After sending off the snake teammate, Shu Bao spent a moment fantasizing about the Breeding Grasshopper Talent Book, then began focusing on defending the base.
A month had passed, and the effects of the Hidden Orchid that had been collected before had mostly worn off. Since the Chaotic Swamp wasn’t an area where Hidden Orchids grew, Shu Bao couldn’t bring back any replacements on this trip.
In recent days, the number of chaotic creatures besieging the tribe has significantly increased. However, after a month of actual combat, the people of the Xia Wang Tribe had become familiar with most of the chaotic creatures, knowing their weaknesses and the most effective parts to attack.
Especially today, their revered deity had returned, which greatly heightened everyone’s enthusiasm for battle. They all wanted their deity to see how much they had grown over the past month.
Not to mention, many of these people were former slaves from the Sishe hunting team who had become members of the tribe. Their desire to perform was overwhelming. As wave after wave of chaotic creatures surged forward, most of them were defeated before even reaching the fence.
The tribe had long been prepared with a large number of spears and longswords, many of which were enchanted weapons. As long as the creatures weren’t of lord level, the tribe members could cooperate seamlessly to deal with them. Especially the high priest and Mu Bao, who had become increasingly adept at conjuring fireballs, sometimes even managing to launch two at once.
Shu Bao wandered leisurely inside the tribe, watching the tribe members clear out the monsters outside and affirming their progress.
Whenever the fluffy ball passed by an area, the people there attacked with even more vigor, and when they received praise from their deity, smiles would uncontrollably spread across their faces.
On Shu Bao’s first night back, no lord-level creatures appeared around the tribe, making the defense very smooth. The tribe members took turns defending, having long mastered the rhythm.
As dawn began to break, the chaotic creatures started to disperse, and the tribe members came out to gather the night’s harvest.
They were well aware of the rules of the alternation between the chaotic and real worlds, knowing that anything not inside the tribe would disappear at dawn. Therefore, this brief period of transition was their time to harvest frantically.
The first things they harvested were the creatures that were edible or had other value. Of course, any unfamiliar creatures appearing for the first time were also brought back to the tribe for their deity or Master Lan Qing to analyze.
Shu Bao used the deconstruction gun to analyze the newly appeared chaotic creatures near the tribe, watching the bustling crowd and feeling like a tool mouse.
A day in the Xia Wang Tribe began with a lively harvest: animal skins collected by the hunting team, chunks of fatty meat, unknown bones, stones, feathers, and even a few sparkling gems.
These items were stored separately in a large warehouse tent. The task of providing fifty comfortable tents for the tribe was already completed. With a population of fewer than a hundred, there were many empty tents left.
Lifting the tent flap, Shu Bao’s eyes widened. Even though Lan Qing had taken a large portion, the resources here were still abundant. There were many simple wooden shelves inside, categorically holding various items.
The high priest explained that food wasn’t stored here; everything else collected from the chaotic creatures was.
As Shu Bao wandered between the shelves, his little chest puffed out with pride. After being away for a few days, he found that he had returned home as a wealthy mouse!
“It’s all thanks to the blessings of our deity that we have such a bountiful harvest,” the high priest’s words of praise had just fallen when the startled cries of the tribe members came from outside the warehouse.
“Bad news! The dragon from the Long Tribe is here!”
“Deity, High Priest!”
“The dragon is here again!”
…
Shu Bao looked up at the high priest, “Rain Girl is in the mission hall. Go make it cry!”
The high priest: “…” The praise he had been brewing for a month was instantly stuck in his throat.
Although a bit frustrated, the high priest quickly walked towards the mission hall in his favorite tight leather skirt. Shu Bao followed closely behind, emerging from the warehouse.
As soon as he stepped out of the tent, the shadow of the dragon loomed overhead. Shu Bao looked up at the dragon, which had grown quite a bit, and rubbed his chin, deciding to hatch the dragon egg soon. The mouse also wanted to experience the joy of riding a dragon.
After a month of preparation, Yu Lingqi finally found a clear, cloudless day. The construction of his base was well underway, and the mission hall was about to be completed. He decided to come out and gather more people, also aiming to boost the excitement in his livestream.
As he flew over the Xia Wang Tribe on his dragon, he was surprised to see that they had built a lot of tents, but aside from the tents, there seemed to be no other developments within the base. Relieved, he planned to have the dragon fly low and breathe fire, causing some trouble for the Xia Wang Tribe.
Suddenly, a thunderclap exploded in the clear sky, startling the dragon. Instinctively, it folded its wings, causing it to plummet. Realizing this was not a good idea, the dragon quickly spread its wings again.
Caught off guard by the sudden rise and fall, Yu Lingqi was left speechless. He recalled how excited he had been when he first discovered the injured dragon and managed to tame it, believing he would soon dominate the survival competition.
However, as time passed, Yu Lingqi increasingly doubted whether his initial decision to form a contract was hasty or if the legendary dragons were simply not that intelligent.
Shaking off his dizziness, Yu Lingqi looked up to find the sky rapidly gathering dark clouds. Realizing the impending trouble, he wasn’t surprised when a torrential downpour began the next second. The once-mighty dragon started its familiar frantic attempts to avoid the rain.
The viewers in Yu Lingqi’s live stream, who had been full of anticipation, were now bombarding the chat with question marks, returning to the all-too-familiar routine.
“What’s going on? Why does it always rain when he reaches Shu Bao’s tribe?”
“Are legendary dragons really this afraid of rain?”
“Haha, sorry, I can’t help but laugh. This is so ridiculous.”
Yu Lingqi couldn’t see the barrage of comments in his livestream, but he could easily guess the situation. He was both anxious and angry, yet helpless. The usually obedient dragon turned uncontrollable in the rain.
