LSLFBW: Chapter 11

The camp was far from the sea, so everyone started to carry water again.

Qi Bai stopped and wiped the sweat from his forehead. No, he had to think of a way tomorrow. This was wasting so much of the strength of a beastman.

The process of making salt from seawater wasn’t as sacred as some people imagined.

Qi Bai asked everyone to keep adding water to the stone pot. Apart from that, there were no other complicated processes.

It wasn’t that Qi Bai was lazy. Generally speaking, the crude salt boiled from seawater couldn’t be eaten directly. Every Chinese person knew that the reaction substances needed to be extracted to make refined salt.

But that was in the past. Now Qi Bai could only pat his chest and say, ‘Chemistry teacher, after so many years, I have returned the knowledge intact to you.’

Of course, even if Qi Bai could remember this knowledge, he might not be able to collect these materials in a short time in this poor beastmen world.

Moreover, from Mao Bai’s memories, the salt that the beastmen used to eat had a lot of impurities. A lot of salt exchanged for precious animal skins were lumpy and yellow. The taste was sometimes bitter and sometimes astringent. It could be said that the quality control of expensive salt was very poor.

It might be due to the strong physique of the beastmen that they had been eating such salt all the time without any major problems.

Before boiling the salt, Qi Bai actually wanted to precipitate it first and filter out the large impurities such as sand and other insoluble substances in the water. However, for the same reason, he lacked tools.

There was no way. A good cook couldn’t cook without rice.

Thus, everyone boiled the seawater using a simple process without knowing the details. In the darkness, they didn’t notice that snow-white crystals had appeared in front of them.

At first, the salt was just on the edge of the stone pot and wasn’t very conspicuous. It wasn’t until a small layer of white salt was stacked on the upper layer of the stone pot that Xiang Yu gently pinched a small amount in his hand and put it into his mouth.

It was really salt!

It was also purer salt than they had eaten before!

Xiang Yu looked at the endless sea and finally believed Qi Bai’s words. They would have endless salt to use.

Qi Bai asked everyone to pour out some of the remaining water in the pot every few hours. Lang Ze casually asked for the reason because he didn’t see any difference between the remaining water and ordinary seawater.

This question stumped Qi Bai. He had already given up on removing all the soluble substances in the seawater. He asked them to pour out the remaining water in the hope of being able to pour out some impurities that were dissolved in water and didn’t have a high content. In this way, he could purify the obtained salt as much as possible.

But he didn’t know how to explain these things to Lang Ze.

Lang Ze saw Qi Bai looking at him in confusion. He only thought that Qi Bai had heard the method from others and didn’t understand it.

Also, how could Qi Bai know about the sea as a sub-beastman and how could he know that there was salt in the sea?

So, in many cases, lies didn’t need to be made up. Others would naturally help him fill the gaps.

Their work was on track once the seawater was boiled. However, they needed to make a lot of salt, so Qi Bai decided that everyone would take turns on duty tonight.

The duty was very simple. Once the water in the stone pot was about to dry up, add more water to it.

Everyone had seen with their own eyes that so much salt was simply precipitated like this, so there was no need for Qi Bai to say much. Everyone was ready to take turns being on duty.

Unlike the usual night watch, where they could only stare at the fire in a bored manner, they were now at the seaside. Every time they went to fetch water, they could bring back some seafood. The stone pot might be occupied and they couldn’t boil it to eat it, but the direct barbecue aroma was even more overbearing.

Moreover, after nightfall, more photophobic seafood crawled out, especially crabs. Qi Bai picked up several of them on the way when he went to fetch seawater.

Feeling the sea breeze, grilling octopus, and eating clams and crabs… this life was only missing a bottle of beer.

Ma Ling wanted to guard the fire and never sleep.

Qi Bai woke up the next morning and saw Lang Ze sitting there while boiling salt. A lot of scraped salt had been stored on the big leaves beside him.

Qi Bai greeted Lang Ze.

Lang Ze pointed to the roasted deer on the side. It turned out that he had roasted breakfast for everyone when he was on duty early in the morning.

Qi Bai ran to the stream and simply brushed his teeth and washed his face. After returning to the camp, he stared at the fire while biting the cooked meat.

Lang Ze rarely saw Qi Bai look like this, so he couldn’t help asking, “What are you thinking about?

Qi Bai sniffed and said, “It is too troublesome for us to carry water like this. I was thinking about making a type of tool to hold water.”

Lang Ze thought for a while. “Previously, some people in the tribe would hollow out wood to hold water while others would use huge stones to carry water from the river. It is enough to move it once a day if the stone is big enough. It is just that such huge stones aren’t easy to find.”

Qi Bai’s eyes lit up. “Speaking of hollowing out wood to hold water, I wonder if there is any bamboo around here?”

Ma Ling had just woken up at this time. He replied casually, “Yes, there is a large area of bamboo in the back. Senior Bao Bai, what are you looking for bamboo for? It isn’t the right time to eat bamboo shoots.”

“How many times have I told you? Don’t call me Senior, just call me Bao Bai…”

Wait, what did Ma Ling just say?

Qi Bai stood up and grabbed Ma Ling’s arm. “Come on, take me to see it.”

Ma Ling was held by Qi Bai and walked forward several steps in a daze. He didn’t notice that after they left, Lang Ze’s eyes were still on his arm.

Qi Bai saw a large bamboo forest from a distance.

