Chapter 409: Chapter 355: Stone Houses of the Great Tribe

Wu Yue took the bamboo container from the witch and opened it, confused.

Inside the sturdy bamboo container, a single yellow ant was crawling back and forth.

"Is this an ant?"

The witch looked at her in surprise. "You know of this insect?"

Wu Yue nodded. "I saw them in my old tribe, but they were black. This is the first time I’ve ever seen a yellow one."

The witch nodded. "There are plenty of those black insects in the forest; they aren’t unusual at all. But the yellow ones are very rare, only found on certain mountains.

Any mountain where you find these insects is unsuitable for carving out cave dwellings.

They eat the surrounding earth, turning the entire mountain into their nest."

Wu Yue was suddenly reminded of what she had crushed a few days ago. "Before they hatch, are the larvae of these ants little yellow granules?"

But the witch shook her head. "That, I don’t know."

Wu Yue then recounted how both she and Yuan Lang had found the yellow granules a few days prior.

The witch sighed after listening. "What a shame. With so much of this mountain already eaten away, we’ll have to find a new place to settle."

Wu Yue looked at the collapsed cave. "Witch, what happened today isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

Half of this mountain is already gone. The ants’ next target would have been the great cave we were living in.

It’s better that this was discovered now, rather than after the great cave collapsed."

The witch jolted at her words, a wave of fear washing over her. "You’re right. If the great cave had collapsed..."

The consequences were something they didn’t dare to imagine.

Though this offered a sliver of comfort, the task of finding a new home still made the tribe’s leaders’ faces crease with worry.

"Witch, why don’t we consider building the kind of house that Yue did?"

Yuan Lang’s voice suddenly cut in from the side. The Beastman Warriors, having finished the rescue, had gathered around. They were all taken aback by his words.

"Yuan Lang, do you mean you want to build stone houses?"

The witch asked, looking at the beastman.

’Stone houses?’

This was the first time Wu Yue had heard a term for a structure other than the one she had built herself.

But what she didn’t know was that to people like the Snow Tiger Witch, or anyone who had seen a real stone house, the underground structure she had built could only be called a hovel. It was nothing compared to the massive stone houses built with giant boulders in the Great Tribes.

Moreover, those stone houses were symbols of lofty status. Only esteemed individuals like the witch and the Clan Leader were worthy of living in them. Even among the Beastman Warriors, only the absolute wealthiest could afford to build such a grand stone house.

Yuan Lang nodded. "The base of the mountain is close to the forest, but we have to migrate during the great rainy season. If we could build houses even sturdier than the stone ones, we wouldn’t have to keep searching for a new home."

"Yuan Lang, building stone houses isn’t as simple as just deciding to do it. The stones, some as large as a Beastman Warrior, have to be hewn and shaped one by one before being brought back.

Even if our Beastman Warriors gave up hunting to focus on construction, it’s not guaranteed we could build enough houses before winter. What would the rest of the tribe do?"

The surrounding beastmen all nodded in agreement.

But only Wu Yue, Teng Qian, and Teng Kun knew that the "stone houses" Yuan Lang spoke of weren’t built by stacking hewn stones, as the other Beastman Warriors imagined...

But they couldn’t say anything.

After a moment of contemplation, Wu Yue looked at the witch and the Clan Leader. "Witch, Clan Leader, let me, Yuan Lang, and the others try to build one stone house. In the meantime, you can send a small team of Beastman Warriors to search for a new settlement.

If we can’t manage to build the house, we can just move to the new location directly. We won’t lose any time."

The witch considered this for a moment before nodding. "That could work. But I can’t assign many people to you, because there are still many in the tribe who need food to fill their bellies."

Wu Yue nodded. "Alright."

Outside the cave, the four beastmen exchanged uncertain glances. Then, the three Beastman Warriors turned in unison to look at Wu Yue, who was walking behind them.

Stared down by the towering Beastman Warriors, Wu Yue took a couple of timid steps back. "Wh-What? Are you backing out now?"

With that, she puffed out her chest—which was decidedly less developed than a beastman’s pectorals—and said, "We just made a promise in front of the witch and the Clan Leader. You can’t bail on me now."

The three beastmen exchanged a glance; they knew exactly what the young female meant.

Yuan Lang frowned. "I’ve never built a house before."

’Setting up a tent, sure. But building a house... Guess a General isn’t omnipotent after all!’