Bao Qiu wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth and waved his hand, saying, "I'm fine."
Lang Yu frowned and looked into the cave. "Is the clan leader inside?"
"Um."
Wolf Rain reached out, trying to help Leopard Autumn to his feet.
Leopard Autumn grabbed the other person's hand, stood up with the momentum, and turned to leave, ignoring the dust on his body.
Wolf Rain sighed as he looked at the cave in Python Mountain, then caught up with Leopard Autumn.
Seeing Leopard Autumn's serious expression and the deep ridge between his brows, Wolf Rain said helplessly, "Although Python Mountain is the chieftain's younger brother, what orc warrior goes out without encountering danger..."
"Stop talking."
Leopard Autumn stopped Wolf Rain from speaking further and asked him in return, "What do you want from me?"
Lang Yu pursed his lips and swallowed the words he was about to say.
He told Leopard Autumn about how the priest had been tricked by the Wood Tribe and exchanged a bunch of useless "stone jars" for a lot of salt stones from the Salt Tribe.
"I'm looking for you because I want you to come with me to the Wood Tribe and retrieve the Salt Tribe's salt."
Leopard Autumn clutched his chest, which was still slightly aching. The clan leader had really put a lot of force into that kick.
Because he ordered Mangshan to attack the Mu tribe, Mangshan is now lying in a cave waiting to die.
Leopard Autumn knew the clan leader was blaming him...
Python Mountain was injured during the duel; in orc duels, life and death are determined by fate.
The entire Salt Tribe cannot do anything to the Wood Tribe, otherwise they will be hated by the Beast God and despised by the warriors.
If he could help the Salt Tribe recover the salt stones that the Wood Tribe had tricked them out of, perhaps the tribal chief wouldn't be so angry.
Wolf Rain, still rambling on before Leopard Autumn could reply, said, "Leopard Autumn, I think the priest is getting old."
Lang Yu thought for a while and finally said, "Not as wise as before."
Otherwise, how could the Wood Tribe have been tricked into giving away so much salt?
Leopard Autumn didn't reply to Wolf Rain's words, but strode forward, "Call our hunting team and let's go out together."
Wolf Rain's eyes lit up; at first, he only wanted Leopard Autumn to go with him.
He knew he couldn't defeat the giant beast alone, but he never expected that Leopard Autumn would bring their hunting team along.
We'll definitely beat the Wood Tribe to a pulp!
"I'll go get them right now!"
The hunting party quickly assembled, consisting of twenty people under Leopard Autumn's command.
Ma Cao watched until the hunting party disappeared from sight before reporting to the old priest.
"Priest! Leopard Autumn and Wolf Rain have led the hunting team out!"
"You don't need to keep an eye on things anymore, you can go down now."
After everyone left, the old priest took out an animal skin.
On the animal hide was a drawing by Shen Nong depicting the process of making pottery jars, made of green grass. The old priest stared at the drawing and snorted coldly.
It wasn't him who ordered people to chase after them; the Wood Tribe itself was incapable of protecting the salt rock, so even the Beast God couldn't blame him.
——
Leopard Autumn knew that the Wood Tribe had a giant beast, so he dared not be careless.
Throughout the journey, I kept reminding them to keep their whereabouts hidden and not to let the people of the Wood Tribe notice them.
After turning his head for the third time, Hu Xiao said to Shen Nong, "Priest, someone is following us."
Shen Nong had already sensed this, "I knew the Salt Ministry wouldn't let us go so easily."
Hu Xiao asked, "So what do we do now?"
Shen Nong's beautiful eyes gleamed with an unusual light; this was something the Salt Department had offered to them themselves.
"Be careful to protect yourself when you fight later. If they try to take the salt, just give it to them."
Tiger Roar asked, puzzled, "Huh? Give it to them? Then we won't have any salt to eat in the winter?"
Shen Nong used a vine to tap Hu Xiao on the head, quite disappointed in him, "Priest, when have I ever made the tribe suffer a loss? Just do as I say."
As the Wood Tribe reached the edge of a large river, a huge, fast leopard suddenly emerged from the jungle behind them.
Tiger Roar reacted extremely quickly, transforming into human form to stop the leopard.
As the two beasts balanced each other, more and more orc warriors rushed out of the jungle.
Shen Nong was shielded behind Ze, watching familiar faces, without even a chance to make a move.
