TPWBI Chapter 92

“Cough, cough—”

Yang Yi almost choked on his own saliva, completely floored by the little one’s wild imagination.

The scene fell silent for a moment, then a child shouted: “The Divine Envoy is male, he can’t have children!”

“Yeah, yeah, the Divine Envoy is male. He can’t have children.”

The others chimed in one after another. Some children even boldly looked Yang Yi up and down, as if trying to confirm it.

Yang Yi didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. There were so many points to complain about that he didn’t even know where to start.

Not only had they paired him up with Hei Lie in their fantasies, but they even thought he would be the one to have Hei Lie’s children!

Why?! Why wouldn’t Hei Lie be the one to have his children?!

Even though Hei Lie was stronger than him, he was the envoy sent by the gods!

Pah, pah—

Yang Yi quickly spat in his heart, scolding himself. Since when was it about who would have children for whom? That wasn’t the point at all!

“I know males can’t have children,” the outspoken child said again. “But the Divine Envoy was sent by the gods. He can do anything. He can definitely have children, too!”

The children who had been refuting him froze for a moment, then very unsteadily switched sides.

“That’s right! The Divine Envoy is the Divine Envoy! Of course, he’s not the same as everyone else.”

“Wow, what would it be like if the Divine Envoy had a child? It definitely wouldn’t be like our mothers, bleeding so much, right?”

“I really want to see how the Divine Envoy gives birth to a child!”

“Nowadays, when someone has a baby, they have to go to the hospital. Everyone else is kept outside. They say it’s for some reason, anyway, we’re not allowed to watch. My little sister was just born a few days ago. I didn’t get to see how my mom gave birth.”

“But if the Divine Envoy has a baby, it must be different!”

“Yeah, yeah!”

The children chattered noisily. Within moments, the topic had already flown off to imagining playing with Yang Yi’s future children and even Yang Yi’s children having children of their own.

Yang Yi felt as if he had been struck by lightning. It took him a long while to recover. Then he looked at Tu Meng with a constipated expression.

Tu Meng also came back to his senses, gazing at Yang Yi with worshipful eyes: “Divine Envoy, you can even have children! As expected of the Divine Envoy!”

Yang Yi almost spat up blood: “What nonsense are you talking about? There’s no such thing.”

Only then did the little ones quiet down, their faces full of disappointment.

“Then… does that mean you can make the Chieftain have children?” Tu Meng thought of another possibility.

Yang Yi’s mouth twitched. There was no escaping this topic.

“He doesn’t have that ability either.”

At that, the whole group dropped their heads. For them, reproduction was extremely important.

The children were all incredibly good-looking, with fair, tender skin and big eyes. Ever since they came to the Spark Tribe, they had been eating well, with plenty of their favorite kinds of radishes.

Their faces were still round with baby fat, making them unbearably cute.

Now they all hung their heads. Even though they didn’t have the rabbits’ long ears, Yang Yi could almost imagine them drooping down, which gave him an inexplicable sense of guilt.

Yang Yi was just about to say something when Tu Meng pulled out a smile and said:

“It doesn’t matter if you don’t have children. Many people don’t! As long as you and the Chieftain can be healthy and happy together, that’s already perfect.”

“Divine Envoy, you must be happy. We don’t want you to return to the gods. We want you to stay here forever.”

“Divine Envoy, Divine Envoy, we want to be with you forever.”

The little heads all crowded around. One bold child was the first to hug Yang Yi. When the others saw that Yang Yi didn’t push him away, they all rushed in too, until Yang Yi was covered all over with children.

“All right, all right, I’ll always be here.”

Yang Yi promised again and again. The feeling of being needed filled him with an indescribable sense of satisfaction.

Especially since they were such adorable children. Yang Yi had never been particularly fond of kids. In fact, he had once been so tormented by brats that he felt annoyed.

But faced with these cute, beautiful children, he couldn’t help but soften inside. Even his voice involuntarily gentled when speaking to them.

It wasn’t until Yang Yi had ridden Little Gray far away that he suddenly realized something.

“Little White, why do I feel like something’s not right? I keep thinking I forgot something important.”

“Gwa-gaa—gwa-gaa—”

Little White flapped its wings, following beside Yang Yi, instead of perching on Little Gray’s back with him.

After the weather turned cold, Little White’s feathers had grown thicker, making it look even more beautiful, clearly different from the other geese.

Since Yang Yi went out less often for fear of the cold, Little White also rarely went out. Each time it did, it especially loved running about, unlike before, when it preferred to nestle in Yang Yi’s arms.

Just as Little Gray was about to reach the canal worksite, Yang Yi suddenly had a flash of realization and smacked his thigh hard.

Damn it~! So that’s what felt wrong. He forgot to explain clearly to that bunch of little rascals that he and Hei Lie had nothing going on!

The sunlight shone down on the land, warm and pleasant against the body.

A large group of people was digging and shoveling with tools made of various materials. They had stripped off their heavy clothing, wearing only thin cloth. Even in the cold weather, beads of sweat still dotted their foreheads.

As they worked, they sang aloud. Whether the songs were tuneful or not didn’t matter. Either way, they were full of energy.

“Divine Envoy!”

From a distance, someone spotted Yang Yi. A team hurried over to greet him, led by Hong Guang.

He was in charge of supervising the digging of this section of the canal and came here every day.

Yang Yi was always followed by seven or eight bodyguards. Since the whole group rode ostriches, it was easy for others to recognize them.

