Five Hundred Stone Splitters, First Harvest After the Disaster (Seeking Follow-up Reads)

Huo Tang hadn't expected that in the two months he'd been gone, the tribe would change so much.

Outside the tribal city, the terraced fields were lush and green, with an artificial river winding through the mountains.

On the tribal mountain, the specially cultivated medicinal gardens were beginning to take shape.

The children of the tribe chased each other and played.

On the training ground next to the fish pond, shouts could be heard loud and clear.

On the high platform beside the training ground, two tribesmen were sparring.

This was the Martial Platform.

It was inevitable for tribesmen practicing martial arts to have disagreements. Disputes were settled on the Martial Platform, with victory or defeat resolving the issue.

Any private fighting would be severely punished according to the newly established tribal rules.

In the courtyards of the houses, scattered tribesmen were practicing Kui Ox Fist in their free time, clearly not abandoning their martial arts cultivation.

At the foot of the steps outside the Ancestral Temple, everything from mushroom to medicinal herbs were laid out to dry.

The ancestors watched them dry, giving them peace of mind about what they ate.

As for the Mountain-Cleaving Kui ridden by the volcanic riders, they were captured from the deep mountains.

A total of nine were captured, and it was said that the disobedient ones had already been eaten.

The remaining four were very well-behaved.

In a short period, the three small classification systems of farming, animal husbandry, and medicinal herb cultivation had been initially established.

Was this the tribe after the plague had swept through?

It wasn't surprising that Shi Fu and his group were shocked when they were outside the tribe; he, as the chief, was also shocked.

He suddenly realized that the tribe seemed to be able to manage without him as chief...

Arriving at the stone platform outside the Ancestral Temple, Huo Tang couldn't help but stop and look back again.

As Shen Can came out, he saw Huo Tang in a daze.

"Shouldn't the chief rest for a few more days?"

Hearing this, Huo Tang immediately snapped back to attention. "A-Can, among all the past chiefs, I am the only one who has traveled three thousand li. The sights I saw this time were incredibly shocking, and I haven't been able to put my mind at ease."

He recounted his experiences while traveling, with a hint of lingering fear.

"I suspect it might have been the Ling Yu Tribe. Besides the Ling Yu, we don't know of any other tribe that could be so powerful as to be unaffected by floods."

"Large ships captured people, strange fish pulled the ships. It was by establishing our tribe in the deep mountains that we avoided disaster."

"After hearing this, I think we still need to have dedicated people go out to scout. At the very least, they can discover dangers in advance and report back, and if they can't win, they can still escape."

Shen Can nodded. "Establishing effective information transmission is very necessary. If people are out for many days and lose contact, it will cause panic within the tribe."

Regarding intelligence and communication, he had thought of training flying beasts before, but unfortunately, he had only managed to raise a few Mountain-Cleaving Kui.

The Blazing Flame Tribe, aspiring to develop externally, must understand the outside situation to develop by avoiding misfortune and seeking good fortune.

"The tribe has never stopped cultivating its members. Currently, the number of Stone Splitter Realm warriors is approaching five hundred, which is enough for us to arrange for people to go out and scout."

"So many?"

Huo Tang was startled.

But Shen Can didn't think it was many.

After the plague, they had eaten beast meat regardless of the cost, and in the past two months, they had also consumed diluted third-tier beast blood.

This wasn't about advancing to god-tier. If they couldn't even break through with one Desolate Power, they might as well give up on martial arts cultivation.

"Is there enough food?"

After the surprise, Huo Tang immediately considered the problem.

Warriors consumed a lot, so they naturally ate more. Normally, how could they support so many warriors?

"The wheat and millet from the fields reclaimed after the disaster are growing very well, and the desolate beasts in the surrounding mountains are increasing. Maintaining daily consumption is not a problem."

"While there are no new tribes emerging around us, we should clarify the surrounding environment, draw maps, and bring large areas under the tribe's control."

"Just like Shang Huang, we can cross three thousand li at any time."

"During the exploration, we can also capture some young desolate beasts and flying beasts to tame, supplementing the tribe's deficiencies in travel and information transmission."

Shen Can thought for a moment and added, "We also need to search for mineral veins. Currently, the weapons of the tribesmen are too poor. Without mineral veins, we cannot forge more weapons."

"Alright, let's learn from Shang Huang too. First, let's understand the mountain terrain within a three-thousand-li radius."

Hearing the name Shang Huang, Huo Tang felt a surge of competitive spirit.

The Shanghuang Tribe's heritage was much older than the Blazing Flame Tribe's. During the previous flood, the Heaven Vein Warriors of the Shanghuang Tribe had arrogantly arrived twice, and he had been holding a grudge ever since.