The black bear ran forward carrying a pile of salt stones, drawing away the main firepower of the Salt Tribe orc warriors.
The giant wolf's sharp teeth had barely touched the black bear's fur when the bear howled and scattered salt stones all over the ground.
The giant wolf was taken aback. Were its teeth really that powerful now?
Before the giant wolf could think further, a huge rock of salt fell from the sky.
If you get hit by that, you're guaranteed to get a bloody head wound.
The giant wolf nimbly dodged the rain of salt and stones, but it kept getting hit.
If he could focus on looking up, it wouldn't be hard to see that the black bear was deliberately throwing salt stones at the giant wolf's head.
They even specifically chose to smash the biggest ones.
Rabbit Wind pretended to be frightened and ran away, dropping salt stones as he jumped.
A giant deer from the Salt Department was hot on its heels, which it had initially intended to use for an attack. Now, however, it was stuck with a pile of salt stones, all of which it had picked up while following Rabbit Wind.
As he picked them up, he inwardly mocked the Wood Tribe for being a cowardly bunch of beastmen.
After the Wood Tribe worked hard to help the Salt Tribe deliver all the salt stones, Leopard Autumn did not linger in the battle.
He led his hunting party, laden with salt stones, back home.
After all the people from the Salt Department left, Shen Nong began to educate the black bear.
"Your acting is terrible. What are you yelling for before they even start biting you? What if you give yourself away?"
The black bear roared in rebuttal to Shen Nong.
It's afraid of pain!
Shen Nong couldn't understand what the black bear's cries meant, but it didn't matter anyway.
That didn't stop him from training the black bear. "You're still howling! If that wolf from the Salt Department weren't so stupid, you would have given yourself away long ago!"
...
Lu Ye chuckled as he held the salt stone, "Those cowards from the Wood Tribe, they're already running around in panic before we've even put up a fight."
Wolf Rain scoffed, "That giant beast, I thought it was something special. But like the Wood Tribe, it's utterly useless. I bit it so hard it couldn't even hold onto the salt stone."
"Hahaha, that's right. The Wood Tribe is useless, and the giant beasts that are with them are just as useless."
Listening to the discussions among his tribesmen, Leopard Autumn felt that something was off; things were going too smoothly.
This is completely different from the Wood Tribe we encountered during the beast tide.
However, the salt is now in their hands, so perhaps he was just overthinking it.
When Leopard Autumn led the hunting party out, many people from the Salt Department saw it.
When they returned carrying a large pile of salt rocks, they attracted a crowd of onlookers. "Why are you carrying so many salt rocks back?"
Wolf Rain said excitedly, "These are all salt stones that were tricked out of by the Wood Tribe, and Leopard Autumn led us to take them all back."
The giant black bear brought by the Wood Tribe was well-known to the Salt Tribe, and they all saw that when the tribe left, they carried away a lot of salt stones.
That much salt is enough for their salt department to eat for an entire winter.
Before the people of the Salt Department could even rejoice, the guards from the Salt Mountain came rushing over in a panic.
As they passed Bao Qiu, Bao Qiu stopped them, asking, "What happened?"
The guards were terrified, their faces pale as they stared at the salt stones they were holding, their lips trembling, "The salt...the salt mountain...is gone..."
Chapter 14 Picking Fruit
persimmons, oranges, apples, pears
"Priest, something terrible has happened!"
The old priest carefully put away the animal hide and said angrily, "What are you shouting for?"
"Salt...Salt Mountain..."
Upon hearing the words "Salt Mountain," the old priest sensed something was wrong and quickly asked, "What happened to Salt Mountain?"
"More than half of the salt mountain has suddenly disappeared!"
"What!"
The old priest, staff in hand, rose abruptly, his thin, hunched body bursting with power as he swiftly raced towards the salt mountain.
When we arrived at Yanshan, the once seemingly endless Yanshan had been hollowed out at the back, and we could now see its end.
"What on earth is going on?!"
The old priest was furious, pounding his cane on the ground with a loud thud.
"priest."
When Leopard Autumn led the hunting team to the scene, they saw that more than half of the salt mountain was gone, and their expressions were filled with horror.
When the old priest saw the salt stones that Leopard Autumn and the others were carrying, his head buzzed.
His ability to think was limited; his mind was filled with "Beast God's Punishment."
The old priest pointed tremblingly at the salt stones the hunting party was carrying, "These salt stones, you stole them from the Wood Tribe?"