Chapter 197: Chapter 197: The Beast Den in Mount Wei

After listening to Chief Gen’s explanation, Changxia’s mouth twitched involuntarily. As expected, this fit perfectly with the tribe’s mischievous sense of humor.

“Father, how come I’ve never eaten blackfish?” Southwind pouted, grumbling.

Yundong and the others burst out laughing at her reaction.

“You’ve eaten it too,” Gen said helplessly. “All the beast cubs in the tribe have had blackfish—you just didn’t know it!”

The shaman once said that blackfish from the Wei River had calming and nourishing effects. Whenever a new beast cub was born in the Heluo tribe, the tribe would go to the Moonwatch Mountains to catch blackfish for them. This time, they brought Shankun along specifically to catch a few blackfish for Nuan Chun’s twin cubs to eat.

“Oh!” Southwind replied vaguely, not really doubting Gen. After all, it would be easy to expose a lie like this, and since Gen said all the cubs had eaten it, there must be something special about the blackfish.

Thud, thud!

The logs hit the riverbank, and everyone jumped off onto solid ground.

Soon, the tribe members hauled the logs ashore. Once their business in Mount Wei was done, they’d need to cross the river again to return, so they couldn’t afford to waste the wood.

“Let’s go—let’s hurry and find a place to settle down,” Gen urged.

“Hehe—” Elder Pukang grinned, got his bearings, pointed in a direction, and said, “No rush. Just head straight this way. There should be a good place to rest over there. Let’s go check it out.”

Hearing this, everyone looked up at Elder Pukang.

“Mount Wei is part of the tribe’s territory. In recent years, we’ve abandoned it, but in the past, we used to send patrols and even built a beast den as a base. It’s nothing unusual. But it’s been a long time, so who knows if the den is still livable?”

Elder Pukang sighed. He didn’t mention that although the tribe had officially abandoned Mount Wei, they never truly gave up on it. Every year, the tribe would send an elder to check on Mount Wei to make sure it wouldn’t pose a threat to the tribe.

After all, Mount Wei was really close to the Heluo tribe. If the beastfolk hurried, they could make a round trip in a single day. Calling Mount Wei the tribe’s backyard wasn’t an exaggeration.

If it weren’t so close, the tribe wouldn’t have made such a big deal when they heard rumors of wanderers appearing in Mount Wei.

Last year, Elder Quejiao was the one who went to check on Mount Wei. This time, Elder Yami had originally planned for Quejiao to join the expedition, but the chief had assigned him to stay behind in Qingshan.

At this moment—

The elder Quejiao was still in the green mountains, busy harvesting green oil.

He probably didn’t know what was happening here in Weishan.

“Elder Pukang, are you… hiding something from us?” Gen narrowed his eyes, carefully scrutinizing Elder Pukang. Earlier, Elder Pukang had pointed out the way without hesitation, which made Gen sense something was off. The tribe hadn’t set foot in Weishan for ages—how did Elder Pukang know about this particular resting spot?

Decades had passed. That’s not a short time.

“Hee hee—”

Elder Pukang laughed nervously, pretending not to hear Gen’s question. The other tribespeople quickly caught on too, all staring at Elder Pukang with curiosity. They all knew he couldn’t keep a secret for long; if they kept pressing, he’d crack under the pressure and spill everything.

Sure enough.

Gen asked again.

Elder Pukang scratched the back of his head awkwardly and muttered, “Well… actually, every year the tribe sends an elder to Weishan to check on things, just to make sure it doesn’t pose a threat to us.”

“……”

Gen and the others were speechless.

How foolish of them. Weishan was so dangerous and so close to the tribe—how could the tribe possibly ignore it?

Of everyone, Gen looked the most upset.

As the chief of the Heluo tribe, he hadn’t known about this at all. If they hadn’t come to Weishan this time, the elders probably would have kept this secret forever.

But… was Weishan really that terrifying?

Sending an elder every year to scout Weishan—this was even more cautious than the regular patrols of their own territory. Usually, the beast tribe only patrolled their lands once a year. If something major happened in the Twilight Forest, only then would they increase patrols.

And those patrols were always carried out by young totem warriors—the elders never got involved.

No one had entered or left Weishan for a long time.

The path was overgrown with weeds. Yundong and Gelei swung their ironwood knives, hacking out a way forward.

“Here, take these antidote pills.” Gen untied the medicine pouch from his waist and handed out antidote pills to everyone. Setting foot in Weishan meant they could breathe in the poisonous mist at any moment.

The mist was toxic. At first, you might not feel anything, but after a while, you’d start to feel dizzy, and then your limbs would gradually go numb and stiff. By the time you realized it, you’d already been poisoned.

Changxia swallowed her antidote pill, then took another one to coax the little snake beast cub into taking his. But the pill was made from herbs and had a strong medicinal taste. The snake cub hated it. Every time Changxia brought the pill to his mouth, he’d push it away with his tail, hissing in protest.

“Little one, you have to take the antidote pill, or you’ll get poisoned and die,” Changxia explained gently. She was riding on Chenrong’s back, with Nan Feng nearby keeping watch for danger, so she had the leisure to coax the snake cub.

Nan Feng rolled her eyes and glanced at the cub.

“Changxia, why bother reasoning with him? Just pry his mouth open and toss the pill in. If you keep fussing, it’ll be dark before we’re done.” Nan Feng grumbled.

The snake cub seemed to understand Nan Feng’s complaint.

He bared his sharp, white teeth at her.

“Oh! So the little guy understands and wants to teach me a lesson?”

Nan Feng burst out laughing.

She reached out, grabbed the cub’s little head, and with a deft twist, pried open his mouth. Changxia was about to protest, but seeing the opportunity, she quickly popped the antidote pill inside, making sure he swallowed it.

Awooo—

The snake cub struggled to swallow the bitter pill.

Then, in a flash, he bit down on Nan Feng’s hand, hanging from it and swinging back and forth.

“Little one—”

Changxia was stunned, then burst out laughing. This silly, adorable snake cub was just too cute!

Nan Feng was exasperated, staring at the cub dangling from her right hand.

“So petty! Still holding a grudge!”

She shook him off and tossed him to Changxia. “You’d better keep an eye on him—don’t let him run around. This is Weishan, after all. It’s dangerous.”

If the snake cub ran around, he could easily get hurt.

The other tribespeople watched the lively little cub and couldn’t help but smile fondly. The more energetic a beast cub was, the stronger its survival instincts.

So—

As Nan Feng and the cub played around, Yundong and Gelei came to a halt. In front of them was a steep cliff.

At the base of the cliff stood a strange beast den, built entirely of stone—even the roof was made of thin slabs, not animal hides.

Given that this was Weishan, no one found the stone den odd.

Yundong opened his medicine pouch and sprinkled beast-repellent powder around the den. Gelei pushed open the stone door, and a musty smell wafted out. Covering his nose and mouth, Gelei motioned for everyone to step back, then sprinkled more powder into every corner of the den.

The stone den was spacious, about sixty or seventy square meters.

There was only one stone door and no windows.

There were three small vents in the roof, but they were tiny.

It was clear that whoever built this den had been extremely cautious.