Chapter 425: Leaving the Golden Autumn Gathering

Xiong went out for a stroll to look over the remaining stalls, then returned to see if he had missed any good items, but unfortunately, he watched until all the tribes packed up their things without finding anything else to his liking.

He had no choice but to return to the camp to rest, but the faint, lingering stench in the air made him realize that the Wulengebu had definitely set their sights on them.

Early the next morning, Xiong and his group packed up all their belongings and set off without hesitation, preparing to leave this gathering point; because they were located at the very edge of the site, their departure did not attract much attention.

Their cattle could finally be brought out and used openly at this time, and the surrounding tribes were astonished, their eyes unable to leave the animals; they suddenly felt that perhaps the Huaxia Tribe was not some small tribe after all, and upon further reflection, they possessed Wine and Glass cups—good things that only the gods could use—were physically strong, and had top-quality Salted Fish, so even if they claimed to be a small tribe, looking at it now, it seemed that was not the case.

They did not understand why the Huaxia Tribe would say such things, as they were usually afraid of not being a large tribe and being bullied, but they couldn't even fake being a large tribe if they tried; why would the Huaxia Tribe do the opposite? Could it be that some large tribe had come here to scout the path?

Just as Xiong and his group had taken their first steps, several people around them who had been pretending to wander about began to trot off in different directions.

Among them, the ones who required the least amount of thought were the people from the Wulengebu; of course, Xiong only discovered this one group, and he did not think any other tribes would come to attack them.

The Jiangshui Tribe was a slight possibility, but not a very large one; Xiong did not have time to overthink it, as all they could do now was travel quickly and hide in the dense forest early so that other tribes could not find them.

For this reason, Xiong told everyone that they did not need to go hunting for the next two days and should travel all day instead, without setting aside half a day for hunting.

Those who were monitoring the movements of the Huaxia Tribe, aside from the people of the Wulengebu, returned to their tribes and explained that the Huaxia Tribe had left, which caused their Tribal Chiefs to panic and hurriedly order their people to pack up and chase after them.

There were six such tribes, totaling over 1,500 people, including men, women, and children; it was clear they were the type of small tribes that moved as an entire clan, which was not uncommon at such gatherings, as only by staying together did these small tribes have a chance at survival.

Xiong and his group hurried along, and after half a day, they suddenly discovered that someone seemed to be coming from behind, so everyone immediately began to change formation; the women, who were in the way and lacked combat ability, were surrounded in the center, and the cattle carrying their supplies were also encircled by the Soldiers.

Early in the morning, they had already put on their Leather Armor and equipped their Sword and Crossbow, discarding the makeshift Weaponry.

With sharp Weaponry in hand, they naturally felt no panic, but when they saw the people approaching, they were indeed somewhat startled, because the people coming toward them did not look like enemies at all, but rather like a tribe of wild people returning home after the gathering had ended.

But Xiong and his group still did not lower their guard, because after that wild tribe saw them, they had no intention of bypassing them, but instead increased their speed and ran toward them.

Seeing the distance closing, Xiong had his deputy fire an Arrow as a warning, and only when the Arrow nailed itself into the ground at the feet of the person leading that tribe did they slam on the brakes and hurriedly stop.

Xiong held his large Knife: "Which tribe are you from? You clearly saw our Huaxia Tribe here, so why are you still coming over? This land is so vast, is it not enough for you to take a detour?"

The leader of the opposite tribe hurriedly stepped forward, bowed, and said: "We are the Twelve Tribes; we want to defect to the Huaxia Tribe and join the Huaxia Tribe, which is why we hurried over!"

Xiong was shocked by this unexpected answer, so he loudly questioned: "We Huaxia are also a small tribe, unable to even feed ourselves, so why would you come to defect?"

The leader on the opposite side replied: "Although I have not seen large tribes like the Shennong Clan or the Suiren Clan, I know that no small wild tribe could produce over a hundred such strong Soldiers, and it is clear that they are all the strongest warriors; the fact that you can bring out so much Salted Fish proves you are certainly not a small tribe. A truly small tribe should be like us, with almost no Soldiers, where even the Soldiers cannot eat their fill and the children cannot be raised. And, you should not be the Tribal Chief of the Huaxia Tribe, right?"

Xiong did not expect to be seen through; he turned his head to look at his group, feeling they all looked quite wretched, no different from ordinary wild people.

He had no choice but to ask suspiciously: "Are we really not like a small tribe, to the point where it can be seen at a glance?"

The leader on the opposite side hurriedly shook his head: "That's not it, most tribes didn't notice. I only found it strange when I saw you using Salted Fish to trade for Grass Seed, and only a small amount at that. Later, I observed you secretly and confirmed it; there shouldn't be many who discovered this."

Xiong nodded with satisfaction after hearing this; he felt his disguise was not a failure.

However, looking at the poor and shabby tribe opposite him, and then looking at his own group, he felt conflicted, because he also very much wanted to absorb another tribe to take back; the Huaxia Tribe could certainly afford to feed them, but the problem was that his current group could not afford to feed them, especially after trading for those 600-plus women.

Even just maintaining their most basic daily food intake to keep them from starving was no small trouble.

The person from the Twelve Tribes saw that Xiong seemed to be in a difficult position, so he hurriedly said: "Our requirements are not high, we just want a tribe that can protect us; we can all work."

Xiong had no choice but to explain his dilemma to them: "For our Huaxia Tribe, wanting to feed you is the simplest thing, but the problem is that this place is still a very long distance from our Huaxia territory, and I fear we won't even reach it by the time Winter arrives."