Edited by: acutebird
Yan Mo looked out the window. The animal skin curtain was lifted on both sides, and a gentle breeze blew into the city tower. This was probably the most pleasant period of the year in this land, but, unfortunately, the time was so short that people didn’t even have a chance to enjoy it.
There was a big bird circling in the azure sky.
“They said that spring here is very short, and once the snow is melted by the rain, the temperature will quickly rise. I think the salt ponds are almost ready to be dug, and the salt I brought back is almost finished. The mermaids have clearly stated that they will use red salt as compensation for hiring them, and the dwarves will probably have the same demand. At the very least, when they leave, they will definitely take some.” Yan Mo changed the topic.
Yuan Zhan also knew that this person had a black belly . Seeing that he didn’t want to say anything, he didn’t force him; instead, he followed his words and said, “But work on the sewer hasn’t started yet.” He just reinforced and raised all the embankments on both sides of the inner moat.
“According to the order of importance, red salt is the most important. Even if there is no exchange, the salt I have on hand is not enough to support the entire tribe for a month.” Yan Mo took another slate and saw that there were already some entries listed on it.
Yan Mo drew a circle behind the embankment of the inner moat to indicate its completion. He drew a check mark in each of the three areas: drying salt, digging sewage, and building the houses. “You can’t do everything on your own. Go secure the salt drying pool, bring the most reliable people – but leave Meng behind – and also help me check on Jiu Feng to see if there are any signs of it coming out.”
“If I’m not here, I’m afraid those dwarves will cause trouble, as well as those little monsters.”
“I struck an agreement with the mermaid tribe that they would send warriors over. If there are no problems, they will arrive tomorrow. The mermaids and the dwarves don’t speak the same language, so I’m not afraid of them joining forces in the short term. As long as they restrain each other, our tribe will be safe.”
“I may have to leave for a long time.” The round-trip journey, along with making the salt pond and finally making a batch of salt, would take at least two months.
“I know. You just need to set up the salt drying pond and bring back a batch. Next time, I can go over and pack more.” Yan Mo turned his head to look at him. “Be careful on the way. If the tribe is really attacked and occupied, I won’t defend it. I will immediately leave with Meng and the others.”
“The weather is warming up, and it’s time for the man-eating bees to come out of their nests. They were able to follow Jiu Feng all the way from their old nest, so it won’t be hard for them to cross the grassland to find you.”
Yan Mo raised his finger and looked at Yuan Zhan with a smile. If that was the case, then he really didn’t have to worry about the safety of the tribe or himself after Yuan Zhan left.
The lakeside grove.
Dofie, who was coming out with everyone to pick up dead branches and search for wild vegetables, suddenly looked up at the sky.
“Dofie, what are you looking at?” Sha Lang brushed past her and also looked up at the sky.
“A big bird; maybe it’s an eagle.” Dofie, who still looked like an old woman, straightened her head and crouched down.
Sha Lang looked up again and said, “Big bird – is that the mountain god?” Sha Lang couldn’t judge; the big bird had already flown far away.
After Sha Lang left, Dofie tightly grasped the transparent crystal hanging on her chest. Her breathing intensified, and her gaze became extremely complex.
The next day, Yuan Zhan and Yan Mo welcomed a hundred mermaid warriors who would serve as mercenaries of the Jiuyuan tribe to protect their inner city.
The main responsibility of the mermaid warriors was to defend the tribe and attack enemies. They would take care of their own food and accommodation as long as they paid 600 qián of red salt per person per month on time.
The dwarves also basically agreed to repay the favor in the form of help, and Yan Mo also promised them that, within the period of help, housing would be included.
After collectively visiting the mermaid warriors, the dwarves were eager to go and build a house but were stopped by Yan Mo.
Yan Mo asked Wu Chen and others to bring a few stone slabs and pointed at them, saying, “To build a house, you need to first build a sewer or make stone bricks. Everything must be done according to the requirements on the diagram and my instructions. If it doesn’t meet the requirements or goes wrong, it doesn’t count.”
