Chapter 493: Rich Man Snatches Beggar's Food

The little guy looked pleadingly at A You, his thin little claws grabbing the grass skirt that barely covered his waist and buttocks: "Let's go back together; if you stay here alone, they'll find you."

A You shook his head: "You go first, go back to report the news; if they find me, I'll try to buy some time."

"The Snow Moon Tribe people are really bad, worse than the Wuke Tribe; I hate them."

The little guy muttered softly while sticking out his little butt and backing away.

But his tear-filled eyes would from time to time look at A You, who was still lying there motionless, and saw him wave his hand, signaling him to hurry.

He then wiped the tears from his eyes, turned, and ran toward the mountain cave where the group gathered.

The little guy was young after all; although he had tried to lighten his steps, to the half-beasts and beastman warriors that sound was still very noticeable.

The gazes of several people on the clearing all snapped over.

A You, hiding behind the dense branches, instantly felt as if several fierce beasts were staring at him; his hairs stood on end, his body went rigid, and he dared not move.

"Strange, I clearly heard a sound coming from there just now."

Bu Lun scratched his head, then lay on his side again, yawning repeatedly; meanwhile, the eyes of Yuan Lang and Ying Yan both flashed with a harsh look.

Ying Yan rose and walked toward the deeper forest on the other side: "I'm going hunting."

Bu Lun opened his eyes wide and looked at him: "I'll go with you."

Saying that, he also stood up; although during this time of stealing herbs everyone had become quite familiar, compared to Wu Yue and Yuan Lang, who always stuck together, he and Ying Yan had gone through the previous 'escape,' and their relationship was actually better.

Ying Yan gave him a look of disdain but did not refuse; the two figures quickly vanished into the forest.

Seeing that he himself had not been discovered, A You let out a hard sigh; only then did he feel as if he had just emerged from the river, his whole body drenched.

Moreover, his forehead and back kept feeling chills.

"Beastman warriors are too scary..."

"As expected, there's a little guy hiding here."

A teasing voice sounded behind little A You, making his scalp, which had just relaxed a bit, explode.

He could no longer bother hiding; with a swoosh he sprang from the branches and ran outward.

A soft laugh suddenly sounded behind him; before A You could even hear it clearly, he felt a large hand grab the back of his neck and lift him up entirely.

"Let me go, let me go!"

The little guy's thin limbs were hardly thicker than the surrounding branches, and he had little strength; Bu Lun pursed his lips: "With that little strength, you might as well not bother."

After all, he was just a young cub, captured by the fearsome Snow Moon Tribe people with no hope of escape; A You was instantly overcome with grief and let out a wailing "waaa".

Although his body was small, his voice was very loud.

The wailing sound rang in his ears; Bu Lun almost let go and threw him away, but hurriedly bared his teeth and pulled him farther.

"These little brats are just trouble, noisy as hell; better hurry and bring him back to Wu Yue and Yuan Lang."

He had the least patience for such young cubs.

Ying Yan gave him a glance, then turned and headed straight for the clearing.

A You's crying was indeed loud; Wu Yue and Yuan Lang, who were talking by the fire in the clearing, heard the sound and looked over.

"Such a little guy, I could eat ten in one bite; he's just noisy as hell."

Bu Lun said this while also baring his teeth ferociously, making A You cry even louder.

Indeed, every good person of the Snow Moon Tribe actually eats young cubs.

Seeing the young cub frightened into crying even louder, Bu Lun smugly raised his eyebrows and set him down.

As his two thin little legs touched the ground, A You immediately stopped crying and dashed off into the forest on one side.

But the next moment, the feeling of having his fate gripped by the back of his neck returned: "You little thing, your legs are pretty spry; watch out, I might pull you down and eat you!"

Another round of threats came; A You's thin little body trembled, but his occasional glances around let the others know he still hadn't given up on escaping.

"You..."

Wu Yue stared for a moment, then frowned slightly and asked: "Didn't you used to go to our tribe to shuck corn fruit?"

When the little guy was previously brought here, she had already felt he was familiar; after observing him up close for a moment, she finally confirmed that this thin little guy was indeed the cub who had once gone to the tribe to work in exchange for food.

"No! I'm not, I haven't been to the Snow Moon Tribe, I haven't shucked corn fruit!"

Recognized by this shaman, the panicked A You loudly denied it, the fear and panic in his eyes obvious.

Wu Yue's face turned slightly cold; although the little guy got food because he worked in the tribe, in that time of scarcity, giving him food was already kind-hearted—why did this little guy avoid them like snakes and scorpions?

"I won't misremember; you're a cub from the nearby wandering gathering, right? When you left earlier, I even ordered the tribe to send you back, and I gave you more food."

She also had some impression of this little cub, because in this forest she had never before seen anyone who exchanged labor for food.

In the past Polar Forest, she had only heard of wandering beastmen, with no wandering humans existing, so she was somewhat curious, felt a bit more pity for these struggling small gatherings, and gave them more food.

Little A You kept shaking his head: "No, I didn't, you remembered wrong..."

While muttering that over and over, his thin little body kept trembling, his two little legs like dry twigs constantly shaking; if not for Bu Lun holding him from behind, he would have likely gone limp on the ground.

Seeing her so afraid of him, Wu Yue instantly lost interest in talking further, and waved her hand indifferently: "Let him go."

Bu Lun clicked his tongue: "You little brat really don't know what's good for you."

Having said that, he lifted A You back to the place where he had first been found: "All right, hurry off; it's dangerous for you alone in the forest, watch out for wild beasts eating you."

Having said that, he patted his hands and sauntered slowly toward the clearing.

"The last time I saw this little guy, he was somewhat wary of us, but not with such strong vigilance and hostility..."

