Chapter 439

Xuehu Wu gave a dry chuckle, turned and glanced at the half-beast behind him: 'I'm planning to go out to gather medicinal herbs; as for that tasty food, Yue, just give me a bit.'

Although he said just a bit would do, that salivating little look was utterly obvious; casually giving a bit wouldn't satisfy Xuehu Wu's big appetite.

This is fruit jam made by boiling fruit; any tasty fruit can be boiled down. Shaman, if you want some, you can gather more fruit to boil and it will keep for a long time.

While speaking, he picked up two jars and handed them to the Beastman Warrior behind Xuehu Wu: 'This is a kind of green fruit I gathered with Yuan Lang in the deep forest—sour and sweet, really tasty.'

The Half-Beast took the jars and put them into the basket he had just said was for gathering medicinal herbs.

Xuehu Wu had already smeared something on a pastry and was munching away.

Perhaps because the jam wasn't overly sweet, the fruit's flavor was better preserved, making the taste simply superb.

Xuehu Wu ate them one by one, gobbling up several pastries with aow-aow sounds; when he saw only a few left on the plate, he reluctantly stopped.

'Delicious.'

Seeing him lick his lips while continuing to stare longingly at her remaining few pastries, Wu Yue reached out, picked up the plate, and took it into the kitchen.

Turning to face Xuehu Wu's resentful little gaze, she said without changing expression: 'The rest is for Yuan Lang, after all, these fruits were gathered by them.'

Xuehu Wu gave her a teasing glance: 'Oh~ like that, huh~'

That look that said 'I can tell you two have something going on' made Wu Yue's lips twitch involuntarily.

He felt the veins on his forehead throbbing: 'Shaman, you'd better head back soon; I need to go out as well.'

Hurry up, hurry up—I'm growing more and more disdainful of him.

After tidying up her small yard, Wu Yue shouldered her basket and headed toward the back mountain, but what surprised her was that the further she went toward the back mountain, the livelier it became.

She even saw Beastman Warriors from the other three tribes busily transporting already cured game.

Come to think of it... isn't it only the Mad Lion Tribe?

In the large cave behind the mountain, Changye was leading the slaves in taking out a new batch of air-dried ceramics; upon seeing Wu Yue arrive after a long absence, his eyes lit up instantly.

'Lady Wu Yue.'

He hurried over.

Wu Yue saw them transporting the air-dried ceramics, most of which were medium or small jars.

'Is this what the tribe needs?'

Changye nodded with a hehe laugh: 'Yeah, the tribe said they want to boil fruit jam and pickle some wild vegetables, so they asked us to prepare some not-too-large jars.'

He led Wu Yue to a corner of the cave, where the ceramics even had two little handles attached: 'These are specially made for the other three tribes to take away.'

'The other three tribes?'

'What do they need these jars for?'

Changye lifted his chin proudly: 'The three tribes brought lots of food and hides, wanting to trade with our tribe for long-lasting preserved food; these jars are for pickling wild vegetables.'

Wu Yue fell silent...

Alright, this trade is on; we'll arrange the pickled vegetables as well.

Seeming to think of something, Changye looked at Wu Yue with admiration: 'Lady Wu Yue, you don't know, they also want our tribe's sun-dried fruit and vegetable strips this time.'

As he spoke, he saw two Beastman Warriors from the Eagle Tribe carrying game walk past outside the cave; his voice dropped considerably: 'Our tribe's making of dried fruit and vegetables has been seen by the other tribes, who tried to imitate our sun-drying, but all their dried fruit and vegetables ended up spoiled.'

Wu Yue chuckled: 'It's not as simple as just slicing and casually sun-drying; if you want them to store for a long time, there are specific techniques for drying and preserving.'

Changye's gaze toward her grew even more admiring: 'Of course.'

You should know that the technique for sun-drying fruit was personally taught by Lady Wu Yue; in the Snow Tiger Tribe, if you're talking about the best and fastest sun-dried fruit, it's precisely these slaves who initially followed Lady Wu Yue around.

Because Lady Wu Yue taught them a lot and treated them like ordinary tribe members, their status in the tribe has risen greatly.

At the very least, now when tribe members want them to do something, they no longer simply assign tasks; instead, they offer food in exchange.

