Fan Zhou really hadn’t expected Hu Sheng to still have the energy to focus on this kind of nonsense. He spoke irritably, “He can go carry the hard nuts, but as for joining the tribe—he can wait.”

Feng Xun said, “…Calm down.”

He leaned over and kissed Fan Zhou on the lips, a bit troubled in his heart.

He had so straightforwardly sold out Hu Sheng, and he did feel a little guilty about it.

He wasn’t the kind of beastman who lacked loyalty. Hmm… later he’d just hunt a few more prey to make it up to Hu Sheng. After all, Hu Sheng wanted to join the Waterfall Tribe to eat his fill and eat well.

He would remember Hu Sheng’s contribution!

Fan Zhou also felt a little troubled in his heart. These past few days, Lang Xun hadn’t shown any signs of that kind of desire during their kissing. As a straight man, he had even less reason to think about it. Because just helping each other out already felt pretty good.

But who would’ve thought that Lang Xun was already making plans in his head for the final step?

He’d heard that the bottom part felt good—people on the internet joked about it all the time: “bottoms fall like leaves, tops are rare to find,” everyone wanted to be a bottom, not a top.

But would it feel good… the pain, at least, was real.

The more he thought about it, the more troubled he felt. He simply rolled over, turned his butt to the person behind him, and even covered his ears.

Feng Xun blinked and leaned over to hug him. “Don’t be scared. I won’t go get the tree oil. I’ll wait until you’re ready.”

The rabbit didn’t even want to kiss him proactively, let alone do anything more intimate—he understood.

Fan Zhou didn’t say anything. He didn’t want to talk to Feng Xun right now. He was tangled up inside. When he agreed, he’d already mentally prepared himself for intimacy, but now that they were one step away, he had chickened out.

Troubled, he fell asleep. He was just too tired. Beauty was nice and all, but it drained too much energy. After all the fooling around with Feng Xun just now, his brain was already fuzzy.

When he got up the next day, he looked a little listless. However, when he handed out the sweet water, he glared at Hu Sheng several times, scaring Hu Sheng into shrinking his neck. He didn’t even dare ask why—just grabbed his bucket and ran.

Fan Zhou couldn’t be bothered to stay mad at this dumb tiger. After breakfast, he told Feng Xun to go hunting.

These past few days, the beastmen from the Axe Tribe’s hunting party had been making mud bricks nonstop. This group worked fast and well, over ten thousand bricks a day. So, every day, he rewarded them with one big-horned beast.

The gathering team from the Axe Tribe also came to him with small scraps of cloth to trade for meat, so he needed to replenish his livestock.

When Feng Xun was about to head out, he originally wanted to ask for a kiss before leaving, but seeing Fan Zhou so downcast, he thought for a moment and held back.

After Feng Xun left, Fan Zhou brought Song Li and Niu Shu along to supervise the beastmen of the Axe Tribe in building brick kilns. He and Feng Xun had already produced plant ash cement, but if they wanted to produce it in large quantities, they had to use brick kilns.

All his experience in infrastructure came from wilderness survival videos on a certain app, so he didn’t plan on building actual large brick kilns. Instead, he planned to construct several small brick kilns, a little over a meter tall, with one beastman responsible for one kiln. As long as the cement could be slowly fired, it would do.

To the beastmen, these small brick kilns were square and neat, with no sealed tops, looking just like big furnaces. They could even place their large stone pots on top—perfect. Of course, if Tu Zhou would gift them a little more meat, it would be even better. Over twenty beastmen sharing a single big-horned beast was simply not enough!

This group of beastmen loudly discussed as they sneaked glances at Fan Zhou’s expression. Song Li snorted, his furry face pulling tight as he sternly scolded them, “Do your work properly! Stop daydreaming. You’re still in the labor reform period!”

“Labor reform period” was a new phrase he and Fan Zhou had learned. He thought it was an excellent term, very fitting for the situation of the Axe Tribe.

