"Just as I thought, this small hole looks like it was shot by an arrow."
Li Qing touched the wound under the strange bird's wing and speculated in his mind.
"But the crucial question remains: why are these arrows so lethal? The strange bird is not weak; how could it be wounded when it could predict the attack? Is it truly due to the effect of the Kino Rock?"
The strange bird wasn't quite used to being touched like this by Li Qing, and its body swayed involuntarily, as if to say that it was fine and not to move around!
"Feel sorry."
Li Qing stood up, filled with doubts.
The more unknown something was, the more uneasy Li Qing felt.
He discovered that he knew nothing about the tribe’s new enemy except for “Kino Rock”.
Just as Li Qing was feeling annoyed, the voices of A Tu and the other two came from behind him: "Mai Zi, we're all better now!"
To avoid worrying the three, Li Qing forced a smile and turned to greet them.
...
At an open-air campsite.
If Li Qing were here, he would definitely be amazed at how "extremely luxurious" this camp is!
There were many people in the camp, and many of them had various totems on their bodies, which meant that these people were renowned totem warriors!
This group of totem warriors probably makes up about 40% of the camp.
The quantity is considerable.
You should know that even a powerful tribe like the Black Wind Tribe doesn't have a single totem warrior!
But here, the number of their totem warriors is almost equal to the total number of all warriors when the Red Flower Tribe was in decline.
A small group of these totem warriors were competing and training each other, while another small group was directing a group of people with tattoos of two axes crossed on their backs to do their work. These "tattoos" were obviously not for aesthetic purposes. More accurately, these cool-looking "tattoos" were not "tattoos" at all, but rather branding marks, a kind of mark specially made to distinguish identities.
A little observation reveals that these people with such marks on their backs do manual labor, living like slaves under the control of others.
Many people had blood all over their backs, which looked very frightening.
Most of these laborers were carrying things, while some, under the supervision of a group of people, were hammering and tinkering with Kino Rock, seemingly forging weapons for their masters.
Another small group of "ordinary people" who have no branding or totems either do simple jobs like guard duty.
Clear division of labor.
In a corner of the camp, the soldier who had escaped from Li Qing and the others' grasp was kneeling on the ground, trembling, not daring to look at the fat and strong man in front of him.
"You were attacked, and that strange bird was there too?"
"..."
“Answer my question.”
"right."
After answering, the soldier dared not make any unnecessary movements, not even to offer a self-criticism; he could only kneel on the ground, awaiting his fate.
The man chuckled and said, "Six people died, and then the entire Chino Rock fell down?"
The soldier shuddered as if struck by lightning, and stammered, "Yes, yes."
The man smiled knowingly, then his face darkened as he asked, "Do you think it's possible they might take the Chino Rock back to their own tribe and have their artisans forge weapons for them? Wouldn't that be too much to ask?"
When the soldier named Tai Gan heard the man casually utter his name, his heart sank—he wouldn't easily utter other people's names, but if he did, it meant his patience had reached its limit. So he said tremblingly, "Probably... he will?"
"Will it or won't it?"
Tai Gan felt like dying, so he simply went all out and said, "Yes, Ao Yan!"
Ao Yan nodded in satisfaction and agreed, "I also think so. Then... I'll leave this matter to you?"
"ah?"
Ao Yan sneered, "Do I need to explain in more detail? Go find a group of people, direct them, and handle this matter properly. If you fail to retrieve the Qinuo Rock, you'll suffer the consequences!"
...
Red Flower Tribe.
Temporary camp.
Upon returning to the temporary camp, Li Qing handed over the Kinuo Rock that he and Atuna had brought back to Huanlu, a craftsman from their tribe, asking him to assess its quality and whether he could help forge more weapons for them to use.
In the Red Flower Tribe, Huanlu can be considered an outstanding craftsman. Every weapon he makes for the Red Flower Tribe is sturdy and durable. Even with limited materials, Huanlu still maximizes the use of the materials, making them able to fight normally with, or even win against, the weapons used by the Black Wind and White Feather Tribes.
This alone makes the warriors in the tribe eager to have Huanlu forge a new, good weapon for them whenever their weapons break down.
After all, the Red Flower Tribe was the weakest of the three tribes in every aspect, including the materials that could be used as weapons. Huanlu could make up for this gap, so it would be strange if it was not loved by the warriors in the tribe!
Even Dian would sometimes seek out Huanlu to watch firsthand how he forged a suitable weapon.
Most importantly, the artisans in most tribes are middle-aged men around forty years old, except for Huanlu, who is only in his early twenties, not yet thirty.
At such a young age, his skills were already extremely proficient, surpassing the efforts of other tribal artisans over the past decades. Li Qing sometimes had to admire his exceptional talent and began to wonder who he had learned from. Huanlu, who possessed such superb skills, was not actually from the Red Flower Tribe, but was picked up by Li five years ago.
It was precisely because Huanlu was different from other craftsmen that Li Qing approached Huanlu. He believed that with Huanlu's vision and ability, he would not disappoint him.
Sure enough, Huanlu was stunned by the Kino Rock after receiving it. He had never seen such a rock before. After taking Li Qing's pickaxe and feeling the ready-made "sample," he was even more astonished, exclaiming, "That's right, Mai Zi, this Kino Rock you're talking about is simply a material naturally suited for making weapons!"
Li Qing asked, "Wouldn't it be a waste of time and energy to use it to forge a weapon?"
Kino Rock is useful, but crafting weapons from it would probably require more effort than using other stones.
To everyone's surprise, Huanlu shook his head and said, "No need. The material of Kino Rock is extremely 'soft,' the softest of all the materials I've ever seen that can be used to make weapons. It's not difficult at all; on the contrary, it will be very fast!"
"Really?" Li Qing asked incredulously. He immediately squatted down, drew the shape of a weapon for Huanlu, and asked, "Then, how long would it take to make such a weapon?"
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