Bonus chapter thanks to acupfullofbees on ko-fi, thanks for your support!

The Axe Tribe was located north of the Waterfall Tribe, and this unclaimed patch of hard nut trees lay between them.

However, one had to travel far eastward, a journey of about ten days.

In nature, many fruits were pecked by birds before they could fully ripen, but hard nuts were different.

The outer shell of hard nuts was tough, impossible for birds to penetrate. Once fully mature, they would fall from the branches but wouldn’t rot, instead drying naturally in the wind.

That was why Hu Sheng had never told the Axe Tribe about them—he wanted to keep them for himself.

More importantly, there was a vast stretch of these hard nut trees. Hu Sheng wasn’t good at counting, so he didn’t know the exact number, but he was sure there were more than those in the Waterfall Tribe.

After hearing Hu Sheng’s explanation, Fan Zhou was satisfied. Then, he turned his gaze toward Yang Chang and Niu Zhuang.

“What about you two? Do you have anything useful to offer?”

Yang Chang and Niu Zhuang were drenched in cold sweat.

But unlike Hu Sheng, they had no such secrets to share.

Yang Chang panicked and blurted out, “I—I’m willing to join the Waterfall Tribe! I’ll eat the least and do the heaviest work!”

Niu Zhuang quickly followed, “Me too! I’m strong and can do a lot of work!”

Join the Waterfall Tribe?

Fan Zhou remained silent, his expression cold as he stepped toward them, raising his hand as if ready to break one of their legs right then and there.

Yang Chang screamed in terror, “Spare me! I just arrived in the Axe Tribe—I’ve never robbed the Waterfall Tribe before! I’ve never done anything bad!”

Fan Zhou glanced at Lang Tian.

Lang Tian nodded. “I’ve never seen this Yang Chang before.”

“What about Hu Sheng and Niu Zhuang?” Fan Zhou asked.

“Hu Sheng has never missed a single raid. Niu Zhuang, I’ve seen him a few times.”

Fan Zhou raised an eyebrow. Old acquaintances, huh?

He turned his gaze toward Hu Sheng.

Hu Sheng shrank into himself, wishing he could find a hole to hide in.

“Have they ever killed a member of the Waterfall Tribe?” Fan Zhou pointed at Hu Sheng and asked.

“No,” Lang Tian shook his head.

“But I thought they had?” Fan Zhou was surprised.

“I’m not sure about others, but during fights with our tribe, they haven’t killed anyone.”

Hu Sheng, seeing a glimmer of hope, shouted, “I haven’t killed anyone! I only rob—I have no choice, I’m starving!”

He sounded aggrieved. Their tribe lived near the forest, which had some mountains and water, but very few prey. To hunt, they had to go deep into the forest.

The only advantage they had over the Waterfall Tribe was an abundance of plants, which grew in vast fields outside the forest.

But grass seeds were hard to swallow, scratched their throats, and couldn’t fully meet the tribe’s needs.

Worse still, in recent years, forest prey had dwindled, and the grass seed harvests weren’t as abundant as before.

With no food, they had to resort to robbery.

But they never killed anyone.

Their tribe wouldn’t kill a wandering beastman either—if anything, they’d rather recruit them to join in on the raids. Ideally, they’d take over the Waterfall Tribe’s land.

Fan Zhou: “……”

His lips twitched.

Yang Chang also shouted, “I haven’t killed anyone either! My original tribe was small; last year, several beastmen got sick with strange diseases. There was even a little cub that suddenly stopped recognizing anyone and acted like a wild beast. I thought it was odd and got scared of getting infected, so I ran away.”

“I finally made it to the Axe Tribe after so long—I swear I haven’t done anything bad!”

Niu Zhuang shrank his neck and added weakly, “We only rob, we don’t kill…”

“……”

Fan Zhou looked at Lang Tian.

Lang Tian scratched his head, looking troubled. “Then… should we just make them work?”

Before questioning the three beastmen, he and Fan Zhou had already discussed their options.

