Chapter 109: Chapter 109: A False Alarm Fire

When Nan Feng heard that Chang Xia had found medicinal herbs, she instantly lost interest and quietly went back to cutting cogongrass.

Nuan Chun, on the other hand, let out a few excited cries from time to time—she was clearly finding lots of bird eggs.

The wasteland, untouched for years and close to the reeds, was full of wild pheasants and rabbits, and bird eggs were everywhere—though many were spoiled.

Before long, Nan Feng had cleared an area about the size of a soccer field.

Nuan Chun caught seven wild rabbits, three pheasants, and collected countless bird eggs.

It was a bountiful harvest!

Chang Xia wandered across most of the wasteland, filling her basket with all sorts of herbs—one or two of each kind. She was quite pleased with her haul.

“This wasteland will be perfect for growing vegetables once it’s cleared,” Chang Xia said.

The soil was dark, fertile, and sandy—clearly excellent land.

Whatever they planted here would thrive.

“Nan Feng, that’s enough cutting. For the rest, let’s dig a trench to separate it from the forest, then just burn it.”

She’d had Nan Feng cut the cogongrass so they could take it back to the caves—not just for making ash, but also to use in the lakeside fence as bedding for chickens and ducks.

Otherwise, burning it would be easier.

Burning the wasteland would also make it easier to dig afterwards.

“Burn it?” Nan Feng said in alarm. “Won’t the fire spread to the forest?”

The beastfolk lived in the forest and had seen wildfires before—they were very afraid of fire.

Nuan Chun chimed in, “Chang Xia, we can just keep cutting. We’ll have the wasteland cleared soon—we don’t have to burn it.”

Seeing how anxious they looked, Chang Xia quickly explained, “We’ll dig a trench first, to separate the forest and the wasteland. That way, the fire can’t spread. Besides, it’s the rainy season now—even if we wanted to burn the forest, it probably wouldn’t catch.”

“Chang Xia, are you sure the fire won’t spread to the forest?”

“I’m absolutely sure.”

With Chang Xia’s repeated assurances, Nan Feng and Nuan Chun exchanged a glance and started digging the trench with her.

They didn’t plan to finish clearing the wasteland that afternoon, so they chose a spot about two-thirds of the way in and started digging.

After some hard work, they dug three trenches, separating the forest and the reeds from the wasteland.

The flint was something Chang Xia had brought with her.

All the flint in the Twilight Forest came from the Kana Sacred Mountain’s shaman hall.

Kana Sacred Mountain had a whole mountain range of flint. The flint used by the beastfolk all came from the shaman hall there, distributed to the various tribes by the shamans, and then handed out to the people.

“Stand back, I’m going to start the fire,” Chang Xia instructed.

Nan Feng and Nuan Chun each held a tree branch, ready to beat out any stray flames.

“Don’t worry, I promise it won’t spread to the forest.”

It had stopped raining that morning, but the ground was still wet, though the cogongrass leaves had dried out.

When Changxia set the fire in the long summer, she didn’t run into any trouble. With just a handful of thatch, she managed to ignite the entire wasteland.

Very quickly, the flames spread. In the blink of an eye, the whole wasteland was ablaze, with wisps of smoke rising into the sky above.

This, of course, immediately caught the attention of the tribe.

Elder Pukang was the first to notice the smoke rising from the direction of White Lake. He let out a beastly roar to alert everyone.

Soon, Elder Pukang led dozens of totem warriors from the tribe, heading straight for White Lake.

His beastly roar was not suppressed, echoing across the entire Heluo tribe.

Even Shen Rong and the others, who were busy in the courtyard, were startled by the commotion.

Shen Rong was the first to release his beast form and looked toward the tribe. He quickly saw Elder Pukang leading dozens of totem warriors toward White Lake, and was instantly shocked.

“Yadong, Kongshan, come with me.”

With a low shout, Shen Rong rushed to join up with Elder Pukang.

“Elder Pukang—”

“Save it for later. Let’s go.”

