After adapting to the ground, they became more stable and plowed the land faster than before.
The speed at which they turned the soil was much faster than when they were in human form. The other boys followed suit and transformed into human form to start working hard.
Make sure the priest is satisfied with the translation, leaving nothing behind.
The area was bustling with activity as people were turning over the soil. The guards, standing on the city wall, spotted a group of people approaching the Wood Tribe from afar.
The orcs guarding the city immediately gave orders to be on alert, with ballistae and catapults aimed at the front.
When the enemy entered the range of the crossbow, Yang Lei recognized Lu Shuang, who was leading the way.
Having heard from the priest that the Water Tribe would come to help them with work in the spring, Yang Lei quickly gestured, "It's the Water Tribe! Bring everything back!"
...
The city wall appears in the shape of a "凸" (convex) character when viewed from the front, and its height is still insufficient due to a lack of bricks. Even so, one can still glimpse the solemnity and grandeur it would have after its completion.
The city gate, crafted from giant trees, was incredibly heavy. It took two orcs with their full strength to push it open, and with a dull creak, the gate slowly swung open.
Yang Lei led the people of the Water Tribe to find their priest.
The Water Tribe followed behind Yang Lei. The ground beneath their feet was flat and free of snow, forming a smooth road.
All the snow was piled up on both sides, and every few steps you could see two large snowballs stacked on top of each other.
The snowball on top has two dark stones, while the snowball on the bottom has dry twigs stuck in its sides.
Although its shape is strange, it evokes an inexplicable fondness in people.
Lu Shuang found it really interesting and wanted to ask Yang Lei what the big snowball was, when she encountered a familiar figure.
The man was holding something he had never seen before, shoveling snow from both sides of the ground into a basket.
"Leopard Autumn, busy!"
Yang Lei waved from afar to greet Bao Qiu.
Upon hearing the sound, Bao Qiu stopped what he was doing and waved to Yang Lei, saying, "The priest said we need to shovel this snow quickly, otherwise it will melt into water and the ground will become uninhabitable."
He saw that Yang Lei was followed by a lot of people, whose clothes did not seem to belong to the Mu tribe.
In the Wood Tribe, it's no longer possible to see orcs dressed in such tattered clothes.
Who's the person behind?
“Oh, from the Water Tribe. The priest said they will come to the tribe in the spring, and I was just about to take them to see the priest.”
Yang Lei glanced behind Bao Qiu and saw only Lang Yu and Lu Chun; he didn't see the children from the Water Tribe who had come earlier. He asked, "Where are the children who were always following you around, wanting to build a snowman? Where are they?"
Upon hearing Yang Lei mention the children, the Water Tribe members all turned their attention to Bao Qiu.
After a winter, I spent all my time thinking about how to survive and had no time to think about anything else.
Now that I've survived, the thought of the children really makes me miss them.
Leopard Autumn shoveled a basket full of snow and pressed the surface flat with a wooden shovel. "Cat Grass took them to turn the soil."
Both of them had urgent matters to attend to, so they didn't chat any longer. Yang Lei led the group onward, and since the priest was also in the wasteland, the people from the Water Tribe could visit the children there.
After everyone left, Lang Yu lowered his head. Although spring had arrived, it was still cold.
He wore an animal skin on his head, with his ears sticking up on either side for ventilation.
“The kids living in our area said that the priest of the Water Tribe came during the winter and wanted the whole tribe to join the Wood Tribe, but the priest didn’t agree.”
Wolf Rain, leaning on his wooden shovel, asked, "Leopard Autumn, do you think their arrival means the priest has agreed to let their entire tribe join the Wood Tribe? Will the Water Tribe disappear from this place in the future?"
Leopard Autumn kept working and reminded Wolf Rain not to just stand around.
Wolf Rain immediately resumed shoveling snow, and Leopard Autumn replied, "The tribespeople are more beneficial to the tribe; these are not things we should worry about."
Wolf Rain wholeheartedly agreed. He shoveled a shovelful of snow into his basket. "Leopard Autumn, I remember you said you'd ask the priest about joining the hunting party when spring comes."
"I haven't forgotten, get to work."
...
When Yang Lei led his men to the wasteland, the land-turning work was already progressing smoothly.
Shen Nong was taken aback when he saw the Water Tribe people. He didn't expect them to arrive so early. But it was good, as he was worried that the Wood Tribe was short-handed.
Digging soil to make bricks, firing bricks to build walls, turning over soil to sow seeds, fishing to make clothes, firing pottery jars...
There were so many things to do that he couldn't possibly finish them all, but the timely arrival of the Water Tribe solved his immediate problem.
Many of the plowers had already made several trips back and forth, and the children following behind, holding the plow, happened to see people they recognized.
The children exclaimed and waved their hands, trying to get the attention of the Water Tribe members.
Several children saw their parents and tried to run over, but their parents just stood there, smiling at them, and did nothing else.
The priest's words of warning before their departure suddenly echoed in their ears: once they entered the Wood Tribe, they would have no further connection with the Water Tribe.
After their initial gasps, the children slowly withdrew their hands.
Several people who almost ran away were reminded by the children around them, and after thinking about it, they returned to their original positions and started working again.
They would not forget what the priest had said, and the Wood Tribe provided them with enough to eat and wear during the winter, ensuring they suffered no hardship.
Now their Wood Tribe priests need them to till the land properly; they can't afford to fail at such a small task.
The children picked up the plow again, paused briefly while turning the soil, and then started working again.
