Chapter 23

 

Lu Yu, Tai Lie, and their group rushed to the vicinity of the Blackwater Tribe and converged with the Matai people responsible for surveillance here.

Lu Yu asked, “How’s it going?”

The Matai person reported what he had observed today, “I found the house of that fat Chief, it’s the largest wooden house. That fat guy didn’t come out much today, and people brought food to him.”

Lu Yu nodded, “That’s good.”

The Matai person continued, “They also sent out several teams for hunting today. Not only that, I overheard someone saying they ordered their slaves to collect more wild fruits and chop more trees. It seems like they’re urgently storing these things.”

Lu Yu paused and asked, “Do you know the reason?”

The Matai person shook his head, “That person didn’t say.”

Lu Yu had a feeling that something was not simple about this.

Shan Pu looked at the contemplative Lu Yu with furrowed brows, waved his hand casually, and said, “Forget it, let’s just take care of them together. Let’s see what else they can do.”

Lu Yu was taken aback for a moment, then smiled and said, “That’s true.”

Everyone checked their equipment and headed towards the Blackwater Tribe.

Gradually, they saw the camp of the Blackwater Tribe.

“What are those people doing?” Shan Pu suddenly pointed in a certain direction and asked in a low voice.

Lu Yu followed his direction and saw a group of ragged people kneeling on the ground, with some people holding branches walking towards them.

The Matai person who was keeping watch explained, “Those are the slaves of the Blackwater Tribe. The Blackwater Tribe treats their slaves extremely harshly, demanding a lot of food from them every day. If they can’t provide enough, they’ll whip them, even the elderly and children.”

Shan Pu exclaimed angrily, “This is too much!”

Shan Pu knew what “slaves” meant, but he had always lived in the united and friendly Matai tribe, where he had never seen such things.

Seeing those people wielding whips, Shan Pu turned to Tai Lie indignantly, “Chief, since we’re here to attack anyway, let’s help them too.”

Tai Lie nodded.

Shan Pu’s eyes lit up.

He patted Tai Lie on the shoulder and said, “Let’s exchange weapons! I want to try your deer skin gloves.”

Tai Lie silently took off the gloves and handed them to him.

Shan Pu took the gloves and put them on, then handed his dagger to Tai Lie. He then dashed towards the Blackwater Tribe, “Chief, I’ll go first!”

After saying that, he ran off like the wind.

Tai Lie said to the remaining people, “Get ready to go.”

He turned to Lu Yu, his expression serious, “Don’t move from here. Wait for us to finish and come get you.”

Lu Yu nodded, “Got it, hurry up. Shan Pu is alone.”

After all the Matai people had left, Lu Yu took out his homemade grass cloak, carefully hid behind the bushes, and observed the situation ahead.

Although this was the main camp of the Blackwater Tribe, he wasn’t too worried. Last time, even under those circumstances, they couldn’t do anything to the Matai people. Now they were prepared for a surprise attack.

Sure enough, Lu Yu saw Shan Pu grab the whip, then faced five opponents alone without any fear, even handling them effortlessly. However, he didn’t linger too long in the fight.

After giving a couple of blows to one of them, he disengaged from the battle and regrouped with Tai Lie and the others, rushing towards the Chief’s wooden house together.

During this time, the Blackwater Tribe noticed the intrusion and shouted about the attack, then rushed towards Tai Lie and his group.

Hmm, these people shouldn’t be from the previous escape.

Lu Yu calmly thought to himself. If it were those people, after witnessing the Matai people’s “iron cake tossing” game, it would be very brave of them to charge up like this.

Although Tai Lie and his group were fast, unfortunately, there happened to be a patrol team in front of the Chief’s wooden house, which stopped Tai Lie and his group.

Most of Tai Lie’s group stayed to fight, while Shan Pu and Tai Lie, avoiding the crowd, continued to charge towards the Chief’s wooden house.

When they reached the door, Jiao Feng happened to come out.

Before Jiao Feng could react, his hands were seized, forcibly restrained behind him. He cried out in pain, about to shout to ask who dared to treat him like this, but when he focused and saw who it was, all the words got stuck in his throat, and he suddenly broke out in a cold sweat.

H-how did these people come here?!

Before he could decide whether to beg for mercy or resist, Tai Lie swiftly and decisively dealt with him with his dagger, not even giving him a chance to scream.

This was also what Lu Yu had told them beforehand: when dealing with enemies, don’t procrastinate, don’t say a word, just get it done. Don’t act like the protagonists in novels, inexplicably letting the villains go.

