its fill then pulled open the small wooden door, ran to between the giant wolf's ears, curled up its little paws, and watched the scenery.

The six-day round trip passed in the blink of an eye.

As the group approached the foot of Black Mountain, Qi Bai saw from afar six or seven-meter tall giants standing behind the stone wall, stacking large stone blocks like building blocks.

Not long after the workers arrived at Black Mountain, they encountered visiting Jufeng tribespeople.

The Jufeng people's enormous stature truly frightened many workers.

Some even prostrated themselves on the spot, kowtowing toward the Jufeng people while shouting "Beast God above!"

Many among them knew the north was where the Beast God resided. So at first glance seeing the Jufeng people, they thought they had truly seen the Beast God.

Hu Xiao混在工人堆中 (mixed in among the workers), following them in趴在地上 (lying on the ground) to muddle through. However, even lying down, Hu Xiao was restless, secretly observing these big guys through gaps in the crowd.

With just one glance, Hu Xiao determined these people before him were definitely not any Beast God.

Forget the fact that there couldn't possibly be so many Beast Gods appearing in groups.

Just the panic evident on these big guys' faces was no less than that of the beastmen lying on the ground.

They stepped back several paces, constantly turning their heads as if searching everywhere for traces of the Black Mountain tribespeople, looking like they恨不得原地消失才好 (wished they could disappear on the spot).

Later, it was that sub-beastman who hurriedly emerged from the small office beside the sun shelter, ran up to these big guys, and said something.

The "that sub-beastman" in Hu Xiao's eyes was precisely Qi Bai.

Actually, Qi Bai didn't say much. He merely told Wei and Ai not to be afraid, that these people would definitely not leave Black Mountain, so they didn't need to worry about the Jufeng tribe's whereabouts being exposed.

With the reassurance from Black Mountain Tribe, the Jufeng tribespeople's expressions finally calmed.

They curiously examined the people lying on the ground, repeatedly waving their hands saying they weren't the Beast God.

When the Jufeng tribespeople saw the large construction project outside the threshing ground, they二话没说就加入了施工队 (without another word joined the construction team).

Their large beast forms played a huge role at this time.

Large stone blocks that required beastmen to lift together, Wei in beast form could easily pick up with one hand, even weighing them in his hand a few times. As for the placement of the stones, it was simply point where, place where—完全不费力气 (no effort at all).

The Jufeng tribe's beastmen quickly became the main force in this construction project.

And the Black Mountain Tribe's workers也逐渐习惯 (gradually grew accustomed to) the presence of these big guys.

At this moment, the little snow leopard emerged from the small wooden nest, landing lightly on the ground.

He hadn't been back for so many days; he needed to properly check the tribe's work progress and wouldn't follow Lang Ze back to the tribe to unload the saddle.

Niu Xi and Shu Lin were leading workers敲石头 (breaking stones) at the outermost area. They were the first to see the group entering the tribe.

However, for the first time, their gaze wasn't on the approaching Qi Bai but on the group continuing toward the tribe—or more accurately, they looked with一脸羡慕 (full of envy) at the small wooden nest on Lang Ze's back.

So pretty ah...

Besides that, everyone simultaneously had one thought: Lang Ze is really so good to Leopard White ah...

The tribe's cart carriages had been made for several months. Lang Ze was the first to make a carriage small enough specifically for carrying his partner.

But it wasn't like Lang Ze was the only one in the tribe with a partner. Everyone could do some woodworking, but no one had thought of this.

Recalling now, it wasn't just this one small nest; ever since Lang Ze got a partner, his saddle had been upgraded who knows how many times.

Niu Xi thought, thankfully Qi Bai's beast form was a snow leopard,本身就非常灵巧 (inherently very agile). If Qi Bai's beast form were a small ox like hers, Lang Ze would probably折腾 (go through even more hassle)不知道怎么折腾 (not know what折腾 to do).

Niu Xi thought herself into a bit of a sulk.

恰巧 (Coincidentally), Niu Cheng passed by on patrol, overjoyed at the chance to secretly let his partner see him. Who would have thought, upon making eye contact, he got glared at.

Niu Cheng nervously looked himself over. He was wearing the patrol team's uniform today. This uniform was newly made; there were only a few sets. Only beastmen patrolling within the tribe could change into this outfit.

What was wrong? Why unhappy, suddenly angry?

Niu Cheng from the patrol team was staring at Niu Xi and the others, while Qi Bai, who had just walked over, was双眼发亮 (eyes shining) looking at the patrol team.

Spirited, imposing—that was Qi Bai's first impression upon seeing the patrol team.

This set of uniforms for the patrol team was the clothing Qi Bai had asked Zhu Zhu and the other older beastmen to make.

The patrol team's uniform wasn't simply a set of animal hide clothing.

These uniforms were made from the定兽皮 (Ding beast hide) they traded for last year with the War Bear Tribe—the black leather armor Chief Xiong Han of the War Bear Tribe was wearing when Qi Bai first met her.

This Ding beast's fur was different from ordinary wild beast fur; its surface had no hair, was thicker and tougher. After undergoing the War Bear Tribe's special tanning process, it presented a smooth, armor-like sheen.

But such leather armor wasn't ideal for warmth. So compared to the thicker-furred Ming beast hides, these Ding beast hides obtained from the War Bear Tribe had been冷落至今 (left out in the cold until now) in the warehouse.

Unlike the War Bear Tribe's simple,粗暴 (crude) method of tying the leather armor on.

This batch of leather armor made by the Black Mountain Tribe had a style somewhat resembling ancient armor, and their function was indeed similar to armor. Qi Bai had tested it; ordinary beast claws couldn't easily penetrate Ding beast hide. This leather armor could even defend against long-range wooden arrow shots.

Before Qi Bai and Lang Ze left the tribe, Zhu Zhu and the others had barely managed to make one sample piece of armor from the Ding beast hide. When this sample was brought into the decision-making group's office, the first to try it on was Lang Ze.

Broad shoulders and back, cinched narrow waist, combined with Lang Ze's sharp facial features and cool gaze—just his appearance made Qi Bai's heart pound.

Handsome—Qi Bai was tired of saying the word "帅" (handsome).

Putting aside Qi Bai's heavy bias, others were clearly also惊艳 (amazed) by this set of leather armor.

So顺理成章地 (as a matter of course), this leather armor was officially put into mass production.

Actually, Qi Bai felt such defensive armor was more suitable for sub-beastmen than for beastmen who fought in beast form. However, the tribe currently had no need for sub-beastmen to fight. This armor was正好合适 (just right) for patrol uniforms.

Just look: five纵列 (columns) of black armored warriors, holding Red Bird bone knives with red bloodlines,交叉巡逻 (patrolling交叉) between the construction site and the threshing ground. Without saying a word, they exerted a silent震慑作用 (deterrent effect).

As he walked, Qi Bai thought: it seemed that after the War Bear Tribe came north, they should trade for more Ding beast hide.

Shu Lin didn't pay much attention to the patrol team's attire; the novelty had worn off days ago. The patrol team had been wearing this every day lately. Unless Xiong Feng wore this on patrol, he was already used to it.

Shu Lin withdrew his covetous gaze from Qi Bai's small wooden nest, stood up, and (dusted the dust off his bottom): "Leopard White, you've finally returned! The workers' dormitory outer walls are almost finished. Xiong Feng said by tomorrow afternoon at the latest, we can start building the heated kang."

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