If it were before, Luyan would definitely not leave without answering his questions, and he walked away quite fast, seeming a bit impatient.
Yusu felt a hint of loneliness and said to the general elf, "My son has grown up. After growing up, he has his own thoughts and doesn't like sticking to people."
After saying that, he continued to write and draw alone, sighing from time to time.
General Elf: [...]
On the other side, after putting the medicine jar back in the alchemy room, Luyan left. His figure disappeared into the dark night, and no one knew where he went.
Yusu wrote and drew for more than an hour, feeling some soreness in his shoulders and back. He stopped, put down the pen, and stood up to stretch, preparing to go to bed.
"Weird, why did Luyan take so long to put back the medicine jar?"
[He left the village.]
Yusu stopped his movements. Luyan left the village?
On this late night, where did Luyan go?
"Where did he go?"
[I don't know, didn't pay attention.]
Yusu originally wanted to use divine sense to scan, but after some thought, he refrained. If Luyan left the village, there must be a reason. It would be better to ask him when he comes back.
For this reason, Yusu didn't sleep but meditated on the bed.
After more than an hour, Yusu heard the footsteps of Luyan returning. He opened his eyes, got off the bed, opened the door, and looked at Luyan coming back from outside.
"You're back. Is something wrong?"
When Yusu asked, he noticed that Luyan seemed to have taken a bath outside. There was still moisture on him, making Yusu curious.
Luyan didn't expect Yusu to be awake at this time. His body stiffened slightly, then he said, "Nothing happened. I just went for a walk. You're not asleep yet?"
Yusu: "I was worried that something happened. It's good if nothing happened. I'm going back to sleep."
Luyan: "Hmm."
He watched Yusu return to the room, then entered his own.
After Yusu went back to the room, he revealed a thoughtful expression.
Seeing Luyan's appearance, it really didn't seem like something happened. But going out for a bath in the late night? Could it be that it was too hot, and he couldn't sleep, so he took a swim in the river?
While pondering this question, Yusu ignored the fact that he had set up an array in Luyan's room. Luyan's room was quite cool; there was no need to go outside for swimming to cool down.
...
Two days later, the thief who had stolen food and was hung on the pillar was finally taken down, barely alive.
The members of the patrol team, seeing that they hadn't died, were quite regretful.
"Get lost. If there's a next time, I'll chop off your head directly."
Those thieves couldn't get up anymore. Some sympathetic villagers helped them and sent them back to the village. After this incident, no one with a clear mind dared to have any ideas about stealing food from the Yucun, and even passing by the fields, they didn't dare to take an extra look.
After a busy period, the Yucun finally harvested the crops.
The golden rice was dried, sifted through a windmill, and then bagged in hemp bags, stacked into the warehouse.
Next was harvesting and drying hemp.
There were other mature crops that needed to be harvested one after another.
When these were almost done, the merchant caravan that had gone to the east for trade also returned in a grand manner.
The necks of the caravan's oxen and horses were tied with bells, and when the jingling sound rang out, many people noticed the return of the Yucun caravan.
When they left, the Yucun caravan was fully loaded with fine salt and grains. When they returned, they brought back bags full of goods in exchange, looking quite prosperous.
Yusu led people to greet the return of the caravan at the village entrance.
This time, the caravan stayed away for an unusually long time. Although there were constant messages from the eagles reporting their safety, the people in the village still missed their relatives who had been away for a long time.
"Finally, they're back."
"If they didn't come back soon, my son wouldn't recognize his father."
"That's right. They've been away for so long, I wonder which villages they visited on the eastern plains and if they encountered any danger."
Those with relatives in the caravan were tiptoeing, and when they saw the caravan approaching, they couldn't hold back and ran out to greet them.
After crossing the bridge, Yusu led the people towards the caravan.
Yuye and others also dismounted and walked towards Yusu, bowing to him.
"Lord Yusu, we have returned safely."
"It's good that you're back."
Yusu helped them up, seeing that although they were tired, the light in their eyes was good. He knew that they probably didn't encounter any major problems this time.
"After we took the caravan to the eastern plains and visited the villages marked on the list, we went through each village on the list. We also went deeper into some villages in the eastern plains with the exchanged goods and money beads. We even went to Daji Village."
Yuye talked about the places the caravan had visited in the past few months. In addition to the villages on the list given by Yusu, they boldly ventured deeper into the eastern plains and added information on nearly ten more villages to the list.
Yusu was very satisfied after reading it. "You did a great job. You have made significant contributions this time."
Hecai said, "Thanks to Yumeng leading people to escort us, we dared to go deeper into the eastern plains and deal with those big villages."
