Chapter 139

Ba Ke Er and Mo De, after observing the Exquisite Dragon Beast's movements for several days, also gradually discovered a problem: this group of Exquisite Dragon Beasts go to the same few places every day.

Moreover, besides leaving their habitat when hunting, they rarely leave it at other times; most importantly, even when they leave to hunt, they always leave a few adult Exquisite Dragon Beasts to guard the habitat against intruders.

However, in Ba Ke Er's view, this is completely different from their usual habits; Ba Ke Er vaguely remembers that during last year's Beast Tide Month, he unintentionally intruded once into the Exquisite Dragon Beast's habitat.

At that time, the Exquisite Dragon Beasts would indeed leave their habitat when hunting, but they absolutely would not leave any adult Exquisite Dragon Beasts to guard it.

At this moment, Ba Ke Er suddenly recalled the gaze that had fallen on him and Mo De, and he boldly guessed: could it be that the leader dragon had already noticed someone spying on them, so it arranged guards?

But thinking that way, it seems utterly illogical: if the leader dragon had already noticed him and Mo De, why wouldn't it drive them away? Instead, it continues to let them linger here to investigate.

Regarding the things that want money that happened, Ba Ke Er cannot figure it out after much thought.

Mo De saw Ba Ke Er actually zoning out again, and felt a bit strange. Tilting his head, he thought it over but still couldn't understand. This Ba Ke Er is usually quite cautious; why would he keep zoning out today? What on earth is going on?

Mo De saw that the Exquisite Dragon Beasts were now lying peacefully in their habitat, with no abnormality. He couldn't help but voice the problem that had been bothering him for a long time to Ba Ke Er.

Seeing Mo De's concern, Ba Ke Er felt a little embarrassed, scratched his head, and told Mo De all the problems he had discovered.

Upon hearing this, Mo De was greatly shocked! In his speculation, since the Exquisite Dragon Beasts care so much about this habitat, this place must certainly hide some unknown secret.

Moreover, this secret is crucial to the Exquisite Dragon Beasts; otherwise they wouldn't value this place so highly.

However, after hearing Mo De's speculation, Ba Ke Er again felt something was off! If it were really as Mo De said, and there were something important here, how could the leader dragon allow him and Mo De to keep watching them?

After Ba Ke Er said that, Mo De also felt he must have been thinking wrong; but regarding all this before them, they really could not figure out what was going on no matter how they tried.

By noon, when Lei Ya came over, the two of them told Lei Ya their findings combined with their speculation. After throwing all the problems to Lei Ya and the chieftain and Elders, Ba Ke Er and Mo De still did not feel relieved.

Instead, they couldn't stop thinking about this matter in their hearts.

After receiving the information, Lei Ya, as usual, returned to the base to hold a brief meeting with the team members; but before leaving, he also didn't forget to have the team members go find Ba Ke Er and the two of them to learn more details.

Once Lei Ya left, the team members began, according to his arrangement, to form two-person squads that took turns going to find Ba Ke Er and them to learn the situation. However, Lei Ya didn't realize that his arrangement also caused trouble for Ba Ke Er and Mo De.

With each two-person squad coming to find them, the whole team ended up with five squads, meaning Ba Ke Er and Mo De would have to repeat what they had told Lei Ya five times over.

On the other side, as soon as Lei Ya returned to the tribe, he hurried to the Tribal Office; upon seeing the chieftain's figure, he immediately shifted to human form and ran over. Seeing this, the chieftain at once summoned the Elders to convene a meeting.

At the meeting, Lei Ya related all the information he had obtained from Ba Ke Er and Mo De, word for word, clearly and completely. However, he did not expect that after hearing this, the chieftain and Elders would each fall silent.

However, such a reaction is understandable. After all, the Exquisite Dragon Beasts' behavior is indeed highly abnormal; it's normal for everyone to be unable to comprehend it at first.

Not long after, the hunting team's captain, Xiu Si, also returned, greeted everyone, and before even returning to his seat, began to relate what he and his team members had discovered.

"Chieftain! Elders, this is how it is: originally I was responsible for leading the team members to hunt outside the tribe in four different directions around the tribe. But I also don't know what's going on. Apart from being able to find some large carnivorous animals at some water sources, we actually only found some small herbivorous animals."

Having said that, Xiu Si had already walked to his seat and sat down. After hastily taking a sip of water, Xiu Si continued:

"This is vastly different from previous Beast Tide Months! In past years, even if herbivorous animals were fewer, they wouldn't be this few! Moreover, the number of carnivorous animals has also dropped greatly!"

After saying that with a furrowed brow, Xiu Si continued to look at the chieftain with hopeful eyes. It was unclear whether he was waiting for the chieftain to give him new orders, or for the chieftain to explain everything, or perhaps both.

After noticing Xiu Si's gaze, the chieftain pondered for a moment, thought it over, and then spoke to Xiu Si, relaying the situation regarding the Exquisite Dragon Beasts that Lei Ya had just reported to them.

