Tribal Exchange Gathering

"Village Chief, then I'll take four and give the rest to the tribe..."

Lin Yi had barely gotten halfway through before the village chief raised a hand to stop him.

"You found these yourself, so naturally they all belong to you."

The old man's tone was calm, yet carried an unquestionable certainty.

He turned to look at Lin Yi, his eyes holding an earnestness that was hard to put into words.

"I know you haven't been with the tribe for long, but your feelings for it have already run deep. You want the tribe to become better. I understand that."

Lin Yi's lips moved as if he wanted to say something, but the village chief pressed on before he could.

"But we shouldn't hold you back either."

The village chief slowly walked to the doorway, clasped his hands behind his back, and looked up at the vast blue sky of the Great Wilderness.

The breeze stirred the white hair at his temples, while the faint clamor of tribesmen dividing meat drifted in from outside the stone house.

"Child, your future belongs to the whole world. You shouldn't be trapped in our little tribe."

Lin Yi fell silent for a moment.

"Village Chief, but..."

"That's enough." The village chief interrupted him again, gentle but firm.

"Say no more. We accept your kindness. Keep those fruits safe; they'll be of great use when you break through."

He turned and walked back, reaching out to pat Lin Yi on the shoulder. His palm was rough, and the force was light, yet it carried immense weight.

This time, Lin Yi did not refuse. He lowered his eyes to look at the nine Blood Essence Fruits. After turning it over in his mind several times, he finally nodded obediently. "All right, I understand."

He put the nine fruits away again, then remembered the Blood Essence Fruit Tree and turned to ask, "What about this Blood Essence Fruit Tree? Can it still be replanted?"

The village chief walked over and crouched down, pinching the soil around the roots before inspecting the broken root ends. He slowly shook his head. "Once it's been pulled out, it can't be kept alive.

Too many roots have been severed. Even if it's planted again, it won't last more than a few days before slowly withering away."

Lin Yi clicked his tongue regretfully.

"However," the village chief changed tack, "the leaves of this tree can stop bleeding. Mash them up and apply them to wounds, and they work better than ordinary herbs. Later, pluck the leaves and dry them for storage. When the Tribal Exchange Gathering comes around, we can trade them for some things."

Tribal Exchange Gathering.

Lin Yi's ears twitched. This was the second time he had heard the term. The first had been when he was hunting with Biao, and he had not paid it much mind then. Now that the village chief had brought it up himself, his interest was immediately piqued.

"Oh, right." The village chief stood and dusted the dirt from his hands. "I nearly forgot. The annual Tribal Exchange Gathering is about to begin."

"What do they mainly trade at the Tribal Exchange Gathering? Are there cultivation techniques or martial skills?"

Lin Yi sat down on the stone bed, assuming the posture of someone ready to listen intently.

"What are you thinking? Though I suppose it's not impossible."

"Usually, though, it's just several nearby tribes gathering in one place to trade what they have for what they need." As he spoke, the village chief gestured with his hands. "Those spears in our tribe, and that great saber your brother Mang carries, were all traded for at the gathering.

From ferocious beast materials, bone tools, and stone tools, down to herbs and beast hides, anything can be put up for trade. Some people also bring strange and unusual trinkets to try their luck. If they find a treasure, they strike it rich; if they don't, they won't lose much."

The village chief paused, lowering his voice slightly. "But I have indeed heard that some tribes have traded for cultivation techniques and martial skills at the gathering."

Lin Yi's eyes lit up.

"But that's only hearsay. No one knows whether it's true or not," the village chief added blandly.

Lin Yi rolled his eyes inwardly.

...Here it came. The classic trope from webnovels in his previous life. The protagonist attended a gathering, picked up a bargain, showed off, traded for resources, and strode toward the pinnacle of life.

He had been in the Great Wilderness for so long that he thought he had avoided this route. Yet after going around in circles, he had still ended up here.

But then again—

Lin Yi rubbed his chin, a thought surfacing in his heart. Since I transmigrated here, I should be the protagonist too, right? Then... should I make some preparations?

His face remained impassive, but he was already calculating what he had that could be traded away.

