After discussing with Yuan Zhan, Yan Mo immediately announced to the public that the the Elders circle of the first article will have woman members, and the ratio of man and woman in the circle must be equal. The elders can serve for five years, and no more than ten years. When other managing bodies get established in the future, the composition and the term of office will follow the elders circle’s, with the exception of the Chief and the Priest.
Yan Mo made Yuan Zhan carve this to the back of the stone stele to make sure that it’s followed.
Yuan Zhan seemed to have an opinion on this but he agreed to him in the end.
Yan Mo thought that he was acting strange but he didn’t think much of it.
Since that day, something within the tribe was clearly changing.
Firstly is the tribespeople’s outlook. If A’wu people were headlessly living just to survive before, now they’re active participants, they try to express themselves and share opinions with Jiuyuan, even if they stutter through it.
Secondly, everyone is much more enthusiastic about learning Jiuyuan language. Everyone is trying hard to speak, no matter how old they are.
Thirdly, people began to like asking ‘why’.
“Wu Chen, why is your name Wu Chen? ‘Wu’ is black, so what is ‘chen’?”
“Ye Xing, why is 1 + 1 = 2? But your mother and I got together and made you three! Isn’t this 1 + 1 = 5?”
“Old Ye, why did the priest say to add salt when tanning beast skins?”
“Sa Yu, why is there thirty days in a month, not twenty or fifty days?”
“Leader Meng, why do men have more muscles and women have more fat? What is fat? What is muscle? Why can’t a man get pregnant like woman can?”
“I don’t understand why the priest doesn’t allow close relatives in the tribe to procreate. Aren’t the gods all like that? Then why can’t we do it?”
When Yan Mo heard such questions, he explained it to the students in a class so they can spread it to everyone else. “Humans are different from Gods. The God’s body have no defects, the way they procreate is also different from humans. To add to that, humans and other living creatures have defects in their bodies, which is why when gods procreate with humans and other beings, their offspring will not be another god. They would only have some degree of the god’s ability, or maybe none at all.”
After Yan Mo said that, someone asked, “Then, won’t we have more godblood warriors if close relatives procreate?”
Yan Mo smiled. He knew someone would ask that question, “Yes, the godblood in them will double when humans and other animals who are in the same family procreate, but at the same time, their defects will also double. This is why offspring of inbreeding are prone to be imbecile, or born disabled or deformed. If a tribe consists mostly of close relatives, they will have thicker blood of gods, but they would also have more severe defects. Blindly trying to make more godblood warrior with this method would only ruin the whole tribe, because you may only get one godblood warrior in a hundred thousand children this way.”
The kids exclaimed, “A hundred thousand! Our whole tribe is only sixty-five people.” Such a huge number was beyond their understanding.
Yan Mo added, “Why do A’wu clan have fewer and fewer women? Why are people dying faster, and children die as soon as they’re born, or die young? These are all related to inbreeding. The clan might have had children who were deformed before, and scared by this, their mothers might have killed them. You can ask your old shaman if this was the case.”
Then someone actually asked the old shaman and the old shaman confirmed Yan Mo’s guess.
From then on no one insisted on the ‘close relatives can’t procreate’ thing. Lord Chief and Lord Priest had said that they will get more and more residents in the future, they don’t need to think about getting more women!
“We need to get more women!” Yan Mo’s head hurt.
Yuan Zhan was sitting on the ground with one knee bent, grabbing the roast meat with his hands and bit off a piece. Hearing Yan Mo’s words, he hurriedly swallowed and offhandedly spoke, “What’s your plan for that?”
“What do you suggest?” Yan Mo’s too embarassed to tell him he was eyeing the mer clan’s women… but quickly gave up on that stinky idea when he found that these merpeople don’t temporarily get human legs when they come up the shore, unlike the legends from his original world.
There may be a great love crossing between species in the future, but it should be a very rare occurrence.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
Ktfs tjnf ab tjnf vfnfibqfv j yla wbgf obg atf wfgwjlvr ab fnfc ilxf atflg qfbqif.
Tejc Itjc vlvc’a jcrkfg gluta jkjs.
