Chapter 119: Chapter 119: Unexpected Harvest
Still holding onto a shred of hope, the young Sub-Beast stepped forward to ask a beastman of the Starfall tribe: "Excuse me... do you know a Sub-Beast named Cyberia?"
The beastman blanked out slightly, then said: "Oh, of course I do, he is... ah, he’s back." The beastman pointed toward the forest in the distance.
Everyone looked in the direction he pointed, only to see a group of young beastmen surrounding a few Sub-Beasts in the middle, walking toward this direction. Even though they were all covered in mud, the middle-aged beastman recognized his son among that group of Sub-Beasts with just one glance.
"Cyberia!"
Hearing someone calling, Cyberia turned his head to look in that direction. After getting a clear look at the beastman running over, his eyes stung, and tears rolled down: "Daddy... Daddy!"
He threw down the bundle of things he was holding, picked up his pace to run fast, threw himself into his Daddy’s embrace, and burst into tears. Seeing this, the people there also couldn’t hold back from wiping their tears, silently telling themselves ’he is still alive’; ’this is great’.
Crying while pulling his Daddy’s hand, Cyberia pointed at a makeshift tent: "Daddy, Neon has been in a coma for several days. Our child was swept away by the Wind God, and now he won’t wake up; I don’t know what to do..."
The middle-aged beastman comforted: "Don’t worry, there is a healer in the Crimson merchant caravan. The healer has already gone inside to treat the injured beastmen."
At this time, the healer in the merchant caravan emerged from the tent, saying to Aaron: "Their injuries are not too severe, but because the wounds weren’t treated properly, it led to severe ulceration, high fever, and coma. Perhaps we will have to stay here for a few days."
Aaron lazily stretched his body, saying: "Then let’s just stay. Anyway, we’ve passed the extreme heat zone; staying a few more days is nothing impossible. Just arrange whatever you need; if you don’t have enough herbs, tell me, and I’ll have people escort you to pick them."
After speaking, he shook his head; his figure suddenly flickered, shifting into his human form. The young Sub-Beasts in the team couldn’t help but blush. The captain was too excessively handsome; even after looking for so long, they still weren’t immune to it.
Aaron ruffled his silver-white hair, glancing at the pile of things the Starfall tribe’s Sub-Beast group brought back, or more precisely, a few ears of grass that had sprouted rather long young shoots. He picked up an ear of grass, plucking a grass sprout that had fully grown a stem and roots to examine it. The grass roots grew in white clusters, the stem was long and slender, and the connecting part between the root and the stem still had the seed husk. This husk was slightly rough like a sorghum husk but longer, slightly pointy at both ends, and pricked the hand a bit.
He asked curiously: "This grass has sprouted this long, why did you bring it back?"
A Curved-Horn Goat clan Sub-Beast blushed and said: "Um, most of us are herbivorous clans; our cubs really like these types of young sprouts, so we brought them back for them to eat."
Aaron weighed the cluster of grass sprouts in his hand, subconsciously thinking of the sorghum malt candy that the Great Priest once made in his mind, and turned to say: "I will take all of these and trade them for other food that can fill your stomachs, no problem right?"
A pile of grass sprouts traded for food that could fill stomachs; who wouldn’t want to make such a profitable deal. The Starfall tribe Sub-Beasts immediately said:
"Yes, of course, absolutely no problem at all!"
"There are still a lot of these over there; an entire depression is filled with this type of plant. Do you still need more? We will go get them for you!"
Aaron nodded: "That works." Saying that, he waved his hand for the guard beastmen group to lead these Sub-Beasts and some people in the team to the depression they mentioned. He himself strolled around a bit to see if there was anything to gather in this place.
Right at this moment, a young beastman in the team, who knows where he had just returned from, hugged his blood-covered hand and ran frantically to the animal skin tent, blabbering loudly:
"Great Healer, please save me, my claws are completely torn off!"
The healer immediately stepped forward to examine it, frowning and saying: "What were you messing around with to get injured this severely?"
Aaron also immediately stepped forward to inspect it. Impressive, this brat’s four main claws were all ripped backward; no wonder he was bleeding so profusely. His face darkened as he said: "Use the best medicine for him." He then called a Wood-element Sub-Beast over, making an exception to use Divine Energy to assist the treatment.
"You’ve got some nerve, brat. Getting injured once, all your contribution points for this trip are completely deducted!" Aaron chuckled, kicked the young beastman’s butt, and straightforwardly deducted all of his points.
The young beastman whimpered: "It really wasn’t my fault. I was just digging a hole to use the bathroom; who knew that when filling the dirt back in, I would scratch something even harder than a rock."
Aaron instantly became interested: "What kind of thing could tear a tiger’s claws off? Later, after the wound is treated, take me to see it."
A Starfall tribe beastman timidly said: "I know about this; I also encountered that thing."
Aaron turned his head to look, finding out it was a Mouse clan beastman. The Mouse clan excelled at digging burrows; no matter how hard a rock cliff was, it became as soft as dirt in their hands. Brimmed with interest, he smiled and said: "Then you take me to see it~"
The Mouse clan beastman blushed deeply, blankly leading Aaron and a few beastmen in the merchant caravan to the spot he mentioned. It was a rock cliff that had been dug deep down, but after digging only a short section, it stopped.
