Chapter 41: Important Matters

Lin Manzhi pulls Xi Tao into the shop; because she is female, she doesn't have to queue with the male beasts inside, but can go straight to the back courtyard, where a male beast immediately comes to attend her.

She follows Xi Tao into the courtyard, where several females are already seated, holding brightly colored dresses and comparing them on themselves, a group chatting and laughing.

Among them is Xu Feifei, who, upon seeing Lin Manzhi's flushed face, pulls it down with a swipe, and, constrained by her status, snorts coldly and turns her head aside.

Lin Manzhi is a female with Pheromone Value 4; she keeps this hidden and never tells anyone.

Thus the few females present merely give her a cool stare as the more beautiful female walks in, then ignore her and continue shopping for clothes.

A male beast standing nearby lowers his head and approaches, "May I ask what the two females need? I'll fetch it for you."

Xi Tao, who never gets along with the courtyard females, doesn't even look at them and simply says what she wants: "I need four calming elixirs, and five bags of Blood Salt; nothing else."

While speaking, she pulls Beast Coins from her bag and says to Lin Manzhi, "Sigh… if only I had Pheromone, I could save ten thousand Beast Coins each month by not needing two calming elixirs."

When a male beast uses Beast Form, it consumes a great amount of energy; if the female has Pheromone, the Wife Master's Pheromone can eliminate the fatigue accumulated in the Spirit Core.

But most females lack a Pheromone Value, and their Beast Husband can only, like the males without females, rely on elixirs each month to relieve fatigue in their Spirit Core.

In the city, this frequently used calming elixir costs a thousand Beast Coins, but here it sells for five thousand Beast Coins.

Lin Manzhi watches Xi Tao pay, thinking this merchant caravan is actually quite profitable.

"May I ask what you'd like to purchase?" the male beast who fetched the elixirs and returned asks, looking at the pretty female beside him.

Regaining her composure, Lin Manzhi asks, "Do you have Spirit Core Repair Elixir here?"

The male shopkeeper replies, "Sorry, our shop doesn't carry Spirit Core Repair Elixir; it's only sold at the main city's pharmacy."

Lin Manzhi's eyes show disappointment; she had been thinking that if the shop had it, she would ask Yang Suo to buy it first, and if she lacked funds she could sign a loan contract and pay extra interest or something.

She didn't expect that after drafting in her mind how to persuade Yang Suo, it would turn out to be useless.

Here there's nothing she wants, and Lin Manzhi has no mood to watch the caravan unload, and she turns with Xi Tao, who has bought the goods,

Until Lin Manzhi's figure disappeared in the courtyard, Xu Feifei, who had been watching her, felt a bit of schadenfreude.

Humph.

What's a female with Pheromone Value 4 so proud of, when she's also stuck in this poor place like her?

Xu Feifei recalls Lin Manzhi's cheap coarse hemp cloth, compares it to her own deep‑red fine cotton, and feels proud, thinking she lives better than her!

Lin Manzhi doesn't know she's being looked down upon, and even if she did, she wouldn't compare herself with a vain female.

She and Xi Tao walk against the crowd to the shop's entrance, then turn and glance toward the nearby merchant caravan.

Some male beasts carry merchandise toward the courtyard beside the shop, while some Beastfolk carry baskets out; the baskets are covered with a damp cloth and contain the sand‑tail grass stalks she's been digging up these days.

She peers through the narrow doorway inward and sees several Beastfolk crouching, carefully flicking away the moist top layer of sand and placing fresh sand‑tail grass stalks into an empty basket beside them.

So Yang Suo is using soil to keep the sand‑tail grass stalks moist.

Lin Manzhi thinks the Beastfolk here are clever, having devised this method to preserve plant freshness.

First, fresh sand‑tail grass stalks are intact, unbroken, need not be washed or get wet; then they are buried in sand to maintain a certain humidity, so when dug up they are as fresh as just harvested.

Does Yang Suo collect them at any time each day, never seen delivering them out, but waiting until the caravan arrives?

Lin Manzhi pulls her gaze back, and from the corner of her eye sees the clan chief arrive, speaking with a Beastfolk who looks like a squad leader; both appear somewhat solemn.

Walking the road with Xi Tao, Lin Manzhi asks as they go, "Xi Tao, when does the merchant caravan leave, and can we go with them to another place?"

"They won't stay here long; they'll probably leave tomorrow."

Xi Tao puts the calming elixirs into her bag, ties the bag tightly at her waist, looks up at Lin Manzhi and says, "Leave with the caravan? Apart from the protection squad the tribe sends, I've never seen anyone else from the tribe… it should probably not be allowed."

Lin Manzhi isn't very disappointed by the answer, and thinks, "Oh…".

Xi Tao looks at Lin Manzhi with a puzzled expression, "Lin Manzhi, why did you bring this up all of a sudden?"

Lin Manzhi smiles lightly.

She says little else, "It's nothing."

The sun shines straight down, shrinking their shadows beneath their feet; the scorching heat makes them fall silent and quicken their steps.

At the Yang Suo Shop, the clan chief arrives with the caravan members to the caravan's resting courtyard.

The courtyard near the lake is a set of houses reserved for the caravan, adjacent to the clan chief's residence, indicating the caravan's special status within the tribe.

The houses are larger than those of the clan chief and the tribe's Shamaness, totaling about thirty rooms; aside from the leader's private room, the remaining few share a room each, enough to house the caravan's hundred‑plus Beastfolk.

Chief Luo Ji, following the leading hulking man, sits at a set of tables and chairs in the hall; just as he sits down, he says the words he's been mulling over, "Sha Cheng…".

"I have something important to tell you," Sha Cheng says almost simultaneously.

Sha Cheng is the captain of the sixteenth guard squad of the Luo Lai Caravan, and the sand‑mouse male beasts behind him belong to the same tribe.

Don't be fooled by their Beast Form, which is only a two‑meter‑tall dark‑gray mouse shape; among male beasts that isn't large, yet they have a natural advantage in desert terrain.

Moreover, the sand‑mouse tribe has sharp teeth and claws, allowing them to survive any harsh environment.

Here, the more elite and powerful the male beasts, the harder it is for them to sire offspring; gestation yields only a single offspring.

Although sand‑mouse also faces reproductive difficulty due to females, once pregnant they can, together with the Wife Master, give birth to a dozen male beasts in one litter, their strength shown in numbers.

Sha Cheng's unit has long been responsible for this barren region, and is a very strong team.

He now looks somewhat solemn, which even raises the clan chief Luo Ji's concern, causing him to momentarily forget to mention the tribe's hunting‑team leader and instead stare anxiously at Sha Cheng:

"Captain Sha Cheng, please speak first."

Sha Cheng sits at the table, lifts the water on the table and drinks half a cup in big gulps, easing the dryness in his mouth, then looks up and scans the people of the Rosanya Tribe opposite.