Chapter 45

Chapter 45 \nChapter 45 God Offering day\n

On God Offering day, everyone got up early and started to get busy. The beastmen were divided into two groups. One group stayed back to help Lin Mu prepare the food offerings, and the other team followed Patrik to hunt the prey for the beast god.

Lin Mu was in charge of the pastries and has started making them the first thing in the morning. He made several simple patterns, and each of them would taste slightly different. Although the pastries are mainly sweet in taste, there were some differences because of the different fruit juices added. In order to make these pastries more flavorful, Lin Mu and the others have experimented with a lot of fruits before they found some that are compatible with the flour’s taste.

Now that the pastries were done, they shifted their focus to make crispy meat (酥肉), fish balls (鱼丸) and whole oiled fish. As for the sweet and sour fish (糖醋鱼), Lin Mu finally decided to make it. After all, it was an offering for the beast god, and Lin Mu has never made this dish for his tribe to eat before.\nCrispy meat

While Lin Mu is busy at his side, Patrik does not have it easy either. The reason why they gathered the best beastman in the tribe to go hunting every year on God Offering Day is because the beast they wanted to hunt is difficult to capture. After all, they can’t casually hunt a random animal as their offering. The strength of their prey will show their respect for the beast god, and at the same time, showing the power of their tribe to the beast god. Hence, Patrik has discussed with Jason and the others that they are going to hunt for bone beasts.

The bone beast gets its name because of its prominent bones. Its skin is tough, and it also has this massive spike on its body. Other than that, the bone beast also has a long and thorny tail. Generally, if a beastman is swept by its tail, It will hurt a lot. The most challenging thing about the bone beast is its bones are as hard as iron, and its skin is impenetrable. In fact, no one would hunt the bone beast for its meat, and there is not much meat on bone beast either. But because the beast is very fierce and difficult to kill, they will become hunting targets on God Offering day. After all, the more difficult the preys are, the more capable they can show off as a tribe.

…

Sasha looked at the freshly cooked sweet and sour fish, drooling. Then he looked at the red sauce and smelled the sweet and sour taste. The fact that he can only see but not eat is simply torturing him. But he didn’t have the guts to eat it since the beast god will be watching. He didn’t want to be punished, so he could only stare and swallowed his saliva.

“It smelled so fragrant, Lin Mu~” Sasha’s voice was so bitter.

Lin Mu could only respond with a condolence look in his eyes, and then he heard Sasha lamented, “I’m so hungry…”

No one would pay attention to him if he dragged the tone of his words. One of the reason was because everyone is very busy, and the other reason was everyone is also famished. But because today is God Offering day, they can’t eat before their god. Although they ate a lot of food last night, worried that they would be hungry today, they still couldn’t help but smell the scent that drifted through their nose. In fact, everyone feels the same as Sasha, this is really a torture.

The beastman team who stayed back to help has to help Lin Mu prepare the food and at the same time set up the altar that was just built last night. Of course, their altar is very simple, they just set up a platform on the front of the house. Right now, the beastmen are lifting the table where they will be placing the tribute on to the altar.

It was almost noon when Lin Mu finished preparing all the food offering. Seeing that Patrik and the others hadn’t come back yet, he asked the beastman team to put the food on the altar first. After all, the offering ceremony will be held on time at noon.

Patrik arrived in time before noon. Lin Mu watched as they placed the huge and hideous bone beast in front of the altar. Hurrying to Patrik’s side, he asked, “How are you? Are you injured?” He heard the others talking about the bone beast and its powerful strength before and was very worried. But Lin Mu has no way to stop them from hunting the bone beast; that is the dignity of a tribe.

Patrik shook his head at the nervous Lin Mu and said, “It’s okay, our hunt went smoothly.” Although everyone has some minor injuries, it doesn’t matter.

Lin Mu’s gaze scanned Patrik from top to bottom and was relieved that he didn’t find any visible wounds on his body.

