Chapter 265

Nowadays, the weather was hot and dry, and the lime mortar would dry completely in just five or six days.

The young cubs had long been eagerly running onto the stone-paved road. For a while, the main road running east-west resembled a zoo, with little leopards, little giant pandas, little foals... all kinds of young beasts tumbling and playing together.

At that moment, the clouded leopard cub on top of the pile pricked up its ears alertly, stretched its neck and looked toward the east. Soon, the crisp sound of “tap tap tap” could be heard approaching.

The cubs scattered in a commotion, curling up their limbs and rolling on their backs, blocking the way in front of the war bear beastmen pulling a cart.

The war bear horned beastman was not annoyed; his round bear face showed a hint of silliness. He casually tossed the cubs in front of him into the cart bed. The cubs flew through the air, excitedly waving their limbs, chirping and howling continuously.

More than a dozen sub-beastmen were sitting by the roadside, picking wild vegetables while laughing at the cubs’ antics.

Suddenly, a shadow fell over the sub-beastmen’s heads. Everyone turned their heads to look and then smiled even wider.

“Great Priest.” “City Lord.”

Qi Bai poked his head out from a furry mass and greeted everyone with a smile, “What are you up to?”

The newcomers were none other than Qi Bai and Lang Ze in their beast forms.

Most of the Black Mountain tribe living halfway up the mountain had not moved yet, mainly because they had stored too many supplies in their caves. Before properly handling these supplies, the young and able-bodied beastmen had to stay behind to watch over them.

Qi Bai and Lang Ze, however, couldn’t move at all, and the reason was simple: Qi Bai was currently using his priest’s mansion as a paper mill, while Lang Ze’s city lord’s mansion had just started construction. Due to the massive workload, only the foundation had been laid so far. Even if they wanted to move, there was nowhere to go.

This wasn’t because the five tribes of beastmen didn’t respect the city lord and the great priest. At the very start of building the city, several tribes had proposed to build houses for Qi Bai and Lang Ze first, but Qi Bai refused.

The combined area of the city lord’s and priest’s mansions was nearly a quarter of a residential district. Neither he nor Lang Ze had that much official authority. While everyone else was still living in tents, freezing, spending so much manpower and resources building those two mansions first was not practical. The most important thing for the Black Shine City was to establish its main facilities.

There was another reason: Qi Bai planned to build two “luxury mansions,” one in a Chinese style and one in a Western style.

Qi Bai and Lang Ze’s abundant private wealth, combined with the supplies due to the great priest and city lord, made Qi Bai feel that his ostentatious wealth was about to burst out of control.

Since it couldn’t be hidden any longer, there was no need to keep it secret. It was time to come clean with everyone—they were rich.

According to the blueprints Qi Bai had drawn, the houses wouldn’t be finished in a few months, and with the interior furniture and decorations, it was a huge project.

So, for now, the two still lived on the Black Mountain, which meant they had to add some commuting time every day.

But that was no big deal. At Lang Ze’s current speed, the round trip between Black Mountain and the city took only about ten minutes. For Lang Ze, this wasn’t even a warm-up exercise.

At this time, the white giant wolf stood calmly in place, quietly waiting as Qi Bai spoke with the sub-beastmen by the roadside.

One of the sub-beastmen, bolder than the rest, wasn’t as shy upon seeing Qi Bai and Lang Ze and spoke clearly: “Captain Hu Xue said today is hot, so we picked some wild vegetables to mash into juice, then mixed it with glutinous root powder to make green little dumplings. We boiled them in apricot wine and let them cool. When everyone finishes work, drinking a bowl of cool apricot wine dumplings can quench thirst and fill the stomach.”

Though called apricot wine dumplings, the taste was somewhat like fermented rice balls. Eating a bowl of these in the late afternoon was indeed quite nice.

At first, each of the five tribes managed their own meals, but how could the cooking skills of the other four tribes compare to Hu Xue from the Black Mountain? The other tribes looked at their own meal captains with somewhat plaintive eyes.

The other four tribes’ captains tried to learn some cooking skills from Hu Xue, and gradually, the meals of the five tribes mixed together again.

Now, Hu Xue basically decided the daily menu, and the captains from the other four tribes helped out.

From the tone of this sub-beastman’s speech, it was not hard to tell that Hu Xue was highly respected among the beastmen.

This was understandable: food was absolutely the most important thing in the eyes of the beastmen. The fact that Hu Xue could provide so many delicious meals made her words especially influential.

Though these recipes were all provided by Qi Bai, he was pleased that Hu Xue put effort into the food. Qi Bai’s greatest hope was that the city’s food supply would become more abundant in the future, and preferably there would be some snack shops so he could eat different foods from every street corner every day.

After bidding farewell to the group, the white wolf flicked its tail and leisurely walked toward the northern part of the city.

Construction of the office and workshop areas was in the final stages.

The reason why Black Shine City was able to complete so much construction in just over half a year was inseparable from the strong beast forms of the beastmen, especially the War Bear and Giant Wind tribes.

At the construction site, round and plump giant pandas were everywhere, some sitting cross-legged on the ground, others standing upright, using their paws with black sleeves to stack bricks on the courtyard walls.

In comparison, the other horned beastmen were like their helpers, often requiring three or four horned beastmen to apply mortar at the same time just to keep up with the giant pandas’ bricklaying speed.

Whenever Qi Bai saw such scenes, he couldn’t help but sigh, “Same cats, different fates.” As a Chinese, he had never seen giant pandas working before.

