Page 18

As he spoke, Jian Mo smoothly turned to a new topic.

No one noticed, and they soon began talking about other things.

This place seemed well suited to Wood-Stabilizing Root, which had spread over a large area.

They dug for it as they gathered herbs, and soon had a pile.

Seeing that the soil nearby had all been turned over, Jian Mo thought for a moment, then buried some of the Wood-Stabilizing Root fruit he had picked up back in the loosened earth.

The others saw what he was doing and said nothing. Instead, they helped him bury the fruit.

Just as Jian Mo was absorbed in his work, a startled cry suddenly came from up ahead. "Come look! There's so much Wood-Stabilizing Root over here! It's even growing into the cave!"

"Where?!"

"Let me see!"

Zhou Fu pulled Jian Mo along, and they crowded outside a dark cave with the others.

The outside of the cave was covered in weeds, with vines hanging down over it. Without looking closely, it was hard to spot.

Zhou Fu sniffed. "A Long-Headed Beast's cave. It's been abandoned for at least three or four years."

Xi Lu stared at the cave, eager to try. "What a shame. If it were still here, we could have hunted a Long-Headed Beast to take back today."

Zhou Fu said, "Not necessarily. What if it were particularly fierce and chased us down?"

Xi Lu said, "That wouldn't happen. There are so many of us here, we could sit it to death if each of us plopped our butt down on it."

Listening from the side, Jian Mo gathered that it was a carnivorous beast with a very long head.

He couldn't smell the beast's scent in the air at all, nor could he tell how many years the cave had been abandoned. From the dense growth around the entrance, he could only roughly judge that no beast was living inside.

They cut away the plants at the entrance with shell knives and peered inside.

Xi Lu went in first and walked a few steps into the cave. After making sure there was no danger, Xi Lu turned and beckoned the others inside.

At that point, Jian Mo noticed that Xi Lu's ears had turned furry again, and Xi Lu's pupils had become large and round.

The others were the same: beast ears, claws, tails and the like had all appeared.

In a dangerous environment, they had released their Beast Marks to adapt to their surroundings.

Jian Mo had no Beast Mark and lacked experience dealing with danger, so he could only walk in the middle of the group.

Once his eyes adjusted to the darkness, he quickly realized that the cave was larger than he had imagined-at least twenty square meters.

As people walked on the compacted earth, he could even hear echoes.

"There's no danger."

In the dim light, Jian Mo heard Xi Lu say those words.

Quite a few people let out a collective sigh of relief. Jian Mo heard Zhou Fu mutter beside him, "There really are a lot of weeds in here. I almost tripped and fell on my butt just now."

Another sub-beastman said, "Let's cut these weeds down and throw them outside first. They're too much in the way."

Everyone agreed.

The sub-beastmen soon cleared the plants out of the cave.

Standing among the group, Jian Mo finally smelled the distinctive rank odor of a carnivorous beast.

It was the smell of dung—the Long-Headed Beast's droppings were piled over more than half the cave, and even now, they gave off a strong odor.

He finally understood why the plants in the cave grew so well. With that much fertilizer, it would have been strange if they hadn't.

Jian Mo gripped his stone hoe, hesitating over where to start digging.

Xi Lu pulled him over. "Come dig here. Can you see?"

Jian Mo widened his eyes and peered ahead. "I can make things out well enough."

Xi Lu said, "It's fine. If you reach one, I'll tell you."

Everyone swung their hoes and dug with great enthusiasm.

Soon, someone dug up the first Wood-Stabilizing Root and held it up with a startled cry. "This Wood-Stabilizing Root is huge! It's almost as thick as my thigh."

Everyone crowded around to look.

The Wood-Stabilizing Roots outside were no thicker than lotus roots at most, but the ones in here were as thick as a person's thigh, looking especially plump.

It seemed that plentiful fertilizer and many years of growth were both necessary for Wood-Stabilizing Roots to grow well.

The quality of the Wood-Stabilizing Roots in the cave excited everyone, and they swung their hoes with even greater vigor.

Soon, more Wood-Stabilizing Roots were dug up one after another, all of them big specimens thicker than a person's thigh.

The Wood-Stabilizing Roots underground were not only thick and long, but also grew close together. Two or three could be dug up in a single square meter.

Perhaps their roots had absorbed plenty of fertilizer inside the cave while their vines had climbed outside to soak up sunlight and rain and dew. With both working together, they had grown so big and healthy.

As they dug, everyone threw the debris out of the cave.

Jian Mo looked up and noticed a lot of white, fluffy clumps. "What are those?"

Xi Lu glanced up and said without surprise, "Fur."

Jian Mo didn't understand at first. "What fur?"

Xi Lu said, "Fur shed by the Long-Headed Beast. It molts twice a year and sheds an awful lot. These clumps should be the fur it shed."

Zhou Fu glanced over from the side. "There are so many clumps. It might have lived in this cave for six or seven years."

Xi Lu said, "Probably more than that."

Jian Mo reached out and picked up a clump. It was soft and fine, and felt very pleasant to the touch.

He put the clump away. "Does nobody want such nice fur?"

The people around him looked puzzled. Xi Lu asked, "What would we use it for?"

Jian Mo said, "To make things, like clothes or something."

Xi Lu said, "We have beast hides for clothes. Doesn't the chief give you any? If he doesn't, I'll get you a few when we go back."

Seeing that Wu Jiong's reputation was about to suffer, Jian Mo hurriedly explained, "He does. I can use the hides at home however I like, but beast fur and beast hide are completely different materials, with different uses."

The people around him exchanged looks.

Zhou Fu said, "They're different? Don't they both have fur?"

Jian Mo said, "They're different. Beast fur is much more breathable. Never mind. You'll understand once I've made something."

Jian Mo picked up the clumps of fur scattered around the cave and put them in his carrying basket.