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

Chapter 189 Autumn Hunt Team Formation
Yuheng briefly mentioned the matter of the Fengshan Wood seed to Shi Ruoan, and then added, "If you find the Purple Rainbow Continuation Grass, go find the White Bone Immortal Mushroom immediately. Don't waste time because of the Fengshan Wood."

Yu Heng was worried that Ling Chengen's request would influence Shi Ruoan's judgment.

He had inquired and found that Ling Chengen was not in a hurry to use the Fengshan wood seeds, so even if she didn't find the seeds this time, it wouldn't affect her long-term plan.

However, Shi Panxing's physical condition couldn't wait. The sooner the remaining two medicinal herbs were sent back, the less Shi Panxing would suffer and the greater his chances of survival.

The next morning, before dawn, Shi Ruoan went straight into the water and set off.

She didn't have time to think about whether Shi Ruoan could bring the medicinal herbs back, because she quickly got busy herself as well.

Chang Tianchen had driven the rat tribe to the northeastern part of the Mulan Plain. Under the ever-shrinking encirclement, all the rat orcs had no choice but to send representatives to surrender to Chang Tianchen.

Because of the Serpent Clan's tough and ruthless approach during this period, the Rat Clan eventually had to accept that from now on, the deceased members of the clan must be cremated before being buried, and their ashes cannot be buried indiscriminately but must be placed in designated areas.

At the same time, the rats need to relocate their territory to make way for the first beast city on the Mulan Plain.

The rat-beastmen's living conditions are precarious, so Ling Chengen does not intend to completely drive them out of the Mulan Plain, but rather to keep them under his watchful eye.

In this way, the rat-race orcs can participate in city building, receive corresponding daily rations, and gradually get along with other orc races, eventually being accepted by them.

Chongzhen's visit came in handy.

He was surprisingly good at handling these tedious and cumbersome tasks. He first had the orcs of the snake tribe oversee things from the sidelines and help him compile statistics on the current population of each rat tribe, conducting a complete census.

Ling Chengen thought about the population census and the establishment of a household registration system for a long time and felt that they were still very necessary.

Moreover, after the establishment of household registration, each tribe of the rat tribe will eventually be divided into village units according to their final place of residence.

Currently, the rat tribes are concentrated in the northeastern part of the Beast Plains. Ling Chengen does not plan to move them for the time being. Once the Beast City is almost fully built, he will consider incorporating them into the Beast City based on their contributions.

If the rat tribe still has many problems that cannot be resolved, then we can only relocate some of them and let the rest settle in the outer city.

Bai Qingyu was also helping Chongzhen with matters concerning the rat clan, and even took the time to make a few wooden tables so they could work in the cave.

Yuheng transformed the simple cave into a secluded garden room, perfect for recuperation and rest.

Chongzhen rearranged the light grass on the table, picked up the charcoal pencil, and continued to sort through the list. He frowned and said somewhat dejectedly, "These rats... there are too many people with the same name. This can't go on."

Ling Chengen passed by him, placed a plate of cool melons beside him, and glanced at the list in front of him: "Let's keep the statistics like this for now. It's not just the Rat Clan that has duplicate names; other tribes are in similar situations as well."

In their Shilin area alone, there are twenty or thirty mountains named Dashan.

The names of the rat-race orcs are mostly single characters, and sometimes they are even just a strange syllable. Using only the script taught by Ling Chengen, it is not even possible to accurately distinguish these single-character syllables at first.

So Ling Chengen taught Chongzhen another set of alphabet usages, but Chongzhen felt it wasn't very useful, so he made some innovations and improvements on it.

For example, there are three or four orcs whose names are pronounced "Hu". However, the pronunciation of "Hu" in these three or four people's names is slightly different. Some people's "hu" has a very short ending sound, while others' has a very long one. Therefore, Chongzhen simply uses "huu" to replace the length of the ending sound in their names for easy differentiation.

However, as it turns out, this method doesn't work very well either.

Because accents and dialects are a real headache.

Therefore, it is absolutely imperative for the entire rat-orc race to change their names and register again after the population census is completed.

The census and household registration alone nearly drove the usually confident Chongzhen to the brink of madness and collapse.

He hadn't expected this matter to be so tedious and so difficult to handle.

From the start of the census to the final completion of household registration and the change of names to common characters, it took almost half a month.

This was under the condition that the rat orcs were highly obedient to the snake orcs' arrangements.

The day Chongzhen finished her work, she felt like her soul had floated away. She lazily lay in the rattan hanging chair that Yuheng had made for Ling Chengen and sighed deeply: "I'm finally done. You should let someone else handle this from now on."

Ling Chengen sat cross-legged on the wooden stump opposite him, smiling as he said, "That won't do. You took the lead this time, and no one has as much experience as you. When Hanji has some free time, you can conduct another survey and registration for Shilin and Yaoluo. You can also guide others then, so that you can delegate this task to others in the future."

