A Tribe Suddenly Appears

The night passed quietly.

Nothing happened during the night.

As for ghosts and gods?

Yang Yu was an atheist, so naturally he did not believe in such things as ghosts and spirits.

"Clan Chief."

Morning came.

Yang You looked at the well-rested clan chief and said, "Should we set out now?"

"Not yet."

"Let us eat our fill before continuing." Yang Yu shook his head and rejected Yang You's suggestion. "We are ultimately still human. At the very least, we need full stomachs before setting out."

"Understood."

Yang You immediately went to have the two Hunting Team members begin preparing breakfast.

Yang Yu, meanwhile, took out a relatively clean piece of hide and picked up a charred branch, then began drawing on the hide.

Upon closer inspection,

it turned out to be a map of the terrain they had traversed.

After eating breakfast,

everyone continued southward.

After they had walked for roughly fifty-odd li, Yang You and another Hunting Team member, who had been walking at the front, turned back.

"What happened?"

Yang Yu looked at Yang You and the others returning.

"Clan Chief, we discovered traces of human activity." Yang You took out a damaged wooden spear, sharpened to a point and stained with blood, and said, "This is a weapon we once used for hunting. Judging by its condition, it should have been abandoned no more than three days ago."

"Traces of a surviving tribe?"

At this, Yang Yu accepted the spear Yang You handed him, his eyes flickering.

It seemed this place was not far from their tribe either.

They had actually found traces of human activity within no more than a hundred kilometers of their tribe.

Because of this, he felt fortunate.

It was they who had discovered the other side, rather than the other side discovering their tribe.

Otherwise, the consequences would have been severe.

"Do not alert them for now. Let us first observe the situation."

Yang Yu pondered for a moment before speaking.

"Understood."

Since they were often active in the mountains and forests,

they were highly adept at moving through the wilderness.

Following the Hunting Team's tracks, they soon found the tribe.

"Clan Chief, that is their tribe."

Standing atop a mountain,

Yang You pointed at the tribe below, which was surrounded by mountains on all sides with a basin in the middle, and said, "Judging by its size, it should be about as large as our tribe, though it is not as well developed as ours."

The other side's tribe was indeed large.

It was definitely no weaker than theirs, but the weapons used by this tribe were enough to reveal the gap between them.

Seeing this,

Yang Yu said nothing, his eyes flickering constantly.

His first thought was

to coexist peacefully with them.

But then he shook his head and rejected the idea of peaceful coexistence.

When two tribes encountered each other,

there could be no balanced relationship between them.

Only when one side was defeated could it end.

"Clan Chief, should we make contact with them?"

Yang You asked tentatively.

"Make contact?"

Yang Yu turned to Yang You, the corners of his mouth curling into an enigmatic smile. He said, "You, tell me—how is our tribe developing?"

"How is it developing? Quite well."

Yang You was confused.

They had never experienced war, nor did they know what war was.

But since the clan chief had asked,

he naturally answered truthfully.

"Oh?"

Yang Yu looked at Yang You in surprise, then turned to the other two team members.

However,

the other two members were similarly limited by the era they lived in.

"Mark their location."

Yang Yu said, "There is still much for you to learn."

"Our tribe's development is still far too slow."

"Even now, our Hunting Team can only muster fewer than ten people."

"How are we supposed to develop the tribe?"

"Rely on the tribespeople having more children? That would be far too slow."

At once,

the others understood what the clan chief meant.

Yang You stared at his clan chief in horror and said hoarsely, "C-Clan Chief, are you, are you planning to annex their tribe?"

Annexing another tribe was something they had never even considered.

"Could it be that you do not want the tribe and the clan to become better?"

Yang Yu fixed his gaze on the three team members.

"Of course we want the clan to become better." Yang You nodded solemnly.

If the clan became better, their own families would become better as well.

"Can the clan's construction keep up?"

Yang Yu asked.

"This..." Everyone fell silent.

As the tribe slowly expanded, the work of its adults became increasingly demanding.

The children also had to enter the Ancestral Hall and learn to read under the elders' instruction.

This greatly increased the pressure on the adults' lives, making many things impossible to implement.

"Return the way we came."

Yang Yu spoke in a deep voice.

It was no longer suitable for them to continue searching for Copper Ore.

They had discovered the existence of another tribe.

It was time to return to their tribe and wait for the organized forces to come and conquer it.

"Clan Chief, aren't we going to make contact with them? Shouldn't we first learn about their situation?" Yang Di, a Hunting Team member, asked tentatively.

If they investigated the other side's situation, they could make detailed arrangements for dealing with the tribe later.

"Never try to challenge human nature."

Yang Yu gave Yang Di a deep look and said, "Look at the equipment on you, then look at the equipment they have. What do you think they would do?"

After he said this,

everyone fell silent again.

Including the clan chief, there were only four of them.

If the other side coveted their equipment and attacked them, then even though they had undergone training and their ability to fight and survive had improved compared to a month ago, they would still die when facing an enemy with several times their numbers.

"Withdraw."

Yang Yu spoke decisively.

After Yang Yu gave the order to retreat,

the second squad of the Hunting Team began withdrawing slowly, following their original route back toward the Yang Clan.

After several days of travel,

they finally returned to the clan camp.

But Yang Feng and the others had yet to return.

At the clan's Ancestral Hall,

the elders looked at the clan chief and Hunting Team members who had returned ahead of schedule and asked happily, "Clan Chief, did you find the Copper Ore?"

Yang Yu shook his head slightly and said, "No. We did not find the Copper Ore."

"But according to the agreed schedule, Clan Chief, shouldn't you be on your way back by now?"

Elder Yang Huo was extremely puzzled.

Based on the number of days that had passed,

the clan chief and the others should have been on their way back.

"We found another tribe."

As soon as he said this,

the Ancestral Hall fell completely silent.

No one had expected

that the clan chief and the others would actually find another tribe.

"Yu, what are you planning?" Lin Er's eyes flickered as she looked at Yang Yu and the Hunting Team, who had returned safely.

"Annex it."

Yang Yu uttered these two words.

"Annex it?"

Hearing this unfamiliar term, the elders were all puzzled.

What did annexing mean?

"Bring them into the tribe of our Yang Clan, make them members of the Yang Clan, have them contribute to the development of our Yang Clan, and even intermarry with them."