LSLFBW: Chapter 35

Since the walls of the stone room were very cool, Qi Bai didn’t plan to place too much stone furniture in it. He would just wait until the cave was dug into a regular empty room. Then he would dig out some inward-facing cabinets in the wall to store items as needed.

Therefore, Qi Bai’s actions were very bold. He didn’t have to consider the risk of digging the wrong thing.

A few hours later, Qi Bai put down the stone hammer, kneaded his sore shoulder, and walked over to check on the charcoal.

Out of the four large pieces of charcoal placed in the corner of the cave, only a small half was left. The charcoal made by Qi Bai was still very durable.

It seemed that as long as the room was kept ventilated, using charcoal for heating throughout winter shouldn’t be a problem.

Qi Bai picked out some charcoal of better quality from his rattan basket and divided it into two portions.

One was given to Lang Ze. Qi Bai had already promised to give him some to try.

Another portion would be given to Yang Luo, who lived in the collective cave.

For beastmen living in the mountains and forests, nothing was easier to obtain than wood. He believed that Yang Luo would discover the benefits of charcoal after using it.

Sure enough, early the next morning, Qi Bai came out of the cave and saw Yang Luo squatting in front of the earthen kiln. He was studying it attentively and touching it gently from time to time.

Qi Bai stepped forward quietly and shouted loudly, “Grandpa Priest!”

Yang Luo was so frightened that he stumbled and almost fell head first into the earthen kiln.

“Nonsense!” Yang Luo pretended to be angry but soon stopped caring. He pointed at the earthen kiln without any cracks and asked, “Is this where the charcoal is made?”

Qi Bai nodded. “That’s right.”

Yang Luo touched his chin thoughtfully. He was indeed very satisfied with the finished charcoal that Qi Bai gave him. The winter was long and cold. For a tribe like theirs living in caves, charcoal was indeed a good thing.

He silently estimated in his mind the amount of charcoal needed to supply the tribe members. Then he carefully inquired about Qi Bai’s charcoal-making process.

After hearing that Yang Luo was going to gather all the people in the tribe to burn charcoal together, Qi Bai suggested, “Charcoal isn’t a necessity of life like food. The amount of charcoal needed by each person is different.”

“It just so happens that I have the first batch of charcoal here. You can give it to the tribe members to try. By the way, tell everyone that I am willing to teach everyone how to make charcoal. As long as they learn how to make charcoal, they can make as much as they want, and you won’t have to worry too much.”

Charcoal burning doesn’t require much technical skills. It was time-consuming and laborious. Many people’s caves hadn’t been dug yet. Qi Bai was a bit worried that it would delay everyone’s progress in digging caves. After all, it was very important to have a cave that could shelter from the wind and snow.

After thinking about it, Qi Bai felt that they should be produced separately so that everyone could do what they could.

Qi Bai was a bit worried whether Yang Luo would agree to his proposal or not. After all, once such a precedent was set, the power and prestige of the priest and tribe leader might be reduced once tribe members no longer relied on the distribution from the priest and clan leader.

To Qi Bai’s surprise, Yang Luo agreed without much hesitation.

Yang Luo might not know what work enthusiasm was, but he knew the results of the last competition. After everyone hunted and gathered separately, they did get more food.

However, he still had to discuss this matter carefully with Hou Yan.

Once Yang Luo left, Qi Bai went to the back mountain with a stone axe and straw vines.

There wasn’t much firewood left after Qi Bai and Lang Ze collected it in the bamboo forest last time and burned two kilns. Now he wanted to open the third kiln, so he needed to find some wood.

Thanks to the experience of the previous firing, this time Qi Bai tried his best to find branches of similar thickness. He cut them down and stacked them together. Once the number was almost the same, he tied them up with straw vines.

The place where Qi Bai was now had a clean and flat snow surface. It looked like no person or animal had passed here for a long time. There was no need to worry about any danger here. He had unknowingly entered the depths of the forest.

Qi Bai paused as he was moving forward. This road wasn’t easy to walk on. He tripped several times in a row, and just now, he almost fell down.

It was this moment that made Qi Bai feel as if he was stepping on the leaves of some plant.

Qi Bai kicked the snow that he had stepped on in confusion.