Elder Pukang cut off Shen Rong’s questions and led everyone straight to the wasteland north of White Lake.

As they walked, Shen Rong’s expression changed slightly.

Beside him, Yadong and Kongshan seemed to remember something as well.

This direction was clearly toward the wasteland north of White Lake. If their memories served them right, that was exactly where Changxia had said she was going when she left the cave earlier that afternoon.

“Smoke—could there be a forest fire?”

“It’s the rainy season. How could there be a fire in the woods? Besides, there hasn’t been any lightning these past few days. How would a fire even start?”

The totem warriors in the group started discussing among themselves. They had all experienced forest fires before—no one wanted to go through that a second time. To them, fire disasters were even scarier and more threatening than floods.

“Stay alert. Be ready to shift into beast form and fight the fire at any moment,” Elder Pukang said seriously.

At a time like this, even his trademark hearty laugh was nowhere to be heard. Clearly, Elder Pukang was more anxious about a fire than anyone else.

The wasteland was too close to the tribe. If a fire broke out, it could easily spread to the tribe itself—there was no room for carelessness.

“Changxia—”

When Elder Pukang and his group arrived at the wasteland in full force, they saw Changxia setting fires all over the place, with Nanfeng and Nuanchun on high alert.

Everyone looked at each other, not knowing what to say.

Scolding them didn’t seem quite right.

But not scolding them left everyone feeling stifled.

“Elder Pukang, why are you all here?” Nanfeng stared at the group in shock, dumbfounded.

Nuanchun, on the other hand, quickly figured it out. Looking at the smoke rising into the sky, she immediately tried to shrink into the background. Most likely, the smoke here had made the tribe think there was a forest fire.

Hearty laughter rang out.

Elder Pukang burst into laughter.

Hearing the familiar sound, Changxia put down the burning thatch and turned around.

Seeing the crowd filling the wasteland, she was a little startled and hesitated, “Elder Pukang, what happened? Why are you all here?”

Shen Rong covered his face, looking at his suddenly clueless partner in the crowd.

What a huge misunderstanding—thank goodness it was just Changxia.

If it had been anyone else in the tribe, Elder Pukang’s first reaction might not have been laughter, but a lesson delivered with his “fist of love.” Even so, after laughing, Elder Pukang walked over to Nanfeng and gave her two playful knocks on the head, quickly raising two bumps.

Nuanchun, quick as ever, crouched down and begged for mercy.

Elder Pukang glanced at Nuanchun, took a couple of deep breaths, and let it go.

“Little Changxia, what are you doing here?” Pukang asked.

“Nanfeng wanted to eat sugar. I noticed this wasteland was full of thatch, so I brought her here to dig up thatch roots and make sugar,” Changxia replied, her wits finally returning. Looking up at the smoke drifting overhead, she realized the tribe must have seen the sudden smoke and thought there was a fire.

Thinking of this, Changxia felt deeply embarrassed.

“Elder Pukang, I’m sorry!”

Because of her, the whole tribe had been alarmed over nothing.

She figured Elder Pukang’s group was just the first wave—more people would probably arrive soon.

“Making sugar? You mean thatch roots can be used to make sugar?” Elder Pukang, relieved there was no fire, didn’t press the issue. The only one who suffered was Nanfeng, who had received two bumps from his “fist of love.”

At this point—

Nanfeng, clutching her head, looked aggrieved.

She wanted to cry but had no tears, staring at Changxia as if to say: Why is it that when three people do something wrong, only I get punished? This isn’t fair!

“Yes, though it doesn’t taste as good as maple syrup or maple sugar,” Changxia nodded.

At this, not only Elder Pukang, but all the totem warriors who had come along were intrigued by Changxia’s words. Lately, aside from cave dwellings, the most talked-about things in the tribe were maple syrup and maple sugar.

Now, Changxia was saying that the roots of the common thatch by the roadside could be used to make sugar.

Everyone was overjoyed.