The wicked female is extremely fierce, but she's pampered by her seven beast husbands.

Chapter 183 Construction of the Ice Cellar
Chongzhen's voice was very soft, as if he was worried about waking the family members who were still resting. He walked slowly to Ling Chengen and asked, "Why are you back so late? Why aren't you resting? Why are you going out?"

"I slept all day, so I'm not sleepy right now."

Ling Chengen glanced at the cave where Ling Xiao was, beckoned to him, and gestured for him to go somewhere else to talk.

Chongzhen followed her away from the rocky beach, and the two walked side by side on the road, heading towards the patrol team's rest point by the faint, pale blue moonlight.

On the way, Ling Chengen briefly explained his plans, then tilted his head and asked in confusion, "You don't need to come with me. Just go back and rest first."

Chongzhen shook his head: "I haven't been going out much lately, so I'm not very tired."

"If you want to dig a cellar, it's simple, I can help you with that."

Chongzhen enhanced his abilities during the beast tide and is now a seventh-tier warrior. He only needs to dig a small cellar to store ice for his prey; it's not like he's moving mountains or filling seas, so it doesn't take much effort at all.

"The patrol and guard teams have their own missions, so there's no need to look for them. Where do you want to dig?"

Ling Chengen thought about it briefly and agreed with his point. After standing there for a while, he asked, "Where do you think would be the most suitable location for this ice cellar?"

Chongzhen paused for a moment, then quickly gave his answer: "Any area in the northwest of the tribe is fine. Don't place it too far out; it's not safe that way."

"Just position it between the areas inhabited by the Yaoluo and Shilin orcs, that should be fine."

After the Yaoluo tribe was incorporated, the population of Shilin increased directly. Correspondingly, the center of life of the entire tribe gradually shifted from the cub-rearing area near the square to the northwest highlands.

Ling Chengen adopted his suggestion and they headed northwest together.

Finally, the two defined a location that happened to be very close to the treehouse where Syd and Felicity's family lived.

Just as Chongzhen was about to use his supernatural ability to dig a hole, the forest wolf beastman Said silently poked his head out of the tree hole. He looked at the two of them from a distance for a while, and only after confirming that it was Ling Chengen and Chongzhen did he feel at ease and boldly walk out of his house. He asked in confusion, "Young clan leader, what are you doing so late?"

"We're digging a cellar, planning to build a small ice cellar in the tribe so we can temporarily store the game we hunt."

Saide paused for a few seconds, scratched the back of his head, and said, "But our tribe doesn't have such a rare ability as ice, right? Are we supposed to mine ice from the very top of Cold Mountain and carry it down?"

Ling Chengen shook his head and said, "I recently rescued an ice-type ability user, and he gave me a lot of ice. I just wanted to dig out the cellar and make it into an ice cellar before the ice melts."

Upon hearing this, Said immediately understood and said, "Then I'll lend a hand too."

Ling Chengen waved his hand: "Go back and rest. We'll try to keep things quiet. Let Fei Li and the cubs rest in peace."

Seeing that Ling Chengen really didn't need his help, Sai De could only return to the tree hole, looking back every few steps.

After Chongzhen selected the location of the cellar entrance, he looked up and asked, "There should be a difference between digging an ice cellar and a cellar. An ice cellar contains ice, and even if the ice melts slowly, water will still accumulate. A drainage system should be installed."

"And the insulation effect of the soil layer... probably won't be very good. To achieve the preservation for as long as you mentioned, wouldn't it be necessary to use a thicker bluestone wall, and the wall needs to be of a certain thickness to truly achieve insulation?"

Ling Chengen, who was sitting on a rock nearby, was stunned for several seconds after being asked this question. He then raised his hand and slapped his forehead, saying with annoyance, "I almost forgot if you hadn't mentioned it."

She was being too naive and oversimplified things.

Ice cellars do require design. She had heard of the key points Chongzhen mentioned before, but she didn't remember them in enough detail.

She immediately started tapping the system in her mental domain, asking if she could use her points to exchange for a structural blueprint of an ancient ice cellar.

The system babbled for a while, then shook its head and said, "The previous city-building blueprints were rewards for completing tasks. Now that you're slacking off on the main quests, you naturally won't get any new task rewards."

"Also, I'm just a romance system, not an infrastructure system. So the items you can redeem in the shop are mainly related to sweet romance. And even if the shop really does release the things you want most, redeeming these cross-domain items will require a lot of points."

"Look at your pathetic points..."

Do you think it's enough?

Ling Chengen, mocked by the system, didn't want to talk. He quickly browsed the store and, finding no blueprints or similar items, decisively disconnected from the system, completely severing his connection with it.

She squatted down in front of Chongzhen, watching him holding a thin stick and drawing intently on the ground. She said with a headache, "I really don't know about this. Can you figure it out yourself?"

Chongzhen didn't give her any guarantees, but said seriously, "I can try, try a few more times, and maybe I can achieve the effect you want. But it's probably not possible to do it all in one night."

