Chapter 176

Chapter 176

Snowball had a comfortable nap upstairs. When he woke up, he saw Gray Gray on the windowsill nibbling on his treats.

Gray Gray had a dedicated bird nest in the yard, but he had many sleeping spots. He could sleep anywhere in the entire tribe as he pleased, and everyone knew this "versatile" spirit beast from the arctic fox's household.

Snowball rested his chin on the windowsill, looking out at the view. The layout of the residential areas in the Mountain Water Tribe was more or less the same. From this window, Snowball could only see the side of Heavy Flame's house facing his own, which was Grandpa Mushi's "workshop."

_I wonder what Heavy Flame is doing..._ Snowball thought as he stroked Gray Gray's head.

As he stroked, Snowball's hand suddenly stopped, and his eyes lit up as he looked at Gray Gray.

The moment Snowball stopped, Gray Gray looked up, puzzled. "Chirp?" Why did you stop petting me?

"Gray Gray, do me a favor in a bit!" Snowball suddenly realized he could ask Gray Gray to deliver messages!

So Snowball sat at his desk and began writing a small note. He tapped the pen against his chin, hesitating about what to write, but in the end, he simply wrote: What are you doing?

Then he tied the note to Gray Gray's claw. "Go on, deliver this to the big guy." Snowball had many nicknames for Heavy Flame—sometimes "black guy," "black lion," and the like—and Gray Gray understood them all. He had no idea how Gray Gray could distinguish that they all referred to the same person.

With a "chirp," Gray Gray accepted the mission and flew toward the other side of the house, out of Snowball's sight. After a while, Gray Gray returned with a new small note, which had only two words on it: Miss you.

Snowball shook his head and chuckled, muttering, "Couldn't you write a few more words? What a waste of paper..." Then, with a smile in his eyes, Snowball picked up his pen to reply.

Downstairs in the living room, Ice Hill was having a small meeting with a few others.

Currently, the Mountain Water Tribe and the Sun Moon Tribe planned to build a road directly connecting the two tribes.

Building a road was a long process. Before the road was completed, they planned to first establish relay stations.

Previously, Ice Hill and the others had surveyed several suitable locations for relay stations. This time, when Little Peng and his team went over, they should be able to finalize the location for the first relay station, with construction expected to begin next spring.

"We measured the approximate required area during our last visit..." Ice Hill was listening to his companion A Tu speak, so the first time he heard the sound of Gray Gray's wings flapping, he didn't pay much attention.

The second time he heard it, Ice Hill merely raised an eyebrow, thinking Gray Gray was playing some "fetch the ball" game with Snowball again. But the intervals were pretty long. Was it flying that far?

As the meeting continued, Ice Hill kept hearing the sound of Gray Gray flying back and forth. Suddenly, he felt something was off.

Ice Hill's eyebrow twitched involuntarily as he thought of a certain possibility...

A Tu: "We've already discussed with the Sun Moon Tribe that initially, we'll only build the necessary basics..."

When A Tu mentioned the location of the second relay station and the paths for the other stations, Ice Hill spoke up: "Da Sen, go call Heavy Flame over. He has some good ideas in this area."

"Sure thing, I'll go call him right away." Da Sen, who was sitting beside A Tu, immediately stood up and went next door to fetch him.

Upstairs, Snowball's desk was already piled with many small notes. He carefully stacked them in order and placed them in a drawer.

Snowball waited with a smile for Gray Gray to return with the reply. However, this time, Gray Gray took quite a while to come back, and surprisingly, the note tied to his leg was the same one Snowball had just sent.

What's going on? Is he not there anymore?

Just then, there was a knock on the door.

Snowball turned around. "Come in."

As the door opened, a fluffy pale purple bird chick flew in first, followed closely by three other giant fluffballs.

The little bird chick flapped its wings and dove straight into Snowball's arms, speaking softly: "Brother Snowball, are you feeling better?"

"I'm all better now! Seeing you makes everything better!" Snowball cupped the little bird chick A Ang in his palm and nuzzled it against his cheek, instantly healed by the soft, adorable fluffball!

