The straw rope was taut and positioned, and Yang Lei was placed against the straw rope, with layers of clay and bricks stacked on top of each other.
"The priest is really amazing. Not only can he turn soil into a jar, but he can also turn soil into stone."
Yang Dian carefully scraped off the excess clay with a piece of wood and smoothed the brick surface. "That's right. As long as the priest is here, our tribe will only get better and better."
Yang Lei glanced at Bao Qiu not far away, then leaned closer to Yang Dian and whispered, "During the beast tide, Hu Xiao and the others were bullied by Bao Qiu quite a bit. Why do you think the priest would form a blood pact with the Salt Tribe?"
Yang Dian kept his eyes straight ahead, his hands moving without stopping. "Regardless of his past, now that he's formed a blood pact with the priest, he's a member of the Wood Tribe. Besides, he's a level seven orc warrior. Which tribe would refuse a level seven orc warrior joining them?"
“You’re right.” Yang Lei returned to his position and began rebuilding the wall. “Once Bao Qiu recovers, I’m going to challenge him. Hu Xiao is too busy to fight me right now.”
Challenging each other is one of the few forms of entertainment for the orc tribes. In the past, the Wood Tribe was too hungry to fight, but now they are too busy to have time.
With a wooden plank between his legs and a square "stone" in his hand, Leopard Autumn was focused on building a wall for the tribe, completely unaware that he had been unilaterally booked for a challenge.
Since the Ze tribe's defeat and retreat, the Mu tribe has never encountered the Ze tribe's patrol team again when they went fishing in the river.
Shen Nong was a novice at fishing, but he became quite skilled with practice.
After learning how big the fish were in primitive societies, he showed no mercy when he attacked them.
Tiger Roar and his companions went into the water every day to catch fish, and because they soaked in the water for so long, they began to show signs of losing their fur.
Meanwhile, the quantity of fish skin thread, fish skin clothing, fish skin pants, fish skin shoes, and cured fish meat in the tribe is gradually increasing.
The elderly people sewed tirelessly every day, and several bone needles broke.
Shen Nong specifically designated several earthen houses as tribal warehouses, which were filled with winter supplies.
Salt, fish skin clothing, tanned animal hides, cured meat, jam, dried fruit—everything was available.
Shen Nong led the hunting team back from the riverbank, and it was another great harvest.
We can make at least fifty more sets of fish skin clothing.
When the fish had been mostly processed, Tu Dong led the gathering team back to the tribe.
As usual, Tu Dong presented the herbs she had collected to Shen Nong for inspection.
The various herbs in the basket were dumped onto the ground, and Shen Nong squatted down to examine them. Suddenly, he was attracted by a red shadow. He parted a few Isatis root plants and dug out the red shadow that was stuck inside.
After seeing it clearly, Shen Nong couldn't contain his joy. Holding up the slender chili pepper in his hand, he asked Tu Dong, "Where did you find this?"
Tu Dong, who was tidying up herbs, glanced at what Shen Nong was holding. "This is a Hot Fruit. In the past, when there were no animal hides to wear in winter, the gathering teams would collect a lot of Hot Fruits in advance and store them. Eating it would make your body warm up and sweat."
"I originally planned to pick some hot fruits today, but I didn't because I thought there were plenty of animal hides in the tribe."
It turns out that chili peppers are called "hot hot fruit" here, which is quite an accurate description.
With another ingredient added, Shen Nong was delighted. "Tomorrow, the gathering team will go out and collect more hot fruits."
Rabbit Winter hesitated for a moment and said, "Priest, would you like to eat hot fruit? Although it will warm your body, it will hurt your mouth. Eating too much will also cause stomach pain, which is very uncomfortable."
Shen Nong held the millet pepper in her palm. "It's not for eating raw; it's for cooking. Don't worry, it won't give you a stomachache, and it will taste delicious."
Rabbit Winter secretly swallowed, thinking of how the priest could always make awful food taste delicious, and said with anticipation, "I will definitely pick more hot fruits tomorrow!"
After Tu Dong left, Bao Qiu strolled over, leaning on his cane.
This walking stick was made by Shen Nong on a whim, who drew a mortise and tenon structure on a piece of wood with a charred twig and asked Hu Xiao to make it on the spur of the moment.
Surprisingly, it's quite sturdy. It's been walking around with Leopard Autumn supporting it these past few days and it hasn't broken down.
"Priest, there are only ten days left until the cannibals' autumn trading day. When should we go to the Salt Tribe to rescue Wolf Rain and the others?"
Shen Nong sighed slightly. Bao Qiu had been repeating the same sentence to him every single day for the past few days.
The only difference is the timing of the cannibalistic autumn trading day.
Shen Nong never intended to go to the Salt Department to rescue people; even a starved camel is bigger than a horse.
The Salt Tribe has more than three times as many level six or higher orcs as the Wood Tribe. If he leads his men to the Salt Tribe, it's like sending them to their deaths.
"Skip the salt department and go straight to the cannibal tribe."
Upon hearing this, Leopard Autumn exclaimed in alarm, "Priests cannot trespass on cannibal territory! The blood of cannibal priests will suppress orcs from transforming!"
For Bao Qiu, if an orc's bloodline is suppressed in battle and they cannot transform into human form, then they are doomed to die.
Not just Leopard Autumn, all the beastmen thought so.
