Chapter 262

The return of the hunting team quickly brought the city back to life.

The Beastmen warriors were pulling the carts while continuously marveling at the changes in the city.

They had been away for less than fifty days, yet the city had almost completely transformed.

The first thing everyone noticed was the ground beneath their feet.

They entered the city from the main street in the south. Although the street was still dirt, it was much wider than before, and the road was compacted tightly. Even eight carts traveling side by side did not seem crowded at all.

Hundreds of carts parked neatly, and several young Beastmen couldn’t help stomping their feet on the road.

Mountain paths in the wilderness were tough to traverse; even the open grasslands were covered with blocking vines and stones. The warriors had suffered much climbing mountains and crossing ridges on their journey. Stepping onto such a flat road was still somewhat unfamiliar to them.

Of course, more eye-catching than the road were the densely packed houses in the distance.

On both sides next to the main street were reserved commercial streets. Although the shops hadn’t been built yet, the residential areas behind the commercial streets were clearly visible.

The warriors felt happy but also somewhat empty inside—how did it feel like the city made no difference whether they were there or not?

The impatient ones who wanted to return to farming, such as Hu Qiao and Xi Zhou, had even heard that the tribe’s fields were already fully sown. Not only was last year’s tribal land planted, but a much larger area outside the city had been newly cultivated this year.

They looked at each other and coughed — maybe they had exaggerated a bit in front of other Beastmen before.

But if the hunting team thought that this was all the work the stay-behind clansmen had done, they would be greatly mistaken.

The bamboo shoots in the bamboo forest had already been harvested once. Under the guidance of the Heishan tribe, these bamboo shoots were either made into dried bamboo shoots or pickled sour bamboo shoots.

If the Beastmen asked, "What are sour bamboo shoots pickled with?"

The Ya Beastmen who stayed in the city rubbed their heads: "Oh, you don’t know yet? The pottery workshop has built several big pottery kilns again. Luguo led us to fire up lots of large clay jars. Our sour bamboo shoots are all pickled in these big jars."

The clay jars were half a human height tall. They pickled hundreds of jars, including sour bamboo shoots and other wild vegetables. The High Priest said these pickled vegetables and dried vegetables wouldn’t spoil even if stored until winter. Just the pickling jars alone took up a huge area. Beast God above, so much food!

"What? Where did the salt come from?"

The Heishan tribe brought back a lot of salt. Not only did they have salt for pickling vegetables, but also plenty for curing meat, ensuring they could preserve all the game the hunting team brought back.

After talking about pottery and pickled vegetables, the Beastmen started telling the returning hunters about the paper and pounding machines made by the High Priest, and the various farming tools used in cultivation...

There was so much new stuff in the city. In just over a month, it far exceeded what they had seen in the previous decades.

For the newly joined four tribes in the city, every day in Heiyao City made them realize how unimaginative they had been the day before.

At this moment, someone finally noticed something unusual in the middle of the carts and shouted loudly, “Hey, the hunting team brought back many live prey!”

In the middle of the carts stood three to four hundred four-eared sheep and more than fifty calves.

These four-eared sheep and mountain calves looked thin, tails drooping, appearing weak and listless. But regardless of their spirits, they were indeed live prey.

The Beastmen warriors, shocked and speechless from the city’s changes, straightened their backs quickly upon this reminder.

They almost forgot this batch. If not for these live prey, they wouldn’t have delayed so many days on the road.

Even the war bears and Cloud Valley warriors, proud hunters, had never hunted so many live animals.

“Adult mountain bulls are hard to tame. As long as there’s a Beastman scent around, they refuse to eat. So we killed those mountain bulls early and only kept the calves,”

Lang Ze and Qi Bai, who had already found each other, stood outside the crowd discussing the prey the hunting team brought back.

The mountain bull herd Lang Ze encountered was actually not much fewer in number than the four-eared sheep.

But seeing the mountain bulls refusing to eat and losing weight daily, Lang Ze stopped driving them and killed them early to preserve the meat.

Fortunately, the calves were inexperienced and gave in after a few days of hunger. Although they ate little, none starved to death, allowing them to bring back so many calves.

Actually, the hunting team also encountered a group of black wild boars. Lang Ze wanted to drive some back to the city. He noticed Qi Bai liked pork, especially wild boar skin which could be boiled into glue — keeping some in the city for backup was good.

But judging from the outcome, Lang Ze’s plan to drive the wild boars back failed.

Compared to the fasting mountain bulls, the black wild boars were extremely aggressive, always trying to attack Beastmen. Even if driven back alive, they couldn’t be kept in the city.

These black wild boars were not the size of modern domestic pigs; their heads were as large as mountain bulls, with long tusks at their mouths. Even adult Beastmen warriors had to be very cautious dealing with them.

With so many Ya Beastmen and cubs in the city, these black wild boars were dangerous elements. Lang Ze would rather hunt more outside daily than keep them inside.

Qi Bai deeply felt this as well, since many of his small mountain fowl had recently died.

The originally colorful big rattan basket now contained only small ducks and little mountain pheasants, totaling thirty-two.

Most of the young mountain fowl died from starvation. They showed no aggression, but Qi Bai thought maybe they were too young to show it.

These small mountain fowl were all hatched by Beastmen. If they were like this, it was even more true for the large wild beasts in the wild.

Qi Bai recalled and felt his luck was quite good. His first time raising livestock and poultry, he encountered “soft targets” like four-eared sheep and ducks. Otherwise, their animal husbandry and poultry farming wouldn’t have developed so well.

Qi Bai glanced toward Heishan and said solemnly, “Hmm, it’s time to let everyone see King Chuan Chuan’s power.”

