Volume 1: Farming Chapter 43 Red Face and White Face
What is the difference between an adult snow werewolf and a snow werewolf warrior?
Of course it’s combat effectiveness.
Combat effectiveness is a rather general term. To be precise, it should be divided into two categories, one is called combat experience and the other is hunting experience.
Adult snow werewolves are actually quite capable. In human form, it is not difficult for them to kill a non-charging wild boar. In wolf form, as long as they are adults, they can be considered the overlords of the grassland. However, they have to take charge of more and more complicated tasks in the tribe, and do not have much time to hone their fighting skills. In terms of fighting efficiency, they are much lower than regular warriors.
As for hunting experience, ordinary tribesmen can hardly compare with serious warriors... It is rare to be lucky enough to come across a group of deer while walking in the wild like Xiao Yun. In most cases, the snow werewolves walking in the wild in wolf form either cannot encounter suitable prey, or the prey smells the scent of the snow werewolves from a distance and runs away, and the snow werewolves can't catch up at all - the huge body brings the snow werewolves not only an advantage in size, but also an unavoidable disadvantage in speed; it is good for a snow werewolf to have a speed of 50 to 60 kilometers per hour when running at full speed, and it is relatively easy for sturdy even-toed ungulates to get rid of the snow werewolves.
Therefore, to become a snow werewolf warrior, you must learn how to hide your breath, otherwise you will scare the prey away from a distance and it will be pointless to hunt; in addition, you must be good at using bows and arrows, throwing pistols and other long-range offensive means, otherwise, no matter how abundant the prey on the grassland is, it will be in vain if you can't hit it.
After Xiao Yun forced the entire tribe to maintain personal hygiene, the Snow Wolf Warriors, whose body odor was greatly reduced, naturally became more adept at hunting. They did not take the initiative to go out and just took advantage of opportunities during work to get something. This was how the game that often appeared in the pottery pot came from...
Hongye and Ashan left the river construction site and walked northwest for a while. Then they lowered their waists, bent over, and hid their bodies in the weeds that were taller than people because they had not been grazed for a year. Their intimidating aura became vague - they were both very good fighters. Except for small creatures like hares and birds that were extremely alert, they had basically caught all other prey.
The stench was very faint, and did not seem to come from any threatening creature. Out of caution as warriors, Hongye and Ashan still picked up two stones each and held them in their hands. After all, weak creatures all had ways to save their lives, such as running away at extremely fast speeds, and they might not be able to catch up... Although they were considered the agile type among the snow wolves, the snow wolves still had their shortcomings.
After lurking in the bushes for more than ten minutes, Ah Shan suddenly straightened up, frowned, looked around, and circled around the place he thought was suspicious. He looked back at Hongye in confusion: "Why did she suddenly disappear?"
Hongye also poked her head out and sniffed left and right, with a confused look on her face: "I don't know, the smell suddenly disappeared."
If the terrain around the tribe is drawn on a map, the location of the river channel on the map should be higher than the tribe and more than 1,200 meters away from the tribe. This artificial river channel that diverts the river water directly to the south below to flood the uninhabited area cannot be too close to the tribe. The closer to the upper reaches of the river, the better.
In other words, the place where Hongye and Ashan found the strange and foul smell was more than three kilometers away from the tribe and two kilometers away from the river construction site... At this distance, the snowy werewolves' sense of smell depends on the wind, and if there is a headwind, they will not be able to smell anything.
But logically, they had already touched the place where the foul smell came from before, and the smell should have been more obvious. How could it suddenly disappear?
The two expanded the search range and searched the area within a hundred meters around. As a result, they didn't know if it was because the wind was too strong, but they couldn't find the source of the smell. It was as if that thing had disappeared out of thin air.
"Forget it, let's go back." Hongye lost her patience and called Ashan and walked back. Ashan had no objection.
The two of them walked back halfway, and suddenly they both looked back at the same time...the smell appeared again, and seemed to be still fleeing into the distance.
This time both of them were a little annoyed, and they didn't hide anymore, they just ran after him.
Before they could run to the place where the smell came from again, the pungent and foul smell disappeared again...
"What the hell?!" Hongye and Ashan cursed out the catchphrase they learned from Ayun, staring and sniffing as they rummaged around in the grass.
...nothing was found.
Both of them were a little angry, but there was nothing they could do. Could they set fire to all the weeds in this area and then scrape the ground? There was a lot of work waiting to be done on the river construction site, so they didn't have time to waste their time on them.
I walked back angrily, and when I was almost halfway there, the annoying and foul smell suddenly emerged again.
"roar--"
The two werewolf warriors took off their pants without hesitation and threw them into the bushes, turning into wolves and running away...
