Calmly Facing Death

If it were just a matter of bad taste, they could have accepted it, but the real problem was that after eating raw potatoes, they all got diarrhea.

That experience made them think potatoes were poisonous—a cunning human trick to poison thieves.

Now it seemed otherwise. Potatoes really were a human staple food; they just couldn't be eaten raw. It was a misunderstanding caused by their lack of cooking skills.

The Spirit Cat Tribe had their own food crop, which the Cat-men called "Keken." Keken required very little to grow—just bury it in any corner, and after a while, it would sprout.

The Spirit Cat Tribe could sustain so many of their people thanks to this hardy crop.

When Medivh received the Keken offered by the Cat-men, he saw at once that it was just corn on the cob!

Corn truly wasn't picky about growing conditions, and the layered hills actually expanded the area available for planting.

Once he confirmed that Keken was corn, Medivh confiscated all the Keken the Cat-men had on hand, reserving it for seed cultivation.

Besides Keken, the Spirit Cat Tribe also had herbs used for inscribing Inheritance Spirit Runes and other medicinal herbs. Medivh designated a Farmland District specifically for growing those herbs.

After a hearty feast, the Cat-men, led by the middle-aged chieftain and other administrators, were assigned housing. They settled in Districts No. 2 and No. 4 by family unit.

Once registered, the Cat-men could go to the Supply Warehouse to collect food according to their household registration and cook at home.

Given the Cat-men's terrible cooking skills and their unfamiliarity with human food, Medivh opened many Public Canteens in the Armory District of Districts No. 2 and No. 4.

When registering at the Supply Warehouse, Cat-men could choose to receive meal tickets instead of raw ingredients, using those tickets to eat at the Public Canteens.

With Medivh's permission, the Spirit Cat Tribe's Warlocks and Apprentice Warlocks perfected the Inheritance Spirit Runes for the Spirit Cat Warriors.

The Spirit Cat Warriors with perfected runes then followed Kurd's Spirit Cat Skeleton Warriors to learn the lost Cat Clan Combat Techniques.

Additionally, a group of Cat-men with Warlock talent studied under the Spirit Cat Skeleton Warlocks, while another group suitable for inscribing Inheritance Spirit Runes became Apprentice Spirit Rune Warriors.

"When I die, please send me to Graveyard District No. 2."

Since arriving in Kurd, the Cat-men no longer lived from meal to meal, sometimes hungry, sometimes full. Now they could eat their fill every meal, with meat included.

The Spirit Cat Tribe's heritage had been restored, and the younger generation was diligently training to improve themselves.

The master of Kurd treated the Cat-men kindly and looked after them well.

Seeing the Spirit Cat Tribe grow better and better, the Cat-man Riddle finally set down the heavy burden on her shoulders.

Before, she dared not die, clinging to life with a decaying body.

Now, she could face death with ease.

"Farewell, Lady Riddle!"

The Cat-man Riddle closed her eyes peacefully. The middle-aged chieftain and the other Cat-men had both sorrow and joy in their eyes.

The Cat-man Riddle had lived too painfully. Her peaceful passing was a blessed death.

She departed serenely because she had seen the dawn of the Spirit Cat Tribe's rise. The Cat-men should see her off with celebration, remember her contributions to the tribe, and not dwell in grief.

The Cat-man Riddle wished to pass on knowledge and protect future generations in skeletal form, just like her ancestors.

On her deathbed, she instructed the younger generation to send her to Graveyard District No. 2 for burial, awaiting Medivh's activation.

As the middle-aged chieftain and the other Cat-men carried the bier into the Underground Palace of Graveyard District No. 2 to bury Riddle, they passed many carefully placed Cat-man remains along the way.

Graveyard District No. 2 was the tribal cemetery Medivh had designated for the Spirit Cat Tribe.

Those Cat-man remains were bones excavated and brought back from the Spirit Cat Hill cemetery.

