Chapter 328: Familiar Witch Power Energy

Wu Yue turned to look at what he held in her hand, her eyes flashing with delight: "Eggs!"

Moreover, they were eggs as big as an adult male's palm.

Seeing her delighted look, Changye straightened his slightly bent back: "I raised them as you said; I never expected that feeding the chickens some worms would actually make them lay eggs."

Wu Yue took the egg from his hand and quickly walked toward the nearby chicken coop.

At that moment, the chicken coop already had wooden troughs for drinking and feeding, and a dedicated slave was responsible for the coop's hygiene each day.

Moreover, ever since Wu Yue mentioned the eggs, the slaves have devoted themselves to getting the chickens to lay eggs.

Changye also asked her more than once how to make the chickens lay eggs.

For some unknown reason, these chickens, since being captured, have never laid a single egg.

Therefore, looking at the egg in her hand, Wu Yue felt quite excited.

Around the chicken coop lay several little radish heads, each holding a bamboo tube, now tilting the tubes to pour the worms they'd caught into the coop.

The chickens in the coop clucked excitedly, enjoying the feeding by the little radish heads.

In a grass nest inside the coop, Wu Yue saw a few more eggs.

She turned to Changye: "Take out those few eggs."

Changye hehed with a smile, opened the coop door, went in, and took out the few eggs from the grass nest.

The little radish heads seemed to have just noticed Wu Yue, standing shyly to one side, nervously fiddling with their bamboo tubes.

Wu Yue smiled: "You've done well; if it weren't for you catching worms to feed them, these chickens wouldn't know when they'd lay eggs."

Having said that, she stepped forward and said: "Because you've made a contribution, today I'll personally make some delicious food for you, using the eggs you earned by catching worms to feed the chickens."

Being young, the little radish heads, after being praised and receiving a reward, each excitedly and eagerly glanced at Wu Yue.

Changye beside her, however, felt somewhat uneasy, quickly stepping forward: "Lady Wu Yue, we are slaves; doing our work is our duty—how could we deserve such precious food?"

Wu Yue laughed: "I'm giving it to the little ones, not to you."

Having said that, she walked over and took the hand of the youngest youngster: "Come on, let's wash our hands first so we can eat the delicious food."

Changye immediately followed her lead, fetched a bucket of clean water, personally supervised the youngsters as they washed their hands clean, and then they obediently sat in the grass nest under the shelter.

Wu Yue took out a stone pot and then put all the eggs inside.

Because the eggs were relatively large, they took a bit longer to boil.

Feeling they were about done, she then lifted all the eggs out, cracked off the shells, and with a shell knife cut them into evenly sized pieces, which she gave to the obediently waiting youngsters.

The little ones had never eaten such food before; each carefully sniffed it, then stuck out their tongues to lick it, whereupon their eyes lit up, and they cautiously scraped off a bit with their teeth, instantly widening their eyes.

It was truly delicious; no wonder Lady Wu Yue became so excited upon seeing this food called eggs.

Wu Yue kept two eggs, planning to call Qingcao and Aya in the evening to make scrambled eggs.

As a miscellaneous laborer, Changye naturally got a share as well, and after eating it he came up with exactly the same thought as the little youngsters.

At dinner, after tasting the deliciousness of the eggs, Qingcao and Aya instantly revised their view of such furry, meat‑scant wild beasts, and the next day they begged Wu Yue to take them to catch some chickens to bring home and raise.

From then on, the tribe had two more people catching worms.

Because of the slaves' hard labor, all the mushrooms within the tribe's safe perimeter have been gathered and made into dried mushrooms.

After drying, the mushrooms were packed into carrying baskets, filling the entire small courtyard—showing just how many mushrooms there are here.

"Lady Wu Yue, should we take all these dried mushrooms to the back mountain? Won't you keep some to eat?"

Wu Yue took a dried mushroom from the basket in Changye's hand and said: "I naturally kept some for myself."

Having said that, she looked at the surrounding slaves: "Let's head out to the back mountain."