Thus, this harassment mission ended in failure once again. Frustrated, Yu Lingqi looked at the dragon, which had its head stuck in a small cave to avoid the rain, and gritted his teeth. He couldn’t believe it—could it really rain every time he visited the Xia Wang Tribe?
Having failed repeatedly, Yu Lingqi became increasingly determined to harass the Xia Wang Tribe.
In the Xia Wang Tribe, as they watched the dragon fly away, the people cheered. The high priest handed the crying Rain Girl to Shu Bao, who successfully cheered her up, causing the sky to clear again. The tribe members continued their busy work.
At this moment, the wood processing factory that Shu Bao had clicked to build the previous day was also completed. Shu Bao and the Xia Wang Tribe members eagerly went to observe.
The processing factory was divided into four work areas, each equipped with many basic tools. The entrance featured an operation desk, where clicking the menu revealed the currently unlocked blueprints. As Shu Bao had guessed, these included various pieces of furniture such as tables, chairs, benches, and beds. Additionally, Shu Bao saw blueprints for simple carts, wooden bows, and arrows.
Shu Bao immediately clicked on the wooden bows, arrows, cart, and bed, discovering that a maximum of four tasks could be assigned at once, which perfectly matched the four work areas in the processing plant. Once tasks were assigned, blueprints appeared in the work areas, showing the required materials.
Unlike 3D printing, these materials needed manual processing. The work areas also included tutorials. Clicking on them brought up virtual figures that people could follow for learning. These virtual figures were quite intelligent and provided simple guidance.
Shu Bao was truly amazed, increasingly convinced that the person who invented this infrastructure system was a genius.
The Xia Wang Tribe members marveled at this as a miracle and eagerly threw themselves into learning. To prevent everyone from crowding into one place, Shu Bao decided to focus on training eight people first. They could take turns learning and processing, with the selection of candidates left to the high priest.
Those who were not chosen experienced only a brief moment of disappointment, but soon remembered that there would be more miracles in the future, giving them other opportunities.
With the completion of the wood processing factory, there were no other blueprints to build for now, so Shu Bao turned his attention to the dragon egg, considering how to accelerate the hatching of the lava fire dragon egg.
Recalling that the intense heat from the dragon’s breath in the valley hadn’t damaged the dragon egg, Shu Bao clapped his hands and decided to place the dragon egg in the furnace to heat it. The lava fire dragon would naturally absorb the fire attribute to speed up its hatching.
So, the industrious Xia Wang Tribe members watched in astonishment as their deity transformed into human form, carried the dragon egg out, and placed it in the furnace!
Seeing that the deity was about to ignite the furnace, the crowd snapped out of their shock and rushed to stop the deity.
The high priest was especially alarmed. “Deity, are you hungry? The wild chickens we’ve been raising have started laying eggs. I’ll get some for you right away!”
“I have roasted meat!”
“Last night, we also harvested a lot of delicious Bobo birds!”
As they blocked Shu Bao, the tribe members reported what food was available in the tribe.
Shu Bao: “…”
Once the tribe members had separated Shu Bao from the furnace, he finally had a chance to explain, “I was just trying to speed up the dragon egg’s hatching, really!”
The Xia Wang Tribe members looked at their deity and then at the weak, pitiful, and helpless dragon egg.
“Deity, leave the dragon egg’s hatching to us!”
“Yes, I’ve seen wild chickens hatch eggs before and know how to do it.”
“Deity, you should rest or go check on the grasshoppers.”
“Petting the cat is also a good option!”
Shu Bao was escorted away from the furnace area by the tribe members. They quickly brought over the sunbathing kitten, placed it in Shu Bao’s arms, and laid out a variety of roasted meats, delicious fruits, and even boiled wild chicken eggs in front of him.
Shu Bao: “…” He certainly wasn’t being rejected, given how much food they had prepared for him. Thus, as he petted the cat and ate, Shu Bao gradually forgot about the dragon egg.
The task of hatching the dragon egg fell to the Xia Wang Tribe members. They all became surrogate fathers, constantly monitoring the dragon egg’s condition. Especially when the deity was near the egg, they kept a close watch, fearing that the deity might accidentally roast it.
During the day, the dragon egg was taken out to bask in the sun, and at night it was moved back to the mission hall. Fresh flowers were replaced daily, and even Mu Bao would go and explain magic training to the two eggs.
Shu Bao felt quite helpless about the situation. He never got the chance to put the dragon egg in the furnace, but that was fine. He wasn’t in a rush to hatch the dragon. After all, the deity from the Long Tribe was already furious, even going so far as to publicly accuse him of cheating.
Friendly Shu Bao immediately chose the ugliest person in the tribe to smile at the Rain Girl. As a result, hail accompanied by lightning, thunder, and heavy rain pelted down, causing the dragon and its rider to get pummeled with bumps on their heads.
The Rain Girl became a benchmark for evaluating looks in the Xia Wang Tribe. To control the rain, the tribe even designated people from various beauty zones to manage the amount of rain. Of course, the peak of beauty was their deity. Besides the deity, Mu Bao was also able to make the Rain Girl stop crying.
Life in the Xia Wang Tribe had settled into a routine, but like Shu Bao, Lan Qing had also been away for many days without returning, leaving the tribe members once again worried.
Shu Bao seriously explained to the tribe members that the flow of time was different between the two worlds. When explaining the principle, he found it challenging and eventually had to resort to a simple and crude explanation from the ancestors: “A day in the sky equals a year on the ground.”
The Xia Wang Tribe members nodded in understanding, indicating that they grasped the concept.
Shu Bao couldn’t help but marvel at how the ancient ancestors had the perfect tool for time travel.
