Chapter 159: Tribute from the Black Mountain Tribe
The temple knight released the chubby bishop’s mouth.
The newly freed bishop gasped for air desperately, breathing heavily.
He turned around angrily, glaring at the temple knight who had covered his mouth.
Sensing the tension, the temple knight took a step back and lowered his head.
"Hey, human fatty, catch this!"
Li Meng reached into the cloth bag at his waist and pulled out the Sacrificial Plate, throwing it toward the greasy chubby bishop.
This Sacrificial Plate had been given to Li Meng by Bai Ling before he left the Black Mountain Tribe.
Seeing something flying toward him, the chubby bishop hurriedly reached out to catch it in a fluster.
"This is what you wanted. From now on, the Black Mountain Tribe is under my protection. I won’t allow the Savage God to appear in the Goblin Forest. Tell Selof that the Goblin Forest now has a new master, and he’d better not come back again. Otherwise, he’ll never be able to rescue that Tavier woman again."
"Ha ha ha!"
At the end of his statement, Li Meng burst into loud, manic laughter.
The sinister laugh caused the expression on the chubby bishop's face to shift repeatedly.
"Alright, you can leave now. But if you come back next time, you won’t be able to leave!"
The laughter abruptly stopped as Li Meng narrowed his eyes at the group on the small boat.
Far away, a large ship concealed several powerful humans.
Li Meng could sense their presence.
In the timeline of the previous iteration, he had wiped out everyone on the ship.
This proved that those human experts were not strong enough—not even capable of protecting themselves, let alone others.
And so, the humans left without exchanging a single word.
As the small boat was hauled back aboard the large ship, the deck erupted in noise.
Sailors climbed the masts and unfurled the sails.
Meanwhile, the lower-deck crew rowed the oars.
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The massive ship gradually disappeared into the distance under Li Meng’s watchful gaze.
Only after the ship was no longer visible on the water did Li Meng turn and leave.
Walking briskly along the icy path, Li Meng appeared to be deep in thought.
"I wonder if this thread of the Holy Kingdom’s story has changed."
Even though he had given them the Sacrificial Plate, the Holy Kingdom might not believe him.
However, the Holy Kingdom was unlikely to dispatch a large army to invade the Goblin Forest.
If they merely sent an adventurer team to observe in secret, Li Meng could tolerate that.
For now, Li Meng didn’t want to see humans causing him trouble before he could create trouble for them.
"I hope nothing problematic happens here."
In this timeline, the Black Mountain Tribe wasn’t supposed to encounter any major events.
But sometimes, Li Meng doubted the accuracy of the future lines.
While future timelines that remain unchanged are inherently accurate, deviations might still occur.
"Ammon, is something bothering you?"
Seeing the worried look on Ammon's face, Vanessa couldn’t help but express concern.
Li Meng grinned and shook his head.
Approaching Vanessa, he crouched down and skillfully hoisted her onto his shoulders.
"Let’s go! Time to head back!"
With that, Li Meng broke into a run along the icy path.
Originally, he had planned to visit the Black Mountain Tribe.
But after some thought, he decided against it.
It was better not to appear in front of the Lizardmen unnecessarily, as there was no point in seeking attention.
Time passed little by little, day by day.
Three days later, in the afternoon, Li Meng and Vanessa returned to the Throne Tribe.
It was a new day, in the morning.
At the southern gate watchtower of the Throne Tribe, Li Meng surveyed the bustling construction scene in the distance.
"Boss, we can’t speed up anymore. If we do, there won’t be enough food to go around!"
Outside the inner walls, on the desolate plains, wooden huts and cave dwellings stood in rows.
More such dwellings were being constructed in an orderly fashion.
Over ten thousand goblins were laboring for the Throne Tribe, their food supplied by hunting teams.
Every day, hundreds of carts transported large quantities of carcasses between the various sub-tribes and the Throne Tribe.
The southern sub-tribe used bamboo rafts to send food downstream to the Throne Tribe.
Feeding these ten thousand goblins required the continuous efforts of thirty thousand goblins hunting day and night.
Fortunately, goblins didn’t reject foul-smelling, rotting carcasses.
Otherwise, food preservation would have become a significant issue.
After all, it took time for prey to be hunted and then transported to the Throne Tribe.
And the warm climate of the Goblin Forest caused carcasses to start rotting within hours.
"Then focus on building houses. The wooden walls can wait."
The Demon Army’s attack was still at least half a year to a year away.
There was no need to rush the construction of the wooden walls.
But the tribute from the Black Mountain Tribe was about to arrive.
"Gobusheng, send word to all the tribe leaders. Tell them to come to the Throne Tribe immediately to reproduce!"
Hearing this, Gobusheng’s eyes lit up.
He quickly climbed down from the watchtower and hurried toward the tribe's tallest signal tower.
Before long, the urgent, resonant sound of horns echoed throughout the tribe.
Three long blasts followed by a short one swept across the land.
Soon, echoing responses could be heard from distant directions around the Throne Tribe.
The horns were passed along from one sub-tribe to another, carrying the message.
Eventually, all the tribes would receive the order from the Throne Tribe.
This was Li Meng’s "Horn Messaging" system.
Using horn sounds, messages could be quickly transmitted between tribes.
The Throne Tribe could send orders to sub-tribes, and sub-tribes could send messages back to the Throne Tribe.
Goblins were very sensitive to sounds.
Even ten kilometers away, they could hear the horns.
The distance between tribes ranged from 8 to 10 kilometers.
A month later, in the afternoon, the tribute from the Black Mountain Tribe finally arrived.
The calm waters of the Goblin River suddenly began to churn.
One by one, Lizardmen disembarked at the dock on the southern shore.
The Lizardmen nervously gazed at the tall wooden walls and docks on the riverbank.
Following a white-scaled figure at the forefront, they flowed through the only gate into the tribe.
White Scales, entering through the southern gate, looked around in astonishment at the dramatically transformed tribe.
Fifteen-meter-high wooden walls and neatly arranged houses.
Everything appeared orderly and well-structured.
Ahead was a wide avenue leading directly to the inner walls.
The ground had been leveled and paved with gravel and sand.
All this was far beyond the intelligence one would expect from goblins.
On both sides of the avenue, armored Great Goblins stood solemnly at attention.
They formed two rows, one on the left and one on the right, welcoming the arrival of the tribute.
Though every goblin’s face showed a greedy expression, they stood motionless like statues.
The Lizardmen following White Scales formed a stream of bodies flooding into the tribe.
On the avenue ahead, a group of female Lizardmen awaited White Scales.
"Chief!"
The leading female Lizardman bowed deeply to White Scales.
"Chief, this area is designated for the male Lizardmen. Their task will be fishing to provide food for the tribe. The female Lizardmen will be assigned to other areas. Chief, please follow me!"