Meanwhile, on the back mountain, unlike the slaves' abundant harvest of dried mushrooms, the half‑beasts guarding the taro were on the verge of tears.

During the dawn patrol, their keen sense of smell actually detected a strange odor in several cellars.

Upon going down to inspect, they discovered that, perhaps unnoticed before, some taro had small wounds on its surface, and now those wounds were beginning to rot.

"What should we do now? This is our food for the heavy rain season."

A half‑beast warrior squatted on the ground, continually pulling at his hair: "If we had inspected more carefully, this wouldn't have happened."

His companion furrowed his brow, thought for a moment, and said: "You first pick out the spoiled taro from inside; I'll go to the tribe to find Lady Wu Yue and tell her this, to see if there's any other solution."

The several half‑beast warriors nodded, dragged their companion who was almost turning into a man‑made Mediterranean, and went to sort out the taro in the cellar.

So when Wu Yue returned with the slaves and that half‑beast warrior, the grassland on the back mountain was already piled high with many taros.

She stepped forward, picked one up and examined it; these taros indeed had some small wounds, but not many were spoiled.

Perhaps because the half‑beast warriors' sense of smell is keen, they detected it as soon as it began to emit a strange odor.

"Lady Wu Yue, can these taros still be eaten?" the half‑beast warrior asked anxiously.

Wasting so much food, they themselves wouldn't forgive themselves.

Wu Yue smiled and nodded: "After some processing they can still be eaten; fortunately you noticed in time and picked out the spoiled ones."

If left in the cellar, they would infect the good taros without wounds, and likely all the taros would end up spoiled."

Not only were they not blamed, they were even praised, their work affirmed; the half‑beast warriors shed their inner anxiety and became extremely happy.

Wu Yue took the small basket from behind her and handed it to a half‑beast warrior: "This is dried mushroom, which can be stored for a very long time."

"We'll cut off the spoiled parts of these selected taros, then bring them back to the tribe to make dried taro, which can likewise be stored for a long time."

Upon hearing this, the half‑beast warriors were overjoyed, each smiling with their eyes narrowed.

At that moment, seeing the slaves' faces brighten, they cheerfully went over to help place the dried mushrooms.

Wu Yue checked the storage condition of the taros in the cellar; the conditions she had initially set were perfectly met, and aside from the wounded taros, the others were stored well.

After she finished her inspection and returned, the slaves and the remaining half‑beast warriors had already cleaned the spoiled spots off that pile of taros and packed them into the slaves' baskets.

As they were returning, they happened to run into Flower Tree Granny; seeing Wu Yue bring back a group of slaves, she dropped what she was doing and walked over: "What are you doing out there?"

Wu Yue turned to Changye beside her and said: "You go back first; follow my instructions and make a batch to see how it turns out."

Changye nodded, bowed to Flower Tree Granny beside him, and then led the slaves back.

Wu Yue then took out a taro from the basket behind her: "Some parts of these taros have gone bad, so they can't be stored. I brought them back to see if I can make dried taro, which would also be convenient for storage."

Flower Tree absentmindedly nodded, glanced at Wu Yue, and said a little embarrassed: "Yue, I know you've been busy lately, but Grandma has something she wants you to help with."

This usually straightforward grandma's hesitant manner really made Wu Yue wonder: "Just say what you need; I'll help if I can."

She owed her entry into the gathering team largely to this grandma's care.

Grandma Flower Tree chuckled: "That's right. You know our gathering team usually brings back mostly wild greens when we go out."

I heard Qingcao say you can turn wild greens into dried vegetables that keep for a long time, so I wanted to ask if you could teach our gathering team's people.

"Of course."

Wu Yue answered without hesitation: "The method for making dried vegetables is really simple; come to my place tonight and I'll teach you."

Grandma Flower Tree laughed heartily, hugged Wu Yue, then happily ran to the gathering team to share the good news.

Wu Yue laughed happily, then headed home.

After walking some distance, she could still hear the females' cheers.

At this moment, at a valley mouth in the Polar Forest, two huge scorpions lay on the ground, lazily swaying their tails.

