Chapter Summaries

The caravan arrived at the Banhe Tribe to trade for Banhe Mushrooms and saw how the tribe cultivated them on logs. Jian Mo joined a mushroom-picking trip while Ao Xi arranged for him to examine his older brother that night.

• Zuo Han welcomed the caravan and explained that the Banhe Tribe had both wild and cultivated Banhe Mushrooms, with different qualities and prices.
• Zuo Han showed the group the tribe's mushroom logs and offered to cook mushrooms for them before they decided what to trade for.
• Ao Xi told Jian Mo that his older brother might be away and asked him to examine him that night; Jian Mo agreed.
• Ao Xi led Jian Mo and the others into the mountains to pick Banhe Mushrooms, which proved delicate and often spoiled, were eaten, or had withered.
• Ban Ming and the others wondered whether the Banhe Tribe was exaggerating how difficult the mushrooms were to pick, and Jian Mo warned them that the nearby tribe members might hear.

Jian Mo and the others enjoyed fried Banhe mushrooms at dinner, then he examined Ao Shen, who had suffered from nighttime congestion and coughing for two years. When Jian Mo realized Banhe mushrooms might be connected to Ao Shen’s illness, he found an entire wall of logs growing them in Ao Shen’s bedroom.

• Jian Mo tasted the Banhe Tribe’s fried mushrooms and asked Wu Jiong to trade for more before they left.
• Wu Jiong quietly put an extra piece of fried mushroom in Jian Mo’s bowl.
• Ao Xi brought Jian Mo to examine his brother Ao Shen, who described years of nighttime congestion, coughing, and a runny nose.
• Jian Mo suspected Ao Shen had rhinitis but admitted he lacked the medicine to treat it.
• Ao Shen let Jian Mo inspect the Banhe mushrooms in his room, where Jian Mo found a wall of logs covered in growing mushrooms.

Jian Mo suspected that Ao Shen’s lifelong illness was caused by exposure to companion he mushroom spores and arranged for him to avoid mushrooms. Ao Shen improved after moving to a mushroom-free room, and Ao Xi learned that his brother should continue staying away from them.

• Jian Mo warned Ao Shen and Ao Xi that mushroom spores could cause lung problems and asked whether Ao Shen’s illness worsened around mushrooms.
• Ao Xi brought Zuo Han, who recalled that Ao Shen had been exposed to cultivated companion he mushrooms since childhood.
• Jian Mo arranged for Ao Shen to move to a room where mushrooms had never been grown and gave him a mask to wear around them.
• The next morning, Ao Xi found that Ao Shen’s congestion had eased and his mucus had turned clear.
• Ao Xi reported the improvement to Jian Mo, who advised Ao Shen to avoid mushrooms and Ao Xi to warn the tribe against growing them indoors.

Jian Mo and Wu Jiong gathered Banhe Mushrooms with Ao Shen, who tried to make amends by guiding them to abundant picking spots. On the morning of their third day, Jian Mo learned that Ao Shen had recovered and continued checking his patients, while Ao Shen offered him two mushroom-covered logs as thanks.

• Ao Shen led Jian Mo and Wu Jiong to more than ten spots where they collected Banhe Mushrooms, and the Banhe Tribe returned the mushrooms Jian Mo had offered to share.
• Ao Xi and Ao Shen provided beast fat and a clay pot so Jian Mo could fry the mushrooms, and Jian Mo also traded for two baskets of dried Banhe Mushrooms.
• On the third morning, Ao Xi told Jian Mo that Ao Shen was feeling much better and his nose had stopped running.
• Jian Mo examined Bei Ya's healing facial wound and Dan Guan's suspected ringworm, deciding to observe Dan Guan's condition for two more days.
• Ao Shen thanked Jian Mo for treating him and offered him two logs covered in Banhe Mushrooms, but Jian Mo refused because they were too valuable.

Jian Mo and the caravan returned to the Riverside Tribe with new animals, seeds, mushroom logs, and ideas for improving the settlement. The tribe welcomed them, and Jian Mo prepared to discuss renovations and shared construction plans at a meeting.

• Jian Mo and the caravan returned to the Riverside Tribe after three days and two nights, where the tribe members enthusiastically welcomed them and Jiujiu and Ying'ao.
• Jian Mo explained to Qing Kuo and the others that the Long-tailed Birds were for breeding and that the tribe might need to expand its animal facilities.
• Jian Mo proposed renovating the tribe’s roads and houses, building a toilet and bathing room, and creating a coordinated sewer system for discussion at a meeting.
• Jian Mo suggested hiring other tribes to provide materials and help with construction, and Qing Kuo proposed holding a bonfire party that night.
• Jian Mo said he had brought back Banhe Mushroom logs and three patients, who were staying at the Mengshui Tribe and would come over the next morning.