Lais and the others came to pull Lin Mu away, “The God Offering ceremony is about to begin, you have to change your clothes quickly.”\nSeeing Lin Mu being pulled away, Patrik breathed a sigh of relief. The bone beast is difficult to capture. He was also injured, but the injury was on his back, and he managed to cover it. Patrik didn’t want Lin Mu to worry about him at this kind of time.

After being helped by several people to put on clothes made for the oracle, Sasha reached out to insert a feather of an unknown animal into the hairband tied to Lin Mu’s head, making Lin Mu wondered, “Does the oracle usually dress like this?”

“No, it’s just that I think it’s better to add something. Look at how beautiful this feather is.” The bright red feather was very eye-catching, but Lin Mu still couldn’t help but complain about Sasha’s sense of aesthetics.

When Lin Mu is ready, he got pushed up to the altar. He saw everyone down the alter looked at him seriously, and that caused him to become nervous suddenly. At this moment, he realized that he had forgotten all the speech he had memorized for the ceremony. In his heart, he shouted, “I’m doomed!” but on the outside, he was pretending to be calm. Lin Mu sprinkled some animal blood on the altar and looked at the solemn people under the platform. Everyone lowered their heads to show respect to the beast god. These beastmen stayed firm in their beliefs even though they have suffered and were rejected by other beastmen. They believed in their beast god. Lin Mu looked up to the sky, he suddenly knew what to say to the beast god.

“Oh great beast god, these are your people. Even when they were rejected, even when they have to bear the reputation of betraying your teaching, they still believe that you will not abandon them. I hope the beast god can give us a bright future.”

After Lin Mu finished speaking, a thought popped in his mind. Autumn is also called the harvest season. Whether there is enough prey during autumn determines if their winter will go smoothly. Therefore, generally during the God Offering day, the oracle will pray to the beast god to give them a plentiful harvest. So Lin Mu added one more sentence to his prayer, “I hope the beast god will give us abundant food.”

Although Lin Mu’s prayer was a bit short and somewhat different from what they heard before, the beastmen thought it was more appropriate to them. Next, they will wait quietly, hoping that beast god will accept their offering.

When Lin Mu was praying to the sky, he had his back turned to everyone and the offering table. Hence, when he turned back to see everyone’s reaction, he was stunned, “Huh?” Where did the tribute on the table disappear to? Lin Mu looked at the people who were still slightly bowing, he would have thought one of them has stolen the offering it wasn’t he knew that they are very respectful to their god. If they didn’t do it, that means…

Lin Mu yelled out happily, “The beast god has accepted our gift~ ”

Everyone raised their heads upon hearing Lin Mu’s words. They saw that the offering table is empty, even the plates were missing. Everyone was stunned, and then cheers broke out from the crowd.

“That’s great! The beast god has accepted our gift…”

“Thank God! The beast god didn’t abandon us…”

…

Looking at the excited crowd, Lin Mu stared at the distant sky and was relieved that the beast god has finally given them some hope.

Meanwhile, high up in the clouds…..

A vague figure surrounded by clouds and mist pleasantly spoke out, “Finally I get to eat some normal food. It has been so many years, that was not easy. It seems that my decision is correct.”

If one is to look at that figure’s posture, one would see someone gobbling up food.

A cloud of mist appeared beside the figure. The figure inside the mist was blurry, making it hard for anyone to see clearly. With a cold voice, that person said, “Master, you shouldn’t eat so much.”

“Long Ling, it’s been a long time since I had eaten such delicious food, do you have the heart to stop me…” From the muffled tone, it seems that that person called Master did not stop eating.\n“Overeating makes it easier to accumulate food (become fat).” The person named Long Ling sounded cold, even though he is saying some caring words.

The man seemed to be choked by his words, and then shouted loudly, “What accumulate food?! I am a god, alright?!”

Another cloud of mist flew up and said, “Master, have you forgotten the last time, last last time, last last last time that you accumulated too much food (become fat)? Moreover, this is offerings from the beastman world, naturally will enter Master’s stomach when you are in human form.” Even if one cannot see this person’s appearance, one could still imagine him to be a seductive person from his voice.

The man went out of words, but if one listened carefully, one could hear the sound of chewing continued.