Being scolded by a little furball only reaching their knees, these beastmen didn’t dare talk back. They shut their mouths.

Fan Zhou’s expression didn’t change much, but inwardly, he sighed. Beastmen were always thinking about food. Eating their fill was the most important thing.

Though that Lang Xun had to be an exception.

Lang Xun was strong and had no difficulty catching prey, so his desire for food was far less than that of the others. As a result, he had time to think about other things…

Fan Zhou rubbed his face, tossed a water orb into his mouth, and shooed the image of the white wolf out of his head. He told Song Li to keep an eye on the beastmen while they worked, and then he strolled off to the grass seed field.

The over two thousand jin of grass seeds he and Feng Xun had acquired were already being planted. He went to sprinkle some spiritual spring water.

The beastmen from the Axe Tribe’s gathering team greeted him warmly when they saw him, and their work pace became noticeably more enthusiastic.

The little lion from Niu Zhuang and Luo Hua’s family was also present. The little lion was about the size of an adult ragdoll cat. He stood in front of Luo Hua, and with a wave of his tiny paw, he dug a small hole in the ground. Luo Hua, right behind him, dropped the grass seeds in and covered them with soil. The mother and son worked together perfectly.

Fan Zhou watched for a while and found that this pair wasn’t slower than anyone else. He was surprised. The little lion was only five years old— this is definitely child labor. Cubs at that age usually spent their days eating, drinking, and playing. But this one from Niu Zhuang’s family was rather sensible.

And he had decent stamina too.

After watering the planted seeds with spiritual spring water until his ability was depleted, Fan Zhou walked toward Hu Xiao, who was in charge of supervision.

Hu Xiao was from the gathering team. Though he was a male beastman, he looked quite delicate and weak. In the gathering team, he was basically at the bottom, so Lang Tian had assigned him to supervise and distribute hemp cloth strips to the Axe Tribe’s beastmen.

Since taking on this job, he had been quite diligent and hadn’t made any mistakes.

Seeing Fan Zhou walk over, he quickly greeted him and said, “Tu Zhou, have a seat and rest for a bit. It’s too hot under the sun.”

Although summer was already halfway over, the daytime temperatures were still very high.

Fan Zhou had originally wanted to ask about the little lion’s situation, but when he saw a pile of wooden carvings beside Hu Xiao, he let out a surprised sound and widened his eyes for a closer look. All the carvings were of animals, about twenty centimeters tall, carved vividly and lifelike. More importantly, some of them looked familiar.

“This is…” He pointed at the smallest wooden lion—it looked a lot like Shiba.

“These are the beastmen from the Axe Tribe’s gathering team. I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to keep track of their working hours, so I carved their beast forms. Whoever works diligently, I place a piece of hemp cloth in front of their wooden carving.”

“This way they’ll also know clearly, and there won’t be any disputes.”

Hu Xiao explained a bit shyly.

“…This method of yours is great!” Fan Zhou was truly surprised. This was no less effective than written records—very impressive.

At the start, it had been Lang Tian who supervised the work. He had come by once back then and saw that Lang Tian relied on memory alone without making any mistakes, and since the beastmen of the Axe Tribe hadn’t caused any trouble in the days since, he hadn’t followed up on it.

He hadn’t expected that Hu Xiao, quietly and without making a fuss, actually had a solid trick up his sleeve.

Praised by Fan Zhou, Hu Xiao became even more embarrassed, his cheeks flushed red, and he lowered his head without saying anything.

“How about this—going forward, you’ll be the captain of Team One in the Waterfall Tribe, in charge of managing the Axe Tribe’s gathering team.” Fan Zhou thought for a moment and decided to assign Hu Xiao a small leadership role.

“Captain of Team One?” Hu Xiao was surprised.

“Yes. The Axe Tribe’s hunting team is Team Two. The captain will have more responsibilities, and I’ll give extra subsidies—ten jin of meat every seven days.”

Ten jin of meat?!

