The night was long, and since Gu Yin and the others weren’t sleepy, they helped An Jin pound the fish into a paste.
They didn’t have any starch for now, so they used flour instead, rolling the paste into small fish balls by hand before dropping them into the hot pot to cook.
anwhile, An Jin also sliced the fish and prepared at rolls, along with so refreshing vegetables and sweet fruits to cut through the richness.
She squeezed the juice from the lis she had traded for in the tribe and prepared a dipping sauce.
"AWOO~" Wrapping a piece of boiled at in a vegetable leaf, dipping it in the sweet, sour, and spicy sauce, and taking a bite was enough to send them to heaven.
An Jin was full before long, and the three n finished off the vast majority of the remaining food. She was surprised at how readily Gu Yin and the others accepted these novel dishes she’d prepared.
Beastn had enormous appetites, and seeing they still weren’t full, An Jin rembered the noodles she had air-dried half a month ago. They would be absolutely perfect in the rich, fragrant hot pot broth.
’I wonder if they can handle a purely flour-based food like noodles, since they’re so used to eating at.’
"Wait here a minute, I’ll go cook so noodles for you." If the Beastn could accept purely flour-based foods, their food sources would expand even further.
A handful of thin, dry noodles softened in the rich hot pot broth. Under An Jin’s expectant gaze, Gu Yin was just about to reach into the pot with his bare hands to grab so.
"Use chopsticks! Hey, you’ll burn your hand!" Fortunately, An Jin was quick to slap his hand away. She personally served him a plate of noodles with her chopsticks and began to feed him.
Ling Hong and Xi watched with envy and jealousy, only to see Gu Yin flash them a cold, contemptuous smirk. The two of them instantly realized sothing was off.
’Is this snake doing this on purpose?!’
"Ah Jin, Xi wants to eat those long things you have, the noodles~"
"But I don’t know how to use those two little sticks. Can you feed ?"
Under Gu Yin’s chilly glare, Xi, who was already numb to his punishnts, figured he had nothing left to lose.
So An Jin served him a plate as well.
Ling Hong had learned to use chopsticks long ago, so he could only serve himself a few bites and eat in sullen silence.
’Huh. To be honest, these flour noodles actually taste pretty good.’
They certainly wouldn’t enjoy eating plain noodles, but these soft yet chewy strands soaked up the rich, aty flavor of the hot pot broth. Eaten along with chunks of at, they were both delicious and filling.
The two wild pheasants from earlier had been roasted until they were fragrant, crispy, and dripping with fat. An Jin couldn’t eat another bite. She let out a small burp and rubbed her round little belly.
Ling Hong and the others were full too. They shifted into their beast forms and found a corner to lie down and digest their al.
The rain outside seed to have stopped.
An Jin found two large leaves and wrapped up the roasted chicken. "Take this to Chi Li. I wonder if he’s adjusting to his first day in the tribe."
’Foxes like to eat chicken, right?’
"AWOO~"
The Silver Wolf shifted back into his human form, took the bundle from her, and vanished into the night.
...
A city differed from a tribe not just in the size of its constructed area, but also in several other important ways—
1. It could conduct trade with surrounding tribes and cities.
2. It could host large-scale events, such as beast-fighting competitions, to increase its influence.
3. The City Lord could direct the city’s construction and collect taxes in the form of prey or Crystal Cores from Beastn who ca for temporary residence.
Although they still had a long way to go before it beca a true city, An Jin had already begun preparations for the basic infrastructure.
The first downpour of the great rainy season continued unabated, making it impossible to go out and forage.
It was too boring being cooped up in the house, so she took out the map she had drawn previously and, based on the surrounding terrain and resources, began to formulate a design plan for the future city.
She planned to expand their territory threefold, which would allow them to divert the lower reaches of the great river that flowed into the sea, bringing it into the city for the Beastn’s convenience.
This would also lay the groundwork for potentially bringing Water Beastn into the city in the future.
The city’s interior would be tentatively divided into three main districts—a Residential Zone, a Barter Zone, and a Comrce Zone.
The [Residential Zone] would be the primary area providing housing for the city’s Beastn.
The [Barter Zone] would provide a place for visiting tribal Beastn to exchange goods.
So why was there also a [Comrce Zone]?
Beneath her gentle and calm exterior, An Jin harbored a greater ambition.
She had always felt that Beast Gathering City’s operational model was flawed. Its scope was too limited, rely providing the most basic bartering functions for Beastn, just like any ordinary city.
As a stronghold in a pri location, Beast Gathering City had failed to leverage a city’s greatest potential function: comrce.
As a result, its potential for growth was severely limited.
The ideal city An Jin envisioned would not only offer basic bartering but also develop a vast system of trade and comrce.
But how could one develop comrce in the Beast World, a land scarce in both resources and transportation? That would be a long process of discovery.
The sugar, cloth, and flour would be a major breakthrough.
The first rains of the season finally ended, and the Beastn welcod a few rare days of good weather. They began hauling stones and clay, starting construction on the city wall according to An Jin’s plan.
An Jin found so ti to go and inspect their progress. From a distance, she could see the tall, greyish-white wall slowly rising around the tribe’s periter.
Building a sturdy, towering city wall was the most important and fundantal step for any city to defend against beast tides.
Under the blazing sun, the Beastn used stone tools with their calloused hands to stack stone blocks and sar mortar, bustling back and forth in a flurry of activity.
Beads of sweat from their hard labor glistened in the sunlight.
The imposing wall rose higher at a speed visible to the naked eye.
The Beastn’s construction efficiency was terrifyingly fast. In the short ti it took An Jin to walk over, one section of the stone wall had already risen by nearly half a ter.
’Wait, sothing’s not right.’
An Jin’s eyes swept over the surrounding terrain, and she suddenly called out, interrupting the Beastn’s work. "Tear this section of the wall down. We’re rebuilding it in a different spot."
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