The chief of the Great Bear Tribe was named Xiong Wu. He was even taller than Niu Shan. When he stood at the entrance of the tribe, he was taller than a one-story building, exuding an overwhelming presence.

Behind Xiong Wu followed several brown bears. Though none of them were as tall as him, they were still quite large. Each one had several leather bags of various sizes hanging from their bodies.

Their sudden appearance startled the beastmen of the gathering team.

Lang Tian knew Xiong Wu, so he quickly came out to explain. Once the misunderstanding was resolved, the beastmen of the gathering team curiously sized up the seven giant bears, chattering nonstop.

Even Xiong Wu and his group hadn’t expected the Waterfall Tribe to be this small.

Of course, they knew the Waterfall Tribe was a small tribe—but that was the old Waterfall Tribe! The current Waterfall Tribe could produce salt and weave hemp cloth!

With those two precious skills in hand, surely the tribe should have grown bigger.

But to their surprise, it was still this small. Standing at the entrance, one could see the entire tribe at a glance. The gathering team only consisted of a few beastmen…

The seven bears were quite amazed, noisily commenting amongst themselves. If Lang Tian hadn’t come out, they would have suspected they’d come to the wrong place!

Well, not too much suspicion, because the beastmen of the gathering team were all wearing hemp clothes!

On the Central Continent, hemp cloth clothing was a symbol of status. Usually, only a tribe’s chief or priest could wear it.

Moreover, if someone was exiled to the Wild Continent, they were required to leave all their hemp cloth clothing behind in the Central Continent.

The Wild Continent had no hemp cloth clothing.

But now, even the gathering team of this small tribe wore hemp cloth clothes, so they knew they had come to the right place.

Fan Zhou looked at the massive bears at the entrance and rose from the tree stump, preparing to head over.

At that moment, Lang Tian pointed toward the cave, indicating for the brown bears to head in that direction.

Xiong Wu had said he wanted to trade for hemp cloth, so naturally, he had to look for Tu Zhou.

Seeing this, Fan Zhou sat back down and waited for the brown bears to come over.

They had only taken a few steps when a breeze blew past. All of them instinctively sniffed—what was that smell?

They had never smelled it before, didn’t know what it was, but they all quickened their pace in unison.

They had already seen the large stone pot not far away!

The closer they got to the stone pot, the stronger the fragrance became. In the end, they couldn’t help themselves and broke into a run, shaking the ground as they moved.

Even though Ying Xiao knew these bears were harmless, he still shrank his neck instinctively. Scary!

Niu Shan stood up and waved enthusiastically at the approaching brown bears: “Xiong Wu! Xiong Xing! Xiong Yue…”

Niu Li and Xiong Li also called out the names of the brown bears with great enthusiasm.

“What are you eating?”

“What is this?”

“It smells amazing!”

The brown bears skidded to a stop beside the stone pot, their little eyes locked onto it, unable to look away.

The pot had stopped boiling, but there were still plenty of thin slices of meat floating in the slightly reddish broth—it looked delicious at a glance!

Their furry faces all displayed one word: craving.

“That’s a hot pot made by Tu Zhou! So tasty! And paired with this sesame paste—it smells so good I almost want to jump into the pot myself to eat!” Song Li hugged her big wooden bowl and answered eagerly.

Fan Zhou: “……”

That wasn’t necessary.

He picked up the small pot he had just used to mix the hard nuts with grass seed flour, filled it with meat using a spoon, and then poured some sesame sauce over it.

He handed the stone pot to Xiong Wu. “You all can have a taste.”

It was clear at a glance that these bears had come to trade. If he wanted to get more chili and sesame, he’d definitely have to let the customers first understand just how good these two ingredients were.

Besides, they had come from far away—he didn’t mind sharing some food.

Of course, it was only for tasting.

There wasn’t enough meat to actually fill them up.

Xiong Wu hadn’t expected Fan Zhou to proactively give them so much meat. He had just been thinking of offering the leftover mud beast from breakfast in exchange.

He happily expressed his thanks, then took off the leather bag slung over his back.

