Chapter 442 - 146: Bountiful Harvest (Part 4)
The Monster Leader’s hair was hanging loose—most monsters’ hair is sparse, even a female monster like Wooden Bowl has very little hair on her head.
But this Monster Leader’s hair was clearly more abundant.
Chen Yan watched through binoculars. After he left the house, he stood in his yard, stretched deeply, and despite the cold breath, he seemed utterly unafraid of the severe cold.
He walked to the side, picked up a long knife, and started chopping vigorously, as if he were training himself.
He practiced with the knife, performing various chopping motions, and after half an hour, the Monster Leader finally let out a breath, steaming from his mouth as he reversed the knife and stabbed it into the ground.
Two female monsters walked out of the house, approached him from the left and right, and brought over a fur cloak to drape over his shoulders.
The Monster Leader laughed loudly and then walked into the house.
Chen Yan silently observed all of this and then carefully examined the surroundings of the Monster Leader’s residence.
"Four... six... nine..."
Chen Yan silently counted.
Around the Monster Leader’s residence seemed to live the stronger monsters of the village, likely the most elite warriors of this Fierce Beast Race tribe.
Their houses were larger than those of other monsters, and they all had companions, with female monsters attending to their daily needs.
Surrounding the Monster Leader’s residence were twelve monsters that appeared very elite and robust.
Chen Yan’s criteria were based on these monsters’ attire and equipment.
Twelve monsters, all dressed not in fur coats but in leathery armor—though the style looked rough compared to that of the Monster Leader.
Moreover, they all had weapons.
Four wielding long spears, four wielding long hammers, three wielding swords, and one wielding a bow and arrow—the archer also had a short sword on his waist.
In the entire village, there were only two monsters with bows and arrows: the Monster Leader and this archer.
For Chen Yan, this was valuable information, as it meant the enemy only had two powers with ranged attacks, allowing him to make many preparations in advance.
This day, Chen Yan silently calculated the population of the village.
In total, over two hundred monsters were observed—of which seventy percent were male.
But only about fifty were adults.
The village also had over sixty slaves, all of whom were humans.
Chen Yan noticed that the situations of these human slaves were all different.
In some wealthier monster families, slaves could live in a wooden house that might have been the other party’s firewood shed.
In poorer monster families, slaves would be chained outside the house after work, squatting or sitting in the open air.
Additionally, some affluent monster families not only possessed two wooden houses but also raised Hunting Beasts, creatures that looked very much like hedgehogs. The slaves could only live with the Hunting Beasts.
They even had worse food than the Hunting Beasts.
Chen Yan was very wary of these Hunting Beasts...they had an excellent sense of smell, a lesson Chen Yan had learned when escaping.
The cave where he finally hid was almost discovered by the approaching monsters if Wooden Bowl hadn’t let him go, he might have been captured.
This day, Chen Yan also observed something.
A convoy arrived in the village from the forest road to the west.
At the front of the convoy, there were several Fierce Beast Race monsters riding horses—the horses they rode were very strange, sturdier and taller than any Chen Yan had seen, some kind of anomaly.
Leading the convoy were a few unleashed and unchained Hunting Beasts acting as scouts, moving at the front and sides of the convoy.
Six horse-drawn carriages traveled into the village.
This convoy came to purchase lumber.
After negotiating with the convoy, the Monster Leader exchanged two wagons of lumber for a wagon of living supplies, unloading some food and various tools.
The convoy stayed in the village for only half a day before departing.
Chen Yan looked in the direction the convoy left, somewhat tempted to follow and spy, curious about what lay further in this Domain Realm.
But he quickly dismissed the thought.
He was here for revenge.
And he had a very detailed plan.
After exchanging lumber obtained from cutting down forest monsters for a full wagon of various supplies, the Monster Leader quickly gathered the village monsters together.
This move gave Chen Yan a precise opportunity to observe the village population; he re-verified his prior observation data and made some corrections and additions.
The number of adult male monsters in the village increased to sixty-two.
In distributing rooms, the Monster Leader chose first, followed by twelve elite warriors, then the next tier of subpar monsters.
The weaker and smaller they were, the farther back they were in the lineup.
Sadly, even watching this village-wide distribution assembly from start to finish, Chen Yan still didn’t catch a glimpse of Wooden Bowl.
On the third day, Chen Yan still observed from the hillside west of the village.
That day, he focused his observation on the Hunting Beasts.
After a full day of observation, Chen Yan grasped a few characteristics of these Hunting Beasts.
These creatures were fierce and ran at high speed!
But their downside was their volatile temper; they even bared their teeth at their own masters—they ate a lot and loved to compete for food.
They even tried to sneak and snatch the food from human slaves.
Chen Yan confirmed that the methods of training these Hunting Beasts by the Fierce Beast Race were not sophisticated, somewhat coarse and rough.
At the end of the day, after the silence of night, Chen Yan distanced himself from the village, bypassed it from afar over the village’s exterior, heading east.
On the morning of the fourth day, Chen Yan returned to the cave he had hidden in during his escape route.
On the way, he wanted to visit the place where Du Li died, but unfortunately, he couldn’t find it.
Du Li’s body might have been carried away by a wild animal in the forest or was found by the monsters that chased him back then and then...fed to Hunting Beasts.
This Forest Monster area had wild animals, but Chen Yan hadn’t encountered any.
He speculated, perhaps because currently, it was the "polar night" phase with extreme cold weather, forcing wildlife to hide or even hibernate.
Wild animals in the forest would only resume frequent activities when the warm season arrives each year.
After returning to the cave, Chen Yan gathered some dry branches from nearby to block the cave entrance.
He stayed in the cave, ate some food and water, and began to rest.
On the fifth day, other than necessary relief, Chen Yan didn’t leave the cave.
The sixth day, the seventh day...
At a moment on the seventh day, while meditating and Nourishing the Spirit, Chen Yan suddenly felt a strong sense of falling in his body.
He immediately opened his eyes, quickly glanced at his watch on his wrist, and then clutched his backpack tightly in his arms.
The next instant, everything went black before his eyes.
Upon reopening his eyes, he found himself back in his training room at home.
Chen Yan sat quietly on the floor of the training room. Only after a full ten seconds did he release his backpack from his arms.
He stood up, and a smile gradually appeared on his face.
Yes, seven days.
It turns out...the teleportation mechanism automatically sends you back after seven days!
Very well, the teleportation mechanism was understood.
And this time, the gains were plentiful!
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