Building a Civilization and Raising Cubs in the Beast World – Chapter 43

Chapter 43

Langze said as he put down the backpack to show Bai Tu, and a group of wolves behind him did the same thing. The backpacks were filled with various prey cubs, with pigs and cows being the most numerous, deer and sheep to a lesser extent, and chickens and ducks being the least.

Chickens and ducks are too small, and the wolves are generally too lazy to catch them. One is enough for one person to eat for a meal. Finally, Langze remembered that Bai Tu liked to cook food that no one recognized, so he decided to catch some to try. However, large animals are not at an advantage when catching small birds such as chickens and ducks. It took him a long time to catch four or five.

Last night Langze led his hunting team to capture all the cubs, but he was not trained by Langqi because this task was assigned to him by Langqi. The prey cubs are small in size, so after catching them, one person is left to watch the cubs, and the remaining orcs can catch the second one. This is much more efficient than catching adult prey. More than a dozen are caught in one night, and Langze brought most of them with him. In addition to thanking Bai Tu, he also wanted to get a dinner. Of course, they had to bring their own food. The wolves had a clear idea of ​​their own appetite, and they knew that the rabbits had a small territory, so they brought the prey they caught last night.

“Tu, what are we having for dinner?” Langze looked expectant. He chose to come here in the evening specifically so that he could go hunting directly after dinner. As long as he could get back to the tribe before tomorrow morning, it would be fine.

“What do you want to eat?” Bai Tu asked. Langze brought a lot of food, so they could order some dishes.

Langze immediately howled out what he wanted to eat the most: “Hot pot!” Although everyone had eaten it after returning to the tribe, Langze always felt that their cooking was not as delicious as Bai Tu’s. He was in a hurry to come here the day before yesterday and did not have time to eat before quickly taking Shipeng back. This time there is enough time and he can eat as much as he wants!

“Then let’s have hot pot.” Bai Tu agreed. It happened that Hei Xiao and the others had never eaten it, so they could try it today. However, speaking of hot pot, Bai Tu discovered that there was one person missing in the team. “Where’s your brother?”

“There was a sneaky orc, and my brother went to chase him.” Lang Ze said. He learned the word sneaky from Bai Tu. At the beginning, Bai Tu used it to describe the monkeys hiding in the trees and doing bad things secretly. Lang Ze took note of it, and from then on he would use it to describe the orcs he didn’t like.

“He’s alone?” Bai Tu was a little worried. The rabbit tribe was relatively safe, but it was scary for a person to wander in the woods in the evening.

Langze acted like he was the strongest brother: “Don’t worry, my brother can handle it alone!” After saying that, he glanced at Heiyan.

Heiyan met Langze’s gaze and instantly got angry: “What do you mean?!”

Langze said disdainfully: “I didn’t say anything about you.”

Seeing that the two were about to fight, Bai Tu quickly called someone over: “Dong, take them to drive the cubs to the cave.”

As more and more prey cubs appeared in the cave, the burden on the children led by Bai Dong became much heavier. The tribe has always distributed food according to the degree of contribution, and with sufficient food, every child has been able to eat their fill recently. Children in their teens grow fast, and their height increases rapidly after they get enough nutrition. In just two months, they have changed from the thin and weak appearance when Bai Tu just woke up, and they can now drive calves and piglets in a professional manner.

Hearing Bai Tu’s voice, a group of children who had just returned from herding cattle and pigs ran out and led the wolf clan to tie up the prey and bring it into the cave.

The newly captured prey cubs will generally resist, so they will be tied up with vines. After two days of feeding, they will find that there is food and drink here and they don’t have to run around, so they will gradually settle down. The first calf we raised now hardly needs to be led by anyone. When the time comes, it will run to the cave by itself even if no one is chasing it. It will also help drive away other cubs, and it seems to be poised to become the leader of all the cows.

