Around the same time the three hired tribes fully gathered in Crimson, the merchant caravan that Kaelen missed day and night also began their journey back to the tribe.

Asher sat on the ox cart, occasionally sneaking glances at Aaron, looking to the point that Aaron, who was always giggling slyly, also became annoyed. Aaron irritably glared at Asher, saying in a low voice:

"What exactly do you want to say to me?!"

Asher rubbed his nose awkwardly, scooted a bit closer to Aaron, and whispered: "You... What is your relationship with that beastman?"

Aaron pursed his lips, turned his face away, and said unnaturally: "Just an old acquaintance, not very close."

Asher rolled his eyes, saying: "I’m not a beast cub; who are you trying to fool? Just the fact that you cried your eyes red over him proves that the relationship between you two is not ordinary."

Aaron irritably turned around, glaring at Asher: "Since when did you become so nosy? Do you have too much free time with nothing to do? Get down and walk to nurture your relationship with your little Antelope!"

Saying that, Aaron grabbed Asher’s collar and threw him straight out the back. The Antelope beastman was quick-witted and caught Asher, not forgetting to give Aaron a scorching glare. Asher patted his chest to regain his composure, then opened his mouth to scold. It could be said that whatever refinement he had as the esteemed disciple of the Priest and a teacher was completely gone at this moment.

Everyone covered their mouths, giggling, sighing that the relationship between the two captains was truly good.

Asher: "?"

Good in what way??? Are you all blind?

Evan walked amidst the ranks, slightly raising his head, looking toward Aaron through his cloak. His gaze was both burning and humble, like a dull bone knife, grinding Aaron’s heart until it ached sharply.

Again, it was this gaze again! Evan always used this gaze to look at him, but whenever he wanted to take a step forward, the man would take three or four steps back, making Aaron both angry and heartbroken. For someone with good diplomatic skills like him to fail against someone for the first time, Aaron felt incredibly helpless.

The time was past noon; everyone found a quite spacious plot of land, with a lake right next to it. Aaron ordered everyone to stop, set up camp, and cook right on the spot.

Coincidentally, the place they camped was not far from a small tribe.

Right from the moment they approached the lake, the guard beastmen of this tribe had discovered them. These beastmen all heightened their vigilance, hiding in the foliage, staring fixedly at every action of the Crimson merchant caravan.

A seemingly quite young beastman anxiously moved close to a middle-aged beastman, saying in a low voice: "Uncle, they have too many people; what should we do?"

The middle-aged beastman observed the group of people ahead, saying: "Don’t be impatient. Let’s just observe them first. I’ve already sent someone back to report to the Chief; he will lead the clansmen to hide first."

This group of beastmen thought they had acted extremely stealthily, but who were the Crimson people? More than half of the entire team were warrior beastmen and Divine Energy warriors. While they were talking, two warrior beastmen and a Wood-element Divine Energy warrior had silently appeared right behind them.

Each one of them gradually disappeared without a sound. By the time the young beastman and the middle-aged beastman discovered the anomaly, they were already tightly wrapped up by vines, leaving exactly two eyes exposed.

The two warrior beastmen casually carried this group of people on their backs, walking toward Aaron. Not wanting to provoke conflict before knowing whether the other party was friend or foe, the two warrior beastmen set the people down extremely gently.

Aaron walked over to the cocoons, crouched down, and asked with a frown: "Who are you? Why are you tailing us?!"

The cocoons wriggled like caterpillars, letting out a series of unclear muffled sounds. Aaron patted his forehead, saying helplessly: "Remove their gags."

The Wood-element Sub-Beast gave a dry laugh, waving his hand to loosen the vines gagging the six people. The young beastman hotheadedly shouted:

"I should be asking who you are! You invaded our tribe’s territory, and you have the nerve to ask us who we are?!"

"Exactly! Leave here quickly, or else when our warriors arrive, you won’t have a way out."

Aaron raised an eyebrow, his lips curling into a casual smile, and said: "First, this place does not have the scent marking of a beastman, so it is certainly not your tribe’s territory. Second, if a tribe has strength, they will never threaten others to make them automatically retreat. I’m afraid your tribe doesn’t have many people, and furthermore, you guys are the strongest beastmen among your clansmen, right?"

The faces of the six tied-up beastmen turned red like pig livers. They wanted to haggle a bit more to buy time for the Chief to lead the clansmen into hiding. At this moment, Asher stepped forward, smiling gently:

"Everyone, don’t worry, we are not bad people."

The young beastman muttered: "You say you’re not bad people, so does that mean you’re really not bad people?"

Asher waved his hand; the Wood-element Sub-Beast understood and untied their bindings. The six beastmen were freed but didn’t run away, because they knew they couldn’t escape. Aaron stood up, brushed off the grass leaves stuck to his clothes, and said:

"If the misunderstanding has been resolved, then we can consider ourselves friends. It’s late already; stay and eat with us."

The six people stared blankly, looking at Aaron in disbelief. The misunderstanding was resolved? When did that happen?

