Building a Civilization and Raising Cubs in the Beast World – CH182

Chapter 182

Of course, Bai Tu wasn’t going to let Ying Quan bring merpeople over again—what he needed was sea fish.

The last time Ying Quan arrived with a group of merpeople, it had caused quite a commotion. Bai Tu didn’t want a repeat of that, so this time, he only needed them to bring edible fish.

However, this time was different from before.

Previously, they had only brought a small number of fish, so they had simply transported them in containers filled with seawater. But now, that wasn’t practical.

The merpeople had been raising fish for over half a year—obviously, the quantity was much larger now. There was no way to transport so many live fish, so Bai Tu decided they would only transport the fish, without the seawater.

After being caught at the shore, the fish would be laid out on ice and frozen into dried fish before being transported back. Although the texture would be slightly different, this was the most efficient method.

Since a large amount of food needed to be sent, a larger winged tribe team was also needed for the journey.

The Eagle Tribe, the Vulture Tribe, and the Crane Tribe (which was still in its evaluation period) were all assigned the same task—transport food to the coast and exchange it for coastal specialties.

The winged tribes would have to make two to three trips to transport all the food and bring back their traded goods.

Unlike other tribes, Bai Tu’s tribe didn’t need salt—what they needed was fish. Their current food sources were still too limited, so Bai Tu hoped to establish long-term trade partnerships with these tribes in the future.

Of course, not all the food they traded for would be sent away—only half would go to the coast, while Bai Tu would process the remaining half with the tribe.

By now, everyone in the tribe was skilled at processing food.

However, this time Bai Tu wanted to take the food processing a step further—enhancing the existing methods used by other tribes.

Most of the food they received was large chunks of meat— Some had been partially roasted, some were simply air-dried, and some were wind-cured.

Since these meats were intended for trading salt, the tribes had offered their best-quality products. At the very least, none of them smelled bad.

Bai Tu shaved off the outer layers with a knife, washed the meat thoroughly, then sliced it thin and stir-fried it with chili peppers using freshly pressed soybean oil from the tribe.

This method improved the flavor compared to simply boiling or steaming.

The only downside was salt was too expensive, so many beastmen used as little as possible—resulting in slightly under-seasoned cured meat.

However, Bai Tu had already informed the beastmen that next year, they could use more salt and also taught them some new drying techniques.

If the final products tasted better, they could trade for even more salt.

After all, a single basket of processed meat was worth twice as much as regular meat.

For beastmen with limited prey, this price difference could offset their food shortages and allow them to trade for the salt they needed.

Most of the food was stir-fried for eating, while stewing and soups were still better made with their own fresh meat.

After handing Tu Mu a few new recipe ideas, Bai Tu returned to sorting through the financial records.

Although this was the first year of the trading market, thanks to the Black Eagle Tribe’s promotion, the number of visiting tribes wasn’t small.

Most were small tribes or ones that already had prior connections, but many transactions had taken place.

Bai Tu needed to calculate all the tribe’s investments and earnings from the market.

Profitability wasn’t the main concern—what mattered was not losing money.

The 1% transaction fee seemed low, but over time, it added up significantly.

And it wasn’t just meat transactions that were taxed—stall rentals, woven goods, fruits, medicinal herbs, and various other materials all contributed to the revenue.

Since there were so many records, and some entries were incorrectly logged or duplicated, Bai Tu spent several days carefully organizing all the financial details.

After deducting the costs of food traded out, wages for tribe members, and supplies provided to other tribes, the final remaining balance was over 200 baskets of meat.

If converted to market credits, this was equivalent to 20,000 credits.

In the tribe’s economy:

1 credit = 1 pound of meat

1 beastman earned about 10 credits per workday (excluding meals).

If food costs weren’t deducted, some beastmen might even go hungry trying to save credits.

This 20,000-credit profit was purely from the trading market alone.

Additionally, since the market was located near their own tribe, they had easier access to trade opportunities, allowing them to exchange more salt and other supplies than the other tribes.

Especially salt.

Although their tribe still had a large reserve, most of the salt accumulated over the last two months had already been traded away.

At first, Bai Tu worried that their market might impact the Salt Tribe’s business, but in the end, he realized his concerns were unnecessary.

Most of the visiting tribes were from distant areas, where salt had always been scarce.

In past years, they barely had enough salt to eat, but thanks to last year’s trade with Bai An, they had finally obtained enough salt to start using it in their dried meats.

Without that, they still wouldn’t have used any.

The impact on the salt trade wasn’t significant, especially since the winged tribes had just delivered another batch of meat to the coastal salt-trading tribes, ensuring they wouldn’t run out of food.

By adding an extra step to the trade process, all the tribes benefited.

