Upon seeing the familiar tall reddish-brown city walls, Axu’s gaze softened considerably. Along the way, because he had to accompany the young males, he hadn’t dared to relax even without encountering any attacks from creatures. Now, seeing their destination right in front of him, he couldn’t help but secretly exhale in relief. A faint, almost imperceptible curve appeared at the corner of his mouth as he called to the others, and the group set off en masse toward Qi Ze City.

Because of the training, the wooden plank bridge over the moat had long since been removed. When the group from the Salt-Water Tribe arrived, they couldn’t help exchanging astonished glances at the massive moat before them. Axu shouted toward the watchtower above the city gate, and after a long moment, an old female with a face full of wrinkles poked his head out.

The old female still remembered Axu. He seemed to whisper something to someone behind him before loudly telling Axu and his group to wait a moment.

Even with a tall city wall in between, Axu’s keen hearing could still faintly pick up the clamor coming from Qi Ze City. However, shortly after the old female told them to wait, the noise subsided, leaving no time for him to ponder it. A wooden plank bridge was slowly lowered, followed by the heavy city gate being gradually opened.

The old female stood by the gate and saw that the group from the Salt-Water Tribe had smiles all over their faces. “There’s still some time before the first snowfall. We didn’t expect you to arrive so early,” he said.

Axu went forward to greet him and replied, “After all, we were bringing the young males. It would have been troublesome if the first snow had fallen on the way.” The Salt-Water Tribe and Qi Ze City were quite far apart, and Axu had planned from the start to arrive early. That way, they could spend the first snowfall there and return afterward, avoiding encountering winter on the journey. Otherwise, given the young males’ constitution, he worried that those unaccustomed to spending winter outside the tribe might fall ill.

The old female nodded knowingly and led the group to a large wooden table by the gate. He took a notebook and a quill from a drawer. Axu knew this was for registration, so he reported his own name smoothly, then introduced everyone from his tribe to the old female one by one.

The old female greeted them gently while slowly registering their names. Although he wrote slowly, fortunately, he recognized the characters for everyone’s names, so he didn’t need to be like Ale and constantly run over to the side and recite the Thousand Character Classic from memory to know what to write.

The males all got down from the females’ backs and looked around curiously. When they saw the old female sitting at the table writing, they even leaned over to ask questions, and he patiently answered each of them one by one.

This time, fifty people came from the Salt-Water Tribe, twenty of whom were males, and the rest were females. The females were all very young; aside from Axu, the others appeared to have only recently reached adulthood. The males’ ages were more varied. One of them had a few strands of white in his sideburns and crow’s feet at the corners of his eyes, making him look slightly older than Azhang. He wasn’t as curious as the others; although there was surprise in his eyes, he quietly stood at the edge of the crowd. Only during registration did he step forward a few paces and give a slight nod to the old female, as a way of greeting.

“Brother.” Ashu, who had just finished rehearsing, still had sweat beads on his forehead. His face was a bit flushed from the intense exercise, but his eyes became unusually bright when he saw familiar members of his tribe.