The wicked female is extremely fierce, but she's pampered by her seven beast husbands.

Chapter 71 Excited Snake
Ling Chengen sighed softly. What a beast world it really is, lacking everything!
“If you have enough manpower, you can travel back and forth between the central region and the easternmost sea of ​​the Beast Plains at fixed times. There are actually other ways to obtain salt,” Chang Tianchen said.

Ling Chengen: "The Eastern Sea?"

"Yes, the easternmost part of the Beast Plains is the sea, and the seawater is salty. The tribes near the sea should not lack salt."

Ling Chengen: "Then why didn't the Central Trade Zone exchange salt with the eastern region before?"

Chang Tianchen looked at her serious profile, shrugged, and said, "What else could it be? Of course, it's because the coastal tribes are all sea creatures. We can't communicate with them, and our relationship is extremely hostile. Why would sea creatures sell salt to land-dwelling beastmen?"

Ling Chengen: "Sea Clan?"

Seeing her bewildered expression, Chang Tianchen reached out to pinch her chin, but then remembered her earlier threat and awkwardly withdrew his fingers, a hint of boredom appearing on his face: "You don't know about the Sea Clan?"

"Although the sea creatures' power is mainly in the sea, the land near the coast has also been occupied by them."

"Because of the language barrier in the early days, and the fact that land-dwelling and flying beastmen would prey on marine animals near the coast, accidentally killing many sea-dwelling beastmen, the conflicts between the two races were frequent and intense. Therefore, for thousands of years, the land-dwelling beastmen and the sea-dwelling beastmen have been in a state of hostility."

"Sea creatures have difficulty living far from the coast, but their numbers are so large that they have driven out all the land-dwelling orc tribes near the sea. This has resulted in the Eastern Trade City, which has no salt mines, always being in a state of salt shortage. Otherwise, they wouldn't have been reduced to mining the Hongying Salt Lake a hundred years ago, and many orcs would have ended up with no medicine to cure them."

"Then why did you propose forming a team to travel between the ocean and the central region?"

Chang Tianchen tilted his head slightly, gazing quietly at her resolute face: "I don't know why, but I feel you should have a way."

"Seawater is salty, so it should be able to provide the orcs with the salt they need every day, just like rock salt. Moreover, seawater is inexhaustible, so as long as we can establish relations with the eastern sea creatures, the central region will not lack salt in the future."

Ling Chengen's gaze deepened as he looked at him, and he chuckled, "You really think highly of me."

Chang Tianchen suddenly chuckled: "You beat me half to death, how could I dare to look down on you?"

Bai Xi rolled her eyes as she listened to their casual conversation.

After flying for two beasts, it suddenly started to rain.

The rain came down quickly at first, but the raindrops weren't very big.

The supplies carried included a lot of dry goods. Although vines were used to fix leaves on the surface of the goods to protect them from the rain before departure, the effect was limited, as prolonged exposure to rain was definitely not advisable.

"We need to find shelter from the rain as soon as possible. Some medicinal herbs have been soaked in the rain and can no longer be sold," Bai Xi shouted in the wind and rain.

Ling Chengen had already spread out his mental energy, preparing to search for a suitable place to take shelter from the rain. Chang Tianchen held a leaf on his head and slowly pointed in a direction: "Go southwest. There are many mountains there, so there are also many caves and karst caves."

Bai Xi hesitated for a moment, then quickly took the lead and turned around.

Bai Xi said, "You mean the area around Bailong Cave, right?"

Chang Tianchen nodded slightly, feeling the cool breeze and cold rain falling on his burning skin, quickly cooling his excessively high temperature, while still managing to answer Bai Xi's question: "It's the area around Bailong Cave."

Bai Xi frowned and said, "There was a huge earthquake over there last year during the rainy season. Part of the rocky mountains collapsed, burying a lot of orcs living there, didn't they?"

Chang Tianchen calmly retorted, "The earthquake wasn't limited to Shishan, was it? Hanshan was shaking quite violently too, wasn't it?"

He was hiding in the Poison Valley, where rocks were rolling down from the surrounding mountains.

"The collapse of the stone mountain was due to two reasons: the quality of the rocks and the complex terrain. Many orcs who sensed the earthquake ran away immediately, but the surrounding area was full of towering stone peaks, and there was nowhere to hide."

Chang Tianchen was no stranger to earthquakes. In the northern wilderness, earthquakes were frequent only in the western and southwestern parts, while earthquakes were rare in the central part, and the impact of the disasters was far less severe than in the southwestern region.

"It's only April now. The water level in the underground river near Shishan and Bailong Cave hasn't risen yet. Earthquakes don't happen every year. We shouldn't be that unlucky as to run into one while just taking shelter from the rain..."

