Chapter 138

Chapter 138

Days passed. By late spring, the wind lost its biting chill, and the land entered a new rainy season.

The early rice planted by the Mountain Water Tribe had grown into a vast expanse of green, with rice leaves swaying in the breeze like rolling emerald waves.

Fruit trees across the tribe also began to sprout fresh foliage. For the Beastmen, the hardiest peach trees had already borne small, green fruits covered in fine fuzz—tempting cubs to sneak a taste.

In the orchard, Beastmen used wooden ladders they’d crafted, leaning them against the trees to prune excess branches. For peach trees, this pruning also facilitated the collection of peach gum. Meanwhile, mulberry trees matured even faster—their branches already heavy with dark red mulberries.

Sha Hu: “Hehe, mulberries—my favorite mulberries!”

The little black lion helping Xue Tuan guard the mulberries nearby: “Is there anything you *don’t* love?”

Xue Tuan, holding a small basket of mulberries, chimed in happily, “Let’s make some juice!”

To prevent birds from pecking at the fruit, the tribe deployed Rockball Sparrows to patrol and drive intruders away.

Meanwhile, A Ying’s silkworm-raising team finally began yielding results. The silkworm varieties they’d introduced proved far better suited to farming. In the near future, the Mountain Water Tribe might soon produce silk.

Feng Yan and Shi Hu continued taking turns leading Beastmen to the Pink Bear Tribe to mine ore.

Yet one day, Puffbird Beastmen arrived with news: the Sun Moon Tribe wished to send envoys to visit the Mountain Water Tribe.

Since the last disaster, the Sun Moon Tribe had expressed gratitude toward the Mountain Water Tribe—and both sides had tacitly avoided further contact.

With the Flower Gathering approaching again, the Mountain Water Tribe conveyed through the Puffbird Tribe that they would not participate this time. This prompted the Sun Moon Tribe to grow impatient and decide to send representatives to strengthen ties.

Times had changed. The Mountain Water Tribe was now confident—and no longer sent its leaders personally to other tribes for every matter, as it once had.

The Sun Moon Tribe was intensely curious about the Mountain Water Tribe—for one reason only: they had “glimpsed” something through the Puffbird Tribe.

The Puffbird Tribe had always honored its oath with the Mountain Water Tribe and never revealed much to the Sun Moon Tribe. Yet, from learning of the existence of kapok to surrendering certain kapok products upon the Sun Moon Tribe’s request, the latter naturally inferred the Mountain Water Tribe’s pivotal role in these developments.

The Mountain Water Tribe kept its cards close to its chest. If the Sun Moon Tribe wanted to understand them, it would have to send people itself.

After careful deliberation, however, Feng Yan and Yun Lu decided not to disclose their tribe’s true situation. They did not believe they were yet strong enough to confront any hostile medium- or large-sized tribe. Though purely hypothetical, they refused to take the risk—and instead adopted a “delaying tactic.”

They resolved that any tribe wishing to visit was welcome—but nothing would be revealed.

As for how long it would take to determine whether a visiting tribe could be trusted as an ally? It might take a year, two years—or even several. It didn’t matter. The initiative remained firmly with the Mountain Water Tribe.

Perhaps this wariness toward the Sun Moon Tribe was excessive—but as long as Yun Lu and the others were certain their tribe faced no threat, friendly relations would naturally deepen over time. There was no need to rush.

Xue Tuan didn’t fully grasp the intricacies of these matters. Like the other cubs, he continued living carefree within the Mountain Water Tribe.

As peach blossoms scattered and summer approached, the Beastmen grew anxious once more—fearing another natural disaster.

Though back-to-back disasters were unheard of, “once bitten, twice shy”—especially when the last “bite” had been so severe. It was only natural for the Beastmen to fear recurrence.

Even last winter, some Beastmen had felt tense, recalling rumors of a “White Disaster Winter” occurring during the cold season.

Fortunately, nothing happened. Otherwise, two consecutive natural disasters would have truly devastated the Beastmen.

By late summer, the heat had indeed arrived—but the terrifying “Red Sun” did not reappear. Gradually, the Beastmen redirected their attention back to daily life.

The plantation and the back mountain—now densely planted with trees—had become favorite summer retreats for escaping the heat.

They received another letter from Grandpa, again mainly concerning his well-being. Yet now, Grandpa’s letters often included two small figures holding hands.

The Arctic Fox family thus surmised Grandpa might have found a companion. In fact, that was good—they could look out for each other.

In recent letters, Grandpa brought no news of the new salt source they hoped for—but that was expected. If it were that easy to find, the Mountain Water Tribe would have discovered new salt sources long ago.

At the same time, he vaguely sensed his fathers and Uncle Yun Lu likely knew about this plan too. Perhaps—unless they were truly desperate—everyone would maintain their unspoken understanding and say nothing.