"You're just talking nonsense, Snowball." A giant mountain rabbit with red eyes hopped over, sizing up the noticeably thinner Snowball.

Snowball hugged the little bird chick, nuzzling it left and right, unable to get enough. He replied in between: "Don't expose me, Tao Tu, hehe. When did you guys get back? Are you tired?"

Recently, the beastmen of the Mountain Water Tribe who were out on missions had been returning one after another to prepare for winter.

Looking at Tao Tu's Beast Form, Snowball couldn't help but sigh. He had been "scammed" by Tao Tu's small Beast Form when he was younger.

He had thought Tao Tu would remain a tiny "mini rabbit" even after growing up, one he could hold in his hand and pet. But instead, like Uncle An Tu, Tao Tu turned out to be a giant mountain rabbit.

Still, the feel was just as good. Snowball gave the mountain rabbit's head a good rub.

Meanwhile, Xiao Shu and Sha Hu said: "We've been back for a few days, but our fathers wouldn't let us come see you. They said to wait until you were better."

Snowball nodded. That was reasonable. A few days ago, he was still asleep. Even if they had come, he wouldn't have known, and they wouldn't have been able to talk. After he woke up, Shi Hu and Uncle Yun Lu were among the first to visit him.

Sha Hu continued: "You have no idea, the day our Salt Lake outpost team returned, the entire tribe came out!"

Sha Hu described that day as particularly grand, making Snowball regret that he had been unconscious and missed the spectacle.

That was the Mountain Water Tribe's first outpost capable of long-term salt supply. Everyone must have been incredibly excited! Naturally, all the beastmen who participated in the operation received a warm welcome from everyone!

What Snowball didn't know was that when he and Heavy Flame returned, the tribe was even more stirred up. However, both of them were injured and unconscious, so they saw nothing.

Later, Snowball needed to recuperate, so most beastmen who wanted to visit him had to follow the chiefs' instructions and not disturb him for the time being.

Upstairs, Snowball was happily chatting with his friends, while downstairs, the meeting attendees were all listening to Heavy Flame's opinions.

After Heavy Flame arrived, Ice Hill indeed no longer heard the sound of Gray Gray's wings. He nodded in satisfaction.

Heavy Flame pointed at the map on the table and said: "Snowball mentioned that if there's an urgent need to deliver a message, typically, after a Flying Horse gallops at high speed to the next relay station, it needs to be changed. This way, the beastman messenger can maintain a 'high-speed state'..."

What they needed to discuss was the distance at which horses should be changed, which determined the reasonable distance between relay stations.

Snowball and Heavy Flame had casually discussed this issue during their chats. Although Flying Horses could run for three days and three nights without rest, their speed would inevitably decrease.

Considering the need for Flying Horses to rest more and maintain a high-speed state, the distance a Flying Horse could cover at full gallop for half a day or a full day might be more appropriate.

Of course, this frequent changing of horses was only necessary in emergencies. Under normal circumstances, it wouldn't be so troublesome; one could simply bypass the relay stations along the way according to their needs.

Heavy Flame was already very familiar with the travel distances of Flying Horses. He provided Ice Hill and the others with some approximate distances and times he and Snowball had roughly measured during their journey for reference.

Unconsciously, it was almost dinnertime. Ice Hill planned to invite everyone to stay for dinner. As the young men headed toward the kitchen together, they ran into the returning Feng Yan and Rong Shan. Behind them were Hui Qiong and Zheng.

As soon as Hui Qiong entered, he couldn't wait. First, he pushed aside the blocking Feng Yan, then saw Ice Hill and Heavy Flame. Seeing these two young men safe and sound, he gave them a quick hug and then rushed upstairs:

"Little one—!"

The news of Snowball and Heavy Flame killing the evil beast had indeed shaken the entire Sun Moon Tribe!

The fact that the Priest of the Mountain Water Tribe and his Guardian had defeated an evil beast by themselves! Such explosive news had already spread throughout the Sun Moon Tribe and all its affiliated tribes. It was only a matter of time before it spread across the entire beast world.

So when Hui Qiong and Zheng passed through the Sun Moon Tribe, they immediately heard the beastmen passionately discussing the matter.