The Giant Wind tribe horned beastmen’s work efficiency was even more remarkable. At this moment, they were in beast form, standing outside the houses stacking tiles on the roofs.

Lang Ze transformed into human form upon entering the construction site. Qi Bai handed him the beast skin vest he carried and the two walked straight into the leftmost courtyard.

In front of the office area was a huge plaza. The stone slabs on the plaza were different from those on the main road; the plaza was paved with stones forming a giant pentagram pattern, and if you looked carefully, you could see small paths paved with pebbles.

This was the central plaza of Black Shine City, used for gatherings of the tribes and important sacrificial ceremonies.

Behind the central plaza was a row of seven large courtyards, somewhat resembling the ancient Chinese government offices in layout.

Seven plaques hung on the courtyards, from left to right reading: Household Department, Works Department, Commerce Department, Sacrificial Hall, Council Hall, Criminal Department, Military Department.

From these plaques, one could understand the functions of these departments.

The Household Department managed population records and grain storage; the Works Department was responsible for city construction and tool research and manufacturing; the Commerce Department handled trade; the Council Hall was in charge of decision-making and judgment; the Sacrificial Hall managed rituals, education, and medical skills; the Criminal Department took care of city security and punishments; the Military Department handled army training and hunting.

As for the Council made up of elders from the five tribes and priests, it was not a permanent organization. Normally, members worked in various departments and only gathered when there were major matters affecting the city.

The venue for these meetings already existed; the Council Hall contained many large meeting rooms.

This layout was somewhat unconventional on the beastmen continent, where faith was paramount. Departments like these sounded very useful, but how could they compare to the sacred rituals of the priests who communicated with the Beast God?

Qi Bai did not cause trouble for the old priests in the tribe. He not only built the Sacrificial Hall in the center but also designed it as a two-story small building. Both sides of the building had stairs leading to the second floor, with an open-air terrace in the middle facing the central plaza.

This way, sacrificial activities could be held directly on the second-floor terrace, and the beastmen standing in the plaza could see the scene above.

The old priests were delighted with Qi Bai’s exquisite design, and Qi Bai secretly chuckled. This way, they wouldn’t need to build extra altars.

The courtyard they entered now was the Household Department. The department hadn’t officially started work yet, and the warehouse belonging to the Household Department wasn’t fully built. The offices inside the courtyard were temporarily serving as a warehouse.

Several people were already waiting inside. Qi Bai said to them, “Have you been here long? I hope I didn’t keep you waiting too long.”

Tuya waved her hand, “We just arrived, didn’t wait long.”

Another person smiled and pointed at Lu Ming: “We didn’t wait long, but Lu Ming is different. The Great Priest told us to come when the sun passed overhead, but I saw Ming come this morning. Probably came here just to slack off.”

Lu Ming blushed a little. He wasn’t very good at telling time, and being called out in public made him feel embarrassed.

Seeing Lu Ming annoyed, Xiong Nuan quickly pulled him behind her. “The City Lord is still nearby; you two shouldn’t fight over such a small thing. The sun was too bright today; I couldn’t tell its position either. Lu Ming isn’t slacking; he just didn’t want to miss the Great Priest’s time.”

Lu Ming raised his fist, “Exactly. I can finish the work I missed later.”

The beastman had no ill intent. Seeing Lu Ming’s reaction, he made a funny face and didn’t say more.

But this reminded Qi Bai that the tribes worked from sunrise to sunset, not only passing seasons indistinctly but also knowing only morning, noon, and evening each day.

“That’s nothing,” Qi Bai said casually, “In a couple of days, I’ll make a sundial for everyone. Then you won’t have to look at the sun to tell the time.”

Lu Ming was delighted, “Really?”

Others were curious too. Could there really be such a thing to tell time without looking at the sun?

Someone in the crowd loudly said, “Of course it’s real! When has the Great Priest ever lied to us? If the Great Priest says it exists, then it definitely exists.”

Lang Ze looked toward the voice and saw it came from Yun An. Her eyes shone brightly like light bulbs, clearly a little fangirl.

Of course, not only Yun An, but the others had similar expressions. Lang Ze had grown almost immune to such looks. As long as no one was eyeing his partner, he could mostly pretend not to see.

Lang Ze untied the rope on the door and opened it with one hand. “Come in and move your things.”

Inside the room were several large tables covered with many items. The most prominent were tall stacks of paper by the door.

“One stack of paper, a box of duck feather pens, and a box of charcoal powder per department. These are for your office use. If you run out or get damaged, report to Tuya. Tuya will ask the Works Department to prepare more,” Qi Bai first briefly demonstrated how to use these items, then gave instructions.

Regarding the heads of each department, the Council had already discussed and appointed them. Tuya, a math teacher from Black Mountain Academy, was elected as the first director of the Household Department due to her excellent skills in calculation and farming talent.

The group was still not very familiar with the workflow, looking a bit puzzled, having only understood that when things ran out, they should find Tuya.

Tuya remained calm. “These tools are not easy to make. Usually, everyone should use the sand table. Only when something truly needs recording should you write it on paper.”

By now, Tuya no longer showed the lack of confidence she had when she first arrived at Black Mountain. She was already capable of handling things independently.

“Alright.” “Okay.” The group responded in unison.

Not many of them could write; the record-keeping would still be left to the Black Mountain tribe’s cub scribes.