Three days later.
Su Cha stretched comfortably.
From now on, she wouldn’t have to see those annoying females anymore.
The weather was truly beautiful.
She casually pulled an apple from her interspatial dimension and took a bite.
The apples in the beast world were large and sweet, making them highly popular among the females.
Su Cha had traded a good number of them from the beastmen in the tribe using the shell crystals she earned from Mu Beichen.
“I’m going out to find medicine for you.
I’ll be back later,” Su Cha said, taking out another apple and placing it on the table.
She lifted her chin toward Cang Yuan.
Cang Yuan didn’t take the apple immediately.
His emerald-green eyes drifted across Su Cha’s fair, pale fingertips, a thoughtful look in his gaze.
Although she had a massive stockpile of medicine in her dimension, she would eventually run out one day.
The variety of herbs on the back mountain was limited, so Su Cha decided to check out the Clan Leader’s warehouse.
In the tribe, apart from essential food rations, most supplies could be traded for beast coins.
These beast coins were a universal currency resembling gold coins, forged from the outer layer of beast crystals.
They contained a trace amount of energy, though it was extremely minimal.
A higher-tier currency was the shell crystal, with one shell crystal equating to one hundred beast coins.
Formed from the crystals of sea beasts, they held significantly more energy than beast coins and originated from the Merfolk Tribe.
Following the bonfire party, the way the tribe’s beastmen looked at her was noticeably different.
More of them were greeting her now, and Su Cha would offer a cool nod in response.
Su Cha was very direct with the Clan Leader about her intentions.
The Clan Leader readily asked Yang Juan’s male, Xiong Qi, to show her around the warehouse.
Clan Leader Mo Nian was currently discussing the matter of salt stones with several elder beastmen.
She vaguely overheard that the Balin Tribe had found a new partner tribe.
Going forward, the Balin Tribe would still purchase raw salt stones from the Langri Tribe at a low price, but if the Langri Tribe wanted fine salt in return, they would have to pay the same premium price as everyone else.
Su Cha’s eyes darted as she struck upon a path to wealth.
She told Xiong Qi to go about his own business for now and that she would find him later, then she walked over to the Clan Leader’s group.
“Clan Leader, there’s really no need to pander to the Balin Tribe like this.
Look at this—I refined it myself.” Su Cha placed a bamboo tube filled with salt on the table, smiling brightly at the males.
“We are discussing important tribal matters.
What could a little female like you possibly know?” The speaker was Mo Qing, Mo Ze’s father.
He had a square face, thick black eyebrows, and full lips.
One look at him made it obvious that Mo Ze had inherited his good looks entirely from his Fox Clan mother.
However, the moment he picked up the bamboo tube and inspected its contents, he could no longer voice a single word to drive her away.
He handed the tube over to Mo Nian, his expression carrying an unprecedented gravity.
“Did you truly refine this yourself?” Mo Qing simply couldn’t believe what was right in front of him.
Su Cha nodded.
“What do you think?
Care to discuss a partnership?”
Mo Nian and the other beastmen took a pinch with their fingers and tasted it.
The fine powder was as white as snow, and its saltiness was incredibly pure, completely lacking the faint, bitter aftertaste of the salt traded from the Balin Tribe.
“Su Cha, where did you learn this method of refining salt?” the Clan Leader asked, his expression solemn.
“I didn’t like the tribe’s salt, so I tinkered around and figured it out myself,” Su Cha replied with a light chuckle, offering a half-truth.
“Really?” Another beastman stood up upon hearing this, his eyes brimming with irrepressible enthusiasm.
“I am Li Zheng.
I oversee the trade of the tribe’s essential supplies, including salt,” Li Zheng added, making sure to introduce himself when he noticed Su Cha’s questioning gaze.
Su Cha gave a polite nod.
The Clan Leader called the men aside to discuss the matter in private.
Su Cha wasn’t in a rush, so she waited patiently on the sidelines.
After a short while, the beastmen returned, and the Clan Leader was the first to speak.
“Su Cha, what is the yield rate of your refined fine salt?”
“Three salt stones of this size can yield about one bamboo tube of fine salt,” Su Cha said, pointing to a boulder nearby that was roughly the size of a head.