Shen Nong disagreed with this, saying that the other tribes were less afraid of cannibals and more afraid of the bloodline suppression of the cannibal priests.
He never intended to fight in beast form anyway, so what was he afraid of?
The tribe's catapults and ballistae were not just for show.
Moreover, Hu Xiao and his group have been training at the waterfall after fishing recently.
The warehouse was completely filled today, and they practiced all day long afterwards.
He practiced the deadly techniques he learned from the interstellar army.
Even though he had trained with the military for two months in interstellar space, he was still no match for the interstellar police.
But this is a primitive society, and the orcs have never been exposed to any skillful combat, and they are also incredibly strong.
The combination of skill and absolute physical prowess across centuries might be too much for a transformed orc warrior to handle.
But against cannibals who only rely on brute force, it's not necessarily a bad thing to lose.
Leopard Autumn was unaware of these things, and because of the blood pact, he had to be absolutely loyal and obedient to Shen Nong.
The other members of the Wood Tribe lived their lives in high spirits, and would often make jam to soak in water and drink.
Only Bao Qiu was gloomy and dejected all day long.
Until autumn arrived, on the day the tribe held the orc awakening ceremony, the dark clouds above Leopard Autumn's head suddenly thinned out considerably.
Chapter 24 Transformation
Priest, open your eyes.
The gathering team brought back all the hot fruits they could find outside to the tribe.
Shen Nong made most of it into chili sauce, and everyone came to get a jar to eat during the winter.
Fish heads have found a new home: chopped chili fish head.
The air above the Mu tribe is filled with the aroma of spicy food every day, along with the occasional hissing sounds of the tribespeople as they are burned by the chili peppers.
"Haha, Catgrass, your lips are so red from the heat of the hot fruit! They're so red!"
“The priest said this is called chili!” Catgrass said, scooping out another spoonful of chili sauce with a ceramic spoon and putting it into the broth.
He hissed and gasped, letting the cool air lower the temperature inside his mouth. "So what if my lips are red? You guys can put some good chili sauce in the broth too, make it spicy enough!"
Rabbit Flower shook her head repeatedly, "You only remember the priest saying that the hot fruit has a new name, but why don't you remember the priest saying that you can't eat too much of it?"
Catgrass swallowed a mouthful of spicy soup and hissed, "You...hiss...you think I don't want to stop? But I...hiss...once I take a bite, I...hiss and I can't stop."
Tiger Mountain patted Rabbit Flower on the shoulder, "He always loved eating hot fruit, let's not talk about him anymore, let's go help the guards build the wall."
Autumn arrived quietly, and apart from the hunting teams that trained extensively every day and the people who made ballistae and catapults, everyone else had to help build walls and fire brick kilns.
Through the tireless efforts of the tribespeople, a sturdy and high wall rose from the ground, enclosing the Mu tribe within.
The city wall was not completely finished; it still needed to be raised and thickened.
Shen Nong had sorted through the fish skin clothing and animal hides, enough to keep everyone in the tribe warm.
He had learned about the winter temperatures in the Beast World from the system, and with these warm clothes on, he could definitely go outdoors.
Therefore, Shen Nong was no longer in a hurry to build the city wall. His priority now was the orc awakening ceremony of the Wood Tribe.
The central area of the tribe is a circular plaza paved with red bricks, which covers a large area and can accommodate even a large black dog.
There was a wooden platform more than a meter high in the square. Shen Nong stood on the platform and looked down at the tribespeople.
Today is the awakening ceremony for the orcs of the Wood Tribe. Shen Nong followed the instructions of the system and made the orcs who had not yet awakened stand within two meters of him.
Catgrass stood tall and proud below the platform, her gaze fixed intently on the priest above.
He is about to awaken.
This realization made Catgrass's blood boil, and he longed to go hunting every time he saw the hunting team members go out to hunt.
Awakening to become a beastman was what he had always wanted to do most.
Last fall, Catgrass thought he would never awaken in his lifetime.
Who would have thought that he is now standing beneath the platform of awakening, waiting for the priest to awaken him?
Shen Nong used her supernatural ability, and vines spread from all directions.
He used vines as a medium to coat them with supernatural energy.
The leaves shimmered with tiny, eerie green specks, like fireflies.
As Shen Nong covered more and more supernatural abilities, the fluorescent light became increasingly dense.
With a light tap of his slender fingertips in the air, the fireflies seemed to come alive, detaching from the leaves and drifting towards the unawakened members of his clan.
The fluorescent light slowly seeped into the body, and a powerful, revitalizing force flowed through it like a stream.
Catgrass felt that powerful force increasing, to the point that he could hardly bear it.
Despite enduring it for a long time, I finally fell to the ground.
Since Catnip fell, more and more members of the clan have fallen one after another.
They huddled on the red bricks, clutching their heads in pain.
Upon seeing this, Shen Nong amplified her supernatural abilities.
The system said that his special ability would continue until everyone had successfully transformed into human form.
Otherwise, the orcs will fail to awaken.
Due to the significant depletion of her supernatural energy, Shen Nong's complexion began to fade, and she appeared to be struggling slightly.
The energy required for nearly twenty unawakened orcs is considerable.
Ze frowned, enduring the excruciating pain of his blood surging through his body. His gaze, however, was fixed on Shen Nong, constantly monitoring her condition.