Bai Tu is very satisfied with the current results. According to this trend, in one or two years, he will be able to raise a group of prey and the tribe will be self-sufficient in the near future.

The animal cubs sent by Langze and caught by Heiyan solved Bai Tu’s biggest worry. Together with the ones the tribe had before, these could guarantee food for the tribe for at least a few months after they were raised.

In order to thank the two tribes, Bai Tu immediately started to prepare the hot pot ordered by Langze. It was not the first time for the wolf tribe to have eaten it, so they helped skillfully.

Hei Xiao was beside Bai Tu, and his eyes would occasionally glance at Lang Ze with full vigilance. He only breathed a sigh of relief when he noticed that there was no love in Bai Tu’s eyes when he looked at Lang Ze. He knew very well how clingy this young and energetic orc could be. If Bai Tu was really entangled with him, he would have to keep a close eye on him. Fortunately, Bai Tu didn’t have any thoughts about this at the moment.

Bai Tu didn’t know how many things Hei Xiao had thought of for him in an instant. He was thinking about what to prepare for the evening. Hot pot was delicious, but it would be greasy to eat only meat. It would be better to add some other food to go with it.

Bai Tu took out the mushrooms he had picked during the day. The environment in the back mountain was very suitable for the growth of fungi. Almost everything he saw was covered in pieces. If they were not picked, they would become old in two days. So they took all of them back without hesitation. It was a waste to use so many mushrooms to make soup. Bai Tu directly asked everyone to clean all the mushrooms, take out the wooden basin used to marinate meat, add oil and salt, mix well, and then spread them on the stone slab above the fire.

Mushrooms are easy to cook, and the aroma will soon spread. Bai Tu is then coated with a layer of homemade barbecue seasoning, which makes everyone stare at the mushrooms with such fragrance.

The hot pot base has just been cooked and can only be eaten after a while. A group of people are hungry, and even if they don’t eat it, they can imagine how delicious it is just by smelling it.

As it turned out, Langze’s trust in Langqi was well deserved. Just as the mushrooms were roasted, Langqi came back with a strange orc.

“They are from the cat tribe.” Lang Qi handed the person to Bai An, washed his hands, and sat down next to Bai Tu very naturally. “They migrated from the west due to lack of food. There are also people from the same tribe who couldn’t find a place to live. They are half a day’s journey away from the rabbit tribe.”

“Try this, mushrooms.” Bai Tu picked up some mushrooms and put them in the other person’s bowl, and reminded others that they could eat.

Langze witnessed the first chopstick of mushroom enter his brother’s bowl under his expectant gaze. Just as he was about to wait for his own portion, he heard that he could eat it, so he immediately took action and directly picked up one-third of it.

Hei Xiao had a new understanding of Bai Tu’s cooking skills in the past two days. He knew that no matter whether he recognized it or not, he just had to eat it. In addition, he had already drunk mushroom soup before, so he knew that it was also delicious, so he picked up half of the remaining mushrooms without hesitation.

Lang Qi took a bite of the grilled mushrooms on the stone slab, and without saying a word, picked up the rest, putting half in Bai Tu’s bowl and half in his own bowl.

Heiyan was originally muttering about what Bai Tu had scattered, but when he looked again the stone slab was completely empty.

Heiyan: “???” Where’s the promised reward for catching prey cubs? Such a reward?

“Eat quickly,” only Hei Xiao thought of his silly partner and divided most of his share, “I will grill it later.” He noticed that there was still a lot of it in the basin, but the stone slab was small and could only be grilled a limited amount, so he needed to grab the rest.

Hei Xiao’s guess was correct. Next, there were not only mushrooms, but also barbecued meat, shabu-shabu meat, and anything edible. They all had to be snatched. Lang Qi acted quickly and without delay. Lang Ze grew up snatching food. Although Hei Xiao looked weak, he was very decisive when it came to eating, and was in no way inferior to the other two. Bai Tu had long been accustomed to this scene. Plus, he didn’t eat much, so he was happy with just one or two meals from the pot. Therefore, he wasn’t hungry.

