All the animal slaves in the salt field were summoned. Shelin was hung upside down from a wooden stake with ropes, and Huqing, holding a whip dipped in salt water, lashed it repeatedly at Shelin's body. The sound of whipping through the air whistled past, and with each lash, flesh was torn open.
At first, Snake Forest howled in pain, but later it didn't even have the strength to cry out anymore.
As Shelin was about to lose consciousness and pass out, he vaguely saw a beastman's disordered steps. The beastman stopped in front of him and said to Hu Qing, "The captain's idea is that if we kill him in the dead of winter, there's nowhere to find a beast slave of this level to fill the vacancy. Let him live for now, and we'll talk about it after winter."
Upon hearing this, Shelin fainted immediately.
When he woke up again, he found himself in the wooden shed where he usually slept. His wounds were still bleeding, and the place where Snake Forest had been lying was covered in blood.
Not only does my body ache, but my stomach also hurts, purely from hunger.
"You're awake?" A frail, elderly voice rang out, and Snake Forest instantly became alert. The old orc plopped down in front of Snake Forest, sizing him up. "Although Tiger Green was ruthless, these injuries on your body will heal in a few days. You won't die, but they're extremely painful."
Snake Forest felt uncomfortable being stared at and asked in an unfriendly tone, "Who are you?"
"I sleep right across from you every day, don't you recognize me?" the old orc asked, puzzled.
Shelin shook his head. Every night when he came back, it was pitch black, and he was exhausted. Who had the energy to see who was sleeping around him?
The old orc didn't care whether Snake Forest knew him or not. He knew this man didn't want to talk to him and was about to leave when Snake Forest called out to him, "How much do you know about the saltworks?"
"You still want to escape?" the old orc asked in surprise.
Snake Forest felt his escape attempt had failed because he didn't know enough about the salt fields. If he had known more, he was sure he could have escaped successfully. He stared intently at the old orc and threatened in a low voice, "Old man, you'd better tell me everything you know, and don't even think about telling those orcs in Beast City about this."
The only reason I survived this time is because they thought my orc level was high and couldn't bear to see Nan Feng die like this. Even if you told them, I'd just get another beating, but as long as I'm alive, I'll definitely find a way to kill you.
The old orc was frightened by Snake Forest's gaze. How could this person look just like Tiger Green! Those eyes staring at you looked like they could devour you. The old orc steadied himself and took a deep breath. "I don't know much about the saltworks, I only know that the beast slaves here are all from the lowest-ranking slave houses."
"A place for lowly slaves?" Snake Forest thought of the place he had been sent to, and he didn't quite understand what this place was for. "What kind of place is this? And what does the name mean?"
Seeing that Snake Forest truly knew nothing about beast slaves, the old orc couldn't help but ask, "Aren't you an orc from an affiliated tribe of Beast City?"
Shelin shook his head. "Why are you asking this? What's your relationship with that lowly slave?"
"Just asking." The old orc didn't know much about the salt fields, but he knew everything about the lower-class slave wards. "The high priest of Beast City ranks the orcs according to their status. The orcs in the salt fields of Beast City all come from the lower-class slave wards. Besides the lower-class slave wards, there are also middle-class and high-class slave wards. The orcs in these three wards aren't called orcs, they're called beast slaves."
We, the lowest-ranking beast slaves, are the lowest class, doing the dirtiest, hardest, and most tiring work. Besides those who come to the salt fields to risk their lives, some are specifically there to serve the young masters. The higher-ranking beast slaves also clean up excrement and urine in various teams and fields. The lowest-ranking beast slaves only get one meal a day, which consists of wild vegetables and tree bark. Whether it's edible or not, it's all given to us.
If we can eat unfamiliar wild vegetables and tree bark without dying, then we're certain they're edible and non-poisonous before giving them to mid-level beast slaves. Mid-level beast slaves do hard labor for their young masters or high-level beastman warriors, while high-level beast slaves serve their young masters and high-level beastmen.
The old orc paused for a moment, then asked, "What's wrong? Why do you look like that?"
Snake Forest was stunned upon hearing this. What expression did he have? He only knew that when he heard about the High Priest of Beast City's actions, he regretted not knowing sooner. If he had known sooner, which of those tank tribes would have dared to betray their Salt Tribe? And how could the cannibal tribe and the Wood Tribe have dared to rebel against the Salt Tribe?
After the old orc's interruption, Snake Forest's expression returned to normal without him even noticing. He looked up and gestured, "Continue."
"Nothing else, but there is one more thing I know about the saltworks."
"What is it?" Shelin straightened up and asked.