To make the new four-eared sheep fully obedient, it definitely couldn’t be done without Chuan Chuan’s battles. But before that, as the High Priest of Heiyao City, Qi Bai had to lead the other tribes’ priests and shamans in performing a blood ritual for the warriors.

No need to build a special altar; the wide main street was the best place for the ritual.

The live prey for the blood ritual had long been prepared by Ma Ling and Lang Ji. Luguo and Hu Xue also called their people to bring over a dozen large jars from the pottery workshop.

While the warriors drank the fresh blood of the prey, Luguo and Hu Xue immediately placed the prey next to the big pottery jars, letting the remaining beast blood flow into the jars with not a drop wasted.

After filling each jar, Hu Xue casually sprinkled some salt, and soon the beast blood solidified, making the surrounding Beastmen click their tongues in amazement.

After the blood ritual, everyone began processing the prey.

Xiong Han and Lu Yan led the skilled in skinning and deboning. Hu Xue and She Li led the others in curing and smoking meat. The skins were taken by Yang Luo and a few elder Beastmen to be tanned.

For a while, the wide street was full of busy Beastmen.

The hunting team’s prey, after so many days of transport, was no longer very fresh. But luckily, meat could have a bit of smell and still be okay.

Even Qi Bai, a modern man who traveled through time, was used to meat with a bit of odor. Proper cooking gave it a special flavor.

After two full days of work, all the prey the hunting team brought back was processed, and the city’s manpower suddenly became sufficient again.

Qi Bai drew blueprints for a waterwheel and a catapult, giving them to Hu Huo and Hou Su.

City affairs always followed one after another. Qi Bai alone could never keep up, so he assigned less urgent tool-making tasks to other technicians in the city.

Although Hu Huo and Hou Su had never seen waterwheels or catapults, they were familiar with wheels and pounding machines. Many things connected logically, and their brains were quick. Qi Bai thought giving them some inspiration might bring surprises.

Qi Bai himself began busying with livestock and mountain fowl matters.

Under the bright early spring sunshine, the entire city’s Beastmen watched as Chuan Chuan bravely tamed his new followers.

When the three Beastmen tribes came to Heishan, it was already deep winter. Though they ate plenty of dairy products, it was only now that they finally saw the four-eared sheep driven down from the mountain.

Adding the newly returned four-eared sheep from the hunting team to the more than two hundred sheep of the Heishan tribe, Heiyao City now had over six hundred sheep—a considerable number.

Seeing so many obedient four-eared sheep, everyone’s work enthusiasm increased. Within two days, they built several large new livestock sheds for the sheep and calves.

The tall, spacious stone shelters and fresh, soft hay easily outshone the crowded stone sheep pens on Heishan.

As the leader of the sheep flock, Chuan Chuan led his family into the shelter first, looking very proud.

Not long after Chuan Chuan moved in, the ducks on the mountain also gained new followers and moved into a mountain fowl breeding shed next to a natural pond.

The livestock and poultry sheds were built in the western part of the city. Besides having a pond for the ducks to rest, it was also convenient for leaving the city.

Outside the city at this time was completely undeveloped land, vast grasslands stretching endlessly.

From the west outwards, grazing sheep and cattle was very convenient, saving much effort in preparing fodder for the four-eared sheep and calves.

Although the location changed, Qi Bai still assigned Yun Xian to feed the ducks and mountain pheasants.

When Qi Bai discussed this with Yun Xian, Yun Xian initially thought he misheard. Upon realizing Qi Bai was serious, Yun Xian’s eyes instantly reddened.

The High Priest’s fifty eggs hatched forty-two mountain fowl, but only thirty-two survived.

Though the High Priest said the cubs were responsible for hatching, the cubs were still so young. Yun Xian always felt responsible for those small mountain fowl and blamed himself for the ten that died.

What surprised him was that the High Priest still trusted him.

Looking at Yun Xian, Qi Bai gently comforted him, “It’s not your fault. Wild beasts are inherently hard to raise. Having this many survive is already good. Now, we just have to raise them well, and we’ll have more little ducks and mountain pheasants.”

Yun Xian stubbornly held back tears and firmly promised Qi Bai, “High Priest, rest assured. I will raise these ducks and pheasants well. I will not betray your trust.”

Seeing his enthusiasm, Qi Bai smiled, “Then we’re waiting to eat eggs and meat.”

As the guilt faded a little, Yun Xian’s face flushed again meeting Qi Bai’s gaze. Blushing, he nodded hard.

With the poultry settled, livestock was even easier.

Originally, Quan Liu, who looked after the four-eared sheep, could still handle it.

However, the sheep and calves had grown quite numerous, so Qi Bai had Quan Liu pick several near-adult Beastmen cubs to help him graze sheep and cattle.

Seeing Quan Liu, Qi Bai couldn’t help but think of Ma Chong, who also lost an arm.

Since Ma Liang was grounded, Ma Chong truly raised the family alone, but his pressure was huge. Besides a cub before coming to Heishan, Ma Liang recently gave birth to another cub.

To be honest, although Beastmen didn’t plan reproduction, Qi Bai had never seen any Ya Beastman give birth to so many children in a row.

Ma Liang, about thirty years old, with two previously deceased children, had already had four cubs, and none of it stopped even during the grounding period. Qi Bai admired that somewhat.

Ma Liang would be a respected figure on the Beastman continent, where reproduction was honored.

But now, forget respect from others; just getting by was good enough.

The city allocated enough sheep milk for all newborn cubs to prevent hunger. But Ma Liang and Ma Chong’s family had two children, and now only Ma Chong could earn labor points. Even if life was passable now, it wouldn’t last.

Thinking this, Qi Bai arrived at the Heishan residential construction site and from afar saw one-armed Ma Chong hammering stones.