Only Heiyan was arguing with Langze one second, and saw the other party’s chopsticks in the pot the next second. By the time he reacted and tried to pick up the chopsticks, the food was gone. He was only saved from starvation because of Heixiao’s feeding him. After eating like this for two rounds, Heiyan learned his lesson. No matter what Langze said, he didn’t say a word. He just stared at the stone pot and the stone slab, and scooped out whatever was cooked. It didn’t matter what it was, as long as it was edible, and he could eat it.

Maybe the food they snatched tasted better. There were five people at the table. Heiyan could obviously go to other Eagle tribes, and Langze could go to the Wolf tribe. As leaders, they would definitely not fail to snatch food if they went to other tables. But a few of them just refused to leave and gathered around this table, occasionally fighting with chopsticks to show the difference in military power between different tribes.

Hei Xiao usually doesn’t interfere with Hei Yan’s behavior, because he knows it’s useless to interfere. Lang Qi is too lazy to pay attention to his stupid brother. Bai Tu tried to persuade him at the beginning, but finally found that with Hei Xiao and Lang Qi around, the two of them couldn’t fight even if they quarreled, so he just ignored it. He felt that the two of them were like underage children, who would always fight with someone of similar age.

There was another reason why Lang Qi ignored his brother. He was talking to Bai Tu about the cat tribe. The captured cats were too timid, so Lang Qi asked them on the way why they secretly came to the rabbit territory.

The situation of decreasing prey is not only happening here, but similar situations can be seen in other places. Tribes with large territories are less affected. For example, the wolf tribe can change places to hunt. It is a bit tiring but they will not starve. The same cannot be said for tribes with small territories. Some unlucky tribes have no prey at all, and if they want to hunt, they can only go to the territories of other tribes.

This is a very risky thing to do. If the other party finds out, being caught is a small matter and it may even cause a fight between tribes.

The cat tribe is like this. The cat tribe captured by Lang Qi is a smaller species. They can hide their whereabouts better than the wolf tribe and do not communicate much with the surrounding tribes. The entire tribe has only about forty people, which is smaller than the Snow Rabbit Tribe, and the territory is much smaller. Some tribesmen even died of hunger during the rainy season. When the rainy season was about to end, a few young orcs could not bear the hunger and went out to hunt. While chasing the prey, they broke into the territory of the neighboring tribe, which was regarded as a provocation by the other side. It was not enough to capture those orcs, but they took their men directly to the cat tribe’s residence.

They were suddenly attacked, and more than half of the remaining thirty or so orcs were killed or injured. The surviving orcs fled with injuries. The enemy’s real purpose was to seize the territory, so naturally no one chased them after they left.

After leaving their territory, these cats wandered around. They did not dare to touch the bear tribe’s territory. When they arrived near the Snow Rabbit Tribe, they did not find any traces of large beasts, so they decided to stop here to see if they could establish a new tribe or join other tribes.

Cats are good at hiding. They usually come out at night. After catching their prey, they quickly eat it, then change into animal form and find a place to hide. They spent three or four days in the territory of the Snow Rabbit Tribe without being discovered.

The hunting team did not find any prey the day before yesterday. In addition to the fact that the prey itself decreased, another important factor was that they went to the vicinity of the cat tribe’s temporary residence that day. The hunting team was focused on finding prey and did not notice the cat tribe hiding not far away.

After hearing this, Bai Tu was silent for a moment, not knowing what to say. It was too much to say that the cat tribe was hiding here, but they were forced to do so. After all, the last tribe they passed was the White Bear Tribe. Most of the orcs, who were originally ferocious beasts, were not easy to get along with. The rabbit tribe posed an even smaller threat. If it were him, he would probably choose to stay around a small tribe like the Snow Rabbit Tribe when he was desperate. After all, according to Lang Qi’s description, the cat tribe had been hungry for a long time.

