Hai Yao didn’t even twitch her nose.
She looked at Ling Shuying and blurted out, “Switching to raw fish today?”
Ling Shuying paused.
She wondered if this girl’s nose was sharper than a dog’s to have smelled the fish on her back.
“I’m going to roast it now.
How did you know it was raw?”
Hai Yao rolled her eyes and replied helplessly, “Please, you reek of fish.
Who couldn’t smell it?
“Besides, that roasted fish of yours smells unbearably good once it’s cooked, and I don’t smell that right now.”
Ling Shuying let out a light cough, ignoring the remark.
She looked around and asked, “Where do you make your fire?”
Hai Yao rolled her eyes again.
“Please, not everywhere is like your place with a house, a kitchen, and a working fire.
“I don’t have a fire here.
If you need it, go back to your own place.”
Ling Shuying was slightly taken aback.
She wondered how long this girl had been on the island without ever making a fire to cook.
Looking at the narrow cave Hai Yao lived in, Ling Shuying furrowed her brows, already knowing the answer.
Unlike herself—a lucky survivor who had stumbled upon a house—Hai Yao was enduring pure wilderness survival.
With no abundant fresh water and no ready-made matches to start a fire, she scraped by day to day just by catching fish, drinking coconut water, and hiding in this small cave.
Doing all of that required exceptional wilderness survival skills.
Seeing Ling Shuying staring blankly at the cave, Hai Yao urged, “So?
Do you still want news about that person or not?”
Ling Shuying looked at her with a hint of sympathy.
Glancing at the sky, she realized it would be too late if she went home to fetch fire before coming back to cook.
It would be better to start a fire right here.
Ling Shuying set the fish down and told her, “I’m going to start a fire.
I’ll be right back.”
Hai Yao paused in surprise.
“Start a fire?
How?
“Don’t tell me you’re going to pull that City State primary school stunt and try drilling wood to make fire.”
Without looking back, Ling Shuying threw a remark over her shoulder.
“I’ll use my brain to start it.”
Hai Yao froze for a moment at those words, not quite understanding what she meant.
She chewed on a wild fruit absentmindedly, staring at the fish lying on the banana leaf for quite a while.
Suddenly, she realized what it meant.
She thought, “Is she saying I don’t use my brain to make a fire?!”
Hai Yao slapped her thigh.
Puffs of hot air flared from her nostrils like an angry bull.
She snorted in fury and took two vicious bites of the fruit, as if she were biting Ling Shuying herself.
Unaware of her exasperation, Ling Shuying was walking along a path in the woods, searching for the materials she needed.
The island air was naturally humid, and it had just rained a couple of days ago.
Even she had only managed to scrape by these past few days using the matches left behind in the wooden cabin.
But it wasn’t impossible.
Her internal modeling computations activated.
The various natural elements of the forest continuously arranged and combined in Ling Shuying’s mind to design a fire-starting method.
Tinder, a tinder nest, and an ignition device.
After a brief moment of thought, Ling Shuying formulated a plan.
The palm fibers from the inner layer of coconut husks could be used as tinder, while banana leaves could serve as a windproof nest.
As for the ignition, without any other tools, she would still have to resort to drilling wood.
Ling Shuying first tore off some palm fibers from the inside of a coconut husk and kneaded them into a fluffy, nest-like shape.
She soaked it in the nearby seawater for ten minutes before fishing it out and wringing it completely dry.
She did this because as saltwater evaporated, it formed salt crystals inside the fibers.
This wedged open the gaps in the wood fibers while increasing their air content.
Furthermore, once the salt crystals absorbed moisture, they would form a saturated saline film that effectively blocked external moisture from seeping in, ironically accelerating the drying process.
Picking up the saltwater tinder, Ling Shuying went back into the woods.
She used her shell knife to scrape some pine shavings and gather extremely fine, dry moss.
She also harvested two large, broad banana leaves and picked up a relatively dry palm branch.
