Feng Xu's Conscience

Tie Song activated the power of his bloodline and transformed into a giant fifteen meters tall.

The Wolf King beneath the tree snorted coldly, braced its limbs, and charged over along with the tree.

After regaining his balance, Tie Song collided with the Wolf King and was knocked back several hundred steps.

"Run!"

Tie Song shouted loudly.

Feng Yuqi looked around, snapped off a thick branch, and leaped onto the Wolf King's head. She struck it fiercely with the branch, but it was useless.

With a violent shake, the Wolf King flung both of them away.

Tie Song staggered to his feet and shielded Yuqi behind him.

The gap in strength between him and the Wolf King was far too great. He had no power to resist at all.

Chirp—

Just as the Wolf King charged again, an eagle's cry suddenly rang out from the sky.

Eagle talons suddenly descended. The Wolf King had no time to dodge, and a bone-deep wound was left on its head.

The giant eagle flapped its enormous wings, grabbed Yuqi and Tie Song, and flew into the distance.

Watching its prey fly away right before its jaws, the Wolf King's gaze turned vicious.

The Eagle King set the two of them down on a distant mountainside.

Yuqi looked at the giant eagle, whose black body glimmered with seven-colored reflections, and came to a realization.

She removed the feather from her head and compared it repeatedly.

It was almost identical to the feathers on the giant eagle's body.

The Eagle King glanced at Yuqi, said nothing, and spread its wings as it departed.

Feng Xu had previously brought back quite a bit of iron ore.

Every warrior had an iron hammer, and they later forged several dozen iron picks. They could be used both to dig trenches and to mine ore.

In the end, they made three iron saws for logging, using up the iron ore exactly.

More and more wolves were keeping watch nearby, and no one knew when they would attack. The mine was only three li from the camp, so they could provide support immediately if anything happened.

They were too busy during the day to think about such things. But at night, when the wolves howled outside, unrest began to stir among the people.

The women and children lived in the cave, while the warriors stayed in the camp outside it. Three groups were assigned to keep watch every night.

"Xu, will that tribe come help us?"

They had originally planned to visit the final tribe on this journey, but they had stayed here because of the mine.

It was not that they could not defeat the wolves. They simply wanted to minimize their losses as much as possible.

"I don't know. They probably will. I had someone tell them that for this hunt, they can take seventy percent of the spoils, while we only take thirty percent."

Feng Xu shook his head and sighed.

The wolf pack was active here, so that tribe should be suffering from it as well. A joint hunt between the two sides would greatly improve their chances of success. They should cooperate.

"Only thirty percent? Isn't that too little? We have more than twenty capable warriors here, and we're armed with iron tools."

Feng Xi did not understand.

"It's just wolf meat. We don't lack food. What matters is eliminating the threat of the wolf pack."

After thinking for a moment, Feng Xu continued, "If this succeeds and we divide the spoils afterward, we won't take any wolf meat. We'll only take the wolf pelts."

"Wolf pelts can keep us warm. Winter will arrive soon. Will they agree?"

"We'll see. We'll try to fight for it. By the way, it's been so many days. Why haven't the messengers returned yet?"

Could they have run into wolves on the way? Feng Xu felt faintly uneasy.

"That tribe is three days away. Including the time needed to deliver the message, it will take at least seven days to get an answer."

There were only two messengers, and they had to be even more careful on the way there.

"Then there are still two days left. Starting tomorrow, we'll mine the ore. I'll go make carts to make transporting it easier."

Feng Xu nodded and began planning the mining work.

"What is a cart?"

Feng Xi was curious. Were they making something new again?

"You'll find out tomorrow."

Early the next morning, the warriors staying behind at the camp began making carts.

"Straighten wood with an ink line, then bend it to make wheels."

The Human Race clearly did not yet possess such craftsmanship, so they could only use solid wooden wheels for now.

They selected some relatively round, thick logs, sawed them into sections, then carefully trimmed, polished, and processed them into wheels.

Then came the axles, frames, and assembly.

Once the first cart was finished, Feng Xu had several people sit on it while others pushed it along.

It could not compare to his previous life, but it would do for now.

They smeared lard on the axles. The others continued making carts, sending them to the mine every time four were completed.