Hu Xiao’s eyes lit up. Although the gathering team’s meals had improved a lot recently, that was because Fan Zhou had been providing subsidies. If Fan Zhou stopped subsidizing, the food quality would drop back to what it was before.

For example, when Fan Zhou went to the Axe Tribe, before he left, he caught a lot of prey, and the beastmen of the Waterfall Tribe were eating so much they were stuffed every day.

But after he returned, he became busy with various tasks and had less time for hunting, so the meat provided also decreased.

Moreover, Fan Zhou paid more attention to the elderly, weak, sick, and disabled in the communal cave. The paws, heads, innards, and other parts left behind after he and Feng Xun slaughtered prey each day were all given to the communal cave.

So, although the communal meals consistently included meat, sometimes the gathering team’s meals were not as good as what the beastmen in the communal cave received.

Now that Fan Zhou would give him ten jin of meat every seven days, if he rationed it carefully, he could have meat for every meal, every day!

Hu Xiao repeatedly promised, “I will do a good job as a captain.”

“If the performance is good, then the amount of meat given will be even more,” Fan Zhou added. After all, it was the first official he had appointed himself—there absolutely couldn’t be poor treatment.

Hu Xiao became even happier upon hearing this and clenched his fists to make another promise.

Fan Zhou stared at the vividly lifelike wooden carvings, praised them a few more times, and then asked about the little lion.

“Shiba had often helped Luo Hua with work before, but he’s still young, and he’d work for a while, then play for a while, so I didn’t record any work points for him. Yesterday he said he wanted to work a whole day, so I carved a little wooden lion for him.”

“Why the sudden motivation?” Fan Zhou asked.

“He wants to drink the soy milk with the hard nuts you cooked.”

“……”

Two days ago, Luo Hua had come to exchange things for a piece of hemp cloth. At that moment, he happened to be drinking soy milk with hard nut. Luo Hua, seeing it looked like milk, used the hemp cloth to trade for a small basin of soy milk with hard nuts.

Now, Niu Zhuang was following Hu Sheng to build roads. Since the farther the road went, the farther it would be from the tribe, making back-and-forth inconvenient, Fan Zhou had allowed them to hunt for themselves.

Since they could now hunt on their own, meat wasn’t much of a problem anymore, so Luo Hua traded for the soy milk with hard nuts.

He hadn’t expected the allure of the soy milk with hard nuts to be so strong that even a five-year-old little lion was now working hard in the fields.

However, the soy milk with hard nuts truly was delicious. Ordinary stone-ground soy milk had a raw bean taste, and the flavor was quite bland, but after adding hard nuts, the texture became rich and thick.

Hmm… Anyway, Xiong Wu would be delivering more soybeans, so the ones currently in the warehouse could be used as seeds to plant.

After strolling around and not doing much, in the blink of an eye, it was already noon. Since Feng Xun hadn’t returned, Fan Zhou casually roasted a bird.

In the afternoon, Fan Zhou began teaching the beastmen of the Axe Tribe’s hunting team how to make plant ash cement. The process was very simple, but the result was quite miraculous—the plant ash, originally loose like sand, after being mixed with water and burned, actually became as hard as stone!

The group of beastmen was dumbfounded. When they came back to their senses, the way they looked at Fan Zhou was filled with awe, and even a bit of fanaticism. So this was the level of a High Priest? No wonder he was the beastman closest to the Beast God.

They were really lucky—thank goodness Tu Zhou had conquered the Axe Tribe!

With such gratitude, the beastmen worked even harder and very soon finished making the plant ash cement.

After producing the first batch of cement, Fan Zhou brought it to the livestock farm.

The farm had already been cleared—now they just needed to start building houses. Fan Zhou directed the beastmen to first level the ground, hammer it flat with large stones, and then he stepped in to demonstrate how to lay bricks for the walls.

This once again amazed the beastmen. They fashioned a wooden board into a trowel, their faces full of excitement as they began imitating Fan Zhou’s movements. It looked like a lot of fun.

