New Arrangements

"Chongshan, you stay at Black Moon Camp and ensure its safety. Da Shi and I are going back to Salt Lake Camp for a while."

As the strongest individual fighter in their tribe, Zhou Chongshan would normally always follow Zhou Xu whenever the latter went out, ensuring the chief's safety.

But by now, their "family business" had gradually expanded.

Black Moon Camp was a camp they intended to develop as a priority in the future, so its importance went without saying. Zhou Xu did not want to turn around one day and find that someone had wiped out their camp.

Because of that, he naturally had to take the camp's safety into consideration as well.

Not to mention that Zhuang Mengdie, one of their key members, was currently at Black Moon Camp too.

After a simple weighing of the options, Zhou Xu's decision was to have Zhou Chongshan hold down Black Moon Camp and ensure its safety.

Of course, that did not mean he would ignore his own safety.

The road from Black Moon Camp to Salt Lake Camp was not far. Moreover, it lay between the two camps, so the chances of danger arising were already low.

With that in mind, Zhou Xu had also mastered the mantra Skeleton Control.

He would have his followers carry the skeletons on their backs. Even if something truly went wrong, he could rely on this mantra to retreat unscathed even if he could not defeat the enemy.

Without wasting any time, everyone set out after the arrangements were made and smoothly reached Salt Lake Camp before evening.

"Chief!"

Before reaching the camp, Zhou Xu had sent a tribesman ahead to return to Salt Lake Camp and notify Fei Que, who had remained there the entire time.

By then, Fei Que had already been waiting outside the camp. The moment he saw Zhou Xu appear, he hurried over to greet him.

"Fei Que, I haven't been at Salt Lake Camp lately. Sorry for the trouble."

As he spoke, Zhou Xu patted Fei Que on the shoulder.

"It's no trouble. It's all for the tribe!"

After they entered the camp, it was noticeably quieter than before, since quite a few people had followed Zhuang Mengdie and the others to Black Moon Camp.

By the salt lake, two tribesmen were digging up the salt-bearing soil along the shore. They then sifted the soil to filter out the salt crystals within it.

This work did not require many people. After all, their daily salt consumption was not very high.

Even after excluding the salt they used each day, the clay jar had already accumulated a considerable stockpile. They would not need to worry about extracting salt crystals from the lake water for the time being.

After briefly introducing Da Shi to the salt-mining work there, the group turned and walked toward the mine in the center of the Black Forest.

Compared with the salt-mining work, which currently required little manpower, most of Salt Lake Camp's labor force had been devoted to mining coal.

More precisely, the main laborers mining coal came from Black Moon Camp.

To be exact, they came from the group of prisoners of war who had engaged in armed conflict with them at Black Moon Camp.

After being captured and surrendering, they had immediately been sent into the mine to work as coolies digging coal.

Of course, Zhou Xu had not mistreated them. They were given a meal every day, and their daily schedule was basically the same as that of the tribesmen.

Da Shi, who was following along beside them, had no objections to this.

From Da Shi's perspective, having food to eat meant having to work for it. That was simply the natural order of things.

"The coal ore mined here will be stockpiled first. Later, I plan to organize a transport team from Black Moon Camp, specifically responsible for delivering polished stone picks and food to Salt Lake Camp, then bringing the mined coal ore and salt back to Black Moon Camp."

"Besides keeping an eye on the output of these two operations, your main task while stationed at Salt Lake Camp will be ensuring the camp's safety."

At this point, Zhou Xu paused and turned to look at Da Shi, who had been following him the entire time.

"Da Shi, I plan to have you hold down this camp. What do you say?"

Da Shi was no fool. From the moment their chief had brought him along when setting out that day, he had wondered whether the chief had some task to assign him.

Now, the truth had completely exceeded his expectations.

Faced with this sudden announcement, Da Shi stood rooted to the spot, utterly stunned.

After all, only a few days had passed since he surrendered and pledged allegiance.

He was going to be put in charge of Salt Lake Camp directly? What kind of boldness did it take to make such a decision?!

He remained in that state for a full three seconds. Then, suddenly coming to his senses, Da Shi hurriedly declared with excitement—

"Chief, rest assured! I, Da Shi, will absolutely do this job well!!"

Without a doubt, this was an opportunity. Since their chief dared to use him, he had no reason not to accept it!

Only after readily agreeing did he remember Fei Que, who was still standing nearby. He turned toward him, looking slightly embarrassed.

After all, before this, Fei Que had been the person in charge of Salt Lake Camp.

By accepting the position, Da Shi had effectively taken Fei Que's place.

What Da Shi had not expected was that Fei Que remained utterly calm. When he noticed Da Shi's gaze, he even nodded at him, as though he had known about this long ago.

And in reality, that was indeed the case. Zhou Xu was not foolish enough to disregard the feelings of one of his old subordinates, abruptly remove him from his post, and replace him with a newcomer.

Before coming here, he had already sent someone back to inform Fei Que of the matter.

Fei Que's talent was Execution Expert. He could display its value more effectively by staying at Zhou Xu's side, and Zhou Xu indeed needed someone with such high execution efficiency beside him.

Under these circumstances, the only person who could currently replace Fei Que and hold down Salt Lake Camp was Da Shi.

Having understood their chief's intentions, Fei Que naturally had no reason to feel displeased.

"Good. Keep up that momentum. I believe you can do this well. However, now that you've become the person in charge of the Salt Lake Tribe, continuing to use a name as common as 'Da Shi' won't be very convenient."

Zhou Xu had clearly prepared for Da Shi's name long ago.

"Shi Lei. From today onward, your name is Shi Lei."

Shi Lei—four stones. It was a tiny bit of his own mischievous humor.

Shi Lei, who had no idea about the joke behind it, naturally thanked him excitedly.

During this exchange, Fei Que, who had remained calm the entire time, suddenly cast an envious look at Da Shi because of his new name.

Zhou Xu saw this and smiled.

"Alright, you have one too. How could I forget you?"

"Thank you, Chief!"

The moment he said this, the expression on Fei Que's face visibly brightened. Before Zhou Xu could even announce his name, he had already thanked him first. His impatience was plain to see.

"I put some real thought into your name. Fei Que... Jinghong. Your name will be Ye Jinghong!"