A Long Journey (continued)

Beside them, Qing Kuo looked thoughtful. "I heard you've been busy with Flour Fruit lately. Was this made from it?"

Before Jian Mo could answer, Zhou Fu's already round eyes widened. "How could it be?! Flour Fruit tastes awful. Everyone feeds it to beasts, so how could anyone make food for people with it? Besides, Flour Fruit is round and hard, but this is flat, soft and delicious. What do they have in common?"

Zhou Fu turned to Jian Mo. "Is this some new food you found in the woods?"

Jian Mo shook his head and smiled. "It's Flour Fruit."

Everyone cried out that it was impossible.

The beastmen and sub-beastmen who weren't very familiar with Jian Mo came over when they heard the commotion. After tasting the Flour Fruit cake, none of them believed it was made from Flour Fruit.

Qing Kuo stared at the Flour Fruit cake, turning his ears into furry beast ears and making his pupils larger and rounder before tasting it again.

The others hurried to follow his example, transforming parts of their bodies.

Their transformed parts were more sensitive. Only then did everyone taste the faint flavor of Flour Fruit in the cake.

Qing Kuo stared at the Flour Fruit cake and asked Jian Mo, "How do you make it?"

Jian Mo briefly explained the process.

Qing Kuo said thoughtfully, "If Flour Fruit is edible, this winter will be much easier to get through."

He had a cub at home who couldn't transform yet. With Flour Fruit to supplement their food, they probably wouldn't go hungry again this winter.

The others thought of this too.

Everyone looked at Jian Mo hopefully, saying they wanted to see the Flour Fruit cake at his home.

Not everyone had assembled yet, and they wouldn't be setting off anytime soon, so Jian Mo took them to see it.

The Flour Fruit cake at Jian Mo's home was downstairs, filling an entire large basin.

The grayish-white food looked exceptionally substantial and appetizing, much better than the various tubers and stems beside it.

Xi Lu couldn't help rising onto tiptoe and asking from behind the crowd, "Jian Mo, how much Flour Fruit did you use to make all this-?"

Jian Mo lightly kicked the bucket beside him. "Just under half a bucket."

Xi Lu said, "That little?"

Zhou Fu couldn't hold back any longer. Glancing around, Zhou Fu suggested, "Why don't we go gather Flour Fruit too? We can stock up before winter comes."

Xi Lu was tempted too, but shook their head. "There isn't any Flour Fruit around here. Only tribes on lower ground have it. That's other people's territory, so we can't just cross the boundary."

The tribes had long since divided up their general ranges of activity. Going to gather in another tribe's territory would most likely cause conflict.

Xi Lu's reminder calmed everyone down.

Qing Kuo spoke up from the crowd. "Not necessarily."

He had always commanded respect, and everyone looked at him when he spoke.

Qing Kuo said, "The True Scarlet Tribe and the Yigu Tribe had a dispute over territory before. Later, the Mengshui Tribe mediated, and the disputed land was left unclaimed. Anyone can go there."

Zhou Fu suddenly understood. "Right, right, right! I remember it caused quite a stir. The two tribes still haven't made up."

Someone else called out from the back, "Should we ask Ying Duan? He's a sub-beastman from the True Scarlet Tribe, isn't he?"

Ying Duan was indeed a sub-beastman from the True Scarlet Tribe. He had met his partner, Shui Jin, at the Hunting Gathering years ago and moved to the Riverside Tribe to live.

They were also one of the few couples from different tribes.

When people of the two races became partners, their children would inherit the traits of only one race, so they hadn't faced much opposition back then. Ying Duan had long since become part of the Riverside Tribe.

The Flour Fruit cake Jian Mo made was indeed tempting, so everyone decided to ask Ying Duan.

They went to visit Ying Duan, and Shui Jin was there too. The husbands welcomed the young people with smiles.

When they asked about Flour Fruit, Ying Duan thought for a moment and said, "There is indeed a piece of land that belongs to neither tribe. It's full of marshes, and there's plenty of Flour Fruit in the water."

Everyone looked at one another, their faces alight with excitement.

Ying Duan continued, "But after our True Scarlet Tribe fought with the Yigu Tribe, both sides were still nursing grudges. Every year, they race to gather everything from that unclaimed land. Flour Fruit also ripened some time ago, so I'm not sure whether there's any left there now."

At his words, the excitement on everyone's faces faded considerably.

Zhou Fu refused to give up. "Isn't Flour Fruit hard to gather because it grows underwater? And it doesn't taste good, so no one wants it. Maybe there's still some left?"

Ying Duan said, "That's possible too."

The others weren't so optimistic. Flour Fruit didn't taste good, but it could be traded. The land around the True Scarlet Tribe was lower, and there were many tribes there, so goods were traded much more frequently than in their area.

Qing Kuo said, "We could trade with another tribe for some Flour Fruit too."

Zhou Fu said, "The Hunting Gathering is already over. There probably aren't many tribes with Flour Fruit left to trade, are there? Unless they keep it to feed Pack-Pack Beasts."

Qing Kuo looked at Zhou Fu. "You still want to go?"

Zhou Fu nodded and explained, "Gathering near the tribe every day isn't very interesting. We might as well go out and look around."

After a pause, Zhou Fu added, "Even if there's no Flour Fruit left there, there'll definitely be other things to gather."

That was true, and everyone was a little tempted when they heard it.

Qing Kuo didn't object, only telling everyone to discuss it further.

So, feeling both excited and worried, they formed their own groups and went out gathering or hunting.

Jian Mo had been in this world for quite some time, but he hadn't gone very far from home either. Deep down, he was inclined to go out and look around, but he didn't feel comfortable saying so.

Jian Mo watched them discuss it for two days, even drawing Wu Jiong into the discussion several times. In the end, the minority went along with the majority, and they decided to go take a look.

The True Scarlet Tribe was much farther away than the Mengshui Tribe. It would take two or three days to get there.

Since they were going so far, the whole tribe certainly couldn't turn out in force. Wu Jiong and the others arranged for half the young adults to stay in the tribe while the other half went out.

To Jian Mo's surprise, everyone was taking along nearly all the children who could transform this time, saying they wanted the children to see the world.

Their approach to raising children was quite progressive and inclusive.