Chapter 70: Chapter 70: The Twelve Zodiacs

After a sleepless night, the people of the Crimson tribe still woke up and went to work as usual the next morning, only this time, their daily conversations featured a new perspective.

Everyone was talking about the Cinderella story, offering their personal views and engaging in incredibly lively discussions.

Sane went for an inspection round and was very satisfied with the current situation. Once Kaelen finished his work at the Priest’s place, he went to the new valley together with Kaelen.

The first house, built with bricks and sorghum molasses mortar, was completed, and the beastmen were continuing with the second house. Kaelen was quite satisfied with the current pace.

One must know that in modern times, building a large townhouse-style villa would take half a year to a full year, but here, it only took the people five days to finish building one, which was a truly remarkable speed.

At this rate, by the time spring arrived, all the tribesmen would be able to move into their new houses.

"The group from the steppe sent word that they want to come work for our tribe. I plan to have them work in the reclamation area, what do you think?"

Hearing Sane ask, Kaelen shifted his attention from the pile of sorghum molasses mortar to Sane, saying: [The reclamation area currently has enough people for now. Send the four young beastmen to the peat mining site, and let the Sub-Beast and elderly group go to the weaving and hand-knitting area.]

Sane thought for a moment and said, "Woven fabric is also a rare commodity, exposing it to them like that doesn’t seem quite right, does it?"

Kaelen smiled: [Don’t you want to test them? This is the second test.]

"Huh? Why the second?"

Kaelen turned serious: [The first test was the lice and fleas on them. It was so hard for me to deal with the people in the tribe, don’t let them get infected again. In short, before they get rid of the lice, they can forget about setting foot into the tribe!]

Sane: "..."

He was completely speechless with Kaelen...

[What? Do you have an opinion?]

"No! I absolutely have no opinion at all! You are completely right, I will prioritize that first from now on!"

Kaelen snorted, leaving the housing construction area and heading to the pottery area. Today was the day to unload the first batch of porcelain, and he wanted to see if the results were as expected. When the kiln was opened, the beastmen, wearing animal skin gloves, carefully took out each finished product under the astonished eyes of many.

Sane looked slightly stunned at the exquisite white plate with beautiful patterns in front of him. He wiped his hands completely clean before carefully picking it up to examine. The plate had a pure white color, and its pattern was a simple floral motif. Turning it over to the back, at the bottom of the plate was the familiar motif of a bird holding a flower.

Because the priests in the tribe had decided to use the motif of a bird holding a flower branch as a totem, most of the Crimson tribe’s products now featured this pattern.

Kaelen picked up a porcelain bowl, frowning to show that he was not very satisfied. The white color of the porcelain still had a slight yellowish ivory tint, and the glaze surface still had a few small air bubbles. If placed in modern times, these would all be considered scrap goods, rejected even if sold cheaply.

Where exactly did it go wrong?

"Oh my god, this is the first time I’ve seen a terracotta bowl in white! Look at this, the surface is smooth, and it feels cool to the touch!"

"Was this painted with colors? I didn’t expect terracotta could also be painted on."

The group of people working in the valley on this side all gasped in continuous admiration, gathering around the pile of porcelain to admire it, and some even knelt down to perform a thanksgiving ritual to the Beast God.

Seeing everyone like that, Kaelen found it inconvenient to dampen their mood, only trying to think about why he couldn’t fire pure white porcelain like salt. Perhaps the impurities in the kaolin clay were not filtered out completely; the next batch of porcelain would have to be done very slowly.

He used to like making pottery before, but most of the kaolin clay brought to the pottery studio had already been filtered of impurities, so he was completely unaware of what the process entailed.

In Kaelen’s life philosophy, there was no concept of giving up; he put the porcelain down and said to Sane: [Tell everyone to stop working with the white clay, I need to improve the technique.]

Sane said in surprise, "Even like this is still not good enough?"

Kaelen shook his head and did not explain to Sane. Sane also did not pry deeply; he was the one who listened to his mate the most, if Kaelen said it was not good enough, then it was not good enough. He passed Kaelen’s words to everyone, and then he was pulled out of the crowd by Kaelen, secretly walking to Kaelen’s private kiln.

[Help me open it.]

Sane helped Kaelen open the kiln door, intending to take the items inside out, but Kaelen stopped Sane. He was afraid that as soon as Sane saw the items inside, Sane would slip and break his work.

Taking a large bamboo basket with a cloth cover, Kaelen carefully took the items inside out. As he had guessed, every time he took out an item, Sane’s breathing became a bit heavier, and by the time he took out a statue with a human head and a snake body, Sane almost could not stand steady.

Kaelen found it a bit amusing, almost already guessing the facial expressions of the Priests.

What he made were the half-humanoid statues of the Twelve Zodiacs in an improved version according to the beastman world’s setting, sequentially being the Rat, Ox, Tiger, Cat, Lion (replacing the Dragon), Snake, Horse, Goat, Rabbit (replacing the Monkey), Bird (replacing the Rooster), Wolf (replacing the Dog), and Fox (replacing the Pig).

All the statues were about thirty-five centimeters tall, modeled after the appearances of the champions in Arena of Valor, with their genders and appearances altered into characteristics similar to the Sub-Beasts in this place. Behind each Sub-Beast figure statue was the beastman true form of that race.