"Oh my, what’s with the tension? Come over here and eat something. Look at you guys; you’re full-fledged beastmen, yet you’re not even as burly as the Sub-Beasts in our team."

One of the two warriors who had just gone to capture them stepped forward, slung an arm around the shoulder of a young beastman in the group of six, and dragged him over to his own seat.

As soon as he sat down, a Sub-Beast in the group tossed a wooden bowl over: "Who are you calling burly? Tired of living, right?"

The beastman giggled, picked up the bowl, and offered it back to the Sub-Beast with both hands: "I misspoke. I meant plump; I’m praising you for being beautiful~"

The Sub-Beast snatched the bowl, glared at the beastman, then turned around to go wash the dishes. The group of six was thus dazedly dragged into the team, holding a bowl of porridge in their left hand and a skewer of grilled meat in their right, staring at each other in confusion.

At this moment, Aaron shouted loudly: "Brothers, this lake has huge fish! Hurry up and bring the nets over here!"

The entire crowd noisily stood up, tossing their food back onto the trays, and excitedly ran off to catch fish.

The six people: "..." Were they crazy, or were those people crazy?

At this time, an elderly Sub-Beast sitting nearby gently advised: "They are not bandits; they are our saviors. There’s no need to be so guarded against them."

The child, around six or seven years old, sitting next to the old man also said excitedly:

"That’s right, the older brothers are very nice. They gave us rice and meat to eat. Oh right, you should hurry up and eat. There’s even salt in this porridge and meat!"

There’s salt?

The six people stared fixedly at the two items in their hands, gulping down saliva. The last time their tribe went to exchange salt was three years ago. Currently, there wasn’t much salt left in the tribe; it all had to be used sparingly. Normally, the Chief would mix salt with water for everyone to drink, which was so bland that if one didn’t taste carefully, the salty flavor couldn’t even be detected.

Moreover, their tribe was very poor; it took three years of accumulating to be enough for a single salt exchange. This meant the meager amount of salt in the Chief’s hands had to be used sparingly until the spring of the following year.

The young beastman had a straightforward personality; hearing that there was salt in the meat, he didn’t hesitate to raise the meat and take a huge bite. As soon as his mouth bit into the meat and chewed twice, the young beastman’s eyes lit up as if illuminated by the sun. It was truly salt, and furthermore, it was a lot of salt.

Seeing the young beastman freeze up, the middle-aged beastman asked anxiously: "Nephew, what’s wrong?"

The young beastman hurriedly chewed the meat and swallowed it, answering his uncle: "Uncle, it’s salty, very salty! It’s real salt! And there’s a lot of salt too!"

Hearing that, the remaining five people no longer held back, opening their mouths and gorging themselves. Seeing them bury their heads in eating as if they were about to starve to death, the beast cub smacked his lips and said to his Grandpa:

"In the past, we probably ate exactly like them, right Grandpa?"

The old man smiled kindly, nodded, and said: "That’s right. The weather was harsh this year, with sand everywhere. Just finding a little food was hard; how could there be a surplus to exchange for salt."

"Burp~" The young beastman let out a burp, then embarrassedly covered his mouth, a layer of blush unavoidably appearing on his face. A warrior beastman sitting not far away flashed a friendly smile and said:

"There’s nothing to be embarrassed about. We used to be just like you. Later, under the guidance of the Great Chief and the Great Priest, we finally attained these days of having enough to eat and warm clothes to wear."

The elderly Sub-Beast handed water to the group of six; the young beastman accepted it, moving closer to the group, and asked curiously:

"Aren’t you guys a nomadic tribe? Then why are you here?"

The warrior beastman answered extremely thoroughly:

"We are the merchant caravan of the Crimson tribe, not too far from the magical beast forest. You probably don’t know what a merchant caravan is, right? It’s exactly a team specialized in carrying the supplies available in Crimson, traveling to various tribes, and exchanging for things we don’t have yet with you guys..."

The warrior beastman recounted their team’s journey; everyone listened attentively. Without knowing when, those people had let down their guard, edging closer to the warrior beastman, passionately listening to him tell stories about their thrilling experiences.

On the other side, Aaron had also caught several large baskets of fish along with large shrimp. These shrimp were much bigger than the shrimp in Crimson and Obsidian. Aaron wiped the corner of his mouth, saying: "Later, catch a few more fat pigs, render the fat, and fry the fish. You guys can prepare them however you want, just remember to save a fried fish for me!"

"Understood, Captain!"

Aaron turned his head, just in time catching Evan’s gaze falling on him. Caught peeking, Evan quickly lowered his head, intently gnawing on the piece of meat in his hand. Aaron pouted; the newly risen bit of joy was extinguished by a certain beastman. Irritably taking large strides, he walked back to his tent, tore off a roasted chicken leg, and gnawed on it with bared teeth and glaring eyes.

Asher’s mouth twitched, and he turned his head away, not bothering to look at a certain childish person anymore. This guy’s vanity was incurable!