Chapter 172: A Slave with Ability

The firelight on the Boat lit up, and only then did the commotion on the shore gradually subside. A few sleeping Free Persons realized they had caused trouble, but Baifeng no longer concerned himself with these matters and went straight back to the cabin to sleep; he trusted that his tribesmen could handle this well.

When the Heaven turned bright, Baifeng finished his second sleep. When he went to look, everyone had been trembling and awake all night; the Free Persons did not know what punishment they would face, and the Slaves did not know if those people would implicate them.

Baifeng rinsed his face with water, sat on a small Boat rowed by a tribesman, and swayed his way to the shore. By this time, those who had fled had all been captured. A few had died because an Arrow had hit a vital spot, while some were just bleeding, groaning, and not yet fully dead.

The rest who had not been shot appeared to have had their arms and legs broken, their limbs lying strangely on the ground.

Baifeng walked in front of those people, not looking at them, but staring at the Slaves: "Who knows what is going on with these people? Those who know the situation and did not run, speak now, and I can spare your life. If you don't speak and I find out later, I will kill you all."

The Slaves lay trembling all over the ground, and not a single person spoke.

"Good, very spirited. Worthy of coming from the same tribe. Then kill them."

As soon as Baifeng finished speaking, a Soldier dragged an escaped Slave to the riverbank. Before cutting, he asked: "Who is the mastermind, and does anyone else know what you did?"

The Slave said nothing. The Soldier did not delay any longer; the long Steel Knife had almost never been used to cut anything, so it was extremely sharp. With one strike, he severed the head from the neck, and it rolled into the river with a gurgle.

At this time, killing was basically done with blunt objects, or by piercing with a Spear and letting the victim die of blood loss. The Slaves had never seen a method like this, where the head was sliced straight off, especially with the blood spraying high into the air, which frightened them until they were pale.

After several more were beheaded, finally a Slave could not take it anymore and stood up to speak. He pointed to a headless corpse and said: "I know, I know. He was the leader. He was originally the leader of our tribe, but our tribe was forced to extinction by the Suiren clan, and we all became Slaves."

"He was unwilling to accept this and planned to escape. He told us all, but I didn't dare. I think it's fine like this; at least we can eat. In the end, only those few people wanted to escape." After finishing, he lay flat on the ground waiting for Baifeng's verdict.

"Good, you don't have to die. Is there anyone else who wants to speak for themselves? I won't ask again next time."

After Baifeng finished asking, more than a dozen people stood up, admitting they knew about the matter.

Finally, Baifeng let the first person check if anyone else was hiding information. That person hesitated for a while and pointed to two people. Immediately, Soldiers pulled those two out from the group of Slaves and dragged them to the riverbank; along the way, they had already lost control of their bowels.

After dealing with everyone, Baifeng kept his promise and did not kill those who had confessed. To eliminate hidden dangers, Baifeng began to paint a big picture: "The Slaves of our Baifeng Tribe are different from the Slaves of other tribes. I believe that if you want Slaves to work more, you must first let them eat their fill."

"Therefore, once you arrive at our Baifeng Tribe, you will have a lot of work to do, but I can guarantee that the food you get will be better than in your tribe, and your living conditions will not be bad either."

"It is just that you have no freedom, and it is impossible for you to live the same life as our tribesmen, because you are just Slaves. However, in the Baifeng Tribe, as long as you work hard enough, one day you will be able to shed your status as a Slave and become a Free Person."

Hearing this, the Slaves all raised their heads in disbelief. In their consciousness, once one became a Slave, one was a Slave until death, and Slaves rarely lived for many Winters; they might starve to death that very Winter.

One of the Slaves just stood up wanting to say something, and the Free Person guarding nearby wanted to smash him with a club. Fortunately, Baifeng stopped him in time; otherwise, if this blow had landed solidly, the Slave's labor force would have been basically lost.

Looking at the terrified Slave, Baifeng let him calm down and speak. He thought for a moment: "Tribal Chief Baifeng, we also know that Slaves cannot become Free Persons. We just hope to be able to eat some food so we don't work on empty stomachs. Let us live a few more Winters, and we can do more work for the tribe, don't you think?"

Baifeng nodded. He felt that for this person to dare to ask questions at such a time, he was at least a talent. So he asked for his name, intending to pay more attention to him in the future; if he was truly capable, he would give him a chance to shed his Slave status.

"My name is Changxu."

He did not say much. Regardless of which tribe he was the Tribal Chief of before or what prominent status he had held, revealing too much when he did not know what Baifeng intended to do would instead bring disaster to his own tribesmen.

"Changxu, is it? You don't need to worry about the food issue. The tribe will not let you work on an empty stomach. Just breathing air and drinking water cannot produce strength."

"However, what I said about removing your Slave status is not a lie. You will know when you reach the tribe and see the others. But this matter is very difficult; I estimate that half of you people have no such possibility."

"But if you have any skills, you can say so in advance. This is your best chance to get out of the Slave register. What our Baifeng Tribe needs most is people who have various techniques."

Changxu thought for a while and said: "I can communicate with birds. Does this count as a useful technique?"

Able to communicate with birds? This was a talent among talents. Although Baifeng could not believe things like understanding what birds were saying, there were indeed such people who could communicate with birds and were naturally close to them.

"As long as you can prove that you can communicate with birds, I can remove your Slave status on the spot and let you become a Free Person of the Baifeng Tribe. After you have made enough contributions to the Baifeng Tribe, I can give you the chance to become a member of the Baifeng Tribe."

Practice is the sole criterion for testing truth. Changxu blew a bird call that they were very familiar with, yet had never seen the bird for. Immediately, the same response came from the forest.

Before long, two very common birds flew around in the surrounding trees for a while and then landed on Changxu's arm.

The first thing Baifeng thought of was not that Changxu was truly amazing, but that the bird call he often heard was actually made by this kind of bird. As for this trick of Changxu's, Baifeng did not think it was very magical; he had seen plenty of it after the internet appeared in later generations.

However, this was indeed a very useful skill. Currently, the transmission of information was far too slow. If he could rely on Changxu to domesticate some carrier pigeons or falcons to deliver messages, it could be said to be invincible in war, and birds could also serve as scouts.