Chapter 377: A Sudden Visit

Xuanyuan gathered all the wounded of his tribe together; for those still bleeding, he sprinkled a handful of plant ash on their wounds. Whether the bleeding would stop depended on Heaven's will; if it didn't stop, he would keep sprinkling until it did or until they bled to death.

As for those from the Lieshan Clan who were not dead but looked beyond saving, they were dragged together and all hacked to death. Those whose injuries were not too severe and looked like they might survive were treated the same way: just sprinkle the plant ash on them.

These people would all eventually become Slaves, though not for the Xuanyuan Tribe to use themselves, as they already had too many; if they had any more, they wouldn't be able to feed them. He intended to trade them to Baifeng. They hadn't traded Slaves for a long time because Xuanyuan feared that trading too many people would bolster the strength of Huaxia.

But now, Xuanyuan had to make a trade-off: use the excess, useless population to trade for Huaxia's grain so they could successfully survive this Winter, though the downside was that it would increase Huaxia's strength.

Therefore, Xuanyuan decided to raise the price during the trade to squeeze out more benefits for them. He believed Baifeng would not refuse. Xuanyuan could basically guess that Huaxia was not short on grain, but was very short on people.

That night, they did not continue to harvest grain but instead dealt with these messy matters, then took inventory of the harvested grain. At least one-third had been snatched away, which was a great loss for them.

Consequently, Xuanyuan had no choice but to order people to quickly pack up the harvested wheat ears and send them back to Qingqiu Mountain as soon as dawn broke. At the same time, they would bring more Soldiers to harvest together and protect the farmland. The Lieshan Clan might not necessarily come to rob again, but the possibility of them coming to set fires was high.

After Yi escaped, he used the light of the fire to see that a piece of flesh had been cleanly sliced off his arm, though it wasn't cut too deep; at least the bone was not yet visible.

It was still bleeding now, and only after seeing it did he begin to feel the intense pain. He had to use dirt to stop the bleeding, then pressed hard on the wound to prevent more blood from flowing out. His left arm already felt numb and was a bit difficult to lift.

He didn't fear death much, but he feared that if his arm became crippled and he couldn't lift it, that would be even more terrifying than dying outright, because it meant he would no longer be valued in the tribe and his life would become increasingly miserable; the tribe did not support useless people.

They had snatched a lot of grain, and adding that to their stored grain and going out to hunt every day, most people would still be able to survive the Winter, not to mention that they now had many fewer mouths to feed.

Yi himself did not plan to go back yet, but he still sent away most of the Soldiers along with the snatched grain. He stayed behind with over two hundred people, wanting to take the opportunity to continue causing trouble and set fire to the Xuanyuan Tribe's farmland; doing this was not too difficult.

After the main force of the Xuanyuan Tribe arrived, Xuanyuan himself decided there was no need to stay here. He believed that with so many people present, the Lieshan Clan would not dare to come and rob again; their strength was already very weak, and coming once was their limit.

Plus, the wheat fields were almost finished being harvested, and with the addition of several thousand people, it would take at most two days to finish harvesting. What remained was the work of protecting the grain that had not yet matured.

After returning to the tribe, Xuanyuan immediately had people start beating the wheat ears to thresh the grains from them. Xuanyuan himself also held a wheat ear and looked at it; he discovered that this year's wheat was slightly better than last year's—at least on one ear, the number of grains was a bit higher.

Although he did not understand how to select and breed seeds, based on the answer Baifeng had given him back then and his own judgment, he believed that the plumper the Wax Seed, the better the crops that would grow from it. So, he was selecting wheat ears with many plump grains, preparing to keep them as seeds.

They had no tools for weighing, nor did they have that concept, except that when trading, they would use a Balance Scale with Baifeng to exchange for goods of equal weight.

The people of the Xuanyuan Tribe looked at the golden grain covering the ground, their hearts filled with great excitement. This was only the first year they had planted grain on such a large scale; previously, they had only planted in small patches. These harvests this year were equivalent to extra grain income for them, because they had used the same amount of manpower but obtained more food than they ever had just by hunting and gathering.

The Lieshan Clan Slaves were also escorted to the Xuanyuan Tribe, but when he saw that several people were already sweating profusely and trembling all over, he knew these people could no longer live, so he directly had people take them away to sacrifice to their gods.

Although the remaining people were not in such a bad state, it was uncertain how long they could hold on. Feeding them might just be a waste, so he planned to take them directly to Huaxia for trade.

This trade was an impromptu decision; in the past, they would not have traded during this period, but would have delayed it for a while until the weather turned cold. However, Xuanyuan felt that doing one more trade wouldn't be a bad thing.

Therefore, without notifying Baifeng in advance, they boarded the Boat and started on their way. However, this time they did not intend to go to the trading location, but went directly to Huaxia's territory.

When Baifeng heard in his office that Xuanyuan was already on the river outside their city and had sent someone to deliver a message about trading, he was greatly surprised. Since when had Xuanyuan become so bold?

Baifeng didn't think too much about it and immediately agreed, preparing to go out of the city. Anyway, this was his territory; no matter how big a conspiracy Xuanyuan had, he wouldn't be able to carry it out.

Baifeng left the city but did not take a Boat; it was only a short distance, so it wasn't necessary. They let Xuanyuan row the Boat over and dock at their Matou. Unexpectedly, Xuanyuan did not refuse for the first time ever and sailed the Boat over directly. This left Baifeng feeling very uneasy—could it be that their whole ship had an infectious disease? But Xuanyuan shouldn't understand such things.

After Xuanyuan came over, he stared at the Huaxia Matou and clicked his tongue in wonder, especially when he saw the platform, which seemed to have been polished flat using some kind of stone; he found it even more novel. How big must that stone be, and how did Baifeng move it?

But what surprised him even more were the boats parked separately at several nearby docks; the number of Large Ship vessels was almost catching up to the number of small boats they had sailed over this time. He had originally thought Huaxia only had those few, but this time, he had a new understanding of Huaxia's strength.