Dea Tjc Zb cbk xcfk tlw yfaafg jcv xcfk ktja kjr lc tlr atbeutar gfmfcais. “Tbe kjca ab gfaegc?”
“Rba gfaegc, P’ii ajxf atfw tfgf.” Tejc Itjc geyyfv tlr bkc ojmf. “P’w jirb ifnfi 4 kjgglbg cbk, ybat ws ybvs jcv jylilas jgf ja ifnfi 4. P ralii gfwfwyfg atf Jtlfo’r ajaabb’r mbibegr, tf tjv jkjxfcfv tlr jylilas, yea la’r bcis ifnfi 2. Llr ragfcuat lr ifrr atjc wf, lo kf gfjiis oluta obg gfji.”
Yan Mo pointed out the obstacles, “Long road, dangers all around, takes long time, and we will have holes in our defences when you leave. We have to think about these and prepare everything well before you leave.”
“I know. I didn’t say I’ll go now.” And he’ll definitely take Mo with him if he’s going somewhere, he wouldn’t leave Mo alone for such a long time.
“You think there’d be any other human clans in the forest?” Yan Mo wished things would just somehow work out, “There are dwarves living there, maybe there are other feral humans in there.” They found dwarves but they’re too short, how can their people and the dwarves marry?
Yuan Zhan put his still bloody meat on the fire to roast it more, “Settle the tribe first, then take over the dwarves. We’ll enter the forest after we know what’s inside.”
Yan Mo nodded, “If you can’t bring people from Yuanji over, you can try exchanging salt for some slaves.”
“You’re right, we need slaves. Too bad there are no human tribes around here.” Yuan Zhan looked disappointed. With his current ability, it’ll be a piece of cake to flatten a primitive tribe. They would’ve had enough hands for labour in the tribe now if there were other tribes around.
Yan Mo’s head raised up at that. “We need helpers, not slaves.”
“Hm?” Yuan Zhan didn’t understand what the sentence meant.
“I mean, even if we buy some slaves back, they will not be slaves here. There can be no slavery in Jiuyuan.”
“What?” Yuan Zhan was shocked, “You raised the women and tell them they’re precious, fine. But you’re also not getting any slaves? How are we going to do anything in the tribe?”
“We can’t function without slaves? What we need is members. Slaves are restricted by their own status and have little individual initiative. If we can give them reward in exchange for…” Yan Mo suddenly stopped there and looked at the other man.
He only opened his mouth again after a long period of staring, “Those rules and regulations I told you, you didn’t take them seriously, huh? You don’t think those things carved on the stele are important at all.”
“Some are really good.” Since the other side had guessed his thoughts, Yuan Zhan didn’t hide it. “Like how it’s clearly stated what is a crime and what is not, and that the crime will be punished. The reward system is also fine.”
“What about the Elders circle? The judging body, monogamy and private property? What about the child and senior support system?”
Yuan Zhan sneered, “I only know two things. One, you have to be strong. Two, you have to have food for everyone. Without those no one will listen to you no matter how good your system is!
“We need those systems. It’s better to establish the rules of playing from the start rather than try fixing things later. I told you last time that these rules can help us to manage the tribe and attract other tribesmen to our side. Women are weak in other tribes like Yuanji tribe, they are very low in the hierarchy. Not to mention the slaves. Just think, if there’s a tribe, powerful and rich, that also can make things more or less equal for everyone. Where women and slaves are not used as reproductive machines or objects that can be traded away, and elderly and children don’t have to worry someday they’ll be eaten or abandoned. Where everyone is free. Won’t people in other tribe, like ones in Yuanji be lured by these and want to come to our tribe?”
“Okay, you have a point. But you said it yourself, before all else our tribe has to be powerful and rich. All other stuff means nothing if we’re not strong.”
“It means something! It’ll be too late if we wait until we’re strong enough to establish the rules, we have to implant these ideas deep in our tribesmen’s conscience from the very start. That way they’ll know what is good and what is bad. In the future, they will be our speakers in other plac… Yuan Zhan!”
“Meaningful! It will be too late for us to formulate these rules when we are strong. We need to deeply implant these rules into the souls of tribal people from the beginning to let them know what is good and what is bad. They will be the best transporters, they… Yuan Zhan!”
