Chapter 185
Not long after Fake Bai An fainted, Lang Ze led the wolf tribe in capturing all the members of the fake tribe. At the same time, the eagle tribe delivered food to them.
Bai Tu had already calculated the timing—he knew that the young wolves would stay in the fake tribe for at most two or three days. So, on the third day after Lang Ze and his team set out, he sent the feathered tribe over with food.
He figured that two days of eating poor-quality food was enough; any more would be unacceptable. However, the situation turned out to be better than Bai Tu expected—the fake tribe had at least given the young wolves properly preserved food.
When the group returned to their tribe, Bai Tu questioned Lang Ze and the others about their experience in the fake tribe. Naturally, he asked Lang Qian, as the young wolves had already rushed off to the cafeteria.
“They were impersonating the Hundred Beasts Tribe?” Bai Tu chuckled in disbelief.
He had initially thought the fake tribe was only pretending to be the Black Forest Tribe to scam people. But it turned out they were professional fraudsters who had impersonated multiple tribes. Who knew how many victims they had deceived?
If they had only impersonated one tribe, the scammed tribe might have discovered the truth by comparing notes. But since they had posed as several different tribes, even if victims discussed their experiences, they wouldn’t realize they had all been fooled by the same group.
Bai Tu didn’t need to conduct the interrogations himself—Lang Qi handled that. By that night, Bai Tu had already received the answers.
The fake tribe’s real name was the North Monkey Tribe. Their territory was in the northern region, and they had many monkey beastmen, hence the name.
Their leader, Hou Jing, had previously sustained the tribe by weaving bamboo baskets, carrying frames, and other tools to trade for meat. Combined with their own foraged food, they could barely survive, but their standard of living was lower than other tribes.
One day, Hou Jing encountered a group of lost beastmen who were on their way to the market to trade for salt. Seeing the food they carried, he had a sinister idea. He lied to them, claiming that his tribe knew of a place where they could trade for salt without having to go to the market.
The lost beastmen, overjoyed at their supposed luck, handed their food to Hou Jing and asked him to help them trade for salt. That night, Hou Jing took his entire tribe and fled, leaving the lost beastmen to wake up to an empty settlement.
Because the North Monkey Tribe rarely hunted, changing territories was easy for them. Moreover, the northern continent had plenty of unclaimed land, allowing them to move freely.
After experiencing the benefits of scamming others, Hou Jing quickly lost interest in the hard work of weaving tools for trade. Why spend months weaving just to trade for a little meat when a single con job could provide enough food for half a year?
To increase their deception, Hou Jing devised an elaborate scheme. If any beastmen approached their tribe, they would be lured in immediately. If no one came for a long time, his tribe members would go out searching for lost travelers or those unfamiliar with the area, then trick them into returning to their settlement. Once there, the victims were at their mercy.
Most of the time, they would confiscate all the newcomers’ food and force them to work, making tools that the North Monkey Tribe then used to trade for more supplies.
By combining stolen food with forced labor, the North Monkey Tribe’s food reserves grew significantly. However, Hou Jing feared that too many captured beastmen would resist, so he made sure to relocate the tribe frequently.
If Bai Tu hadn’t sent Lang Ze’s team ahead of time, they likely wouldn’t have been able to find the North Monkey Tribe after winter. The tribe had already been in their current location for nearly half a year and had been preparing to move again.
Because of their constant relocations, the tribe members had become highly skilled at looting food. When they were ordered to take everything, they left nothing behind—not even a single scrap.
Hou Jing had been clever since his youth, but he never trusted anyone, not even his own family. After becoming the leader, he selected the most obedient nephew to stay by his side—the same one who had willingly delivered food to the young wolves. However, this nephew was too obedient. Not only did he misinterpret Hou Jing’s orders, but he also personally ensured that all the tribe’s food was handed over to the young wolves.
Hou Jing had initially planned to deceive this group, forcing them to work through the winter. Once spring arrived, his tribe would take the remaining food and finished tools and leave.
As for whether the scammed individuals lived or died? Hou Jing felt entirely justified, saying, “We only leave in the spring!”
His underlying message was that he had generously allowed these captives to survive the winter.
His logic was absurd beyond belief.
Did he not consider whose food he had been feeding them?
On top of that, the captives had worked tirelessly all winter, yet they only received the worst food. To make matters worse, Hou Jing punished those who didn’t perform well—by withholding their meals.
Each day, the workers were ranked based on how many tools they had woven. The one with the lowest output would receive no food.
This system forced the captured beastmen into a desperate struggle, working relentlessly just to earn a meal.