And indeed, building walls proved to be very fun, at least more interesting than hunting or farming. Watching walls rise from the ground brought a sense of accomplishment comparable to catching a large herd of prey.

Song Li and Niu Shu also joined in. Though Song Li’s claws weren’t as dexterous as hands, they were barely usable. He could hold bricks with both claws and slowly place them onto the wall.

Niu Shu was missing one arm, but the other could function normally.

Such a bustling, enthusiastic scene was exactly what Fan Zhou was happy to see.

The work didn’t stop until the sun set in the west. Only then did the group reluctantly put down their tools. The livestock pens had taken shape. One section looked like a pigsty—that was for raising mud beasts. Another section was a cowshed—that was for the big-horned beasts.

When they returned to the tribe, both the gathering and hunting teams had also come back. When they heard that the pens had been built, they couldn’t even wait to cook dinner, and all ran over to check out the excitement.

Fan Zhou searched the crowd with his gaze but didn’t see Feng Xun. He frowned slightly and walked toward the cave.

That area was quiet and still. His water gate sealed the cave entrance tightly. Feng Xun was nowhere to be seen.

Thinking of Feng Xun’s strength, Fan Zhou suppressed his worry and began making dinner.

Because the Axe Tribe’s hunting team wanted to eat fish, Fan Zhou had stopped placing fish traps in the creek. But eating roasted meat every day got tiresome, so he went and placed the fish trap back into the creek.

Just as he was about to head out and catch a big-horned beast, a chorus of surprised cries rang out from the tribe. He immediately looked over. Though it was dark and quite far away, Feng Xun’s snow-white fur was especially easy to recognize.

Feng Xun had returned.

Feng Xun squatted atop a big-horned beast, looking majestic and imposing. Behind him followed a whole herd of big-horned beasts—over a hundred in total. There were also several mud beasts.

He’d had good luck today and had stumbled upon a herd of big-horned beasts, so he captured the whole group.

It was the first time the Waterfall Tribe had seen so many big-horned beasts. The beastmen were utterly shocked—so this was the power of the Enforcer.

Feng Xun had Lang Tian split the big-horned beasts evenly into two portions, then ran toward the cave.

Fan Zhou stood under the straw canopy, arms crossed, his face expressionless as he watched Feng Xun run up the slope in a few bounds.

“Tu Zhou.” Feng Xun first glanced at Fan Zhou’s expression, then raised his right paw and took off a necklace made of bones from around his neck.

“For you.” He handed the bone necklace to Fan Zhou.

The bone necklace was strung together with hemp rope, adorned on both sides with smooth beast fangs about the size of fingertips. The fang in the very center was crescent-shaped, a little over a finger’s length.

The entire necklace looked rugged and primitive, yet carried a certain wild beauty.

“…When did you make this necklace?” Fan Zhou felt a bit strange emotionally as he accepted the necklace.

“Made it today. I saw you weren’t happy, so I wanted to cheer you up,” Feng Xun explained. “I checked the teeth of all those big-horned beasts and pulled out the suitable ones. The big tooth in the middle is from a mud beast. I caught several of them and picked the best-looking tooth, especially.”

What he gave to the rabbit had to be perfect.

Fan Zhou: “……”

Strangely, his teeth started aching a little. So these teeth had all just been freshly pulled today.

But this was the white wolf’s heartfelt gesture. After examining the necklace in his hand, he put it around his neck, then walked over to the creek to take a look at his reflection.

His demeanor was gentle, and this wild-looking necklace didn’t quite match him, but it had been made by the white wolf’s own hands. He touched the large central fang, and the corners of his mouth couldn’t help but lift.

“Don’t be mad anymore, alright?” Feng Xun stood beside him, and when he saw a smile appear on Fan Zhou’s face, he cautiously asked.

He stayed quiet for a moment. “Alright.”