Having made up his mind, he asked the village chief, "How long until the Tribal Exchange Gathering?"

"Seven days."

"Then there's plenty of time."

"But we have to set out five days early," the village chief added.

Lin Yi froze. "Five days early? Is the gathering place very far away?"

The village chief nodded and walked to the entrance, gesturing into the distance.

"The gathering is held in a valley on the other side of the Great Wilderness's edge.

In a straight line, it actually isn't too far, but that route requires traveling through part of the Great Wilderness's interior. Tribes on the edge like ours can't afford to take that risk. So we can only make a detour along the edge of the Great Wilderness."

He looked back at Lin Yi. "Safety comes first. Better to walk two extra days."

Lin Yi thought it over and understood.

He had seen the ferocious beasts deep within the Great Wilderness: that Inkshadow Leopard at the Dragonlike Realm, the swarm of Shadowmarked Spiders in the Dark Forest, and those thirty-plus Lava Giant Apes. And that had not even been the true depths of the Great Wilderness.

If they ran into any one of those groups, the people of Bluestone Tribe would not even be enough to fill their teeth.

Traveling along the edge was farther, but safer.

"All right, then I'll make preparations." Lin Yi nodded.

The village chief remembered something else and solemnly warned him, "Right, try not to bring out those cultivation techniques and martial skills you created yourself at the gathering unless you have to."

"I know."

"Murdering people for treasure isn't rare at such gatherings. Once you show your wealth, someone will set their sights on you."

The village chief's tone was not heavy, but Lin Yi understood the weight behind his words. He nodded seriously. "Don't worry. I know what I'm doing."

After a pause, he remembered something else. "By the way, Village Chief, does the tribe have any illustrated records of ferocious beasts and natural treasures? The kind that records... what ferocious beasts look like, where certain fruits grow, and what they do."

"That was my oversight." The village chief slapped his forehead. "I should have shown them to you long ago."

He turned and entered the inner room. After rummaging around for a while, he came back carrying five or six rolls of beast hide, stacked into a thick bundle.

The edges of the hides were worn, and their color had faded with age, but they had been carefully preserved. Every roll was tightly bound with thin vine cords.

"These are illustrated records of the ferocious beasts seen, hunted, and recorded by generations of people since the tribe was founded, along with notes on some herbs. Take them and read them."

Lin Yi accepted them with both hands and thanked him.

After leaving the village chief's stone house, Lin Yi carried the stack of beast hides straight back to his own dwelling. He had only spread them out on the stone bed and flipped through a few pages when Mang arrived carrying a huge amount of meat.

There was a brown bear's hind leg, several pieces of tender white flesh carved from the spider, and more than half of the prepared meat from that wild boar ferocious beast. Every kind had been cut into a generous portion, wrapped in washed leaves, and piled onto a stone slab until it was heaped full.

"Brother Mang, you all—"

"Don't say it." A simple smile appeared on Mang's honest, dark face. "Everyone got plenty. This was set aside especially for you. You hunt alone outside the tribe, so when you return, you have to eat something good and replenish yourself."

Lin Yi looked at the meat piled high on the stone slab. He knew everyone else had received far less than what was in front of him; they had most likely saved the best portions for him.

A warm, dull ache rose in his chest. His mouth opened and closed, but in the end, he could only force out one sentence. "Thanks."

Mang waved a hand, said no more, and turned to leave.

Lin Yi stood alone inside the stone house, lowering his gaze to the beast-hide rolls on the stone bed, then to the pile of meat in the corner.

He suddenly felt that the greatest stroke of luck in this transmigration was probably not the Super Brain.

It was meeting a group of people like this.

Lin Yi drew a deep breath and pressed those surging emotions back down into his stomach. They would set out five days early, which meant he still had two days he could make use of.

He sat cross-legged on the stone bed again and opened the ferocious beast records to the first page. Over these two days, he had to find a way to push himself another step forward. The Mountain-Sinking Realm was not the end; the Dragonlike Realm was the nearest hurdle before him.

As Lin Yi read, he thought that with the Blood Essence Fruits' support, he could absolutely advance another step in cultivation over these two days.