Chapter 226
The hard work during the summer had paid off. Even before the snow season arrived, the tribe had already stored a large amount of food. They had also crafted iron tools using iron ore sent by the Eagle Tribe and coal mined by the Wolf Tribe. These iron knives were far sharper than stone or bone knives, making meat cutting and plant harvesting much faster. The tools could also be shaped for convenience, greatly improving work efficiency.
With his brother by his side, Bai Tu quickly accepted the possibility that he was pregnant that very day. However, he no longer liked going outside. Since there were fewer tasks to do in the tribe during winter, he had plenty of time to rest.
Bored from staying in the cave all day, Bai Tu started thinking about other matters.
Inside the cave, the fire-heated brick bed, built after they had learned to make bricks, kept the temperature much warmer than outside. His thoughts turned to Hei Xiao’s eggs. Since Hei Xiao wasn’t from the Feather Tribe and was also a smaller beast-form sub-beastman, the responsibility of incubating the eggs fell entirely on Hei Yan.
But Hei Yan couldn’t stay in the cave all day. Whenever he had to leave, Hei Xiao had no choice but to keep the eggs nestled against his body.
Originally, other feathered beastmen in the tribe could have helped with the incubation, but unfortunately, this year, the Eagle Tribe members who had joined already had their hands full with their own eggs. They barely had the capacity to hatch their own young, let alone assist Hei Xiao and Hei Yan.
Hei Xiao had been worrying that the eggs wouldn’t hatch properly. For beastmen, as long as the cubs were born, they had already passed the hardest part. But for feathered beastmen, breaking out of the egg was the real birth. Right now, the eggs had no signs of life and couldn’t even be considered cubs yet.
Not wanting his brother to worry, Bai Tu started thinking about modifying some tools in the tribe to create a simple incubator to take over the hatching process.
Using warm water for heating was the safest option—it was temperature-controlled and wouldn’t get too cold or too hot.
Once he had the idea, putting it into action was quick. In half a day, Bai Tu designed a simple incubator that completely replaced Hei Yan’s work. This way, Hei Xiao no longer had to suffer the discomfort of personally incubating the eggs.
After making the prototype, Bai Tu further modified it—besides hatching eggs, he also designed a version that could house newborn cubs.
Without quite knowing why, Bai Tu ended up keeping one for himself. He justified it by saying it was for the two little wolf cubs.
Lang Qi glanced at the two wolf cubs, who had already grown to match others their age and spent most of their time wrestling. Considerately, he didn’t expose Bai Tu’s excuse. However, he did offer a reminder: “They’re teething.”
Teething cubs liked to bite everything in sight. They would probably chew the incubator to pieces.
Hearing this, Bai Tu immediately placed the incubator out of the cubs’ reach and, in an overly suspicious manner, declared: “I’ll give it to them when it gets colder.”
Lang Qi: “…Alright.”
Throughout the snow season, many cubs were born in the tribe. Normally, hardly any were born in winter, but this year was different. Since spring, food supplies had been abundant, and when a tribe had enough food, its birth rate naturally increased. You could gauge a tribe’s growth by the number of cubs born each year.
By the end of the snow season, Hei Xiao’s eggs hatched. At the same time, Bai Tu gave birth to three wolf cubs.
Since he was now taking care of his own cubs, Bai Tu felt a little bitter seeing his brother raising a baby eagle, but he said nothing. Hei Xiao looked at his brother’s three wolf cubs, hesitating to speak, and ultimately blamed himself for not setting a better example.
Silently, the two brothers accepted each other’s offspring.
Among Bai Tu’s three cubs, one was particularly weak. He placed all of them in the incubator, keeping the temperature at a comfortable level. He also made extra incubators for the smaller and frailer cubs in the tribe.
After the snow season ended, many new couples formed in the tribe. Combined with the cubs born during winter, the caves were running out of space.
If it were just the Snow Rabbit Tribe, there would have been enough housing. However, Lang Qi and Hei Yan had both come from other tribes. As their respective tribal leaders, even if they personally wanted to stay in the Snow Rabbit Tribe, their own people weren’t willing to let them go.
What was once a small tribe had now taken in additional wolf and eagle beastmen. The livable caves were all occupied, leaving no space for the newly bonded couples.
Bai An gathered people to discuss finding a new mountain.
On the Beast God Continent, most people lived in caves. If a tribe grew too large for its current mountain, they would simply look for a bigger one or even a connected mountain range with multiple peaks.
The Snow Rabbit Tribe used to be small, and one mountain was enough. Now that they were out of space, it was only natural to consider moving to a new location.
The continent was vast and sparsely populated, with unclaimed mountains everywhere. The Snow Rabbit Tribe’s territory wasn’t particularly large, but it still had several mountains. However, choosing a new settlement required careful comparison—they couldn’t just pick one at random.
When Bai Tu heard about relocating, he didn’t immediately agree. Instead, he discussed with Bai An the possibility of building houses directly on flat ground using bricks.
The others hadn’t considered this option before, but they immediately raised a concern: if they built houses, they needed to ensure they wouldn’t be flooded or leak during the rainy season. Otherwise, when the rains came, they’d have nowhere to live.
