Yan Mo took a deep breath and gave Yuan Zhan a warm smile. “Punish you? Fine. But before that, you need to do something for the people of Yuanji.”
“What is it?” The man, blinded by lust, chose to ignore the fact that something was off about the other’s smile.
“Move those houses the dwarves built. They built them haphazardly—the orientation is one thing, but they’ve also blocked the road I’d planned. That won’t do. Urban planning and road layout are crucial; winding, narrow streets aren’t suitable for military operations or the rapid advance and retreat of large armies during emergencies. They didn’t dare build those houses to match their own height, and the craftsmanship is quite detailed—it would be a shame to just tear them down. Go over there and reorient those houses, rearranging them—including the sewers beneath them. Once it’s done, the people of Yuanji can move in tonight.”
This wasn’t difficult for Yuan Zhan, and since it concerned the future living arrangements of the people of Yuanji, he figured it wouldn’t take much time, so he agreed immediately.
“I’ll wait for you in the side wing of the council hall. Come find me once you’re done.”
Yuan Zhan hurried off to work on the houses, while Yan Mo used the time to find Wu Chen and give him a few instructions.
“First, lead everyone to the square. Take care of the wounded and have Old Wu and Wu Qing examine them thoroughly.”
“Understood.”
“Answer all their questions, and make sure to explain the tribe’s Nine Rules and Three Orders in detail.”
“Yes.”
“They are very powerful, but you’ve learned a lot from me during your time here. Show mutual respect.”
“Yes.” Wu Chen stood up straight.
Yan Mo ruffled his hair. “Tell them to eat their fill, drink their fill, and get a good night’s sleep. Meet at the square at noon tomorrow. Finally, once the chief has the houses ready, you’ll take them there to settle in. Let them decide how to divide up as they see fit. Remember to explain how to use all the facilities in the houses, and if they hesitate, remind them of the principle of fair exchange. Go on.”
Wu Chen understood. With a sense of gravity befitting a task of great importance, he walked away, step by step.
Yan Mo smiled faintly, returned to his room, and walked to a large stone slab wedged into the wall. He took a charcoal pencil and made a small mark behind the top item on the list.
The stone slab clearly listed a row of major tasks to be completed.
Yan Mo stood before the slab, thinking quietly. After a moment, he added two more items.
Soon, Yuan Zhan arrived. Yan Mo dismissed all the guards and had the main gate closed tightly.
When Yuan Zhan returned, he seemed to have taken a dip in the river, his body still damp with moisture.
He wrapped his arms around Yan Mo from behind, rubbing his face against Yan Mo’s.
Yan Mo swatted away his unshaven face with a palm, turning his head to sneer coldly, “You know full well that the Ancestral God will punish me for your indiscriminate killing, yet you still deliberately slaughtered those beasts?”
“I didn’t kill indiscriminately,” the man denied vehemently. “Everyone ate them. Since I did the killing, they didn’t have to hunt, so we could travel faster.”
“Oh, not even once?”
“…Just once. But I stopped after killing less than ten. I swear!” It was only that night that he had killed out of frustration, and he had left the beasts where they fell, not bringing any back.
Yan Mo knew that of those four minor punishments, only one was related to Yuan Zhan. If that hadn’t been the case, he would have taken Yuan Zhan out the moment he returned.
However, when he was being punished, he assumed Yuan Zhan had resorted to indiscriminate killing out of desperation and hadn’t intended to blame him. He never expected this man to confess on his own that he’d done it on purpose!
“I didn’t want the Ancestral God to punish you,” Yuan Zhan said sincerely. He really hadn’t thought much about it when he killed those beasts back then, and after killing a few, he subconsciously stopped—otherwise, not even a hundred would have been enough for him to kill.
But what could he do? He just wasn’t good with words. At the time, his only thought was that if he couldn’t sleep with Mo, he’d let Yan Mo punish him instead—it actually felt pretty good too. So he deliberately claimed he’d killed a lot of beasts in order to make Mo punish him.
But… but the way things were going now was clearly wrong!
This wasn’t even about punishment anymore—his own priest actually thought he’d tried to harm him on purpose. How could this be?!
Yuan Zhan’s expression darkened. He released his grip, turned Yan Mo to face him, and made him look him in the eyes. Speaking slowly and deliberately, he said, “I didn’t mean to harm you. I swear on my warrior spirit!”
Yan Mo punched him squarely in the bridge of the nose.
Yuan Zhan didn’t flinch or dodge; he took the punch head-on.
Blood trickled from his nose, and he casually wiped it away.
