Chapter 109: Chapter 109: The Inauguration Banquet and Ian’s Decision

The two of them stayed at Obsidian for one night, setting off immediately the next morning to return to the tribe.

On the way there, because he wanted to experience the road running through the canyon, Kaelen had chosen to walk; on the way back, he was no longer in the mood for it, decisively riding the ox cart. Sane drove the ox cart and said:

"Earlier, I saw the ’horse carriage’ in your magic mirror. How about we make a few of them? As for horses, I can send people to look for them."

Horses were herd animals, mainly concentrated in vast grasslands. Their area was mostly mountainous, making it very difficult to find horses. Kaelen looked at the road ahead and said:

"Making horse carriages is fine. I just thought of something else. Tell me, what if we take the opportunity to develop a merchant caravan and proceed to build roads connecting Crimson to the entire continent?"

Sane’s eyes widened, somewhat surprised by his mate’s bold idea.

Building roads was a task that consumed a lot of manpower and time. Trading while opening roads, when would that ever be finished?!

"Not to mention anything else, the tribes won’t allow us to build roads near their territory. They will consider it an act of provocation."

Kaelen let out a long sigh, played with the dog-tail grass in his hand, and said: "If we can’t open roads, the horse carriages won’t reach their maximum potential. If horses want to travel, there must be roads for them to travel on. Don’t tell me you would tame horses just to let them run around the tribe? They would die of boredom."

Just like sled dogs, if forced to stay indoors forever, they would die from stress.

Sane gripped the whip in his hand, recalling the prosperous scenes in Kaelen’s illusion. In that place, people built roads that smoothly connected to one another; whether traveling for leisure or doing business, it was extremely convenient. He suddenly thought that building roads wasn’t entirely impossible; he just needed to gain the consensus of the neighboring tribes.

He said: "Among your students, who can take on the heavy responsibility of diplomacy? I want them, on this first trading trip, to persuade at least one tribe to join us or agree to open a road to Crimson!"

Kaelen tilted his head and said: "Asher and Aaron. If those two team up, never mind anyone else, even you and I might get scammed out of our underwear. Hmm, we could bring Sorin along too. He doesn’t even need to say anything; just standing there is enough to make people piss their pants in fear."

Barton, who was eavesdropping with pricked ears, couldn’t help but choke on his own saliva. The Little Priest was truly... adorably straightforward. Although there were many things the two of them talked about that he didn’t quite understand, he understood the part about opening roads. Imagining the prospect of Crimson’s roads stretching across the continent, he suddenly felt his blood boil with excitement.

Riding the ox cart was indeed much faster than walking. Kaelen and Sane had only been chatting for a short while before they arrived back at the tribe.

"Ah, the Chief and the Little Priest are back!"

The kid Landon, who was on his way to deliver a message to Cassian, cheered as soon as he saw Sane and Kaelen from a distance, unable to resist running straight up to them. Kaelen looked at his bare, hairless appearance, and his mouth twitched. Right now, Landon looked no different from a Sphynx cat.

Sane knew that among the newcomers, there was a kid who had shaved off all his fur just to quickly join Aaron’s team, but he couldn’t remember his original name at all. Because the moment he saw the kid, the name Kitty Galore automatically popped into his brain. That was the name of a hairless cat in the movie ’Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore’, which he had watched at least ten times while in Kaelen’s illusion.

"Hello Kit... ahem! Hello kid. Nothing major happened in the tribe, right?"

Landon licked his lips and said: "There is. Yesterday afternoon, a few kids in the tribe went out to play together and accidentally left little Ezekiel near the riverbank. Ezekiel fell into the water, and Brother Mie, who happened to be passing by, jumped in to save him. But when Brother Mie brought Ezekiel up to the shore, Brother Mie suddenly had severe stomach pains.

When he got to the clinic, they discovered that Brother Mie was pregnant; the situation was very critical at that moment. Luckily, Brother Draven appeared in time, so both Brother Mie and the baby are fine."

