Chapter 387: Xiong's Journey

Accompanied by Baifeng, Xuanyuan left Huaxia, yet he remained silent throughout the entire journey, completely different from the way he was full of questions when he arrived. Finally, he left the city gate holding the Tea Leaves given to him by Baifeng. Baifeng watched Xuanyuan leave from the city gate all the way to the Matou, then turned back.

Before boarding the Boat, Xuanyuan looked back and saw the thick city gate being slowly closed, followed by the muffled sound of the bolt latching into place.

After Xuanyuan boarded the Boat, his tribesmen saw that his complexion was not very good. It was not just Xuanyuan; the others looked even worse, and one person's legs were even shaking constantly.

A Soldier said angrily, "Tribal Chief, did the people of Huaxia do something to you? If they don't follow the rules, then after we go back, we will gather the Soldiers and attack them once to teach them a lesson!"

Xuanyuan sighed and waved his hand to make the agitated Soldier sit down: "They can be said to be extremely polite, and their etiquette was very thorough. I even felt that our Xuanyuan Tribe was more like savages. It's just that they showed me their Soldiers and Weapons. Sigh, I still haven't recovered from that shock even now. Fortunately, they have few people; otherwise, they would have already conquered all these tribes."

That Soldier did not think the Tribal Chief was lying. Seeing the state of the others, he could also feel that Huaxia had indeed given them a shock this time, but he was equally curious: "Tribal Chief, such a small tribe as Huaxia, how strong can they be?"

Xuanyuan recalled a bit, wanting to speak but stopping himself, so he told him to step back first, as he needed to rest well. Seeing his Tribal Chief so exhausted, the Soldier did not disturb him further and hurriedly jumped onto a Boat nearby, leaving this Boat for the Tribal Chief to rest.

Far away, Xiong and the others did not know what had happened at home. They had been on the road searching for the Golden Autumn Gathering without stopping, but fortunately, they had already made some discoveries.

Long after leaving the city, they finally discovered the first human tribe. It was very small, with only three hundred people, but this was already about the same as their own team. However, this human tribe was hostile toward them and intended to attack.

Unfortunately, in the face of an exploration team with advanced equipment, the small tribe was almost vulnerable. In the end, almost all the Soldiers were killed, while Xiong's team only had four minor injuries. Actually, Xiong did not want to fight, but the Tribal Chief of this tribe was too overbearing, ignorant, and greedy. He took a fancy to their Weapons and ignored Xiong and the others' advice. Finally, after this Tribal Chief was killed by a single Knife strike, this completely unnecessary war came to an abrupt end.

For this small tribe, there was no need to ask for their name anymore. The remaining people were just women, children, "the elderly," and weak males. Such a tribe could no longer pose a threat to their team.

The remaining people also sensibly gave up resistance. Of course, they had not intended to attack Xiong from the very beginning; it was just that their Tribal Chief was too bellicose.

Xiong and the others simply used this tribe as their temporary station to rest and treat the wounded, but how to deal with this tribe became a trouble.

This tribe had already considered themselves the spoils of war for Xiong and the others. At this moment, they were Xiong's tribesmen, or rather, Xiong's Slaves, depending on how Xiong arranged it. But women were generally not treated as Slaves, and they had already changed their address to call Xiong "Tribal Chief."

Xiong could not make up his mind, so he began to seek everyone's opinions. In the end, there was no objection that this tribe must be incorporated into their Huaxia, because Huaxia was most in need of people, and finding people on this trip was also a very important task.

But how to settle them remained undecided. If they took them along, these people were mostly women and had no combat capability. Not only would they have to protect them, but they would also have to provide rations for so many people. Besides, their equipment was not enough for so many people to use. It was already autumn, and the weather was turning cold. In this environment, if they did not have warm equipment, they would definitely not survive.

But if they left them behind, this tribe had no combat capability left. Any tribe could wipe them out, or a group of wild beasts could come, and they would have no ability to resist.

Coupled with the loss of hunters, their food source became a problem, which made Xiong very troubled. If only they could have been incorporated peacefully, then this tribe would not have had so many troublesome matters.

Finally, after everyone's discussion and analysis of the pros and cons, they decided not to take them along and would leave them here, planning to bring them along when they returned after their mission was completed.

As for the issues of safety and food, they planned to stay here briefly for a few days to use their tools to build a house that could temporarily shelter this tribe.

Carrying saws and axes, they cut down trees easily. It did not need to be luxurious or durable, just sturdy enough. They cut slots into the logs one by one and fitted them together, and laid a row of wood flat for the roof.

With their tools and speed, it would only take two days to build enough temporary shelter for these two hundred people.

Then they used stones and mud to build a stove inside for them to keep warm, and instructed them to cover their place with dead branches, leaves, and such later so it would not be easily discovered.

Afterward, they spent another day catching almost all the prey they could find nearby, leaving it for them as rations, and repeatedly urged them to save it and eat it sparingly. If they could find more, they should continue to search. Their team would return in Winter to take them back to the tribe.

After leaving two blocks of salt, Xiong and the others set off again. The wounds of the injured had basically improved, so there was no need to worry too much. Why was Xiong so at ease? Mainly because this tribe had nowhere else to go; if they didn't trust Xiong and the others, they would have no hope of survival.

Moreover, Xiong had also brought along three people who claimed to know about the Golden Autumn Gathering. One of the women had been traded back at the Golden Autumn Gathering. Besides knowing the location, she also had some understanding of the tribal populations in that region.

The other two were also familiar with the road and knew where human tribes were. However, Xiong had no intention of attacking those tribes now, because with this experience, he felt it would be better to handle this on the return trip, so there would be no such concerns. Now, what they needed to do was to speed up and hurry to the gathering.

Having people to lead the way made things much easier for Xiong and the others. Moreover, their previous direction had been off. Based on the few people's judgment of the leaves and the weather, they believed there were only about ten days left until the Golden Autumn Gathering began.