“Do you know how agonizing the punishment bestowed by the Ancestral God is? You wanted punishment, didn’t you? Lie down! I’ll let you fully experience the pain the Ancestral God has bestowed.”
Without a word, Yuan Zhan lay down on the hay.
Yan Mo slowly pulled out twelve golden needles, straddled Yuan Zhan’s abdomen, and sat down.
Yuan Zhan swallowed hard.
Yan Mo’s hand touched his abdomen, pausing and rubbing for a moment as if savoring the sensation beneath his fingers. Then his hand began to move, inch by inch, higher and higher.
His hand stopped at the man’s chest, his fingers sliding slowly.
Yuan Zhan gazed at the youth’s slightly matured face and reached out to touch him, only to have his hand pushed away.
“Ugh!” Yuan Zhan suddenly let out a muffled groan.
His Lord Priest had actually leaned down and bitten him!
Just as Yuan Zhan was unable to tell whether it was pleasure or pain, and his eyes began to redden slightly, a golden needle was inserted into an acupoint between his chest and abdomen.
Pain! An excruciating, piercing pain instantly radiated from his chest and abdomen outward.
Even Yuan Zhan couldn’t help but let out a low growl, his body twitching slightly in response.
Yan Mo lifted his head, his gaze eerie and faintly moist. Stroking the man beneath him, he spoke in a tone that was both soothing and threatening,“Be good, don’t struggle. This is only the beginning.”
Yuan Zhan stared at him.
Only after speaking did Yan Mo realize his voice had taken on an unusual quality. He had actually…!
“You… come here!” Yuan Zhan gritted his teeth against the pain. He would remember every moment of this day. When his priest turned eighteen, he would devour him until not even a bone fragment remained!
Yan Mo smiled, rewarding him with a caress before kneading the rock-hard muscles of his body.
However, switching up the roles of the attacker and the victim made all the difference. Excellent. He was sure to have a wonderful time tonight.
Yuan Zhan was torn—not because the punishment his priest had handed down differed from what he’d originally wanted, but because… should he reveal that secret to Mo? Should he?
Never mind. Let him discover it out on his own. If he doesn’t notice, then he will continue to keep it a secret.
As for whether Yan Mo actually discovered this secret—well, the night is long. Could a priest who wants to thoroughly torment his own “livestock” from start to finish possibly miss such an obvious change?
Poor Yuanji and his people—on their very first day in Jiuyuan, both the chief and the priest of Jiuyuan vanished. From the afternoon until the next morning, they weren’t seen coming out of the room off the side of the council hall.
Fortunately, there were very few fragile or sensitive souls among the Yuanji people. Zheng roughly understood Yuan Zhan’s meaning and took the initiative to lead his clan members to mingle with Daze and the others. Later, they discovered that the A’wu people not only didn’t shun them but had also prepared plenty of food and clean water for them, and some even came specifically to treat their injuries, so they naturally developed a certain degree of goodwill toward the A’wu people.
Most importantly, the boy named Wu Chen led them to the stone tents—which they called “houses”—and said that, according to the Lord Priest, these houses would now belong to them.
Gazing at the rows of neat, tall structures that radiated both safety and beauty, the Yuanji group remained silent for a long moment.
Were these stone houses really all being given to them?
Noticing the group’s disbelief, Wu Chen—who spoke the common tongue best—and Zheng added a few more words of explanation, “The Lord Priest said this is called an advance payment. One house is equivalent to five adult cows. You can pay it back gradually through your labor later on. That’s how we all do it.”
However, because the A’wu people had participated in the early construction of Jiuyuan, they could trade just three cows for a house, and many of them had already nearly paid off their debts.
Upon hearing that they had to work to earn their houses, the people of Yuanji actually felt reassured. Five cows for a house sounded a bit difficult, but since the A’wu people had said that everyone was in the same boat, how could the people of Yuanji possibly show weakness in front of them?
The people of Yuanji developed a certain fondness for the A’wu tribe, and the A’wu tribe’s impression of the people of Yuanji wasn’t bad either. They had expected these powerful warriors to be rather fierce—perhaps even ready to fight—but the people of Yuanji had been following instructions all along. Not even the children were running around, and no one asked to go up to the city walls. They were completely different from those dwarves who ran wild and disobeyed orders the moment they entered the city.
At noon the next day, the chief of Jiuyuan and the Lord Priest finally made their appearance.
In fact, early that morning, Yuan Zhan had been kicked awake by Yan Mo.
Yuan Zhan grumbled, wrapped his arms around the youth, and squeezed his legs tight, hoping to roll around in bed a little longer, but his nose—which had been injured the night before—took another blow.
When he reached out to hug the person in his arms, they were already gone—Yan Mo had gotten up and gone out to wash up.