For instance, for the Snake clan, he used the male version appearance of the champion Bright with blazing red hair, pointed ears like an elf’s, holding a Battle Axe in his hand, and a red snake tail surrounded by a ring of flickering flames. The true form behind was also a massive black Snake, with sharp barbs on the snake’s head, fiery red snake eyes, and a wide-open mouth revealing sharp fangs.

As for the Avian clan, he used the appearance of the champion Zata with white hair, golden eyes, wide-spread white wings, holding a drawn bow and arrow. Behind was the true form of a Falcon spreading its wings...

The Ox clan and Horse clan both used the Centaur imagery for their settings.

Each statue held an ornate yet sturdy weapon, expressing the most powerful state of every race.

Cold sweat broke out all over Sane’s body, and his body, which had been feeling uncomfortably hot and burning these past few days, now turned freezing cold. Oh Beast God, what is my mate doing? Is this something I can look at directly?!

Fortunately, after finishing placing the last statue into the basket, Kaelen immediately used a cloth to cover them completely. At this moment, Sane’s breathing returned to normal a little. Seeing Kaelen about to wear the basket, he hurriedly stopped Kaelen and hugged it himself.

"Where are you going to take it? Let me carry it for you."

Kaelen smiled brightly and said: [To the meeting tent.]

Sane’s footsteps staggered slightly, and he opened his mouth several times before managing to squeeze out a sentence: "They won’t be able to handle it..."

Kaelen smiled broadly, revealing his two dimples: [It’s fine, I can save them.]

Sane: "..."

Sane suddenly felt pity for the old bones of the Priest group. Who said Kaelen was kind-hearted? He holds grudges for a very long time!

The Priest group, who were sitting and grading the students’ papers, all shuddered simultaneously. They had a premonition that something bad was about to happen.

"Priest Collins, Priest Nyx, Sir Jaxon, and also Sir Talon, Sir Sane invites you all to the meeting tent in the new valley."

A beastman guard came to deliver the message, making the group of old men even more uneasy, hesitating whether they should go or not. Talon took a deep breath and said: "Let’s go. Hiding forever is not a solution, at worst we... make an excuse to drag it out a little longer."

The group of old men went to the meeting tent with the spirit of a dead pig not fearing boiling water. Sane lowered his head, feeling guilty and not daring to look at them. Kaelen was smiling radiantly, his two dimples indenting into faint lines. Every time this brat smiled like that, it was never a good thing...

Waiting for the four of them to sit neatly in a row, Kaelen then walked up to the statues covered by cloth on the table. He grabbed a corner of the covering cloth and flipped it forcefully. A row of twelve neatly arranged statues on the table was instantly revealed in front of the group of old men.

Talon’s eyes widened round, almost losing his breath and returning to the Beast God. The younger Collins’s group all slumped down on their chairs, their limbs going limp. The moment he lifted the cloth, Kaelen had released his ability to envelop them, so now even if they wanted to die or faint, they couldn’t.

Trembling as they looked at the Sub-Beast showing a beautiful smile in front of their eyes, the whole group had only one single sentence in their hearts: *Devil! This is definitely a devil!*

---

"Pfft!"

Kaelen found it so funny that he spat out all his water. He helplessly ruffled Kaelen’s hair, bit Kaelen’s ear a few times, and muttered, "You can still laugh. You are truly a little devil."

Kaelen laughed until his whole body shook, unable to stop. He couldn’t be blamed; the facial expressions of the four veterans at that time could only be described as collective constipation. But anyway, his strike was effective; they finally agreed to let him test the new warrior training method.

"That temple you talked about, do you have the detailed drawings yet? I will have people work on it first, to avoid letting those statues be seen by people with ulterior motives."

Kaelen nodded. He had already thought carefully about building a temple for the Crimson tribe. The temple must be taller than the residential area and must have a wide square for conducting rituals. He modeled it after a Catholic church, reducing the height and complexity, and increasing the width and depth. The Beast Gods in this world all had very vague appearances, with unclear races and facial features, and each large tribe had a different Beast God appearance. Kaelen planned to personally sculpt a Beast God statue unique to Crimson, using Lac Long Quan from his homeland as the model.

[Did you inform Theron yet?]

"Yes. I have also found a secret place on the other side of the valley. That place is quite spacious, I plan to use it as the training ground later on."

Kaelen nodded, suddenly saying: [I changed my mind, we are not mating alongside Cael and Elian’s group anymore.]

Sane’s calm and leisurely expression almost cracked apart, and he asked in a panic, "Why? Didn’t you already agree, why the sudden change of mind?! What did I do wrong!"

Kaelen was shaken by Sane until he felt dizzy, so he slapped Sane’s face once and said: [I want to wait until the new valley is finished building, I want to be the first couple to hold the mating ceremony at the Temple.]

So that was it. Sane breathed a sigh of relief. Even though he could not mark his territory early, being the first couple sounded really cool, and he felt that waiting a few more months was nothing impossible.

He rubbed his head against Kaelen’s body, saying:

"I am hurt, you have to compensate me for the mental damage."

Kaelen rolled his eyes. If he wants it, just say he wants it, still making excuses!

Night fell, the firelight gradually faded, and the colors of spring still lingered in the tent, making even the birds on the trees shyly cover their faces.