Chapter 376

Underground river mouth.

Ta-Ta Kai threw wood into the river, and the big beavers hugged the wood and dragged it into the cave, passing through the underground river and piling it all into the pond.

While the two families were busy, Liang Qu went ashore to go home by himself. Passing by the Chen family, the front gate was wide open, and five or six laborers were going in and out, and some were pushing wheelbarrows piled full of green bricks.

They were dumped down, raising a cloud of dust.

Chen Qingjiang rolled up his sleeves to help with the work. Seeing Liang Qu looking in at the door, he wiped his hands on his trouser legs and said embarrassedly: "The house is a mess today, there's no place to stand."

"It's fine, Uncle Chen, are you going to repair the house?"

Chen Qingjiang nodded: "It's getting cold, and the donkey in the grass shed is shivering every day. I was thinking of building a small house for it. A-Di said it would be better to hire someone to build two more rooms and expand the house so that the children will have a place to live when they grow up.

I think it makes sense, and work is cheaper in winter. I went to find someone to do the work this morning. Did it disturb you?"

"It's fine, Uncle, I just happened to pass by and came in to take a look."

Liang Qu waved his hand.

Ordinary fishermen rely on the weather for their livelihood; skills, seasons, and luck all have an impact.

But Chen Qingjiang and the others catch fish every day, not relying on the weather, but on the two finless porpoises under the Round Head's command driving the fish every night.

Even though there are fewer fish in winter, they sell for about the same as in summer because of the price increase.

Therefore, the daily income is stable at about two coins, and in a month, they can earn at least four or five taels of silver, and in a year, several dozen taels—a business that makes a steady profit without loss.

Liang Qu also gave Chen Qingjiang quite a lot of the precious fish he caught during the New Year last year.

Adding the two together, Chen Qingjiang probably has a hundred taels of silver in his hands; it's time to live a little better.

Watching Liang Qu's back leave, the laborers doing the work were in awe of Chen Qingjiang.

They didn't expect that even though Liang Qu had reached his current position, Chen Qingjiang could still address him as uncle and nephew.

He usually doesn't say a word and truly doesn't show off.

A few more days passed.

Long Pingjiang and Long Pinghe came to say goodbye.

They were going back to the depths of the Great Marsh for the New Year. Once they left, they wouldn't be able to come back for half a month.

Liang Qu was curious: "Do you Dragon-men also celebrate the Spring Festival?"

"In reply to the Dragon Lord, Dragon-men also celebrate the Spring Festival, but we don't set off firecrackers and it's not as lively as the human race. Before we set off, the elders in the clan also stipulated that regardless of whether we found the Dragon Lord or not, we must all return to the clan on the day of the Spring Festival to report the search situation."

Liang Qu flatly denied it.

"I am not the Dragon Lord."

"Understood, understood, you are not the Dragon Lord."

Long Pinghe and Long Pingjiang nodded repeatedly.

Liang Qu was silent for a long time: "How many people did your clan send out to find the reincarnated Dragon Lord?"

"Counting our two brothers, a total of sixty teams, totaling one hundred and twenty people, came to the south bank to find you... cough cough, to find the reincarnated Dragon Lord."

"One hundred and twenty people, all Wolf Smoke experts?"

"All of them. The strength of our two brothers is only in the middle stream."

Liang Qu was quite moved when he heard this.

One hundred and twenty Wolf Smoke experts—this number is even greater than those currently in Pingyang County!

Integrated, it is a quite exaggerated force. If placed in Huaiyin Prefecture, it could sweep through almost all counties except Huaiyin Prefecture and Pingyang County!

Long Pingjiang roughly guessed what Liang Qu was thinking and cupped his hands: "My lord, Dragon-men are different from the human race. We carry dragon blood and are naturally strong, and our cultivation is much faster than that of the human race."

"No constraints?"

"Yes, not only are there, but there are quite a lot of constraints. The meridian distribution of Dragon-men is roughly the same as that of humans, but there are still slight differences after all. Rashly using many human cultivation techniques carries great risks.