Wu Yue frowned: "Right, it's hostility; although he tried hard to conceal it, the occasional emotion that leaked from his eyes couldn't be hidden."

"Could it be that you destroyed their gathering?"

Bu Lun, who loved a good spectacle and didn't mind trouble, spoke up.

Ying Yan glared at him: "After we established our tribe here, we've never attacked other tribes or gatherings."

Bu Lun snorted, picked his nose, and said: "That's not certain; just because you few don't do it doesn't mean your tribe's people don't—having beastman warriors and shamans backing you, who knows what shady things you might be doing behind the scenes."

Such things are common in our tribe; as long as they're not excessive, the tribe won't intervene.

After all, the food brought back by the hunting team each day isn't something everyone can get a share of, so you have to figure it out yourself!

"Yingyan, follow that little youngster over there, see what they're saying. If our tribe really has something like this happening, we can't let them off easily."

Wu Yue's voice was icy.

The tribe in the Polar Forest had no such bad habit, so Yingyan also despised this practice, nodded, flapped his wings and flew away.

"Lady Wu Yue, this is quite normal; you don't need to worry about it—who made them so weak?"

Bulun said it was commonplace, after all they've survived this way for generations.

Wu Yue glanced at him blandly: "Your people do this only because they lack enough food, but our tribe's food has always been plentiful; if they still want to do this, I won't agree—our Snow Moon Tribe has no such rule."

Seeing her displeased expression, Bulun also wisely shut his mouth.

I was indeed growing more curious about this Snow Moon Tribe, and I didn't know where this shaman and those beastman warriors came from, yet they actually had sympathy for the weak.

Unable to understand, he simply closed his mouth, returned to his previous resting spot, and shut his eyes.

"Don't worry; if it really is a tribe member who did something bad, finding out is actually a good thing."

A beastman's low voice sounded beside him.

Wu Yue turned her head, a hint of doubt in her slightly furrowed brows: "A good thing?"

Yuan Lang smiled lightly and nodded: "The tribe hasn't been united for long, and we haven't set any rules yet—this is a good chance to clarify the tribe's regulations."

Wu Yue nodded: "Originally I just had a little youngster come help out, feeling sorry for him, so I let him bring extra food when he left; if this really brings disaster to their gathering place because of this, then..."

"We'll know when Yingyan returns."

Yingyan didn't keep them waiting long; after about an hour, he flapped his huge wings down from above the forest, clutching two human males in his talons.

One looked older, with some graying hair; the other looked younger, but both were scrawny without exception.

"Shaman, something really did happen; I heard them outside their cave saying they wanted to trade for corn fruit, but they got nothing and were driven off—it was too noisy inside the cave to hear clearly."

The gathering place's leader and Gan Se stood aside, shrinking back after being set down; after that high‑altitude flight, their heads buzzed as if countless bee‑beasts were flying inside.

"Your tribe really has people bullying the folks of this gathering place!"

Bulun, who should have been asleep, sprang up from the ground with a leap, salivating as he came over.

Yet in his heart he felt some contempt for those tribe members who bullied the wanderers.

"What could wanderers possibly have that you'd find appealing? Tch, tch!"

Hearing that, Wu Yue even felt her face flush.

Because the little youngster had gone to the tribe to work last time, some tribesmen mentioned the wanderers' gathering place, saying they were the lowest of the low in the forest, and even when food was most abundant, it was still hard for them to eat their fill.

It's like a rich man going to snatch a beggar's biscuit.

"Tell me what happened to you in the Snow Moon Tribe, don't hide anything—I'll decide for you. If it really is our tribe's people who did wrong, I'll punish them."

"If they stole your belongings, I'll return them all and regard it as compensation for you."

The two males were stunned; they had thought this beastman warrior brought them here to kill them, and though they were relieved their own tribesmen could escape, now...

Both stared at each other in disbelief, even wanting to reach out and pinch the other to make sure it was real.

The leader, after all being the leader, though his body still trembled with fear, bowed and approached Wu Yue to salute, then said sorrowfully: "Our tribe's youngster worked in the Snow Moon Tribe and gained much food, said to be processing something called corn fruit."

"The food he brought back was delicious, so we wanted to gather this corn fruit to trade for food with the Snow Moon Tribe, but..."

He glanced nervously at the expressionless shaman sitting on the stone, then quickly lowered his head to continue: "But the patrolling male drove us away and left behind the food we had painstakingly gathered all day."

His voice now somewhat choked: "Because all the tribe's people went to gather corn fruit, we had no time to go out looking for food, nor could we go work for other tribes."

"The corn fruit is gone, and there's no food; the people have been hungry for many days, so we... we went to gather some corn fruit again, made it into corn flour, and turned it into food to eat."

"Although it's not as tasty as what Ayou brought back, it at least fills the stomach."

He suddenly lifted his head to look at Wu Yue: "Noble shaman, we don't want to steal the food the Snow Moon Tribe found; it's just that our tribe's youngsters are starving beyond endurance. From now on our gathering place won't eat corn fruit anymore—please let us go."

Wu Yue rose from the stone: "Take us to your gathering place's cave; I didn't know about this, and my tribe doesn't allow such things, so I'll bring you back to the Snow Moon Tribe—you must point out who snatched the corn fruit you brought that day."

Her voice was soft but full of majesty: "I won't blame you; instead I will punish the tribe member who did this."

Suppressing the anger in her heart, she looked at the two of them, her gaze softening a bit: "Come on, let's first go to your cave to rest; tomorrow we'll set out back to the tribe."

The leader and Gan Se blinked in disbelief—this... is it real?

"You really aren't going to kill our gathering place's people, are you?"

The leader said anxiously.

Wu Yue, black‑lined: "If I wanted to kill you, I would have had Yingyan strike just now—why go to the trouble of dragging you here?"