The old orc sighed, "The saltworks were established by the high priest. Everything in the saltworks, big or small, is decided by the high priest. Without the high priest's word, no one can leave the saltworks alive."
“Impossible.” Snake Forest leaned back against the rock again. It wasn’t that he didn’t believe the old orc’s words, but that he didn’t want to believe them. Snake Forest suddenly stared straight at the old orc and said firmly, “I know the Ninth Young Master. He will rescue me as soon as he knows I’m here.”
"You know the Ninth Young Master?" The old orc was surprised to learn that Snake Forest knew the young master of Beast City. He quickly returned to his previous lifeless demeanor. "So what if you know him? You forgot what I just said. This place is directly under the High Priest's jurisdiction. Even if you were the Ninth Young Master, you wouldn't be able to leave the salt field without the High Priest's permission."
Snake Forest retorted, his voice more resolute and more flustered than before, "Impossible!"
Snake Forest's skeptical reaction spurred the old orc to prove his point. He snorted, "What's impossible? There was a Seventh Young Master who was sent here before. He arrived in winter, just like us. He had no animal skins to wear and was barefoot in the salt fields."
Tiger Green's whip had fallen on him many times, and the High Priest had come several times, but hadn't even glanced at him. It wasn't until the High Priest's visit at the beginning of spring that he was finally taken away by the High Priest after they had agreed to something.
Having said that, She Lin had lost even the last shred of hope. He was now certain that even if the Ninth Young Master knew he was here, there was no way to rescue him.
Moreover, he only helped the Ninth Young Master lead the orcs from Beast City to the Wood Tribe; he didn't actually know the Ninth Young Master.
Snake Forest slumped, clutching his hair, seemingly convinced he was truly going to die here.
Another gaunt orc entered the wooden shed, carrying a steaming earthenware bowl. His hands, stiff from the cold, began to feel warm again from the steam. The orc was reluctant to put down the bowl, but dared not disobey Captain Hu Qing's orders.
The orcs at the salt fields had no hot soup to drink; everything was cold, some even frozen solid, essentially like chewing ice. In winter, it was instinctive to be near a heat source, and when the old orc saw the hot soup, his eyes were glued to the earthenware bowl, and his hand reached out uncontrollably.
The orc delivering the soup dodged the old orc's outstretched hand towards the earthenware bowl. "This hot bark soup is what the captain asked me to give to the level seven beast slaves who were beaten today."
Knowing that it was Hu Qing who gave it to She Lin, the old orc quickly sat up straight and dared not move again.
Snake Forest probably guessed that the orc was afraid he wouldn't make it and would actually die, so he brought him a bowl of hot bark soup to warm him up. He didn't stand on ceremony, didn't even glance at the orc who brought the soup, endured the pain, straightened up, snatched the hot soup, and poured it directly into his mouth, not caring that it was scalding hot.
The old orc sitting opposite glanced at him, then turned his back and breathed on his hands to warm them up.
Snake Forest finished the bowl of hot soup in one gulp. He wiped his mouth, casually raised his hand, and handed the earthenware bowl back to the orc who had served the soup.
After taking the ceramic bowl, the other person called out uncertainly, "Snake Forest?"
Snake Forest was taken aback; nobody in the salt field knew his name. When he went to the lower-class slave quarters, no orc asked him his name. Now, even fewer people asked him.
Previously, Snake Forest thought the orcs of Beast City didn't care about his name, but after hearing the old orc talk about beast slaves today, he roughly understood that it wasn't that he forgot to ask his name before. Rather, the orcs of Beast City felt that beast slaves didn't deserve to have names, so they simply didn't ask.
When Shelin saw the totem on the orc's face, he was slightly surprised. "You're an orc from the Ze tribe?"
Chapter 110
Spring plowing
Ya Jiu knew he hadn't made a mistake; he really had encountered the Salt Tribe Chief in Beast City.
But how did he end up here?
“I am Ya Jiu, an orc from the Ze tribe.”
Shelin wasn't very interested in what his name was. He shared the same confusion as Ya Jiu, and even had a deeper confusion than Ya Jiu: Wasn't the Ze tribe wiped out by cannibals?
"I didn't expect that Wuming would leave someone alive. Your orc level isn't that high, how did you escape from him?"
Snake Forest's casual remark left Duck Nine speechless for a long time. His mind went blank for a moment, too afraid to delve into the meaning behind Snake Forest's words. Snake Forest was displeased that Duck Nine hadn't responded. He could tolerate the orcs of Beast City, but how dare the orcs of the Ze Tribe ignore him like that?
