Unable to ask the Beast Deity, the matter of ascending the mountain became a difficult obstacle.
Luckily, they had an entire winter to mull over this problem. There was no hurry to come up with a solution right away.
Saint Nazaire during the rainy season was an extremely busy period. Males with families raced to hunt and cure as much meat as possible, while those without partners went with Barete and Auretin to forage for potatoes, sweet potatoes and lotus roots—which Gu Mengmeng had previously taught them how to prepare and eat. The remaining tribe members were tasked with tanning animal hides according to the different grades. The skins would then be equally distributed to all the females in Saint Nazaire.
Gu Mengmeng had gone through the process with everyone the year before. Although she was not around last year, there were still many veteran members in the tribe to help out. Their defense preparations against invaders also didn’t cause much delay. This year, everyone was already familiar with the process. With Gu Mengmeng back home—Lea was again overseeing the planning for the tribe while Elvis made the rounds within the territory. Everything went even more smoothly.
Since Gu Mengmeng asked Mandy to call her by her name, the besotted female started following her day in day out like she had been bewitched. She didn’t create any particular fuss, but just tailed after Gu Mengmeng to watch others curing their meats or give pointers on vegetable pickling methods.
The days went by and the first snows should be arriving soon.
Gu Mengmeng was just sitting by the cave and gazing up at the sky, when she saw a flying eagle-owl land nearby. He morphed into human form when he came before her. “Great Messenger, Joshua, the witch doctor of Frankston, wishes to meet with you.”
“Joshua?” Gu Mengmeng thought for a moment. “Why is he here?”
The eagle-owl shook his head. “I don’t know. He refused to say when I asked him. He just said that he wishes to meet with the Great Messenger, and will not leave until he has done so.”
Gu Mengmeng wanted to say that a witch doctor should seek another witch doctor if he had some issue. But she thought of how busy Lea was with the winter preparations, on top of which he had to think of solutions for retrieving the Love of the Sky from the Motou mountain range, as well as guard against Cole’s machinations—even the most intelligent person would be tired out from all that mental juggling.
She sighed. “Ask him to come over.”
“Yes.” The eagle-owl bowed before morphing into beast mode and flying off.
Within a short while, Joshua appeared before Gu Mengmeng.
To be honest, Gu Mengmeng was rather astounded by this first-level ape.
It was not that he looked extraordinary, but that he… was wearing clothes.
Yes, clothes!
Not the animal skin skirts usually worn by Elvis and Lea, nor the bizarre attire donned by Lea during the ceremonial offerings—but a long robe in a simple design.
On first glance, it seemed to made from deer skin. To call it a long robe was actually an exaggeration. It looked like two pieces of whole deer skins with all the extremities cut off to form a rectangular shape, and then sewn together on one end while leaving only a hole for the head. A belt that looked like it was made from tree bark was tied around the waist. The robe draped freely across his shoulders and offered much cover for any physical shortcomings.
Joshua, who used to look so frail when compared to the higher level beasts such as Elvis and Lea—now possessed the refined air of a scholar. He didn’t look like a barbarian but like a person from the ancient times.
This was the first time Gu Mengmeng saw a male wearing proper clothes since she had arrived at the Beast World. She couldn’t help feeling a sense of kinship with him.
Ha, after being exposed to those males in the Beast World, running around all day wearing only an animal skin skirt—her aesthetics standards had been dragged down way too low. Now, just as long as one wore some form of proper clothing, Gu Mengmeng would feel he was a gentleman.
