Translator: Exodus Tales
Editor: Exodus Tales
As the sun rose higher, the ground grew hotter.
Ye Xi discovered that several poles had been thrust into the clearing at some point, and rows of meat were hanging from them.
The tribe members carried wooden buckets, moving between the wooden poles and occasionally thrusting poles with meat spit through them into the ground.
The smell of blood filled the air.
Ye Xi saw some of the jerky going black from a second drying, and felt his cheeks go rigid.
He had once seen a man gnaw on a piece of jerky that had been dried out five times. The jerky had been as hard as stone, and the man had failed to leave even one tooth mark on the jerky despite gnawing on it for ages. In the end, a stone knife had been used, but this too failed to cut it open.
Awl was also working, occasionally thrusting a pole into the ground. When he saw Ye Xi, he put down his bucket and ran over. “This place will smell bad for a while. Why don’t you take a walk on the mountain, or maybe go back to the cave?”
“It’s fine. I don’t mind.” Ye Xi pointed with his chin at the clearing. “Are we just drying the meat all at once?”
Awl had a bitter look on his face. “There’s no better way. It’s best if we dry all the meat today, or else it might go bad. But even if we dry it into jerky, it won’t last for long. We’ll have to work hard and eat them all within the next few days.”
Ye Xi stroked his chin in thought. Was there no way of preserving the food? They had gotten so much food from the trade fair, and it would be best if they could store it. Alas, there were no refrigerators…
Awl waited for a while, but seeing that Ye Xi was still staring blankly into the distance, he ran back to work.
Right! Ye Xi struck his palm. We can dig a cellar!
With this idea in mind, Ye Xi immediately went to find the chief, ultimately finding him on Little Mud Mountain.
After discussion, the chief agreed on the spot and ordered the Warriors to immediately dig out a cellar in the cave.
The Warriors received the order, selected an area in the cave, and immediately began digging.
Living together in the same area meant that the moment something new happened, everyone would come over to have a look.
All the Mud Mountain tribe members that were free immediately came over to curiously look at this ‘cellar’ that could apparently allow them to store food.
To Ye Xi’s surprise, Mink also came over to look.
Last night, Ye Xi had confessed his identity to Mink and freed him from slavery. He could choose to stay at Mud Mountain, or do something else if he had other plans.
Pheasant Eye and Quetzal excitedly rushed over when they learned that Mink was here, but when they saw the slave tattoo on his face and his tortured body, they covered their heads and wept.
Even though they were crying for him, Mink remained wooden.
In the end, just as Ye Xi had expected, Mink decided to stay with the Mud Mountain Tribe.
The Warriors dug very quickly, and their figures were no longer visible from the surface. Dirt flew out of the hole, and in short order, several large piles of dirt had built up on the rim.
The Warriors on the ground level swiftly cleared away the dirt piles.
Around half an hour later, the filth-covered Warriors climbed out of the cave.
Seeing that digging was done, Ye Xi ordered for wooden boards to be carved. While the sun was still out, he had the wooden boards dried in the sun until they were bone-dry. His plan was to make these wooden boards the floor of the cellar, separating it from the rock and soil.
The blazing sun of the dry season had the wooden planks devoid of any water by noon.
The Mud Mountain tribe members worked very efficiently. Before dinner, they had finished clearing out the remaining dirt in the cave and laid down the wooden boards, thus creating a clean and spacious cellar.
“How can this cellar preserve food?” the chief curiously asked Ye Xi.
By now, no member of the Mud Mountain Tribe doubted Ye Xi’s words. They believed that even if the method was strange, if Ye Xi was the one who had said it, then it was correct.
After some thought, Ye Xi said, “…It should be the thermal inertia of dirt?”
The chief was dumbfounded. “Eh?”
Ye Xi chuckled. “Regardless of the reason, it’s fine as long as it works.”
The chief nodded and changed the topic. “So how long will it keep food for?”
Ye Xi thought to himself in amusement, You’ve already finished digging the cellar. Asking this question now is a bit too late.
“It should be fine until the rain season. But meat will still have to be dried into jerky, though we don’t need to repeatedly dry meat that has already been made into jerky.”