Ya Jiu sensed She Lin's displeasure; his fear of the Salt Department was ingrained in his bones. He instinctively lowered his head, completely forgetting that She Lin was now just like him, a beast slave of Beast City. Ya Jiu's lips trembled, whether from fear of knowing the answer or from the cold, "What do you mean by 'alive'? What do you mean by 'how did I escape from Wu Ming's hands'?"
Snake Forest paused for a moment, then quickly realized that Duck Nine was unaware of the Ze tribe's extermination. It seemed Duck Nine wasn't with the Ze tribe before their destruction. Yet, he saw them during the autumn salt trade. This meant the Ze tribe had sent Duck Nine out of the tribe during the winter.
For a tribe to send its hunting party of orcs out of the tribe during the winter, it must be a very important matter.
Could it be related to the cannibals suddenly wiping out the Ze tribe?
The matter of the cannibals and the Ze tribe was something that Shelin had never been able to understand. If this incident hadn't happened, the balance between their tribes wouldn't have been broken, and the Salt Tribe wouldn't have ended up being wiped out by the Wood Tribe and those tank tribes.
"Want to hear the details? Then you have to tell me why the Ze tribe let you leave the tribe in winter." Snake Forest directly proposed an information exchange, while Duck Nine seemed even more eager than him to know what was going on with the Ze tribe.
Sure enough, after a moment of silence, Ya Jiu said, "I can tell you, but you can't let a third person know."
Besides him and Duck Nine, the only other person in the wooden shed was the old beastman. The old beastman, who was listening intently, was suddenly kicked. Snake Forest propped himself up, gesturing for the old beastman to leave.
The old orc knew he was no match for the snake forest; he didn't even have the strength to push salt in the salt fields, and could only do menial tasks like emptying the captains' chamber pots and pans. Afraid of being beaten, the old orc quickly got up, left the wooden shed without lingering, and went to work.
After everyone left, Ya Jiu sat cross-legged on the ground and said to She Lin in a low voice, "We came out in winter because the tribe's divine blood was lost."
Shelin knew about the divine blood; he had almost been killed by the Wood Tribe orcs and survived only thanks to it. But wasn't that something only cannibals possess? How could a small tribe like the Ze Tribe know about it?
"The divine blood belongs to the cannibals. What does it have to do with your Ze tribe? You still dare to lie to me? Aren't you afraid I'll kill you?" She Lin's sinister and ruthless gaze coldly lingered on Ya Jiu.
There's no point in hiding anything now. The Ze tribe has been wiped out, and the fact that Shelin is here means something serious must have happened to the Yan tribe as well. Telling Shelin about the origin of the divine blood won't have much of an impact. Ya Jiu also knows that Shelin is not someone to be trifled with. If things aren't made clear today, even if something terrible happens to the Yan tribe, it won't stop Shelin from killing him.
Snake Forest learned everything about the Divine Blood from Duck Nine: "So, the priest sent us out to find the Divine Blood. Winter was bitterly cold, and two orcs froze to death on the way. We finally encountered a tribe willing to let us in, a tribe affiliated with Beast City. But after a hearty meal, they kidnapped us and sent us to Beast City to be lowly beast slaves. After arriving at the salt fields, most of the orcs who had set out with us to find the Divine Blood died—beaten to death, starved to death, frozen to death, exhausted to death…"
Thinking of the dead orcs and the suffering he had endured in the salt fields, Ya Jiu could no longer suppress the resentment in his heart and said bitterly, "If Ze hadn't run away, the Ze tribe wouldn't have been in this mess."
"Ze?" She Lin, who had been silent until now, couldn't help but ask again after hearing the name.
Ya Jiu replied, "Yes."
Somewhat puzzled by the snake's reaction, he asked, "Is there something wrong with this name?"
Snake Forest shook his head and replied, "It's nothing, it's just strange that orcs don't have surnames."
He seemed to be deep in thought. There was a very powerful orc warrior in the Wood Tribe named Ze. It was rare to have a name without a surname, let alone one that sounded exactly the same. Moreover, Ya Jiu said that the time when their tribe's divine blood escaped was when the cannibals came to their tribe to cause trouble for those two orcs from the Wood Tribe.
The Wood Tribe and the Ze Tribe aren't far apart. The Divine Blood was rescued by a Wood Tribe orc, and ultimately disappeared along with the Wood Tribe orc who brought him back. The two Wood Tribe orcs later reappeared safely in the Wood Tribe, so it's not impossible that the Divine Blood is still there.
Snake Forest, recalling that awakened orcs all had tribal totems on their faces, asked Duck Nine, "Didn't you check if any new orcs had appeared in the surrounding tribes? From what you're saying, that one isn't young and hasn't awakened yet. With a priest in the tribe, there probably isn't a single orc of that age who hasn't awakened. Since there are no totems on their faces, isn't it easy to identify them?"
