Chapter 482: Look Forward

Just thinking that the usually quiet and terse Yuan Lang had actually spoken more words, instantly ignited the hearts of the surrounding tribespeople.

The tribespeople in the hunting and gathering teams were all eager to try; if they hadn't known they had to set out with the group, they would have probably run off into the forest right now.

Although the tribe's hunting team goes out hunting every day, the game in each tribe's territory is not very abundant; even the Snow Moon Tribe, which has four Beastman Warriors, cannot guarantee that every tribesperson can eat meat to their fill, so everyone's food consists of some meat and some wild vegetables.

Now hearing the Beastman Warrior say they can eat meat to their fill, they are so excited they could almost take off right where they stand.

Each one stared with bright, sparkling eyes at the two Beastman Warriors standing in the open space ahead; their gazes, like little suns, were full of fervent, invisible urging.

Yuan Lang and Teng Kun also couldn't help but chuckle, shaking their heads, and gave a low shout: 'Set out.'

His handsome, agile figure then took the lead, charging into the forest, with the hunting team's tribespeople behind him shouting as they followed.

Laman and Fu Er exchanged a glance, also burning with enthusiasm, and led the gathering team out.

At this moment, Wu Yue sat by the fire in the cave, looking at the pure white beast pelt in her hand that glimmered with silver light, calculating in her mind how much profit she could gain from it.

"Dear host, are you really not considering selling this top-grade fur to the system mall?"

Tongzi sat cross-legged on a small mat, sucking hard on his thumb, wishing his finger were that rare, top-quality beast pelt.

But Wu Yue merely glanced at him indifferently: 'We can exchange it for points later; this winter has already passed, and we only have these two snow beast pelts, so it's better to keep them just in case—don't try to change my mind.'

The system shrank its head sheepishly, lingering its gaze on the snowy white pelt for a long while before letting out a deep sigh and giving up on trying to persuade further.

In the afternoon, the tribespeople of the hunting and gathering teams began to return to the tribe one after another, and what surprised Wu Yue was that the gathering team led by Laman and Fu Er had actually found corn fruit.

"Corn fruit" is the name Wu Yue gave to that kind of dry, leaf-like fruit, because when its flesh is ground into powder it really resembles cornmeal.

The people here still don't know how to weave vine bags or baskets, so they wrapped some leaves around the fruit or simply held them in their hands.

"Fu Er, where did you find these leaves?"

Laman, holding a large pile of corn fruit, looked enviously and jealously at the leaves Fu Er used to wrap the fruit; if he could also find that many leaves, their gathering team would certainly bring back more fruit today.

Fu Er raised his eyebrows proudly: 'The area we were assigned to gather in today just happened to have many dry, big-leaf trees; although the leaves are dried up, they can still be used if we're careful.'

He still felt proud inside, because with the help of the big leaves, the amount of fruit they brought back was far, far more than that of Laman's gathering team.

That way, the members of their gathering team would be able to get more meat tonight.

Thinking of the tender game meat, Fu Er felt his saliva instantly flood his mouth.

The males of the hunting team had not yet returned, and the two gathering team captains had their respective tribespeople pile the fruit in different spots on the open ground.

The two fruit piles were clearly different in size; even Wu Yue, just having walked out of the cave, could see them at a glance.

She glanced curiously at Fu Er and his group sitting behind the larger fruit pile, but upon seeing the heap of large leaves placed beside them, she understood the reason.

Seeing her come out, everyone's eyes instantly brightened and turned toward her.

A smile touched her lips: 'You actually found this much fruit?'

"Honored shaman, you don't know; once these fruits mature, they don't fall from the tree, but become extremely hard and inedible."

Laman said respectfully.

Wu Yue smiled and nodded: 'You can just call me Shaman Yue.'

"Wu Yue Sir."

"Wu Yue Sir."

"..."

Everyone respectfully said in unison.

Wu Yue stepped forward, picked up a fruit and opened it; the tiny grains inside were exactly the same as those Xiao Aimai had brought back yesterday.

At this moment, Teng Qian and Ying Yan each carried a huge stone trough on their shoulders, and in their other hand they held a thick wooden stick that looked very heavy.

"Peng!"

"Peng!"

