I've been transported to the orc continent.

Chapter 220 Digging Sweet Grass

The beastmen are all quite busy right now, so Bai Ling's family didn't ask any of their tribesmen to help with building the house. In addition to the family, there were two experienced builders and more than a dozen beastmen from other tribes.

Bai Ling led his men to build the houses in the backyard first. These were for the livestock to live in. They were all made of mud bricks, and the roofs didn't need tiles. Rafters were placed on the beams, and on the rafters were smaller pieces of wood. On the wood were straw mats, and on the straw mats was mud.

Bai Ling built several livestock sheds. He now has quite a few livestock: nine sheep, six horned beasts, seven gnats, three round-horned beasts, and three long-eared beasts. Two of the ewes are constantly nursing. Bai Ling wanted to get some sheep milk to eat in the winter, so he never let the ewes stop producing milk.

Bai Ling's family was going to build four livestock sheds. When building them, windows and doors had to be left in the sheds. When winter came and it got coldest, Bai Ling would hang straw curtains on the doors and windows.

The livestock shed was relatively simple and was completed in three days. This was only because the roof construction took some time; otherwise, it would have been even faster.

The houses built for silkworms are more complicated. The outer layer is made of bricks, the inner layer is made of adobe, and the roof is made of tiles. Otherwise, it would be troublesome if rainwater fell into the silkworm room when raising silkworms.

The silkworm rearing room consisted of two rooms without a wall separating them. After the room was built, Bai Ling whitewashed the walls with lime powder and plastered the floor with cement. Silkworms love cleanliness, so Bai Ling tried her best to keep it as clean as possible.

After the house was built, Bai Ling led people to demolish and rebuild the iron smelting workshop. The iron furnace would definitely not stop in winter, and the iron smelting workshop was not enough. After Bai Ling demolished it, he expanded it outward on the original foundation, and now the iron smelting workshop can accommodate more people to forge iron.

Other areas, such as the carpentry workshop, brick and tile workshop, lime and cement workshop, and glass workshop, are open to orcs from other tribes. However, orcs from other tribes are not allowed to approach the ironworks.

Zhan said, "The skill of iron smelting will eventually be taught to the orcs of other tribes, but let's postpone it for now and teach it to them next year or the year after."

Zhan's face was full of smiles: "If they don't bring out their best, we can't teach them the iron smelting technology."

*

Winter is approaching, and the tribe already has enough food stored. Each household has stored the grains they have grown, as well as the dried meat and wild vegetables distributed by the tribe. The tribe also has a lot of food stored, and the dried meat is enough for the beastmen to eat until the New Year. However, the beastmen are still making the most of their time to hunt and gather, hoping to store as much food as possible before winter arrives.

Father went hunting, Father went to the Red Rock Tribe, and Yue also went out hunting, leaving only Bai Ling and Chen at home. The two decided to dig up the Sweet Grass.

When winter comes, the ground freezes, and it will be troublesome to dig it up then. We have to dig up the sweet grass before winter comes.

Sweet grass has two methods of reproduction. One is by seed. A small white flower will bloom in the middle of its leaves. After the flower falls, black seeds will form. The seeds are about the size of a date pit and are wrapped in a grayish-green pericarp.

Another method is propagation by division. In spring, small branches will grow from the base of the leaves of the sweet grass. Cut off these small branches and plant them in the soil, and they will grow into new sweet grass.

Bai Ling carefully picked the seeds of the sweet grass before starting to dig.

When digging up sweet grass, the two brothers were very careful. They would not dig directly at the roots of the sweet grass, but would first dig away the soil around the sweet grass, and then slowly dig away the soil at the roots of the sweet grass, for fear that the iron shovel in their hands would touch the sweet grass and damage it.

Because they were being too careful, the two brothers didn't dig very fast, and it took them most of the day to dig up the sweet grass they had planted on the mountain.

To make it easier to transport the dug-up sweet grass back, Bai Ling simply transformed into its beast form, tied all the baskets to its body, and ran quickly with its younger brother, soon returning to the tribe.

As soon as they entered the tribe, the brother was blocked by a group of cubs. These cubs varied in size. The smaller ones were newborns in the tribe this year, and when they stood up, they only reached the thighs of the white-haired humanoid figure. The larger ones were over a meter tall just standing there. Although they were called cubs, they were actually children over ten years old.

A group of cubs squatted on the road that Bai Ling and Chen always took home. When they saw the two brothers return, they all rushed over and hugged the white lion's two front paws, tilting their heads up and opening their round eyes to act cute.

A few of the more cunning cubs simply stuck out their tongues and licked Bai Ling's two front legs.

Licking fur is a way for beastmen to express intimacy, and it only happens between relatives and partners. These cubs used this method to express their affection for Bai Ling, hoping to get a sweet grass from her.

The white lion opened its mouth, making a gurgling sound in its throat. It lowered its head and touched the two cubs it was holding, then let out two "roars" and lay down on the ground.

Chen jumped off her brother, untied a basket, and said with a grin, "Alright, two sweet grasses for everyone, come over here and get them."

As soon as Chen spoke, the cub immediately abandoned Bai Ling and ran to Chen.

Chen distributed sweet grass to each cub. The older cubs immediately found a place to transform into human form and then came over to hug their share of sweet grass, refusing to let go.

Chen packed the sweet grass meant for the cubs into two baskets, adding a few extra stalks, and then said, "Alright, take this sweet grass back with you and have the beastmen watching over you wash it. The extra sweet grass is for the beastmen who cook."

The children were of varying ages. The two oldest children, carrying baskets on their backs, thanked Bai Ling and Chen and ran quickly toward the square.

This place isn't far from the plaza, and the orcs cooking in the plaza can see what's happening here at a glance. This is also the farthest the cubs can go.

The older children can play outside by themselves for a while, but the younger cubs cannot leave the sight of the beastmen.

Bai Ling and Chen grew up in the same way. When they were little, they were watched over by the old orcs in the tribe. When they were seven or eight years old, they could play around the square. When they were teenagers, they could be taken by older children to play around the tribe.

*

The sweet grass that we dug up was first dried in the yard. Chen looked at the sweet grass and his mouth watered. He really wanted to eat another one, but he had already eaten several today and couldn't eat any more.

The two brothers dried the sweet grass in the yard, then went to dig up more sweet grass. They hadn't dug up the sweet grass planted on the flat ground yet, so they had to hurry and dig it up.