The short-term explosive power of the wolf form can be increased to a maximum speed of 70 kilometers per hour. This time they finally caught the source of the stench. When they chased them to the place, the two ugly little goblins had just dug out a hole to hide in, and they didn't have time to drag the intact earth lid across the grass to seal the top.
Two huge snow wolves with ferocious looks and heavy breaths from their noses fell from the sky. The two little goblins who were still struggling to drag the grass were terrified...then they rolled their eyes and fainted from fright.
"Goblin!" Ah Shan gritted his teeth. This little thing had nothing better to do than to come and tease them? It was so smelly and pungent that he had to turn his head away.
"What do these guys want to do!" Hongye raised her claws angrily, intending to slap the two itchy guys to death. She couldn't bring herself to eat such a smelly thing.
As soon as the claws were raised, Hongye paused.
Her eyes fell on the unconscious goblin's claws that were still tightly grasping the turf soil lid.
Goblins are one of the more deformed species among intelligent races. They have large heads and thin bodies, with claws that are almost as big as their heads, especially their hands. The cortex under their arms and near their wrists has been keratinized into metal-like skin. Their palms are thick and powerful, and their four fingers are thick and short. The claws on their fingertips are wide at the bottom and sharp at the top, and are extremely flexible and can bend on their own like the claws of small cats.
Hongye put down his claws and returned to human form. He endured the stench and pinched the goblin's horny palm to look over it. He then pulled the two goblins out to observe the holes they had dug in such a hurry:
Completely remove the grass on the surface, and while digging the hole, evenly spread the excavated soil around and stepped on it to make it less obtrusive, and then cover the top with a soil cover with grass. After the whole set of operations, even soldiers like her and Ashan did not notice anything unusual...
Hongye looked at Ashan with sharp eyes: "Ashan, I think we can use more people to help dig that river channel."
"Ah?" Ashan tilted his wolf head cutely.
Hongye excitedly carried the two goblins back to the river construction site, and excitedly found Ayun who was moving earth and rocks, and presented the two goblins, which were about 1.2 meters tall, like treasures.
"What the hell is that smell? Throw it away, throw it away, throw it away quickly!" Xiao Yun pinched his nose and jumped at least three meters away in an instant, tears streaming down his face. "Hongye, where did you pick up the biological weapons and bring them back?"
Not only was Xiao Yun rushed back in a panic, but the cubs around him who were carrying earth and rocks also screamed and scattered, throwing the rattan baskets filled with earth and rocks all over the ground.
"Gnomes!" Hongye held two gnomes in one hand and pinched their noses with the other. "Gnomes who are very good at digging. Look, Ayun!"
"Hold it here~" Xiao Yun turned around and ran away.
Hongye: “…”
Hongye had no choice but to carry the two goblins back to the tribe... and successfully frightened the caracal cubs in the mobile house to tears, and they ran towards their own tents with their noses pinched; Thrall, who was squatting in the mushroom house, was also frightened and ran out to see what was going on, then he stood in front of the mushroom house while crying bitterly to prevent Hongye from getting closer.
Hongye: “…”
She took a piece of soap used by caracals to process wool and carried the two goblins to the pond by the swamp. The pond was now open with a drain facing the swamp. Hongye squatted beside the drain, not caring that the goblins who had just woken up were staring at her with terrified eyes. She quickly stripped off the goblins' pants and small bags made of something, applied soap and washed them. After a few rough moves, the two goblins cried for their parents...
After using up half a palm-sized soap, the two goblins, who were dark and charcoal-like, finally returned to their original color... Well, it turned out that the goblins' skin was as white as the forest elves with a hint of green, but they were still too ugly to look at directly, with no eyebrows or hair, big eyes, flat noses, and a mouth full of rotten teeth.
She went to find Ayun again with the goblin, which was at least two pounds lighter after being cleaned. This time, the work on the river construction site was not temporarily stopped because of Hongye's behavior, and Ayun finally listened to her.
"Oh? A master of digging?" After listening to Hongye's description, Xiao Yun's eyes immediately became as bright as Hongye's, and he recalled the time when he went to pick up the quartz stones and stone slabs dug by the goblins last year. He immediately squatted down and grabbed the goblin's claws to take a closer look.
As soon as he touched it, Xiao Yun knew that the goblin must not be let go - although it was an intelligent creature, the palm of this thing had actually evolved in the direction of local metamorphosis. The skin including the wrist could no longer be called skin, but was completely keratinized, evolving into a strange keratin structure that was harder than rhinoceros horns and turtle shells, with a brown-black luster on the surface that was similar to the reflective metal. What was even more bizarre was that even with the palm turned into this, the goblin's metacarpals and phalanges could still move flexibly, and even the nails on the fingertips had a certain flexibility.
"...When biologists see this kind of bizarre creature, their first thought must be to get its corpse for dissection and slice it?" This thought popped up in Xiao Yun's mind, and he looked up to meet the gaze of the little goblin who was shaking like a sieve.