But what made Bai Tu happiest wasn’t the amount of food they had left—it was the seeds he had traded for from various tribes.

Some of these were crops that might not even be suitable for planting, but Bai Tu still encouraged the tribes to grow more, telling them he would continue collecting them.

The Beast God Continent had far more plant species than Bai Tu had ever known. Many plants were unfamiliar to him, so he frequently consulted the sub-beastmen for identification.

Edible plants were set aside for planting after winter. Unpalatable ones were examined to see if they had other uses. If a plant proved medicinal, it was stored in the tribal pharmacy. If it was useless, they discarded it.

Bai Tu wanted to maximize the potential of every plant species.

By the time the heavy snows of winter arrived, Bai Tu had already finished organizing the tribe’s accounts.

He concluded that the trading market could reopen before next year’s rainy season.

In preparation, he had stockpiled salt and non-perishable food for the upcoming monthly barter event with other tribes.

Initially, Bai Tu wanted to keep the market open year-round, but after careful consideration, he realized this wasn’t feasible.

The distances between tribes were too great—even the closest tribes took one or two days to travel to their market.

Winter travel was difficult, so few beastmen left their tribes. Rainy season made travel impossible. Other seasons allowed movement, but danger increased.

As a result, aside from the two annual trading markets, most tribes rarely ventured out to trade.

Keeping the market open continuously would lead to wasted labor and spoilage of goods. Instead, Bai Tu decided to open it once a month, which would: Reduce manpower costs, prevent food from spoiling and allow nearby tribes to trade regularly.

After experiencing the first major snowfall of winter, Bai Tu became even more convinced of this plan.

Around ten smaller tribes, totaling over 200 people, arrived to trade salt and borrow food.

The number of tribes was high, but each tribe’s population was small—some had only 30 to 40 people, and the largest barely reached 100.

Bai Tu asked why they had come together, and that’s when he learned what had happened.

These tribes had traveled to the trading market as a group, but ran into trouble on the way and got lost.

Since their homes were in remote areas, their populations were naturally smaller. These small tribes typically traveled together when trading for salt—making one trip to stock up for one or two years, then returning when they had run out again.

Because they traded so infrequently, they weren’t well-informed about current events.

After saving enough food post-rainy season, they finally set out for the market.

On their journey, they encountered a group of beastmen claiming to be from the Black Forest Tribe.

These strangers offered to lead them to Black Forest Tribe, promising that anyone willing to work hard could bring their families to live there.

It sounded like a great opportunity—so the tribesmen, who hadn’t been to the market in two years, naively believed them.

However, after working in this so-called “Black Forest Tribe” for a few days, they realized something was wrong.

“This can’t be the Black Forest Tribe!”

The entire settlement was tiny, with a population even smaller than theirs.

Their food supply was barely different from what the tribes had back home.

The group was shocked—was this really the legendary Black Forest Tribe?

Then, the Black Forest Tribe members tried to take their food.

The tribes had agreed to go with them because they expected better living conditions, more food, and a larger territory.

They had even planned to work hard for a few extra days to trade for more food or salt to bring back to their own tribes.

But now, not only did the Black Forest Tribe refuse to give them food or salt—they even tried to take their food away!

Realizing they had been tricked, the beastmen waited until nightfall to escape.

Even though beastmen could see at night, that particular evening was cloudy, and the moon wasn’t visible.

With pitch-black darkness surrounding them, they fled blindly—having no idea where they were running.

It wasn’t until they encountered beastmen returning from the Northern Continent that they realized they had been running in the wrong direction.

At the same time, they received even worse news—”The trading market is already over.”

Their food supply was dwindling, and they were far from both the trading market and their own tribes. A deep sense of despair settled over them.

Just then, the beastmen who had given them directions suggested an idea—they should seek out the Hundred Beasts Tribe and borrow some food, with a promise to repay it in two years.

Upon hearing that the Hundred Beasts Tribe was willing to lend food, they rushed there immediately.

After wandering for over a month, their fur clothing had become filthy, and many of them were barely covered below the waist.

When Bai Tu saw them, he immediately ordered the warehouse to send over some fur—the temperatures were too low, and without proper clothing, they would surely fall ill.

As the newly arrived beastmen put on the furs, an elder chief stepped forward to explain why their clothing had become so tattered:

“We encountered wild beasts on the way.”

Wild beasts were different from beastmen—they had no intelligence and lived in an endless cycle of eating, sleeping, hunting, and eating again.

Since they didn’t think much, they were highly territorial, attacking any intruders who stepped into their domain.

To reach the Hundred Beasts Tribe, the lost beastmen had no choice but to pass through such a territory.

They couldn’t stay put forever, so they came up with a plan—

They tied animal hides to wooden sticks and threw them in different directions, mimicking prey to distract the beasts.