He turned his head to look at the white wolf, then hugged his head and gave it a good rub. Truth be told, it had been his own fault to begin with. They had already agreed to become mates—how could he blame the white wolf for thinking things over in private?

The white wolf hadn’t done anything wrong.

But the white wolf had noticed he was unhappy and tried to make him happy.

To be honest, Fan Zhou was really surprised. A gift, huh. He never would have thought a primitive beastman would come up with that—he wasn’t even a female beastman.

In the end, it just showed how much the white wolf liked him.

Such a handsome guy willing to put this kind of thought into him—so what if it hurts a bit? Worst case, he’d just eat some hard nuts! If he ate while doing it, it probably wouldn’t hurt at all.

And the white wolf’s technique wasn’t bad either…

He kissed the white wolf on the center of his brow, then said, “When you have time, go collect some tree oil.”

The white wolf hadn’t expected his attitude to change so quickly. After a moment of daze, he quickly shook his head. “Let’s wait a bit longer.”

The rabbit had clearly been moved by him—he wanted the rabbit to be completely willing when they finally…

This time, it was Fan Zhou who was surprised. However, surprise was just surprise—since he had made up his mind, there was no reason to hesitate. Ahem, he wanted to know exactly how good it felt… He had already transmigrated to this godforsaken place where not even birds pooped, so what was there to repress? If there was something to enjoy, he should just enjoy it. Otherwise, what a waste.

Thinking that, he rubbed the white wolf’s ears. “Go get it now. We’ll try it tonight.”

His tone was firm. Feng Xun hesitated for a moment, then nodded lightly. In matters like this, of course, the rabbit’s wishes came first.

Feng Xun was fast. Fan Zhou hadn’t even finished roasting the meat when he came back. The brown tree oil was thick and sticky, filling up a water pouch, and carried a faint grassy scent—it was unexpectedly pleasant.

Fan Zhou stared at the liquid in his palm, a bit puzzled. How did beastmen even figure out this stuff could be used for that? Could it be the Beast God who taught them?

If so, that Beast God was actually… pretty awesome.

Soon, after dinner, the two of them took some cooling grass and went to the creek to wash up. Back in the cave, Fan Zhou deliberately placed two hard nuts by the bedside, even removing the shells, ready to chew on them if anything felt off.

As it turned out, that preparation wasn’t overkill at all. At the beginning, it did hurt quite a bit. Not one to put up with discomfort, he grabbed a hard nut and started chewing. After downing one, the pain was gone—but so was most of the pleasure.

He didn’t feel much of anything.

Unwilling to give up, he clung to Feng Xun and tried again. This time, he didn’t chew any hard nuts. Apart from a little pain at the beginning, the rest was pure pleasure.

Pleasure so intense he lost all sense of time. He only wanted to thank his decisive self—thank goodness he hadn’t put it off. The earlier he tried it, the earlier he got to enjoy it.

By the time it was over, it was already deep into the night. Fan Zhou curled up in Feng Xun’s arms, sleeping like the dead. Feng Xun, on the other hand, didn’t feel sleepy at all. His fingers gently brushed across the sleeping Tu Zhou’s face, and for some reason, his eyes grew a little hot.

His chest felt full and tight—almost painfully so. Just now, although the rabbit had kissed him, kissed him hard, even urged him to go faster, it was clear that the rabbit was immersed only in the act itself, only in the physical pleasure.

That wasn’t necessarily a bad thing—his goal had been to get the rabbit used to him—but still, he couldn’t help feeling a bit down. The rabbit didn’t like him enough yet…

He couldn’t help but lower his head to kiss the sleeping person’s lips again. He had never fixated on any beastman, any object, or any status—until he met the rabbit.

The rabbit had effortlessly taken over all his thoughts and planted in him an obsession—an obsession that, no matter what, the rabbit could only be his.

Forget it. Take it slow. One day, the rabbit would like him just as much as he liked the rabbit.