Until the rain season! The chief’s eyes brightened, and he excitedly ordered the tribe members to carry the food into the cellar.
By the time the last piece of food had been squeezed in, the spacious cellar was packed.
Boom! A thick stone slab was placed over the cellar.
The chief squatted over the cellar and stroked the slab, a satisfied and dreamy smile on his lips.
…
The jungle near Mud Mountain.
A wooden pole about half the height of a human had been thrust into the ground, and a basin half full of fresh water had been placed on it.
Birds of various sizes circled above the water, greedily staring at it, their wings anxious to carry them down.
Finally, a bird could take no more, and broke away from the flock to lunge at the basin.
Ten meters away.
Ye Xi nocked an arrow to his bow and drew back the string into a full moon. His thumb held the string while his index finger lightly held up the tail of the arrow. He tilted his head and narrowed his eyes as he took aim.
Swoosh!
The sharp arrow shrieked forward, a streak of darkness piercing the bird.
The arrow ran straight through the bird’s breast, and it plunged to the ground without a sound.
Swoosh!
Another arrow shot forward, and another bird fell.
Even though two birds had already died trying to get at the water basin, more and more birds continued to gather above the water basin, greedily eying it and preparing to charge down.
Ye Xi lowered his bow and fell back ten meters.
And then he nocked another arrow and loosed.
Swoosh! A dark streak passed, and another bird fell near the water basin with an arrow in its breast.
Ye Xi raised an eyebrow in surprise. With his improved vision, his archery had improved as well.
Trying to find his limit, Ye Xi backed up a few more steps and loosed another arrow. The distance this time was too much, and he only struck a wing.
Ye Xi remained at this distance and continued to hone his archery.
Swoosh! Swoosh! One arrow after another was loosed, and when he ran out of arrows, Ye Xi went over to the dead birds and pulled the arrows from their bodies.
This went on for some time…
“Ye Xi! So you were here. Come and eat already.”
Ye Xi’s fingers trembled, and then he slowly released the bow string.
He turned and saw that it was Plate.
Only now did Ye Xi leave his almost Zen-like state.
He looked up and saw that the sun was already beginning to incline toward the west. He had practiced all the way into the afternoon.
“Wuh? How did all these dead birds get here? Did you shoot them all down?”
There were fifty to sixty dead birds piled up around the wooden pole.
Plate clicked his tongue and sighed as he picked up a dead bird by the wing. He discovered that each one had only a single entry wound, and there were some birds that still had arrows in them. It was easy to see that Ye Xi had killed all these birds.
Some of the birds had fallen right into the basin of water, staining the clean water red with blood.
But even this did not stop the birds from circling above the water.
They all lacked water.
Ye Xi put down his bow, looked up at the birds, and emotionally sighed. “Let’s go.”
Plate gathered up all the dead birds, unworried about getting dirty. “These birds are too small. There’s not much point in eating them.”
Ye Xi casually said, “It’s fine. I can give them to Scaly and the little flower. They like to eat them.”
“Are you training for the provisional trials?”
“Yes. The trial is in one month. It’s good to train an additional skill.”
“With your current capabilities, you’re very likely to pass.” Plate glanced at the bow in Ye Xi’s hand and hesitated before adding, “But this bow of yours can only kill small things, so you shouldn’t waste too much time on it. Once you become a Warrior, you’ll get much stronger. Throwing a spear to hunt will be much better than using a bow and arrows.”
Arrows were too thin, and for gigantic creatures like dinosaurs, a single arrow barely even itched, creating only a small trickle of blood. Thus, Plate believed that Ye Xi was simply wasting his time training his archery so much.
But the bow and arrows had advantages over the spear. Who said that bow and arrows couldn’t have their own brilliant displays? Ye Xi smiled and listened, but he didn’t argue.
While the Warriors trusted Ye Xi when it came to certain matters, they were very stubborn when it came to their own field of expertise.
Only when the facts were arranged in front of them would they believe them.
Thus, he would prove it when the time came!
The two gradually disappeared into the jungle.
The circling birds immediately rushed down and began to greedily drink the water…