Chapter 163: Expanding the Industrial Chain

Ophelia also brought back some herbal seedlings from the mountain. In reality, they were seeds she had purchased from her spatial dimension and planted in the newly bought land.

Once the herbs were gathered, Tyler led the elderly males of the Golden Dragon Clan to start building new stone houses to the north of the Fuzu Tribe.

Ophelia didn’t use all of the newly purchased 20,000 square meters of land to plant crops. Instead, she allocated 5,000 square meters for building stone houses. The Fuzu Tribe’s population was growing, and there was no longer enough room for everyone to live inside the current settlement. Once the exterior stone houses were completed, she planned to have all the single males move out there, implementing a separation of males and females.

She also specifically set aside one stone house to serve as a medical center; any male who got injured in the future would be sent there for treatment. Furthermore, Ophelia had already taught the Fuzu Tribe’s tribal doctors the step-by-step procedures for cleaning wounds and applying medicine. From now on, she wouldn’t need to handle everything personally. She would only need to step in when encountering severely injured patients.

This time, Ophelia had brought back a massive batch of herbs, weighing about a hundred pounds each. With such a huge amount of herbs, there was no way she and Tyler could process them all by themselves.

Thus, Tyler suggested, “Princess, you can have the elderly males help you process the herbs. That way, it’ll also provide them with some extra income.”

Ophelia’s eyes lit up. “You’re right! How could I forget about them?”

So, Ophelia sent invitations to the surrounding tribes, stating that she needed many elderly males for work. This decision of hers solved the problem of elderly males in the neighboring tribes not having enough to eat. As a result, the Clan Leaders of the various tribes gained even more respect and goodwill toward her.

Early one morning, the elderly males gathered at the Fuzu Tribe. Looking at the mountain-like piles of herbs, the males were all very nervous. They knew that these herbs were Divine Medicine capable of saving the lives of males, so they were terrified of accidentally damaging such precious plants.

Seeing their trembling, overly cautious demeanor, Ophelia couldn’t help but sigh.

“You don’t need to worry. These herbs won’t get ruined that easily.

“As long as you follow my methods, there won’t be any problems.”

Even though Ophelia reassured them, the males remained extremely cautious. Terrified that using too much or too little force would damage the plants, their movements only grew lighter and lighter.

For a while, their progress was incredibly slow. Watching their painstaking caution, Ophelia sighed again.

“You’re working too slowly; it’s going to delay my schedule. If you keep this up, I’ll have to replace you.”

Hearing that Ophelia was going to replace them, the elderly males immediately grew anxious. They had finally obtained this precious opportunity and couldn’t afford to lose such a good job. After all, a single day of this work earned them an entire prey animal.

Their subsequent actions became much bolder, and once they fully familiarized themselves with the task, their speed increased significantly. Seeing the group’s processing speed gradually pick up, Ophelia finally felt satisfied.

As the males processed the herbs every day, they gradually became familiar with their scents and appearances. Then, one day, a male gathered his courage, approached Ophelia, and asked tentatively, “Ophelia, I’ve seen these herbs in the forest before. Can I trade them for food?”

“Of course you can. If you gather a full basket of herbs, you can trade it for a rabbit.”

Recently, the rabbits in the Fuzu Tribe had been multiplying rapidly, requiring them to gather a lot of fresh grass every day just to feed them. Now that she could use rabbits to trade for herbs, she was naturally more than willing.

Seeing that they could exchange herbs for food, the males were thrilled. After all, obtaining food through their own labor gave them peace of mind. Ophelia had said before that such a massive Primitive Forest definitely contained many medicinal herbs; they just hadn’t been discovered yet.

Now knowing that herbs could be traded for food, the elderly males were highly motivated. Not only did they have more energy for their daytime work, but they even walked with a swagger in their step. The male Clan Leaders of the various tribes were astonished to see their elderly males looking increasingly confident.

Once the news spread that herbs could be traded for prey at the Fuzu Tribe, some overly clever males tried to fish in troubled waters and pass off fakes. However, Ophelia inspected the goods very carefully every time, so no one succeeded. Even so, there were always a few shameless scoundrels.

One day, a young male from the Ape Clan came to the Fuzu Tribe to find Ophelia.

“Clan Leader Ophelia, these are the herbs I gathered in the forest. Why won’t you accept them?

“Is it because you can’t afford to pay the reward?

“If you can’t afford it, why did you announce that you were buying herbs in large quantities? Aren’t you just wasting our time?”

The Ape Clan male came up looking for a fight right from the start, causing Ophelia to frown in displeasure.

Seeing the Ape Beast being so unreasonable, Klein grew angry. He wanted to speak up but was stopped by Ophelia. Klein didn’t quite understand. Why was she stopping him?

Ophelia shook her head at him. “He’s being unreasonable. Why bother arguing with him? Wouldn’t that just be stooping to his level?”

Hearing Ophelia say this, Klein’s anger gradually dissipated quite a bit. However, he was still somewhat displeased by Ophelia indulging that male’s behavior.

Seeing Klein getting anxious, Ophelia quickly reassured him. “Don’t worry, I have a way to deal with him.”

Hearing her say this, Klein chose to trust her for the time being.

The Ape Beast thought Ophelia had backed down. He held out his hand with an impatient look on his face. “Hurry up and give me my reward! I’m still waiting to eat.”

Ophelia picked up a herb from another male’s basket nearby that looked slightly similar to what this male had brought.

“This herb is called Wind-Dispelling Grass. Its medicinal properties are cooling; it reduces internal heat, reduces inflammation, and clears lung heat. A person with a fever will get better after drinking it.

“Conversely, if a healthy person drinks it, their face will turn yellow, though it isn’t life-threatening.

“You say the grass you brought is Wind-Dispelling Grass. In that case, boil your grass and drink it. If your face turns yellow, I’ll accept this basket of herbs and pay you ten times the reward.”

“I… I…” Ten times the reward—the Ape Beast was somewhat tempted.

Ophelia blinked and added, “However, your grass doesn’t look like Wind-Dispelling Grass to me. It looks like Panting Grass. This grass is toxic; drinking it causes instant death.

“So, do you still want to drink it?”

Hearing that the grass was toxic, the Ape Beast broke out in a cold sweat from sheer terror.

After hearing Ophelia’s words, Klein finally understood why she had stopped him earlier. His expression turned cold as he said in a deep voice, “Since you claim this is a medicinal herb, drink it.”

“You, go boil this grass and force it down his throat,” Klein ordered, pointing at a nearby Fu Clan male.

That Fu Clan male had long been infuriated by the Ape Beast’s shamelessness. He immediately reached into the basket to grab the grass to boil, but the terrified Ape Beast hastily hid the basket behind his back.

“I-I won’t drink it!

“I’m not trading anymore, okay?!”

With that said, the Ape Beast scampered off wretchedly with his basket of weeds on his back.

Seeing how formidable Ophelia was, the other males in the queue who had also planned to pass off fakes slinked away dejectedly with their own weeds.

“Ophelia, these herbs I gathered are a bit small. Will you still accept them?” an elderly male with cloudy eyes asked in a low voice, pulling out a herb the length of an index finger from his basket.

Ophelia saw that the roots of the herb were completely intact. Her eyes darted thoughtfully as she replied, “I’ll take it. Although this herb is small, it can be replanted. Once it grows, it can still be used for medicine.”

Learning that even small herb seedlings could be exchanged for rewards, the elderly males became even more enthusiastic about gathering herbs.