One person could handle one cart. If they sent them over one at a time, the wolves could easily pick them off on the road.

The first cart earned fifty thousand Merit. Every cart afterward earned an additional five Merit points.

"These wooden carts are really useful. Transporting goods will take much less effort from now on."

Feng Xi praised, "If we trade with other tribes in the future, using carts to transport goods will save us a lot of trouble."

"Not for now. Without level roads, carts can't travel."

Feng Xi sighed. His burden had been the heaviest during this period. With his strength, it was not a problem, but who would not want things to be easier?

For the time being, human labor was still more useful for long-distance transportation.

These savages might be narrow-minded, but their strength was astonishing. Even children his own age could lift several hundred jin.

After entering the Innate Realm, their strength could increase severalfold.

The current cultivation system was incomplete. After the Innate Realm came Earth Immortal, and even among those in the Innate Realm, the difference in strength was as vast as heaven and earth.

Perhaps after breaking through to Earth Immortal, he could organize a cultivation method and pass it down to the Human Race.

Those were matters for later. The issue now was that road construction cost too much, and the environment was complicated. A giant beast could leap out midway at any moment.

Human labor, meanwhile, was powerful and cheap. It truly was the best choice at present.

If he were not afraid of harming the healthy mental development of future generations, Feng Xu would have even wanted to send those children to do hard labor.

They were so strong. It would be a waste not to make them work.

"How could I think something like that?"

Feng Xu muttered to himself. They were the future blossoms of the Human Race. How could they bear the weight of life at such a young age?

One's position determined one's perspective. As a sage, there was nothing wrong with viewing the population as a resource. But if he became detached from the people and turned into a beast that did not treat people as people, then he truly deserved to be hung from a streetlamp.

"Feng Xi, if you ever think I've done something wrong, you must remind me," Feng Xu said.

"But I think everything you do is right. You've made our lives better and better."

Feng Xi did not take it seriously.

In his eyes, Feng Xu had made life more convenient and allowed other tribes to live in better houses.

Nothing Feng Xu did ever failed.

"Look at them. They work every day and aren't as free as they used to be."

Feng Xu pointed at the busy crowd and sighed softly.

Before, they worried every day about food and safety. Once those two problems were solved, there was nothing else to do, and they could live leisurely.

Now that food was plentiful, they still had to work from morning until night every day. Had their lives truly improved?

"Before, they had nothing to do. Now they work so they can live better in the future. There's nothing wrong with that."

Working hard now for an easier future. He had heard words like that far too often in his previous life.

"Is that really what you think?" Feng Xu asked.

"Of course."

"Then why are you standing around here? Go help them."

"Then you..."

"Why are you looking at me? I'm still a child."

Feng Xu turned and left. He still had to teach the children how to read.

Feng Xi watched Feng Xu leave and remained silent for a long time.

He had actually wanted to say that if he went to work, who would stay by Feng Xu's side to protect him?

But Iron Mountain's attitude toward Feng Xu had improved considerably these past few days, and the wolves could not possibly sneak past them without a sound to attack from the rear. Nothing should happen.

The camp's defensive system was becoming more and more complete.

The innermost layer was a fence. Outside it was a ring of chevaux-de-frise, and beyond that were trenches.

Unfortunately, there was too much to do every day. Otherwise, Feng Xu had also planned to train battle formations.

Women would carry shields, men would wield spears, and they would practice several simple formations.

As long as they did not face some mighty being capable of casually wiping out vast numbers of the weak, discipline and morale were the keys to victory on the battlefield.

All races of the Primordial World possessed morale, but no race currently had strict discipline.

If the Human Race later had an army of a million with strict discipline and strength generally above the Earth Immortal realm, could they crush other races of equal numbers and realms?

Would the Human Race become the protagonists who controlled the great tide of the world, or become a Merit reservoir suppressed by the Heavenly Dao? Such matters were still far too distant for the current Human Race. Feng Xu only needed to accelerate the Human Race's development as much as possible.

At the very least, before the Witch-Demon War, the Human Race needed some ability to protect itself.

Though the Heavenly Dao Sage was powerful, he still had to follow the rules of the Great Dao.

If the hidden dangers within the Human Race could be resolved, the Heavenly Dao would have no right to interfere in Human Race affairs.