Learning record-keeping and distribution from the elder orc Greyclaw plunged Gu Liang into a wholly new and more complex world. Greyclaw was one of the few in the tribe who understood how to use knots and simple symbols on wooden boards to record numbers and events. His knowledge was ancient and practical, yet to Gu Liang, it felt suffocatingly primitive.
When recording hunts, Greyclaw used knots of different colors to represent various game species, with knot size and placement roughly indicating quantity and recipients. Calculations relied entirely on mental arithmetic and manipulating pebbles—inefficient and error-prone, which had caused the earlier distribution chaos.
Gu Liang made no immediate attempt to change anything. He silently shadowed Greyclaw, meticulously observing the meaning behind each knot and the significance of every symbol, striving to grasp the logic of this primitive "accounting system." He learned astonishingly fast, his remarkable memory and abstract thinking skills frequently leaving Greyclaw stunned.
"Here," Graypaw pointed to a string of knots representing yesterday's small hunt, "three large knots are adult longhorn sheep, two small knots are young... distributed to the patrol..."
Gu Liang stared at the tangled strands, his mind suddenly filling with clearer images: quantities, categories, distribution paths. He blurted out instinctively, "What if we used different thicknesses of rope to represent different prey? Tie knots on the main strand for quantity, then use branches to show distribution directions. Wouldn't that be clearer?"
Grayclaw froze, his cloudy eyes staring at the ropes, then shifting to Gu Liang. It seemed he'd never imagined ropes could be used this way. He tried to visualize Gu Liang's suggestion in his mind, his expression gradually shifting from bewilderment to sudden understanding, then disbelief. "How... how does your mind work?"
Gu Liang didn't answer. Instead, he picked up a flat stone slab and began carving into it with a sharp flint fragment. He drew a main line branching into several smaller ones, using different symbols to represent the quantity of each prey type. "Like this. Carved into stone, it won't get tangled and is easier to see clearly."
Grayclaw leaned closer, staring at the clear, logical "flowchart," his fingers trembling slightly. For someone accustomed to complex knots, the impact was profound. "This... this is..."
"Just a way to make records clearer," Gu Liang said calmly, retrieving the stone. He knew he couldn't rush things; he needed to let Greyclaw accept it gradually.
From that day on, the look in Greyclaw's eyes when he regarded Gu Liang was no longer merely that of observing a clever apprentice. It now held a hint of reverent inquiry. He began asking Gu Liang more often about "clearer" methods. Gu Liang, in turn, cautiously introduced more efficient counting techniques (such as simple cumulative notches) and more intuitive recording symbols, bit by bit.
The transformation was gradual. The hunting party's harvest records grew clearer and more precise, disputes over resource distribution diminished noticeably, and even Chief Blackmane found reviewing the logs far less taxing. Grayclaw would occasionally drop casual remarks in Blackmane's presence, like "That slave lad's methods are actually quite useful."
Gu Liang's status thus grew more nuanced. He still lived in the slave quarters, eating food inferior to ordinary beasts but slightly better than other slaves (the best care Graypaw could manage). Yet when he appeared alongside Graypaw at distribution, the beasts' gazes toward him carried a distinct shift.It was recognition of a "useful person," even a hint of dependence—after all, who wouldn't want fairer, more generous food rations?
A-Lie watched this shift unfold, seething with resentment. He could not tolerate a slave—especially one he regarded as personal property, one he had once trampled underfoot—gaining such attention and invisible power. Every time he saw Gu Liang standing calmly beside Greyclaw, clearly announcing numbers and distribution plans, A-Lie felt his authority challenged like never before.
His retaliation grew more insidious and harder to guard against.
Sometimes, the wooden tablets Grayclaw used for recording would "accidentally" break. Other times, the small piles of meat prepared for distribution would be secretly kicked into disarray, mixing up types and quantities. On one occasion, the distribution plan Grayclaw and Gu Liang had painstakingly calculated was deliberately scrambled by one of Alec's confidants during execution, sparking a new minor chaos. Alec would then step in to "restore order," accusing Gu Liang's calculations of being "utterly useless, only adding to the confusion."
Gu Liang responded time and again. When boards broke, he re-engraved them from memory; when meat piles were scrambled, he recounted and sorted them more meticulously; when plans were disrupted, he waited silently for the chaos to subside before stepping forward. With irrefutable data, he pinpointed the errors, silencing the deliberate saboteurs.
Like a cold stone, he endured the blows from the shadows, unshaken, speaking only through facts. This calm, even cold, response paradoxically earned him greater recognition among neutral orcs.
Yet A Lie's harassment didn't cease—it only intensified. He began targeting anyone who had even slight contact with Gu Liang.
Fangclaw, having been close to Gu Liang before, was frequently singled out for "special attention" by A Lie's men during training, leaving him battered and bruised. Greywolf also felt the pressure, as A Lie publicly questioned him several times, accusing him of being "old and senile, led by the nose by a slave."
On one occasion, a lowly beastman tasked with processing game was beaten by Blacktooth for accepting Gu Liang's advice on more efficient skinning techniques (which yielded better hides). Blacktooth warned him, "Stop learning useless tricks from that jinxed two-legged slave."
Fear began spreading like a plague. Gu Liang distinctly felt the invisible barrier around him thickening once more. The beasts still needed his calculations, but in public, fewer dared to speak to him or even meet his gaze.
He was isolated once more. This time, however, not as a useless waste, but as a troublesome and dangerous "outsider."
At dusk, sitting alone in the corner, he watched Grayclaw's distant gaze filled with apology and resignation, and saw Fangclaw's evasive eyes. The ice field within him, which had just begun to melt from feeling "useful," rapidly froze over once more—harder and colder than before.
The value derived from calculation remained fragile. It could not be directly converted into the strength needed to protect oneself or others.
[System Alert: Target Gu Liang experiencing covert isolation and suppression. Survival environment complexity increased. Tribal trust rating decreased. Darkening value rebounded to 25%. Warning: His computational abilities may shift toward more destructive applications.]
Emma received the system alert. She watched Gu Liang's back, still straight despite his isolation, her gaze deepening.
"Oppression and isolation... only ferment hatred and sharpen his calculations," she murmured. "A Lie is using the most foolish method to force out the most dangerous enemy."
She needed to find Gu Liang an outlet—an opportunity to temporarily escape this suffocating interpersonal struggle and channel his computational abilities toward grander, less directly vulnerable domains.
Her gaze drifted toward the vast gathering grounds on the tribe's periphery, now nearing harvest season. There grew the tubers and nuts the tribe relied on to survive winter. Each year's gathering descended into chaotic scrambles—inefficient and rife with disputes, as no one could accurately estimate yields or allocate gatherers effectively.
Perhaps... that place needed a new "calculator."
A stage where she could demonstrate her worth while temporarily distancing herself from the tribe's central vortex.
She needed to speak with Chief Inkmane. For the tribe's winter provisions, and also... to find a suitable whetstone for that increasingly sharp "sword."
ns216.73.216.147da2
and then Add to home screen.