Before the arrival of winter, the North Monkey Tribe had deceived too many people. Hou Jing didn’t dare to expose his true intentions all at once, so he first suggested that they “try working for a few days.”
However, since there were so many captives, he was reluctant to use good food to feed them. This led to his deception being quickly uncovered. Originally, he had planned to force them into submission using smoke suffocation, coercing them into handing over their food and working for the tribe. But before he could act, the captives escaped.
Then, as if fate had turned against him, Hou Jing ran into Lang Ze’s team. Not only did he fail to trick the young wolves into working, but they also ended up eating all the meat he had painstakingly stockpiled.
On the way to the Hundred Beasts Tribe after being captured, Hou Jing briefly regained consciousness. The moment he realized that the “supplies” the young wolves had carried up the mountain were nothing but stones, he was so infuriated that he passed out again.
During Lang Qi’s interrogation, Hou Jing recalled everything that had happened in the past month. The more he thought about it, the angrier he became—until he fainted for a third time.
Bai Tu: “……”
Bai Tu: “You handle it however you see fit.”
Even if Hou Jing passed out eighteen times a day, the real victims were the ones he had deceived. Some of the captives had managed to find their way back to their tribes early in winter and secure food. But what about the others who weren’t so lucky?
Hou Jing was certainly intelligent, but he had used his cunning in all the wrong ways.
There was no way they could release these people just yet. They would have to work for the tribe—at least until they had made up for all the resources they had stolen. Only after replenishing what they had taken from others would they regain their freedom.
“I remember another group of monkey beastmen coming to trade supplies before,” Bai Tu said as he flipped through his notes. Sure enough, there was a record of a monkey tribe—the Yellow Monkey Tribe. The name sounded vaguely familiar to him.
During the trade market’s opening, many issues had come up, so Bai Tu had instructed the sub-beastmen in charge to record anything that required consideration. He would review them whenever he had time. Normally, he followed a chronological order, but the mention of the North Monkey Tribe had jogged his memory.
“Didn’t we hear about the Yellow Monkey Tribe during our first visit to the market?” Bai Tu asked Lang Qi. He recalled that someone had impersonated the Yellow Monkey Tribe to trade for food.
“Hmm,” Bai Tu suddenly thought back to that day. “Now that I think about it, Hou Jing and those from the Brown Monkey Tribe are quite similar.” Both had a habit of impersonating others to get what they wanted.
Lang Qi provided some context: “The Yellow Monkey Tribe used to borrow salt from the Salt Trade Tribe and exchange it for supplies with other tribes.”
As Bai Tu listened, he quickly understood their method.
The Yellow Monkey Tribe essentially acted as middlemen. They would take out a “loan” of salt from the Salt Trade Tribe, then exchange it for food with smaller or more isolated tribes that couldn’t easily travel to trade for salt themselves. Once they secured the food, they would repay their salt debt, and whatever food remained was their profit.
It was a business that required no upfront investment. The salt was borrowed, the debt was paid with traded food, and whatever was left belonged to them.
However, not just anyone could run a business like this. The reason the Yellow Monkey Tribe had gained such a strong reputation was because of their honesty. They had been active near the market for many years, rain or shine, and many tribes had come to trust them.
If they weren’t so well-known, the Brown Monkey Tribe’s fraudsters wouldn’t have been able to so easily trick Bao Duo and the others. After all, who would expect someone to impersonate the Yellow Monkey Tribe at the marketplace?
Bai Tu carefully reviewed his previous records. The Yellow Monkey Tribe had proposed a trade partnership involving coal and canned food.
Technically, they could have partnered on salt as well. However, since the Yellow Monkey Tribe had been working with the Salt Trade Tribe for years, they felt it would be inappropriate to switch suppliers just because the Hundred Beasts Tribe offered better prices. As a result, they had only applied for other resources.
Bai Tu respected their loyalty. Given their long standing cooperation with the Salt Trade Tribe, their decision not to seek cheaper salt elsewhere reflected their integrity. This kind of honest business relationship was worth considering.
“This is the same monkey species, yet the difference is so vast,” Bai Tu sighed. If Hou Jing had used his intelligence properly, his tribe could have thrived without resorting to deception.
According to the records in Bai Tu’s hands, the Yellow Monkey Tribe had over 300 members, making it a mid-sized tribe.
Meanwhile, despite all its schemes, the North Monkey Tribe had barely made any real progress.
“Should we approve this request?” Bai Tu asked. Without hesitation, he wrote down his agreement on the document. The final decision would be made after further deliberation by Lang Qi, Bai Chen, Bai An, and the others. Usually, proposals were approved if the majority agreed.
Lang Qi nodded and stamped the document with his seal.