Upon hearing this, Chongzhen clutched his chest, heartbroken, and exclaimed, "I can't take it anymore! You've really taken advantage of me!"

Ling Chengen grabbed a peach from the table and threw it into his arms: "Alright, stop joking. I have something serious to tell you."

Chongzhen leaned back in the hammock, looked up and asked, "What's wrong? Did you run into trouble building the city?"

Ling Chengen shook his head: "Not really."

"I'd like to discuss with you the design of the city's underground drainage system."

"Didn't I design the city's drainage system before? Why can't it be used?"

Ling Chengen waved to him and jumped down from the log: "I had an earth-type ability user make a model of the underground drainage system for Beast City that you designed before, and then tested its effectiveness."

"The problem is quite serious."

Chongzhen jumped off the rattan chair and followed her to the stream.

A scaled-down model of the Beast City has appeared by the stream, and several streams have even been diverted from the stream to imitate the existing rivers and underground rivers on the Mulan Beast Plain.

Ling Chengen cleared away the mud blocking the riverbed and, without saying a word, let him see for himself.

“I have roughly calculated the peak water flow of the two rivers during the rainy season. Based on this year’s rainy season flood peak, the underground drainage system you built will not be able to withstand the peak. The entire city will be flooded, and it will last for several days before the water in the inner city can be completely drained after the flood peak passes.”

"This year's rainy season is quite severe, but it hasn't reached an extreme level yet. If we encounter an exceptionally long rainy season... the entire Beast City will be submerged in water. As for when the water in the inner city will be drained, we can only rely on the weather and the floodwaters returning to normal levels."

Chongzhen squatted in front of the miniature model of the beast city, watching as many houses built of mud were quickly deformed and collapsed under the scouring of the water. The entire planned inner city road was completely flooded.

He said with a serious expression, "The terrain of the Mulan Plain is low and flat, unlike the highlands which are conducive to drainage."

"The water levels of the two nearby rivers will determine whether the Beast City will be flooded, and the drainage system can only be used normally when the water level is not higher than the ground level of the inner city."

"To permanently resolve this situation... the only solution is to raise the city walls, right?"

Ling Chengen shook his head and said, "This project is too big; raising the entire structure is not practical."

Chongzhen pondered for a moment, then rested his chin on his hand and said with a focused gaze, "If we can't change Beast City, we can only start with the Two Rivers."

"What about diversion?"

Ling Chengen looked down for a moment, then nodded and said, "Okay."

"We could also consider dredging the silt from the bottom of the two rivers, which would help control the water level."

Chongzhen immediately clasped his hands together and said, "That is indeed a solution."

Ling Chengen squatted down opposite him and pointed to the model: "But I still want to redesign an underground drainage system before building the city."

Ling Chengen handed him the blueprints in his arms: "These are the drawings I made over the past few days."

This drainage system was modeled after the most advanced urban drainage system from my previous life, so the scale of the project was much larger than the one designed by Chongzhen.

Chongzhen's drainage system is only a dozen meters underground.

But this drainage system is actually an underground palace. In a purely human-powered era, she wouldn't have considered this solution.

Because the most powerful system in my previous life took more than a century to build manually.

But the Beast World is a world with superpowers, and earth-type superpowered beastmen are the chosen ones for infrastructure. Although it will take a lot of time to build this underground palace-style drainage system, she also has rat-type beastmen who are very good at digging holes.

The rat-tribe orcs dug the tunnels according to the blueprints, and the other mutant orcs reinforced and adjusted them accordingly. It would be done very quickly.

Moreover, the rat tribe itself had dug a network of tunnels underground. Once these tunnel routes were identified, they could be utilized. Unsafe or unsuitable tunnels could be filled in or sealed off, while usable tunnels could be further expanded and excavated, saving time, effort, and worry.

Chongzhen studied the blueprints for a long time and exclaimed in amazement, "It is indeed much more reasonable than my design. If the internal structure of this drainage system can be experimentally structured according to your idea, it can be used for a very long time."

Using it for several hundred years is definitely not a problem; if the two rivers don't change course, they could even last for a thousand years.

"You've been overseeing the construction all this time, haven't you? Since we already have complete blueprints and plans, we can just follow those. Why did you have to tell me all of this again?"

Ling Chengen smiled, resting his chin on his hand, "The original blueprints were designed by you. If I need to make changes, I need to formally tell you, since you've put in a lot of effort. I don't want you to feel resentful towards me about this."

Chongzhen rolled up the blueprints, shook his head helplessly, and said, "It's not that bad! I was trained by you, so I know your capabilities."

"I do need to improve my skills in this area. After all, I only learned it in a few months, so it won't be so smooth when I encounter a real situation."

Seeing that he had handed the blueprints back, Ling Chengen waved his hand and said, "Take these blueprints. I want to entrust you with the task of supervising the modification of the underground drainage system."

Chongzhen's hand holding the blueprints froze, and her eyelids twitched violently twice: "So, what are you going to do?"

Ling Chengen smiled and said, "I need to think about something else, and the autumn hunt is coming soon. I plan to lead a team out this time."