The price of indulgence was waking up the next day sore all over, but the first thing he saw when he opened his eyes was that clean, handsome face of the beautiful man. And the beautiful man was still gazing at him as always, eyes soft as water, filled with deep affection.

He immediately blushed a little and couldn’t help but recall the scene from last night.

However, since they had already done it, he should be honest. In a good mood, he said, “Come here, give me a kiss.”

When Feng Xun heard this, his eyes lit up. Setting aside last night, this was the first time the rabbit had wanted a kiss from him while fully awake.

He immediately leaned in, pulled Fan Zhou into his arms, and dropped a gentle kiss.

Fan Zhou closed his eyes, lazily hugged his waist, and responded. There was no material wealth, but there was beauty—this was fine too.

When the kiss ended, Fan Zhou was completely awake. He bit into another hard nut, but hard nuts were useless against sore waists and legs. He could only drink more spiritual spring water to replenish his strength.

The main task for today was still building the pens. Half of the big-horned beasts Feng Xun had caught yesterday were given to the tribe, and the other half were kept by the two of them. With so much prey around, the beastmen were even more enthusiastic about building the pens, wishing they could finish it all today.

While the Waterfall Tribe was busy constructing the pens, on the other side, Xiong Wu and a few brown bears, after a long and arduous journey, finally returned to the Giant Bear Tribe.

The Giant Bear Tribe was very large, with terrain similar to that of the Waterfall Tribe. It looked like an excavator had dug into the vertical mountain face. However, the Giant Bear Tribe had no waterfall, and the three surrounding mountain faces were full of natural rock caves.

In the center was a flat square, and not far outside the tribe was a large lake, making water access very convenient.

The Beast Spirit Flower could bloom for about ten days. Once it withered, its medicinal efficacy would decrease, so Xiong Wu and the others hurried along the way, making it back in less than ten days.

It was evening at the moment. The beastmen of the Giant Bear Tribe were preparing dinner on the square. Seeing their chief return so quickly, they were a bit surprised.

Xiong Wu didn’t bother explaining and charged straight toward the cave he shared with Lu Xin.

Hou Yan’s cave was right at the entrance of the tribe. He happened to be stepping out of it and immediately called out when he saw this, “Xiong Wu, Lu Xin isn’t in the cave.”

“Huh?” Xiong Wu halted his steps and asked anxiously, “Where is he?”

Hou Yan sighed and said, “Some beastmen in the tribe were afraid Lu Xin’s strange illness might be contagious. When Lu Xin overheard their talk, he moved outside the tribe. I had someone set up a shelter for him—I’ll take you there.”

“!”

Xiong Wu’s eyes widened, and his rage shot straight to his head. He wanted to roar—who had so much idle chatter?! Lu Xin’s illness wasn’t contagious at all. If it were, he would’ve already been infected!

Hou Yan knew his temper and quickly tried to calm him, “Go see him first. He misses you a lot.”

One couldn’t blame the beastmen in the tribe for their wild speculations—there were twenty-five hundred beastman groups in the tribe, so many beastmen, how could every single one of them not be afraid?

As soon as he heard that Lu Xin missed him very much, Xiong Wu no longer cared about being angry. He immediately rushed to Hou Yan’s side and said, “Priest, please take me quickly.”

Wuwuwu, Lu Xin had been driven out of the tribe, and he didn’t even know. Lu Xin must have felt so wronged. He was such an unqualified mate! If he had known, he should’ve brought Lu Xin with him to the Waterfall Tribe.

“Alright, follow me,” Hou Yan said, stepping forward immediately to lead the way when he saw Xiong Wu’s reddened eyes.

Xiong Xing and the other brown bears hadn’t expected things to turn out this way either. After a moment’s hesitation, they also followed along.

The other beastmen in the tribe watched the scene unfold. Those who had previously gossiped about Lu Xin suddenly felt guilty, but they also felt wronged. Now that Lu Xin had black spots on both his cheeks, he looked really scary. It was only natural that they were afraid!