The Survival of the Wild Tribe

Chapter 23

There is no place near the Panther Tribe where salt is produced. It's better to say there's no salt-producing area on this side of Changfeng Mountain. Therefore, for rock salt, they can only take advantage of the brief period when the human-faced bird hatches its young and take the risk every three years to cross Changfeng Mountain and exchange goods with the distant Tiger and Lion tribes.

So, Luo Zhen wasn't worried about sharing the method of refining rock salt with Axue, because even if he did, the rock salt refined by the Black Panther Tribe would only be enough for their internal use.

The method of refining rock salt is straightforward. The rock salt is completely melted into saltwater and then left to stand for a period for sedimentation. There are no cloths or filters here, and the mud in the rock salt cannot be completely filtered out—only some of it is fairly obvious. After picking out the sand and gravel, the separated brine is boiled to dryness, yielding preliminary refined salt.

To save firewood, Luo Zhen only refined it once, barely able to remove the bitterness and astringency in the rock salt, which was much better than its original taste.

Yesterday, Luo Zhen only refined half of it. Before the charcoal fire was extinguished, Luo Zhen planned to refine the other half of the rock salt. By the way, he wanted Axue to see the method of refining rock salt with her own eyes.

"Has the refined rock salt reduced?" Axue stared at Luo Zhen's movements without blinking until the water slowly turned into white salt grains. Then she softly asked her question, fearful that her voice might blow away those tiny salt particles.

"Yes, after all the impurities have been filtered out."

Axue stared at the slowly precipitating salt grains, noticing that they were at least about one-fifth less than before. She still couldn't fully understand the impurities Luo Zhen mentioned. After all, rock salt is very precious to them. Soldiers can directly cut the throat of their prey and drink their blood to replenish their strength while hunting. For ordinary people like them, without rock salt, they would lack strength and be unable to raise children. If they encountered misfortune or attack, they wouldn't even have the strength to escape.

Therefore, even though Luo Zhen's refined rock salt tasted better than usual, Axue still felt distressed that one-fifth of the rock salt was missing. She couldn't help but feel a little disappointed with this method of refining rock salt.

Luo Zhen didn’t explain much. He could guess Axue’s worries. He could only cool down the precipitated salt particles and collect them into animal skins for rock salt, then share them with Axue and Ashui. He took some food and brought the rest back to the tent to share with Lu Zhan.

It's still quite hot now, and the beef has a fishy smell after being left for a long time. Although Luo Zhen marinated it with green pear juice for a while and then mixed it with cassava, the taste wasn't very pronounced.

Before Axue arrived, she heard Jiaozhu report to his father about the food made by Luo Zhen. Even with mental preparation, she couldn't help but show surprise when she tasted this unique flavor for the first time.

Axue actually encountered cassava roots and stems while picking wild fruits in the small forest. At that time, she was picking a kind of wild fruit that grew close to the ground. The exposed rhizomes were mostly covered in soil, similar to the ones Luo Zhen just cooked. She thought they were just ordinary tree roots at the time. She never imagined that cutting these tree roots, steaming them, and then stir-frying them with beef would be so delicious.

It was soft, waxy, and smelled of beef. It was more delicious than the bark of grass roots dug out from under thick snow during winter famine.

Axue didn't even have time to see what the two of them were doing inside the tent. Sitting on both sides of the fire pit with Ah Shui, they grabbed the cassava and beef with their hands without any manners, eager to eat.

After breakfast, Luo Zhen was about to start preparing for farming because Lu Zhan planned to leave for a while to collect seeds while they were out. He said that Luo Zhen would pick some insect-repelling plants to bring back. Once they had cleared the tableware, Luo Zhen was eager to leave and walked to the wild lettuce he still wanted to find farthest.

He was really fed up with the mosquitoes here at night. If it hadn’t been for the insect-repelling plant growing at the southern foot plain's junction, it would take a day to get to that place at Luo Zhen’s speed. Maybe Luo Zhen would have run there himself. Of course, this time he didn't forget to have Lu Zhan dig two plants with soil and roots to bring them back. If he could successfully plant them here, he wouldn't have to worry about mosquitoes at night anymore. The insect-repelling plant's scent here was comparable to that of previous mosquito coils. It was even more effective at repelling mosquitoes.

Wild barley grew on the outskirts of the tribe, not far from where they separated from the warriors who fed guts and bones to the hyenas last time they went to the small forest.

Along the way, Luo Zhen met many women and children who looked at him curiously. Because some women were breastfeeding with their upper bodies bare, Luo Zhen felt too embarrassed to look back at each one. He just nodded in a hurry to greet them and then hurried to the destination with the two little ones trailing behind him.

"Luo Zhen, do people in your tribe also grow vegetables? Don't you get hungry in winter?" Axue was a talkative girl, and after only a short time together, she seemed to be Luo Zhen's long-lost relative, bombarding him with questions.

But her temperament was straightforward; she would ask directly if she had any questions, without worrying about whether it was appropriate or if it would cause trouble for Luo Zhen. Luo Zhen knew she was the daughter of the Great Witch and that he still needed to stay in this tribe. Even though he knew she was the Great Witch's spy, he could only answer Axue's questions truthfully or falsely.

"Yes, there are many ordinary people in our tribe, and there aren't enough warriors who can go out hunting. So, we have to try to gather more food ourselves."

Axue glanced at him sympathetically. "Then you must have a hard time?" Tribes with too few warriors can develop safely as long as they have enough food. Various beasts in winter and some nearby tribes may covet their resources. Axue had heard the elders say that their Panther tribe was driven to this side of Changfeng Mountain in this way and had to rely

on accepting foreign talents to grow. The tribe had grown to its current size.

"It's okay," Luo Zhen smiled perfunctorily.

"Don't worry, our tribe has enough warriors. Even human-faced birds don't dare to easily rush into our tribe. You'll be safe here," Axue comforted. "And our tribe even has a child-mother tree. Even if you're a man, you can give birth to your own offspring."

As soon as he heard about the child-mother tree, Luo Zhen felt a cramp in his abdomen. No, he didn't want to give birth to offspring himself.