He knows a big reason for this is that back then, the Shaman announced before the whole tribe that these slaves would henceforth obey Lady Wu Yue's commands.

So in a sense, they are now Lady Wu Yue's people.

Feeling embarrassed by his admiring gaze, Wu Yue gave a dry cough and walked outward: 'Is your living space sufficient?'

At the last trade fair, we exchanged some more people, but due to the migration, we never arranged housing for them.

Changye nodded: 'We still have plenty of houses left; we can first get everyone moved in and still have space.'

The two then inspected the ceramics in the cave while discussing recent changes in life.

The ceramics in the cave varied greatly; many were made by the slaves according to the tribe members' needs, some even things Wu Yue hadn't thought of.

All we can say is that these people are truly amazing; I merely started things off, and afterward they could figure out the rest on their own.

In the days that followed, the Snow Tiger Tribe could be described as bustling nonstop; the Beastman Warriors from the other three tribes hunting within Snow Tiger territory actually alleviated, to some extent, the danger posed by migrating fierce beasts.

Before, during beast migrations, going out to gather or hunt was always more dangerous.

'Yue, is this the cloth you wear?'

Qingcao squatted beside Wu Yue, watching the wooden frame clack-clacking in operation, full of curiosity.

Near the companion's waist, there was already a strip of white fabric; although its color differed from what Wu Yue and Yuan Lang wore, she had previously been allowed by Wu Yue to touch it and found it very soft and comfortable.

Wu Yue rotated her slightly sore neck; the woven fabric was already over a meter long; though it wasn't as soft as the cotton clothing she'd worn in her previous life, compared to the animal hides they currently use, it was extremely comfortable.

Especially in the hot summer, wearing such a cloth outfit would be utterly comfortable.

'Weaving this cloth takes a lot of time; right now everyone's busy storing food, but once winter comes and we don't need to go out, you can build a loom and I'll teach you to weave—who knows, after winter you might have a bolt of cloth to make yourself clothes.'

Wu Yue's words made Qingcao yearn endlessly: 'Then I'll prepare the wood in advance and have my older brother help me find it.'

Having said that excitedly, she then looked at the thin threads on the loom: 'What is this made of? Do we need to prepare it in advance as well?'

Wu Yue nodded: 'It's made from plant fibers dried in the sun, but animal hair can also be used.'

Speaking of hair, she thought of wool; after coming to the Snow Tiger Tribe they had also eaten mutton, but those sheep's hairs are very short—fine for making small sheepskin garments, but useless for making yarn.

'Beast hair?'

Qingcao was also very surprised; she had never imagined that beast hair could be made into nice fabric.

Wu Yue nodded slightly: 'But it needs to be soft and long beast hair; if it's too hard, the fabric won't be comfortable to wear.'

Qingcao nodded eagerly, her small face still a bit wrinkled: "Back when our family didn't have many animal hides, A Mu always gave us the good hides, while the hide she wore herself was stiff and rough, not only shedding but also hard to the touch, not comfortable at all."

Speaking of her own A Mu, Qingcao's eyes were full of affectionate admiration.

Qingcao greatly admired Grandma Lvshui, which Wu Yue knew, and she smiled: "Then you just need to weave cloth well in winter and make a garment for Grandma Lvshui next year, right?"

Upon hearing that, Qingcao's eyes instantly sparkled, and she kept nodding.

Making cloth like this is obviously not something one or two people can accomplish.

Wu Yue and Qingcao then told the Snow Tiger shaman and the Snow Tiger clan chief about it; the two males, upon seeing the already-woven fabric and then looking at the threads as thick as hair, felt their understanding refreshed once again.

Especially after washing their hands clean and touching the soft fabric, they were so excited that their hands trembled a little.

There was no longer a need for the females to go gathering; it was decided then that the Beastman Warriors of the hunting squad who were off duty tomorrow would do the gathering, and in return, the loom and weaving lessons would be prioritized for these Beastman Warriors or their families.

Wu Yue took out some of the plants left over from last time and gave them to the Beastman Warriors to identify; Shilin recognized the plant as soon as he saw it.

"This plant grows in great abundance in the place where the previous gathering squad collected food."