Although they knew the two were already safe, Hui Qiong still rushed back to the Mountain Water Tribe as fast as he could.

Hui Qiong barged in and immediately "bowled over" Sha Hu, who was blocking the bed. Xiao Shu and Tao Tu moved quickly and dodged out of the way.

Xue Tuan exclaimed joyfully, "Grandpa, you're back!"

Rushing over, Hui Qiong still knew to restrain himself. He didn't scoop Xue Tuan up into a tight hug, carefully avoiding his injuries.

"How are you feeling, little one? Are the injuries serious? They must be... look how pale your face is." Hui Qiong fretted, gently stroking Xue Tuan's cheek.

"I've been okay for ages now, Grandpa. Don't worry so much." Xue Tuan hugged his grandpa, patting his back to comfort him.

Xue Tuan stuck his tongue out playfully at the beast-man grandpa by the bed as a greeting, trying to signal without words that Grandpa always tends to overreact, but he really was much better now.

Zheng reached out and patted Xue Tuan's head, knowing he was being considerate and trying to reassure them. "Get plenty of rest," he said.

"Mm! I promise." Xue Tuan spent quite a while calming Grandpa Hui Qiong down, eventually using the excuse that he was hungry to lead everyone downstairs.

Meanwhile, downstairs, Zhong Yan froze up to the side upon seeing Feng Yan and Rong Shan.

Ever since he hadn't been able to keep his word to protect Xue Tuan, he felt deeply ashamed every time he met Xue Tuan's two fathers.

However, when Xue Tuan was still not fully conscious, he had repeatedly told his fathers that Zhong Yan shouldn't bear all the blame and had insisted they not hold it against him.

Under those circumstances, Feng Yan and Rong Shan naturally agreed readily, urging him not to get worked up and to focus on resting and recovering.

Now that Xue Tuan was gradually getting better, Feng Yan and Rong Shan had relaxed a lot. They also believed he'd learned his lesson and that Zhong Yan wouldn't let such a thing happen again.

Rong Shan walked over and patted Zhong Yan's shoulder to put him at ease. He smiled warmly and said, "Why don't you go with Bing Qiu and the others to the kitchen. See if there's anything you'd like to eat."

"Okay, thank you, Uncle Rong Shan." Zhong Yan said gratefully.

The arctic fox family had always been very kind to him, which made his failure to live up to Feng Yan and Rong Shan's trust weigh on him even more.

When Xue Tuan came downstairs with his little friends and grandpa, he saw a big, noisy crowd gathered in the living room.

Not long after, A Yu and Fei Xiao also dropped by. They knew A Ang had come to visit Xue Tuan, but since he hadn't returned by dinnertime, they came looking for him.

This worked out perfectly; everyone could have dinner together. They just needed two or three tables, as one definitely wouldn't be enough.

It had been quite a while since Xue Tuan and Zhong Yan went to the Dawn Dusk Tribe alone, and they really missed this kind of gathering atmosphere.

Xue Tuan could have just sat and waited for the meal, but he insisted on going to the kitchen to be where the action was—or really, to be where *Zhong Yan* was.

Everyone was busy with their own tasks, so no one paid him much attention. Xue Tuan took the opportunity to give Zhong Yan a little poke.

Xue Tuan whispered, "What are you washing?"

What Zhong Yan was washing was obvious at a glance. Xue Tuan's question was blatantly just making small talk.

No one makes pointless small talk with someone else without a reason—except out of boredom, or because they have a bit of a crush on them.

If there had been other adult beastmen nearby, they would've been hooting and hollering long ago.

Xue Tuan rose up on his toes and leaned close to Zhong Yan's ear. "I asked you a question. Why aren't you answering?"

Zhong Yan's ears were already burning red. He turned his face slightly and said softly to Xue Tuan, "See for yourself."

"Move aside. You're in the way." Bing Qiu suddenly came over from the side, interrupting their silly chatter.

As he spoke, Bing Qiu pushed Xue Tuan out of the kitchen.

"Psh." Xue Tuan decided not to argue with Bing Qiu and just scampered off to play with his furry friends.

Author's Note: Thanks for the paw prints [head pats].

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