Yuan Zhan was immersed in eating his meat, Yan Mo’s call made him raise his head, he waved a hand and said muffledly, “Go on Lord Priest, I’m listening.”
“Fuck you are!” Yan Mo knew that it’d be very difficult to make Yuan Zhan understand his point in such a short time. He closed his mouth and stopped talking.
Yuan Zhan noticed the sound had stopped and glanced at him questioningly. Finally he swallowed his meal down to speak. “Mo, no matter what you want to do or what system you want to make, I will support you, even if I don’t understand why you want to do it.”
“Ha! You’re not worried I’ll ruin the tribe?”
“No, I trust you.”
“How touching.” Yan Mo sarcastically smiled.
Yuan Zhan threw away the bone, got up and sat next to Yan Mo, careful to leave a space of a fist between their skins. He stared into his eyes, “Really, I do. You are the priest who have the Primordial God’s inheritance, up here,” He pointed at his own head. “Your head… Your thinking is different from everyone else. I can’t say your method is the best, but you get punished when you do something wrong. If you really bring the tribe to ruin, won’t the Primordial God punish you even more?”
Yuan Zhan’s ability to infer his circumstances almost made him applaud him. But wait, this dude only believed him because he had seen him punished for his wrongdoings? …This asshole!
Yuan Zhan could see that Yan Mo was cursing him from his expression, though he didn’t know why he would curse him. “You said that each person have their own duties. Mine is to kill and keep enemies at bay. I bring preys home, skin and tear its tendons, you make its meat into delicious food, then, we share the meal together.”
Yan Mo inhaled deeply. “The tribe’s women must have the same status as the men. I will tell you why later.”
Yuan Zhan nodded, “Okay.”
“There can be no slave in Jiuyuan. Slaves and war prisoners we get from trade or other methods will have their own work and rewards. I will think of how to do it then.”
“Okay.”
“Any system can become corrupt because humans are wanting creatures. We must set an example. But don’t worry, you can still have people serving you, different works have different rewards too. What I want everyone to keep in mind is that servants are not slaves.”
“Understood.”
“Protect the children. They can’t die before all of us is wiped out, including you and me.”
Yuan Zhan frowned, “You’re the priority.”
“No, the children have to be the priority!” Yan Mo was hell-bent on this.
“Fine, you and them are the first priority.” Yuan Zhan unwillingly relented. But he can say anything, only him knows what he really thinks in his mind.
The two rulers temporarily reached a consensus on the direction to develop the tribe and how to manage it.
They didn’t have to worry about external enemies now that they had barriers on their lands, so Jiuyuan tribe started to build the inside of their walls. Yan Mo had had enough of living in a dark, smelly, cramped tent. He wanted to live in a real house!
Spring was coming, the soil was melting. Now, everyone can work the soil.
Of course they need to build houses, everyone’s been looking forward to it.
Wu Cheng, leading everyone else, agreed that the first house to be built will be the Priest’s and Chief’s house, but Yan Mo turned it down.
No one here had any experience in building a house. He’s not about to let them experiment with his own house.
In the eyes of the tribe’s people it turned into ‘Lord Priest is so selfless’, ‘it’s the first house in the tribe, but he actually gave it away to the old shaman’.
Wu Cheng couldn’t possibly accept the kind intention, so everyone decided the first building will be the council hall.
Now that it’s not just building a small house but a building that can accommodate one hundred people, the scope is much more difficult. Yuan Zhan took on this challenge.
He didn’t bear the entire construction by himself, though. He’s the only one who can control the earth and stone in the tribe, if he doesn’t want to always be working constructions, he has to teach others how to build.
Yuan Zhan’s architectural knowledge came from his few experiments and trials and error. His Lord Priest, who’s just a tiny bit better than him on this, only participated in the way of giving them pictures of what houses look like on the outside and different things the interior should have or provide. As for how to actually build it, Lord Priest told them a few important points and then it’s up to them to discover the rest.
Spring thunder cracked through the air, the heavy rain came pouring down.
