More than a thousand strong adults joining was something worth celebrating, but it also brought considerable pressure to the tribe.
First of all, the already tight housing situation could no longer meet the current demand.
Yang Yi brought out rainproof plastic sheets and steel bars, letting everyone first set up temporary shelters to settle these people down.
Previously, for the sake of future development, the tribe had already cleared a large open space, so setting up simple shelters didn’t take much time to complete.
Now, the tribe had a total of 2,781 people, among whom there were 394 warriors, as well as roughly the same number of gifted individuals.
Although these gifted individuals did not possess the physiques of warriors, they each had their own special abilities. These abilities weren’t particularly obvious, but when placed in positions suited to their talents, they could achieve twice the result with half the effort.
Such a discovery was something worth great joy for the development of the entire tribe.
The coral fleece blankets that had been taken out earlier were cut and turned into sleeveless cross-collar robes.
During the day, they could serve as clothing for covering the body; at night, when spread out, they could be used as quilts. One robe serving multiple purposes.
With the current weather, a single coral fleece quilt was warm enough for the people here. The strong warriors even felt a bit hot.
For those who still didn’t feel warm enough, there were bedding sets available; they only needed to register to claim them.
When newcomers entered the tribe, aside from ideological education, they also had to undergo ten days of military training.
This was something Yang Yi and Hei Lie discussed and decided together. Hei Lie had already begun putting warriors and strong ordinary people through Earth-style military training.
In a short period, the results were already obvious. The team became more organized and disciplined. Not only had the overall spirit and appearance of the group changed, but their progress in hunting was also remarkably noticeable.
This time, in the battle against the Fang Tribe, the results were also clearly seen. With just a simple order, everyone could respond swiftly, and their efficiency was extremely high.
It was precisely because of this strong execution ability that their coordination became more seamless, and their combat power saw a significant boost.
And this was only the result of Hei Lie’s initial trial. He was still learning, thinking of ways to apply Earth’s methods more effectively here, to form a team that could truly be called an army.
“Lan Xue, this tribe is really strange…” During a break, Song Guo whispered beside Lan Xue’s ear, only to be cut off by Lan Xue’s sharp glare.
“It’s our tribe!”
“Right, right, our tribe,” Song Guo quickly corrected himself. “Why are we doing all this stuff? Lining up, standing in some military posture… It doesn’t seem useful at all. What exactly is Chief Hei trying to do?”
It wasn’t just Song Guo. All the new members looked completely bewildered, having no idea what the point of this was.
Although they only trained for half a day and spent the rest of the time working, they still couldn’t understand why they had to spend, or rather waste, that half a day this way.
If all they did every day was just stand and march, wouldn’t life be way too easy?
Didn’t the tribe have a problem in the head for keeping idle people like this? With the little work they were doing, but the large amounts of food they were eating, wouldn’t they eat the tribe into ruin?
This ease actually made them start to feel uneasy inside.
“We just need to follow the orders of the Divine Envoy and the chieftain. Everything else doesn’t matter. They always have their reasons.”
At first, Lan Xue also didn’t understand. But after spending the whole day like this, he noticed that there had been a clear change in so many of them. He seemed to realize something.
They had all come from different tribes, each with their own habits and ways of doing things. In the past, such a large, mixed crowd could easily descend into chaos.
Previously, when they were avoiding the Giant-horned bulls’ attack, he had used the horn given to him by Hong Shu to try to lead everyone onto the correct path.
But many people didn’t follow or failed to react in time, and the scene fell into chaos, causing many who could have escaped to still lose their lives.
If they continued with this training and faced the same situation again, Lan Xue felt that the casualties wouldn’t be nearly as high.
Song Guo suddenly nodded vigorously. “I’m just thinking, if only we could be like those warriors!”
Lan Xue’s eyes also shone. On the first day, when those warriors had all come to stand before them, their bearing and fierce momentum were so awe-inspiring that it was impossible to look away.
In that moment, the noisy crowd instantly fell silent, standing there without moving an inch, not daring to make any motion.
It was a feeling hard to describe, completely different from the mindset of facing a group of strong people in the past.