As the two heavy sounds rang out, the two stone troughs were placed on the open ground.

There were still some residual water stains on the outside of the stone troughs, which the two Beastman Warriors had already cleaned.

All the tribespeople looked at these two stones in great surprise, exchanged glances, and confirmed that they were people who didn't know.

"Fu Er, take the grains out of the fruit and put them in the backpack baskets."

Backpack baskets are this kind of miraculous item; although all the tribespeople know of them, that mysterious object can only be used by Shaman Yue Sir and a few Beastman Warriors.

They could see that those backpack baskets were made of tree vines or branches, but when separated they recognized them, yet weaving them into baskets...

The tribespeople could only respond with... hehe...

The miraculous baskets were taken from the cave by the two gathering team captains, while the remaining tribespeople sat in a circle before their own team's fruit pile, skillfully prying open the fruit shells to extract the grains, a series of actions they had mastered completely.

One golden fruit after another quickly filled a backpack basket; Teng Qian eagerly stepped forward, picked up a backpack basket and brought it to the stone trough, pouring in only half a basket of fruit, then picked up the nearby wooden stick and began to pound.

"Bang bang bang!"

Wave after wave of heavy pounding sounds rang out, and the tribespeople of both gathering teams grew curious.

"What are the Beastman Sirs doing?"

"I don't know; the fruits are already dried up, and we can't make them into dumplings."

In their understanding, the way to eat the fruit is either to stuff it directly into the mouth and chew, or to make it into dumplings like wild vegetables.

However, making dumplings from wild vegetables and fruit requires them to be fresh; even a withered fruit must still have moisture.

The heavy pounding continued, accompanied by the tribespeople's 'crack crack' shelling sounds, making a harmonious rhythm.

"May I ask... can I help you shell the fruit?"

On the busy open ground, a suddenly very unfamiliar voice rang out; the working people halted their actions in unison and looked toward the direction the sound came from.

A youngster who looked about ten years old stood at the tribe's gate, with a patrolling tribesperson behind him.

"Who are you?"

Although she was asking the youngster, Wu Yue's gaze was actually directed at the patrolling tribesperson behind him.

The youngster nervously licked his dry, chapped lips, and the patrolling male behind him spoke at that moment: 'Shaman, this youngster is a wanderer; we sometimes let them help out in the tribe for a bit and then give them some food.'

I... I only need a few grass dumplings.

It seems he's afraid Wu Yue won't give him work to do, so the youngster hurriedly said he's very cheap.

In the former Polar Forest, Wu Yue had only heard of wandering beastfolk, and indeed had never heard of wandering humans.

Because pure humans are too weak, to survive they gather together, forming tribes big or small to live communally, relying on collective strength to survive.

But since the people here aren't strange, Wu Yue nodded: "Put the fruits you've peeled aside separately; I'll give you food according to how many you peeled."

The youngster's limbs were like dry twigs; his sunken eye sockets instantly gleamed, his huge head nodding nonstop, and Wu Yue feared his big head might fall off his neck at any moment.

But fact proved the little guy's neck was still quite sturdy; after such violent shaking, it remained firmly in its original place.

The little guy seemed quite familiar with the original small tribe's folk living in this forest; while peeling fruits, he also nervously greeted some of the tribespeople.

Everyone just gave a simple nod, but didn't speak to him.

The corn kernels in the stone trough, under Teng Qian's pounding, had already become corn flour; although it couldn't compare to machine-ground flour from his previous life, it was also quite fine.

After putting the corn flour from the stone trough into the beastskin bag, Wu Yue looked at Teng Qian, sweat beading on his forehead, and said with a grin: "This amount of corn flour isn't enough to eat, keep it up!"

Teng Qian's arm, wiping sweat, stiffened; for no reason he felt a chill run down his back, as if someone was hatching a bad scheme.

He scanned the surroundings, and his gaze finally rested on the smiling female beside him.

After confirming the gaze, it was this backstabbing person right before him.

Thinking back to Yue's past deeds, even the thick-skinned Teng Qian couldn't help but sigh; it was only natural that Yue and his own general saw eye to eye—two black-hearted people aren't exactly a match made in heaven, are they?