Ezekiel was the Silver Fox cub from Christian’s group, adopted by Colton. Normally, Colton would carry the little boy with him, but on days with high-intensity training, he would usually drop the boy off with the Feline clan. The kids in the tribe all loved the adorable Silver Fox cub, so they would carry the boy under their arms wherever they went.

Perhaps the kids got too caught up in playing and forgot about the little Silver Fox.

Kaelen’s expression darkened slightly, wanting to drag those naughty kids out and give them a good beating. If Mie hadn’t happened to pass by, the tribe would have lost a young seedling. If Draven hadn’t arrived in time, the tribe would have lost yet another young seedling.

Sane’s expression wasn’t much better either. It should be known that in the beastman world, the number of cubs in a tribe was very small, and they were protected extremely strictly. Now, a few-month-old cub and an unborn child had almost lost their lives; anyone would be furious.

"Thank you, kid. We’ll go on ahead. The tribe is throwing a banquet tonight, remember to come." Kaelen smiled at Landon. For some reason, Landon felt that this smile from the Little Priest was a bit chilling.

He hurriedly said goodbye to the two of them, tucked his tail, and ran away.

Kaelen gave a cold snort and said: "I’ve decided. Starting today, we’re opening a preschool. Those brats need to be strictly supervised."

Sane nodded in agreement: "Yes, just like the group on this side of the valley; the kids are all sent to be looked after by that Sub-Beast named Kai. The adults come to pick them up after finishing their work."

Acting on their words, the two of them immediately returned to the new valley. First, they stopped by to visit Mie. Upon arriving, they were very surprised to see Walter there. Walter gave a light, unnatural cough, greeted the two of them, and then arrogantly walked out with his chin held high. After walking a short distance, he bolted and vanished from sight.

Kaelen looked at Mie and blinked his eyes to ask what was going on. Theron let out a snort of laughter and said: "That tsundere kid, he just came over and said something like, ’because you saving the child affected your fetus, I’m visiting you on behalf of my team’. Then he shoved a bunch of stuff into Mie’s hands, all the things that Mie has liked since his time at Obsidian."

Mie held a bird-feather ball in his hand and shyly said: "In the past, I snatched some bird feathers he had found to line my secret nest. I didn’t expect Walter to accidentally see it once. I thought he didn’t mind. I didn’t expect him to remember it until now." Saying this, Mie’s eyelids lowered slightly, and the corners of his mouth curved into a somewhat bitter smile.

Kaelen didn’t pass any judgment; after all, it was a misunderstanding between the two of them, so it was best to let them reconcile on their own. He changed the subject to Mie’s health, then returned to the meeting room. The horn for an emergency meeting sounded, and the team captains quickly paused their work, hurrying over.

In this meeting, Sane strictly criticized the carelessness of the adults in the tribe and simultaneously announced the decision to establish a preschool. Starting tomorrow, all children under six years old in the tribe had to be sent to the daycare.

Additionally, Sane also announced the decision to form a merchant caravan that would set off in the next ten days. He requested all departments to coordinate closely with each other and dispatch individuals capable of shouldering the responsibility to support the core members in the caravan. The deadline to finalize the roster was five days.

"The first trip is mainly to scout the situation in the South. We need two teams to split up and head in two directions; the longest itinerary will be one to two months. Since we don’t know the level of danger yet, we need people who are both strong enough and capable of handling unexpected situations. You all need to choose your people very carefully. Alright, the meeting ends here. Tonight, we will hold an inauguration banquet for the new road, so all departments return and prepare. Alden, Cassian, Randy, and Nordhal, stay behind."

Alden was the oldest beastman in the old Obsidian tribe. Although he wasn’t as old as Talon, he was still a veteran. He had great achievements in the field of agriculture and forestry. Handing the mung beans over to him for research, Kaelen felt completely reassured.

As for Cassian, Sane wanted him to try researching and improving the ox cart so that it could travel on treacherous mountain roads, suggesting that he make extra spare wheels to carry along in case of breakdowns.

"Uncle Randy, I need you to urgently sew a unified uniform for the caravan, and at the same time, sew a banner with our tribe’s Totem. This is the unified Totem version to be used for the tribe from now on; take it back and study it. If it can be embroidered onto all of the tribe’s clothing items, that would be best."