Seeing that his Master didn’t intend to stop eating at all, that seductive voice said, “Wu, confiscate Master’s food.”

“Lian, how can you do this!” The man became angry when his food was taken away.

“Hehehe, don’t be angry, Master. Those are still yours. Right now, Master should think about what blessing/gift to give to them. After all, eating other people’s food would need to pay back.”

“What more blessing to give them? Didn’t I give them already before?”

Long Ling: “Master, that is your selfish act and not a blessing to drifter beastman.”

Long Ling’s words successfully made his master choke again.

“Damn it! I can’t think of it now, wait until I think about it.” After saying that, the man waved his sleeves and left.

Lian watched as the person walked away in anger, and turned to the silent person (Wu) and the ice cube (Long Ling), “Master is really getting cuter. Today seems to be my turn to serve Master, hehehe…”

That laughter caused the other two to tremble.

———————— Back to the altar ————————

Lin Mu stepped off the altar, the gift he prepared was accepted. It means that they will be blessed by the beast god, this is great news. Furthermore, It also indicates that God Offering day is a success. Of course, as the person who got pulled into the role of a temporary oracle, Lin Mu was relieved it went smoothly. Stopping by Patrik’s side, he smiled at him and said, “See, you are right, the beast god did not abandon you. And we will also have a bright future.”

Patrik nodded, “Yes, we will.”

Having a good result on God Offering day, everyone is thrilled. A celebration is in order, and Lin Mu’s food is indispensable obviously. They have been thinking about the offerings for a long time. It is a pity that Chef Lin went on strike today – sulking in his room. Why, you asked? Well, the entire tribe agreed that Lin Mu should be feeling distressed right now. Turned out when Lin Mu was talking to Patrik, he noticed something was wrong with him(P), and discovered the injury at his back – Patrik’s back was a mess. Lin Mu looked very distressed, but also very angry; angry that Patrik didn’t tell him about the injury.

Seeing Lin Mu is angry, Patrik wanted to coax him, but he needs to use the right coaxing method. He knew that Lin Mu was worried about him and his injury, but beastman always has a certain risk to bear when going out hunting. This world is like this, and they can only follow the laws of this world. All he has to do now is to appease his partner.

Patrik sat carefully next to Lin Mu, “Mu Mu, I did wrong.”

\nJason still didn’t speak but turned to look at a certain tall figure. After a long time, he said, “I don’t know.”

“Don’t know if he will agree to your proposal?” Patrik turned to look at Lais as well. “He likes you a lot, otherwise how could a female agree to stay in the same room with you?”

Jason had a deep thought.

“What you are hesitating for?”

“Too short time.”

If is it not because Patrik still wants to maintain his image as the tribe leader, he really wanted to roll his eyes like what Lin Mu usually do. How could there be a beastman who don’t take the initiative, just because of a short time of interaction with the female?

“We also didn’t stay together with our females for a long duration. Or you actually don’t like him?”

Jason: “No, not that.”

“Then why are you hesitating?”

Jason sometimes really makes people wonder what he is thinking. No beastman will miss the opportunity to pursue a female. Why is he hesitating? Could it be Jason cannot be smarter than someone like Locke?

“Wait a bit more.”

Patrik looked at Jason with a little surprise. So Jason has a strong liking for Lais? But it’s not quite right.

“You can figure it out by yourself, but don’t miss such a good opportunity,” Patrik said and flipped the skewers in his hand. Then he stood up and took the skewers to Lin Mu. Can’t leave Mumu hungry.

Jason stared at Lais; no one knows what he is thinking.

…

Sasha got his wish and managed to ate the sweet and sour fish, and at the same time fell in love with the taste.

“It’s delicious! Lin Mu, I want to learn to make it!” Sasha felt that he had to take advantage of the opportunity to learn more of his favourite food.

At the same time, Lin Mu felt that it’s good if more people know how to cook the food, then he would have more free time. With Sasha taking the initiative to learn, Phil and the others naturally will not fall behind. Misha leaned forward and chipped in, “I want to learn too, so I can cook for my father.”

Misha’s words made Matt very happy.

Lin Mu smiled and agreed without pressure.