At first, everything was handwritten. However, Bai Tu eventually found that too troublesome, so he had created personalized stamps for each person.
Each stamp had the owner’s name and came in two colors: blue for approval and red for rejection. When evaluating a proposal, they only needed to glance at the stamp colors to determine whether it had passed.
Bai Tu quickly processed the previous few documents and sent them over to Bai Chen.
The others worked quickly as well. Since it was winter, there were fewer affairs to manage, fewer work types, and naturally, fewer conflicts. Even when issues arose, they were resolved much faster.
The previous matters were relatively simple. Since most people agreed, Bai Tu only needed to write down the detailed steps. Once those were settled, he began preparing the trade plan with the Yellow Monkey Tribe.
This required careful consideration. After all, the Yellow Monkey Tribe was quite far from their own tribe. Even with the Eagle Tribe’s speed, a round trip would take about ten days, making communication difficult.
The first thing to decide was which high-value foods to trade. Most of these were their tribe’s specialties, such as dried fruit, malt candy, and canned food.
Dried meat was still rare in most tribes, but Bai Tu had already shared the preservation method with many of them. By next year, dried meat would likely become widespread, so their tribe no longer planned to sell it. Instead, they focused on products other tribes didn’t have.
Canned food was particularly popular. It had a long shelf life, tasted good, and could be carried over long distances. Even though it was heavy, people still preferred it. Some places weren’t convenient for cooking, so having ready-to-eat canned food was a dream come true.
Dried fruit was just as popular, especially among tribes with limited access to fresh fruit. Many exchanged food supplies for dried fruit that could last an entire year. Even beastmen living near fruit-rich areas liked it—fresh and dried fruit tasted different, and some dried varieties were sweetened with honey or sugar, making them even more delicious.
Malt candy was also in high demand, though tribes facing food shortages were more cautious about trading for it, as sugar was among the most expensive commodities.
Other products, like fruit preserves, also piqued curiosity. Beastmen were always eager to try new foods, and once they tasted them, they often became repeat buyers.
Bai Tu decided to offer wholesale prices to the Yellow Monkey Tribe. Since this would be a long-term collaboration with large orders, it made sense to provide a discount. The Yellow Monkey Tribe, in turn, had to factor in transportation costs and other expenses when trading with other tribes. This meant their resale prices would be higher than those for tribes that came directly to trade at Bai Tu’s settlement.
Overall, the pricing strategy was simple: Doorstep delivery had the highest price. Self-pickup at the tribe was slightly cheaper. Wholesale in bulk was the most affordable, as it required no extra effort in maintaining trade order.
Once Bai Tu finalized the pricing, he turned to logistics.
Unlike salt, which was lightweight and easy to carry, most food products were bulky and required a large transport team.
The Yellow Monkey Tribe had a sizable population, but if they had to carry heavy canned goods and other supplies, the journey would become difficult. They would also need to bring their own food for the trip, which could be a problem—feeding 200–300 people on the road would consume a significant portion of their supplies. Bai Tu had learned this lesson firsthand.
After thinking for a while, he wondered if there was a better way.
Instead of making the Yellow Monkey Tribe handle transportation, what if they only took care of negotiations while Bai Tu’s tribe managed deliveries?
This shift in strategy solved everything. It allowed each tribe to focus on what they did best. The Yellow Monkey Tribe was skilled at making deals, so they could travel and handle business.
Even the best products needed good distribution. That was why Bai Tu had previously asked the Eagle Tribe to spread the word and build their tribe’s reputation.
As for transportation, his tribe had a perfect candidate: the Feathered Tribe. They could fly, making them ideal for delivering small, high-value goods. However, some items were too heavy to carry in flight.
That’s when Bai Tu thought of another long-time trade partner—the Horse Tribe.
The Horse Tribe’s hunting grounds were limited, but they were famous for their fruits. During the trade market, they had traveled back and forth multiple times to exchange fruit for supplies.
Transporting canned food and other goods wasn’t much different. The Horse Tribe excelled at long-distance running and had impressive speed, making them well-suited for large deliveries.
The more Bai Tu thought about it, the more feasible the plan seemed. He wrote down his preliminary idea and even included a personnel distribution plan. This wasn’t just about his own tribe—other allied tribes could also participate in what was shaping up to be a major operation.
Lang Qi, noticing Bai Tu deep in thought for a long time, walked over and glanced at his notes. He was surprised to see mentions of the Feathered Tribe, the Horse Tribe, and even hunting-related details.
“What are you working on?” Lang Qi asked. He had a feeling this was something completely new.
Bai Tu took a deep breath and said four words.
“Hundred Beasts Express.”