As a weak creature, the goblins must evolve strong perception abilities to ensure the continuation of the tribe. Xiao Yun said nothing and his expression was not fierce, but the goblin almost fainted after being looked at by Xiao Yun - why did this cub make him feel more frightened than the snow wolf warrior? !
"Can goblins understand the common language?" Xiao Yun asked Hongye for confirmation.
"Yes." Hongye loosened her hands, and the two goblins she was holding immediately fell to the ground. "Stand up and listen to Ayun."
The two goblins rubbed against each other and then got up and stood up.
"Oh~ They are intelligent creatures after all." Xiao Yun touched his chin and gave a kind smile to the two little goblins who had the talents of miners and engineers.
...The two goblins were so scared that they started crying.
"Don't be so nervous." Xiao Yun sat cross-legged on the ground and called two goblins who were about 1.2 meters tall, "Come on, sit down and talk..."
The two goblins sat down obediently.
"Before we snow wolves migrated here, you goblins had already lived in this area. Yes, although we have never dealt with each other, we are still neighbors after all, and the relationship between us is not cold to the point of confrontation. Now that you have come to our tribe, we snow wolves are not an unreasonable tribe, and we have no murderous intentions towards you, so shouldn't we have a good communication?" Xiao Yun smiled... and directly skipped the fact that the snow wolves had driven away the goblins.
One of the two goblins secretly looked up at him.
Xiao Yun immediately focused his firepower on this slightly courageous goblin and asked very kindly: "What's your name?"
"Ba, Baron." The goblin stuttered.
"Where is your tribesman? What is his name?"
“…Gar.”
Xiao Yun nodded, as if he was very satisfied with Baron's cooperation: "Where does your tribe live?"
"Here, here..." Baron immediately showed a look of pain and struggle. It was true that he was afraid of the Snow Wolf Man, and he also regretted not taking Gar away earlier and not getting so close to him. But asking him to betray his people was a bit...
Xiao Yun didn't insist on answering this question, and asked a simpler question: "How many people are there in your tribe?"
This question was obviously much simpler than betraying his people, so Baron answered directly: "Nine, nine."
So few? Xiao Yun was immediately dissatisfied. Only nine goblins could do anything.
Baron had no idea why the other person's face suddenly turned grim, and he tucked his head back into his shoulders.
Silently reciting the phrase "It's better to have something than nothing", Xiao Yun continued to ask: "How long has your tribe been away from the underground world, and how many people have come out?"
"Two, almost three years." Baron said in pain, "There were more than a hundred of us who came here together."
Xiao Yun was shocked by the speed at which the goblins were losing population: "Where are all the others?"
"Yes, some people went farther away, and we want to stay here and wait for more people to come up..." Baron whispered .
"How many of you are left around?"
"More than forty people." Baron was a little depressed.
...Okay, it seems that it is difficult for goblins to live and go through wars with other tribes. Xiao Yun turned the question back again: "How many people have you lost in the past year since our tribe migrated here?"
"...Two." Baron whispered.
"It's more convenient to have good neighbors. You lost so many of your clansmen before we came. After we came, having us as neighbors makes life much easier, isn't it?" Xiao Yun said kindly.
Gar, who had been silent, raised his head slightly. Baron glanced at his tribesmen and nodded, "Yes."
Xiao Yun's expression changed immediately: "So, as good neighbors who have always lived in peace with us, why did you goblins enter our territory of the Snow Werewolves? Do you have any bad ideas and want to steal things? Tell me!"
The two goblins who were sitting there were so frightened that they collapsed to the ground. Their four eyes stared in horror at the suddenly angry snow werewolf cub, and they couldn't react at all as to why the other party's expression suddenly changed.
Hongye, who was squatting nearby and watching, had a calm expression on her face. She didn't believe that Ayun, a devil who could even make a fragile human like Thrall run around in circles when he was busy, would let the goblins go.
"I, we just... we just came to see if you are going to migrate..." Baron's tears were streaming down his face, and he did not dare to delay answering the question, "We really don't want to steal your things..."
Xiao Yun understood it all at once. It turned out that the snow werewolves didn't go out to graze or go upstairs, so the lives of these goblins were becoming increasingly difficult?
Since the other party has exposed the weakness of relying on the Snow Wolf Man as a good neighbor, Xiao Yun has no reason not to strike while the iron is hot. He immediately frowned and said with murderous intent: "Everyone on the grassland knows that you goblins are not clean. You even stole the food from the Minotaur who gave you alms. Who can prove that you are not here to steal?"
"This..." Baron and Gar were so sad and helpless that they were speechless, and at the same time they were extremely angry... They had never had the chance to deal with other tribes since they came to the grassland, let alone accept charity from the Tauren. How could this be blamed on them!