In the valley behind them were the shaman who had recently pursued the Black Wolf Shaman, and his entourage of scorpion beastman warriors.

The shaman held a black‑red worm corpse in his hand, brought his pallid face close to it, inhaled deeply, and his face showed a sickly excitement and nostalgia: "It's that familiar scent."

The familiar shamanic energy on that young female reminded him of someone who had long disappeared.

That person was the favorite food of his little ones, priceless; only when his little ones completed a major operation could they obtain that person's blood as a reward.

But…

The excitement and nostalgia on his face faded slowly, replaced by a hint of ferocity.

When he personally went out to attack a midsize tribe, that person actually escaped!

She doesn't need to go out gathering or hunting; she just feeds her little ones a bit of blood each day—what more could she want?

And now, thanks to the Beast God's blessing, he has once again encountered a female possessing such shamanic energy.

It seems his little ones can grow again, and his shamanic rank hasn't risen in ages.

His gloomy eyes narrowed slightly, the corners of his mouth curling with a sinister smile: "I'm really looking forward to it, heh heh heh…"

"Shaman, the Black Wolf Shaman has already set out for the Black Wolf Tribe, with many Snow Tiger Tribe beastman warriors escorting him."

As the shaman's thin fingers rubbed the worm in his hand, a sturdy beastman warrior entered from outside; his hair looked black at first glance, but closer inspection revealed a faint reddish tint.

Hearing that, the shaman slowly rose from the ground: "Then let's set out and follow them—we have to kill someone on this trip, since what happened in the Hawk Tribe has been exposed and won't work otherwise."

The beastman warrior frowned: "But shaman, there are quite a few Snow Tiger Tribe warriors escorting them."

The shaman gave a cold smile: "What difference does the number of beastfolk make in front of me?"

Having said that, he coldly ordered: "Depart."

Under his chilling gaze, the beastman warrior felt a fine cold sweat break out all over, quickly nodded, and respectfully followed him out; the other beastman warriors hurried to follow as well.

Meanwhile, Yuan Lang and the others had found a place to rest; the beastman warriors had brought back two hunted beasts, and everyone began distributing food for lunch.

Yuan Lang approached the Black Wolf Shaman holding a bamboo canister: "This is the powder Yue gave me that can repel those black‑red worms; if each beastman warrior sprinkles some on himself, the worms won't dare come near us."

Having just finished eating, the Black Wolf Shaman's eyes lit up; he reached for the bamboo tube, but Yuan Lang dodged him: "I'll do it—this powder is precious, not a bit can be wasted."

The Black Wolf Shaman grudgingly withdrew his eager claws, glared at Yuan Lang in annoyance, and thought, "This kid is really not cute at all."

He then extended his arm: "Go ahead and sprinkle some on me first—I'm likely the target of their hunt this time."

Yuan Lang nodded: "I thought the same, so I came to you first."

The Black Wolf Shaman choked, thinking, "Indeed, what does this brat want? He's wasting such a handsome face."

Despite his complaints, his gaze stayed fixed on Yuan Lang's bamboo canister; seeing him carefully open the stopper, he then sprinkled some of the black‑red powder on himself.

What's more astonishing, the powder gave off a herbal fragrance that was very pleasant.

And the moment the powder touched his body, the tiny insects that had been buzzing around him vanished instantly.

The Black Wolf Shaman's eyes shone even brighter—truly a great thing!

He eagerly stood up and led the way: "Come on, come on, I'll take you there; the kids in the tribe aren't easy to talk to, so don't waste this precious powder."

The hard‑to‑deal‑with Black Wolf Tribe beastman warriors: "…"

Howl?

Where could you find such peace‑loving wolves? Nowhere is hard to talk to.

The lecherous Black Wolf Shaman followed Yuan Lang, scraping a bit here and a bit there, actually collecting powder the size of a fingernail.

The black‑red powder stood out starkly against the green leaves.

The Black Wolf Shaman looked smugly at the precious powder in his hand, but upon seeing its color he grew doubtful: "Why does this hue look so similar to that worm from last time?"