The Mouse clan beastman pointed at the half-dug burrow and said: "At that time, I intended to dig a burrow for the clansmen to live in, but no matter where I dug, it only went a short distance before hitting a hard object. Even changing directions, I could only dig a few more strikes."
Aaron crouched down in front of the burrow, beastified his hand into claws, and tentatively poked the rock in front of him. His hand touching the hard black rock was instantly blocked, and the aftershock from the impact made his claws tingle numbly.
He stepped back, telling a level-two warrior beastman to try applying force to the rock slab. This beastman took a rock and used all his strength to punch the rock slab. Under the powerful impact of the warrior beastman, the rock slab shattered into pieces. But at the same time, the warrior beastman also encountered the reactive force, being pushed back continuously. Another warrior beastman had to quickly circle behind him and help him stop to avoid his back slamming into the rock.
Aaron narrowed his eyes, picked up the scattered rock fragments to examine them, and saw that they were different from ordinary rocks.
The outer surface of these rock chunks was rough, covered in a dull reddish-brown layer that looked exactly like the color of dried blood, interspersed with grayish-black veined patches. However, at the edges where the rock slab had just been crushed, the internal structure truly revealed itself. The fractured surface was neither smooth nor opaque white like mountain rocks, but jagged and sparkling with tiny crystals. Under the light, those cracks glinted with a cold silver-gray hue carrying.
Aaron tossed the rock fragment into the air and caught it, clearly feeling its heftiness. A small rock fragment the size of a fist was heavily weighted, its weight surely double, even triple that of a sandstone chunk of the same size. The rock material was dense and solid; holding it felt rough, icy cold, and carried a faint, pungent smell akin to the smell of blood.
This astonishing hardness, density, and weight explained the reason why it generated a reactive force massive enough to send even a level-two warrior beastman flying backward.
This was definitely something good!
He raised his head to look at the surrounding mountains. The mountains connected with each other, forming an overlapping mountain range. He asked the Mouse clan beastman: "Have you tried with the other mountains?"
The Mouse clan beastman nodded: "I tried digging into the three nearby mountains, but encountered this situation with all of them."
Aaron nodded, saying to the other beastmen: "Mark this place, and bring these rock chunks back in passing; perhaps the Chief and the Priest will know them."
By noon, the group that went to harvest the grass sprouts had also returned. Aaron told them to snap off each ear of grass, bundle the sprouts neatly into bunches, and then drop them into mud basins to prevent the grass sprouts from dying on the way back.
After arranging the pile of grass sprouts properly, the whole team finally started cooking lunch. The Starfall tribe hadn’t eaten a meal with so much meat and salt in a very long time; in their hearts, they had already firmly made up their minds to join Crimson.
Halfway through lunch, the guard beastman keeping watch on the nearby cliff discovered people approaching. Looking closely and seeing the familiar flag, he immediately raised his horn to blow. It was the horn sound welcoming clansmen back.
Raising his head to look toward the horn sound, Asher instantly burst into loud laughter, telling the beastmen in his team to also blow their horns in response.
It must be said that although the Southern Continent was large, it wasn’t that large; otherwise, how could two merchant caravans of the tribe traveling in two different directions happen to rendezvous exactly at this place?
At this time, in Asher’s merchant caravan, there were quite a few unfamiliar faces; they were wandering beastmen and Sub-Beasts or escaped slaves from the other side of the magical beast forest. All of them had been enticed by Asher’s sweet words, willingly following the Crimson merchant caravan.
A White Rabbit cub sat on Asher’s elbow, asking softly: "Brother Asher, have we arrived back at the Crimson tribe yet?"
Asher patted the little boy’s head, shaking his head: "Not yet, this is just meeting up with clansmen. Let’s go, we should hurry over there."
The two groups quickly converged, overflowing with joy. Asher looked at everyone in the merchant caravan, nodding approvingly: "Very good, not a single person is missing."
Aaron immediately replied: "You’re not bad either. But you only managed to pull in this few people?"
Asher smiled: "It’s not a few; I pulled in three tribes to work as hired labor along with a tribe of nearly fifty people joining us, and I let them all head to Crimson on their own. These newcomers are all wandering beastmen and escaped slaves."
He then looked at the unfamiliar faces mixed within the merchant caravan, saying: "Why is your team this crowded? Why didn’t you let them head to Crimson on their own?"
Aaron wrinkled his nose: "The route I took had more tribes, but I encountered nothing but stubborn fools, and on top of that, they were insatiably greedy. I was afraid that if I let this group head back on their own, they would be robbed by those guys halfway."
Asher narrowed his eyes, leaned close to Aaron, and asked softly: "Did you memorize those tribes clearly?"
Aaron chuckled slyly, also leaning in to whisper in Asher’s ear: "Of course. If it weren’t for still having a mission to fulfill, I would have wiped them out already. They’re all nothing but skin and bones from starving, yet they still act all high and mighty."
Saying that, he suddenly felt a chill down his spine, alertly raising his head to start looking around. Just now, someone had targeted him, not just one but two. One gaze was filled with killing intent, while the other gaze was... brimming with lust?
Aaron shivered.
Motherfucker, who did I provoke this time?!
