Chapter 354

What is this?

She lowered her head doubtfully to look, but saw nothing; she then lifted her foot doubtfully, only to see that some yellow unknown substance was stuck to the sole of her foot.

Yellow?

Could this be the unknown yellow granules that Yuan Lang just mentioned?

Moreover, it seemed to have been crushed by her step; the yellow liquid mixed with some sand from the cave stuck to her beast-skin boot, and she couldn't wipe it off no matter how many times she tried.

Maybe it's the eggs of some small insect laid here.

Although she didn't see any insects in the cave, Wu Yue still cautiously held a torch and roasted every corner inside and out of the cave before she felt at ease.

Host, do you still want to go check your field today?

Tongzi spoke.

When mentioning the plot of land where taro was planted, Wu Yue felt uneasy in her heart; it had been some days since she planted them, but the sprouts still showed no change.

The tribespeople initially had some expectations, but gradually they stopped paying attention, after all they still needed to struggle for their family's food.

She put on her forgiving-colored small satchel, picked up Lan Pangzi and placed him inside: 'Such a high-tech little backpack, the first try is of course for my closest Tongzi—come in and see how it feels.'

Tongzi, devoid of any will to live, allowed the dog host to put him into that green backpack, only his round chubby head sticking out.

Host, do you think I match this color in your heart?

Wu Yue hehe laughed: 'Don't talk about whether we match or not; we should look at the essence through phenomena—this backpack now that I've covered it with beast skin isn't that much more high-class?'

Most importantly, it's useful!

Tongzi hehe: I just believe your nonsense...

When Wu Yue and Tongzi arrived at the edge of the field, the slaves were still diligently tending the taro sprouts that showed no change, clearing weeds in the field.

For some unknown reason, the taro sprouts hadn't grown much, but the weeds were very lush.

Looking at the scrawny sprouts, Wu Yue sighed worriedly, 'Could it be that we're headed for disaster?'

Lady Wu Yue, you've come!

Changye, who was working in the field, saw Wu Yue approaching and hurriedly threw the weeds in his hand into a nearby basket, then came over.

Wu Yue heard his presence, then lifted her head and showed a smile: 'How have things been these days? Is there still food to eat?'

Seeing Wu Yue's concern for them, Changye felt excited and nodded repeatedly: 'Enough, enough—because of the several new foods you discovered, we still have some of our stored food left, so we'll definitely be fine until these taro are harvested.'

Seeing his eyes full of trust and anticipation, Wu Yue felt her heart grow heavier; although the taro sprouts weren't dead, their half-dead state left her without confidence that she could harvest enough taro...

She could only give a dry laugh, then pretended to inspect the taro field before running off.

Coming to the other side of the taro field that the slaves had already cleared, Wu Yue poked the not-much-grown sprout with a finger and sighed: 'Hey you, why don't you grow? I've been feeding you so much for nothing... huh?'

Wu Yue instantly stood up: 'Tongzi, does planting require fertilizer?'

Tongzi lifted his big head: 'Generally speaking, yes.'

If it's waste material, can animal feces be used?

Tongzi thought for a moment before saying: 'It seems you need to collect some feces, mix them with grass and wood ash, let it ferment for a while; you need to wait, so if you do it now, Host, you probably won't make it in time.'

Wu Yue dubiously looked at Lan Pangzi in the backpack: 'How do you know this so clearly?'

Tongzi's chubby face stiffened, then he stuck out his neck and said: 'As a clever, resourceful, omnipotent Tongzi, this bit of knowledge certainly wouldn't stump me.'

Wu Yue hehe laughed as she pulled him out of the backpack: 'Are you again using your pocket-money points to watch some obscene videos?'

Tongzi's little face turned red, feeling guilty for being caught, but he then righteously declared: 'That's not an obscene video; The Village Belle and Her Men is a women's inspirational epic!'

Wu Yue hehe: 'I just believe your nonsense.'

But thinking of her half-dead taro sprouts, she instantly lost the energy to argue with Tongzi: 'What should we do? Is my planting really doomed to wither like this?'

Tongzi, at a loss for words, glanced at her and said: 'Actually, the tribe has something ready that can be used.'

Wu Yue's eyes instantly lit up: 'Where?'