Sane handed the new Totem drawing to Randy. The Crimson tribe already had a Totem in the past, which was the shape of a dark red flame. Kaelen decisively combined both types of patterns; he removed the lotus flower at the bird’s beak, and instead transformed the crest and tail of the Lac bird into a flame-like form. The corners of the bird’s eyes were also sharper, looking somewhat like fire and somewhat like an arrow.

Randy looked at the new Totem, and a flickering light flashed in his eyes. If initially, when the two Totems were separate, they both displayed burning passion and a thirst for freedom, then after they were combined, they looked... extremely bloodthirsty and combative.

Indeed, it looked incredibly arrogant, as if saying, ’You don’t accept it? Come and fight!’.

The people present stared fixedly at the new Totem, blinked their eyes, and then coughed in unison. It looked like it was provoking people...

But it was very cool, so they had absolutely no objections.

Sane continued to instruct Nordhal about building the silkworm rearing workshop and dispatching people to station in the old Obsidian territory. He emphasized the matter of dealing with Cipher:

"This amount of time is long enough for that group of people to make a move, so you absolutely must raise your vigilance. You must especially be on guard against the slaves and the people from the old Obsidian; they might pull their old tricks again."

"Understood!"

"Alright, there’s nothing else. Meeting dismissed!"

---

That evening, the inauguration banquet was held in the large plaza in the new valley, and the group of people from the other side of the valley was granted an exception to participate. After Sane announced the incorporation of Austin’s group, the entire tribe nearly exploded with cheers.

Little Jose clung to Kai’s thigh and excitedly said: "Brother Kai, Brother Kai, we are already Crimson people now!"

Kai nodded, the joy in his eyes completely undisguised. However, he felt a bit sorry for Leonardo; just because Leonardo remained unconscious and wouldn’t wake up, he missed the opportunity to contribute to the tribe. Out of the group of ten people, Leonardo was the only one who hadn’t yet been allowed to join the tribe.

Seeing this prosperous scene, the group of one hundred and seventy-two newcomers was deeply moved, and the determination in their hearts to successfully join the Crimson tribe grew even stronger.

What Sane and Kaelen didn’t expect was that, right in the middle of the banquet, Ian proactively stood up and loudly declared his agreement to lead Crimson’s people to his old tribe to find the new food crop.

Kaelen was surprised and asked: "It’s only been one day and night, Ian. Aren’t you going to think about it a little more?"

Ian shook his head and firmly said: "I have thought it through carefully, Little Priest."

Sane narrowed his eyes and asked: "Can you tell me why you suddenly made your decision so early?"

Ian took a deep breath, placed a hand on his left chest, bowed his head, and said sincerely: "Faith, Chief. I can feel the power of faith surging from the Temple behind you, powerful and pure, making my heart tremble ceaselessly. Reason tells me that I must agree to your proposal immediately!"

After Ian finished speaking, he raised his eyes to look straight at Sane and Kaelen: "Chief, Little Priest, your tribe’s Beast God is incredibly powerful!"

From the moment Ian spoke, the tribe instantly fell quiet again. Hearing him finish, everyone simultaneously raised their eyes to look at the still-unfinished Temple up high, kneeling down in unison, their hearts filled with genuine reverence.

Kaelen and Sane looked at each other, reading the thoughts in the other’s eyes. Kaelen smiled and said to Ian:

"What ’Beast God of your tribe’? Ian, you have to say ’Beast God of our tribe’. That’s the right one."

Ian froze, not quite understanding, and let out a "huh?".

Sane stood up, stepped down from the Chief’s seat, and patted Ian’s shoulder: "Congratulations, Ian. You have passed the Beast God’s test and become an official clansman of the Crimson tribe!"

The pin-drop silent atmosphere briefly echoed with a few soft gasps, and then it exploded like a drop of water falling into a pan of boiling oil. Cheers and congratulations rang out simultaneously, and Ian’s eyes reddened...

So... so that meant... he had passed the test?

Now, he was also a part of this tribe!