The old man holding the plow for the catnip looked at the young boy from the Water Tribe beside him and asked, "Aren't you going to take a look?"
Xiong Chuan shook his head. "The priest said we need to finish turning the ground quickly. We can't suddenly run away, or we'll slow down."
Hearing the conversation between the two, the cat grass in front, with a thick grass rope in its mouth, said somewhat unclearly, "Then let's hurry up and turn the land over sooner so you can go see your tribesmen sooner."
The old man chuckled and said, "Alright, then let's go even faster."
Xiong Chuan quickly shook his head and refused. He knew that this speed was already very fast for the old man, and if it went any faster, the old man would not be able to keep up.
Seeing Xiong Chuan's insistence, the two said no more and began to turn the soil with all their might.
After taking one last look at the children who had been sent away, the people of the Water Tribe followed Shen Nong and left for the large earthen house in the small square.
The members of the Shui tribe followed behind, discussing in hushed tones, all saying that from a distance, the children seemed to have gained quite a bit of weight.
There's no trace of the thin, skeletal figure they used to be. I doubt their parents would even recognize them if they stood right in front of them.
Looking at the priest of the Wood Tribe who was walking at the front, they were filled with gratitude.
If the Wood Tribe priest hadn't promised to take their children in during the winter, those children might not have even survived the winter.
Although they can't meet and talk, it's enough for them to know that their child is doing well.
Upon arriving at the earthen house, Shen Nong found several neatly shaved pieces of wood and placed them on the wooden table.
There was a small wooden box on the table. When opened, it contained several soft leaves, and beneath the leaves were charred wooden strips of roughly the same length.
Shen Nong skillfully wrapped one end of the wooden strip with the leaves covering it to prevent the part of her hand from being stained black by the carbonized wood.
"Come and register. Tell me your name, age, what your role is in the tribe, and your orc rank."
Shen Nong wrote the words "Water Tribe" at the top of the wooden board, and then wrote Lu Shuang's name, "Lu Shuang, you go first."
Writing? This is actually writing?
Lu Shuang didn't hear what Shen Nong said at all. When Shen Nong wrote the first character, his eyes widened in disbelief.
He didn't even dare to breathe, and he couldn't believe that he would see words again.
His people may not know, but as a priest, the old priest had written things for him.
【water】
The first character written by the priest of the Hemu tribe is exactly the same.
The old priest had told him that there was boundless wisdom in writing. Mastering writing was the lifelong pursuit of every priest.
However, the old priest had told him that, apart from the high priest of the Beast City, only the priest's son and the next priest candidate could learn to read.
The priests of the Wood Tribe can actually write!
The next priest of Beast City could not possibly be here. Could it be that the priest of the Wood Tribe is the son of the high priest of Beast City?
Shen Nong had no idea what Lu Shuang was thinking in that short time. He didn't get a response for a long time, and when he looked up, he found that the boy had been lost in thought for who knows how long.
Shen Nong waved in front of Lu Shuang and called her name, "Lu Shuang? Lu Shuang!"
Lu Shuang finally came to her senses and realized that the old priest was able to know this one word because the person from Beast City wrote it on the ground when no one was around, and the old priest accidentally saw it and remembered it.
However, the old priest never knew how to pronounce this word.
He dared not ask too many questions about the identity of the Wood Tribe priest, but he wanted to know how to pronounce that word.
Pointing to the words on the wooden board, Lu Shuang asked softly with a nervous heart, "Priest of the Wood Tribe, what is this word pronounced?"
Fearing the Wood Tribe priest might think he wanted to learn the written language, he quickly added, "The old priest of the Water Tribe once wrote this character for me. I was just asking out of curiosity; I didn't want to learn the written language."
Shen Nong found Lu Shuang's reaction strange. All she wanted to know was how to pronounce the words, so why did she have to explain so much to her?
It was as if he was afraid that he would misunderstand and think that he wanted to learn writing from here.
This character is pronounced shuǐ.
Lu Shuang silently imitated Shen Nong's tone and read it twice. Shen Nong listened to Lu Shuang read it with the second tone the first time and the fourth tone the second time, but she couldn't read it correctly even once.
Shen Nong couldn't help but emphasize again, "shuǐ, the syllable has a sense of turning."
This time, Lu Shuang finally read it correctly, and then remembered that Shen Nong seemed to have asked him a question earlier, "Priest of the Wood Tribe, what did you want me to do?"
Shen Nong sighed slightly, finally remembering the important matter, and repeated his question.
Lu Shuang lowered her eyes to look at the instep of her feet, preventing herself from seeing the words on the wooden board, and began to answer one by one, "Lu Shuang, seventeen autumns, Water Tribe Priest, no orc rank."
After finishing recording, Lu Shuang asked in confusion, "Priest of the Wood Tribe, why are you recording all this?"
Shen Nong didn't even look up, busy writing, "Everyone in the Wood Tribe has this kind of registration, which makes management easier. Of course, you also need to fill it out when you join the Wood Tribe."
Lu Shuang stared blankly at Shen Nong, thinking she had misheard.
Even after arriving at the Wood Tribe, Lu Shuang never dared to imagine that the Wood Tribe would allow the Water Tribe to join.
Because the Wood Tribe possessed many things he had never heard of before, and the Wood Tribe's priests were particularly powerful; they could heat up houses in winter, start fires with wood, and even make bowls that were more useful than stone bowls.
He can even write.