The first rays of light rose over the sea. The mist of the seashore was gently lifted like a curtain.
A new day had just begun. Many fallen leaves had fallen on the simple tree shed not far away. It seemed that no one had lived there for several days.
Qi Bai’s thick pads jumped on the ground, deftly avoiding the weeds stained with water droplets.
After two days and three nights of boiling salt, their group finally carried heavy bags on their backs and set off on the return journey.
Ma Shu and Ma Ling were carrying a simple saddle woven with vines on their backs. Two vine baskets were placed on both sides of the saddle. Each basket was filled with bamboo tubes sealed with leaves.
Following behind them was Xiang Yu, who weighed four or five tons. Even with four large vine baskets, his steps were brisk, and he looked very leisurely.
As a sub-beastman with a beast form that was only 50 cm tall, Qi Bai’s main task was to keep up with the team and to be careful not to be stepped on by the beastmen. He wasn’t needed at all for carrying things.
The route they took this time wasn’t the same as the one they took when they came.
The night before the return trip, everyone carefully analyzed the route ahead.
“This is the location of the tribe.” Lang Ze drew a circle on the ground before drawing two arcs. “This is the route we took when we came here.”
Qi Bai now understood what Lang Ze meant. He couldn’t help secretly glancing at Lang Ze. What came into view was Lang Ze’s side profile. The usually stiff lines appeared particularly soft under the reflection of the fire.
Lang Ze drew a straight line between the tribe and their current location.
Qi Bai sighed in his heart that Lang Ze actually knew how to find the shortest route despite being a beastman living in a primitive tribe.
More importantly, Lang Ze dared to propose such an idea and it wasn’t just talk.
Such a simple line not only required him to remember the complex direction of travel they took when they came, but he also needed to have a rough estimate of distance in his mind. Finally, he needed to be able to reflect this on a map.
This required a very strong memory and spatial ability. Such people were rare talents even in modern times.
Ma Ling didn’t understand what Lang Ze said at all, while Xiang Yu was indeed an experienced old beastman. “You are right. if we follow this route, we will return much faster than when we came here.”
Qi Bai nodded in agreement. He thought about it and added two lines on the ground, forming a right triangle with the oblique line drawn by Lang Ze.
“As far as I know, the sea is very large.” Qi Bai pointed to the short side of the triangle. “If the sea can be extended to here, the distance from the tribe to the sea will be much shorter. Next time, we won’t need to come so far.”
Lang Ze heard Qi Bai’s words and recalled the endless coastline he had seen in the past few days. He nodded and said, “We can give it a try. If we can find the sea in this direction, it is estimated that we can reach it in two days at the shortest.”
Ma Shu said, “If it is really that close, there is no need to go out to find salt. We can bring the salt back to the tribe on the way to hunt.”
In addition to finding prey, the hunting team’s hunting trip also had the very important task of patrolling the territory around the tribe.
The hunting team of the Black Mountain Tribe currently only hunted within a half-day range around the tribe, but they would travel further and further after the hunting team members had completed the survey of the surrounding terrain.
Some large tribes would even patrol the territory around ten days away from the tribe. For a small tribe like theirs, patrolling a distance of two days from the tribe was normal.
After all, they needed to take precautions in advance if there was an invasion by foreign enemies or if large animals appeared in their territory.
At this moment, they were moving along the route mentioned by Lang Ze.
The gray wolf exploring the way was sniffing between bushes and carefully checking the surrounding environment. He seemed to have discovered something and quickly turned around to find the team.
Lang Ze turned back into human form. “We have entered the range of the tribe.”
Then Qi Bai also changed into human form. “Can we reach the tribe today?”
Lang Ze nodded. “We can arrive in another half a day.”
Qi Bai’s heart, which had been worried along the way, finally relaxed. “Lang Ze, your estimate is really accurate. We actually arrived at the tribe in three days.”
Ma Ling snorted while Xiang Yu also used his long trunk to lightly sweep the leaves back and forth.
