Chapter 218

“Gather up, gather up!”

As the last team returned from their work outside, the patrolling team members in black leather armor immediately received the order and swiftly spread the message to every corner of the threshing ground.

Several beastmen who were chopping wood paused and looked at each other.

What now?

After all, the last time everyone was gathered like this, a whole team had been punished.

“What are you dawdling for? Put your things down and hurry!” Team leader Shu You jogged over, urging them.

Only then did the few quickly drop their stone axes and follow Shu You, running toward the center of the threshing ground.

In just two days, the sun-dried mud bricks on the threshing ground had been used up.

All those bricks had been used to build the kang beds and fire walls the Heishan tribespeople talked about. Once constructed, fires were kept burning inside them.

They didn’t even need to go inside the houses—just walking past the doors, they could feel the warmth radiating out, and even now, smoke still drifted from the rooftops.

Because of this, large swaths of space were finally freed up on the threshing ground after so many days.

At this moment, neat rows of teams had assembled on the cleared ground, while several beastmen who had just arrived were still searching for their team leader’s location.

Shu You’s squad arrived a bit late, but they didn’t need to panic. They were the first squad of the first major unit—so all they had to do was line up at the far edge, ten people in a vertical row.

Yan craned his neck to peer forward, then nudged the beastman in front of him and whispered, gossiping, “I don’t think Bao Bai and the priest look angry.”

This beastman, named Zhao, used to be the chieftain of the Xiangke tribe—though nobody called him that anymore.

Zhao glared at Yan. A meeting was about to start. Couldn’t he behave?

Once Zhao turned back around, Yan pouted resentfully. Why was Zhao being so uptight? If he had to guess, this might actually be good news.

And he wasn’t wrong. It wasn’t just good news—it was astonishingly good news.

“We… we get to live there?”

When Yang Luo announced it, everyone was stunned. Even Hu Xiao, standing in the middle of the crowd, widened his eyes in disbelief.

None of the workers had ever imagined that those stone houses they’d only seen from afar were actually being built for them.

Those massive, orderly houses—houses unlike anything they’d seen—were for them, outsiders!

Yang Luo wore his usual enigmatic expression, but those who knew him could tell he wasn’t as composed as he looked. He was practically bursting with the desire for all the workers to understand the Heishan tribe’s good intentions and wholeheartedly thank them for everything they’d done.

Look—since you arrived, have we ever treated you unfairly?

From the very beginning, the bamboo you cut was all made into bowls for you. The tree bark you stripped was added into your meals without a trace left out.

Don’t think I don’t know—many of you think chopping trees and carrying stones is hard, or that mixing water and mud in this freezing weather is miserable. But open your eyes and look—were those houses built for the Heishan tribe?

Your team leaders have better, warmer homes up on the mountain. Why aren’t they resting comfortably at home? Why are they here, teaching you again and again, doing just as much labor, enduring the same cold?

Yang Luo, now on a roll, pointed at old beastmen like Quan Lie and Xiang Yu.

These elderly beastmen woke up earlier than all of you, just so they could heat water and warm your bodies before you went to work.

Under everyone’s gaze, the old beastmen smiled awkwardly. How did this turn into being about them?

That said, after Yang Luo’s speech, even they felt a bit moved.

If the Heishan tribespeople felt this way, the workers were even more affected.

It’s true—from the moment they arrived, the Heishan tribe had cared for them.

Yes, “cared for” was the right word.

Ash from burned hay was piled layer after layer outside the wooden shelters—left behind by the patrol team every day when they added firewood.

When learning how to make mud bricks and stone blocks, even when workers were slow, team leaders patiently repeated instructions again and again. No one was ever scolded or beaten for wasting materials.

“Beast God bless us!”

“Beast God bless us!”

“Beast God bless us!”

It began with a slightly aged voice, then wave after wave of workers prostrated themselves in prayer.

This was the first time the workers had sincerely offered blessings to the Heishan tribe.

They had never received such goodwill before. They couldn’t put into words how overwhelmed they felt—so they entrusted that emotion to the divine.

Qi Bai inwardly applauded Yang Luo.

Now he understood why Yang Luo didn’t let him announce the news himself.

With Qi Bai’s straightforward style, he would’ve just told them flatly, “Here are your houses.” Sure, they’d be excited, but they wouldn’t be sobbing with gratitude like this—several beastmen had broken down crying.

Even the usually stoic, gruff jiao beastmen were silently wiping away tears.

Qi Bai had to admit—sometimes, charging forward isn’t enough. A little emotional motivation goes a long way.

Yang Luo stood tall before them, completely unfazed by their kneeling. In fact, he was even humming to himself.

Let them cry—these people had already emptied one of the tribe’s small storage sheds. If a few tears meant they’d work harder, he could cry with them every day.

At last, it was Qi Bai’s turn.

He stepped forward, first instructing everyone to stand, then began organizing the housing assignments.

Xiong Feng had actually started preparing two days ago, leading tribe members to finish constructing the kang beds.

But to prevent disputes over fairness, they’d waited until every room was finished before assigning homes.

Now, Qi Bai held a small notebook made of bamboo slats and called names one by one.

The people being called were still a bit dazed, and they began to feel an inexplicable respect for Qi Bai.

This white-haired sub-beastman had never spoken to them before—how did he know all their names? Even their own former chieftains couldn’t always remember everyone.

Of course, Qi Bai didn’t actually know all their names. He’d cross-checked everything with the team leaders beforehand.

The list he held was organized by team, with sub-beastmen and jiao beastmen split appropriately.

