blenderwars Chapter 316: Too Few Are Pregnant
Chapter 316: Too Few Are Pregnant
"I’ve seen this Regeneration Flower before."
Qiao Xixi asked in pleasant surprise, "Where did you see it?"
Jin Ling looked at her and said, "In Bulin’s caravan."
Bulin’s caravan was still locked up in the tribe’s cells, waiting for Qiao Xixi’s final decision on how to deal with them.
After Bulin and his people were locked up, their goods were moved to a storeroom in the inner city.
Jin Ling led Qiao Xixi and the others to a beast-hide bag, from which they pulled out some dried flowers.
Qiao Xixi immediately recognized the dried Regeneration Flowers among the many other dried blossoms.
"Yes, this is the Regeneration Flower."
They rummaged through all the beast-hide bags but only found those few scattered, dried flowers.
This amount wasn’t enough to meet the standards for medicinal use.
"Come on, let’s go see Bulin."
Bulin was being held in solitary confinement. When Qiao Xixi saw him, he was curled up on the ground.
Hearing footsteps, he opened his eyes and looked toward Qiao Xixi.
The cells contained many black stones brought back from the Hopeless Abyss that suppressed beast soul energy. Even though Bulin’s beast soul star rank was not low, it would be very difficult for him to escape.
Compared to before, Bulin had lost a lot of weight, and his cheekbones protruded sharply.
"Clan Leader, please spare me. Everything I said is the truth."
Qiao Xixi didn’t waste any words and took out the dried Regeneration Flower.
"Do you recognize this?"
Bulin glanced at it. "The Regeneration Flower."
"Where did you get it?"
Bulin’s eyelids twitched. After nearly a month of torment, he had lost all of his previous sharp-witted arrogance.
"I just picked them randomly outside Wing Beast City."
"How long would it take to go from here to outside Wing Beast City, pick them, and come back?"
A glimmer of hope flashed in Bulin’s eyes. "Not too long! I can go pick them and bring them back!"
Qiao Xixi crouched down and looked at him with a light chuckle.
It was such a clean and clear smile.
"Have one of your men go. If he comes back with a full bag, I’ll give you a way out."
"Okay, okay!"
As long as he didn’t have to die, he would’ve unhesitatingly agreed even if Qiao Xixi had told him to eat shit!
Qiao Xixi had Jin Ling bring over one of Bulin’s men so Bulin could give him instructions.
"He was the one who picked the Regeneration Flowers back then. Sending him will definitely get the job done."
"Good."
After the instructions were given, the beastman was led away.
Seeing that Qiao Xixi was also about to leave, Bulin said urgently, "Clan Leader, I truly won’t dare to do it again! When I captured that mermaid cub, I only wanted to negotiate with you. I would never have dared to harm her."
Xijing, who was listening nearby, likely recalled the situation, and a murderous aura poured from him.
But without Qiao Xixi’s permission, he wouldn’t act rashly.
Qiao Xixi just looked at him coldly. "What terms did you want to negotiate with me back then?"
"I know that you, Clan Leader, have Crystal Stones that can help a beastman have an Awakened Beast Soul. I just hoped you would trade some with me. I never expected to get them for free, but I was afraid you wouldn’t agree... I’m a traveling merchant. I would never harm the life of a beastman in a tribe. There’s no benefit in it for us."
Bulin was now filled with regret. His greed had led him to this miserable state.
Qiao Xixi ignored him and turned to leave the cell with Xijing.
As Xijing stepped out of the cell, he lashed out with the fin in his hand, slapping Bulin so viciously across the face that he was knocked unconscious.
By the time they walked out of the prison, Jin Ling had already sent the beastman tasked with finding the Regeneration Flower away from the tribe.
Qiao Xixi wasn’t in a hurry to go back; instead, she wanted to take a look around the tribe.
After all, she had been away for many days and wanted to catch up on the tribe’s current situation now that she was back.
"How many females have gotten pregnant?"
"Sigh, this year, the number is less than half of what we’ve had in the past."
"That many fewer? Hiss... is it because the long journey prevented the females from mating properly?"
"The journey was hard, but we were careful to protect the females in the tribe and didn’t let them suffer too much. We’ve settled down now, but they’re still not getting pregnant... Sigh, what are we going to do?"
As Qiao Xixi walked through the woods, she overheard the witch doctor, formerly of the Silver Tribe, speaking with an elderly female.
Qiao Xixi recognized the elderly female as well; she was the midwife from the Silver Tribe.
Perhaps due to excessive worry, Qiao Xixi noticed the wrinkles at the corners of the witch doctor’s eyes had deepened considerably.
"Witch Doctor, what are you two doing here?" Qiao Xixi took the initiative to greet them and walked over.
Seeing Qiao Xixi approach, the witch doctor also came forward to greet her. She was now a witch doctor for the Black Panther Tribe, and Qiao Xixi treated her with respect.
"Clan Leader, you’re here."
"I just overheard you talking about the cubs, Witch Doctor. Is there some kind of trouble?"
The witch doctor didn’t hide anything and explained the tribe’s situation.
"Every year before the hot season, we calculate the number of pregnant females. This is very important for a tribe. But when we counted over the past few days, we found that many females who were able to give birth before haven’t conceived."
If a tribe can’t produce a steady number of newborns each year, it’s very dangerous in the long run.
This was the source of the witch doctor’s worries.
"Have you found the cause?"
The witch doctor frowned. "The females’ bodies seem to be fine. Perhaps it really is because they were too tired from the journey, making it harder to conceive."
"Witch Doctor, Witch Doctor, hurry and take a look! The female, Ancient Flower, is about to give birth!"
"Oh, alright, I’m on my way."
The witch doctor looked at Qiao Xixi, about to speak, but Qiao Xixi said first, "I’ll go with you to have a look."
"Alright, good."
Qiao Xixi thought for a moment, and just in case, she had Jin Ling go and find Qiao Qiao.
Qiao Xixi followed the witch doctor to a relatively large stone house.
Just as they arrived, Qiao Xixi saw Gu Man walking out of the stone house.
"Gu Man."
Gu Man looked up at the sound of her voice, a little surprised to see Qiao Xixi.
"Xixi, what are you doing here?"
"I ran into the witch doctor just now and came along to see what’s happening."
Gu Man thought about the situation inside and frowned again.
"What’s wrong? How is Ancient Flower doing?"
Ancient Flower was Gu Man’s childhood friend. Knowing Ancient Flower was pregnant and due soon, Gu Man had brought her some fruit this morning to keep her company.
Who would have thought that Ancient Flower would go into labor early?
"She should be fine. I was just worried seeing her in so much pain."
"Don’t worry, the witch doctor and the others are very experienced. She’ll be fine."
"Yeah."
Xijing rummaged around somewhere and found two small stools for Qiao Xixi and Gu Man to sit on.
Qiao Xixi had given birth before, but she’d had a system to help her cheat, so she hadn’t fully experienced the pain of childbirth.
Hearing Ancient Flower’s pained cries now, she couldn’t help but empathize.
"It’s born! It’s born!"
"Ah, a monster, a monster! Ancient Flower gave birth to a monster!"
Qiao Xixi’s heart lurched. After exchanging a look with Gu Man, she quickly stood up and rushed into the stone house.
The moment they entered, they saw the midwife staring in terror at the cub in her hands.