The three of them were carrying things on their backs and couldn’t change back into human form. They could only express their joy in this way.
They knew that the tribe was close at hand, so the speed of the group unknowingly increased a lot. It wasn’t dark when they saw the Black Mountain.
A small open space at the entrance of the cave had been cleared, and Yang Luo was directing the tribe members to prepare dinner.
Hou Yan was the first to notice someone approaching. Once he smelled a few familiar scents, he put down the prey he was processing and shouted to Yang Luo, “The salt seeking team is back!”
The news exploded in the tribe in an instant. Everyone gathered in the direction pointed by Hou Yan, and several children couldn’t wait to go out and greet them.
Qi Bai saw several children led by Bao Xing from a distance. They ran out and surrounded the group.
Xiang Yu and the Ma brothers walked to the front of the open space to facilitate the tribe members unloading the rattan baskets on them.
Xiang Yu handed Yang Luo a rattan basket full of animal skins. Once Yang Luo heard that there were some animal skins inside, he put it directly at his feet without even looking at it. Instead, he looked at Qi Bai anxiously, “Have you found the sea? Have you found salt?”
Yang Luo was very anxious these days. According to the original plan, they should’ve found the sea in around four days and returned in eight or night days. Therefore, Yang Luo would make a mark on the stone wall every day and night. He would count it several times every day.
Today was the tenth day. Yang Luo didn’t say it, but he became more and more anxious about the safety of these people than anyone else. In the past two days, he regretted not letting more people go with them.
Now that he saw they had returned safely, he didn’t express his worries and instead asked about business.
Qi Bai showed his small fangs, picked up a bamboo tube, and tore off the leaves covering it. Then the snow-white salt leaked out.
The salt had only been boiled. It hadn’t been dried and ground, so there was still some moisture left. A lot of the salt had already clumped together, but this couldn’t stop Yang Luo’s excitement.
His hands trembled from excitement. He pointed to the 20 or so large bamboo tubes on the ground and asked in a somewhat broken voice, “Are these all salt?”
Qi Bai smiled and nodded.
Yang Luo folded his hands together and sang loudly, “The Beast God is above!” At this movement, his expression was more pious than ever before.
He put his hands down and said loudly, “My tribe members! The warriors of the tribe have brought us enough salt. We can survive the winter!”
“Blessings of the Beast God!”
“Great!”
“I have never seen so much salt!”
The salt brought back by the salt seeking team was immediately put to use. Yang Luo added salt to the stone pot himself, and asked Qi Bai in a low voice, “How much salt is left in the sea?”
Qi Bai smelled the familiar wild vegetables stew and said with a smile, “Grandpa priest, there is really a lot of salt in the sea. We wasted some time at the seaside. It was Lang Ze who took us to find a shortcut, so we came back so quickly. Lang Ze said that the road to the seaside can be even closer, so there is no need to worry about the problem of salt in the tribe any longer.”
Yang Luo frowned in dissatisfaction. It was obviously five people who went out. Why was Qi Bai’s mouth full of Lang Ze? Still, he didn’t say anything. After sprinkling a bit of salt, he quickly sealed the bamboo tube like its original appearance.
The cool autumn breeze blew by, guarding the warm campfire. Qi Bai ate a full bowl of stew, and his heart was very peaceful.
Looking at the stars in the sky, Qi Bai couldn’t help wondering if Earth would be among them.
Or, could his family on Earth also see the direction where he was?
All of this was destined to have no answer.
Due to their great contributions, Yang Luo not only treated the Ma brothers with a pleasant face but also personally served several bowls to Lang Ze.
To be honest, they were used to cooking outside, and the food was better than in the tribe. In particular, they had lived very comfortably by the sea.
Therefore, Qi Bai might’ve been eager to go home all the way but once he really faced the big pot of soup, he wasn’t as interested as before. He stopped after eating a few bowls of wild vegetables stew and listened to everyone chatting.
On the opposite side, Lang Ze formed a sharp contrast with Qi Bai.