After returning home, Jian Mo and Wu Jiong reunited with the tribe and prepared to begin new work. Jian Mo treated Bei Ya and Dan Guan, welcomed the chubby chirpers and their Pearl Rice, then set out with Wu Jiong to place Honey Sparrow nests near the birds’ colony.

• Jian Mo and Wu Jiong attended the tribe’s bonfire party, where the caravan shared stories of its journey, and discussed plans for a meeting about building up the tribe.
• Bei Ya and Dan Guan visited Jian Mo for treatment, and he changed Dan Guan’s herbal prescription.
• The chubby chirpers delivered Pearl Rice and thirty-one intact Honey Sparrow nests, and Jian Mo thanked them with a pot of cake made from Pack-Pack Beast milk.
• Jian Mo and Wu Jiong decided to place the nests in the Honey Sparrows’ habitat so young birds might settle in them without being caught.
• Jian Mo and Wu Jiong rode Jiujiu and Ying'ao to the colony with the nests, stopping at a distance to avoid disturbing the Honey Sparrows.

Jian Mo and Wu Jiong returned to the Honey Sparrow colony at night and collected nests with the birds inside, hoping to raise them and secure a steady supply of honey blocks. They escaped the angry flock and returned to the tribe with forty cages of Honey Sparrows, where Ye Luo noted that successful breeding could provide honey blocks throughout the year.

• Jian Mo and Wu Jiong waited two days, prepared small cages, and rode Jiujiu and Ying'ao toward the Honey Sparrow nests at dusk.
• Jiujiu tried to persuade Jian Mo to bring them along, but Jian Mo left Jiujiu and Ying'ao waiting while he and Wu Jiong continued on foot.
• Jian Mo and Wu Jiong found Honey Sparrows in the nests they had placed and carefully secured thirty-one of those nests, along with nine wild nests, in cages.
• The Honey Sparrows noticed the capture and attacked as Jian Mo and Wu Jiong packed up and fled, chasing them even after they met Jiujiu and Ying'ao.
• Jian Mo and Wu Jiong returned to the tribe with forty cages of Honey Sparrows, and Ye Luo said successful breeding could keep them supplied with honey blocks all year.

Jian Mo and the tribe began raising Honey Sparrows on the back mountain, learning that only the birds from Ji Xun’s nests returned. He then organized help to mound and fertilize the crops, and most of the tribe showed up the next morning.

• Jian Mo warned everyone to keep the children from eating the Honey Sparrow nests because they were poisonous.
• Jian Mo and the others placed forty Honey Sparrow nests in the back mountain, kept the birds caged for three days, and then released them.
• Jian Mo found that the Honey Sparrows returned to thirty-one nests from Ji Xun, while the nine nests they had collected at random remained empty.
• Ban Ming and the others offered to help Jian Mo tend the crops after learning that he planned to raise the soil ridges and fertilize them.
• Jian Mo scheduled the fieldwork for the next morning, and most of the tribe’s beastmen and sub-beastmen came to help.

Jian Mo and the tribe worked together on their fields, went fishing, and made fish balls before Jian Mo began building a boat with Wu Jiong. Before they could launch it, Yun Long visited with Bei Ya and Dan Guan, saying he had something to tell Jian Mo after the checkup.

• Jian Mo and the tribe tended the private and communal fields, then agreed to hold a feast together.
• Jian Mo, Qing Kuo, Ye Luo, and others went fishing at White Sandbar, brought back a large catch, and shared fish balls at another feast.
• Jian Mo made glue from fish bladders and insect droppings while directing Wu Jiong to assemble wooden boards into a boat.
• Yun Long arrived with Bei Ya and Dan Guan and told Jian Mo he had something to discuss after the two men received their checkup.

Yun Long arranged for the Mengshui Tribe to trade building materials for lime and cement and help construct toilets in the Riverside Tribe. After the materials arrived, Jian Mo recorded and explained the exchange, and the tribe began firing lime and cement while splitting its workers between production and hunting and gathering.