But having such a small tribe is quite troublesome. Their tribe’s territory is already relatively small among the surrounding ones. According to the information that Hei Yan helped to explore, there are fewer prey than before. It is unrealistic to divide up another piece of territory in this already difficult situation.

“Aren’t you short of people in your tribe?” Lang Qi asked. He just heard some people from the Rabbit Tribe say that they had captured a few more Lion Tribe members and they would start working today.

Bai Tu nodded. They were indeed short of manpower. They also had to dig trenches recently, so there would be even fewer people.

Lang Qi: “Then leave the cat tribe behind?” If other tribes enter his territory, there are only three ways to deal with them. One is to drive them out directly, the second is to fight them off, and the last is to keep them as his subordinate tribe. As for dividing the territory, this is not an option in his eyes.

“More than twenty, that’s a bit too many.” Bai Tu frowned. There are about eighty orcs in the Snow Rabbit Tribe in total. Although the five Lion Tribe captured today can be used for work, they still need people to keep a close eye on them for a short period of time to ensure that they do not intend to contact the Crazy Lion Tribe before they can lower their defenses. There are now more than twenty orcs in the cat tribe. With so many people joining at once, they account for almost a quarter of the tribe’s population. If they are not managed well, it will be very disadvantageous to the tribe.

Bai An had not found any trace of the cats for several days until today when the wolves passed by the cats’ hiding place and the cats were frightened and made a sound. Otherwise, it was not certain when they would have noticed this strange tribe. If these orcs, who were so good at hiding, had any ill intentions, the rabbits would be in great danger.

Unless they seek help from allies, Bai Tu thought thoughtfully. Some large tribes would take in orcs from other tribes. After all, the extra orcs were also laborers who could do a lot of things. It had to be said that he was a little envious of these laborers. The difference between their tribe and the large tribes was the guards. It would be different if there was someone guarding them. Bai Tu’s eyes swept over Lang Qi and Hei Xiao. The Wolf Tribe and the Eagle Tribe were both suitable people to ask for help, but the other party might not agree if he asked, because they could also take the people back to their own tribe and directly expand their own tribe. Wouldn’t that be better than helping him?

When Bai Tu was hesitating whether to speak, Lang Qi had already thought it through: “Let Langze guard here.”

The cat tribe that came over had a characteristic, they would be very vigilant when facing large animals, otherwise they would not have been scared by the wolves and made a sound. With the wolves here to suppress them, the other party dared not make any small moves. The Langze that Langqi was referring to was not Langze alone, but the entire hunting team led by Langze, a total of more than thirty people. With so many people, even if half of them needed to go out hunting at night, the cat tribe would not dare to take the opportunity to cause trouble.

“We can also keep an eye on the lion tribe.” Lang Qi added. He didn’t like those timid lion tribe members very much and stared at them together. “Let them go to the wolf tribe’s territory to catch food. You distribute the food after bringing them back and call them to do the work.” It would absolutely not be possible to give the food to Langze for distribution. Lang Qi, who knew his brother very well, handed over the management power directly to Bai Tu. It happened that these wolf cubs were full of energy, so it would be good to let them do some work.

The growing wolf cubs are so energetic that they try to go out for a run in the middle of the night, disturbing the tribe. However, there are many people in the wolf tribe, and there are too few things for them to do, so they have no place to vent their excess energy. Lang Qi had been thinking about this matter since the rainy season. The last time he came here, he found that the Rabbit Tribe indeed had a lot to do. In addition, he knew that Bai Tu had recently started raising silkworms, and that people would be needed to pick mulberry leaves and cut grass in the future. It would be just right to send the little wolves over.

This was such a huge surprise. Bai Tu had not expected that Lang Qi would take the initiative to bring it up. From any angle, this matter would be beneficial to the Rabbit Tribe, especially for him who was in great need of labor. The help of the Wolf Tribe plus the addition of the Cat Tribe orcs could directly solve half of the work.