Orcs discover less than one percent of the food available in nature. Many edible things are ignored because they look strange or are plants buried deep underground, as they only pursue prey and meat.

However, the reproduction and survival of organisms are governed by their own cyclical nature. Relying solely on the prey caught in the autumn hunt to survive the entire long winter is nothing short of a pipe dream.

Chongzhen stared intently and said, "Why don't you stay here to oversee the construction, and I'll lead the team?"

Ling Chengen shook his head and said, "You're not ready yet."

A seventh-tier earth-type ability is still too low.

Shigeaki is not good at fighting, so he is better suited to the job of staying behind to manage and support logistics.

“You’re only at the ninth level…” Chongzhen was still somewhat unconvinced.

Ling Chengen raised an eyebrow and smiled, "Who told you I'm still at the ninth level?"

She's not that useless. Almost half a year has passed; even if she were useless, her abilities wouldn't have remained unchanged.

Chongzhen stood up, shocked, and asked, "What level are you at now?"

Ling Chengen smiled mysteriously: "I won't tell you."

"Anyway, you definitely can't catch up with me, so just follow your own pace and work hard."

……

The scorching dry season finally ended in early August.

Ling Chengen checked the temperature curve in the system's weather forecast.

In early August, the daily high temperature in Beihuang had already dropped below 38 degrees Celsius.

Although the temperature is still slightly high at midday, it's not so high that going out for a run would cause heatstroke.

And the largest hunting season of the year has officially begun in the Northern Wilderness.

The autumn hunts in the Northern Wilderness are quite unique.

Each tribe has its own fixed autumn hunting route, and they are unlikely to run into each other. If they do run into each other, they will fight first, and the winning team will stay, while the losing team will find another way out.

Autumn hunting routes are generally the migration routes of prey.

Because temperatures drop rapidly in the north after August, prey usually migrate from north to south.

The Northwest region has the fewest prey species, while the Southeast region will have an increasing number of prey species.

Therefore, the destination of the autumn hunt for various tribes is basically the southeastern region of the northern wilderness.

When Ling Xiao heard his eldest daughter mention leading a team to participate in the autumn hunt, he simply glanced at her calmly and then assigned her a small team.

Ling Xiao was organizing his equipment. He and Ling Chengen were not taking the same route, and he did not intend to bring Ling Chengen with him or keep him under his watchful eye.

He simply asked calmly, "Who do you plan to take with you on this autumn hunt?"

"Yuheng? Or that kid Ayu?"

Ling Chengen pondered, "Su Weihua and Bai Qingyu, their combat strength is good, and I feel that if they are lucky this autumn hunt, they will be able to break through soon."

Ling Xiao nodded: "These two are fine. Let Yuheng come back. When we go out hunting, the tribe's defenses will be weak. To prevent some tribes that don't know martial ethics from disguising themselves as nomadic orc groups to launch surprise attacks and robberies, it would be more appropriate for him to come back and oversee things."

Ling Chengen nodded and smiled, "Father, don't worry, I've already spoken to him about this. We don't need him on the Mulan Plain for the time being, so he should be back tonight."

Ling Xiao nodded, packed his things, and when he saw Ling Chengen turn to leave, he suddenly remembered something, called her back, searched for a long time in a box in the corner, and finally handed her a weapon.

"Here's a newly forged short gun for you. The materials used this time are quite expensive, so handle it with care. Don't break it again in no time; it's a real hassle to repair!"

Ling Xiao tossed the formidable-looking short gun into her hand, waved his hand, and said, "Go on, go on. I'm leaving first thing tomorrow morning. If you need anything, just talk to those guys and figure it out yourself."

Ling Chengen put away his weapon and asked, "Father, your autumn hunt lasts so long, and the prey will keep increasing. What will you do with it then?"

Ling Xiao chuckled: "You think you're the only one with a spatial ability? Although such things are rare, they're not impossible to find. As long as you pay a high price and have a bit of luck, you can always get one."

The Stone Forest tribe has a spatial container that has always been in Ling Xiao's possession, but not many people know about it.

Ling Xiao is a very discreet person, unlike the Su Kang couple of the Snow Wolf tribe. After becoming the tribe chiefs, that couple acted in a high-profile manner, as if afraid that others would not know how powerful they were, and they had a lot of good things in their possession.

Ling Xiao and Su Kang have completely opposite personalities.

Even if he had a special ability, he didn't intend to make it known to all the tribes outside. The impression he gave to the surrounding tribes was that he was ruthless, taciturn, and powerful in combat.

Ling Xiao's clansmen were highly obedient and extremely respectful of him, and they were also very tight-lipped.

He managed the tribe diligently, always leading the hunt in a proper and orderly manner, and when they returned, he would honestly have the orcs carrying the prey back with them.

But in reality, Ling Xiao's personality isn't exactly honest.

On the contrary, he is very cunning.

Otherwise, they wouldn't have suffered such a great loss when the four forces besieged them.