After a moment, looking at the large pit before her emitting a strange smell, Wu Yue felt her empty stomach from not having eaten that morning stir with a pure desire.

Tongzi, why do the tribespeople live in low-lying areas but go to such a high place to defecate?

These are all brought up by the slaves.

The Beastfolk's voice sounded from behind her; Wu Yue turned her head to see Yuan Lang pinching his nose and standing not far away.

The sense of smell of Beastfolk and Half-Beasts is very keen, so... doing this here won't let the smell blow into the tribe.

Wu Yue's mouth twitched; feelings aside, did she used to just defecate anywhere before?

Thinking that she had previously been such an uncivilized person, Wu Yue felt somewhat stifled.

Yuan Lang seemed to have thought of something as well, his gaze toward her carrying deep meaning; Wu Yue gave a dry laugh: 'These happen to be usable as fertilizer, so I came to take a look.'

You mean the reason the taro sprouts aren't growing is the fertilizer?

The Beastfolk's words, spoken while holding his nose, came out muffled.

Wu Yue nodded: 'Hmm, I plan to give it a try; even if I fail, I still want to struggle a bit.'

Yuan Lang nodded: 'I also agree with your view, but can we go somewhere else to talk? Don't you think this place reeks?'

Wu Yue hehe laughed and nodded, messing with Lan Pangzi's head, and the two headed down the mountain.

Yuan Lang glanced at Lan Pangzi, whom the little female had placed in the backpack with only a furry head showing, and felt a sour pang: 'This fat thing doesn't bathe, it's dirty and fat; you'd better not carry it around all the time, or there might be some little bugs on its body.'

While saying that, he also looked at Tongzi with disdain.

Tongzi's round cat eyes instantly narrowed into a slit, and then his little eyeballs all turned toward Yuan Lang's direction; the expression on his little furry face...

Yuan Lang somewhat doubted whether he was hallucinating—why would he see such a human-like look of contempt on the face of a chubby pet?

Wu Yue, however, reached out and rubbed Tongzi's little head again: 'This little guy is chubby and soft; most importantly, he has a good temperament—no matter how you mess with him, he won't get angry, and he can even help me with some things; he's very useful.'

For the first time, being praised by the host in every aspect from function to appearance, Tongzi felt a bit light-headed.

Its little black nose and little mouth couldn't help but turn up; afterward it sat properly in the satchel that it had previously despised, which seemed like dog feces, obediently rubbing against Wu Yue's messing little hand, presenting a picture of obedience and gentleness.

From time to time it lets out a soft 'woo woo' to show that it is truly obedient and cute.

Watching Tongzi being ravaged into a fluffy chicken and yet so obedient, Wu Yue burst into laughter inside, the Dog System is unbeatable, actually loving praise so much, hahaha!

Yuan Lang watched the blue fatty being ravaged into a fluffy chicken-like state by the little female, unconsciously stroking his own smooth hair behind, thinking that under the little female's control was his own head...

His handsome face involuntarily turned a bit stern, seriously damaging his tall and imposing image, absolutely not allowed, but later when returning to the two-person cave, he could still try.

After all...

He secretly glanced again at the blue fatty, who was being scratched by the little female until he howled comfortably, and being stroked and chin-scratched by the little female still looked quite comfortable.

Thinking of this, he felt a bit sour again.

He somewhat felt like the one who sent pets away was still begging, while the pets sent off were enjoying a soft sedan, fine clothes and jade food, a miserable feeling.

Since the reason why the taro sprouts weren't growing well had been found, Wu Yue didn't hesitate, immediately gathering the slaves and explaining the fertilizer matter in full.

But this talk of spreading feces on food still caused discussion among the surrounding tribespeople.

Only the slaves below had no reaction, and Wu Yue didn't bother with the surrounding tribespeople's voices, directly looking at the slaves: "What do you think?"

The slaves all somewhat nervously picked at their fingers, unconsciously looking toward Changye ahead.

Changye stepped forward: "Lord Wu Yue, we will do whatever you say."

He said, sighing: "Don't even mention just spreading feces on the land beside the food; when we had no food before, we even searched for food in some beasts' feces."

