NOVEL NEXT Chapter 534: The Great Chief 52
The people in the tribe had been busy for seven or eight days, finally drying all the sweet potatoes, and Yan Shuangshuang found it amazing that the tribe truly loved sweet potato jerky. Despite eating it for so many days, they still weren't tired of it.
After drying the sweet potatoes, tribe members got into the habit of putting a handful of sweet potato jerky in their waist beast-skin belts, casually chewing it whenever they had time, even taking it with them when hunting.
Seeing more and more prey and life getting better, the thing Shuangshuang had been pondering finally surfaced on her agenda: taking part of the Hunting Team to attend the Mutual Market.
The Mutual Market was something Shuangshuang read about in the tribal book. To participate, a tribe needed to at least be an Intermediate Tribe, as participating required deploying part of their strong combat force, which in this world was responsible for food—a crucial livelihood.
A tribe without enough warriors would never dare to participate in the Mutual Market because once those people left, the tribe would face a situation where no one hunts, leading to starvation.
Currently, the Yanhuang Tribe could bear the pressure of participating in the Mutual Market regarding both food and combat strength. As for what to bring to the market, the newly dried sweet potatoes seemed perfect; judging by the tribe's reaction, there might be a market for them.
Shuangshuang felt it was time for the Yanhuang Tribe to officially step onto the stage of mid-to-large tribes, starting with this participation in the Mutual Market.
Regarding Shuangshuang's decision, the Yanhuang Tribe immediately discussed who would attend the market and who would stay behind without a second thought.
Initially, everyone thought the strongest should go, but as no one could agree, they ended up in a massive brawl!
However, as everyone ended up bruised and battered, Shuangshuang interjected, saying if all the strong ones left, what would happen if the cave got targeted by beasts or other aggressive tribes?
After getting tired from fighting, the group's tugging and hair-pulling left them laughing at their bedraggled states, and they all paused!
Right, what if all the strong ones left? What about the cave then? A group of people released each other, glanced around, and collectively turned their trusting eyes to Shuangshuang.
Being stared at by so many eyes, Shuangshuang suddenly felt immense pressure. Unexpectedly, the responsibility fell on her, and if she was unfair, her authority could be undermined.
But Shuangshuang had no idea how to choose either, so after pondering for a long time, she came up with a brilliant idea: she told people to find a bunch of small black and white stones, wrapped in grass leaves, and draw lots! Those who drew black would go, and those who drew white would stay behind—all based on luck, quite fair.
Sure enough, everyone accepted Shuangshuang's decision as fair, and then they spontaneously went to find little stones and grass leaves to settle the draw themselves, deciding who would go and who wouldn't.
For this trip to the Mutual Market, Yu, the Witch, would also join. Yu wasn't just a witch but also a witch doctor, and the market had a special section for witch doctors to exchange ways of healing and newly discovered herbs. The witch doctors were generous in sharing their experiences.
As a self-taught witch doctor from the tribal book, Yu longed to visit the Mutual Market to communicate with other witch doctors. However, since she was young, the Power Tribe had been impoverished, with a decreasing population, dwindling game, and a future that was dark and without hope.
At that time, Yu thought it would be impossible in her lifetime to fulfill the wish of visiting the Mutual Market and exchanging with other witch doctors. Who would have thought that suddenly, this once hopeless wish was fulfilled, leaving Yu unable to contain her excitement as she set out with the team.
After much chaos, the candidates for the Mutual Market were finally settled—thirty people in total. The warriors going were Shuangshuang, Mang Mountain, Shen, Da Shi, Feicao, and a total of ten. The remaining twenty were people who hadn't yet awakened as warriors, including both men and women, and Witch Doctor Yu.
They wove sturdy backpacks overnight, filled them with sweet potato jerky for the market, water in fruit shells, and various seasonings needed on the road.
As for food, they could hunt anytime outside. Besides, not just Shuangshuang and the warriors, even the Yanhuang Tribe's ordinary Hunting Team Members were much stronger now, and managing the team's food and drink was no problem.
After two days of busy preparation, those attending the market waved goodbye to the people in the cave under Shuangshuang's leadership. Then, Shuangshuang, holding the map passed down in the tribal book, led the way toward the Mutual Market.
The location of the Mutual Market hasn't changed for a thousand years to ensure that participating tribes wouldn't lose their way and could use the map to find it.
However, looking at the extremely abstract map in her hand, and getting no answers after asking those around her, including Yu, Shuangshuang still felt it might be more reliable to move forward and hope to encounter an Intermediate Tribe for directions than relying on the map.
The team moved at a decent pace along the way, but the Mutual Market remained out of sight. Standing high on a tree to look into the distance for clues, Shuangshuang felt she might have taken the wrong path.
Even if they had gone far, Shuangshuang wasn't worried about the way back; the tribe's people were excellent at remembering paths. They avoided retracing their steps due to everyone's path-memory skills, being more reliable than Shuangshuang, who considered herself good at it but seemed to struggle a bit.
But nobody knew the location of the market, the worst part being that none could understand the abstract map. Who knew what the original mapmaker was thinking, leaving such an unintelligible map for future generations? It couldn't get worse than this.
After looking for a while without making any sense of it, Shuangshuang, feeling frustrated, climbed down the tree, sat down on the ground to eat breakfast, and after eating, she laid the incredibly abstract map on the ground again, surrounded by everyone, to study where exactly they had ended up.
As the representative of the wise men in the tribe, Yu carefully perused the map she already knew by heart from all angles, then pretended to scrutinize the scenery without giving any opinion.
Even as the Great Witch, Yu was stumped, and relying on the remaining fist-happy group was naturally futile. Shuangshuang could only lie on the grass, scratching her head, continuing to ponder how far off course she had led everyone.
The more she looked, the more uncertain she felt. Were they getting farther and farther away? Couldn't be. According to the map's route markers, they were supposed to walk along the forest, then pass a large river to continue forward.