Langlang, Elder Zarza, and others couldn’t be bothered to refute Yan Mo, as they were immediately drawn to the rudimentary urban planning map on the slate.
“Is this a road?”
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.
“Gbfr atf gbjv jirb cffv ab yf qjnfv klat rabcf yglmxr?”
“Gbc’a obgufa ab vb atf obecvjalbc yfobgf sbe ijs la; tberfr, rfkfgr, fam. cffv obecvjalbcr olgra.”
“Jjc tberfr bcis yf yelia lc gfrlvfcalji jgfjr?”
“Rba cfmfrrjglis, yea atfgf wera yf vloofgfcmfr yfakffc atf tberfr erfv obg ilnlcu jcv atf tberfr erfv obg kbgx, rb sbe wera obiibk atf lcragemalbcr.”
“The sewer… I know it’s for drainage – we have the same thing in our place of residence – but, unlike yours, we only dug two ditches on both sides. It’s no wonder it floods every year. It turns out that the drainage ditch can be done like this.”
“Should the shape of the house follow this drawing? Wow, good… it’s beautiful! I love it so much! I want to make my own house like this! Why is there an empty space in front of and behind the house? Why is it enclosed?”
“There are four types of houses in total, including a bungalow and a two-story building. There are various functional areas inside the house, which will be explained in detail later. In addition, all houses have front and rear gardens for the convenience of raising livestock and poultry in the future.”
“Farming? Poultry?” The shrewd dwarves grasped the key point.
Yan Mo just smiled; he had no intention of explaining.
“You don’t know how to make stone bricks yet, let alone how to build houses; I will assign someone to teach you. Rest assured, you won’t have to pay for this teaching separately.” Yan Mo wasn’t that malicious; otherwise, just teaching them how to dig sewers and lay foundations would make these dwarves work for him for a lifetime, not to mention teaching them how to build houses.
“In addition, as the priest of this tribe, I’m very busy and can’t follow you all the time to translate your words; you can only rely on yourselves to communicate with the people of my tribe.”
“If there’s anything important, please look for my disciple Wu Chen first.”
Wu Chen waved at the dwarves with a shy expression.
Standing on the city wall, Yuan Zhan looked up at the sky.
Then, he suddenly lowered his head and sharpened the tip of a stick.
“Jiu Feng went into a deep sleep, and all the other large birds ran out.” He remembered that when he first arrived, there were no other large, ferocious birds out in Jiu Feng’s territory.
Meng looked up. “I was about to tell you about this. I’ve seen at least four or five large birds circling the sky in the past few days.”
“Tell everyone to watch over the children and also warn the dwarves.”
“Yes.”
Yuan Zhan held down the stone battlements on the city wall and said, “Do you remember all the things I told you?”
“Don’t worry, we’ll protect mòmò first.”
“Whoever doesn’t listen, just kill them without telling Mò.”
“No need to go through the arbitration panel?”
Yuan Zhan expressionlessly looked at Meng.
Over there, Yuan Zhan had arranged everything, and Yan Mo had also roughly explained everything on his own side.
On the one hand, the dwarves wanted to pay off their debts as soon as possible, and on the other hand, they were full of interest in building knowledge. They even wanted to live in their own stone houses as soon as possible. After two days of collective lectures, they were eager to practice without any strict urging from Yan Mo; they were busy by themselves.
Two days later, just after dawn, the original battalion with six warriors, including Hu Hu, left the tribe, only telling the public that they were going to pay homage to the mountain god.
Yan Mo stood by the river, praying for blessings for Yuan Zhan and others.
Yuan Zhan and his six companions walked a short distance, then he turned to look at Yan Mo. For some unknown reason, he felt a strong sense of unease about leaving the city this time, which made him unable to resist repeatedly reminding Meng to protect Yan Mo.