• Yun Long offered the Riverside Tribe stones and timber in exchange for lime and cement, and Wu Jiong agreed to the deal and to let Mengshui Tribe members help build toilets.
• Yun Long arranged for people from the Mengshui Tribe to deliver the materials, and Wu Jiong planned to record the quantities and settle the accounts later.
• The Mengshui Tribe brought a large pile of materials, and Jian Mo wrote down the amounts, made copies for both tribes, and explained the record to Ya Zheng and the others.
• After the Mengshui Tribe members left, the Riverside Tribe moved materials into the pottery kiln to fire lime and cement, while the rest of its people went hunting and gathering.

The Riverside Tribe prepared to build toilets and drainage channels, with neighboring tribes supplying materials and workers in exchange for learning and trading for lime and cement. The construction began with Jian Mo directing the large workforce and outlining a preliminary septic tank design.

• The Riverside Tribe hired the Tianning Tribe to make pottery pipes, bricks, and tiles, and agreed on payment and a deadline.
• The chiefs of the True Scarlet Tribe, Xiongying Tribe, Red Zheng Tribe, Dianxin Tribe, and Yigu Tribe offered materials and labor, agreeing to trade for lime and cement.
• Qing Kuo urged Wu Jiong to build more pottery kilns, while Jian Mo suggested eventually using water power to hammer metal.
• After the lime and cement were ready and the pottery fixtures arrived, the neighboring tribes sent workers, but De Jiang limited each tribe to thirty people.
• Jian Mo sent some workers to dig drainage channels and explained the tribe's planned septic tanks while the chiefs stayed to help build facilities around his courtyard.

The Riverside Tribe completed its renovation in three days, leaving its people proud of the clean roads, drainage ditches, and whitewashed homes. Jian Mo returned home and told the cubs that Jiujiu and Ying'ao were back and ready to play.

• Jian Mo organized the construction helpers, who finished most of the Riverside Tribe's renovations in three days.
• Yun Long, Huo Meng, Li Qing, and Jian Mo admired the renovated tribe and discussed boiling water, planting flowers, and raising Honey Sparrows.
• Riverside Tribe members praised their cleaner homes and said they hoped to build houses like Jian Mo's.
• Jian Mo brought vegetables home, and the cubs asked if Jiujiu and Ying'ao had returned.
• Jian Mo said Jiujiu and Ying'ao were playing in the side courtyard and let the cubs go join them.

Jian Mo welcomed Wu Jiong home with morning sun fruit from the Mengshui Tribe, and the Riverside Tribe finished helping with the tribe’s renovations. When Yun Long visited to thank them, he watched Jian Mo and Jiu Yin teach the cubs how to treat injuries in the wild.

• Jian Mo walked home with the cubs and praised Jiang Xing for picking up litter around the tribe.
• Wu Jiong returned from the Mengshui Tribe carrying a basket of morning sun fruit for Jian Mo, then bathed while Jian Mo prepared dinner.
• Jian Mo noticed Wu Jiong’s sunburned neck and offered to make sunscreen mud, but Wu Jiong said the construction work would soon be finished.
• Yun Long brought gifts to the Riverside Tribe and thanked Wu Jiong, Jian Mo, and the others for helping renovate the Mengshui Tribe.
• Jiu Yin and Jian Mo taught the cubs local and practical ways to treat injuries, while Yun Long listened closely.

Yun Long asked to bring the Mengshui Tribe’s little ones to the Riverside Tribe for lessons, and Jian Mo agreed. The first joint class began with Ye Luo and Jian Mo teaching the children about distinctive wild plants, including poisonous ones.

• Yun Long praised the Riverside Tribe’s classes and asked Wu Jiong to let the Mengshui Tribe’s little ones attend.
• Wu Jiong agreed to let the little ones try a class, and Jian Mo said he was happy to teach them.
• The next evening, Yun Long and another beastman carried the Mengshui Tribe’s little ones across the river to the Riverside Tribe.
• Jian Mo welcomed the visitors and explained that he and Ye Luo would teach the little ones about wild plants, including poisonous ones.
• Ye Luo and Jian Mo used lessons and games to engage the initially distracted Mengshui Tribe’s little ones, while Yun Long and the other beastman listened closely.

Jian Mo agreed to let cubs from the surrounding tribes attend classes in the Riverside Tribe, provided the tribes helped teach. Wu Jiong and the chiefs settled on a little over 130 students, while the youngest cubs stayed home and celebrated postponing their lessons.

