Chapter 229: Xuanyuan's Expectations

After Baifeng had finished packing everything properly, he set off. The distance they had to cover this time was truly quite far; if it weren't for the sake of making contact with the Xuanyuan Clan, Baifeng would have had no reason to engage in such a losing business venture.

Through his historical cheat, he already knew that Xuanyuan would inevitably unify the land of Jiuzhou. Baifeng was a variable; he wanted to become a part of the Xuanyuan Clan, yet he was unwilling to hand over his own tribe. He did not know if he could become a founding ancestor of the Huaxia civilization, and he still lacked confidence in his own abilities.

Thus, he could only constantly observe the progress of the Xuanyuan Clan to judge where his own future path lay. As for other tribes, they were completely outside his considerations and would certainly be losers. Even the Shennong Clan, after being merged by the Xuanyuan Clan, only managed to get the "Yan" character in "Yanhuang" because their influence was sufficiently powerful.

Baifeng thought that at the very least, he must manage to become the "Yanhuang-Bai." He was unwilling to end up like Chiyou, drifting away to the southwest in disgrace, nor did he want to become like Xingtian, the headless monster in myths who sought revenge against Xuanyuan.

Because the trade goods he brought were truly too few, after thinking it over repeatedly, he added some Ironware. Of course, the proportion of Weapon was extremely small, and they were the types that had already been phased out; most were simply some farming tools.

Baifeng hoped that Xuanyuan could understand the importance of farming and lead the human race to a higher level. It was not true prosperity if only their Baifeng tribe was wealthy; if everyone lacked sufficiently abundant goods to trade with one another, no one could become rich.

Of course, he was not afraid that Xuanyuan would remelt the farming tools to forge them into Weapon, because the Xuanyuan Tribe did not possess the ability to melt Iron, nor did they understand how to forge it. Their Weapon were cast; if the Iron was not melted, it was impossible to produce Weapon using their craftsmanship.

They steered two Large Ship downstream. Although they had more Large Ship, the more they utilized, the greater the loss would be. It was better to keep the Soldier in the tribe to engage in production; these people they had were fully sufficient to deal with problems that might arise on the journey.

Time had already passed the Summer Solstice. Baifeng only knew they had been traveling for a long time, but he could no longer know their specific location. He could only make simple inferences based on the changes in terrain and scenery along the way; later generations could make more detailed judgments through housing styles and crop varieties, but that was truly impossible now.

Xuanyuan had also embarked on the journey for trade. Because they were closer, they were not in a hurry, and they were familiar with the route, knowing where the location mentioned by the Baifeng tribe was. Unlike Baifeng, who could only blindly guess like a dog staring at the stars, Xuanyuan would certainly be able to recognize the place once they arrived.

Xuanyuan attached great importance to this trade. He believed he could not just go and trade using only Tea Leaves. Moreover, he did not care too much about the grain of the Baifeng tribe, because they had not experienced a shortage of grain; the full development of their territory and some high-yield Grass Seed meant their food supply was not particularly tight.

Furthermore, Leizu had brought some varieties of Grass Seed from the Xiling Clan that only needed to be planted by the water to be harvested. Their mudflats by the water had always had little output, but with the thing Leizu brought called Rice, and its high yield, the quantity of their food had increased once more. Although Leizu was curious that after they planted it, it could be harvested twice a year in the Xiling Clan, while here it could only be harvested once, the taste and yield of the Rice were better.

What Xuanyuan truly cared about was the Ironware of the Baifeng tribe. Their Knife and Sword were the things the Xuanyuan Clan currently lacked the most. They had Bronze ware themselves and could also smelt Bronze; excellent Soldier could all be equipped with a Bronze Weapon, but when facing the Ironware of the Baifeng tribe, it was still not enough.

Moreover, because of technical issues, their Bronze Weapon could not be cast too long. It was not that they did not want to make them larger, but they had no way to do so. Everyone understood that longer Weapon had a greater advantage in combat, but the long Weapon they cast were either bent or too brittle; they would snap if subjected to heavy force or if they struck hard objects, whereas the Iron Knife of the Baifeng tribe did not have this problem.

Therefore, he brought along Tea Leaves that were still fresh at the moment. In order to ensure the trade went smoothly, he even had his tribesmen dig up the Tea Tree and watered and maintained them along the way so they would still be alive before reaching the trading spot, then picked them on the spot. The Baifeng tribe might not necessarily need the Tea Tree anymore, because there was the Suiren Clan closer by.

Besides this, he also brought a lot of grain, beauties, Slave, and Silk.

These things might not necessarily move the Baifeng tribe to exchange their Iron Knife. Furthermore, what he wanted was not the kind of already damaged and very small Knife that had been traded to the Suiren Clan; he wanted the kind that the Soldier of the Baifeng tribe currently carried with them. That must be the best Weapon of the Baifeng tribe, and they would likely be unwilling to trade them.

After thinking it over, Xuanyuan finally made a decision: to bring along people who knew the Weaving of Silk, as well as the tools for Weaving Silk, to trade with Baifeng. This was something the Baifeng tribe had wanted before but which he had not agreed to; he believed these things were also urgently needed by the Baifeng tribe.

He had also discussed this matter with Leizu. After all, Silk was something that belonged to Leizu. The current Xiling Clan had completely merged into the Xuanyuan Clan. Although the name of the Xiling Clan had been preserved and all their sacrificial activities were conducted as normal, almost everyone already considered themselves a part of the Xuanyuan Clan, including Leizu.

She had originally wanted to rely on the Xuanyuan Clan to revitalize the Xiling Clan, but looking at the current situation, that was impossible. Moreover, she had also seen clearly the strength of the Xuanyuan Clan and its future potential.

As the person sleeping beside Xuanyuan, she naturally knew Xuanyuan's pursuits and wishes. She believed Xuanyuan could absolutely unify the land, so she began to support Xuanyuan with all her might. After all, a most powerful Xuanyuan Clan was far more important than a half-dead Xiling Clan, not to mention that the Xuanyuan Clan also had a part of her own.

Furthermore, she was already pregnant with Xuanyuan's child; the future Xuanyuan Clan would definitely be inherited by the child in her womb. Therefore, whether it was the Xiling Clan or the Xuanyuan Clan, they were all one person's, and there was no need to distinguish between them anymore.

When Xuanyuan told her he wanted to bring out the people who knew the Weaving of Silk and the tools used for Weaving Silk to trade with the Baifeng tribe, she was relatively resistant. She believed Xuanyuan should understand the importance of Silk on this land; it must never be learned by other tribes. As for the fact that the Baifeng tribe had silkworms, Xuanyuan had already told Leizu the original words.

Leizu had originally been unwilling to believe Baifeng's words, but in the end, she tried it anyway and discovered that what Baifeng said was very reasonable. For example, spider silk was very resilient, but she tried to use it for spinning thread and ended in failure. For one, spider webs were relatively difficult to collect, and for another, the shape of the spider web was already fixed and could not be reeled like a silkworm cocoon.

In the end, she did not refute Baifeng's viewpoint, but she still insisted that their Heavenly Worm was a special case and must have been bestowed by the Heavenly gods. The name would also not be changed to silkworm; this was for the sake of the cohesion of the people's hearts, and also to ensure that the value of Silk would not plummet.