Yan Mo waved his hand and watched the seven of them leave, then turned around and returned to the inner city.
“Li -!” The long chirping of birds came from the sky.
Twice, Dofie passed underneath the East City Tower, and the second time she was ready to step onto the stone steps. But, in the end, she touched her face, withdrew her foot from the stone steps, and turned away.
Sha Lang stood in the shadow of the nearby city wall, frowning slightly. She had always been wary of this foreign woman. Although the other party didn’t dare seize everyone’s vitality in exchange for her youth after being taught by the priest, she still didn’t trust her.
The dwarves had their own internal division of labor, and Yan Mo had no intention of interfering.
The dwarves were divided into two groups of manpower. One group went out to hunt and collect firewood and food, while the other group stayed behind to dig sewers, make bricks, and lay foundations.
Their children were idle, and, under the special instructions of adults, all came to listen to Yan Mo’s lecture. But this time, Yan Mo didn’t allow them to enter again, clearly stating to Langlang and Kathi that only the descendants of the Jiuyuan tribe could learn the inheritance of their ancestors without any payment.
The dwarves were enticed and distressed: Enticed by the knowledge and pained by the fact that it would cost a great deal to learn.
“A cow for one person in a class is too expensive! Sinister, really sinister!” Langlang had also listened to a few lessons, and now certain words were used with slick familiarity.
“If only our tribe can achieve this in the future.” Elder Zarza lay on the ground, staring at the stone slabs with a bright and lively expression. These stone slabs couldn’t be taken away by them; they could only observe from the square.
“What do we want in such a big place? To establish a tribe? Forget it; those belligerent guys will definitely not let us live with them.”
Langlang waved his hand and sneered.
“Why can’t we? Humans can do it; why can’t we?” murmured Gerge in a low voice.
“Or should we just join the Jiuyuan tribe? This big tribe has so few people. Anyway, we need to find a new place to live; why don’t we join in? Ah ah! Why are you hitting me?” Derde, who had suggested it, was beaten by the dwarves, including the patriarch.
“Wu–!” A strange and loud cry suddenly sounded from outside the city.
Dofie, who had just passed by the square, was startled and immediately looked up at the sky.
The dwarves and the A’wu people turned their heads together and immediately asked, “What happened? What was that sound?”
Ye Xing, who was teaching everyone, suddenly jumped up and shouted, “It’s the horn! It’s the horn that the priest just asked us to make for the warriors to use as a warning! Enemies! Enemies are attacking us!”
The classroom was in chaos, and many children were shouting, “Little monsters! It must be those little monsters coming!”
The children’s expressions weren’t panicked, and they were even a little eager to try fighting, especially the ones ten and up who had begun their initial warrior training early with the women of the tribe.
Ye Xing rushed out of the classroom to inform the priest about this matter.
Yan Mo didn’t need anyone to notify him at all. When the horn sounded, the whole city heard it.
Yan Mo walked out of the East City Tower, accompanied by guards, and walked along the city wall towards the South City Gate. The sound of the horn came from the south.
The mermaid warriors saw a large group of things flying rapidly in the sky, but they didn’t recognize what they were. When one of them, who had more knowledge, saw the flying objects clearly, their expression immediately changed, and they shouted wildly, “Hurry into the water! Those are man-eating bees!”
The name of the man-eating bees was well known in this land, and most who hadn’t seen them had heard of their legends. The older the clan, the more oral renditions there were about them.
The mermaid warriors were about to dive into the water subconsciously. But their combat awareness was relatively strong, and they still remembered what they came for. Now someone sounded the horn they carried with them, notifying the residents of the Jiuyuan tribe that danger was approaching!