The first batch of adopted ostriches had now grown into usable mounts, though not many people owned one yet, so they hadn’t formed a professional cavalry unit.

Ostriches ran faster than most people and were currently used mainly for communication and similar tasks.

“The progress is even faster than I imagined. You’ve already dug this far,” Yang Yi sighed.

The canal had been divided into several segments to be dug simultaneously, so from Yang Yi’s position, he couldn’t see the end. But it was obvious how fast these people were working, as if they weren’t digging through frozen earth, but through loose cotton instead.

It was just like watching in a game: the soil in front of the crowd was quickly being shoveled away, swallowed up as they kept moving forward without pause.

“Those assigned here to dig are mostly beastfolk with burrowing talents or earth-attribute talents. With their abilities plus effective tools, the results are twice the effort for half the work.”

Although most of the tribe’s iron was used for forging weapons, some had still been set aside for making tools.

All the copper they’d traded for with the Western Continent caravans had been turned into farming implements. On top of that, Yang Yi had taken out every tool from his storage space, leaving only a few as samples.

Adding in some farming tools made from hard stone, and with the soil here being relatively loose, all these factors combined made the digging speed quite impressive.

“Looks like water will be flowing by next year.”

“According to the plan, there shouldn’t be any major issues,” Hong Guang answered with his usual caution, not making any absolute promises.

“It’s easier digging here since there aren’t many stones in the soil. It’s not too much effort. But once the season changes and farming begins, people will be reassigned, and the pace won’t stay this fast.”

Yang Yi nodded, then reminded them: “Efficiency is important, but don’t just chase speed blindly. Work within your limits. You mustn’t overwork everyone.”

Hong Guang and the other overseers quickly agreed, their eyes burning with admiration as they looked at Yang Yi.

The Divine Envoy was still as gentle as ever!

Yang Yi then turned to the person in charge of logistics: “The weather’s cold. While they don’t feel it when working, once they stop, they must take care to stay warm and ward off the chill.”

People here didn’t know much about taking care of themselves. Relying on their strong bodies, they often pushed recklessly, which easily caused those less robust to fall ill.

Even the strong could gradually wear down their health through improper habits.

Yang Yi had tried to spread some basic health knowledge before. But everyone was just like people on Earth who clearly know staying up late is bad for them, yet still can’t resist doing it.

They would agree readily with both their mouths and hearts, but when it came down to it, their bodies simply wouldn’t obey.

“Our logistics team has prepared towels and ginger tea against the cold at every work site,” the person in charge explained. “Ting has also sent people here with plenty of herbs. If anyone shows signs of something wrong, treatment can be given immediately.”

At noon, Yang Yi stayed to have lunch here.

Nowadays, those digging the canal made up the majority of the workforce. Since the canal stretched farther and farther away, they no longer returned to the tribe for meals at midday. Instead, dedicated people were assigned to handle food here.

While digging, they often came across some hibernating game animals, which added variety to their meals.

At this meal, for instance, they had dug up a spitting snake.

The spitting snake was very thick, similar to a python.

It was also highly venomous, able to spray poison. If it touched you, you’d be poisoned.

Normally, it was a creature best avoided, but this time they had lucked out.

Its meat, however, was delicious. It is very tender, without any unpleasant smell.

Simply stewing it clear brought out an incredible flavor, which Yang Yi greatly enjoyed. After drinking the soup, his whole body felt warm and comfortable.

“Digging this canal is really dangerous,” Yang Yi couldn’t help but sigh after eating his fill.

If the person who discovered it hadn’t reacted quickly, who knew how many people would have been hurt by the startled spitting snake.

After all, being woken up during hibernation, its temper was bound to be terrible.

“With the Divine Envoy’s blessing, everything is going very smoothly,” Hong Guang said sincerely.

In his heart, no one could compare to Yang Yi. If it weren’t for him, Hong Guang would never have realized how useful he truly was.

Like many ordinary people, he would have worried about whether they could survive the harsh season.

Yang Yi waved his hand: “I’m not that divine. You still need to be careful.”

“Divine Envoy, we’re getting farther and farther from the tribe. Coming and going is inconvenient, so we plan to station ourselves here,” Hong Guang said.

Yang Yi frowned: “It’s too cold. Living in tents won’t be bearable.”

“We can build houses. We found that the soil here is very suitable for construction. If you crush the soil during the day, mix in some water and straw, and let it freeze overnight, it becomes very solid.”

Another person in charge added, “Building simple houses is actually quite easy. We can even set up kang beds inside. They won’t freeze at all.”

Yang Yi thought for a moment: “That works. Later, these houses can also serve as temporary shelters during hunting trips.”

As the Spark Tribe grew stronger, the nearby animals became increasingly cautious and retreated farther away. Few large groups of animals now approached the tribe’s territory.

To obtain a significant amount of game now, people had to venture farther than before.

As humans expanded, they also took over the animals’ original habitats.

“Perhaps in the future our tribe will even expand to this area! Then housing will already be arranged,” someone shouted.

Everyone immediately laughed.

“If that happens, how many people will our tribe have?!”

The Spark Tribe now had over twenty thousand members, already considered a large tribe for the Eastern Continent.

With low productivity and underdeveloped farming and animal husbandry, supporting so many people was no easy task.

Yang Yi gazed out over the endless plains, thinking of his mission.

“Anything is possible. Maybe one day it will come true.”

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