Chapter 2103: 876, 50,000 miles, transaction_2
Some were loosely organized, without the protection of divine beasts, belonging to the human race, while others were tribes curious about the Blazing Prairie Tribe.

Zhu Rong and his group ignored these people, merely advancing the army toward Bu Taishan.

The caravan was not fast, and only after a month did they catch sight of the continuous mountains in the distance.

“Chieftain, I have brought some tribespeople from Bu Taishan and several managing Ritual Masters,” a group of Blazing Prairie Tribe members clad in soft armor came to welcome the army, with the leading man reporting loudly.

This man, who possessed divine patterns and control of power, was Zhaoling, a warrior from the Blazing Prairie Tribe and a confidant of Zhu Rong.

Brave men naturally worship other brave men.

And strong individuals attract each other.

“You have worked hard,” Zhu Rong nodded and looked towards those human beings who were dressed similarly to how he once was.

The thick fur robes, and in their hands wooden staffs, stone knives, their faces full of wariness and panic.

These people living in Bu Taishan had never seen such a powerful tribe like the Blazing Prairie Tribe before.

They had only heard of the Blazing Prairie Tribe, heard of its magic.

They had asked Zhaoling for the Blazing Prairie Tribe’s military aid based on their own knowledge.

In their imagination, a powerful tribe should resemble those major tribes from the wastelands.

But upon seeing the great army of the Blazing Prairie Tribe, they were utterly stupefied.

The tribespeople did not even dare to speak a word.

The several Ritual Masters were also trembling all over, unable to utter coherent sentences.

“We will not enter Bu Taishan for now, you can bring spiritual rocks and spiritual minerals to trade,” Zhu Rong said solemnly, watching these people.

What does that mean?

The army has come, but they won’t enter the mountain?

Are they avoiding a confrontation with those divine beasts?

All the human beings were bewildered.

“Our army will camp at the edge of the base of Bu Taishan. We will take out these goods and exchange them with you.”

“Bring spiritual iron for the exchange.”

Han Muye patiently explained.

It wasn’t that the army had come to Bu Taishan to hunt divine beasts, but rather to exchange goods for spiritual rocks and mineral ores.

The humans who came to welcome them were somewhat disappointed.

However, when the Blazing Prairie Tribe took out food, robes, and a few weapons as gifts, they became happy again.

After they took the gifts back, the Blazing Prairie Tribe’s army began to camp at the fairly spacious foot of the mountain.

A vast camp, spread out over thirty miles, the cavalry dispersed.

The trading teams formed circles and laid down various goods.

The first batch of spiritual mineral ores arrived three days later.

In total, it was about three thousand catties.

They exchanged it for three hundred catties of rice, some meat, several small bloodstones, and two knives.

When the more than ten humans took these items away, their faces radiated uncontrollable joy.

Of course, these three thousand catties of spiritual iron ore, once refined, could at least forge twenty long sabers.

Twenty long sabers, in the hands of sufficiently strong tribespeople, could clash with those demon beasts just a level below divine beasts.

The three thousand catties of spiritual iron were just the beginning.

Over the next few days, various human groups continuously came from within the mountains, bringing several tens of thousands of catties of spiritual iron.

Zhu Rong made a decisive move right at the base of the mountain.

Flames soared to the sky, and the spiritual iron turned into molten iron.

Casting, forging, shaping, engraving divine patterns, grinding, decorating…

Under the watchful eyes of the Bu Taishan human tribe, these pieces of spiritual iron transformed into various weapons.

Not only that, but Han Muye also changed the design of the forged weapons to suit the characteristics of the high, dense forests of Bu Taishan.

Short knives, short spears, short axes, short bows…

The divine patterns also featured few flame patterns, instead more of frost, imprisonment, entwining, concealing…

In one month, the traded spiritual iron reached a million catties.

The tribes trading with the Blazing Prairie Tribe exceeded three hundred.

This made Zhu Rong embarrassed.

If it had not been for Han Muye suggesting a trade and not to mobilize the army for warfare, he would have indeed led the army directly into Bu Taishan.

The result would have been the army trekking and battling with divine beasts, perhaps only rescuing a dozen or twenty human beings.

Indeed, trading was much easier than that.

Besides, with various types of weapons, full stomachs, and bloodstones for cultivation, how could the Bu Taishan human tribes remain as submissive as before?

Two months later, a small-scale battle occurred on Bu Taishan.