Wu Yue let out a deep sigh: "Alright, since everyone has no objections, from today onward everyone will pick out the fertilizer and spread it on both sides of the ridges; we'll see how the growth goes, and if any food is grown, after giving the portion to the tribe, the rest will be split half and half with you."

The slaves were too sad...

Although Wu Yue's words were just an empty check, for the slaves it gave tremendous motivation, each as if injected with chicken blood, they picked up their baskets and headed up the slope.

For Wu Yue, the coming days were full of hope, but for the members of the Snow Tiger Tribe...

"Yue, the tribespeople say you want to eat feces?" Qingcao looked at his companion voraciously chewing meat with an expression hard to put into words.

Wu Yue boldly swiped his paw: "When did I ever want to eat feces?"

"That stench from down the mountain has already spread up here; these past few days the half-beasts and beastman warriors have been much more eager to go hunting."

Looking doubtfully at Qingcao, Wu Yue extended his paw and grabbed another small piece of meat: "What does the stench have to do with their eagerness to hunt?"

Qingcao rolled his eyes: "Of course it's related; with such a strong smell, they certainly don't want to stay longer in the tribe."

Just as he finished speaking, he saw his companion with an expression of sudden realization: "No wonder, these days the slaves have been drinking meat soup."

Qingcao: "..."

Is this the point?

Understanding Qingcao's meaning, Wu Yue swallowed the food in his mouth and spoke solemnly: "Beasts need to eat food to grow; the chickens we feed need to eat grass or even worms to lay more eggs and grow larger."

We are the same; to grow big and strong we need to eat meat and lots of food.

The taro sprouts are the same; they just need different things from us and from beasts.

Hearing this, Qingcao also nodded thoughtfully: "What they need is feces."

But thinking of something, her expression became somewhat hard to put into words: "Those taro sprouts absorb our feces to grow; if we eat them, aren't we eating our own feces?"

Saying this, she felt somewhat unwell all over.

Wu Yue, speechless: "If you think that way, you might as well just go eat feces."

They merely absorb some nutrients from the fertilizer, not like you eating food and consuming it all.

The two females here were heatedly discussing fertilizing and eating feces, while not far behind them several males looked at them with complex expressions.

"Are females nowadays all speaking like this, so heavy in taste?"

"It's that we're too backward."

The most composed were Teng Qian, Teng Kun, and Yuan Lang, the three beasts.

They've long known that spreading farmyard manure in the fields is good!

But thinking of what Qingcao said about the taro sprouts absorbing feces, eating the taro would be like eating feces...

The three tall beastfolk exhaled in unison; having eaten military rations for over ten years, they refused to ponder such a profound topic.

After two full days of work, all the taro-planting fields have been fertilized; now we just wait for the results.

But just as Wu Yue was full of anticipation, the night's tranquility of the Snow Tiger Tribe was shattered by a startled cry.

Wu Yue dazedly sat up, before he could even clear his head, he felt his body being drawn into a scorching embrace, then a gust of wind blew cool on his backside, and upon regaining awareness he found himself standing in the clearing.

Around there were many tribespeople, and the shaman stood not far away.

"Put on the beast-skin skirt." The beastman's voice came, and immediately Wu Yue's hand held an additional fluffy thing.

He lowered his head to look...

No wonder he just felt the wind cool on his backside; it turned out she had only been wearing a big flowered underpants when Yuan Lang brought her outside the cave.

He hurriedly put on the beast-skin skirt, and before she could feel embarrassed, a deep, muffled boom sounded from ahead.

Wu Yue followed the sound and looked, instantly staring wide-eyed.

The place where they had previously dug the cave had already collapsed one-third.

"It seems this place really isn't suitable as a base."

The shaman beside him let out a deep sigh.

Wu Yue pressed his lips and stayed silent, after all she had been the one strongly advocating living on the higher ground.

But why would such solid bedrock collapse for no reason?

Because most of those living in the cave were beastfolk and half-beast warriors, only a few tribespeople got injured; Wu Yue and the shaman helped them apply herbal medicine, and then they were fine.

"Shaman, this bedrock is the same as the cave we lived in during the rainy season; why would it collapse for no reason?"

The shaman let out a sigh, took a small bamboo container and handed it to her: "Because of this."