“Too bad we’re not warriors,” Song Guo said dejectedly.
Lan Xue gave him a sideways glance. “Didn’t you hear what the instructor said? As long as you’re brave enough and train well, you can also become an outstanding warrior! Don’t forget, our instructor is just an ordinary person.”
“Right!” Song Guo became excited at those words. “The instructor also said that ordinary people can have gifts bestowed by the gods. Ah, I really hope I’m one of those lucky ones!”
Lan Xue fell silent then, lips pressed together, deep in thought about something.
“Ah, Lan Xue, this water is salty!” Song Guo exclaimed in delight.
Salt was extremely precious. Many tribes couldn’t afford to eat it, having to drink blood instead to replenish the salt in their bodies.
Not only did their food here have plenty of salt, but even the water had a salty taste! This was simply too much of a blessing!
Lan Xue tasted it and found it really was salty—very faint, but still noticeable.
“Our tribe produces salt? That would be truly lucky!” Song Guo was overjoyed. Having salt meant the tribe was extremely wealthy.
No one could live without salt. A tribe that possessed it was not only rich but also very powerful; otherwise, they wouldn’t be able to hold on to the salt fields.
Just as he was wondering, someone shouted loudly:
“All this water has been specially mixed with salt to replenish what you’ve lost. This was all bought at a high price. Other than our Spark Tribe, no other tribe would be this generous to everyone!”
“Wow, our tribe is really great!” Song Guo sighed, feeling incredibly fortunate.
All the survivors felt the same—extremely lucky. They had been prepared to become lowly slaves, never expecting to receive such treatment.
The reality far exceeded their expectations. Many even felt like they were dreaming, afraid that when they woke up, it would all be gone.
Their hearts grew uneasy, and they worked even harder to complete the tasks assigned to them.
Even if they had no idea what the purpose was, and didn’t know how long this luck could last, there would be no complaints or slacking off.
Lan Xue took a large gulp of the lightly salted water, already making up his mind.
“Oh? A new member wants to see me?” Yang Yi was surprised.
After being tormented by the Fang Tribe, these newly joined survivors had become sensitive and timid.
Having just arrived, they treaded carefully with every step, keeping their presence to the absolute minimum.
Even when they felt kindness from the tribe, their wariness wouldn’t disappear so quickly.
“Yes, he says his name is Lan Xue, and he has something important to tell you.”
“Lan Xue?” Yang Yi had some impression of the name. “Is he the one who was holding the horn?”
“Yes. He used to be the son of a tribal chieftain. Those twins are also from his tribe. He has some ability, with a group of people around him. You could say he’s a small leader. He’s currently the class leader of Class Three.”
At present, these more than a thousand people were divided into classes and squads. A class had about thirty to forty people; a squad consisted of five classes; and a battalion had three squads.
Aside from the battalion leader, the squad leaders and class leaders were all chosen from among these people.
This made management easier and helped them quickly get into the right mindset.
“Let him in.”
Yang Yi admired this person. He was both brave and clever. The idea of having Hong Shu take away one of the twins had been his.
“Divine Envoy.”
Lan Xue walked in, head lowered, looking rather restrained.
“Come, sit down. You’re Lan Xue?”
Yang Yi discreetly studied the youth before him. He didn’t look very old, at most ten-something years.
Although he had suffered quite a bit lately, the details still showed that he had once lived a fairly good life.
“Yes, Divine Envoy.” Lan Xue nodded and sat down on the thing said to be called a stool.
“I don’t know if you like sweet things. Try this sugar water.”
Yang Yi poured a cup of sugar water for the obviously nervous Lan Xue. The people in the tribe loved sugar water even more than the more expensive tea leaves.
That was why, when Yang Yi entertained guests, he often replaced tea leaves with sugar water.
Lan Xue took the sugar water, drank a sip, and his eyes instantly lit up. “So sweet, just like honey.”
“This kind of sugar is much safer to obtain than honey. It’s extracted from plants, and our tribe is currently growing such plants.”
