Chapter 14

A three‑meter‑tall sand rat glanced at the two tiny people beside it, frightened, without the Wife Master needing to speak, it flung its limbs and ran forward, exhibiting a speed like fleeing for its life.

Cihe didn't dare to look back, nor did he need to; while sprinting with all his might, his nose tip caught a death‑god‑like powerful dangerous aura behind him, and he ran at the fastest speed of his life.

Yellow sand rose in mid‑air, and the neighbour's huge silhouette grew smaller and smaller.

At that moment, the hoop around his waist tightened further, and from above came Mo Lie's low, magnetic voice: "Let's go."

Lin Manzhi jumped in fright; the scenery before her eyes flew backward in an instant, wind and sand swept past, and the black pupils beneath her headscarf grew hazy from the sand, slowly narrowing.

She slightly lifted her head, thinking Mo Lie had somehow turned into a black panther to rush along, but in fact Mo Lie was merely holding her in his arms.

He appeared relaxed, his feet lightly pushing off and leaping over ten meters into the air, swift and graceful, displaying the black panther's excellent leaping ability at that moment.

The male beast's powerful beast form consumes more strength; after the Spirit Core is damaged, it will always remain in the low‑energy human form.

They can hardly sustain the beast form; using the Beast Form is practically self‑harm.

Lin Manzhi, knowing this well, had never asked Mo Lie to bring her in Beast Form; now that she confirmed Mo Lie wasn't using Beast Form, she finally relaxed.

The tribe was built relying on a natural rock wall; the towering rock rose from the ground, becoming a natural barrier against Exotic Beast attacks, and because it was naturally formed, the rock wall is uneven, with many pits of various sizes.

In the shadow between the Luosangya tribe's settlement and the rock wall, the sun‑less crevices in the rock, moist environment, caused many hardy plants to grow in this area.

It is rare to have an environment suitable for plant growth; the chieftain of the Luosangya tribe demarcated this area as a residential zone, making it the tribe's gathering area, allowing females or weaker, immature male beasts to gather food here.

Powerful male beasts need large amounts of meat to grow; this gathering area has no livestock, and they hardly ever come here.

The group stopped near the rock wall.

Barren land showed scattered specks of green; the gathering area is vast, and at the base of the rock wall no one can be seen.

Xi Tao was carefully lowered by Cichuan, and the three‑meter‑tall spiny rat turned back into Cihe.

Lin Manzhi stood in Mo Lie's embrace, looking up along the base of the rock wall.

So high.

It felt like standing at the bottom of a cliff, only able to see a stretch of blue sky.

No wonder there's hardly any wind and sand inside the tribe; though I heard the rock wall was built to defend against Exotic Beast attacks, and there are also some exiled criminal male beast groups.

Mo Lie loosened his grip and looked around.

One side here is the rock wall, the other side connects to a sprawling Beastfolk residential area; the slope is low, and nearby there are only a few barely threatening faint female auras.

Besides the two spiny rat male beasts beside us, we couldn't scent any other male beasts.

This place is very safe.

After confirming this, Mo Lie lowered his gaze to Lin Manzhi and asked softly, "Wife Master, I'm going to hunt outside the wall; do you want any Exotic Beast Meat?"

In the tribe, the chieftain leads a team on regular patrols to prevent dangerous Exotic Beasts from appearing inside the tribe and harming the weak females.

Generally, male beasts head outside the rock wall; this is a barren land, and the Exotic Beasts that can survive in the harsh environment are extremely fierce, which also serves as a test of the male beasts' strength.

The clash between hunter and prey also represents considerable danger.

Lin Manzhi first wanted to speak up and advise Mo Lie not to go.

We still have Beast Coin at home; if we can buy food, why bother risking it?

She lifted her head, gazing into those calm eyes as deep as the blue sky, and silently swallowed her words of advice.

Hey hey.

He's hardly a weak, pitiful male beast!

Lin Manzhi changed her tone: "I can have anything; we still have Exotic Beast Meat at home, I'll wait for you to have lunch."

Mo Lie: "Okay."

He looked at the female before him; not much time remained until noon, and after the Wife Master made no further request, he turned and left the gathering area, running toward the city wall's entrance.

Xi Tao had been waiting not far away for Lin Manzhi; the two Beast Husbands beside her also bade farewell to their own Wife Masters after Mo Lie left, and departed from here.

Soon, only Lin Manzhi and Xi Tao remained in the wasteland.

Xi Tao obviously let out a breath of relief, and, familiar with the way, led Lin Manzhi toward a large hollow in the rock wall ahead.

Lin Manzhi followed downward, gradually seeing more plants; these plants grew almost flush with the ground, similar to modern desert plants, but certainly of a different species.

They were entirely unknown to Lin Manzhi; she did not go blindly harvesting without seeing them.

Upon reaching a shaded spot, plants resembling sensitive‑plant leaves appeared on the ground and rock wall, densely covering a patch.

Its leaves are a withered yellow, hardly distinguishable from the hard sandy soil; from the outside, one would never notice that plants are growing here.

Xi Tao stopped, her face lighting up as she said, "This is the sand‑tail grass stalk I often come to dig; the price is decent, but because this stalk must be dug up whole to be sellable, it's usually extremely hard to extract, and few females are willing to come here."

Saying this, Xi Tao squatted down, took a small wooden knife from her beast‑skin bag, pulled the sand‑tail grass stalk's leaves aside, and began carefully digging downward along the stalk's roots.

Lin Manzhi also squatted down, not knowing the rules for females gathering together in the wild, and asked, "May I dig this here?"

Xi Tao tilted her head: "Of course, this is the tribe's gathering area; anyone can come and dig as they please; Yang Suo is lacking this!"

"Okay, then I'll dig with you," Lin Manzhi said with a smile, not rushing to dig the sand‑tail grass stalk, but first carefully observing Xi Tao's technique.

She found the sand‑tail grass stalk to be thin, with many rootlets; especially the deeper she dug, the finer the rootlets became, like a goat's beard, and they would break easily if not careful.

Xi Tao dug slowly for half a day, managing to excavate a pit the size of a palm, yet the sand‑tail grass's rootlets remained entrenched deeper in the soil.

After a while, Lin Manzhi understood why few people were willing to come here.

This is too difficult; without handy tools or machinery, the soil is still hard, the sand‑tail grass stalk is like ginseng and even more brittle than Chinese yam—if any rootlet breaks, the whole stalk is ruined and cannot be sold.

Male beasts have great strength but cannot do such delicate work; the females here are not lacking food or drink, and they won't take on this arduous task, so there is basically no competition.

"I wouldn't have come here either, if it weren't for wanting to save up some Beast Coin for a possible future female cub, I wouldn't bother digging this," Xi Tao complained while digging.