Chapter 212: Guessing Moluo's Purpose

"Chieftain, it's Yun Li Adult."

On the market, the young male who had been idly following behind the other suddenly caught a familiar figure in the corner of his eye and immediately spoke up to remind him.

But the male squatting ahead seemed not to hear this remark and continued talking with the stall owner in front of him as if nothing had happened.

Only when those figures were about to leave did Luosai grow anxious, "Chieftain, Yun Li Adult is leaving, we..."

Before he could say the words "not going over," Moluo cut him off, "Luosai, isn't your attention on that female a bit excessive?"

Luosai was momentarily speechless. After a long while, he caught up with Moluo, who had already left the stall, and asked, "But Chieftain, didn't you want the skills in Yun Li Adult's hands that can earn Crystal Cores? I thought you'd be happy to see Yun Li Adult show up here?"

"Even if we need to talk, now isn't the time."

Moluo already had a better plan in mind, but the Luosai following beside him had been out too little and simply didn't understand when was a good time to discuss matters.

Knowing full well that the skills in the other's hands couldn't possibly be handed over to them easily, rather than thinking about showing up in front of them every day to maintain presence, it was better to be patient and observe what the other party needed most right now.

And the reason Moluo had revealed so much useful information to Yun Li and her group before was not just to gain the trust of Yun Li and the person behind her; most importantly, he wanted to give them the feeling that they needed him. Only then could he seize more initiative in the subsequent negotiations.

Luosai truly didn't understand why the chieftain, who had already built such a good rapport with that Yun Li Adult, couldn't just bring up a normal transaction with her. He also didn't understand why the chieftain had been intentionally avoiding meeting her these past two days.

The male, who had only been out a few times, racked his brains for a long time but still came up with nothing. In the end, he simply stopped thinking about it. Since the chieftain was so confident, he might as well just follow the chieftain's lead.

After two consecutive days of not being able to run into anyone, Yun Li found it very strange.

"He might be intentionally avoiding you."

Leng Xiu, after all, was the beastman in charge of the market. How could he not know whether Moluo and the other had been to the market or not?

Not only did they go every day, they often lingered around the stalls selling the Tribe workshop's handicrafts. Yet whenever they had free time to go looking for them, they always missed them.

"Avoiding me? Is it because I'm a female, so he doesn't want to get too close to me?"

That was what Yun Li said out loud, but a bad premonition was quietly rising in her heart.

Had she finally met her match this time?

Although Yun Li had encountered quite a few intelligent beastmen in the few years since she came to this world, perhaps limited by their environment, horizons, and experience, they were actually a far cry from Yun Li's understanding when it came to business and tribal management. This had made it exceptionally easy for Yun Li to handle those intelligent beastmen.

Many beastmen thought she was formidable, but only Yun Li herself knew that it wasn't that she was formidable; it was just that the world she had once seen was bigger than theirs, and the education she had received was of a higher level.

So now that a beastman with extensive experience outside and richer life experience than her had appeared, Yun Li found herself, for a rare change, feeling a sense of inadequacy and embarrassment when dealing with him.

How troublesome!

"Are you very interested in him?"

Seeing the female suddenly reveal a look of keen interest after her distress, Leng Xiu couldn't help but frown inwardly.

"Not interested in him as a person, but interested in what kind of deal he's going to propose to us next."

Yun Li flashed a somewhat smug smile at her Beast Husband, "I think I've already guessed why he's avoiding us now."

But Yun Li didn't think that being more proactive would necessarily mean losing the initiative in the later negotiations.

"Oh?"

Hearing this, Leng Xiu suddenly became interested too, "What does he want to do?"

"Moluo is very interested in the things produced by Small Flat Mountain and the Tribe workshop, but he probably doesn't want to trade things directly for the items he wants, like the beastmen from the nomadic tribes do. I guess,"

Yun Li deliberately paused as she spoke, then continued, "What he really wants is the skill to make those items."

Leng Xiu narrowed his eyes slightly, "That greedy?"

Yun Li spread her hands, "It is greedy, but he probably has the capital to be this greedy."

Leng Xiu frowned slightly, "What do you mean?"

"When Ke Si came to find me before, he happened to run into me talking with Moluo. He told me that Moluo was very dangerous."

Even Ke Si thought that beastman was dangerous. Leng Xiu immediately understood what Yun Li meant by that "capital."

He frowned for a long while before saying in a low voice, "Should we have Ji Xuan test his strength?"

But as soon as he said this, Yun Li shot him a disapproving look.

Things were as good as they could be right now. There was no need to provoke a beastman who likely possessed Purple-rank strength when there were already other hostile beastmen eyeing the Tribe.

And Leng Xiu knew how stupid his impulsive words had been. He raised a hand to rub his aching temples and asked, "Since he wants those skills, is he deliberately avoiding us these past few days because he guessed we would need something from him?"

Because the information they had overheard contained too much, and without a stable connection to the outside world, they simply couldn't extract more useful information for the Tribe from it.

If they could truly get Moluo's help, the Tribe could take further measures against those outsider beastmen as soon as possible.

"Not only that. He can first exploit our current situation of knowing very little about the outside world, making us hand over the initiative in the upcoming deal. Then, by taking advantage of our curiosity about the outside, he'll likely propose that we escort them out of Heiyan Shanmai."

Yun Li's consideration of an "escort" was also because their Tribe had many eagle beastmen. Although Moluo was strong, with only that male who was always by his side, that made just two beastmen. If he truly wanted to take away those skills from the Tribe, then samples would be absolutely necessary.

After all, some things Yun Li could draw on paper for his reference, but some things, even Yun Li couldn't show all the details of the finished product in a drawing.

But Leng Xiu had some doubts about Yun Li's last point. He didn't voice them, however, and instead raised another question of his own.

"Didn't you say before that the place he came from was very far? So he might not know much about the area around Heiyan Shanmai."

Yun Li said with a smile, "That's fine. The most important thing is that he knows a lot about the outside world. His experience and knowledge are very useful to us.

At the very least, it can help us learn to distinguish which beastmen from outside Heiyan Shanmai are genuinely here to trade with the Tribe, and which ones are just trying to take advantage of the Tribe, deliberately using worthless junk that no one else wants, yet thinking they can exchange it for our Tribe's good things."