For most of the tribesmen, tribal life continued day after day, passing by quickly as they counted the days.

Five months passed in the blink of an eye.

Thanks to the tribe's efforts, the first harvest season after the flood arrived.

Unlike the wheat and millet of Shen Can's previous life, the grains in the Great Wilderness world were many times larger, heavy and substantial.

The reason it was called a harvest season was mainly because the harvesting period lasted a bit long.

It had been over two months of continuous harvesting, and the golden yellow fields outside the city were still interspersed with patches of yellow-green.

Every day, the fields were crowded with tribespeople gathering the wheat and millet.

From the city walls and rooftops to the stone platforms and steps outside the Ancestral Temple, everything was covered with drying wheat and millet grains.

Because the plots were scattered, Shen Can had no idea how many acres had been cultivated in total.

Looking out from the tribe's mountain, wherever his eyes could see, from the mountains to the valleys, it was all wheat and millet fields.

The soil of the Great Wilderness was very fertile. Even the millet planted on newly reclaimed land this season yielded surprisingly high output, ranging from thirty to forty containers per mu according to the tribe's standard containers.

Shen Can estimated that one container weighed around a hundred catties.

While the yield per mu seemed high, this was the Great Wilderness. The land was different, the crops were different, and the tribespeople ate a lot more. There was no comparison to his previous life.

The high yield per mu also had Shen Can's contribution.

The tribespeople had followed his previous methods of weeding, breaking up soil clumps (using hammers, mallets, or rakes to break hardened soil into fine earth), and using the witch medicine he concocted for pest control.

They say mountains have four seasons and ten miles can have different weather, but this millet field was not even ten miles wide, yet the wheat and millet growth cycles showed several different stages.

Some ripened in less than three months, while others were still green after six months.

Shen Can hadn't expected such a planned, phased maturity, with only a few grains or leaves ripening at a time.

Even with his innate farming knowledge, he had never seen a situation that so completely defied growth cycles.

He had also asked the Clan Elders, who only had a general understanding that it was best to store supplies during the cold season and suitable for planting after the cold passed.

Whether this general approach to dealing with the changing seasons, the autumn harvest and winter storage, was due to the Blazing Flame Tribe being too small to have inherited seasonal knowledge, or if such development simply hadn't occurred, he could only investigate later.

At the edge of the fields, Shen Can happily greeted the tribespeople, casually patting the heads of the children who came over.

These children, carrying small woven vine baskets specially made by their mothers, were picking millet ears from the fields.

Given the same environment, the different maturity times of the wheat and millet made him suspect it was an issue with the soil, and he planned to research it.

Another month passed, and the wheat and millet were finally all harvested.

Although the harvesting period was long, it was a great harvest unprecedented in the tribe's history, worthy of celebration.

"The hunting party is back!"

On the city wall, a few children spotted a group of people returning and immediately shouted loudly.

As the harvest neared its end, Huo Tang had sent Huo Shan to lead a hunting party.

Dozens of people returned, either dragging or carrying their prey.

At the very front, a wooden frame carried a dazed, mystical Mountain-Cleaving Kui.

This desolate beast, besides having two crescent-moon-like horns on its head, also had a single black-striped horn on its nose bridge.

As the hunting party entered the city, people from various families within the tribe emerged from their dwellings.

The children carried their small woven baskets, filled with the largest millet ears they had selected from the fields during the harvest.

For the first harvest after the flood, besides hunting desolate beasts, the more important offerings were these large millet ears.

"Ancestor worship!"

Huo Xian's horn sounded again.

This time, Shen Can did not emerge from the Ancestral Temple first.

Huo Tang stood on the stone platform outside the Ancestral Temple.

"Thanks to the blessings of our ancestors, our Blazing Flame Tribe survived the flood and the plague, and now welcomes a great harvest."

"Today, we hunt the Mountain-Cleaving Kui to honor our ancestors, and the entire tribe will participate in the sacrifice."

"We inform our ancestors that our Blazing Flame Tribe's lineage continues, our sacrifices are unending, and our descendants will prosper!"

While researching for this chapter, I learned that on the island of Java, due to volcanic eruptions, rice can be harvested nine times in two years. It's mind-boggling.

In Vietnam, places that can produce three to four harvests a year are already enviable.

As for the measurement of yield per mu, I'll use the commonly used 'shi' from ancient times. However, since the Blazing Flame Tribe is isolated from other tribes in the Great Wilderness, and the Great Wilderness lacks a unified system of measurement, I'll use 'container' as a temporary substitute. When interacting with other tribes, measurement tools will gradually be standardized.

The reason for the lack of a unified system of measurement is similar to the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, where each state had its own standards, and even written characters differed. Qin Shi Huang's greatness is evident simply from his unification of written language and measurement standards.