Someone is here.

Just as they were busy at work, Black Earth suddenly arrived, bringing news.

Lin Yan immediately stopped what she was doing. "Is what you're saying true? Where are they?"

The other children also caught wind of the news and gathered around Black Earth, eager to know the details.

Black Earth smiled. "I knew you'd be interested, so I came specifically to tell you. On January twenty-fifth, I led a selected hunting party of thirty people, wanting to go a bit further and explore the depths of the Pika Plains."

Ever since they started attending classes, the children had taken an interest in all sorts of unusual things, and word had spread that certain ores could be used to forge sharp weapons.

Black Earth had specifically come to ask Lin Yan and the others what the ores looked like and whether the rumors of sharp weapons were true. Once confirmed, he took the matter to heart.

Thus, Black Earth formed a team, preparing to head west in search of them.

This group consisted of warriors from the tribe, equipped with fire starters, hemp ropes, and other tools, making thorough preparations before setting out.

They had been gone for five days without a single message returning, and more and more people were growing restless.

No one had ever stayed away for so long, and everyone feared something untoward had happened.

Amidst everyone's daily longing and worry, on the sixth day at noon, Black Earth returned with the people.

There had only been thirty people when they left, but a large crowd returned with them, leaving the tribesmen dumbfounded. Yet, seeing Black Earth and his men return safely, everyone was still overjoyed.

This incident immediately caused a massive commotion in the city, but Lin Yan and the others, buried in their experiments, had not gone to watch and remained unaware of what had happened.

Black Earth and his men had headed all the way west along a difficult and winding path, gradually losing track of where they had strayed.

On the third day, they encountered a large water pool, and after confirming it was safe, they stopped to rest and recuperate, planning to stay there for the night before continuing.

The unexpected turn of events occurred that very night. Their campfire attracted a group of primitive people who surrounded them tightly—the strangers numbered fifty or sixty.

The two sides stood in a standoff, nearly coming to blows.

The primitives regarded them as enemies, yet they feared the firelight and dared not act rashly.

After observing them, Black Earth and his men determined the strangers were of their own kind and temporarily held their ground.

Seeing the tattered, starving appearance of the primitives, their bodies crisscrossed with scars and stained with blood, they inevitably recalled their own past selves.

Therefore, Black Earth's side took the initiative to approach and socialize. Fortunately, their languages were not too different, and through gestures and guesswork, they managed to understand one another.

That was a group of primitives fleeing for their lives. Their territory had been attacked by fierce beasts, killing more than half of their people, and the survivors had been running blindly all the way until the two groups collided.

What caught Black Earth's attention were the weapons the primitives held—they looked like stones, but were somehow different. After trying one himself, he determined it wasn't stone; the weight was different, feeling heavy in the hand and exceptionally hard.

Although he didn't know what it was, Black Earth immediately thought that this might be the very thing Lin Yan was looking for.

He took the initiative to show goodwill, demonstrating their hemp nets and hemp ropes, and explaining the usefulness of fire starters. The primitives were captivated and followed them all the way to Sun City.

Upon seeing Sun City, the primitives grew even more excited and expressed a desire to stay.

Hearing Black Earth finish his account, Lin Yan could no longer sit still and wanted to see what the item he described was.

She deduced that there was a high probability it was some kind of ore, and whichever kind it turned out to be, any of them would do.

Since the other party could use it to make weapons, they should know where it could be found, and that was the most important thing.

"Let's go take a look quickly. Where are they?"

Black Earth pointed toward the direction of the school. "There are fifty or sixty people in that group, so it's hard to arrange lodging for them all at once. Since the school is currently empty, I took them there first. Yellow Leaf, Blue, and the leaders of each group are all over there."

"Let's go, let's hurry over," Lin Yan said anxiously, her short legs moving as if to run.

Black Earth scooped her up in one motion and told Water Born and the others, "Keep up with us too."

When they arrived, the school was packed with people, a vast, churning sea of heads.

Lin Yan said, "There are so many people, we won't be able to squeeze through at all."

"With me here, we'll definitely get in." Holding Lin Yan, Black Earth relied on his physical advantage to carve a path straight through.

When they finally made it through the crowd and squeezed to the front, Lin Yan realized just how difficult it had been. Even being carried by Black Earth, she felt the crushing density of the crowd; needless to say, the few followers behind them emerged with disheveled hair and crooked clothes.

She spotted her target at a glance—it stood out far too clearly.

She had previously felt she was growing accustomed to living among primitives and that everyone was much the same. But upon seeing this group, Lin Yan realized just how much change had taken place over the past few years.

An indescribable wave of odors assaulted her senses—sweat, the stench of blood, mixed with a sharp, pungent urinous smell. That was her first impression.

It had been so long. She had thought she had forgotten, but she hadn't expected that suffocating, deeply buried scent to reappear so quickly.

Her visual senses were also struck. A group of primitives whose original skin color was indistinguishable, draped in tattered animal skins and leaves, their bodies covered in intersecting, bleeding scars.

They looked far more wretched than her people had years ago, unmistakably pure primitives who had been thoroughly weathered by the harsh trials of life.

For a moment, Lin Yan was speechless, and looking at them made her deeply realize how enormous the transformation of the Sun Tribe truly was.

She was not the only one who felt this way; the others shared the exact same sentiment.

Having spent some time with them, Black Earth didn't feel quite as strongly. "Lin Yan, this is that group of people. The one talking with Yellow Leaf is Big Stone, their leader."

Lin Yan snapped back to reality. "Let's go over."

She cast a glance and spotted the weapon in Big Stone's hand. It wasn't much of a weapon, really—just a strip-shaped piece of stone with a faint reddish-brown hue.

Her small hands clenched tightly. That must be the thing Black Earth mentioned; it certainly didn't look like ordinary stone.

Seeing Black Earth bring Lin Yan over, Yellow Leaf stopped talking with Big Stone and turned to look at her with a smile. "You're here. I knew you wouldn't miss this."

"Granny truly understands me, knowing I wouldn't let slip an event this big." Lin Yan got down from Black Earth and looked Big Stone up and down.

When Big Stone saw Lin Yan, he only thought she was a rather pretty little girl. He was still in the grip of the shock Sun City had given him and didn't pay her much mind.

He had been trying to negotiate with Yellow Leaf to let them stay and live here. Compared to a life of wandering and fleeing for survival, living alongside other people was far safer.

Moreover, the houses in Sun City were solidly built, making residence even more secure. If they could stay, they would never have to drift from place to place without a fixed home again.

Yellow Leaf smiled as she introduced Lin Yan to Big Stone. "This is Lin Yan, the smartest person in Sun City. All those things and houses you saw just now—she thought of them all."

With that single sentence, Lin Yan's pivotal importance was laid bare.

Upon hearing this, Big Stone froze in astonishment. He looked at Lin Yan with a mixture of doubt and awe. Could such a little child truly possess such capability?