Chapter 993, Need a New Skill

Translator: Silavin

 

Su Bai and the others continued walking around the Tribe’s outer region. It had to be said, the Flame Dragon Tribe’s territory had already grown a lot larger.

 

Previously, it had probably only been as large as ten or eleven football fields. Now it was already nearly as large as over twenty football fields.

 

Of course, this did not include the area within the city walls, because the city walls had not been completely built yet.

 

The area currently being calculated was all the area enclosed by those wooden walls. The wooden houses were relatively close to this area.

 

Originally, the Flame Dragon Tribe did not have a ton of wooden houses, and at that time, the wooden houses were all located in the centre of the Tribe.

 

After the Flame Dragon Tribe began building cement houses, they started moving those wooden houses to the side.

 

As the number of cement houses built increased, all of the Tribe’s wooden houses also gathered in the Tribe’s outer region.

 

“Shaman, these wooden houses actually still look quite good. Living in them should be relatively comfortable.” Yu Ying’s soft voice rang out.

 

She recalled the old days, when it seemed like they had no way to live in wooden houses again. One could not forget that being able to have one’s own wooden house was a very fortunate thing.

 

This was the same for slaves. Slaves wanting to possess wooden houses? That was almost impossible, but in the Flame Dragon Tribe, it had truly happened.

 

“Yes. Once they shed their slave status, they’ll be able to live in cement houses too. I believe that will make them work harder.” Su Bai said lightly.

 

He had already told the slaves these things long ago. If they wanted to become free people, they could, but they had to work for the Flame Dragon Tribe for several years.

 

And their performance during this period has been going well. Of course, as long as they worked hard, shedding their slave status was not impossible.

 

“Shaman, I have a question. Why not directly remove their slave status?” Yu Ying blinked her pink eyes innocently. “If it were like that, they would be very grateful to the Shaman instead. After all, they’re already living in the Tribe now.”

 

Yu Ying completely did not understand ideas about managing the Tribe, so most of the time she was asking questions.

 

Actually, Yu Ying wanted to help Su Bai, which was why she wanted to learn some things about management.

 

She did not want the Shaman to wake up early every day. When the time came, she would just need to wake up a bit earlier herself to handle matters.

 

“Silly girl, if you directly removed their slave status now, would they be happy at that moment? They would definitely be happy, but what about after time passes?” Su Bai did not directly state the pros and cons, but instead let her slowly think about it.

 

This also was not the first time he’d heard Yu Ying bring up such matters, about wanting to help manage.

 

Su Bai had actually said before that handling such matters could be left to him and Sha Lan.

 

Yu Ying currently had to cook, teach, mend clothes, and so on every day. She really did not have much time to spare for doing other things.

 

Su Bai also felt quite sorry for Yu Ying and did not want her to do too many things. Furthermore, it was not as if there were no other candidates to do those things instead.

 

“Let me think…” Yu Ying furrowed her brow tightly in thought and asked, “Does the Shaman mean to have them work hard for a while first, and then when you free them, they’ll remember the Shaman’s kindness for longer instead?”

 

Yu Ying was just a bit young, but she was very clever. Although she could not figure out many things right away, after being prompted, she could still think of the answer quite quickly.

 

“That’s right. If you directly remove their slave status now, they would only be grateful to us for a period of time. After that period passed, they wouldn’t cherish it anymore.”

 

Su Bai held his umbrella and continued walking forward. “But if you gave them a time limit and let them work hard themselves, wouldn’t this gained status be even more precious?”

 

His current way of thinking was that of a merchant. When many things were too easily obtained, they had no value. Instead, things obtained after some cost were what people would truly treasure.

 

It was the same with the slaves. They were definitely very sensitive about their status.

 

Furthermore, doing this yielded no benefit for the Flame Dragon Tribe, even though they had already become people of the Flame Dragon Tribe.

 

Su Bai believed most people would want to leave the Flame Dragon Tribe if they were freed from slavery, since they did not understand the value of being in the Flame Dragon Tribe. However, if their slave status were released after several years, they would naturally understand the value of being part of the Tribe.

 

“That’s true, just like how all our Tribe’s people really like our Tribe now.” Yu Ying nodded thoughtfully.

 

Yu Ying thought of the matter when the Tribe had been attacked by the Black Snake Tribe previously. At that time, all the Flame Dragon Tribe’s people had been displaced.

 

Only a small portion of the Tribe’s people had gathered together and relocated. If it hadn’t been for Su Bai being there…

 

They would probably still be living in that place now, or might even have drowned during last year’s rainy season.

 

Because everyone had experienced too many things, everyone cherished the current Tribe very much.

 

Only then were there so many loyal Tribe people. Otherwise, the Tribe’s secrets would have been leaked long ago.

 

“Shaman, the number of slaves is very large, undoubtedly a very good labour force, but their status makes them a bit difficult to deploy.”

 

Sha Lan took two light steps forward. Recently, she had been troubled by this matter.

 

Because building cement houses, cement roads, and all sorts of things required manpower. As the Tribe’s territory expanded larger and larger, the number of people needed also increased.

 

Slaves were inherently meant to work, but some work involved relatively secret information, so it definitely needed to be handled carefully.

 

“Then arrange work for them that won’t leak our secrets, such as making Animal Hide, picking vegetables and fruits, and so on.”

 

Su Bai thought for a moment and continued, “As for some of the Tribe’s elderly, directly arrange for them to build cement houses and roads.”

 

He had recently been very eager for the System to draw him a useful Skill, such as the ability to detect lies, or the ability to sign agreements. This way, he could ensure whether those slaves were lying or not, and could also ensure they were loyal to the Flame Dragon Tribe.

 

“Understood. I’ll arrange work based on their tasks. For example, simply building cement houses can be done by slaves, but as for how to make cement, they won’t be allowed to participate.”

 

Sha Lan swished her cat tail and began analysing the pros and cons of the work. This wasn’t an easy matter.

 

If there were any errors at all, it might leak the secrets of the Flame Dragon Tribe’s current developments.

 

“That’s fine.” Su Bai responded lightly.