Xiao Yun lowered his hostility slightly and softened his tone: "I said before that we, the Snow Wolf People, are a reasonable tribe. Regardless of whether you come to steal things or not, since you didn't steal anything, we won't treat you as thieves. But——"
The previous words gave Baron and Gar hope, but the sudden word "but" made the two goblins' hearts rise to their throats.
Xiao Yun met the gaze of the two pitiful goblins indifferently: "But it is still not a good thing for our tribe to let a goblin tribe with a habit of stealing live near us. It would have been fine if you didn't come near us before, but now you sneak around our tribe, which proves that your tribe has no good intentions towards us Snow Werewolves."
"?!" Baron and Garl almost couldn't catch their breath, tears welled up in their eyes. How can we, as goblins, have bad intentions towards you, the Snow Werewolves? Stop talking!
"So we can't stand neighbors like you. You goblins are really not good neighbors." Xiao Yun said coldly, cruelly and unreasonably, "We won't hurt you, and we will never allow you to continue living here. Our people will escort you back to the tribe and watch with our own eyes that all nine goblins in your tribe leave and stay away from this territory that belongs to us, the Snow Werewolves. If you dare to play any tricks and sneak back, then next time, we will never show mercy."
Baron and Gar were so soft that they turned into mud... This result was not the worst, but it was not good at all - if I had known, I would not have made this trip! In this way, the Snow Wolf Man would not have been so determined to drive them away!
The two goblins, overwhelmed with sorrow, had no idea that the werewolf cub sitting in front of them was winking and giving crazy looks to the werewolf warrior squatting behind them.
Xiao Yun stared at Hongye with a deep gaze, then at the goblin lying on the ground unable to move, then turned to the tribesmen who were sweating profusely digging a river not far away, and then turned back to look at Hongye.
"...Oh!" Hongye clenched his fist and said, "Ayun, we need to dig a canal now. We don't have time to drive the goblins away!"
Xiao Yun... Xiao Yun's mouth twitched slightly. It's a pity that I didn't explain it clearly earlier. I want you to play the bad guy, sister~
Ah Yun hinted wildly again. Hong Ye found that her cooperation was not very successful. She scratched her head, went over what Ah Yun had just said in her mind, and clenched her fist again: "Well... Ah Yun, driving the goblins away is almost the same as killing them all. There are only nine of them left. They can't go anywhere?"
The two goblins lying on the ground immediately sat up, and their four ugly big eyes looked at the snow wolf warrior who spoke well of them with tears in their eyes... They had never met an alien race who cared about them since they were born, and they were so touched!
Xiao Yun was quite satisfied with Hongye's performance as the villain, and he continued to sing the villain diligently: "That's their business, and has nothing to do with us." He paused, and pretended to be in deep thought, "But you're right, we are indeed busy digging out the river, and we don't have much time to drive the goblins far away... In this case, there's no need to waste that time, we can just kill them all--"
“No!” Gar could no longer hold back, screaming and begging, “Please, don’t kill us, we, we…” The goblins’ assurances were unreliable, Gar was in agony, and anxiously he turned back to look at Hongye, his only lifesaver, but Hongye was scratching her head with a troubled look on her face, as if she couldn’t think of how to plead for them…
Well, to some extent, Gal's guess was not wrong... No matter how smart Hongye was, she had no experience in playing the bad guy, and Ayun had already prepared the words for her beforehand.
Gar, who was so anxious that he wanted to jump into the river, suddenly saw the snow wolves digging hard and sweating profusely in the big ditch next to him. His already big eyes immediately widened.
With the determination to survive and risk everything, Garl lay down towards Xiao Yun and summoned up the greatest courage in his life and said quickly: "We goblins are very good at digging. We can dig the trenches and rivers you are digging for you. Please don't kill us!"
"Yes, yes, we goblins are really good at digging!" Baron came back to his senses and knelt down in front of Xiao Yun like Gar. "Let us help you dig the river you want. It doesn't matter how long or deep it is. Please let us go!" He also raised his palm that Xiao Yun had just checked and tried hard. "Our palms can dig through stones!"
Xiao Yun stared at the two goblins expressionlessly... and stared again... and continued to stare until the two of them were shivering and sweating profusely. Then he nodded reluctantly, "Then dig it up for me first, and prove that you are worth surviving."
The two goblins immediately jumped up and ran to the river, avoiding the snow werewolves wielding hoes and digging hard with their claws... They were smart enough to know that the river had to be dug along the standard line, and the dug bottom should be aligned with the depth dug by the snow werewolves. They could dig the soil and stones faster than the snow werewolves with brute force.
Xiao Yun looked at the two highly motivated coolies working on the water conservancy project with satisfaction, and patted Hongye's strong arm: "Hongye, it's a waste of your talent to be just a soldier."
"What? What do you want me to do?" Hongye asked vigilantly.