Lan Xue found it incredibly novel. “You can actually extract sugar from plants? That’s really interesting. I’ve eaten plants with a sweet taste before, but never this sweet.”
This little diversion noticeably eased Lan Xue’s nervousness.
Only then did Yang Yi ask, “So, what did you come to see us about?”
Lan Xue pressed his lips together, hesitating for a while without speaking. Yang Yi, however, wasn’t in any hurry and simply waited quietly.
“I… I actually have a special talent.”
“You’re very lucky,” Yang Yi said with a smile. “Judging by your expression now, this talent of yours troubles you?”
Lan Xue bit his lower lip and looked up at Yang Yi. “Divine Envoy, can I trust you?”
Yang Yi didn’t make any promises, only said, “I think I possess more than you do, yet my martial strength is less than half of yours. And still, here I am, alive and well, and respected by everyone.”
The lack of a definite answer put Lan Xue at ease. He had seen verbal promises turn into betrayal; the more promises there were, the less reliable they became.
Holding the sweet sugar water in his hands, Lan Xue slowly began to speak:
“My former tribe actually migrated from a place very far away, close to the Western Continent. At that time, we were a powerful tribe. The land we occupied was extremely fertile. The elders in the tribe all said that in the past, it was as if we lived in paradise.”
Yang Yi listened quietly. From his experience, stories that began this way were always long.
“But that kind of life was destroyed by the people of the Western Continent. Because we had metal ore, they could use it to make incredibly sharp metal weapons.”
Yang Yi’s heart skipped a beat. Metal ore!
This was one of the things he cared about most. Metal was far too important in daily life.
The items he had brought with him would eventually disappear. If they couldn’t find metal ore and smelt it before that happened, they would suffer a huge regression.
But such things weren’t something one could just dig up anywhere. Even in later generations, there were cases where experts made misjudgments. Finding it wouldn’t be easy for him.
Only with metal could they truly move beyond the Stone Age. Whether stepping into the Bronze Age or the Iron Age, it would be a qualitative leap.
“Our tribe members were enslaved to mine because they also discovered that our people had a special ability.”
Yang Yi could no longer maintain his outward calm. His hand clenched tightly around the cup he was holding.
“You can sense metal.”
Lan Xue was startled, but soon calmed down again.
“Yes. Many in our tribe have the ability to sense metal ore. The stronger the ability, the more accurately they can locate it. This ability drove those people into a frenzy, and many of our tribesmen were taken away. They were far too powerful, so we could only flee.”
In truth, the tribe’s tragedy had begun precisely because they possessed this ability. But they didn’t know what it was, nor how to smelt the ore.
At that time, their ancestors were very simple-minded, never realizing what such an ability truly meant.
During a trade with a caravan from the Western Continent, they had unintentionally brought out those ores, which in turn led to a series of tragedies.
“You also have this ability?”
“Yes.” Lan Xue nodded. “Because this ability cost us everything, our tribe made a rule never to mention it to anyone and to stay far away from those ores.”
Lan Xue felt this was the most foolish decision. His tribesmen were far too content with the status quo, unwilling to make changes. That was what had led to such an outcome.
“If… if we had also known how to forge metal weapons, we definitely wouldn’t have ended up like this!”
Lan Xue clenched his fists, his eyes red, filled with hatred and unwillingness.
They clearly had the ability to find treasures, yet had no way to use them. It was truly unjust.
Their ancestors had been wrong as well. Hiding was not the way to solve everything; only by arming themselves with better equipment could they avoid being wiped out.
If they had started researching back then, perhaps they could have made powerful metal weapons. That would have been far better than doing nothing.
The gods would never have bestowed such an ability only for them to hide it.
This matter also made Lan Xue understand that possessing an ability but not using it could still lead to destruction.
“Only powerful martial strength can bring safety. You possess an extremely strong talent. It’s the good fortune of our entire tribe. You absolutely don’t need to worry that others knowing will harm you.”
“I’m worried my talent isn’t strong enough… that if I make a mistake, I’ll face severe punishment.”
Lan Xue’s concern wasn’t without reason. Many of his ancestors had died because of this very issue.