A plump radish was revealed.

……

Qi Bai hadn’t expected that he would encounter such a good thing as radishes when going out to chop firewood.

He put down the branch in his hand, pulled out the radish that was half exposed in the soil, rubbed off the dirt on the radish with snow, and couldn’t wait to take a bite.

It really was a radish!

Maybe because it was frozen in the soil, but the radish in Qi Bai’s hand wasn’t very juicy. The skin was still a bit crispy, but the inside was a bit soft.

Of course, such a small flaw couldn’t stop Qi Bai from liking it.

In such a snowy and icy place, finding such fresh fruits and vegetables was like a pie in the sky.

Qi Bai immediately started to look around. As he did so, he discovered that there were quite a few radishes buried under the snow.

Qi Bai wasn’t in the mood to continue chopping wood. He even regretted not bringing a rattan basket with him. He first tied up the newly chopped firewood and firmly grasped the straw rope that bound the firewood. Then he held four large radishes in his arms and hurried towards the tribe in an awkward manner.

As he walked back, Qi Bai realized that he had walked such a long way. It was no wonder that other people in the tribe didn’t notice the radish field here.

However, when Qi Bai returned to the tribe, he found that the square in front of the collective cave was empty. He thought that all the tribe members should be here. He had wanted to tell everyone the news of the radish.

At this time, Niu Xi came back from outside while dragging some firewood. He saw Qi Bai standing in the open space in a daze and asked, “Hey, Bao Bai, what are you doing here?”

Qi Bai asked in surprise, “No one wants to make charcoal? Why is there no one here?”

Niu Xi smiled. “Of course not. The charcoal you made is really useful. Everyone wants it. That’s why the priest and tribe leader felt that the open space in front of the collective cave wasn’t enough. They had already asked the beastmen to go to the other side of the Black Mountain to clear the snow. There is a larger open space there.”

Niu Xi motioned for him to follow. The two of them dragged firewood and moved along the right side of the Black Mountain. Not long after, they heard a noise.

After going around a stone wall, they saw a bustling scene with crowds of people.

Hu Huo, Xiang Yu, and several other strong horned beastmen were clearing the snow on the ground with large brooms that obviously had many branches attached to them.

A few furry creatures crouched down, their little heads moving constantly while following the broom. Occasionally, they would quickly scratch it with their hands.

The beastmen didn’t mind their disturbance and would deliberately change the direction of their brooms quickly from time to time to amuse the children.

Qi Bai randomly found a spot on the edge and put down the firewood he had collected.

Tu Ya saw the two people coming and quickly came over. After seeing what was under Qi Bai’s fur coat, she couldn’t help exclaiming in surprise, “Bao Bai, where did you find the radish root?”

It was only then that Qi Bai realized this plump guy that looked like a radish was called a radish root in the tribe. It was somewhat similar to the name on Earth.

So, when Qi Bai set out again with the rattan basket on his back, many sub-beastmen were also carrying rattan baskets and following him.

They followed the footprints on the snow and soon reached their destination.

Winter was the season for eating radish. Even though it was now called a radish root, different ways of cooking it were still playing in Qi Bai’s mind.

Pickled radish, radish kimchi, stir-fried shredded radish, radish with stewed meat, radish and pork ribs soup, radish cakes…

Not to mention anything else, radish could even be eaten as a fruit in Qi Bai’s hometown.

The more Qi Bai thought about it, the greedier he became. The more he worked, the harder he worked. He actually started sweating despite it being the middle of winter.

After returning to the tribe, Qi Bai placed the radish and sweet potatoes he had picked side by side.

He also dug a full basket of soil from the small slope next to his cave.

It wasn’t that the soil here was good. Qi Bai simply wanted to display the spirit of ‘where there’s a will, there’s a way’. He would move the soil down the mountain little by little. He took advantage of today’s opportunity to transport a small amount down first.

At this moment, the snow and debris on the large open space had been cleared away. Everyone gathered here.

The life of beastmen in winter was very boring. Most of the time, they just stayed quietly in their caves, reducing their food consumption by reducing their exercise.

These days, the members of the Black Mountain Tribe had almost nothing to do except digging caves.