The wild animals took the bait, but in the process, the travelers lost a lot of their furs.

They hadn’t brought any extra, assuming they would have already returned home by now—yet here they were, still stranded.

If they couldn’t trade for salt and food in the Hundred Beasts Tribe, their own tribes wouldn’t survive the winter.

After listening to the entire story, Bai Tu agreed to lend them food, under the same condition as before—they had to sign a loan agreement.

He brought out the loan documents, and a few 14- to 15-year-old cubs came over to teach them how to write the agreement.

At that moment, the beastmen suddenly paused as if something had just occurred to them.

“Is something wrong?” Bai Tu asked.

A thin, frail beastman hesitated before replying:

“No… it’s just that… our tribe… doesn’t have any cubs.”

Before they arrived, they had heard a rumor—to borrow food from the Hundred Beasts Tribe, they would have to offer a few cubs as collateral.

Once they had saved enough food, they could return and reclaim their cubs.

To convince them, the people spreading the rumor repeatedly assured them that the cubs in the Hundred Beasts Tribe were well cared for.

They had even shown off cubs who had been returned to their tribes, appearing healthy and well-fed.

Naturally, the group believed it.

After all, they had been naive enough to be tricked by the fake Black Forest Tribe—so this wasn’t hard to believe either.

Seeing how chubby and well-fed the other cubs were, they thought borrowing food sounded like a great idea.

But in their excitement over Bai Tu’s approval, they had forgotten one crucial detail— They had no cubs to offer.

Without cubs, they couldn’t trade for food—and without food, they couldn’t sign the loan agreement.

The others stopped writing for the same reason.

Some did have cubs, but they were still back in their tribes, and they had brought nothing with them.

Now, everyone turned to Bai Tu, waiting for his response.

Bai Tu was silent for a long time before finally finding his voice again.

These people were too honest.

If they had been a little more cunning, they would have signed the agreement first—whether they had cubs or not wouldn’t have mattered at that moment.

But instead, these tribal chiefs had chosen to tell the truth.

Bai Tu sighed and explained patiently:

“The food we lend is given freely—it is not exchanged for cubs. The cubs in our tribe belong to other tribes, and they are only here temporarily.”

Then, he repeated the three conditions for borrowing food: The tribe must not have actively attacked others in the past; The tribe must genuinely lack enough food; The debt must be repaid within two years.

“As long as you meet these three conditions, you can take the food back to your tribe. Just return it within two years.”

“Cubs can be sent here for temporary care, but it is entirely optional. If you want to send them, you can. If you don’t, that’s fine too.”

For those who had no cubs, Bai Tu didn’t say anything further—but his meaning was already very clear.

The group of tribal chiefs exchanged glances—did this mean that as long as they signed the loan agreements, they could take food and salt back to their tribes?

The elder chief who had spoken earlier turned to Bai Tu and asked if that was really the case.

Bai Tu nodded. “Yes. Once you sign these agreements, the Hundred Beasts Tribe will provide you with food. When you return to your tribes, eat well, rest well, and after spring arrives, focus on planting crops.”

After Bai Tu repeated this several times, the chiefs finally realized they hadn’t misheard—this was actually happening.

Even as they left with their food, heading back to their tribes, they still felt dazed and disbelieving.

“Did we really borrow food this easily?”

This was completely different from what they had expected.

As the group traveled through the snow, Bai Tu stayed behind, discussing another matter with Lang Qi and Bai Chen.

Someone was impersonating the Black Forest Tribe—this was unacceptable.

Tribes that frequently traded and traveled knew what had happened in the past two years, so they wouldn’t be fooled.

But these impostors were smart—they targeted isolated tribes that rarely left their homes.

If this wasn’t dealt with, more beastmen would fall victim to their deception.

Fortunately, the beastmen who had escaped had been careful—they had believed the impostors but never handed over their food.

Now, the priority was to track down these impostors and put an end to their scheme.

“Are you sure these people are actually from Black Forest Tribe?” Bai Chen asked.

Most of the Black Forest beastmen had already been captured, and the rest were working in other tribes to atone for their crimes.

Had some of them escaped from those tribes?

“No, it’s impossible.” Bai Tu shook his head firmly.

The people who had taken in Black Forest beastmen were all former victims of their cruelty.

They had suffered under their rule for too long—there was no way they would let them escape so easily.

Besides, when the Black Forest Tribe was first defeated, the surrounding tribes had been informed—if anything had happened, they would have reported it immediately.

The fact that these impostors had been deceiving people for months meant they weren’t from Black Forest Tribe.

They were fakes.

Bai Tu thought for a moment about how to deal with these impostors, then suddenly turned to Lang Qi.

“Is Ze busy this winter?”

He was planning to send Lang Ze on a mission.