During the previous gathering outing, Shilin was also one of the Half-Beast escorts, so he naturally remembered it clearly, especially since Wu Yue had stayed there for a long time.

Wu Yue nodded: "Yes, there are many of these plants there, a vast stretch with no end in sight; gathering them back should be enough for our tribe's females to use all winter."

Shilin nodded: "Leave it to me; I'll take the Beastman Warriors there."

Having witnessed the miraculous fabric, its soft touch not only attracted the females, but after seeing the clothes Yuan Lang and the others wore, the Beastman Warriors were even more eager.

Now that they knew they had a chance to own such a garment, they could wait no longer and immediately urged Shilin to set out.

The Beastman Warriors of the other three tribes were somewhat puzzled; in the past few days they had been closely watching them, fearing they had lured away their own tribe's females, yet the Snow Tiger Tribe's Beastman Warriors had disappeared.

Aside from being visible during hunts, at other times no one knew what mysterious business they were busy with.

This left the Beastman Warriors of the three tribes feeling anxious and restless.

"Have you guys seen those Snow Tiger Tribe Beastman Warriors lately?"

"We haven't seen them; they used to loiter around our area, but these past few days it's strange—they vanish after returning from the hunt to the tribe."

"Could they be going to build that high thing called a wall?"

As the Beastman Warrior from the Flying Hawk Tribe spoke about the wall, his eyes were full of awe.

I really don't know where the Snow Tiger Tribe gets all those wondrous ideas; such a tall, thick wall—let alone wild beasts, even ferocious beasts couldn't ram through and enter the tribe.

Thinking of the annual winter feral beast tide, the Beastman Warriors of the three tribes grew even more envious; the Snow Tiger Tribe is truly blessed—having such a wall, what feral beast tide could they fear?

"Should we go scout it out?"

The simpleton from the Black Wolf Tribe suddenly spoke up, not intending any ill intent, mainly out of curiosity, anxiously wanting to know what those Snow Tiger Tribe Beastman Warriors were actually doing.

The Beastman Warriors of the other two tribes were also curious, but...

"We'd better just stay put honestly; the Snow Tiger Tribe's willingness to help us make cured meat is already quite good, and if they found out we were still scouting this, they might drive us away."

The Beastfolk chattered away for a while, and in the end, still full of curiosity, they returned to their own huts to rest.

Meanwhile, at that moment, beside the small pool that Wu Yue had previously polluted, the Snow Tiger Tribe's Beastman Warriors were busy.

"Captain, is it safe to leave these things here? Will that skunk feral beast not come back?"

Speaking of that powerful-skunk feral beast, the faces of all the Beastman Warriors twisted somewhat.

The Beastman captain recalled the last time that nauseating odor had almost killed him on the spot, and the muscles on his face visibly twitched.

"Don't talk nonsense; before, we had no wall protecting us, but now we've built such a tall wall, that skunk can't get in."

The Beastman Warriors stared for a moment, then all nodded in unison: "That's right."

With the skunk danger gone, everyone worked with renewed vigor.

"I've already prepared the wood; once winter comes and there's nothing else to do, I'll have my partner weave cloth to make me clothes."

One Beastman, while handling the plant in his hand, gave a hehe-hehe silly grin, as if he were already wearing the clothes his partner had made.

The Beastman Warriors around who had partners all let out the same silly, foolish laugh.

The remaining group of single tigers felt awful inside, looking sourly at the Beastman Warriors hard at work.

Others have partners to weave cloth for clothes, while they are Beastmen whose hands are rougher than their soles—are they supposed to weave cloth themselves?

Thinking of the fabric the chief and shaman described—softer than a young female's skin—and then looking at their own rough palms, each of them furtively rubbed their animal-skin skirts.

Better forget it; they should give up the idea of weaving themselves, lest they waste the plant fibers they painstakingly produced.

The single tigers exchanged a glance, their eyes each holding a hint of resolve; it seemed time to put finding a mate on the agenda.

This concerns whether they'll be able to wear cloth-made clothes next year—no room for carelessness.

Thinking of their still-uncertain partners and the future cloth garments, each felt a surge of motivation, and their movements quickened a bit more.