Chapter 55

 

Lu Yu didn’t wait long before Ah Bu and the others entered the village.

The crowd surrounded them, chattering away.

“Ah Bu, you guys are pretty fast.”

“Qingyun, did you bring me the shell jewelry?”

“When is the Big Drift coming? Have you found out?”

—

Lu Yu took a good look around first and found that everyone was fine, looking energetic. He breathed a sigh of relief, took out some clean leaves and water from his ring, and handed them over, smiling, “Welcome back, you’ve worked hard. I’ll treat you to an extra meal tonight.”

Several burly men took the things, looking a bit embarrassed. “It’s not hard, we actually left a bit slowly. By the way, Witch, while we were at the Beast Plain…”

Lu Yu waved his hand, “No rush for now, you guys take a rest first, have a good sleep. If Tai Lie and the others come back at noon, we’ll talk during lunch, and if they come back in the evening, we’ll talk then. Everyone can listen together.”

The men had no objections. “Sure, we’ll listen to the Witch.”

A Matai person said, “Ah Bu, your news can wait, but something big has happened in our Matai tribe, you guys should know about it.”

As soon as they heard something big had happened, Ah Bu and the others were startled, and their muscles tensed subconsciously. Their relaxed expressions became serious. “What happened?!”

The speaker glanced at Lu Yu, stifling a laugh, “Why don’t you ask the Witch first?”

Lu Yu knew what he meant as soon as he mentioned “something big.” Seeing the puzzled looks from Ah Bu and the others, Lu Yu coughed twice, trying to maintain his image as a witch. With a slightly flushed face, he said seriously, “It’s not actually a big deal. Tai Lie and I, your Chief, um, have decided to become partners…”

“Wow~~!!”

The Matai people cheered loudly, surrounding Lu Yu like a circle of little dogs, waiting for him to say it again.

Leaving Ah Bu and the others dumbfounded.

“The Chief and the witch, becoming partners?!!”

—

Lu Yu had also considered whether to tell the valley people about this matter, but he thought the valley people might have different views on the Broken man, and he didn’t want to make it widely known. After all, it was just his and Tai Lie’s business. So Lu Yu decided not to specifically mention it and instructed the Matai people not to say anything either. If they found out on their own, so be it.

Lu Yu went to the valley with the others to flip the rice for a while, then went to find the people who made utensils to make some tools for pounding rice.

Without professional tools for husking rice, they could only use the most primitive stone mortar and pestle. Simply put, they put the rice in the stone mortar, pounded it with a wooden pestle, and then dried the rice husks.

This kind of tool was simple to make, and after Lu Yu explained it briefly, they understood.

After dealing with these matters last night, there was nothing else to do, so Lu Yu returned to the Matai village.

He thought Tai Lie wouldn’t come back until noon because Tai Lie’s target usually required a long time to find and ambush, and one morning wasn’t enough. Unexpectedly, they came back early.

Moreover, they brought back an unexpected prey.

Lu Yu stared blankly at the mammoth lying on the ground.

The Matai people who went hunting with Tai Lie stood with their hands on their hips, their chins held high. “We caught this! A mammoth! The eight of us caught a mammoth! It’s even an adult mammoth!”

The other hunting teams looked at them resentfully. “It’s all because of the Chief!”

After saying that, a few people ran over to Lu Yu and started clamoring.

“Witch, we also want to go hunting with the Chief.”

“Yeah, those few with Ban Xiong have become lazy hunting with the Chief every day!”

Lu Yu helplessly said, “Well, you should talk to the Chief about that. I don’t handle hunting assignments…”

“Hehe, but Chief belongs to you, Witch.”

The few people smirked and then dispersed.

Lu Yu: …

So you guys don’t actually want to switch teams, you just want to tease him a bit, right!

After teasing Lu Yu, the few people still felt it wasn’t enough. They said in seemingly low voices but loud enough for all of Matai to hear, “Hey, do you think the Chief is so powerful today, even bringing back a mammoth, because of something that happened between him and the witch last night… hehe!”

“But I think I saw the witch sleeping in his own little wooden house…”

“Could it be something from before…”

A few black lines appeared on Lu Yu’s head.

He didn’t expect that a few “traitors” from the simple and honest Matai tribe would emerge!

I’ll remember you guys!

When the few people became increasingly frivolous, Tai Lie finally spoke up.

“That’s enough. Everyone, get back to work.”

“Yes!”

Finally, everyone dispersed completely.

Lu Yu glared at Tai Lie indignantly. Why didn’t you stop them earlier? What’s with the big show now!

Tai Lie walked over, with a thin layer of sweat on his forehead. “I heard you mention wanting to capture another mammoth, so when we encountered one today, we caught it and brought it back.”

“Is that so?”

Hearing this, Lu Yu couldn’t bring himself to glare at him anymore. He hurriedly took out a clean soft leaf from his ring, blushing, and reached up to wipe the sweat off his forehead. “I’m glad. Please be careful.”

Tai Lie curled his lips slightly, his eyes deep. “Okay.”