Unexpectedly, upon hearing this, Xiu Si was overjoyed and excitedly said: "Chieftain! If I haven't guessed wrong, our tribe should be able to avoid many losses this year! Truly a blessing from the Beast God!"

Seeing Xiu Si's reaction, everyone became even more puzzled, wondering what exactly was going on; naturally, someone then spoke up to ask.

As soon as Xiu Si saw that everyone looked puzzled, he didn't beat around the bush but directly voiced his speculation.

"Chieftain! Elders! And Uncle Lei Ya, I think that since the number of wild beasts around the tribe has decreased, it must be related to the leader's arrangements."

Saying this, Xiu Si raised his hand to rub his chin, then continued:

"Since the chieftain just said that, we originally thought the leader dragon of the Exquisite Dragon Beast herd was this year's leader, but I believe the facts are otherwise! Look, those dragon beasts did show signs of migration in the first few days."

"But the facts show that, besides briefly leaving their habitat when hunting, they soon return. Moreover, most importantly, they actually leave a small portion of the dragon beasts behind to guard the territory after the main group departs."

At this point, Xiu Si has said all this; what else could anyone not understand?

This clearly shows that the beast tide has changed its route this year, bypassing the Heaven Lion Tribe as it did in previous years! However, even so, Chieftain Fei Ji still feels that we cannot let our guard down; we must continue observing, lest the beast tide find a loophole.

Regarding the chieftain's statement, including Xiu Si, everyone is in full agreement. Indeed, in past years the beast tide's migration direction has always been due south of the Heaven Lion Tribe; every year it's the same, so why this year has changed, nobody currently understands.

Therefore, we dare not rashly let Ba Ke Er and them stop scouting, nor dare we reduce the tribe's guards; for such a special moment with too many unstable factors, we should instead increase the number of guards.

Thus, after the meeting ended, the chieftain gathered all the stationed Beastmen in the tribe at the Tribe Center Square and held a brief meeting about increasing the guards.

He encouraged everyone to join the tribe's guard squad, to protect the tribe's precious food supplies, females, and underage children.

But what the chieftain didn't expect was that, after he said that, not only did the elderly males in the tribe actively participate, but even some males nearing adulthood also eagerly volunteered to join.

Naturally, the chieftain was delighted with this result.

However, out of concern for the tribespeople's safety and to fit the tribe's actual circumstances, the chieftain could only selectively allow some physically strong elderly males and some males nearing adulthood with excellent physical condition to join the guard squad.

Furthermore, all the tribespeople who came forward to sign up for admission were screened out. Even those not selected accepted the outcome willingly, since the chieftain's considerations were fairly comprehensive.

Everyone was also convinced by this, yet even so, nobody felt disheartened, because there are still plenty of opportunities to contribute to the tribe, especially for the underage males.

And those elderly males were also people who had previously made considerable contributions to the tribe. They came forward to sign up this time because they believed their fervent passion had not yet been spent, and that they could still grow stronger with age.

However, after all, there are still many ways to contribute to the tribe, not just the guard squad. They thought: we can still think of ways, persuade the chieftain, and see if we can arrange some other tasks for them.

However, the chieftain at this time still did not realize that he had inadvertently dug himself a huge pit. Only when the elderly and disabled males came to him did he understand.

Then he began to have a headache figuring out how to assign tasks to those tribesmen who had volunteered.

At this moment, Zhang Fan and Fei Er were busy at home preparing lunch. In recent days, Fei Er has been coming over every morning right after Zhang Fan finishes preparing breakfast.

It seemed as if it were timed perfectly; however, Zhang Fan didn't pay it much mind, since eating alone can be rather lonely. Having Fei Er, this super chatterbox, as company is also quite nice.

Moreover, precisely because Fei Er is here keeping him company, Zhang Fan also avoids wasting time on idle thoughts, and thus he is happy to prepare some little snacks for this big eater Fei Er.

That's why, with the tasty treats, Fei Er has already developed the habit of not returning home before dark; I wonder how Mo De would feel if he knew.

At noon, after eating, Zhang Fan and Fei Er together took a thin blanket to the lounge chair in the courtyard to chat and rest.

This made Zhang Fan more than once feel that if he kept going like this, it wouldn't be long before he became overly obese and contracted all sorts of strange diseases.

However, Fei Er couldn't care less about that, and even exaggeratedly said: "What do we count as fat? You haven't seen the females of the Bear Tribe! That's what real fat is! For us, as soon as we stuff ourselves with those soft, white buns, we instantly slim down!"

Regarding Fei Er's remark, Zhang Fan remained noncommittal, since he had never imagined himself ever having the day when he would stuff a bun; in his heart, he would forever be a man lacking the ability to stuff a bun.

However, at that very moment, the Beast God far in the divine realm, upon "hearing" Zhang Fan's inner thoughts, gave a mysterious smile.