The chief of the East River Tribe [Grandmother] came outside the shrine to thank them.
She also politely expressed the wishes of the tribe: they were a branch of the East Sea Clan, despite their difficult situation. But no matter what, they could not go against the clan’s belief in praying to the gods.
Winter came extraordinarily early and was unprecedentedly cold. The vast East River was actually frozen over.
This had no effect on the Garlic Tribe.
Nowadays, the tribe has a well-balanced supply of food, including this year’s bumper crop of wheat, potatoes, garlic, as well as fish and meat cured in salt.
In addition, as the houses have been converted to wood, they are much more sheltered from the wind and rain, and are also warmer than in the past.
The most important job of the Garlic Tribe in the winter is to cut wood, going into the forests to find wood for heating and for stockpiling.
For many days in a row, heavy snow covered the whole tribe with a thick layer of white, and the ditches were also frozen. Because it was so cold, even some birds and rabbits ran to the tribe, trying to rummage for food.
On this day, the people of the East River tribe came over the ice with their packs on their backs.
The cold had forced them to dismantle their boats to use for fires to keep warm, fishing had become dangerous and difficult, and the freezing had prevented them from breaking through the ice to get to warmer waters.
The last of the sea monsters died underwater, and they failed to breed new ones.
With starvation and cold, the East River tribe has frozen to death and sickened more than a dozen people, and they have had to abandon their traditions and come to land to find a way to live.
[Grandmother] took several female captains and knelt outside the temple, praying to the gods to forgive them for their previous insolence.
Lu Yao did not make things difficult for them anymore, and asked Isabel to help them as she had promised before.
The situation is stronger than the people who have to eat.
Besides, the enemy of an enemy is a friend.
Lu Yao needs the East River Tribe, they can provide water routes, and hold the Salt Pond Tribe in check.
As the actual leader of the Garlic Tribe, the Prophet received the East River Tribe very kindly. Since the days were too short in winter, it was too late to build houses, so the Garlic Tribe set aside some houses for them to live in.
After the relief of the Donghe Tribe, an incident happened to the Garlic Tribe that Lu Yao did not expect at all.
During this winter, the Donghe Tribe suddenly gave birth to many babies.
Lu Yao looked at them and slapped his head.
Careless!
The East River Tribe was looking at these strong men of the Garlic Tribe!
There was no concept of marriage during the tribal period, much less monogamy, and everyone was very open and liberal. Today I go to your house, tomorrow you go to her house, the child born we all raise together.
That’s pretty much what happened.
These new babies added to the East River Tribe are both male and female, but none of them have turned into sea monsters, they are all very normal babies.
[Grandmother] acted very panicked.
“God of Prayer, great God of Prayer, do you still refuse to forgive the tribe? We have never forgotten your gifts and have been working hard to breed sea monsters and offer you leather.”
“Why did you leave us …… Prayer God, please, bless your people who are in another country once more!”
Of course, these prayers did not work.
The women of the East River tribe still did not give birth to a sea monster.
In this regard, Isabelle made a detailed investigation and came to a conclusion: the so-called women of the East River Tribe gave birth to sea monsters, not because they had abnormal physical qualities, but because of the Prayer God Totem.
The God of Prayer Totem had a special kind of faith fire that would transform the newly born baby boys. The fire of faith would enter the bodies of these sea monster boys, using their lives and sanity as fuel, and after burning, it would coalesce into a thick layer of leather on the surface of the sea monster’s body. Through special sacrifices, this leather can be transformed into the power of faith again.
To put it simply, the sea monster is a living faith crop.
The totem sowed the faith fire in the baby’s body and turned it into a sea monster, which was raised by the East Sea Tribe, and then finally sent the sea monster’s leather back to the East Sea Clan in exchange for the shelter of the Praying God Totem.
Such an outcome was not particularly surprising to Lu Yao.
As he became more and more familiar with the simulator, he was already clear that every god in this pixelated world did all sorts of things in order to gain more faith.
The amount of faith was directly related to the strength of a god’s power.
Faith was the first productive force of a god.
Because they were gods, there were no taboos.
Any move a god made would be glorified and would be blindly followed and understood by the believers. At least in the tribal civilisation stage, no one would question the greatness and correctness of the gods.
The so-called demons were nothing more than the gods’ name for heretics.
……
After losing their totems, sea monsters and boats, the East River Tribe was a very weak group on land.
As leaders, [Grandmother] and the female captain were very worried and panicked.
The vast majority of the East River Tribe women, however, were immersed in a simple pleasure of having enough to eat and wear. After becoming neighbours with the Garlic Tribe, they wore winter clothes woven from wool, ate wheat and potatoes, and no longer had to worry about running out of firewood to keep warm at night.
Especially after having babies, they spent most of their time caring for the next generation of little ones.
Because these children belonged to both tribes in common, the Garlic Tribe also spared no effort in providing food and supplies, allowing the women of the East River Tribe to have an effortless winter.
Towards the end of the winter, [Grandmother] left with the East River Tribe to return to the boat islands of the East River.
The women left behind the vast majority of their babies. Because the Garlic Tribe was undoubtedly the more affluent and stable tribe, it was better suited to raising young children than the East River Tribe.
And so the Garlic Tribe had its first baby boom.
Lu Yao purposely counted.
This winter, there were a total of 34 more babies, accounting for nearly 1/10th of the Garlic Tribe’s total population.
He counted and smiled.
Next winter, remember to come back.
Against this backdrop of good things, the Salt Pond Tribe made a discordant sound.
The Salt Pond Tribe sent a group of people to deal sternly with the Prophet.
“The Garlic Tribe has always been our partner, and we supply salt and have always given the most favourable trading price to the Garlic Tribe.”
“But the Garlic Tribe has bypassed us and traded with the dangerous East River Tribe, which is unwise and has seriously disrupted the trading market, affecting the interests of the entire Salt Pond Tribe. So you must stop this behaviour and compensate us accordingly.”
“The other thing is, now that the price of salt in the outside world is rising, all tribes are short of salt, so we need to adjust the price upwards.”
“Of course, if the Garlic Tribe is willing to trade in a large amount of wool, we can also make some concessions at our discretion.”
In the past, they would have hypocritically said a few words on the scene, but now they were already scheming.
The Salt Pond Tribe relied on the monopoly of salt and the passage to the outside world.
The prophet also replied stiffly this time, “These are impossible for the Garlic Tribe to accept, there is no room for negotiation. We welcome any friends who co-operate, but will never accept threats.”
“Stupid barbarians!”
“You will regret this!”
“The Salt Pond Tribe no longer considers you as friends!”
The Salt Pond Tribe people left in a huff, burrowing into the mountains to the west.
Lu Yao tapped Earthquake in [Miracle] and selected the mountains bordering the Garlic Tribe to the west. As the miracle descended, boulders continued to roll down from the mountains as the ground shook.
[Earthquake]!
[Earthquake]!
[Earthquake]!
Under the impact of a total of 4 earthquakes, a large slice of the mountain was collapsed, the edge of the mountains was a mess of rubble, and the passage between the Garlic Tribe and the Salt Pond Tribe was completely cut off.
The Salt Pond Tribe villain who was in the mountains was thrown into panic.
“It’s over, the passageway has been cut off!”
“This commercial road is broken, no more goods can be transported from this side.”
“The losses are too great!”
“My wool, my garlic!”
Lu Yao clenched his fists.
Want to play economic sanctions?
Buddy initiated it first.
Don’t know what it means to shut down the country.