He slowly grasped the hand that Lu Yu was using to wipe his sweat.

Lu Yu’s hand shook, and the leaf smeared on his face.

Tai Lie: …

Lu Yu awkwardly smiled. “Um, I didn’t mean to.”

He handed the leaf to Tai Lie. “I’ll go check on the prey.”

Turning around, he walked towards the mammoth.

After taking a few steps, he turned back, walked to Tai Lie’s side, and squeezed his hand forcefully, whispering, “I didn’t mean to not hold your hand just now. I just didn’t expect it.”

After saying that, he felt too embarrassed to look at Tai Lie’s expression and quickly ran away.

Lu Yu stood in front of the mammoth, opened the game menu, and began to search.

[Mammoth: Land Melee]

[Ferocity Level: B]

[Drop Chance: D-grade storage ring]

Yes, it was the same information about the mammoth as he had scanned before.

Lu Yu’s gaze lingered on the line about dropped items.

Storage ring.

He really wanted another one. With more and more things stored on his hand, he even had to release a lot of them when going out hunting. If he could have another one, it would be much more convenient.

After scanning, Lu Yu found someone to deliver the final blow to the mammoth.

Lu Yu nervously prayed.

With a thud, a dazzling golden treasure chest dropped.

Lu Yu’s heart leaped with joy.

—

In the evening, everyone gathered together to listen to the news brought back by Ah Bu and the others.

The news was divided into three parts: the Great Drift, the current situation in the Beast Plains, and special materials.

Ah Bu first talked about the current situation in the Beast Plains. “Recently, because the Great Drift is approaching, more and more tribes are heading to the Beast Plains. The stone city can’t accommodate them all, so they’ve set up grass huts around the outskirts. The three major tribes haven’t objected, probably because they’re used to it. Mao Pu said that if you go, they’ll give up the huts and set up outside.”

Lu Yu nodded. Mao Pu helped him look after the hut, so it was only fair that he returned the favor.

“Then, we also asked him to inquire about the materials. The answer we got is that the three major tribes have these things, and there are places for exchange in the inner layers. It’s just that there’s none in the outer layers. If we really want to exchange, we can ask the caretaker to do it on our behalf, but we have to give him some compensation.”

“We asked about the total amount of fur needed, and it’s a lot. We didn’t bring enough, so we didn’t make the exchange,” Ah Bu said.

“As long as we have some,” Lu Yu replied.

Having beasts around is a good thing, but…

Lu Yu furrowed his brows. The upgrade of the village is really slow, mainly due to these special materials. If he need even more hard-to-find materials after this upgrade, what should he do?

He need to think of another way…

After a brief moment of thought, Lu Yu raised his head to signal Ah Bu to continue.

“Lastly, there’s the Great Drift. We inquired about it, and it seems to be the largest scale in recent years. Some say it might border more than a dozen lands. And we’re considered small among these lands.”

Hearing this, the other Matai people couldn’t help but exclaim.

“Considered small?! How big are the other lands then?!”

They’ve lived here for so long, especially in these past ten years, they’ve traveled to many places but still haven’t explored this land completely. There are still many places they haven’t been to. And yet, they’re still considered small?

Unlike others’ astonishment, Lu Yu looked puzzled.

This doesn’t seem right. Even if he’s just talking about the land in modern times, it’s definitely not considered small on the entire planet.

“They also said that this Great Drift might last a long time, at least two months.”

“In addition to exchanging goods, there are also tribal competitions, bonfire celebrations, grand feasts, and battles of the strongest warriors… Oh right! Speaking of that! Witch, someone asked me to give you a message!”

“A message for me?” Lu Yu asked.

Ah Bu continued, “It’s from someone named Yin He. He said he really wants to eat the food you make and hopes you can come visit… In fact, we heard from Mao Pu that this person has been saying everywhere that the food you make is very delicious. Some people don’t believe it and say that you’re just a person from a small tribe who can’t make anything good. Saying that Yin He liking your food shows that he’s only worthy of being from a small tribe. So that’s why Yin He sent the message…”

Lu Yu raised an eyebrow. The last time he just put some homemade seasoning on the prey for a few people, nothing special. Originally, he just hoped Yin He and the others could help him spread the word, but unexpectedly, he attracted some unwarranted hatred?

“Those people also said that if you can really make delicious food, you should have the guts to participate in the grand feast.”

“Grand feast?” Lu Yu asked.

“I heard that it’s a competition where the best food makers from various tribes come out to compete to see whose food is the best. The winner can get bets from other tribes…”

The primitive version of a cooking competition?

Lu Yu scratched his chin, looking up seriously. The last time he participated in such a competition was when he was fourteen years old. He won the World Culinary Competition, and since then, he has only been allowed to be a judge…

Lu Yu smiled kindly. Could he finally participate in such an event again? His hands were a little itchy.

But to have him, someone who has mastered the essence of Chinese cuisine for thousands of years, compete with a group of primitive people…

Isn’t that a bit unfair~