Lang Ze came back and was holding some withered Li grass in his hand. Qi Bai quickly reached out and stopped Lang Ze from crushing the Li grass. “It isn’t bleeding any longer. Stop it.”
Of course, more importantly, the wound on his hand was different from Xiong Feng’s. If the grass mixed with soil directly touched the wound, it might increase the risk of infection. Qi Bai explained, “This grass can’t be used directly. It needs to be washed with cooled hot water before it can be applied to the wound.”
Lang Ze knew that Yang Luo had taught Qi Bai some knowledge, so he didn’t suspect anything. He just put the Li grass in a rattan basket and prepared to make plans after returning to the cave. After all, it wasn’t easy to find Li grass in this season.
At this time, Qi Bai finally had the chance to say, “There is something wrong with the bones of the bird.”
Qi Bai circled the red bird and added, “Besides, it is so dry and shrunken. It doesn’t look very delicious.”
“You can’t eat the meat of birds,” Lang Ze said seriously. “After birds die, their meat will quickly become sour and smelly. Moreover, the priest said that the flesh and blood of birds are poisonous. I have seen people eat bird meat and die within a few days.”
Qi Bai gulped. “Why did you risk your life to catch this bird? Do you know that you almost scared me to death just now?”
Lang Ze finally showed some excitement on his face, making him look in line with his age. “Their meat can’t be eaten, but the bones of flying birds are the best material for making bone tools. Moreover, they don’t appear often, and they are difficult to hunt due to their wings.
“In particular, the bones of their wings can be made into sharp bone knives.” Lang Ze hit the huge wings of the red bird. “This is the first time I have hunted such a large flying bird.”
Qi Bai patted his head. Yes, wasn’t this strange sound similar to metal?
Qi Bai took out his bone knife. “Is it like my bone knife?”
Lang Ze shook his head. “The bones of the red bird are certainly not as sharp as the black bird. The bones of the black bird are the strongest bones on the continent.”
Lang Ze said these words on the day Qi Bai stabbed the black bear’s eyes with the bone knife. It was only after Qi Bai saw the horror of the flying bird with his own eyes that he truly realized the preciousness of this bone knife.
After all, with today’s dangerous hunting methods, it wasn’t an easy task to hunt these flying birds, let alone the black bird, which sounded even more ferocious.
The blood from the red bird spilled next to the trap they had set up before. Qi Bai estimated that this trap wouldn’t yield any results in the short term.
However, due to the huge size of the red bird, Qi Bai and Lang Ze couldn’t take the body with them when hunting. They had to bring the body of the red bird back to the tribe first.
Just as the two of them entered the vicinity of the tribe and were about to drag the red bird up the mountain, Qi Bai heard Hu Meng exclaim, “Grandpa Priest! Grandpa Tribe Leader! Lang Ze and Bao Bai brought back a huge mountain phoenix!”
This should immediately put an end to the two people’s plan to sneakily bring the prey back to the cave. Lang Ze became completely cold.
Qi Bai looked at the many tribe members who poked their heads out due to Hu Meng’s voice. He said in a resigned manner, “Let’s go and drag the red bird to the square first.”
Lang Ze nodded vigilantly.
Following the actions of Qi Bai and Lang Ze, many people saw the prey behind them. Some people who lived close to the ground jumped down directly and followed them.
However, these tribe members didn’t seem to know the red bird. Many of them actually agreed with Hu Meng’s statement and were still discussing it seriously.
“I’ve never seen a mountain phoenix this big.”
“Yes. Why does this mountain phoenix look so strange and have so few feathers? Does this mountain phoenix shed its feathers in winter?”
Qi Bai looked at the red bird dragged by Lang Ze in confusion and doubted the eyesight of his fellow tribe members. How could they mistake this ugly thing for a mountain phoenix? The mountain phoenix was obviously so majestic and beautiful.
This was until Yang Luo and Hou Yan walked out of the collective cave and saw the red bird in the center of the square. They looked at each other and quickened their pace at the same time.
The others all gave way when they saw the priest and tribe leader coming. Hou Yan touched the red bird’s wings lovingly and said, “It is a flying bird!”
“This is… a red bird? You actually hunted a red bird?” Yang Luo’s voice was a bit sharp.
The two of them weren’t happy for long after they looked up and met Lang Ze’s defensive eyes.
Yang Luo’s excitement was extinguished. He restrained his expression in a sullen manner. However, he explained when he saw the confusion of the people around him, “This isn’t a mountain phoenix, it is a flying bird. The bones of flying birds are the best materials for making bone knives. Their bones can be used to make bone knives that will never break.”
What he didn’t say was that the beastmen who could make bone knives out of bird bones were more difficult to find than the birds themselves.
Even in his original tribe, only the tribe leaders and priests had the right to know. As a priest student who failed in the competition, he naturally didn’t understand how to make it.
He looked at the red bird in front of him, and his brow twitched.
Suddenly, it felt a bit tricky.
However, the members of the Black Mountain Tribe didn’t notice anything unusual about their priest.
Hu Meng said in disbelief, “What do you mean by a bone knife that will never break? Even a stone can’t break it?”