Having the talent only meant being more perceptive than ordinary people. It didn’t mean being infallible.
Many metals were buried deep underground. Mistakes in judgment were inevitable; sometimes they would only discover after digging that it wasn’t the ore they wanted.
Mining was an enormous undertaking, and a single mistake could waste a great deal of manpower and resources.
The people of the Western Continent treated Lan Xue’s tribesmen merely as slaves, so it was no surprise that they would kill those who made identification errors out of spite.
“You’re very brave. Since you’re willing to trust the tribe, the tribe will not let you down,” Yang Yi promised.
Hearing this, Lan Xue still couldn’t completely set aside his worries, but he felt much more at ease.
He knew he was taking a risk. If he were a truly cautious man, he would have observed for a while longer, only revealing his talent after confirming the tribe was truly trustworthy.
But after much hesitation, Lan Xue still decided to speak up now.
The tribe had already shown enough sincerity; he shouldn’t keep hiding it.
Besides, the greater the risk, the greater the reward after success.
Especially after learning that the Divine Envoy’s gifts from the gods were only temporary and would one day be taken back, he felt even more strongly that he had to step forward and do something.
He never wanted to see the tribe suffer destruction again because it was too weak to defend itself.
The sooner they found suitable metal ore, the sooner they could arm themselves.
“Divine Envoy, we can definitely make metal weapons, right?”
Lan Xue’s eyes shone brightly, filled with longing as he thought of the metal weapons he had seen.
“Of course!” Yang Yi said with absolute certainty. “It won’t be easy to forge metal weapons as fine as the ones I brought, but making metal weapons is still completely achievable.”
“That’s wonderful!” Lan Xue said excitedly. “I just hope my talent can help, and that I won’t make too many mistakes.”
Yang Yi thought for a moment, then asked, “Can you distinguish between different metals?”
Lan Xue blinked. “What do you mean?”
“‘Metal’ is just a general term. It covers many types, just like ‘plants’ is a general term.”
“Ah, so there’s a difference?”
Yang Yi took out several kinds of metals, such as copper and iron. “These are different metals, each with different properties and smelting methods.”
Lan Xue activated his talent to probe them and was astonished. “They really are different!”
“I think it’s very possible that your tribesmen weren’t actually mistaken. Rather, the metal they found wasn’t the kind the people of the Western Continent wanted. Their technology probably couldn’t smelt other types of metals yet, so they assumed you were wrong.”
“So that’s how it is!” Lan Xue suddenly understood.
“Is the metal they want among these?”
Lan Xue pointed to the bronze. “They want ore that contains this kind of metal!”
“And this one?” Yang Yi pointed to the iron.
Lan Xue shook his head and said with absolute certainty, “No.”
This result made Yang Yi breathe a sigh of relief. The civilization of the Western Continent was more advanced than theirs, but fortunately not by too much. They were likely still in the Bronze Age.
The people of the Western Continent were full of ambition. Their actions on the Eastern Continent gave Yang Yi the distinct feeling of Western invaders.
If the gap between them was too large, it would be extremely dangerous for their situation.
“Take these metals with you, carefully identify them, and distinguish them from the others. This might help reduce the error rate.”
Yang Yi couldn’t guarantee whether this would actually work. After all, there was still a big difference between refined metals and metal ores.
He didn’t know to what extent Lan Xue’s talent could be applied. The people here also had only a shallow grasp of their own talents. Everything was still in the experimental stage.
“Divine Envoy! I will practice hard!”
Yang Yi patted his shoulder encouragingly. “I believe you can do this well. Since the gods have given you such a talent, they must also wish to see you make full use of it.”
Lan Xue felt a surge of strength spread from his shoulder, coursing through every part of his body.
A rush of heat went straight to his head, and he blurted out loudly:
“Divine Envoy, I really have made a discovery!”
——
“What happened?”
Hei Lie hurried into the room. Someone had come to fetch him, saying the Divine Envoy had an urgent matter.
Although he couldn’t sense any danger to Yang Yi, he still rushed over in haste.
“Hei Lie! Do you know? We’ve struck it rich!”