Over fifty members of the human race with weapons fought against a black bear with a Divine Beast Bloodline.

In the end, more than half of the humans were casualties, and the Divine Beast bear was killed.

With the Divine Beast hunted, Bloodstones, various claws and teeth were directly exchanged in the Blazing Prairie Tribe for five sets of armor and two demon beasts skilled at traversing mountain ridges, the Land-Traversing Apes.

This battle was just the beginning of the strife between the human race on Bu Taishan and the divine beasts.

Afterward, the refineries at the foot of the mountain were almost fully fired up.

The scattered members of the Blazing Prairie Tribe were striking out in all directions to catch those demon beasts and then tame them.

Within a year, at least ten million catties of ores were transported down the mountain.

These ores turned into tens of thousands of pieces of armor and several hundred thousand various weapons.

Food, robes, other resources—in front of desperately needed weapons and armor, they were nothing.

Just wanting armor, exchanging for weapons, later, those who came from the mountain had specific demands.

“I originally thought this trade would prompt the divine beasts on Bu Taishan to exterminate the human race, but it seems I was wrong,” Zhu Rong murmured looking at the joyous humans who had exchanged weapons and were leaving.

Shouldn’t those divine beasts not allow the human race to become powerful?

Now it seems the human race has grown strong, and those divine beasts haven’t really stopped them.

There are even contracts with Totem Divine Beasts encouraging their own groups to increase combat strength, helping them with mining and finding minerals.

“You’ve forgotten, the divine beasts here are not all equally strong, the truly powerful Divine Beasts are in the center of Bu Taishan, the ones on the periphery are actually not strong,” Han Muye chuckled lightly, looking towards the distant mountains.

Those not-so-powerful divine beasts also have hard times.

They too want resources, they too want to enhance their own bloodline power.

As the human tribes under their control grow stronger, they could offer them more tribute; isn’t that a good thing?

Not like the Blazing Prairie Tribe who rebels against the Totem Divine Beasts, but rather cooperating with their own Totem Divine Beasts, the stronger the tribe, the more benefits the Totem Divine Beasts receive.

Different approaches, all for the purpose of making the tribe prosperous.

Although to Zhu Rong and the people of the Blazing Prairie Tribe, such compromise still felt like enslavement.

But the human tribes at Bu Taishan are different.

They live in resource-scarce woodland areas, with too few people in their tribe, and the totem beasts have always been their strongest support.

For them to suddenly abandon the Totem Divine Beasts or even turn against them was impossible.

Different tribes, different ways of living.

As long as the human race can thrive, how they interact with the Totem Divine Beasts is their business, why interfere?

Moreover, the universal iron law is that power is respected.

Once their own tribe’s power surpasses that of the totem beasts, would they still consent to be enslaved?

The status of both sides will change with the change in power.

The trading circle under Bu Taishan gradually expanded.

From initially a radius of thirty li, it expanded to two hundred li now.

The stationed people of the Blazing Prairie Tribe here have reached one hundred thousand.

The trade caravans from the main part of the Blazing Prairie Tribe came here almost every month.

The expansion of the main tribe was even faster than here.

The resources collected here, the armor refined, were mostly sent back to the Blazing Prairie Tribe headquarters.

The tribe at Bu Taishan couldn’t consume so many armor pieces.

Not just Bu Taishan, even the Blazing Prairie Tribe themselves couldn’t use that many.

In ten years, the population of the Blazing Prairie Tribe stationed under Bu Taishan reached three hundred thousand.

The main tribe’s population had reached a million.

The various armor pieces and weapons stationed under Bu Taishan were already piled up like mountains, most of which Han Muye had collected and stored in his storage space.

“Chief, Zhu Tian has sent a message; some large tribes from the Wasteland have contacted us instructing our Blazing Prairie Tribe to divide internally.”

The trade caravan that had just arrived brought this message.

There was also news of the caravan being intercepted and warned on its way.

Divide the tribe.

When one side of the human race scales up to a million in size, the divine beast tribes intervene.

Either you divide on your own, or you get scattered or even destroyed.

“Zhu Tian suggests, shall we declare that the Blazing Prairie Tribe will split into two?” the man passing the message looked at Zhu Rong.

Zhu Rong’s expression slowly darkened.

The other members of the Blazing Prairie Tribe nearby also looked distressed.

“Senior Brother Han, as you said, the time has come to make a choice,” Zhu Rong took a deep breath and looked towards Han Muye.