If they had blood on their hands, they’d cripple one of their legs.

If not, they’d be sent to clear land for farming.

To prevent them from escaping, they’d only be given one bowl of communal soup per meal—just enough to keep them alive, but not enough for them to run far.

“That’ll do. Let’s not break their legs for now,” Fan Zhou agreed.

Hu Sheng, Niu Zhuang, and Yang Chang all breathed sighs of relief. But then Hu Sheng, feeling slighted, protested, “I gave you information about the hard nuts! I should get extra bowls of soup!”

“You never missed a single robbery, and now you want extra food? Dream on. You better hope you’re not lying about those hard nuts—if you are, I’ll break both your legs.”

Fan Zhou scowled and swung his fist threateningly.

Hu Sheng flinched and quickly shut up.

Fan Zhou was satisfied and left the cave with Lang Tian.

Hu Sheng had given clear directions—they could find the hard nut trees without him leading the way.

Fan Zhou’s ideal plan was to transplant the trees closer to the tribe. However, manpower was limited, and Niu Shan’s group had yet to return.

Everything would have to wait until Niu Shan came back.

The news of the unclaimed hard nut trees quickly spread throughout the tribe, and the beastmen were thrilled.

Although they received hard nuts daily, most of them couldn’t resist eating their share right away, leaving little for storage.

Only a few beastmen with strict self-control managed to keep some for later.

Fan Zhou was no exception.

He used hard nuts as an all-purpose food, receiving plenty each day, but he had only managed to store a dozen or so.

While waiting for Niu Shan’s return, Fan Zhou remained busy.

He had kept five of the snow chicken eggs from his last find, intending to hatch them.

If they hatched, great. If not, no big deal—five eggs weren’t a huge loss.

He even made several chicken cages resembling stackable plastic fruit crates so they wouldn’t take up much space.

Snow chickens were hard to find, but he often caught birds, so the cages would come in handy.

However, there wasn’t enough room at the cave entrance, so he placed the cages at the foot of the mountain.

Sure enough, the beastmen passing by on their way to the grass seed fields noticed them again.

They were once again shocked—so snow chickens and gray birds could actually be raised?

Tu Zhou knew so much! As expected of a beastman personally granted wisdom by the Beast God—what a waste it would be if he weren’t a priest!

Hu Sheng, Niu Zhuang, and Yang Chang leaned on their crutches, dragging their feet as if they weighed a thousand pounds, slowly emerging from the forest.

Behind them, Niu Shu held a whip in hand, staring at them with a stern face.

Even though Niu Shu was missing an arm, the three of them were so weak from hunger that they couldn’t even walk without crutches—one Niu Shu was enough to keep them in check.

Upon seeing the gray birds in the chicken cage, Hu Sheng, Niu Zhuang, and Yang Chang’s eyes glowed green, and they swallowed hard.

What fat birds!

After eating vegetable soup meal after meal, suddenly seeing plump, juicy meat—it was unbearable!

“Keep moving.”

When Niu Shu saw them stop, his whip immediately lashed down on them.

“Hiss—” They let out muffled grunts, not daring to linger any longer, and forced themselves forward.

At that moment, the gloomy sky that had been dark all afternoon finally released large raindrops—it started raining.

Fan Zhou and Feng Xun were sitting under the grass shed, weaving hemp cloth. Hearing the patter of rain on the roof, he quickly stepped out to move the items from the cave entrance under the shelter of the grass shed.

He also plucked some large leaves to cover the chicken cage.

It was already dusk, and with the rain growing heavier, night fell quickly.

He lit a fire, roasted some meat, and made a simple cold dish with wild vegetables.

Eating meat every day was getting tiresome.

After dinner, he and Feng Xun went into the cave to sleep.

Thanks to his efforts in digging, the cave was now twice as spacious as before. He originally planned to widen their straw-mat bed, but Feng Xun disagreed, saying that when winter came, squeezing together would be warmer.