Lang Ze’s stomach was like a bottomless pit. He ate as much as Yang Luo gave him without any courtesy.
Qi Bai looked at Yang Luo’s twitching mouth and saw that the smile was about to disappear. This made him laugh secretly.
What made Yang Luo even angrier was that Lang Ze seemed unable to be full no matter what. Ma Ling would look up at Yang Luo every time he ate a mouthful of food before glancing into the cave from time to time, as if Yang Luo would ignore their animal skins.
Yang Luo endured and endured. Finally, once Lang Ze ate seven or eight bowls of stew, he put down the stone bowl in his hand for dividing food. Under the eyes of everyone, he asked Hu Meng and Niu Yong to move out the rattan basket containing animal skins.
At the time of departure, Qi Bai had agreed with everyone that if salt was found, it didn’t matter how many animal skins the tribe gave them. The five of them would share the animal skins equally, and everyone would get the same size.
Of course, Xiang Yu and Lang Ze disagreed at first. It was Qi Bai who proposed the idea that there might be salt in the sea, and Ma Shu and Ma Ling who told everyone the direction of the sea. The two of them were just there to lead the way and accompany them. How could they be qualified to get the same amount of animal skins as Qi Bai? Even Ma Shu and Ma Ling said that they didn’t need so many animal skins.
However, Qi Bai insisted on sharing it with everyone. As a modern man standing on the shoulders of giants, it wasn’t a rare thing to know that there was salt in seawater. Meanwhile, he lacked survival experience. If he left his companions, he wouldn’t be able to realize his thoughts even if he had more knowledge. In addition, the five of them were traveling together, and the journey would be full of dangers and uncertainties. Everyone followed him to the beach because they trusted him. He couldn’t let them go there in vain.
Yang Luo stood by the rattan basket, looked up, and said, “The Black Mountain Tribe is a generous tribe. Each of you can get a piece of animal skin.”
Yang Luo previously said that he would give one animal skin to the person who found the salt, but the fact that the salt seeking team brought back so much salt was completely beyond his expectations. The tribe couldn’t give them only one animal skin to share equally.
The first person to get the animal skin was Xiang Yu, who got a whole piece of deerskin.
The size of the whole piece of deerskin wasn’t small, but the tacit cooperation of the horned beastmen caused several parts of this deerskin to be bitten. It couldn’t be considered a complete piece of animal skin.
After that, Qi Bai, Lang Ze, and the others also got their own animal skins.
Ma Shu and Ma Ling touched the furs they got with trembling hands. They could hardly imagine that this was really their private property.
In fact, Yang Luo misunderstood Ma Ling before. How could he dare to urge the priest? It was just that he had never received it before, so he was full of uncertainty about what was about to happen.
Ma Ling and his brother were children of slaves. They had been slaves of the tribe since childhood. In their previous tribe, slaves weren’t allowed to have private property.
For slaves like them, who had no master, forget about owning private property. They didn’t even have a place to live. Everyone could only squeeze under the straw shed where prey was stored. Once the hunting season came, the hunting team would bring back extra prey, and they would have no place to live that night.
In winter, they could only pick up some withered leaves in the forest and bury themselves in the leaves. However, the leaves were useless in the straw shed with wind leaking on all sides. Many slaves would freeze to death every year.
At this moment, they finally believed that they had a piece of animal skin that would keep them warm. They didn’t have to worry about being frozen to death this winter.
The animal skins given to the four people weren’t as big as Xiang Yu’s, but no one felt dissatisfied.
Unlike Xiang Yu, the four of them were given sheepskins that were nearly two meters long. Unlike the short hair of deerskin, the sheepskin had thick hair. This was warmer than deerskin, so it wasn’t unfair to them.
For Qi Bai, who had just arrived, everything in the tribe was new. Even though the wool in his hand had started to stink, Qi Bai didn’t dislike it at all.
He didn’t know how to tan animal skins yet. He should take this opportunity to learn it.
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