"These shadow beasts left in a hurry. Could it be that they have some secret?"
Another group of eagle beasts emerged from the forest. He looked in the direction the shadow beasts had left and fell into deep thought.
"If I'm not mistaken, they're heading in the direction of the Great River Tribe, so they must be going to participate in the exchange market!"
"By the way, has news of our ambush of the orc tribe heading to the Great River Tribe's exchange market leaked out? Why did we fail on our very first attempt?"
These eagles couldn't understand why the method that had worked every year suddenly stopped working this year.
It should be noted that these eagle-beasts intercept the orcs on their way to the Great River Tribe every year.
They would choose some resource-rich tribes to ambush.
They used a honey trap to infiltrate these tribes, then drugged their food and water.
They would only appear after the orcs had fallen unconscious, then kill them and take their supplies.
If they succeed twice a year, they'll have enough food for their flock of eagle-beasts to get through the winter.
The humiliating start infuriated the Eagle Beasts, but they were helpless. If they were to fight the Shadow Beasts properly, their smaller numbers meant they might not be able to win.
Reluctantly, they took the little female from the ground and moved to another spot to ambush the next passing group of beastmen.
Lin Xue and her group left in a hurry, so they didn't know what happened behind them. However, the beastmen in the group were more vigilant than before.
For the rest of the journey, Lin Xue and her group traveled around the territories of other tribes, hiding and dodging along the way, before finally reaching the seaside after about ten days.
Along the way, Lin Xue and her group did make some discoveries; at least they found places with iron ore and limestone.
After Rangya marks these iron ore and limestone, the orcs who come near these resources can use them to trade with their tribes in the future.
At the same time, Lin Xue also learned that there were actually two kinds of stone mountains within the territory of their Qingshan tribe.
It's just that it's far from the tribe's location, so Lin Xue didn't know about it before.
This made Lin Xue happy. On the rest of the journey, she didn't just sit on the male beastman's back; she would occasionally get off and run for a while.
Because of her cultivation, Lin Xue's speed is much faster than that of the females in the tribe.
Although he can't compare to the male orcs in the tribe, he's not far behind.
Upon arriving at the seaside, Lin Xue immediately instructed the beastmen to build thatched huts and begin preparing to refine sea salt.
Shadow Beasts are born with the ability to swim, so Lin Xue led a group of beastmen into the sea to search for supplies.
They found a lot of kelp, seaweed and conch this time.
Lin Xue instructed the people to dry the kelp and seaweed, and to cook the conch meat before drying it.
There was no other way; the journey was too far!
If they take live conches and shells back with them, it will be too heavy and take up too much space.
It would be better to just dig out the snail meat, dry it, and take it home!
Moreover, the beastmen, led by Ya, all said they didn't really like the taste of these seafood products.
Lin Xue didn't insist anymore. She planned to take some back and share it with the females who liked the taste.
After drying the first batch of salt, Lin Xue handed over the rest of the work to the tribespeople, while she went to the sea to collect seafood.
She stored lobsters, abalones, and crabs in her space so she could take them out and eat them alive whenever she wanted.
Now that we have our own houses, we can eat secretly in our own rooms without anyone knowing.
Once, Lin Xue swam too far and almost bumped into an orc from a sea tribe.
Fortunately, Lin Xue was quick-witted and hid in the space, thus avoiding being discovered by these sea beastmen.
After this fright, Lin Xue stopped running too far and settled down in this small estuary, waiting for her people to extract salt.
Since we're at the seaside, the salt should be refined as purely as possible. We can't bring back some salt with heavy impurities for secondary refining!
On their fourth day there, the vigilant orcs returned and reported finding signs of other orc activity in the vicinity.
Ya immediately gathered the tribespeople and stored away the refined salt.
Then they erased the wooden house and all traces of where they and their group had stayed, and fled the port overnight.
Sure enough, a member of the tribe who was covering the retreat said that a large group of sea beastmen arrived at the estuary the next morning.
Judging from their menacing appearance, they were clearly up to no good. Fortunately, they left quickly and avoided a conflict with these sea beastmen.
It's important to know that sea beastmen and land beastmen have always been at odds, and land beastmen have to spend a lot of dried meat to exchange for salt from sea beastmen.
Having learned from this experience, Ya led his people to find an even more remote and secluded place.
Their group consisted of about three hundred people. If it weren't for the fact that the Shadow Beasts were light-footed and fast-moving, it would have been difficult for them to go unnoticed.
After spending another ten days or so by the sea, Ya found Lin Xue.
"Amu, we should head back now. If we delay any longer, we might miss the last wave of the exchange market!"
The harvest of salt put Ya in a good mood, so he tried to allocate as much time as possible to refining the salt.
Even so, if they didn't turn back soon, they would miss the market.
It's important to know that, aside from the time spent at the exchange market, when groups of orcs pass through the territories of other tribes, they will be attacked or extorted by those tribes.
Only during the trading market period can the orc tribe travel freely on the road.
This is also the experience that the tribes have accumulated over countless years.
Therefore, if they don't head back now, they'll waste time and might be intercepted by many tribes when they try to catch up.
If it's a friendly tribe, they'll probably let you go after a few questions. But if you encounter an unreasonable tribe, war might break out!
This is also why the ancient orc races on the continent did not migrate easily.
Once you leave your territory, it's not easy to find a place that's suitable to live in and has enough hunting grounds!
Moreover, they are easily mistaken for wandering orcs and attacked by other tribes, who then steal females from the tribe and kill males.
Unless they have sufficient strength, the orcs will not easily leave their territory.
On the way back, almost every Shadow Beast was carrying something on its back, so Lin Xue had to transform into a beast form and run back with them.
Not knowing what would be available at the exchange market, Lin Xue hoped to collect as many grain seeds as possible.
In this way, she can plant delicious food on the open land outside the tribe next year.
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