Zhu Ya raised his head and said proudly, “Of course. I once had a bone knife made of blue bird bones. My bone knife won’t melt even in a fire.”
Yang Luo looked at Zhu Ya and suddenly remembered that Zhu Ya was once the child of the leader of the Pig Tribe. Perhaps he knew how to make a bone knife.
Just as Yang Luo was about to find an opportunity to ask Zhu Ya privately, a small beastman called You (weasel) Yun asked, “Zhu Ya, can you catch such a big bird?”
Zhu Ya’s eyes flickered for a moment. Then he said a bit proudly, “Of course, I didn’t go hunting myself. After all, I am…”
He saw Hou Yan next to him and swallowed down the words ‘Pig Tribe.’ He said, “In any case, I got that bone knife on the trading day.”
Hu Meng laughed. “What is the point of you just talking? If you have the guts, take out the bone knife and let us see it.”
Zhu Ya couldn’t really take it out. He had lent his bone knife to his younger brother before he fled. Then he got lost from the tribe. Where could he find the bone knife?
Yang Luo immediately gave up the idea of looking for Zhu Ya alone. Come to think of it, if the tribe had the skill to make flying bird bone knives, how could they not be able to protect the child of the tribe leader?
Seeing that the topic of the crowd was getting further and further away, Yang Luo coughed lightly. “Being able to hunt prey in winter is the honor of the beastmen and the honor of the Black Mountain Tribe.”
Qi Bai frowned when he heard Yang Luo suddenly mention the tribe and asked, “Grandpa Priest, the red bird was obtained by Lang Ze alone during hunting. Does it need to be handed over to the tribe?”
Yang Luo thought for a moment and finally shook his head. “Winter prey will belong to every brave beastmen. But the red bird is a rare prey. Chief Hou Yan and I are willing to use the supplies in the tribe to exchange with you for some feathers and bones. Lang Ze, are you willing?”
Lang Ze said coldly, “I don’t want to.”
Yang Luo choked.
Qi Bai secretly curled up the corners of his lips.
Yang Luo thought angrily, ‘I was worried about you and afraid that such a good thing would be wasted. But you have such an attitude.’
He waved his hand. “Then you can do whatever you want. Still, everyone must listen carefully. The blood and flesh of birds carry a curse. You must not eat it even if you are lucky enough to catch a bird.”
He thought for a moment before adding, “From now on, everyone who hunts prey with features must bring it to me for confirmation.”
Then he ignored them and went back to the cave.
The moment Yang Luo left, the half-grown beastmen, including Hu Meng and Niu Yong, gathered together and kept muttering. The children of this age hadn’t realized the dangers of winter and were always full of an adventurous spirit.
However, they didn’t know what type of bone knife could be made from the bones of the red bird. They could only watch Lang Ze dragging the red bird and let their imagination run wild.
After dragging the red bird back to the stone platform, Lang Ze’s attitude changed instantly. He pointed at the red bird, hoping that Qi Bai would pick some bones first.
It was just that Qi Bai had no idea how to make a bone knife. It would be a waste to give it to him. In the end, he only took a small piece of bird bone from the tip of the wing and gave the rest to Lang Ze. “I only need this one piece.”
Lang Ze thought about it, nodded, and dragged the red bird into his cave.
Qi Bai was more concerned about another thing, which was his small earth kiln. It wasn’t completely dark, but it was almost the time that he sealed the kiln yesterday.
Qi Bai found a branch and dug out a small door in front of the earthen kiln. He dug up the soil and saw black charcoal in the kiln.
QI Bai took out two pieces of charcoal and hit them together, making a crisp sound. If he squeezed them hard, he would see the cross-section that had been burnt into charcoal.
Success!
Qi Bai was pleasantly surprised as he used a branch to pull out the charcoal that was still warm. Except for a few pieces of wood on the outermost and center sides that weren’t completely burned into charcoal, the rest of the wood had basically turned black. Qi Bai harvested a full basket of charcoal.
The size and quality of the charcoal he burned weren’t quite consistent, but Qi Bai couldn’t be particular about these things. It was enough as long as there was charcoal that could be used.
The earthen kiln made by Qi Bai was quite successful. At the very least, it looked like there would be no problem using it a few more times. This saved a lot of time.
He cleaned up all the charcoal in the earthen kiln, put the unburned wood in the middle of the kiln first, and stacked it up layer by layer.
As he sealed the kiln entrance, Qi Bai took the red bird bone and stuffed it into the kiln.
He definitely didn’t mean to destroy anything. He was just simply curious.
Qi Bai carried the rattan basket full of charcoal into the cave. He took out some and placed it in a sheltered corner. He lit the charcoal and put his hand on top of the charcoal. A stream of warm currents touched the palm of his hand.
The cave soon warmed up.
Qi Bai bandaged the wound on his hand tightly. He covered his head with a piece of animal skin to prevent the dust from chiseled stones falling all over his head and face. Then he swung the stone hammer.
Today, with the interruption of the red bird, there was no time to go out hunting. Qi Bai took advantage of this free time and continued to be a hard-working miner.
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