Hearing this, Ling Chengen breathed a sigh of relief: "No need to rush, just do what you think is best. If it really doesn't work... I'll ask Shi Ruoan for some more ice later."

It saved two lives of those sea-folk orcs, all it took was some ice... not too much.

While drawing, Chongzhen asked curiously, "Who exactly is Ruo'an at this moment?"

“A sea creature.” Ling Chengen sat cross-legged on the ground opposite him, resting his chin on his hands, and said, “A male merman, whom I encountered outside Huangyan Beast City.”

Chongzhen paused, her hand gripping the branch, and looked up with sharp eyes: "Bai Qingyu took you to Huangyan Beast City?"

Ling Chengen felt a little guilty and silently avoided his gaze: "It was my own idea to go."

"If he doesn't lead the way, where will you go?" Chongzhen's tone was a bit sarcastic, but seeing that she was not convinced and still wanted to defend Bai Qingyu, he changed his words and said, "Huangyan Beast City is not a good place. Even if you and Bai Qingyu are both ninth-level warriors, you shouldn't just go to the Southern Beast Plains without saying a word."

"I know, I know."

Ling Chengen rubbed his ears: "Yuheng has already scolded him."

"Please forgive me. I won't do it again after this experience."

Chongzhen raised his hand and poked her forehead, then snorted coldly, "You're incredibly bold. Every time you make a promise, you never actually do what you say you will."

Ling Chengen rolled his eyes at him, slapped his fingers away, and said in an annoyed tone, "You've gone against the grain! Now you're trying to tell me what to do, huh? Don't you remember who's the boss in this family, or are you just confused? Do I need to set the rules for you again?"

Looking at Chongzhen's self-righteous yet arrogant demeanor, he was speechless for a moment, yet also wanted to laugh.

"Your boss, your boss, is that enough?"

Chongzhen lowered her eyes and asked, "Did you bring any light-giving grass? Bring one out and let it shine on me."

Seeing that he quickly surrendered and admitted defeat, Ling Chengen secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

"I forgot to bring any grass, I'll go back and get some. You wait here."

Ling Chengen jumped up from the ground, patted the dust off his backside, and ran briskly towards home.

After Ling Chengen brought the light grass back, he placed it around him and also brought him paper and pen.

There is still very little paper in the house. It is mainly used by Ling Chengen and Chongzhen, and very little is used by others.

Because Ling Chengen usually has a lot of things to record and plan, while Chongzhen focuses on construction, so he usually draws a lot of blueprints.

His handwriting may not be very good, but his drawing skills have indeed improved by leaps and bounds.

Ling Chengen was too bored staying by his side, so he took the unprocessed prey to the stream and skinned it.

After daybreak, take it to the tribe and have the experienced orcs re-tannify and process it. Store it as a reserve resource that will be of great use during the cold season.

Because there were too many prey, Ling Chengen was busy all night but still couldn't finish processing them.

Killing the animals is simple, but processing the fur and internal organs is incredibly tiring. In the end, she became somewhat withdrawn and just wanted to delegate the work to someone else.

Fortunately, after daybreak, someone finally came to relieve her.

Ling Xiao had just gotten up when he saw Ling Chengen squatting downstream in the stream. After a quick wash, he picked up several bone blades of varying lengths and shapes and took over the work from Ling Chengen. "You've been working on this all night, and this is all you've got?" Ling Xiao looked at the entrails piled in the bucket, sniffed them, and frowned. "These prey have been dead for a day, haven't they? Why are you only starting to process them now?"

After explaining the source of the prey, Ling Chengen slumped onto a rock without any regard for appearances and couldn't help but complain in a low voice, "I'm really not good at this kind of thing, Father... you've come at the right time, I'll leave these tasks to you, I'm going to rest for a while."

Seeing her acting spoiled, Ling Xiao couldn't help but chuckle and said, "How old are you? You can't even handle a piece of skin. What are you going to do in the future?"

Ling Chengen shrugged and said, "I'll just leave it at that. I don't know how, but the rest of the family does."

"Besides, there are things I know that they might not know either."

Ling Xiao thought about it and realized that what she said made sense.

Wasn't that the same idea he had when he chose a beastly husband for his eldest daughter?

Enen's personality is a bit like a boy's; she's someone who can't sit still or stay idle.

She wasn't very good at things like sewing clothes, tanning animal hides, or twisting hemp and weaving straw mats. She was incredibly clumsy and awkward when she did them, as if she wanted to fight with the things she was working with.

In this respect, Ling Xiao really had no expectations for her.

Ling Xiao squatted by the stream, watching her throw out more than a dozen prey from her spatial storage. With one hand, she hung the prey, weighing over a thousand pounds, on a tree trunk. In her right hand, she held a small, sharp bone blade and smoothly peeled off the animal hides from head to tail, all while still managing to chat with her eldest daughter behind her.