From now on, when Cat-men in Kurd died, they would be transported to Graveyard District No. 2 for burial, like the Cat-man Riddle, accumulating history underground until Medivh activated them.

Graveyard District No. 2 only held bones less than a hundred years old.

The Green Bones brought back from Spirit Cat Hill had already been sent to the High Tower Castle in District No. 1. Over the past few days, Medivh had been smelting and resurrecting that batch of Cat-man remains.

"She was a great leader!"

When Medivh learned of the Cat-man Riddle's death, he praised her life.

From an objective standpoint, she was indeed a great leader.

With her decaying body, she had protected the Cat-men through their hardest times, only passing away peacefully amid the laughter of her people when the dawn of the tribe's rise finally arrived.

The Cat-men integrated into Kurd very quickly. Within less than a week, Cat-men could be seen in every position.

Some Spirit Cat Warriors followed the Spirit Cat Skeletons on patrols and hunts in the Wilderness outside Kurd.

Some Spirit Cat Warriors stood guard on the city walls alongside Skeleton Soldiers, keeping watch through the night.

Some Cat-men worked in the Public Canteens, carrying ingredients and cleaning utensils.

Some Cat-men swung small hoes in the fields, harvesting potatoes alongside the Skeleton Farmers.

The Cat-men declared they wouldn't eat for free—they would repay Kurd's support with their labor.

"Lord Medivh, thank you!"

Lying on the railing at the top of the tower, Suixiang gazed through the window at the Cat-men laughing in the distance. She shouted excitedly, responding to Medivh behind her.

The Spirit Cat Tribe's present was Medivh's gift.

In the blink of an eye, it had already been over half a month since the Spirit Cat Tribe migrated to Kurd.

Over the past half-month, Medivh had been tempering and resurrecting the Green Bones and Blue Bones obtained from Spirit Cat Hill, balancing work and rest.

There were quite a few skeletons on Spirit Cat Hill—ancestral remains brought by the migrating Spirit Cat Tribe, Cat-man bones from those who had died over the past two hundred years.

There were bones left by enemies the Spirit Cat Tribe had killed over those two centuries, and bones from the original inhabitants who had lived there before the tribe's migration.

From the bone components he tempered, Medivh could tell that the original inhabitants of Spirit Cat Hill had been Lizardmen, though he couldn't say whether they had migrated or been wiped out.

The Lizardman tribe hadn't left many bones, but the lowest were Blue Bones at least three hundred years old, with the oldest skeleton dating back seven hundred and twenty-four years.

The residual aura and pressure made it clear that skeleton had been a powerful transcendent in life.

After refining all the Blue Bones he could temper and resurrect, Medivh obtained twenty Light Blue Dual-Spear Skeleton Warriors, twelve Sky Blue Dual-Spear Skeleton Warriors, five Light Blue Transcendent Lizardman Skeleton Warriors, and two Light Blue Transcendent Lizardman Shamans.

Blue Bone Skeletons started at the first rank, awakening Bone Spirit Power as soon as they were resurrected.

Dual-Spear Warriors were human skeleton warriors specialized from ordinary Lizardman bones.

They stood two meters tall, clad in Bone Armor, and their Origin weapons were two bone spears that could be assembled into a double-pointed long spear.

Lizardman Skeleton Warriors stood three meters eight tall, possessing the unique transcendent abilities and combat skills of Lizardmen.

Lizardman Skeleton Warriors and Dual-Spear Skeleton Warriors shared the same Origin weapons, but their Bone Armor was thicker and bore the skeletal features of Lizardmen.

The knobby tail of a Lizardman Skeleton Warrior served as their third spear.

Lizardman Skeleton Shamans differed from Minotaur Shamans.

They were not Totem Shamans but War Song Shamans, inspiring their kin through various transcendent war songs.

The Lizardman Skeleton Shaman's Origin Bone Artifacts were the Shaman War Drum at their waist, along with Bone Armor and a bone spear.

Like Minotaur Shamans, Lizardman Shamans were melee-type spellcasters.