Ya Jiu knew this perfectly well, and he said helplessly, "I checked, and only the Mu tribe has an extra beastman, but it's not Ze."
"How so?" Snake Forest asked, curious when he saw that Duck Nine was so certain.
After thinking for a moment, Ya Jiu began to gesture with his hands. He first placed his palm on his chest and said, "Choose someone who is thin and ugly."
Then he stood on tiptoe and raised his hands above his head, "That beastman from the Wood Tribe is bigger than Ze, this tall. And he's clean-cut and good-looking. The only one whose face is good-looking is the priest who suddenly appeared in the Wood Tribe."
Ya Jiu concluded with absolute certainty, "Therefore, this orc is definitely not of our divine blood."
Shelin glanced at Ya Jiu with a complicated expression, then stopped asking. He already had a guess in his mind, believing that the Ze tribe's Ze was the "divine blood" that had escaped from the Ze tribe. It wasn't normal for their physiques to be different; at that age, as long as the beastmen were well-fed, they would all grow taller. The beastmen of his Salt tribe were indeed better fed than those of other tribes, and therefore taller as well.
As for his ugly appearance, Snake Forest didn't think that an orc who had been locked in a cave and never bathed could be good-looking. Besides, it was normal that the "divine blood" had been locked in a dark cave for so long that his appearance was not clearly visible.
Snake Forest pondered the key to understanding, and the more he thought about it, the more convinced he became that the Wood Tribe's choice was the divine blood of the Ze Tribe. Thinking of the effects of the divine blood, Snake Forest shuddered. He suddenly realized that if he told the High Priest this, perhaps he wouldn't have to stay here anymore!
"Snake Forest, you still haven't told me what's going on with our Ze tribe?" Ya Jiu looked at Snake Forest nervously, waiting for an answer.
Snake Forest was so excited about his escape plan that he had no time to pay attention to Duck Nine. He was only thinking about how to see the High Priest. He casually replied, "The cannibals probably killed all the Ze tribe beastmen in a fit of anger because you lost your divine blood."
His suspicions were confirmed, and Ya Jiu was momentarily speechless, his head buzzing, followed by sobs. Overwhelmed with grief, Ya Jiu desperately wanted to cry out loud and release his inner turmoil. But he dared not; he constantly remembered that this was the saltworks of Beast City. He dared not make a sound louder than he was now.
Hearing Ya Jiu's cries, She Lin scoffed. Even with his vast Salt Tribe gone, he wasn't like this. Low-ranking orcs are just incapable of anything great; all they do is cry.
Now is not the time to worry about whether Ya Jiu cries or not; he needs to find a way to see the High Priest.
Should we tell the Ninth Young Master this news and have him go find the High Priest?
The moment the thought crossed his mind, Snake Forest immediately rejected it. Even if the beastman from Beast City who relayed the message hadn't taken it for himself and had told the Ninth Young Master every single word, he couldn't guarantee the Ninth Young Master wouldn't use his information to curry favor with the High Priest. But now, he couldn't even see the Ninth Young Master, let alone the High Priest. What use was such crucial information to save his life...?
etc……
Snake Forest suddenly remembered that when the old orc mentioned the Seventh Young Master, he seemed to have said that the High Priest had come to the salt fields many times, only releasing the Seventh Young Master in the spring. In other words, the High Priest would come to the salt fields himself without him having to go to great lengths to see him?
But what if the High Priest only comes to the salt field once or twice a year, or perhaps he never comes at all, and all those previous visits were only because of the Seventh Young Master? Should he just wait there like that?
Snake Forest remembered that Duck Nine had been at the salt field for some time, so he asked, "Does the High Priest of Beast City often come to the salt field?"
Duck Nine was still immersed in grief and didn't hear what Snake Forest was saying. Snake Forest felt irritated by the other's crying. He suddenly grabbed Duck Nine by the neck, his voice so sinister it sent chills down one's spine, "I'll ask you one more time, does the High Priest come to the salt field often?"
His neck was being gripped tightly, and Ya Jiu's face, which had been turning slightly purple from the cold, now flushed a deep purplish-red, looking quite frightening. He dug at the powerful, boulder-like hand of the snake forest, making a "hoarse" sound in his throat.
Snake Forest loosened his grip slightly, allowing Duck Nine to speak. Finally able to catch his breath, Duck Nine, after recovering somewhat, didn't dare delay and quickly said, "The High Priest comes more often in spring and summer, only once this autumn, and hasn't come this winter. I don't know if he'll come. I wasn't here last winter..."