It's So Cold! I'm Playing with Mud in Northeast China!

The sun in the west was about to set.

Xilali, the Great Elder of the Xilili Tribe, stood on a rock outside the elders' tent, gazing into the distance.

"Ximo, why hasn't he come back yet?"

He had only gone to collect the offerings to the gods from four small villages. He should have returned by this morning at the latest, but there was still no sign of him.

Xilali sighed. Collecting offerings was the fattest job in a tribe, one that could earn merits exchangeable for additional lifespan. If Ximo had not been his grandson, the position would never have fallen to him.

The bonfire in the open space at the tribe's center had already been lit, and the tribespeople were preparing food for the evening banquet.

"I heard a group of Life Thieves ran in from outside. Could Ximo have run into them?" Xilali recalled the recent message he had received, and worry rose in his heart again.

Just then, a soybean-sized shadow flew toward Xilali. He raised a hand, and the "soybean shadow" stopped on his finger. Looking closely, Xilali saw that it was a wasp no bigger than a fingernail.

"It's Ximo's Dangui Bee!" Only then did Xilali let out a sigh of relief.

"Good. Nothing happened to him!"

"I hope he can make it back in time for the banquet."

If he missed the banquet, the god would surely be displeased.

At the same time, Ximo, the man Xilali had been thinking about so anxiously, was leading Chen Luo and the others toward his tribe.

The logic was simple: lifespan could not disappear for no reason.

After Chen Luo's group entered the Haoli Mountain secret realm, the lifespan within their bodies had plummeted, leaving them with only one day. It was only by relying