Yuan Zhan rolled over and leaped out of bed, paying no mind to the leather skirt lying on the floor. With his muscular body on full display and his manhood swinging freely, he strode out brazenly.
Yan Mo was scooping water to rinse his mouth and brush his teeth with salt when he turned and saw that majestic figure, bathed in sunlight, resembling an ancient god.
This guy must be nearly two meters tall, right?
Despite such a solid, rugged physique, he surprisingly didn’t feel clumsy; even his footsteps were remarkably light, leaving no sound as he walked.
Yuan Zhan, whose secret had already been exposed, saw Yan Mo. Not only did he make no move to cover himself, but he even stood right next to the priest in a show of pride.
Yan Mo glanced at that thing and barely managed to suppress the urge to burst out laughing. Was this perhaps proof that the Maple Clan’s living seed had failed to take over Yuan Zhan’s body, only to be assimilated by him—yet unable to vanish completely?
“It should be able to bloom,” Yuan Zhan said, pointing to the bud he’d deliberately made appear at the tip—last night, Mo had already taught him how to control certain unruly parts of his body.
“Hmm, not bad… Pfft!” Yan Mo accidentally caught sight of the few tender leaves sprouting around the testicles, and his composure instantly crumbled. Last night, he’d laughed himself silly, only to nearly get strangled to death by a certain beast who’d been driven mad with shame and anger.
Yuan Zhan’s face darkened, and he said stiffly, “These things that shouldn’t be here will disappear!”
“No, no, no. Flowers are actually the reproductive organs of plants. This mutation of yours is a natural physiological change, and you haven’t lost any function—it’s just that the Maple Clan’s living seed has slightly embellished this area of yours.” Yan Mo struggled to suppress a smile, his facial muscles stiffening.
Yuan Zhan grabbed him by the collar and snarled, “Laugh again, and I’ll make it bloom and bear fruit inside you! I’ll fill your belly with my seeds!”
“…Cough. We don’t play the tentacle game, okay? Be a good boy.”
“What’s the tentacle game?”
Yan Mo’s expression turned serious. “Your Wood-type ability is relatively weak, but if you combine it with your earth-manipulation skills, it could yield unexpected results. I have an idea regarding the city’s defenses. I’ve been waiting for you to return to test it out. Since there’s still some time before noon, come with me for a walk outside the inner city walls.”
“Weren’t you also planted with a branch by Old Sama of the Maple Clan? Don’t you have the ability to manipulate plants now?” Yuan Zhan silently noted those three words, intending to ask Wu Chen or one of Yan Mo’s other students about them later.
Yan Mo shook his head. “My method of absorption was different from yours, and I haven’t fully figured out the details myself. But I can’t actually control plants right now—at most, I’m just more sensitive to them, and they tend to be more drawn to me.” He’d discovered this while cultivating plants.
At the time of the fusion, he’d probably been too focused on gaining offensive power. While the final result fulfilled his hopes, it also caused him to lose certain abilities.
However, Yan Mo wasn’t regretful. Although he hadn’t gained the ability to control plants, he preferred the abilities he currently possessed. Besides, given the Guide’s nature, if he used plants to attack or protect himself, the casualties among those plants might very well be counted against him.
Yan Mo didn’t want their current activities to be noticed. Yuan Zhan, having returned wearing his leather skirt, gave a mental command, and the two entered the underground passage.
The tunnels were now dry. The ground level of the inner city was significantly higher than the inner moat; had the merfolk not deliberately flushed water into the sewers, any water in the tunnels would have quickly drained into the moat.
The two made their way through the tunnels to the city’s outskirts without showing themselves, remaining underground. Yan Mo pulled a packet of seeds from his herb pouch.
“This is a rat-catching vine. It’s a specialty of the Black Forest. The Maple Clan plants it around the Child’s Pit to keep out the rodents and pests that like to gnaw on the roots of their saplings.”
“You want me to plant them beneath the city walls?”
“Yes. I’ve conducted tests and experiments. The roots of this rat-catching vine can penetrate deep into the ground, and its root system is extremely extensive and difficult to destroy. If a section is damaged, the vines will wriggle underground on their own and use new roots to repair the damaged area. Planting them beneath the city walls will not only defend against enemies but also deter those races that like to dig tunnels.”
“That will take time, and it’s only a temporary solution.”
“No. I’m asking you to plant them so you can use your ability to manipulate plants to make them grow quickly and reach great depths—ideally about thirty meters underground. Once they’re fully grown, I’ll use my own communication abilities to ensure that when the rat-catching vines are attacked, they can convey information to the defenders.”
