The Dispute

Regrettably, she could not soak in the hot spring for too long. Estimating that enough time had passed, she reluctantly stepped out of the pool.

Lin Ye returned with a light and refreshed body. By this time, Xing had also come out, while Yang had probably returned long ago.

Sure enough, when she arrived back, she saw Yang pacing back and forth in front of the cave entrance.

"Yang, what are you doing?" she asked curiously.

Seeing Lin Ye, Yang immediately quickened his pace toward her. Her long, black hair, newly washed, draped loosely behind her back, further accentuating the gentle and soft beauty of her small face.

As a gentle breeze brushed past, he seemed to catch a faint, lingering fragrance from her body.

He suddenly felt his mouth grow dry. "Did... did you go to the hot spring to bathe?"

"Yes, bathing and cleaning up makes me feel much more comfortable," Lin Ye said as she hung her clothes to dry. Today, she had gone into the bamboo forest to cut down a few stalks of bamboo to use as drying poles, so that she could hang her clothes instead of spreading them over the rocks.

"Oh." Yang followed closely behind her, step by step. "My parents are calling you over to eat roasted meat."

"They finished roasting it so quickly?" Lin Ye asked in surprise.

She remembered that when she went to bathe, the tribe's beastmen hunting squad had not yet returned.

"Not yet, they have only just finished distributing the meat," Yang said. "My mother wants to invite you over to check if the meat is being roasted correctly."

"Sure, no problem."

As Yang's father was the tribal chief, his dwelling was located at the center of the tribe, requiring them to pass by many other beastmen's caves.

Along the way, they received countless curious glances.

Lin Ye had been here once before, but at that time, she was in a low mood and had no heart to pay attention to her surroundings. This time, she could finally take her time to observe.

This mountain was predominantly rocky, and the beastmen lived in caves, some naturally formed and others man-made.

Now that it was time for dinner, a bonfire was lit in front of each cave in preparation for roasting meat.

The flames flickered, and the noisy chatter of the beastmen filled the air, creating a very lively atmosphere of daily life.

The tribal chief was standing in front of his cave, looking around. Seeing Lin Ye approach, he waved at her cheerfully.

"Lin Ye, you have arrived! We have been waiting for you!"

There were quite a few caves nearby. From the moment Lin Ye appeared, many beastmen had noticed her. Seeing the tribal chief treat her with such warmth, they were all deeply astonished.

Why was the tribal chief so hospitable to an outsider female?

Lin Ye quickened her steps toward them and greeted, "Chief, Yun, good evening."

She looked at the pieces of meat on the flat stone. "Have these pieces of meat been prepared?"

"Yes." Yun pulled Lin Ye to her side and said, "I have prepared these spices according to what you said yesterday. What should we do next?"

She had ground salt and cassia bark into powder, and the perilla leaves were also finely chopped, but she did not know how much seasoning to sprinkle onto the meat.

Lin Ye squatted down to help Yun marinate the meat and said, "How much seasoning to sprinkle depends on your taste. You will get used to it after doing it a few times."

Yun stood aside, nodding as she listened.

Normally, the meat had to be marinated for a while to absorb the flavors, but they were all starving, so they hastily prepared to roast it right after sprinkling the spices.

Compared to roasting over charcoal, they preferred wrapping the meat in mud before roasting, which tasted as delicious as last night.

The surrounding beastmen looked on in confusion as they wrapped the meat in banana leaves and smeared wet mud over it.

"What are they doing? Why smear mud on fresh, delicious meat? Isn't that too wasteful?"

One beastman, unable to contain his curiosity, stepped forward and asked, "Chief, what are you all doing?"

"Roasting meat." At the thought of the fragrant roasted meat they were about to eat, the tribal chief was in an extremely good mood.

The other beastman was incredulous. "How can meat be roasted when it is covered in mud?"

"On the contrary! It can be roasted!" The chief did not know how to explain it either; he only knew that the meat would taste delicious once roasted.

Receiving no clear answer, the beastman rubbed his nose and walked away.

A moment later, a middle-aged beastman approached. He wore a necklace of beast fangs around his neck, and his face was adorned with strange tattoos.

Compared to Yang and the chief, this beastman was slightly thinner in build.

He stared at the mud bundles in the fire for a moment, then sneered, "I did not expect our chief to lose his taste for meat and switch to eating mud instead."

Lin Ye found this a bit strange. From what she knew, the beastmen held the chief in high regard. Who was this person to dare speak so rudely to the chief?

Yang pulled Lin Ye aside and explained, "That is Tian, our tribe's shaman. He has always wanted to usurp my father's position as chief."

"Oh."

Having lived in the Miao Tribe for a few days, she had gained some understanding of this place. The "shaman" was essentially the tribe's doctor, who was also highly respected by the beastmen.

However, the shaman's power was not as great as the chief's. All matters, large and small, within the tribe were decided by the chief. The shaman was only responsible for treating injured or sick beastmen and had no authority to interfere in other affairs.

Rather than being a shaman with no real power, Tian desired the authority held by the chief.

Lin Ye was quite astonished by Tian's mindset. From her interactions over the past few days, she found the beastmen to be simple and kind-hearted. A power-hungry person like Tian was extremely rare, almost an anomaly within the tribe.

Fortunately, the beastmen did not seem to have developed complex schemes and conspiracies yet. Although Tian was quite calculating, he usually only made sarcastic remarks when meeting the chief and had never done anything underhanded.

Because of this, the chief and the shaman had been able to coexist peacefully for many years.

The beastmen all knew of the discord between the shaman and the chief. Seeing Tian come to cause trouble again, they excitedly gathered around to watch.