After Jiao Feng was killed, the Blackwater Tribe warriors, who were already at a disadvantage against Tai Lie’s group, saw the situation turning worse and turned to flee.

Tai Lie didn’t stop them but instead had someone stop the slaves who wanted to run with them and the women and children who were left behind.

The slaves trembled, “Please spare us…”

Tai Lie remained silent, then turned to fetch Lu Yu.

Lu Yu stood in front of the wooden house, glanced at Tai Lie beside him, received his confirming gaze, cleared his throat, and said loudly, “Don’t panic, everyone. We won’t harm you.”

“Who are you?”

“We are from the Matai village. These people attacked us not long ago, so we came to retaliate…” Lu Yu briefly explained the cause and effect.

His voice was clear, his demeanor gentle, and at such times, he could stabilize people’s hearts to the utmost.

The uneasy slaves gradually quieted down.

Someone couldn’t help asking, “Can you let us go?” With all the Blackwater Tribe warriors and the Chief dead, they couldn’t possibly stay here anymore.

Lu Yu nodded, “Of course, you can leave at any time. However, if you feel it’s too dangerous outside, I have a suggestion for you to consider.”

Then Lu Yu explained what he had discussed with Tai Lie last night.

After the village upgraded to a primary war fortress, the materials needed not only increased significantly in quantity but also in variety. With their current manpower, it was unknown when they could gather enough materials.

So Lu Yu thought of seeking external help.

Where to find people? Lu Yu thought for a moment, the only contact they had was with the Blackwater Tribe…

Since they were going to fight anyway, why not recruit some people if possible?

But these people were outsiders after all, so he didn’t want to let them live in the village directly.

So he came up with another method.

Allocate a camp behind the village for them to live in, and then “collect protection fees.”

“You can choose whether to go or not. If you go with us, we will provide protection for you. When wild beasts come, we will help you fend them off. But at the same time, you need to help us collect materials,” Lu Yu explained.

Shu Tai asked curiously, “What materials?”

Lu Yu smiled, “Just some simple stones and branches, etc. I’ll explain more to you later. In addition, your harvest is all yours, you don’t need to hand it over. If you want to eat meat, you can also use these materials to exchange for it.”

The earnest listeners couldn’t believe it. How could a tribe only ask for these common stones and branches everywhere and help them fend off wild beasts? And saying they could exchange these things for meat?

It must be a scam; there couldn’t be such a good tribe.

Actually, there’s something even better, but Lu Yu decided not to mention it for now.

According to his idea, if these people behaved themselves and could get along friendly, he could teach them how to obtain food.

The reason these primitive people lacked food was twofold: it was difficult to hunt wild beasts, and they didn’t know what was edible. Some people had died from eating poisonous fruits in the jungle out of desperation, so they dared not eat those plants casually anymore.

Lu Yu could teach them how to collect edible wild vegetables and fruits, and he could also teach them how to catch fish. These people probably found fish as fishy and unappetizing as the Matai people did, but with Lu Yu’s guidance, he guaranteed they would want to eat it after trying it.

Lu Yu was actually somewhat helpless.

Although the Matai people were strong, they were still too few.

If they could cooperate and help each other with these people, coupled with the development of gathering and fishing industries, then, in the future, behind the Matai tribe, there would be a solid backing. Their small village would also upgrade rapidly and continuously, eventually becoming an indestructible war fortress!

Thinking of some images of war fortresses he had seen in modern times, Lu Yu couldn’t contain his excitement. He cleared his throat and asked as calmly as possible, “So, who wants to go?”

The air fell silent.

“I’ll go!” Shu Tai jumped up, raising his arm, his eyes shining brightly as he shouted loudly.

His grandfather quickly grabbed him, “Xiao Tai…”

Shu Tai put down his arm and looked at his grandfather seriously, “Grandpa, even if it’s fake, can it be worse than the Blackwater Tribe? And with the abilities of these people, if they really wanted to harm us, they wouldn’t need to say so much; they could just do it.”

He’s right!

The slaves around them responded one after another upon hearing his words.

Now that the Blackwater Tribe was finished, where else could they go? They might as well take a look. Maybe, just maybe, what this person said is true…

A small cluster of hope and anticipationignited in the hearts of the slaves, and they no longer hesitated.

“I’ll go!”

“I’ll go too!”

“Please take me along!”

—

Lu Yu smiled, “Then let’s set off!”