That made sense, and with all the miscellaneous items taking up space, he changed his mind.

the white wolf lay on the bed, placing its front paws together to create a small space into which he skillfully jumped.

the white wolf nuzzled its large head against him. He yawned, tilted his head into the wolf’s thick mane, and quickly fell asleep.

Just as he was deep in slumber, his body was gently shaken.

“Tu Zhou! Tu Zhou! Wake up! The Beast Spirit Flowers are wilting—the stems are turning yellow!”

Beast… Beast Spirit Flowers?!

His groggy mind instantly snapped awake. He sprang up and rushed outside.

Feng Xun hurriedly followed.

The rain was still drizzling, the sky a dark, somber shade. At the cave entrance, the Beast Spirit Flowers that had been on the verge of blooming were now showing brown patches on their stems. Their once-luminous petals had lost their glow, drooping listlessly.

“How could this happen?!” Fan Zhou was heartbroken. He quickly formed a water sphere around the flowers to shield them from the rain, then poured spiritual spring water onto them.

“I don’t know.” Feng Xun’s expression was grave.

He had always been an early riser, and the first thing he did every morning after stepping out of the cave was check on the Beast Spirit Flowers.

Before sunrise, when the world was still a deep blue, the holy radiance of the Beast Spirit Flowers—no matter how many times he saw it—always made him pause in delight.

But today, the damp, overcast entrance of the cave lacked that sacred glow. It was just like in the Central Continent.

This was how the Beast Spirit Flowers had slowly gone extinct.

Silently withering away, completely beyond the beastmen’s power to stop.

“Let’s plant them inside the cave. They were fine there before, so what changed?”

Fan Zhou froze, the unfinished water shovel in his hand suspended mid-air.

He thought of the time he had discovered the Beast Spirit Flowers at the source of a small waterfall.

The ones shielded by rocks, untouched by the rain, had grown normally.

The ones beyond the rocks, exposed to the rain, had yellowing stems…

He immediately reached out his right hand to catch the rain.

Bringing it to his nose, he sniffed—nothing smelled off. Instinctively, he stuck out his tongue, about to taste it—

But then he thought about the wilting Beast Spirit Flowers and hesitated.

This water might be toxic.

Then again, rainwater would mix with the stream, and he had been using stream water for daily washing. If it were poisonous, he would have been affected long ago.

With that in mind, he lowered his head and lightly tasted a drop.

Smacking his lips, he didn’t notice anything strange.

But the taste definitely wasn’t as pure as spiritual spring water. In fact, it wasn’t even as good as stream water.

Recalling the yellow rain from years ago, his heart felt as if a heavy stone had been placed on it.

Had the yellow rain contaminated the water sources of the beastman world, leading to the gradual extinction of the Beast Spirit Flowers?

If that were true, then the reason why the remaining Beast Spirit Flowers only grew atop high mountains made perfect sense.

Compared to surface water, mountain spring water would be less polluted. If the Beast Spirit Flowers grew near the springs and were shielded from rain by natural cover, they could bloom normally.

But if they lacked such cover, the moment they were exposed to rainwater, they would still wither.

With such harsh growing conditions, no wonder the Beast Spirit Flowers were becoming scarcer.

But why was it only the Beast Spirit Flowers that were… No, there were also hard nuts—hard nuts were becoming rare too.

Beastmen believed that hard nuts were also gifts from the gods.

Then why were only Beast Spirit Flowers and hard nuts disappearing?

He had always assumed that nothing major would happen in the primitive beastman world, so he had never deeply considered what would happen if the Beast Spirit Flowers truly vanished.

But now, if the Beast Spirit Flowers were completely gone, then all newborn beast cubs—including those yet to be born—would never be able to transform into human form.

And then there was what Yang Chang had mentioned—a beast cub suddenly falling ill, losing their intelligence, and becoming nothing more than a wild beast…

He took a deep breath and pressed a hand to his chest.

The Beast God, whom Lang Xun had unwavering faith in—

Where was he now?!