Today, there was such a new thing to participate in. Even those who hadn’t discovered the benefits of charcoal had come here.

Yang Luo had already informed everyone of the materials needed to make charcoal. At this moment, there were piles of firewood and soil around everyone.

Since more water was needed this time, Yang Luo specially asked the tribe members to go to the edge of the waterfall and fetch dozens of bamboo tubes filled with mountain spring water.

The method of making an earthen kiln was very simple. Qi Bai demonstrated to everyone how to stack firewood and how to cover the firewood pile firmly with soil.

The rest was all physical work. Qi Bai only needed to wait for them to light the fire and help see when to seal the kiln.

Perhaps it was the nature of children to play with mud. The young children like Bao Xing and Lili found it very interesting to see the adults stirring the clay with sticks.

After being allowed to join in the fun of applying mud to the earthen kiln, they were all very happy. Soon, they were covered in mud. If he didn’t know better, he would’ve thought that these children were dug out of a mud pit.

But there were always children who loved cleanliness since childhood. For example, the little horned beastman Sun Yuan. He had now turned into a beast and was using his teeth to help his brother carry firewood piece by piece.

It wasn’t that he didn’t want to become human. However, the skill of making animal skin clothes by Sun Qing was so poor that little Sun Yuan’s clothes couldn’t be worn after a few days. This meant he had to maintain his animal form.

Sun Qing looked at his brother’s clean fur. He grabbed the clay with bad intentions. As Sun Yuan wasn’t paying attention, he deliberately stroked the cat tail.

Sun Qing laughed unkindly when seeing his younger brother holding his tail in an aggrieved manner.

Qi Bai shuttled between different piles of wood. After seeing that everyone was on the right track, he found a piece of open space and drew on the ground.

Qi Bai was thinking about building a new kiln because he wanted to take this opportunity to experiment with firing pottery.

Qi Bai had considered making pottery before. However, they already had bamboo bowls and stone bowls that were relatively easy to obtain. It was also too busy in autumn, so Qi Bai never brought up the idea.

However, not all stones could withstand high temperatures. He had already burned and fried several stone slabs while cooking these past two days. Before, he just thought that stone pots were troublesome to use. Now it seemed there was another problem in that it wasn’t safe.

Therefore, Qi Bai considered making a lighter, thinner, and heat-resistant ceramic pot.

In this way, he needed a kiln with a slightly more complex structure. The main changes were to make the air outlet higher and thinner. The kiln body had to be longer and with an additional slope. Finally, a larger air inlet and firewood adding opening were reserved at the bottom of the kiln.

The main purpose of doing this was to hope that the heat could be concentrated in the earthen kiln as much as possible. If the temperature still couldn’t meet the requirements for making pottery, he could continue to add a blower setting based on this kiln.

As long as the general direction was correct, Qi Bai believed that making pottery was only a matter of time. After all, pottery didn’t have high requirements for clay.

Thinking of this, Qi Bai started to take action.

Yang Luo looked at Qi Bai’s kiln, which was different in shape from the others, and walked up to Qi Bai. He asked, “Why aren’t you piling firewood in your kiln?”

Qi Bai gently pushed back the loose hair on his forehead with his wrist and replied, “This isn’t a kiln for making charcoal. I plan to use it to burn pottery.”

Pottery had already appeared in the Beastman Continent. However, just like making bone knives from bird bones, in a primitive society where information flow was very underdeveloped, and there were deep barriers between tribes, the pottery that existed was a luxury item. Its production method wasn’t known to ordinary people.

Qi Bai had even head of a tribe named ‘Pottery’, which showed the beastmen’s love for pottery.

Therefore, Yang Luo disagreed when he heard Qi Bai’s arrogant words. “It’s okay if it is just burning wood, but how can a lump of earth be fired into pottery?”

After all, pottery was a very precious item even in his former tribe.

Qi Bai blinked. “Then, Grandpa Priest, what if I really make pottery?”

Yang Luo laughed. “Then I can promise you one thing. No matter whether it is food or something else, you can ask for it as long as I can do it.”

“Really? Any request?”

Yang Luo didn’t believe that he could make pottery at all. “Of course. There is no reason to deceive you about this.”

Qi Bai smiled, his eyes firm. “Just wait and see.”