From one of the leather bags, he pulled out his hemp cloth clothing and transformed into human form to put it on.

The other brown bears did the same. However, only Xiong Wu wore hemp cloth— the others were dressed in leather. Their beast forms were too large; one big bite could swallow the entire stone pot. To properly enjoy the food, transforming into human form was obviously more convenient.

They didn’t know how to use chopsticks, so they gathered around the stone pot and ate directly with their hands.

For Niu Shan and the others, it was their first time eating spicy food, so Fan Zhou had only added a little chili. The mild spiciness paired with the rich aroma of the sesame sauce created a deep, layered flavor that left them all marveling—it was delicious!

Fan Zhou’s attention remained on Xiong Wu. If he wasn’t mistaken, the hemp cloth clothing on Xiong Wu had been made from a repurposed hemp cloth sack…

Hemp cloth sacks had to bear weight, so they had to be woven with five layers and hadn’t been beaten out the serrated grass very thoroughly during processing. The final product was thick and rough on the skin—but judging from Xiong Wu’s expression, he seemed quite comfortable wearing it…

“Hurry and eat. It’ll be gone soon.”

Just as he said this, the wooden bowl he’d placed on the stone was lifted before his eyes. The fragrance drifted into his nose. He turned to look at Feng Xun, then nodded with a smile. “Okay.”

“You were looking at Xiong Wu’s clothes, weren’t you?” Feng Xun asked.

“I was.”

“Looks like the hemp cloth we brought last time wasn’t enough.” Other than Xiong Wu, the rest of the beastmen were still wearing leather.

By this time, the giant bears had already finished the meat in the pot. They were all looking at the large stone pot where the meat was still cooking, their faces full of longing.

Fan Zhou didn’t serve them more meat. Instead, he asked, “Why did you all suddenly come to the Waterfall Tribe?”

Xiong Wu stood over two meters tall. While his mouth answered Fan Zhou’s question, his eyes remained locked on the stone pot. “We came to trade for hemp cloth. The hemp cloth that Niu Shan brought last time got traded away by the Shell Tribe, so we wanted to get some more.”

Fortunately, their priest had been sharp enough to ask for the location of the Waterfall Tribe. Otherwise, they really wouldn’t have found the place.

The Waterfall Tribe was just too remote!

“Shell Tribe?” Fan Zhou raised an eyebrow.

“Yes, they’re south of the Great Bear Tribe. The weather there is hot, and they really like hemp clothes. They’re willing to trade a lot of seafood for it.”

The Shell Tribe was large, but they were in a mountainous area and near the sea, so there wasn’t much grass seed.

Every year, the Shell Tribe came to trade seafood for grass seeds and salt. Most of the salt in the Great Bear Tribe had been traded from the Shell Tribe. That seafood tasted great, but what truly tempted them wasn’t just the seafood—it was the large shells the Shell Tribe used.

Those large shells were about the size of their heads. They could be used for drinking water or holding food, and compared to stone or wooden bowls, they were extremely lightweight.

When not in use, they could even be placed in caves as decoration.

So they couldn’t resist trading all of the Shell Tribe’s large shells for hemp cloth. The Shell Tribe only visited the Great Bear Tribe once a year, but they could come to the Waterfall Tribe to trade for hemp cloth anytime!

When Fan Zhou heard the word “south,” he immediately visualized a map in his mind.

The Great Bear Tribe was south of the Waterfall Tribe, and the Shell Tribe was south of the Great Bear Tribe—so it looked like the Shell Tribe belonged to the southern coastal beastmen. Beastmen in such regions indeed needed hemp cloth more.

“What did you all bring this time? What are you using to trade for hemp cloth?” Fan Zhou asked.

“Several kinds of seeds. Niu Shan said your tribe needed seeds,” Xiong Wu said, reluctantly shifting his gaze away as he opened up the leather pouches they had brought.

Fan Zhou looked over, and the next second, he shot up, handed his wooden bowl to Feng Xun, and hurried over to Xiong Wu.