Ling Chengen slapped his mouth with a leaf: "Shut up, there are some things you can't say."

What if his jinxing words come true?
Chang Tianchen asked, "Do you need me to show you the location of White Dragon Cave?"

"No need," Bai Xi said irritably, "I know White Dragon Cave better than you do."

There is an underground river inside Bailong Cave, which is teeming with fish, shrimp, crabs and other amphibians. It was a secret base where they often played and hunted for food before they came of age.

After flying for another ten minutes or so, Bai Xi lowered its altitude, quickly folded its wings slightly, and glided into a huge sinkhole.

As the giant blue crane landed on the smooth rock, its wings were completely folded to its sides. It turned around, used its beak to carry the supplies on its back to a place where it wouldn't get wet in the rain, and stood in a corner to make room for its tribesmen who were landing behind it.

After the group of dozens of people took shelter in the White Dragon Cave, the raindrops gradually became denser.

After drying her hair, Chongzhen sat on a rock nearby, watching the rain falling from above the sinkhole: "Didn't you say it would only drizzle today?"

"Yes, it's just a light rain, and it will stop after at most two hours."

She nudged Zhongzhen's shin with her toe: "Go get some soil and build a clay stove."

Chongzhen glanced at the empty sinkhole and the sound of water coming from not far away: "You're not thinking of catching fish in the underground river to make food, are you?"

Ling Chengen nodded: "Anyway, there's nothing else to do when we're both beasts, so let's eat something warm to recover our strength."

Chongzhen earnestly advised, "Don't forget, you're in charge of guarding the team's supplies. We have some dried meat and some water, let's make do for now. We'll have a proper meal when we get to our designated rest stop tonight."

Ling Chengen narrowed his eyes slightly and glanced at him, saying, "Tonight? We probably won't be in a good mood for dinner then."

Chongzhen: "..." That makes some sense.

Chang Tianchen looked at Chongzhen, who was hesitating, raised his beautiful snake tail, and said with a smile, "I'll go. He's so useless; he might not even be able to find his way back..."

Chongzhen stood up abruptly and strode outside.

Bai Xi looked at Chang Tianchen, who was stirring things up, and then at Chong Zhen, who was so easily provoked. She shook her head helplessly, then sighed deeply, took a bamboo tube, sat on a rock, and drank some water.

The Ling family is quite a lively bunch of males. If Ayu really settles down with Ling Chengen, their future days will probably be chaotic.

Chang Tianchen watched as Chongzhen was sent away, then swam behind Ling Chengen, gently gathered her long, loose hair with his hand, and slowly dried her wet hair with his supernatural ability.

"Don't jump into the underground river to catch fish. There might be poisonous animals lurking in the water. If they bite you, you might not survive until you get back to find a witch doctor."

Ling Chengen tied his dry hair back up and got up to walk towards the dark river: "I'm not stupid."

"Then I'll go out for a bit."

Chang Tianchen stopped trying to persuade her. Ling Chengen wasn't the kind of foolish woman who needed constant supervision, so he wasn't worried about her getting into trouble.

"Don't fight with Chongzhen," Ling Chengen reminded him, turning around.

Chang Tianchen clicked his tongue: "I promise I won't make a move against him first."

But if that kid makes the first move, he can't guarantee what will happen. Chongzhen quickly returned with a pile of firewood and a basket of soil, and used his supernatural ability to build a clay stove and take down the iron pot hanging next to the supplies.

This pot was newly made by Lei Sang.

Ever since he learned that iron pots could be used to cook all kinds of food, Lei Sang took the opportunity to acquire a lot of iron ore and made a lot of iron pots during his rest period to avoid supply shortages later.

However, he also made a lot of money by using his supernatural ability to forge pots, and he has been living a very comfortable life lately.

So he gave Ling Chengen an even bigger iron pot as a thank-you gift.

Chongzhen placed a pile of firewood tied with vines to the side and asked Baixi, who was wiping her sweat, "Could you help dry this firewood?"

Bai Xi nodded, roughly understanding what he was going to do: "Leave it to me."

Drying firewood is a trivial matter that doesn't require any special abilities.

Soon the fire in the earthen stove was lit. Chongzhen skillfully took out a few pieces of ginger from the wicker basket, washed them, sliced ​​them, and threw them into a pot full of hot water. He also added some licorice root, and then took a handful of perilla leaves that he had just picked outside to the dark river to wash them and threw them into the hot water as well.

When Ling Chengen returned with the gutted and scaled river fish, the ginger soup in the pot was already cooked.

Chongzhen handed her a cup of ginger soup that was placed next to the earthen stove: "Drink some hot soup first."