Some tribes had caves at lower elevations, which led to water seeping in during the rainy season. The beastmen living at the lowest levels either had to move elsewhere or frantically pile stones inside their caves to raise the floor. Not wanting to face the same struggle, many were skeptical about Bai Tu’s idea of constructing homes above ground.
Bai Tu was well aware of their concerns and had already considered the necessary materials before suggesting the idea.
The tribe already had bricks, but another key material was needed—cement.
Bai Tu vaguely remembered the formula and process for making cement. Some of the raw materials could be found near their tribe, while others had been discovered by the Wolf Tribe over the past two years. He had planned to start experimenting with cement production after winter ended. If successful, they could use it this year.
Unexpectedly, making cement went more smoothly than Bai Tu had anticipated. He had been prepared to spend the entire rainy season refining the formula, but by sheer luck, he succeeded within the first month. As a result, construction of the new residential area began two to three months earlier than planned.
The new settlement took six months to build. It was located near the Blood Wolf Tribe’s territory, on a large stretch of flat land that required no leveling—unlike other locations.
Once the housing was complete, they began allocating homes. They had planned for future population growth, so the number of houses exceeded the current tribe members. After assigning homes to all existing members, a third of the houses remained vacant.
Lang Qi had left Lang Ze behind in the Blood Wolf Tribe, but as soon as he heard about the available homes, Lang Ze became eager to move in and found every possible way to express his desire to Bai Tu.
There were enough houses, but allowing outsiders to settle in required Bai An’s approval. Bai Tu helped bring up the request.
Normally, allowing members of another tribe to live in their settlement posed a security risk. However, their situation was different. Bai An didn’t take long to agree. The Snow Rabbit Tribe had already integrated many members from the Eagle and Wolf Tribes, so adding another group wouldn’t make much difference. Moreover, they had known the Blood Wolf Tribe for years and were familiar with Lang Ze and his group’s character, so there was no concern.
Bai Tu also believed Lang Ze would bring new discoveries.
During their first year in the new settlement, Lang Ze took a group of young wolves on an outing and discovered salt—a resource every tribe needed. This discovery eliminated the tribe’s yearly need to trade for salt. With their own supply, they no longer had to reserve food for bartering, and all the animals they raised belonged entirely to them.
As the tribe rapidly developed, it inevitably attracted attention. While out on patrol, Lang Ze’s team brought back a group of sub-beastmen who claimed to have been in hiding for years and were now searching for food.
In the past, sub-beastmen had been ostracized by other beastmen. Some had even gone missing, causing their numbers to dwindle dramatically over the past twenty years. For example, in the Snow Rabbit Tribe, only Bai Tu and his brother were sub-beastmen, while in the Blood Wolf Tribe, which had a population of four to five hundred, fewer than twenty were sub-beastmen.
Although many tribes no longer captured sub-beastmen to offer them to the Beast God for punishment, few were truly accepting of them. Most tribes still expelled sub-beastmen who wandered into their territory.
Lang Ze had brought them back solely because of Bai Tu and Hei Xiao.
Even so, on the way back, Lang Ze made one thing clear.
Realizing it was an important matter, the sub-beastmen he had taken in listened attentively.
“In our tribe, you eat last. Understand?” Lang Ze warned them sternly—nobody was allowed to compete with him for food!
The sub-beastmen, who had supposedly been desperate for a place to stay but were actually just there to observe the Snow Rabbit Tribe’s growth, were speechless: “…”
After a long silence, their leader responded, “Understood.”
Only then did Lang Ze lead them into the settlement.
However, the moment they entered, they were immediately captured.
Seeing themselves surrounded by beastmen, the sub-beastmen instantly realized they had been exposed. What puzzled them was how the Snow Rabbit and Blood Wolf Tribes had figured out something was off about them.
Lang Ze sneered. “You took way too long to answer when I told you that you’d have to eat last. Clearly, food wasn’t the reason you came here.”
If they had truly been starving, they would have immediately agreed to his condition. Every time he was punished and denied food, he always agreed to his brother’s demands first—whether he could follow through was another matter. These people, however, showed no excitement over food and even hesitated before answering. That was a huge red flag.
Hearing Lang Ze’s reasoning, the sub-beastmen fell into silence.
Although his logic was flawed, his conclusion was correct.
They indeed had ulterior motives.
The sub-beastmen exchanged glances.
Since they had an agenda, even if Lang Ze’s deduction was faulty, they couldn’t exactly argue their innocence.
What was even more frustrating was that, despite the commotion they had caused, no one had come to question the situation—only this group of wolves.
If even one of the beastmen had been less sharp, they could have found an excuse to weasel their way out of suspicion. But unfortunately, every beastman present followed Lang Ze’s lead. There wasn’t a single soft-hearted person they could exploit. All they could do now was wait.
Meanwhile, in another part of the Snow Rabbit Tribe’s settlement, Bai An, Bai Tu, Hei Jian, Bai Chen, Lang Qi, and Hei Yan were discussing how many people to send to capture the beastmen hiding around their territory.
Since the tribe consisted of both beastmen and feathered beastmen, their enemies had been spotted long before reaching them—the Eagle Tribe had already detected the approaching group and even counted their numbers. However, rather than launching an immediate attack, they had sent out Lang Ze’s seemingly gullible yet actually sharp-witted squad to handle the situation first.