Hei Lie saw Yang Yi jump up in excitement, completely losing the calm and detached air he usually had in front of others.
Yang Yi’s composure was actually just a habitual lack of expression, not genuine transcendence.
“Our luck has always been good,” Hei Lie said with a smile.
Yang Yi told him the whole story, and the usually composed Hei Lie became excited as well.
“Really?!”
“Absolutely true! Lan Xue said that there’s a metal ore deposit in the mountains not far from the Black Forest. He sensed it when he passed by back then. But at the time, he was too overcome by fear. Now he can’t recall the exact details, and for the moment he can’t determine what kind of metal ore it is.”
“I’ll gather people right away. Tomorrow I’ll take him to survey it.”
Hei Lie could no longer sit still. Discovering metal meant gaining strength.
Like Yang Yi, he was deeply worried about what they would do once the weapons Yang Yi brought disappeared.
To go back to how things were before, that would be unbearably cruel.
Although they had always trained not to overly rely on them, they were still in the middle of building up the tribe. If they didn’t make use of this convenience, their development would be far too slow.
If there was a shortcut right in front of them but they refused to take it, that would be sheer foolishness.
Hei Lie had already planned to form a metal prospecting team after dealing with the Fang Tribe.
They hadn’t found anyone in the tribe with a talent for locating metal, but that didn’t mean they could ignore the task.
Military power was their primary safeguard. Otherwise, no matter how wealthy they became, they would still just be a big slab of meat waiting to be carved up.
Now that he knew someone possessed such an ability, and that they had even discovered a place rich in metal ore, how could he not be excited?
“Don’t rush.”
This time, it was Yang Yi who remained calm. “The military training isn’t finished yet.”
Hei Lie gave a wry smile. “We can make it up afterward!”
“But there are still a few days left. There’s no need to hurry in just this short while. Lan Xue has only just joined the tribe and is still in a state of incomplete trust. These few days of military training can also help him feel more at ease.”
Hearing this, Hei Lie gradually calmed down. Even if it was something urgent, they couldn’t be too hasty.
If they rushed over now and it turned out to be a type of metal they couldn’t yet use, the disappointment might make Lan Xue even more nervous and fearful, causing him to hesitate before speaking up in the future.
“You’re right. Being too impatient would put too much pressure on that kid. That could easily lead to problems.”
The tribe’s decline in the past had left these tribepeople with too much psychological shadow; their emotions couldn’t be expressed too strongly.
“No matter whether we find what we want this time, it’s still something worth celebrating.”
With a talent like this in hand, in such a vast land, Yang Yi refused to believe they couldn’t find the right ore!
“The training classes need to keep recruiting. Now that we have more people, we can accomplish more. That means we need even more skilled individuals.”
Hei Lie had no objections. “I’ll have Jiao handle it. The first batch of students can already teach newcomers, so you don’t need to take it on yourself.”
The larger the population grew, the more matters Yang Yi had to handle.
He wanted to build the city he envisioned. But a city involves countless aspects, and he had never studied anything related to it. He just happened to enjoy playing this kind of game.
The world of games was much simpler. Reality was different. Even the placement of a trash bin had its considerations.
His previous arrangements had already shown many problems. Although they hadn’t caused any serious consequences, issues like reduced efficiency and repeated work occurred from time to time, all due to insufficient planning.
Hei Lie and Jiao had already taken on a lot of responsibilities, yet Yang Yi was still so busy that his mind ran at full speed every day.
Yang Yi thought that if he had studied this hard back during the college entrance exams, he surely could have gotten into a much better school.
“Eradicating illiteracy needs to be put on the agenda. This time, we should expand the scope so that more people gain the ability to read.”
Hei Lie was even more ruthless: “We can start popular education now. Aside from the formal students, everyone else must memorize ten characters a day. There will be a small test every ten days and a big test every month, with corresponding rewards and punishments based on their scores.”
![After I Transmigrated as a Mermaid, I Transmigrated Back [GL]](https://www.freenovels.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/mermaidtransmigrate2.jpg "After I Transmigrated as a Mermaid, I Transmigrated Back [GL]")