"What do you want to do with the fish?" Chongzhen asked.

"These few fish aren't enough for so many people, let's make fish soup instead."

Ling Chengen took the still-hot bamboo tube, hung the fish aside, and sat on the rock to drink it slowly.

"Has Chang Tianchen not returned yet?"

"No, I didn't see him when I came back. I don't know where he went." Chong Zhen didn't care whether Chang Tianchen lived or died, but since Ling Chengen asked, he answered truthfully.

Bai Xi said, "He probably didn't prepare any provisions, so he went hunting."

In human form, the consumption of physical energy can be reduced.

Chang Tianchen can only maintain a half-human form at present, so his food requirements should be very high.

About half an hour later, Chang Tianchen jumped down from the top of the sinkhole, soaking wet, dragging a dead Rifttooth Beast in each hand. The rain falling from the top of the sinkhole quickly washed away the bloodstains on the rocks.

The two Fisstooth beasts were enormous, resembling adult hippos in appearance. Each weighed approximately two tons, and their thick bodies were covered with messy wounds, without a trace of burns.

Looking at the bloodstains remaining on Chang Tianchen's chin, Ling Chengen guessed that he had just been unable to suppress the restlessness in his body, so he went out hunting to vent his energy and had a hearty meal.

"You two can share these two prey."

After venting his energy, Chang Tianchen finally returned to normal. He threw his prey onto a rock and left it there, casually giving a brief instruction before quietly leaning against it. The spiky scales on his rainbow tail were slightly retracted, and the slender tip of his tail lazily drooped over the edge of the dark river, occasionally poking at the cold water in the river.

Ling Chengen watched as he slowly closed his eyes, then pointed to a few people to drag the Rifttooth Beast to the edge of the dark river to process it. He said they would roast the meat and distribute it to everyone later.

Fresh meat is always better than eating jerky.

Ling Chengen really disliked dried meat. Not only was it hard, but because it lacked salt, the taste was indescribable.

Ling Chengen looked at Chongzhen: "Let's make fish soup and share it with the roast meat."

As she spoke, she filled a bamboo tube with the remaining ginger soup from the pot and handed it to Chang Tianchen, who was sitting in the shadows: "Drink this."

Chang Tianchen opened one eye, his nostrils flaring slightly: "What is that?"

"Ginger soup is good for dispelling cold."

Chang Tianchen lowered his head and sniffed the scent of her hand, then immediately frowned and shook his head, saying, "I have fire-type abilities, so I'm not afraid of the cold. This smells bad, I won't drink it."

Ling Chengen placed the bamboo tube on the stone beside him: "There's nothing more, just this much."

Chang Tianchen picked up the bamboo tube and looked at the ugly-cute tiger head carved on the cup: "Who carved this? How can it be so...childish?"

“My sister.” Ling Chengen glanced at the strange-looking pattern and looked away. “After you finish drinking, remember to wash my cup.”

Seeing her turn and leave, Chang Tianchen stared at her back for a long time before lowering his head and sticking out his tongue to lick the warm ginger soup.

Spicy.

It tasted really bad.

However, since it was from her, he still tried drinking a few sips, biting into a licorice slice in the cup, and finally tasted a little sweetness.

Once the rain stopped, the group quickly set off again with the supplies.

They finally arrived at the cave near Ximatian Valley as dusk approached.

They arrived relatively late; many nearby caves already had tribes stationed there.

Ling Chengen didn't try to squeeze into the caves near Tiangu. That place was the most crowded and brightly lit, making it the safest spot. There was definitely no room left for them.

There are many caves in the surrounding area, but they are scattered, making them easy targets for nighttime raids and robberies.

The team organized the supplies and placed them at the very back of the cave, securing them with vines before finally dispersing to rest in the corners of the cave.

Standing in front of the massive amount of supplies, Ling Chengen turned to Chang Tianchen, who had followed him, and asked, "Are you on guard duty for the first half of the night or the second half?"

"Anything is fine." Chang Tianchen crossed his arms and asked with interest, "Are you sure you want me to guard this place?"

"If the supplies are gone during your guard period..." Ling Chengen sneered.

Chang Tianchen couldn't help but click his tongue in admiration: "They really know how to manipulate people."

"I'll keep watch for the rest of the night." Chang Tianchen made his choice after all.

Generally speaking, the second half of the night is when people are most tired, and it is also the time when the teams escorting supplies are most vulnerable to being ambushed.

He's been full of energy lately, and because there's no poison from the Poison Valley to suppress him, he's managed to stay relatively well-behaved. But at night, when he's so excited, if any fools come knocking on his door, he certainly won't be polite.

Let's let this little tiger guard the night; it'll be more peaceful that way.

(End of this chapter)