Still complaining in his heart about the two black-hearted bosses, he took the small female beside him, who had already lifted the remaining corn kernels from her basket, and poured them into his own stone trough.

His face still bore that gentle, friendly, encouraging smile: "Work hard, I'm optimistic about you."

Teng Qian and Ying Yan exchanged a glance, only able to give a dry laugh.

Teng Qian, feeling miserable, lifted the wooden stick in his hand: "I'm optimistic about myself too."

Outside, corn kernels and corn flour were being produced continuously, while Wu Yue in the cave stared at the corn flour in the beastskin bag, drooling.

Fragrant sweet corn pancakes and corn porridge; if we could also get some leavened dough, we might be able to make fluffy corn steamed cake, and of course it would be even better with eggs.

Even the simplest corn pancake is far better than the wild vegetable dumplings the tribespeople eat.

But these fruits are limited; according to what Fu'er and Laman reported upon returning, there aren't many corn trees in this territory.

The golden corn flour was poured into a basin, mixed with boiling water, then covered with a wooden lid and set aside.

Returning to his own small cave, he took out the pot rewarded by the system for completing tasks, rendered the fat meat he had specially set aside yesterday to extract oil, scooped out the residue, and poured the remaining animal oil into a stone bowl for later use.

Glancing at the hot, steaming oil residue in the stone bowl beside him, Wu Yue gulped, feeling rather unashamed, and had to admit, this stuff tasted absolutely splendid.

The guilty little hand eventually reached for that fragrant, toasted oil residue; the crunching chewing sounds echoed in the cave as the oil residue mixed with salt exploded in deliciousness in his mouth.

Having thoroughly satisfied his craving, Wu Yue then covered the remaining half-bowl of oil residue and set it aside.

He took out a wooden scoop, picked up some oil and spread it evenly on the stone pot, then pinched the prepared corn flour in the basin into small portions, placed them in the pot, and pressed them into pancake shapes with the wooden scoop.

The sweet aroma of the corn flour mixed with the scent of animal oil, accompanied by the sizzling sound of fat, permeated the cave; even the two Beastman Warriors pounding corn kernels in the open space could smell it.

Teng Qian and Ying Yan exchanged a glance, then simultaneously sped up their hand movements.

They had never smelled that kind of aroma before; it must be the food that Yue calls corn.

In order to eat more delicious food, the two Beastman Warriors were now as if injected with chicken blood, their bodies brimming with power.

Meanwhile, not far from the tribe in the forest, Yuan Lang and Teng Kun were leading the hunting party toward the tribe.

The males of the hunting party were all very excited today; although they hadn't found much of the fruit the Beastman Sir spoke of, they were lucky to have stumbled upon a small group of migrating big-antlered deer.

Before, when they encountered such a heavily dangerous wild beast, they would immediately keep their distance.

But today, under the leadership of the two Beastman Warriors, although some ordinary tribespeople in the squad were injured, that small team of big-antlered deer entirely became their food, and they even brought back several does and big-antlered deer fawns.

Does lack the fearsome huge antlers on their heads, so their harmfulness is far lower than that of male big-antlered deer.

"I never imagined I could actually hunt a big-antlered deer," he chuckled.

The pure human male carrying a big-antlered deer fawn gave a foolish hehe laugh, began fantasizing about the admiring gazes of the tribespeople upon returning to the tribe, and instantly felt a bit light-headed.

There were not a few males around who shared the same thought.

Although the big-antlered deer in this hunt were killed by the two Beastman Warriors, they also helped block and capture several fawns.

But when they carried the game back to the tribe, they found that aside from the patrolling tribespeople, no one else came out to greet them, and each felt a little disheartened inside.

"Where have all the females gone? With all this meat we hunted today, they must be extremely happy."

Thinking of the females' admiring little glances, the males couldn't help but let out a hehe laugh.

The gazes of the surrounding single males also couldn't help but brighten.

But even after they carried the game into the tribe, they didn't receive the imagined cheers of admiring females; each felt a bit embarrassed as they looked toward the open space.

All that remained of the tribespeople were now sitting in a circle around two small mounds of fruit, bowing their heads seriously as they peeled the fruit; besides the crisp peeling sounds, one could occasionally hear gulps of saliva.