• Yun Long asked Jian Mo to let Mengshui Tribe cubs attend his classes, and Jian Mo told him to discuss it with Wu Jiong and offer teachers in return.
• The Red Zheng, True Scarlet, Ice River, Xiongying, and other tribes arrived with cubs and pleaded with Jian Mo to accept them into class.
• Jian Mo agreed in principle, and the chiefs negotiated with Wu Jiong to have each tribe provide teachers and select age-appropriate students.
• The tribes reduced the enrollment from more than 200 cubs to a little over 130, and Banjiu and the other youngest cubs were excused for two years.
• Banjiu and the other cubs celebrated the delay by running around the tribe and hugging Jian Mo's legs.

The cubs from the Ice River Tribe and Mengshui Tribe asked to travel to class on their own, but their adults initially refused. After the Ice River Tribe's cubs secretly left for home together, they failed to arrive, and Jian Mo asked whether they might have run away from home.

• The Ice River Tribe's cubs failed to persuade their adults to stop escorting them, while Yun Long promised to clear the road before letting the Mengshui Tribe's cubs travel alone.
• The Ice River Tribe's cubs decided to prove they were grown by leaving class and heading home without their adults.
• Jiang Xing told the Ice River Tribe's adults that the cubs had gone toward the other side of the river after class, and the adults transformed into bears to chase after them.
• When the cubs still had not returned by dusk, the Ice River Tribe's people went back to the Riverside Tribe and asked for help finding them.
• Jian Mo asked whether the cubs had argued with their adults or might have run away from home.

Jian Mo and the Riverside Tribe joined the Ice River Tribe in searching for the missing little ones, who had wandered far from the main road and deliberately concealed their scent. The searchers found signs that the children were hiding safely, and Kang Ying became less angry and grateful for the lessons they had learned.

• Jian Mo organized a search along the road and sent himself and Ye Luo on Ying'ao while Qing Kuo and Min Dang rode Jiujiu.
• The missing little ones gathered in the forest, feared punishment, and admitted they had masked their scent with wild beast droppings to avoid being found.
• The searchers discovered signs that the little ones had deliberately hidden their tracks, and Kang Ying concluded they were probably not in danger.
• Wu Jiong reassured Kang Ying that the children’s mischief showed how much they had learned, and Kang Ying planned to bring gifts to the Riverside Tribe the next day.

The little ones hid from the adults, but their attempt to catch scaleless fish as an offering turned into a chaotic rescue. Once the adults joined the hunt, Jian Mo arrived and overcame his fear enough to watch Wu Jiong catch a fish.

• The little ones crept to the river, where the bear cubs decided to catch scaleless fish so the adults would be less angry with them.
• The slippery fish escaped the cubs and chased them through the water, drawing the adults to the river when they heard the commotion.
• The giant bears rescued the cubs, checked that all the little ones were safe, and then joined the Ice River and Riverside Tribes in catching fish.
• Jian Mo and Ye Luo arrived on Ying'ao, and Ye Luo told Jian Mo that scaleless fish were delicious despite their frightening size.
• Wu Jiong nudged Jian Mo away from the muddy water, then pinned down a scaleless fish while Ban Ming offered to pick it up in his mouth.

After the cubs were found, the tribes returned to the Riverside Tribe and caught scaleless fish for a feast. The adults fried and grilled the fish while the Ice River Tribe cubs held horse stances as punishment and watched everyone else eat.

• The adults took the cubs back to the Riverside Tribe and ordered them to hold horse stances instead of beating them.
• Jian Mo and the others fried five pots of scaleless fish in animal fat.
• The adults grilled the fish with Jian Mo’s barbecue sauce, pepper-stamen powder, and garlic powder.
• The Riverside Tribe cubs ate grilled fish and cool leaf drink while the Ice River Tribe cubs remained in their stances.
• The adults ate and drank in front of the hungry Ice River Tribe cubs without sharing.

Jian Mo examined Gong Wei, a sickly cub from the Under the Clouds Tribe, and found a growing hard object in his stomach that might be a gastrolith. He arranged for the family to stay at the clinic and began reviewing stomach case records while considering how to treat him.

• After drinking and eating heavily, Jian Mo woke when Wu Jiong told him that a family from the Under the Clouds Tribe was seeking treatment for their cub.
• Gong Wei’s two fathers told Jian Mo that the cub had a poor appetite, frequent stomachaches, vomiting, and pain when changing into human form.
• Jian Mo examined Gong Wei and felt a large, hard object in his abdomen; his fathers said it had gradually grown since late autumn.
• When Jian Mo said surgery might be needed to remove the object, Gong Wei cried and refused, so Jian Mo reassured him that they would not operate right away.
• Jian Mo sent Gong Wei and his fathers to stay at the clinic, then wrote down relevant case records and considered a gastrolith as a possible cause.