Yan Mo handed a slate to Lamen, the latter looked up to the sky and spread his palm under the rainwater. “The snow is melting.”
Yan Mo quickly put on his simple straw raincoat. Fortunately, he had noticed the change in weather when he went out and prepared for rain.
The two guards also hurriedly put on their straw raincoats.
Come to think of it, they have their Lord Priest to thank for the straw raincoat. They got more rain after spring arrived, and many kids fell ill after they were drenched with rain. The Priest scolded them, then made them study how to make the straw raincoats.
A good straw raincoat can protect from the rain and also keep them warm. The material is simple and the production method is not difficult. Now, almost everyone in the tribe has one of these.
Lamen chuckled at the sight of straw man Yan Mo. The merpeople love the rain, the rain smells like the soil and it felt nice when the raindrops hit their skins.
“We’ll have heavy rains.” Lamen said from his experience. “Every year it will always rain heavily when the snow melts. The rain lasts for days, until the snow completely melts away. You should stay away from the lake around this time. The water will rise and submerge the shores, it can reach the dark forest.”
“Heavy rain, snow melting…” Yan Mo hit his lap, like something clicked in his brain. “I forgot!”
Lamen and the two guards looked at him.
Yan Mo didn’t explain what he forgot, instead reminding Lamen, “Please tell Norma I said this: No need to hurry, and that sometimes I can remember things wrong because I received too much of the god’s inheritance. I drew the loom on the slate using guesses and my vague impression, it can only serve as a starting point. She shouldn’t refer to this drawing when making the machine.”
“Got it. Don’t worry, I’ll explain it to her.”
“I’ll go back first. I still have work waiting back in the tribe.” Yan Mo made the two guards to lift him. Meng had made a lighter chair for him, this one can be carried by two people.
Lamen waved at him, “You can come play on the island when your legs are healed. Oh, and also, our leader said that you guys can hire our mer warriors to help yard Jiuyuan. But we still need to discuss how much salt to trade and how many people to give.”
Sly merpeople, they’re not cute at all! Yan Mo smiled. “Alright, I will talk with our chief when I get back. How many warriors can you dispatch?”
“One hundred.”
Stingy! Though he said that, Yan Mo knew that it was already very nice of Heissen to be willing to dispatch one hundred warriors to them. Even though they have to trade salt and meat for it. How many merpeople do they have in total, anyway? Last time Heissen can easily dispatch eight hundred of them, suppose that their clan is not all warriors, the total population couldn’t be less than 5000.
The rain was getting heavier and heavier. Yan Mo couldn’t afford to think about this any more. He waved Lamen goodbye and asked the guards to take him back to the tribe. He forgot to explain that crucial thing!
Padam: I'll try my best to update once a week TT - TT Here, author had a note about 1) why Yan Mo is fumbling with the rules (he's a doctor not politician, he makes rules that will give him easy comfortable lives and also benefit the tribe in long run, while keeping in mind his limitations: body, guide, Yuan Zhan) 2) why it's very basic rules (they will polish it as they go, nothing can be perfect from the get go), 3) primitive people can learn morals, it's just that no one had ever taught them or expected it from them. Unlike we who have gone through eras of civilisations and have layers of moral codes. Like how slavery is definitely wrong/absurd, but slaves in feudal era (cn) genuinely thinks they are lowly people because of the deep rooted indoctrination. So what Yan Mo is doing is instilling the moral values early on. I debated whether to tl it, but I think it still relates to the story.
Thank you
Thank you for the chapter!
Thank you for the chapter ❤️
i wonder how infrastructure planning will go in the future…. it mentioned there’d be 10 elders but not how they’ll be elected (unless it was mentioned in an earlier chapter and i forgot) ? anyway im interested to see how the council will develop as more join their tribe; how public housing will be handled bc he keeps mentioning private property so how’s that gonna be divided up? idk again, unless it’s been handled already and i forgot TwT jus curious abt his plans for the future and how tribe members will contribute
hi 👋🏼
the regulation for elders council is in chapter 75.1, for others, I think it hadn’t been explored, unless I remembered wrong
thank you, ill go check that chapter rn ^^
Thanks for the chapter!