The brave warriors patrolling on the city wall also saw the man-eating bees, but the history of the A’wu tribe was relatively short, and they weren’t very familiar with them. The old shaman that knew the most wasn’t here, and the ones fortunate enough to have seen man-eating bees by the side of the Lord Priests hadn’t even arrived yet. They were more than a step behind the mermaid warriors in terms of reaction, and it wasn’t until they heard the mermaid warriors blowing their horns, a horn that signaled extreme danger, that they became wary.
Someone was hurriedly searching for Meng. Meng was also running towards the south gate.
Without Yuan Zhan, Meng no longer left the city to hunt.
Before the priest and Meng could speak, there was a scene of panic in the city, with children running out of their classrooms.
“Don’t be afraid; don’t panic. Come with me; don’t run around!” Wu Chen, who understood the sound of the horn, shouted loudly to his clan members, urging them to quickly follow him to the emergency location designated by the priest.
But not many people listened to Wu Chen’s call, and people ran around in disorder. Some even ran up the city wall to see what had happened. Not to mention the dwarves – they all left their jobs and ran towards the city walls. The patrolling warriors didn’t have enough manpower to stop so many people.
The warriors were busy trying to stop the clansmen and dwarves from running around, asking the mermaid warriors what those flying things were, and keeping an eye on the defense.
Yan Mo turned back and saw the chaotic scene, and his expression darkened before he even saw the enemy.
When everyone’s attention was drawn to the south gate, in the chaos, two men wearing animal skins walked directly into the inner city through the north gate.
When the two of them walked into the inner city, they looked surprised. One of them whispered to his companions, “My lord, we actually came in so easily. What kind of trick could it be?”
Trick? No, he didn’t think so. This was clearly a castle that was just under construction. The castle was new, and the combat experience of those warriors was also very new. It was just that the four city gates weren’t installed. When something happened, even the guards who were originally guarding the gates ran towards the south city wall.
This city, as he had seen in the sky, only had a terrifying shell.
However, he still wanted to explore carefully. Although this strange city was far away from the Tianqian tribe, judging from its wall construction and city size, if left untreated, it could become a major enemy of the Tianqian tribe in the future.
“My lord, did you think that her Royal Highness would be here?”
Fei Li shook his head and said, “I’m not sure. We’ve been observing in the sky these past few days and haven’t seen the princess, have we?”
“But this is the only barbarian tribe we have found that indicates the presence of the princess. My lord, take a look at those barbarians. They are still wearing animal skins and holding only wooden spears and stone axes, but they have built such a castle… do you think such barbarians can build such a castle?”
“There are also mermaids and dwarves.” Fei Li was actually skeptical. Even if the tribes they had found along the way had developed relatively well, they still piled up some stone piles or wooden walls. This was the first time he had seen a city wall-style building formed like this, and those moat embankments had obviously been repaired by human hands. If someone who had seen these before pointed them out, he wouldn’t think that these barbarians who were still wearing animal skin clothes were the ones that had built such a city.
However, Fei Li still had a question that he couldn’t figure out. Based on the time when the princess disappeared, could the people he saw from the sky really build such a huge city in just one winter? Especially since, in winter, the land always froze and became like stone.
“Ha! Mermaids and dwarves—it’s amazing that they can be seen in the same city except for in a slave market. Maybe only the beautiful and intelligent Royal Highness Princess could attract them here. To use them for her own purposes.”
Fei Li shrugged and said, “Maybe. Zei Xi, be careful. There aren’t many people in this city, and we haven’t seen any human visitors. Even if we wear their clothes, we could still be recognized.”
Zei Xi nodded, and the two of them became more careful in their actions.
TN:
Felitt is now Fei Li, I won’t be changing the names to their English counterparts because I’m not that creative honestly ┐(‘～`;)┌, but the ones that are already there will be used that way.
Updates will be tentatively set to Thursdays and Friday with a few bonus chapters in between sometimes, starting next week. Leggoo.
I don’t understand just how revered Dofie is 💀
YAY THE BEEEEEESSS
Thank you for the update
Thanks for the update 🌹