If he wasn’t mistaken, one of the bags was filled with glutinous rice?

He rushed to Xiong Wu and grabbed a handful to examine closely. Pure white, round—what else could it be if not glutinous rice?!

“This is a kind of seed from the Shell Tribe. We followed Niu Shan’s instructions to thresh it, then boiled it with water. After it’s cooked, it becomes soft and tastes great,” Xiong Wu explained.

Their tribe had several types of seeds, and they had brought them all this time.

“Great! I want this one!” Fan Zhou couldn’t hide his excitement. Glutinous rice! Refined carbs—he craved them so badly!

“Take a look at these, too,” Xiong Wu said, gesturing for him to look at the other bags.

So Fan Zhou put down the glutinous rice and turned to the other leather bags. Very soon, his eyes lit up again—soybeans!

Soybeans were great! He could make soy milk!

However, among the remaining seeds, aside from the two, he didn’t recognize any of them. He picked up each one and tasted them in turn, but they didn’t taste very good.

He felt a bit disappointed—if only they had wheat. He would have gladly traded the glutinous rice for wheat.

This time, Xiong Wu and the others had brought the most grass seeds, since Niu Shan had specifically asked for grass seeds last time. Bringing it again this time was a guaranteed safe bet.

As for the glutinous rice and soybeans, the Great Bear Tribe still had plenty. If Fan Zhou was willing to trade hemp cloth, they could bring more next time.

Fan Zhou was, of course, willing to trade. As long as the Great Bear Tribe was willing, he wanted to trade for all of their glutinous rice and soybeans.

This time, the Great Bear Tribe had brought over two thousand jin of grass seeds. Fan Zhou and Feng Xun had stockpiled quite a bit of hemp cloth during this period, enough to exchange for these seeds.

After completing the handover of the seeds, Fan Zhou led the few great bears to the side of the grass seed field.

When Xiong Wu and the others saw the grass seed stalks, already more than a meter tall, they were utterly shocked—cultivation!

The Great Bear Tribe also cultivated, but the seeds they planted weren’t much better than wild ones, because their priest didn’t really understand it either.

But who would have thought that the Waterfall Tribe’s seeds could be grown so well! Neatly in plot after plot, and the fields were so, so vast!

Their limited vocabulary left them speechless. They were simply stunned—stunned to the point their minds went blank.

“Look over here,” Fan Zhou spoke up, calling the brown bears back to their senses. He wasn’t trying to show them the sorghum; his target was the chili peppers.

“The reason the meat slices tasted so good just now is because of this chili pepper. If you have chili peppers, you can bring them to trade for hemp cloth.”

Xiong Wu and the others snapped out of their shock and looked at the chili peppers. Then they suddenly cried out in unison—their tribe had this plant nearby!

But it tasted terrible. Only ignorant little cubs would accidentally eat it.

And now Fan Zhou was telling them the delicious meat slices were good because of this?!

Then they had missed out on so much delicious food!

“Tu Zhou, when we bring chili peppers next time, can you teach us how to use them? We’ll bring you more peppers,” Xiong Wu said excitedly.

“Of course,” Fan Zhou said, “but you also have to recognize sesame. Chili and sesame—both are essential.”

The first batch of sesame they had planted had already sprouted seedlings, but the seedlings were still too small and looked just like weeds. Coincidentally, he had thrown the previous sesame stalks onto the firewood pile at the foot of the mountain, so he led Xiong Wu and the others down there.

To Xiong Wu and the others, the sesame stalks were just weeds—real weeds. They usually didn’t pay any attention to what grass looked like.

Still, Xiong Wu picked out a few sesame stalks and packed them into his bag. He planned to ask other beastmen about them once he got back.

Beastmen from other tribes often came to theirs to trade things—he had many connections.

However, seeing Niu Shan and the others in the distance finishing off the meat slices and drinking the broth, he couldn’t help but swallow hard. He was so hungry and craving so badly.

“Wise Tu Zhou, what do we need to do for you to let us eat those meat slices again?” he asked, eyes wide and hopeful, looking at Fan Zhou.