Chapter 72: Gradual Cycle

On the other side, Yun Li and the other two did not head straight home, but stopped near the tribe.

Since witnessing a powerful female like Gong Mei in the Silver Eagle Tribe, Yun Li's desire to cultivate has become increasingly urgent; who wouldn't want to be as strong and confident as Gong Mei?

More importantly, Yun Li hopes that the same thing will happen again; she doesn't want to keep hiding behind her Beast Husband.

She also wants to one day point a bow and arrow at the beastmen who want to kill her and strike back herself.

Whoosh

One afternoon, Yun Li practiced archery in the forest until her hand was too weak to lift, and only then did she have to stop and rest.

When Leng Xiao returned from the tribe after delivering supplies and saw that her fingertips were scabbed with blood, his eyes couldn't help but show concern.

But he couldn't bring himself to blame Yun Li for pushing herself, and could only blame Mu Qing for watching Yun Li, which made her practice until her hands bled.

"Mu Qing, you really have a heart of stone; A Li is being stubborn and you don't even try to advise her, look at A Li's hands—when we get home, my brother will probably say we can't even protect A Li."

Mu Qing was also helpless; he does feel sorry for his female companion having to endure this hardship, but if she truly wants the strength to protect herself, then not enduring the hardship today will only bring more suffering later.

"I told her, but she insisted, and I couldn't do anything."

"Then you could have persuaded her more, let her take it slowly."

Leng Xiao didn't listen to his explanation at all; watching A Li like that, his heart ached terribly.

Seeing them look about to argue over her injured hand, the resting Yun Li quickly pulled Leng Xiao aside and said, "Don't blame Mu Qing; I'm the one who was impatient."

"You always protect him, and you know we feel sorry when you're injured, yet you make yourself like this; you must be purely selfish to make us feel bad, right?"

Leng Xiao said this, his gaze falling on the bow and arrows beside Yun Li.

Yun Li saw him staring at her weapons and couldn't help nudging him, "What are you trying to do? These bows and arrows were only finished after you all worked on them all morning; do you want to destroy them?"

Leng Xiao said irritably, "Do I dare? If I dared to touch your things, I wouldn't need you to deal with me; Mu Qing and my brother would beat me up first."

"I just got back from the tribe, and I heard people talking about who made the bow and arrows."

"Did it attract the attention of the Silver Eagle Tribe beastmen? So quickly?"

"Thinking back, it was at the tribe's gate, and it was Gong Mei's demonstration."

Yun Li couldn't help but smile; if it were her instead, the result might not have been the same.

"And then?"

"Then what, then?"

Leng Xiao raised an eyebrow, glanced at the bow and arrows and said, "Making this isn't difficult; after Gong Mei handled it, she'll definitely tell the tribe's smith how to make it, and then the tribe's beastmen who want a good bow and arrow will surely go to the smith for one."

Yun Li wasn't surprised to hear that; bows and arrows aren't hard to make, copying them is indeed simple, and the tribe's smith can even craft bows and arrows more exquisite than the ones in her hands.

"If the tribe's smith can make better bows and arrows, later you can bring food and trade with the smith to get one for me."

She looked to see whether they could make a crossbow in a short time.

If not, that would also be a good way to make use of it.

She had only seen crossbows in TV dramas; as an upgraded version of a bow, it has extra mechanisms, and she knows figuring them out will take time.

But Mu Qing and his group are smart; they should be able to help her think it through, right?

"Fine!"

For such a small request, how could Leng Xiao not agree to his female?

Meanwhile, Mu Qing remained silent beside them, looking at the bow and arrows next to Yun Li, his thoughts unknown.

Before nightfall, Yun Li and the others quickly packed up the game they had hunted and the wild grasses and vegetables they found, and then returned to the tribe.

Meanwhile, Leng Xiu spent the afternoon at home with wolf cubs, and also delivered messages to the beastmen of the original tribe; seeing that they had been out all afternoon and brought back many small game was fine, but they also collected a lot of unfamiliar wild grasses.

"Isn't this just wild grass? Why did you mix it with wild vegetables?"

No matter how many edible wild vegetables the beastmen know, "wild vegetables" is just a name; there can't be a classification.

Busy separating the mixed wild grass and vegetables, Leng Xiao didn't even look up and said, "A Li says these are scallions and cilantro, can be added to soup or used to flavor grilled meat; basically they're edible."

Thank heavens, in Yun Li's limited culinary repertoire, she at least knows scallions and cilantro.

This time near the Silver Eagle Tribe they actually found wild scallions and cilantro; Yun Li used harmless earth rabbits as test subjects, and after confirming the two were non‑poisonous, she bit a piece herself—the taste was similar to modern scallions and cilantro.

Now the household has two more seasoning ingredients.

Leng Xiu furrowed his brows, looked at the two unfamiliar wild vegetables, and grabbed a handful of each to taste.

Watching him eat grass—no, wild vegetables—Leng Xiao said with a teasing tone, "How is it, tasty?"

Leng Xiu gave his younger brother a glance, got up and said, "I'll go prepare dinner; later you wash a few handfuls of wild vegetables and bring them over."

"Mm."

Leng Xiao replied, "Got it."

"What do you want for dinner?"

"I want wild‑vegetable bone noodles."

Hearing Leng Xiu's voice, Yun Li quickly named a dish, but after saying it she seemed to recall something and asked, "Does the house have no black bean flour?"

"It's fine, we don't have black bean flour, but we have bamboo powder, and there are bamboo trees here."

Bamboo doesn't belong to region‑specific flora in Heiyan Shanmai; if you look closely, you'll find this tree is common, just sun‑loving, and the surrounding water sources are plentiful.

Leng Xiu, knowing what she wanted to eat, called Mu Qing to go help.

Making ramen dough is a technical skill; even with Yun Li's guidance, Mu Qing and his group couldn't yet produce ramen, but since Yun Li herself is a mediocre cook, when the ramen failed she just improvised and ordered Mu Qing's group to make flat noodles.

Anyway, everything boiled in the pot is just noodles; without a master chef's skill, they can only eat modern imitations.

However, even though Yun Li only mentioned wild‑vegetable bone noodles, at dinner Leng Xiu and the others still prepared other dishes: batter, boiled lizard eggs, pan‑fried meat, grilled meat, fried pork fat with wild vegetables...

Yun Li had expended a lot in the afternoon, so tonight the portion size was double.

At night, after bathing she fell asleep quickly, leaving her to think about the three male wolves who might keep her company; seeing the female not even bring it up before collapsing into sleep made her feel somewhat disappointed.

Fortunately, the four increasingly mischievous wolf cubs quietly crawled back into the den at midnight, and the males were instantly drawn to the cub that had slipped into some corner.

That night, the wooden basin, which had already been replaced with a large wooden tub, was swapped for an even bigger one.

Yun Li woke up on the second day and, seeing the wolf cubs frantically darting around in a wooden basin as big and deep as half a bathtub, couldn't help but feel both amused and exasperated.

It seemed she would still have to make a crib for the cubs.