For example, the 100 people in the first team were assigned to the front two stone houses.

But obviously, across all teams, jiao beastmen outnumbered sub-beastmen. So some sub-beastmen from the second team would be moved up to balance it out.

The distribution followed this sequence. That way, team members stayed mostly together, making future management easier.

Yan and Zhao were the first jiao beastmen assigned a house.

Their house had the first completed kang bed, which was now fully dry.

Yan touched the warm surface, grinning ear to ear. “Zhao, Zhao, come feel this! It’s so warm! Captain said we’ll sleep on this—are we gonna roast ourselves like dumplings?!”

Zhao’s expression was nearly identical, but he only glanced around before urging, “I’ll stay and guard our spot. Hurry and grab your fur blanket from under the shed—you’ve got that meeting to attend.”

Zhao didn’t dread meetings anymore. In fact, he now reminded others.

Yan had been appointed dorm leader. The captain told him to tidy up and hurry to the threshing ground for a briefing—they were going to learn how to stoke the kang fire.

If you asked Zhao, “You used to be Yan’s chieftain. Now he’s your boss—how do you feel about that?”

He’d glare and retort, “What boss? Don’t twist things. We’re all Xiangke people. If Yan’s the dorm leader, it makes us all look good.”

Besides, to be honest, even as chieftain, Zhao couldn’t match Yan in guts or eloquence. Who knew how that kid could blabber on all day?

Hearing Zhao’s reminder, Yan dashed out excitedly.

Although the team was supposed to sleep in order of their names, even this spacious kang bed couldn’t comfortably fit 50 jiao beastmen.

Yan looked at it—if everyone laid down, turning over would be impossible. They had to move fast, stake their spots, and claim space.

Of course, people like those from Xiangke, who brought all their belongings with them, were a minority.

Most beastmen, upon entering the dorm, just plopped right down on the warm bed.

Staring at the dim ceiling and feeling the heat on their backs—it all felt too surreal. They needed time to take it in.

That afternoon, the Heishan tribe gave everyone a half-day break.

Team leaders sat in the dining hall, sipping hot meat soup from bamboo cups, watching the newly assigned dorm leaders carry firewood into the houses.

She Li stood at the entrance of a separate storage room near the hall, shouting, “Firewood will be distributed at scheduled times. If you’re late or run out, figure it out yourselves.”

Yan nodded enthusiastically with his arms full of firewood. “Got it, Captain She Li!”

The tribe was just too good to them. Yan thought, it’s just firewood. Even if they weren’t given any, they could collect their own.

After all, chopping wood was already one of the jobs that earned food. If they ate the food and still used firewood from the tribe, wasn’t that taking advantage?

The beastmen moving wood with him clicked their tongues in amazement. Along the way, Yan chatted up every Heishan tribe member they encountered—without hesitation.

She Li nodded at Yan. “Tell the others when you get back.”

“Got it!”

Even after walking far away, the beastmen were still marveling—such a cold-faced captain like She Li actually nodded at them! Could they talk to other tribe members now too?

Just then, a patrol squad marched past them.

Everyone instinctively shivered. Never mind—they weren’t like Yan. Better to keep their heads down and be content with their meals.

Although the workers had moved into stone houses, that didn’t mean work in the Heishan tribe stopped.

Stones still needed to be mined. The sheep pens were expanding, and so were the storage rooms outside the threshing ground.

The space next to the water-fetching room had been reserved for storage, but now it was full of firewood—and already nearly out of space.

Ever since workers got their own dorms, they’d been working with new energy. What used to take a day and a half was now done in under one day.

Yang Luo was so annoyed he slapped the table in private twice. “See? I told you—they weren’t working to their full potential. Push them harder, they’ll do double!”

Qi Bai laughed, soothing him: “Grandpa Priest, working hard is a good thing. Don’t get yourself worked up over it.”

Since there wasn’t much else in the mountains now, everyone focused on collecting firewood.

The storage room was filling up faster than it could be emptied—soon, it wouldn’t be enough.

Qi Bai figured they might as well build more storage rooms while it was still winter. That way, come spring, they’d have space to store the harvest.

In other words, the workers with their new dorms had quickly assimilated into the Heishan tribe’s “never idle” culture.

The threshing ground was full of clanging sounds all day, without pause.

“Wooo~ wooo~ wooo~”

Yan put down his stone axe and rubbed his ear hard. Was something wrong with his hearing?

After carving stones for so long, he sometimes heard clanging in his sleep—but today, the sound was different.

Others had the same strange expression on their faces.

“You guys hear that too?” Yan asked.

They all heard it—so it wasn’t his ears.

“Wooo~ wooo~ wooo~” “Wooo~ wooo~ wooo~”

The distant sound suddenly grew louder, more urgent, and closer. A strange tension filled the air.

And now, they didn’t need to guess what it was anymore.

Their team leader, Shu You, was already running outside the threshing ground—bow in hand, face grim with a murderous aura none of them had ever seen.

In that moment, even though Shu You was just a sub-beastman, the pressure he radiated shook the jiao beastmen workers.

And he wasn’t the only team leader moving like that—many other sub-beastman captains followed suit.

Yan felt all the hair on his body stand on end.

He looked around, then gritted his teeth and climbed onto a stone rooftop. But before he could steady himself, the scene before him nearly made him fall off.

That hideous warty skin, those stubby tusks—he would never forget the beast form that had haunted his nightmares.

“G-Giant Boars!!”

Yan’s voice cracked with terror: “It’s GIANT BOARS!!!!”