Yumeng grinned.
Yusu looked at Yumeng, and after this trip, Yumeng seemed more stable.
But once he spoke, he was still the same Yumeng.
"Lord Yusu, you don't know how popular I am in those villages. All the women in those villages send me flowers and gifts, wanting to keep me as their son-in-law."
"...Then why didn't you stay."
"How could I stay? No matter how good the women outside are, they can't compare to our village!"
Everyone couldn't help but roll their eyes at him.
Among the valuable items brought back by Yuye and others, the most valuable were various seeds and the information they gathered from various villages.
"The scale of that Daji Village is indeed very large, larger than the previous Salt Village, but their living standards are not as good as our Yucun. Although they also rely on planting for a living, the crops they plant are not as good as ours, and the harvest is quite ordinary."
"There is also a large village called Sanhe Village, located at the center where various villages converge. There is also a large exchange market, although not as well-established as our trading market in the village, but many people come and go to the exchange market, and there are many rare goods from the more distant east that we have not seen before
."
"Moreover, most of their goods are exchanged with money beads and even rarer pearls. I even saw golden gold, and the person with gold came from the more distant southeast. We exchanged a bit with salt. Lord Yusu, take a look."
Yuye opened a small linen bag, pouring out shiny gold.
Yusu picked it up and took a look. The general elf's scan revealed that the purity of this gold was quite high, indicating advanced refining techniques. It seemed that there were villages with even higher crafting levels in the distant east.
Yusu became interested all of a sudden.
He placed the gold down and asked Yuye and others about the village that used gold for exchanging goods.
Yuye and the others originally thought Yusu would be very interested in the shiny gold, but unexpectedly, he just glanced at it and put it down. Instead, he was more interested in the village that brought the gold.
Yuye explained, "We only know that the village is called Gaoshan Village, in the far southeast. They have to travel for over half a year to reach Sanhe Village."
Yusu: "Over half a year? That's quite far."
However, for cultivators, flying with a sword was extremely fast, and it wouldn't take long to get there.
Yusu began to consider visiting the distant east or even further south during the next journey.
At this moment, Yuye and the others, who had just talked about the above matters, suddenly exchanged glances.
Yuye's expression became more serious than before, and he spoke, "Lord Yusu, we have another important matter to inform you about."
Seeing that Hecai and Yumeng also put away their smiles, Yusu asked, "What's the matter?"
Yuye said, "When we were in Sanhe Village, we found many people who had escaped from the east to Sanhe Village. They said that many monsters appeared in the east, destroying their homes and devouring many people."
Yusu frowned. Monsters?
Referring to demonic beasts?
At this point, Yumeng spoke, "I carefully asked them. The monsters they mentioned should be demonic beasts."
Yusu: "Where exactly in the east did they come from?"
Yumeng: "Places like Dashicun, Fengcun, Yucun. Those villages are near a canyon in the east. It takes over a month to reach Sanhe Village. According to their accounts, they have lived there for generations, and there were monsters appearing before, but never so many all at once."
In this situation, there seems to be a sudden event in the canyon to the east.
Yusu: "Since they had the ability to resist demonic beasts before, the village's strength should not be weak. Have all these villages been completely destroyed?"
Yumeng nodded, "That's right. According to their accounts, the reason they were not afraid of demonic beasts before was mainly because there was a more powerful tribe on the other side of the canyon called the Source Shaman Tribe. They said the Source Shaman Tribe had powerful shaman warriors who could resist those demonic beasts. But this time, the demonic beasts crossed the canyon, so they suspect that something happened to the Source Shaman Tribe."
Source Shaman Tribe? Shaman warriors?
The name clearly indicates a connection with the Shaman race. The true Shaman race had long been extinct after the disappearance of the Shaman God, but perhaps some races with some bloodline connection to the Shaman still survived.
Regardless, it seems that the Source Shaman Tribe is indeed facing a problem now.
Otherwise, they wouldn't fail to stop those demonic beasts.
Although those demonic beasts are far from Yucun, their numbers seem considerable.
If those demonic beasts enter the eastern plains, it's only a matter of time before they reach the vicinity of the mountains. Perhaps Yusu needs to go and see what exactly went wrong.
Yusu: "The information you brought back is crucial. Let me think about what to do. You can go rest for now, and come to the council chamber to find me tomorrow."
Yuye and the others nodded, excused themselves, and went back to arrange the rest and recovery of the caravan.
Luyan entered from outside and noticed Yusu's serious expression. He asked what was wrong.
Yusu said, "Many demonic beasts have crossed the canyon and entered the eastern plains. This matter may affect us, so I want to go and see the specific situation."