The bamboo leaves rustled in the wind, and the air was filled with the fragrance of bamboo. It was like entering a peaceful world as soon as he stepped into the bamboo forest.

The bamboo forest looked a bit old. The thick bamboo growing in the forest was exactly what Qi Bai needed. Qi Bai measured it with his hands, and the thickest one couldn’t even be held with both hands.

Qi Bai looked around at the bamboo with great interest while Ma Ling was still confused.

He thought that it would take more than a short time to cut the bamboo, and Ma Ling happened to be the one to guard the fire next, so Qi Bai asked him to go back quickly. In any case, Qi Bai couldn’t get lost here.

Qi Bai found some stones on the ground.

The stones here weren’t as hard as the stones around the tribe. Qi Bai hit two stones against each other and one of them broke easily.

Qi Bai used the broken side to make an awl and the strong stone as a hammer. He crouched on the ground and started to chop bamboo.

Bamboo might be hollow, but chopping bamboo was no easier than chopping trees. Fresh bamboo was very tough, and the one Qi Bai chose was very thick.

Qi Bai smashed several stones before he managed to chop a gap.

At this time, a person next to him handed him a stone axe.

Qi Bai turned around and saw that it was Lang Ze who came over. Lang Ze had made a stone axe out of local materials.

Lang Ze found that Qi Bai was too easily focused when doing things and wasn’t very cautious even in the wild. He frowned and felt that Ma Ling shouldn’t leave Qi Bai here alone. It was too dangerous.

Qi Bai was completely unaware of Lang Ze’s worries. “Is your time to guard the fire over?”

Lang Ze nodded. He crouched down and continued to chop next to the cut made by QI Bai.

Qi Bai happened to be very tired. He stood up and straightened his back, saying in a slightly aggrieved manner, “I shouldn’t have been so greedy and thought I could get the most bamboo by chopping from the bottom. As a result, I didn’t know that crouching on the ground would make me unable to exert any strength but also make my waist ache. But I am a bit reluctant to give up. After all, I have been chopping for a long time.”

Lang Ze pursed his lips. “You change the bamboo. I’ll chop this one.”

Qi Bai smiled. “I’m not a lazy person. Let’s chop this one together. Then I’ll chop from a higher place.”

Lang Ze had never chopped bamboo before, but he had chopped trees. Thus, he didn’t get stuck like Qi Bai.

Instead, he cut several notches around the bamboo. Then he kicked the bamboo hard with his foot, and the thick bamboo broke.

Qi Bai walked from the bottom of the bamboo to the top. Wow, this bamboo was nearly 20 meters long.

Thanks to the addition of Lang Ze, the two of them managed to cut four thick bamboo by the time it was close to noon. Qi Bai felt that these bamboo should be enough for today. It was mainly because they wouldn’t be able to move any more back.

The two of them dragged the bamboo back to the camp and found that the other three were still carrying water back and forth.

Qi Bai saw that the seawater in the pot could last for a while, so he asked the three of them to stop and deal with the cut bamboo together.

After all, sharpening a knife didn’t delay the work of chopping wood. They just needed to handle these bamboos and would save more time.

Most of the baskets they brought this time were around 60 cm high. Qi Bai was afraid that if the bamboo tubes were made too long, they wouldn’t be stable when put in the baskets. Therefore, he drew a line approximately every meter or so according to the bamboo joints. Then he asked several people to chisel them open with stones according to the lines.

Once the bamboo was cut, the thinner bamboo was inserted into the thicker one. The bottom was used to open all the joints inside the bamboo, and a long bamboo tube could be made in a few steps.

It sounded simple but it was very time-consuming to do.

But with the addition of tools, getting water became easy in an instant.

The strength of the beastmen meant they could easily carry seven or eight bamboo tubes at the same time. It wasn’t that their strength didn’t allow them to carry more, but that they could no longer hold more bamboo tubes in their arms.

Soon, everyone discovered another problem.

Now it was too slow to boil seawater in a stone pot. This greatly limited their efficiency.

The group moved a few large stones nearby and set up a total of five pots. A large-scale salt boiling workshop was born.

Fortunately, there was a shortage of everything in the mountains except for firewood. There was no need to consider the problem of fuel even if five fires were lit.

In the evening, everyone’s dinner was grilled seafood and grilled deer.

Lang Ze looked at the small amount of deer meat left and said, “Tomorrow, Ma Ling and I will go out hunting. I saw traces of sheep by the bamboo forest.”

Qi Bai nodded. “I will also go to the nearby area to collect some wild vegetables and fruits tomorrow.” These days, Qi Bai felt that he had eaten too much deer and oysters. It was time to eat some vegetables.

“Don’t worry about the wild vegetables and fruits. The bamboo tubes aren’t enough. Tomorrow, Ma Shu and I will go to cut bamboo. Bao Bai, you stay in camp to watch the fire,” Xiang Yu said.

Qi Bai counted the remaining bamboo tubes again. He found that there indeed weren’t many bamboos left from the bamboo they had cut before. He ran in and out today, carrying water and looking for firewood. He was busy for a long time and almost forgot about it.

At this time, the cooked salt had been well-packed in large bamboo tubes. In order to prevent the salt from spilling, Qi Bai had wrapped the mouth of the bamboo tubes with large leaves. Then he tied the leaves tightly to the bamboo tubes with straw ropes.

Qi Bai saw the full amount of salt and suddenly wanted to go home.

Unknowingly, he had regarded the empty cave as his home.