Chapter 1136, Breathtaking

Translator: Silavin

 

“Shaman, which Tribe shall we receive next?” Sha Lan asked.

 

“Where are they all now? In the Restful Night Building, or waiting downstairs?” Su Bai asked.

 

“They are all downstairs. They refused to go back to wait. They are probably all worried they will miss their chance to cooperate with us.” Sha Lan said.

 

“Let me think about which Tribe to see next.” Su Bai narrowed his eyes, considering.

 

“Shaman, shall we receive the Green Snake Tribe first? I am rather curious about what they would want to collaborate on.” Sha Lan asked.

 

“No, they are not the priority right now. I am curious too, but let us deal with the others first.” Su Bai shook his head, took a sip of tea, and said, “We will see the Soft Rabbit Tribe next. Let us find out how those three Sisters have prepared themselves.”

 

Truth be told, he was also simply curious about what a set of triplets who were all Totem Warriors looked like.

 

He had heard that the women of the Soft Rabbit Tribe tended to be quite striking, much in the way that mermaids were said to be uniformly beautiful.

 

At least, that was what the Chieftain had told him. Whether it was true remained to be seen.

 

“Yes, you are right. I had almost forgotten about that Tribe.” Sha Lan caught herself.

 

*Step step step…*

 

Sha Lan turned and headed downstairs to fetch them. The visitors had been waiting below for quite some time.

 

They had been told the previous day that they would be received today. They had risen early, earlier than was usual for them. Under ordinary circumstances they would still have been sleeping past nine.

 

But today was different. They had been up by six, tidied themselves, finished breakfast, and arrived before seven.

 

Su Bai had already been up at that hour, but he had his morning exercises to see to, his breakfast, and the Daily Check In package from the System. He was not going to receive them before he had sorted all of that.

 

A few minutes later, Sha Lan returned with the three Sisters from the Soft Rabbit Tribe.

 

At the door, Ye Jiu checked them over carefully, and only when she was satisfied there was nothing amiss did she let them through.

 

“We are Totem Warriors of the Soft Rabbit Tribe, and we come on behalf of our Tribe to offer our most sincere greetings to the most honoured Shaman of the Flame Dragon Tribe.” The three Sisters spoke in unison.

 

All three bowed their heads at the same moment, pressing their ears flat against the back of their heads, doing everything they could to show the fullness of their respect.

 

It was the Soft Rabbit Tribe’s formal etiquette when meeting the Shaman of another Tribe. Only in the presence of a Shaman would they do this. At other times, a slight incline of the head was all that was expected.

 

Even with the strong sense of hierarchy that ran through the Primitive Tribes, what they had done was already an extraordinary gesture of courtesy.

 

Su Bai found it genuinely impressive. The kind of elaborate formality they had shown was something one might find in the ancient world. So, he gave a satisfied nod and raised a hand. “Your respect has been received. Please rise.”

 

“Thank you.” The three Sisters of the Soft Rabbit Tribe dipped their heads once before daring to straighten up, though this time they looked at Su Bai directly.

 

Some Tribes were like that. Having observed the full ceremony of greeting, they felt they had satisfied the demands of propriety and saw no need to keep their heads bowed during the actual conversation.

 

It was, in its own way, a point of pride. Courtesy had been paid. Now things could proceed normally.

 

In the moment that the triplet Sisters of the Soft Rabbit Tribe raised their eyes, Su Bai’s pupils contracted slightly.

 

The reason was simple. The three sisters were extraordinarily striking.

 

The three rabbit eared girls were almost identical in height, alike in build, with exactly the right proportions in exactly the right places. Their figures were, in a word, flawless.

 

Close-fitting grey Animal Hide wrapped their forms in a way that made what were already excellent figures appear all the more graceful.

 

Their long hair fell in a way that drew the eye. Their features were refined to a degree that seemed out of place in the Primitive Era.

 

[It seems the Chieftain was right after all…] Su Bai thought to himself. [The Soft Rabbit Tribe genuinely produces beauties.]

 

Sha Lan and Yan Hua were both beautiful, of course, but in entirely different ways.

 

Sha Lan had a composed, elegance to her. Yan Hua had a wilder, more sweeping beauty, that embodied everything raw and vital about the Primitive Era.

 

But what the three Sisters before him projected was something different. A precision that was almost difficult to believe. It was as though each of their features had been placed according to some golden ratio.

 

And the more bewildering thing was that all three of them looked exactly the same. Yet, wherever his eyes happened to land, he could not go wrong.

 

“Honoured Shaman, our Soft Rabbit Tribe has brought offerings for your consideration. We trust the Shaman has had the chance to look them over. We humbly ask whether cooperation with our Tribe might be possible.” Yin An, the Eldest Sister, was the first to speak.

 

The three of them had prepared carefully for this but they were still nervous.

 

“Your Tribe’s specialty is the stone that catches fire, is that right?” Su Bai asked.

 

He recalled now what the Soft Rabbit Tribe had to offer. It was Saltpetre. The Flame Dragon Tribe already had some.

 

Having some was not the same as having enough though. There was still a real need for it. Saltpetre was useful in the production of gunpowder and a number of other things. But Su Bai had no intention of letting them know that the Flame Dragon Tribe wanted it.

 

“That is correct. We trust the Shaman has already seen what it can do. We would very much like to know whether cooperation with the Shaman’s Tribe might be possible.” Yin An asked again.

 

The Eldest Sister’s voice was steady, though her heart was doing something entirely different.

 

There was nothing unusual about that. Standing before a Tribe’s Shaman for the first time was enough to make anyone’s composure falter.

 

And this particular Shaman was, on top of everything else, far too good-looking. Far too young-looking, as well.

 

He was nothing like the Shaman that Yin An had formed a picture of in her mind. The Shaman she had imagined was old, and hard to be around due to their natural aura, with a temperament to match.

 

The Su Bai before her was clean in a way that carried an almost perceptible freshness. His features were precise. His clothing, even to her unfamiliar eye, carried a weight that suggested it was worth more than she could easily calculate.

 

The people of the Soft Rabbit Tribe did not know the phrase ‘worth more than one could easily calculate’. They only knew that the things he wore looked as though they could never afford it in their lifetime.

 

It was not only the Eldest Sister who was taken by surprise. Yin Lu, the Second Sister, and Yin Rong, the Youngest Sister, had both been struck by Su Bai’s appearance at the same moment.

 

The clean line of his profile. The line of his throat. The voice that carried without effort. Not one of these things went unnoticed.

 

The three Sisters were all in their mid-teens. It was an age when the heart began to stir for the first time.

 

In the Soft Rabbit Tribe, it was rare to come across someone who looked like this. And those who did look striking tended to feel entirely unlike Su Bai in presence.

 

What drew them to him was something harder to name. It was a quality about Su Bai that seemed untouched by the ordinary world.

 

It was nothing like the rough vitality of the Primitive Era. There was the sense of something restrained but very powerful passing outward from him.

 

In other words: while Su Bai’s outsides were exceptionally refined, the strength he had underneath was exceptional too. The two things together made it rather difficult not to look twice.