"By the way, what did you and Chongzhen do last night?"

"He's still figuring out how to dig an ice cellar. He'll come back and call me when he's done."

"When the time comes, we will pile these processed game and ice together in the ice cellar, which should allow us to preserve the fresh meat for a short period of time."

Ling Xiao said thoughtfully, "Your idea is indeed a good one, but our tribe doesn't have any people with such special abilities as ice."

Ling Chengen put his hands behind his head and closed his eyes as he replied, "That's easy. We don't necessarily need ice warriors. We can build ice cellars early on, and when the cold season comes each year, we can mine the frozen river ice and move it directly into the ice cellars. That way, we can achieve freedom to use ice the following year."

Ling Xiao turned to look at Ling Chengen, who was resting with his legs crossed. A look of surprise flashed across his face, followed by a broad smile. He said, "You're really clever. This is a great idea. This way, when the weather gets really hot, any leftover game won't go to waste, saving a lot of meat and grain over the year..."

The tribe's hunting teams go out hunting regularly, but it's impossible for them to always catch enough prey to meet the tribe's population needs for a period of time. Sometimes there will be more prey, and sometimes there will be less.

If there are fewer hunters, there certainly won't be enough to eat, so everyone will control their intake at each meal to ensure they don't starve.

But if you hunt too many, the fresh meat won't keep.

There was no salt powder before, let alone the conditions for making salted meat...

These meat supplies, which cannot be resolved in a short period of time, will ultimately be wasted.

It's especially heartbreaking to see.

After all, that food was earned by the soldiers with their lives.

Having an ice cellar can indeed solve the problem of food waste caused by excess food.

It's definitely something we can do, and we should do it well.

Although it's possible to store things on land in Hanshan, it's still on someone else's territory, and everyone has to get their consent.

This can only be done if both parties have a good relationship and the other party is of reliable character.

However, they did offer them a benefit by using the cold caves above the Hanshan tribe to store food.

If their own tribe can build ice cellars, then they don't need to pay extra fees to other tribes.

"Can Chongzhen manage on his own? Why don't you find a few more reliable people to help him?"

Ling Chengen opened his eyes, turned his head to look at Ling Xiao who was throwing the skin off to the side, and said with a smile, "Father, there really aren't many people in the tribe who can use their brains better than Chongzhen."

"If he can't handle it, then maybe no one in our tribe can."

Ling Xiao couldn't help but chuckle, "You seem to have a lot of confidence in that kid."

Ling Chengen said smugly, "The skills he's learning now were taught to him by me."

Ling Xiao raised an eyebrow and asked, "So where did you learn that?"

Ling Chengen smiled and said mysteriously, "Then we have to thank the Beast God for his favor."

Ling Xiao shook his head helplessly: "I know you have a lot of secrets. You keep your superpowers a secret, and I'm too lazy to ask about those strange things."

"But whatever you do, you still need to be careful. Especially with the matter of bloodline reversion, the process is still very dangerous. Don't try to do it alone in secret. If something goes wrong... you might lose your life."

"Father, what is the nature of your bloodline atavism?"

Ling Xiao thought for a moment, shook his head and did not answer her question, but only smiled and said: "Everyone's luck is different and their opportunities are different. The matter of bloodline reversion is very accidental and mysterious. Even I can't say for sure."

"Some people revert to their ancestral ways, without much change, but it feels like they have an extra, strange memory."

"Some people experience a drastic change when they revert to their ancestral traits; they become completely different people before and after the reversion..."

Hearing him say this, Ling Chengen already knew why Ling Xiao had never suspected her.

To be precise, Ling Xiao had no doubt that she was not his biological daughter.

Because it is difficult for a person to understand some concepts that have never appeared in their life.

Just like Ling Xiao had never heard of the concept of "soul transmigration".

Therefore, there is no possibility that she will be exposed.

Ling Xiao attributed everything about her that seemed illogical to the awakening of her supernatural abilities and the reversion of her bloodline to her ancestral form.

Ling Chengen watched Ling Xiao's busy figure and sighed softly in his heart.

It seems there's nothing she can do, and she can't help Ling Xiao salvage anything.

At most, it will just continue to develop naturally.

In all her plans, telling Ling Xiao the truth was not an option.

She could no longer leave the beast world and could only survive using this identity. Naturally, she did not want to create unnecessary trouble for herself during this crucial period when she had not yet grown up.

Ling Chengen sat up from the ground and said leisurely, "Father, what would you like to eat today? I'll make it for you."

Ling Xiao asked in surprise, "Really?"

"Replacement guaranteed."

"There are so many things I want to eat."

The eldest daughter's cooking skills are truly exceptional, far surpassing those two rascals, Chongzhen and Yu Shaochen. However, as the weather gets warmer, she's become less inclined to spend time in front of the stove...

This time we're going to squeeze them dry, so that we don't miss out on another chance to feast.