5: Chapter 5: Wolf Skins and Bones Help the Li Clan Settle Down!

"Where would a ghost come from in broad daylight?"

The Clan Chief couldn't help but frown and scold, "Could it be that you've dug up someone's grave again?"

These rascals were truly lawless.

They had no idea of the heights of the heavens or the depths of the earth.

They had dug up graves before and even asked him if the bones could be used to make bone soup!

"No, no!" The lead rascal, named Li Changxin, quickly waved his hands upon hearing this. "Clan Chief, it really is a Skeleton Ghost!"

Could an ordinary skeleton really scare them?

Do you think we have no guts?

They wouldn't even be afraid of seeing a ghost at night.

So, if they were scared enough to run back, it definitely wasn't an ordinary ghost!

The Clan Chief also realized this.

These kids dared to dig up graves; would they be afraid of common ghosts?

Then he saw four Skeleton Ghosts dragging a pile of wolf skins, baring their large teeth as they approached.

Moreover, these Skeleton Ghosts all claimed to be their fellow clan members.

They even called him Clan Chief.

"Haha! Clan Chief!"

"Haha! It's me!"

The Skeleton Ghosts let out bone-clattering laughs one after another.

"Clan Chief, we're alive again!"

"The Great Mountain God brought us back to life and sent us down the mountain to work for him!"

"Right! The Great Mountain God said that even if we're dead, we still have to work for him!"

The Clan Chief's eyelids twitched, and his expression was stiff, but he didn't faint from fright.

Watching this, Feng Yifan smacked his lips, feeling quite regretful.

This old man had indeed seen something of the world.

Even his clan members didn't have much of a reaction.

A few relatives of the Skeleton Ghosts from when they were alive wanted to step forward but were held back by those beside them.

The Clan Chief hadn't spoken yet.

The Old Clan Leader calmly asked how they had come back to life.

Naturally, the few Skeleton Ghost Servants couldn't explain it clearly.

All they knew was that they closed their eyes thinking they were dead, and then opened them to find they were alive again.

"Originally, turning into this, I didn't want to live anymore."

"But the Great Mountain God insisted we stay alive, saying he wanted us to work for him!"

"Exactly! But as soon as we saw you all, we felt that being alive is actually quite nice!"

At least they could still be with their loved ones!

The whole family was together and complete!

The Old Clan Leader's eyelids jumped.

For some reason, although Shitou and Lao Er had turned into skeletons, judging by their voices and behavior, it was indeed them.

However, they seemed to have become a bit more eccentric!

Yet, since the Mountain God had sent them back, they could only let them stay for now.

To actually eat the flesh of the dead and send them back as skeletons to work—truly an evil god!

But on second thought, considering what those "proper" deities did, this didn't seem so bad.

An evil god being a bit sinister was only natural.

Then his gaze fell upon the pile of wolf skins.

He immediately became excited.

"What's the story with these wolf skins?"

Upon hearing that the wolf skins were given by the Great Mountain God, he immediately bowed repeatedly toward the mountain peak without hesitation.

A stream of flattering words poured from his mouth as he sincerely praised the Great Mountain God.

The wolf skins were given to them?

This was a great thing!

The evil god... Ptooey! No, it's the Great Mountain God.

"The Great Mountain God is truly too benevolent!"

He immediately gathered the people to discuss how to handle the wolf skins and the bones inside them.

"The flesh on these wolf skins has been... cleaned off." Uncle Li Si, who knew how to process furs, said while examining one of them. "Even without processing, they should be worth some money at the market."

"If we pick the relatively intact ones and process them, based on the prices back home, one could be traded for at least ten-odd taels of silver."

To get a higher price, they would have to sell to the nobility.

Given their current status as refugees, that likely wouldn't work.

"You choose. Keep the good ones for now," the Old Clan Leader said. "Keep anything that can be sold for more than two taels of silver."

Selling high-quality skins in an unfamiliar place could easily lead to trouble.

For now, the most important thing was to take the damaged ones to exchange for money and buy food.