As temperatures rose, Xue Tuan grew reluctant to go outside and instead focused on handicrafts with the elders inside the cave—only venturing to the fields in the evenings to check on things.

Actually, the soil he’d improved should have been tested for triple-cropping rice. But Xue Tuan reasoned that since they’d grown only one crop last year, they could try two this year—and perhaps three next year or the year after. Better to proceed step by step.

“If we had bamboo houses, we could live in them every summer—it’d definitely be very cool,” Xue Tuan remarked one day, as the cubs lounged in the shade beneath a tree, feeling the breeze from the water channel fan.

He casually added that he’d like a small multi-story house: the first floor for cooking, the second as a laboratory, the third for enjoying the cool breeze and sleeping—and the fourth floor, likely the hottest, could serve as storage.

“Wow—I want to live there too! When I grow up, I’ll build one!” The cubs didn’t understand what a “laboratory” was, but instinctively agreed.

After all, the bamboo beds they slept on were already quite cool. If they could live in bamboo houses, wouldn’t that be even more comfortable?

The little black lion, worried Xue Tuan might overheat, couldn’t serve as his cushion. He silently lay beside him, saying nothing—but committed Xue Tuan’s words to memory.

One night, a patrolling Beastman spotted a black lion cub returning from outside, carrying a large bundle of bamboo in his mouth. They exchanged quiet nods.

The patrolling Beastman was somewhat puzzled: How had this cub managed to bundle so much bamboo in Beast Form?

It was imaginable that, with his great strength, he could break bamboo by headbutting or slashing with his claws.

But how had he tied it? By coordinating mouth and hands? Using special tools? Or were his claws already dexterous enough? The patrolling Beastmen couldn’t figure it out—so they simply stopped thinking about it.

This black lion cub and their Junior Priest Lord were the only two exceptionally special cubs in the entire Mountain Water Tribe.

If strange things happened to them, somehow, it no longer seemed strange at all.

“Hey, Zhong Yan—moving bamboo again?” a patrolling Beastman asked.

Zhong Yan: “Mhm.” Having seen each other frequently, they could now occasionally exchange a few words.

The patrolling Beastmen sometimes saw Zhong Yan in human form, sometimes in Beast Form—but each time, he was carrying bamboo toward the back mountain.

They guessed he might be planting bamboo there—unable to sleep at night?

It wasn’t until much later that Xue Tuan learned Zhong Yan was actually building a bamboo house—transporting materials in Beast Form and cutting and assembling them in human Form.

Since that failed experiment, Xue Tuan hadn’t visited their secret base for a long time.

When he finally remembered to check the place, he was astonished to find Zhong Yan had already erected the framework of a bamboo house right beside their base.

Judging by its size, this was no mere play structure. Zhong Yan had clearly consulted Ye Cong and other Beastmen, designing it to accommodate adults.

Moreover, the bamboo house stood four full stories tall. To complete it entirely would likely take several more years.

Other beastmen had offered to help Zhong Yan build the bamboo house together, so it wouldn't take so long. But Zhong Yan refused them all—he wanted to build this bamboo house with his own hands, pole by pole.

Since the other beastmen couldn't help, Xue Tuan, who was "just a tiny bit" big, certainly couldn't either.

After entering sub-adulthood, Zhong Yan and Bing Qiu had clearly started to shoot up in height, but Zhong Yan still couldn't freely control his transformation.

This disappointed the arctic fox family, who had been hoping his condition would improve along with Xue Tuan's after entering sub-adulthood. They could only wait a few more years to see what would happen after adulthood.

Also during this summer, Xue Tuan and the little black lion added a new activity to their nightly routine.

Since the little black lion wouldn't let Xue Tuan help with the work, Xue Tuan decided to bring his small folding stool and sit beside him, keeping him company while he worked.

Besides keeping the little black lion company so he wouldn't feel so lonely, of course, it was also to supervise him, making sure he took proper breaks and kept a normal sleep schedule.

Xue Tuan often used the warning, "If you don't sleep enough, you won't grow tall," to scare some of the sub-adults. This trick worked especially well on Bing Qiu—staying up late? That didn't exist in his life.

This made Bing Qiu, who was eager to become as strong as his fathers, go to bed early and wake up early every day, with plenty of exercise, which really gave him a strong, sturdy build.

Moreover, Xue Tuan wasn't just sitting idly by. He simply moved a table over. He would bring his little notebook to write and draw, and began researching how to revive the soil in the Beast World.

In one of his dreams, Xue Tuan finally heard a few words clearly: Beast World, soil, pact.

He didn't remember making any pact with anyone, but regarding the soil of the Beast World, he had always wanted to figure it out anyway, so it happened to align perfectly with his thoughts.

And with how fast the Mountain Water Tribe was developing, it probably wouldn't be more than a few years before all the soil he had transformed would be used for planting by everyone.

So, he'd better figure out a method to "transform the soil" before that.

