Chapter 126: Chapter 126: Gentle and Harmless Chen Rong

“What’s so funny?”

Elder Yami, leaning on her ironwood cane, strolled into the cave courtyard. This time, she’d come to White Lake alone—clearly, she had something important to discuss.

“Ahem!” Maple Leaf covered her mouth and replied, “It’s nothing, we were just chatting.”

“Maple Leaf, you! Keeping secrets, huh? When are you planning to marry Kongshan? The whole tribe is waiting!” Yami said with a smile, looking at Maple Leaf. She really liked Maple Leaf’s personality—when she was young, Yami had been just like her.

Back then, who in the Twilight Forest didn’t know Yami’s name?

“Elder Yami…” Maple Leaf stiffened, awkwardly calling out to her, feeling embarrassed and flustered. Damn, if she’d known hiding it would cause so much trouble, she might as well have been open about her relationship with Kongshan from the start.

Thinking of this, Maple Leaf turned and glared at Kongshan.

Kongshan rubbed his nose, looking innocent and helpless.

Looks like this was going to be the talk of the tribe for a long time.

If Maple Leaf hadn’t stayed at his place last night, some single males from the tribe would probably have sneaked over to White Lake to challenge Kongshan. It wouldn’t have been the first time—just recently, Chen Rong had been challenged like that.

Back then, the air above the tribe was thick with the smell of medicine.

Chen Rong, Yadong, and the others had all pitched in, so the snowflake stone paving was going smoothly. But Changxia had suggested building a pond in the center of the cave courtyard, and now Chen Rong was puzzling over how to do it. After all, the pond would have pebbles and fish, so some steps couldn’t be rushed. The pipes needed to be buried in advance, and there had to be an inlet and outlet for water—it was all pretty complicated.

Besides the pond, there’d be a flower bed.

And of course, space had to be set aside for a future bonfire rack.

With all these details, the whole cave courtyard was being planned out to the last inch, with no wasted space.

“Changxia really has good ideas. The stone paving makes the courtyard so much neater,” Yami said, walking over to the snowflake stone paving and tapping it with her cane, smiling in satisfaction.

Changxia smiled and said, “There are plenty of rocks on the stony beach. If the tribe has time, we could slowly pave all the paths in the tribe with stone. The roads don’t need to be as fancy as the courtyard—just stone and yellow clay will do.”

“Looks like the tribe will be busy again!” Yami nodded in agreement.

She didn’t object, which was as good as saying yes.

Just as Changxia said, it could be done gradually—no need to rush.

Nan Feng rubbed her hands together, curious. “Elder Yami, is there something you need?”

Normally, Elder Yami would stay in the tribe, just like Elder Dalai at White Lake. They rarely went out.

“I’m here for Changxia—” Yami said slowly.

Changxia stiffened, looking nervously at Elder Yami. No way, right?

Yami smiled at Changxia and said, “You guessed right. I’m here to ask you to come back to the tribe and train with Mountain Sparrow and the others. Don’t worry, it’ll only be half a day at most each day—it won’t take up too much of your time.”

Two sentences, and all of Chang Xia’s escape routes for the long summer were blocked.

“……” Chang Xia gave a wry smile. Just moments ago, Maple Leaf and the others had been chatting about this, and who would have thought that the very next second, Elder Yami would show up in person.

Refuse? Was this something she could even refuse?

“Alright!” Chang Xia gave up struggling and agreed.

Yami seized the opportunity and said, “Then let’s go!”

“Now?” Chang Xia was startled. She had hoped for some time to prepare a draft in her mind, maybe give herself a bit of a pep talk. As an adult, having to train together with the tribe’s under-ten beast cubs was already embarrassing enough.

But Elder Yami didn’t even give her a moment for comfort.

Yami’s face was still smiling, gentle and kind.

“Yes, now,” Yami confirmed.

Today’s training started in the morning. In the afternoon, the cubs would just mess around a bit before being dismissed to play on their own.

Chang Xia had shared her recipe for thatch root candy.

Recently, the tribe’s cubs were obsessed with digging up thatch roots and were busier than ever.

In the past, Mountain Sparrow and the others would often come to White Lake, but the lure of thatch root candy was too strong. Now, they roamed the tribe in small groups with their little baskets, busy everywhere.

If they dug up only a few, they’d eat the thatch roots raw like fruit.

If they found a lot, they’d beg their parents to help boil them into thatch root candy.

Training couldn’t be delayed, though. When Elder Yami came to get Chang Xia, the cubs were all anxious, clearly feeling that Elder Yami was wasting their precious time. Still, since it was Chang Xia, they had complaints but didn’t voice them.

At the same time, they were all looking forward to training with Chang Xia.

Even though they were still young, their parents had all told them to take care of Chang Xia.

After all, Chang Xia was the only physically weak female in the tribe.

Since the founding of the Heluo tribe, there had never been a clansman as frail as Chang Xia.

You read that right—frail.

Chang Xia’s strength looked like it could catch up to Nuan Chun’s, but Nuan Chun wasn’t a totem warrior and hadn’t really trained much.

She gained this level of fighting ability as soon as she became an adult.

Strong beast tribes were born strong, while weaker tribes could never catch up no matter how hard they tried.

This was the power of bloodlines. Unless you could break through the limits of your bloodline, there was no way to surpass them. The only reason Chang Xia could catch up to Nuan Chun so quickly was because of her unique bloodline. Otherwise, she’d never have been able to catch up, let alone compare to a totem warrior like Nan Feng.

“Chang Xia, don’t worry about the house. I’ll take care of it,” Shen Rong said gently.

He understood Chang Xia’s ambitions, but to leave the tribe, she’d need the elders’ approval. Shen Rong was confident but not arrogant. Since the Heluo tribe had decided to let Chang Xia train with the cubs, they must have their reasons.

Besides, Shen Rong wasn’t a native of the Misty Forest.

There were some things he only half understood.

He thought, maybe in the future, he’d take Chang Xia deeper into the forest.

Recently, whenever he had free time, Shen Rong would seek out Yadong, Shankun, and the others to ask about all aspects of the Misty Forest.

“Alright, I understand,” Chang Xia let out a soft breath, gathering her emotions. She put down the snowflake slate in her hands, washed up, tugged at her clothes, and followed Elder Yami step by step toward the tribe.

In the courtyard of the cave dwelling, Maple Leaf, Nan Feng, and the others exchanged glances, their eyes full of eager excitement.

They were just about to say something when Shen Rong spoke up: “None of you are going anywhere. Today, you’re helping finish paving the courtyard. And if any of you dare sneak off to the tribe to spy, I think… Chang Xia would be very upset if she found out.”

As Chang Xia left, Shen Rong was as gentle as ever.

But his words were full of warning and threat.

Hearing this, Maple Leaf was startled.

“Is this the same gentle and harmless Shen Rong?” Maple Leaf said.

Nan Feng, holding the cheek Maple Leaf had punched and swollen yesterday, shot her a look and replied, “Gentle and harmless? You mean Shen Rong? You must be blind. Gentle and harmless? Don’t you know that he’s beaten up more than half the tribe’s hunting team? The rest who haven’t been beaten avoid even meeting his eyes.”

Nan Feng thought back.

She’d felt a chill on the back of her neck more than once—eight or nine times out of ten, it was Shen Rong watching her.

That wolf tribe guy was just devious!

Too bad she hadn’t stopped Chang Xia from marrying him sooner. Now it was too late for regrets!