Returning to the cave, Ling Shuying tossed the branch to Hai Yao.
“Help me sharpen the tip.”
Meanwhile, she found a suitable spot to prepare the fire.
Seeing the wooden stick thrown her way, Hai Yao laughed and immediately mocked, “You just said I don’t use my brain, yet here you are using the primary school wood-drilling routine.
Does that use your brain?
The wood on this island is damp.
You couldn’t start a fire if you drilled for ten thousand years.”
Ling Shuying ignored her, focusing on building the fire base.
Seeing her remain silent and work so diligently, Hai Yao reluctantly pulled out her knife and began whittling the wood.
The two of them went about their own tasks in silence.
Ling Shuying constructed the tinder nest.
She rolled the banana leaves into a conical shell, overlapping the layers to prevent drafts.
For the core, she laid a bottom layer of resin-rich pine shavings, followed by a middle layer of the freshly dried saltwater tinder, and topped it with the extremely fine, dry moss.
In no time at all, they were both finished.
Just as Ling Shuying completed the nest, Hai Yao handed over the sharpened stick.
The tip of the stick was whittled cleanly and sharply, without a single wasted cut.
Even the rough, splintered spots along the shaft had been smoothed out with repeated careful trims.
Examining the somewhat polished stick, Ling Shuying paused in slight surprise.
She thought, “She’s actually quite thoughtful, clearing all the splinters.
Is it just to get an extra bite of fish?”
There were many empty coconut shells near Hai Yao’s cave, all dried out from her previous drinks.
Ling Shuying grabbed one, calculated the optimal ignition point, and sprinkled some fine sand into the drill hole to increase friction.
She began to drill. The source of this chapter is novelping.com.
The salt crystals had altered the wood fiber’s structure, lowering its ignition point.
Under the high-speed friction, it only took a few moments for a slow wisp of smoke to rise from the tinder.
Ling Shuying blew gently to feed the ember, gradually adding dry leaves, pinecones, and pine needles until a steady flame fully roared to life.
Hai Yao stared dumbfounded at the rising flames, unable to hide her shock.
When she first arrived on the island, the very first thing she tried was drilling wood for fire.
She had drilled for an entire afternoon without seeing a single spark.
How did this girl manage to conjure a flame right away?
And earlier at the beach, how did she know there was an Abyssal Vortex there?
Even the most experienced hunters of Bihai Island couldn’t predict an Abyssal Vortex.
How could a girl from a City State possibly do it?
Hai Yao’s expression was a complicated mix of racing thoughts, but her soul was instantly snatched away by the aroma of food wafting past her nose.
On Ling Shuying’s side, the fire was going strong.
She set up a rack and began roasting the fish.
The roasting fish began to drip oil into the flames, creating a loud SIZZLE.
Hai Yao stared at the roasting fish—three rabbitfish and one eel.
She had seen and eaten them all before.
She had tried roasting fish herself, but it always ended up either burnt to a crisp or raw in the middle.
Even if she somehow managed to cook it right, the taste was always underwhelming—like chewing on wax, utterly flavorless.
But the way this girl made it was completely different.
That mouthwatering aroma could be smelled from halfway across the island.
Lemon, the smoky scent of barbecue, and unknown spices…
Just catching a whiff was enough to make her mouth water uncontrollably.
She watched Ling Shuying, who was fully focused on the task.
A hint of algal green would occasionally surface in her eyes, and her calm yet sharp face bore traces of fatigue.
Hai Yao just sat there, watching her roast the fish like a well-behaved child.
The fish were ready.
Ling Shuying picked up one for herself, blew on it gently, and took a bite.
After confirming the taste was good, she handed one over to Hai Yao.
As they ate, Ling Shuying was the first to break the silence.
“So, who is that person, and where are they?”
Hai Yao’s expression stiffened.
She spoke up cautiously, “Hahaha…
Actually, I was just making it up.
I just wanted to eat some more fish…”