Then they'd buy grain and vegetable seeds to quickly sow a crop while the season was right.

"If you have the tools to process the skins, start working on them. Once Lin Feng has been accepted by a master and we've established ourselves, we'll take them out to sell."

People always need something to look forward to, some hope, to keep going.

Although they had worshipped an evil god, they didn't know what the future held.

Whether Li Linfeng's apprenticeship would go smoothly was also unknown.

Yet the Clan Chief still spoke words to give everyone a bit of hope.

"Wolf fangs can also fetch some money; many of these wolves could be considered half-demon wolves," an old woman spoke up. "The bones are hard; if polished, they might even be made into farm tools."

Wolf fangs ward off evil; if we find wealthier farmers, we might be able to trade them directly for seeds or coarse grains.

The outskirts of the county seat are protected by the City God, so people there might be willing to buy a wolf fang for their children's safety.

"Clan Chief, if we're going to clear the land, we'll probably need to buy some charcoal stoves," the man beside the old woman said. "Some of the hoes were broken while killing the wolves."

It was still cold out.

They also needed charcoal stoves for warmth.

But that wasn't the man's main point.

Some among them knew how to forge iron.

There were also carpenters in the clan.

If the hoes were broken, they could fix them themselves.

Time waits for no one.

Everyone quickly reached an agreement.

The Clan Chief then ordered a group—two disguised as hunters and over a dozen others carrying hoes—to take seven or eight badly damaged skins to the nearest county seat to exchange for money and food.

The remaining people began building houses.

Little Yao Mountain had been protected by a mountain god before, so some of the trees grew well.

There was also some withered grass at the foot of the mountain.

Taking advantage of the good weather, those who needed to fell trees did so, and those making mud bricks got to work.

Others went to dig the foundations.

The women took the children to gather grass, first weaving grass ropes and then using them to bundle wild grass into mats.

Once the timber was brought back and driven into the ground, they would hang the grass mats to create temporary shelters.

Before dark.

The people who went to the county seat returned.

Upon asking, they learned the nearest county seat was fifty li away.

They pulled a handcart, but without any livestock, they had to rely entirely on their legs.

The round trip took over four hours.

They were full of energy and walked fast on the way there, but everyone was tired on the way back; fortunately, they had traded the largest wolf fang and some wolf bones to a wealthy family for a dilapidated handcart.

"The grain was also bought from their home—some millet and soybeans," said Li Feipeng, who led the group disguised as a hunter.

The two handcarts were almost full.

Most of it was grain.

However, it was all coarse grain; there was no rice or flour.

Not all of it was bought inside the city.

They also traded bones and wolf fangs for some outside the city.

"Clan Chief, that county seat is next to this mountain range, and it seems refugees often go there to trade," said Li Feipeng's younger brother, Flying Fish. "Some people outside the city saw us pulling wolf skins and approached us themselves."

So, the trip was surprisingly smooth.

"It's just that grain is expensive and hard to come by."

It was also a coincidence; the wealthy family's young child wouldn't stop crying at night, and they happened to need a Vicious Beast fang to calm him.

That was how they managed to exchange money for more grain.

"Sigh! Who told us to buy grain at a time like this?" the Old Clan Leader sighed.

Winter had just passed, and it was the lean season before the harvest.

Grain prices were at their highest.

The grain they bought with their money would only last a few days at most.

Having these wolf skins could be considered a solution to their urgent problem.

One had to say, although they were forced to worship an evil god, this evil god was quite generous!

Thus, he couldn't help but bow toward the mountain peak and speak more kind words.

"...This old man is quite diligent with his divine flattery!" Feng Yifan muttered, twitching his lips as he listened.

He had just woken up and happened to hear it.

Honestly, watching these people work felt a bit like watching a slow-paced variety show.

But as he watched, he somehow felt a bit sleepy again.

After waking up, he discovered that the demonic power in his body had grown a bit more.

It seemed that while he slept, his body was instinctively breathing in and out the Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi.

With a thought.

[demonic power +0.06!]

"...So little?" Feng Yifan frowned.