And after reaching the bloodline limit, it is much harder for Dragon-men to go further than it is for humans. Since the True Dragon passed away, our clan has rarely given birth to Grandmaster experts through cultivation alone, and the records are few."

"Bloodline limit?"

"My lord can understand it as bloodline theory. The closer you are to the Dragon Lord on the genealogy tree, the higher the limit. If you intermarry with the human race, it will separate you by more than two generations at once.

However, there are advantages and disadvantages. Intermarrying with humans will also reduce the constraints of the bloodline limit and can avoid inbreeding deformities, after all, the number of Dragon-men is limited."

Liang Qu looked at Long Pingjiang's super-tall height of 2.5 meters.

The physique of a Dragon-man is not a sickly, thin shape; it is almost an equal-proportion enlargement of the human race. Walking is no less than a wall moving horizontally, and the sense of oppression is full.

Can this thing intermarry with humans?

Long Pingjiang coughed twice: "Mostly Dragon-women intermarry. The physique of Dragon-women is usually between five feet five and six feet, which is considered a match.

The number of Dragon-men is relatively small. It's not that there is any problem, but once pregnant, the female side has a very high risk of dystocia.

When Dragon-men are born, they are basically above fifteen jin, and seventeen or eighteen jin is a normal level. The largest one recorded in the clan is even forty-two jin. If the female side has low strength and then absorbs nutrients for the fetus, in a haggard state, it is almost impossible to survive."

Liang Qu understood.

If the fetus weighs more than eight jin and the mother's pelvis is not large enough, dystocia may occur. If the weight exceeds nine jin, the possibility of natural childbirth is already quite small.

Forty-two jin...

That's half an adult woman!

It's impossible to give birth to it at all.

Liang Qu learned a lot about the customs and habits of the Dragon-men.

At the time of parting, Long Pingjiang asked again.

"My lord, should the news that you are the reincarnated Dragon Lord be told to the clan? Or told to a few elders separately?"

"I am not the reincarnated Dragon Lord!"

Long Pingjiang and Long Pinghe looked understanding.

Not the time yet!

"My lord, rest assured, our two brothers will never reveal it to anyone!"

"..."

The stubborn Dragon-man brothers left, and the precious fish supply that came every six days came to an abrupt end.

Liang Qu sighed, picked up his long spear by himself, stood in the courtyard, and polished his spear technique.

At the same time.

Like the two brothers Long Pingjiang and Long Pinghe, all the Dragon-men searching for the reincarnated Dragon Lord on the south bank rushed to the depths of the Great Marsh to celebrate the festival and report the search information from the past few months.

There was more than just the two brothers Long Pingjiang and Long Pinghe near Huaiyin Prefecture.

Near Xiangyi County.

A certain Dragon-man suddenly stopped in the rapid current, descended to the bottom of the river, and stared at the silt.

His companion asked: "What's wrong?"

"Look at this ditch, is there anything wrong with it?"

"Ditch?"

The Dragon-men could have relied on the four pillars of the Demon Court—the old turtle, the big toad—all of which were good places to go.

But the two sides were ultimately not of the same race; distance makes the heart grow fonder, but proximity breeds contempt.

The human race had an old saying: "Those who are not of my race must have a different heart."

Temporary shelter was still stable, but as time went on, over years or decades, interests would inevitably conflict.

Nowadays, most dragon-attribute exotic species lived in the middle zone between the south and the north, which was already very inconvenient.

It was hard to imagine what the situation would be like if they really moved in.

Not to mention the pillars, even the subordinates would cause trouble.

Having once been prosperous, rather than living under someone else's roof, it was better to drift and wander.

Making do had been acceptable all along, but that was a helpless move, a choice of last resort.

With delicacies from the mountains and seas, who would want to eat chaff and steamed buns?

Now that they had finally found the reincarnation of the Dragon Lord and had the hope of rebuilding their glory, how could they give up lightly?

Long Pingjiang explained: "The evil flood dragon is also sending subordinates to search for the reincarnation of the Dragon Lord. Right now, my lord is 'hiding his light,' and his unwillingness to admit it is out of caution!