After getting Lang Qi’s promise, Bai Tu went straight to Bai An to discuss the details. Bai An was busy asking the cat and arranging people to cut the meat. After all, the entire tribe could not eat the food brought by the wolf tribe. Their tribe also had to provide food. It was true that the wolf tribe had a big appetite, but the rabbit tribe had more people and consumed about the same amount of food. The wolf tribe distributed the food to everyone, and Bai An would not let them eat half full. There was enough food.

By this time, Bai An had already found out where the cats were hiding, and discovered that it was only half a mountain away from where he went to look for prey last time. He was very scared for a moment. Fortunately, these were not orcs with strong attack power, otherwise someone would definitely have been injured.

Bai An was blaming himself so much that he completely forgot that except for the cats, the other orcs’ concealment abilities were not that strong at all. This group of cats were able to cross several tribes and come to the rabbit tribe’s territory without anyone noticing. This was entirely because they had a high talent for concealment and their bodies were very small. When they were motionless, almost no orcs could detect them. This was true not only for the rabbits, but also for other tribes.

It can be said that if they did not need to hunt, or were not so timid, this group of cats would be able to survive in the territory of any tribe. However, due to their nature, these cats cannot stay in the territory of other tribes for too long, so the rabbit tribe became the best choice.

After Bai An finished asking the questions, he was about to find Bai Tu to discuss what to do. After all, this was the territory of their tribe, and it was not a good thing to have another group of orcs staying here. As soon as he came out, he heard what Bai Tu brought back. For a moment, he wondered if he was hallucinating because he was worried about too many things recently.

“Are the wolves really willing to help us watch over the cats?” Before hearing this, Bai An had never thought of letting the cats join in. For the rabbit tribe, which had relatively weak combat power, they had always been annexed by other tribes. It was already a rare achievement for the snow rabbit tribe to hold on and not become a subsidiary tribe of other races. Accepting another race was almost something they could not even think about. After all, it was not certain who would be accepted and who would be annexed.

Bai An, like Bai Tu, was attracted by the orcs, but he was well aware of the capabilities of his own tribe and thought that hastily agreeing to other tribes joining would be a threat. But it is not certain whether the wolf tribe is willing to help. Bai An does not interfere with the communication between Bai Tu and the brothers Lang Qi and Lang Ze because he holds a glimmer of hope. If the two tribes have a good relationship, if other tribes come to attack them, the wolf tribe will not ignore it and will not refuse help when needed in the future.

Even though he had this idea, Bai An didn’t expect that it was Lang Qi who took the initiative to propose this. Just like going to the market together, what Lang Qi proposed was completely different from what they proposed.

If they ask the wolf tribe for help, in addition to solving the wolf tribe’s food problem, they also have to send some supplies to the wolf tribe regularly. This is a thank-you fee, which is equivalent to exchanging these supplies for shelter. The conditions proposed by Lang Qi were completely the opposite. Apart from the hunting by the wolves themselves, all the food was actually arranged by Bai Tu. Moreover, the wolves not only hunted, but were also responsible for protecting them and even took the initiative to ask to work.

Bai An’s voice trembled with excitement as he spoke: “Agree, I agree.” What else is there to say about such conditions? It is impossible for people of the same race to offer such generous conditions. Bai An pinched himself and his face wrinkled in pain.

Bai Tu: “???”

Bai Tu: “Chief, what are you doing?” Why are you pinching yourself for no reason? Is it because he is too busy and hungry?

“It’s okay, it’s okay. I’m happy.” Bai An couldn’t suppress the smile on his face. He rubbed his arm that was pinched and hurt, and smiled so hard that his eyes were wide open. The conditions that Lang Qi offered were the best he had ever seen. Even orcs didn’t treat their partners so well.