There was a reason why Xue Tuan had marked out this piece of land as their secret base.

Although the marked area was less than a hundred square meters, it already encompassed several special soil types, which happened to resemble the strange and varied terrain of the Beast World.

One day, Xue Tuan and the little black lion came to their secret base again, ready to continue building the bamboo house.

Xue Tuan and the little black lion each went about their own tasks, rarely speaking, as if they had formed a tacit understanding.

However, today, before Xue Tuan had written more than a few characters, he heard footsteps approaching from behind.

The little black lion raised his head keenly, and Xue Tuan turned around to see a young Subbeastman walking toward them from behind.

The face looked vaguely familiar—Xue Tuan felt like he had seen this person somewhere before but couldn't recall who it was.

The little black lion, however, directly called out the other's name.

The little black lion narrowed his eyes, sounding a bit surprised: "Ye Ke?" The little black lion hadn't spoken to this person before, but earlier today when he went to ask Brother Ye Cong a question, this person had been standing right beside him.

Ah, Ye Ke? Xue Tuan had heard this name too: "Are you Brother Ye Cong's... disciple?" That incredibly low-key, almost invisible disciple?

To be honest, Xue Tuan had been to Ye Cong's place several times but had never seen this person, only heard of him from Ye Cong.

How did he manage to blend into the crowd so perfectly? But Xue Tuan didn't say this out loud.

Xue Tuan: "Is there something you need?" Could it be that Brother Ye Cong had something to tell him?

"You asked my master about the bamboo house during the day, and master said..." The words were directed at the little black lion, but his eyes kept darting toward Xue Tuan. When he saw Xue Tuan looking back at him, Ye Ke's face quietly turned red.

Xue Tuan: Hmm?

Based on Xue Tuan's own experience, usually this kind of situation meant... perhaps the other person wanted to be friends? So Xue Tuan took the initiative to strike up a conversation with Ye Ke.

Although he had come to tell the little black lion how to improve the bamboo house, Ye Ke ended up chatting animatedly with Xue Tuan instead.

The little black lion didn't mind. After listening to the key points, he quietly continued with his own work.

And Xue Tuan suddenly realized that this Ye Ke was quite extraordinary. He had many unique ideas of his own, and they all made sense.

Ye Ke had always been curious about the tribe's Junior Priest. After seeing Xue Tuan's human form and Beast Form a few times, he became even more captivated.

This time, he discovered that Xue Tuan actually understood all his "ramblings"!

This had Ye Ke completely hooked. Now that he had finally found someone who could understand what he was saying, he didn't want to let this opportunity slip away. He directly sat cross-legged beside Xue Tuan, eyes shining as he talked with Xue Tuan.

After discussing their views on the bamboo house, Ye Ke didn't want this great atmosphere to fade, so he unusually took the initiative to ask Xue Tuan: "What are you drawing...?"

Ye Ke tilted his head to look at Xue Tuan's notebook, completely unable to understand what the little cub was writing or drawing, but he was still quite curious.

Xue Tuan generously told Ye Ke about his research on soil.

There was nothing that couldn't be said. In theory, Ye Ke was also part of the tribe's Priest reserve force, so there should be plenty of things they could discuss.

And for some reason, even though it was their first meeting, Xue Tuan inexplicably trusted the person in front of him. Perhaps Ye Ke might actually be able to help in some way?

After hearing what Xue Tuan was doing, Ye Ke didn't think Xue Tuan was being unrealistic. Instead, his eyes became fervent: "I... I want to research too. Can I join you?"

Ordinary people, upon hearing Xue Tuan's words, would probably either laugh or advise him not to waste his time.

But Ye Ke was different—he actually wanted to join directly. He didn't seem to care about the outcome; he was simply deeply interested in the matter itself.

Xue Tuan smiled and said: "Sure, why not?" And so, from that day on, Xue Tuan's research plan gained another assistant.

In the blink of an eye, summer was almost over.

Thanks to the beastmen and Rockball Sparrows diligently storing ice every winter, everyone could enjoy plenty of ice during the summer.

Even during the hottest days, the feared natural disasters never reappeared, so everyone was in high spirits.

After several heavy rains, summer passed safely. The imagined hellish hot season never came, and all the beastmen breathed a huge sigh of relief, while secretly cursing in their hearts: To hell with the hellish hot season! Good riddance!

This year, the trial planting of late rice was also harvested. This time, compared to the early rice, the yield doubled again, so the trial planting of two-season rice went very smoothly.

The beastmen now had ample experience, doing well with fertilizing, plowing, protecting seedlings, and so on. Coupled with sufficient sunlight and rainfall, it was undoubtedly another bountiful year!

Author's Note: Thank you, treasures, for the nutrient solution [heart]

-----------------------

I thought this chapter could get to them growing up, but it looks like it might take another chapter or two [pitiful]