Although the men tried their hardest to maintain their composure, Su Cha still caught the sheer astonishment in their eyes.
The original novel had never detailed this aspect, so she didn’t know the Balin Tribe’s actual salt yield.
She was merely estimating based on her own experience.
Afraid of being slightly off, she had intentionally understated the numbers; in reality, she could easily refine a full bamboo tube from just two stones.
She wondered if the Balin Tribe was even more ruthless in their dealings than she was.
Mo Nian steadied his racing thoughts.
Truthfully, when he asked that question, he had already prepared himself to be denied an answer.
After all, possessing such a skill made one highly sought after in any tribe.
The Balin Tribe had elevated themselves to an advanced tribe entirely through their salt-making monopoly.
Calming his emotions, Mo Nian tried his best to make his voice sound normal.
“This partnership you mentioned, how do you want to go about it?
What do you need from us?”
Su Cha stroked her chin with her right hand, pausing to think before answering.
“I can teach the beastmen in the tribe how to refine salt, but in return, I want thirty percent of the profits from your salt sales.
Furthermore, you must guarantee that the methods I teach will never be leaked to outsiders.”
Since the beast world lacked legally binding contracts, she genuinely couldn’t put her full trust in the character of beastmen.
Mo Nian and Li Zheng exchanged a look.
Following a slight nod from Mo Nian, Li Zheng finally spoke up.
“We can agree to a thirty percent cut.
Keeping the method a secret is also easy to manage—I can have every beastman involved swear an oath to the Beast God.
If you’re still uneasy, you can personally select a few males and teach them directly.” As if afraid Su Cha might decline, he quickly offered a second option.
In reality, their absolute bottom line during the private discussion had been a fifty-fifty split, which was the standard profit-sharing rule in the beast world.
But since a female like Su Cha didn’t understand how things worked, they certainly weren’t going to foolishly point it out to her.
Su Cha then recalled that the beast world was bound by the laws of heaven and earth.
Oaths couldn’t be made lightly here, and breaking them would invite divine punishment from the Beast God.
“Alright, but you have to swear an oath as well.
Even if a new Clan Leader takes over, as long as I am still in this tribe, you must permanently grant me my thirty percent cut.” Su Cha automatically ignored the suggestion to take on more males.
She simply couldn’t handle something like that.
“Agreed.
However, we’ll need to have a beastman consume this salt for a period of time to verify that it isn’t harmful to the body before we can finalize our partnership,” the Clan Leader requested reasonably.
“Deal,” Su Cha agreed, completely understanding his caution.
Having successfully managed to score a few free salt stones from the Clan Leader, Su Cha then gathered some herbs she needed for her own use.
The majority of the medicinal herbs in the tribe were given directly to the Witch Doctor.
Only a small fraction of the less commonly used ones were stored in the warehouse.
However, Su Cha discovered something excellent: sugarcane.
“Xiong Qi, come here for a second.” Su Cha crooked her finger at him, a sly glint hiding in her eyes.
Xiong Qi leaned in curiously.
“When you guys go out hunting and gathering, do you see a lot of this sugarcane around?”
“You mean sweet-root trees?
Yeah, there are plenty.
But they’re tough and annoying to eat.
It’s easy to make your gums bleed, so very few females actually like them,” Xiong Qi explained after taking a look.
“I want these sweet-root trees.
Could you do me a favor and let the beastmen heading out know?
I’ll buy these sweet-root trees for five beast coins each.”
“That’s easy enough.
But are you sure you want to pay five beast coins for each one?
How many do you need?” Xiong Qi agreed heartily, privately thinking that this female’s tastes were rather peculiar.
“I’ll take whatever they harvest, as long as they are this big.
I don’t want the small ones, and they have to be intact.
They can deliver them directly to my house,” Su Cha stated firmly.
“No problem,” Xiong Qi guaranteed, patting his chest.
Five beast coins per stalk was not a low price.
If someone found enough, making one or two hundred beast coins a day would be a breeze.
After chatting casually with Xiong Qi for a bit longer, Su Cha leisurely made her way toward the small hill behind the tribe.
Once her body fully recovered, she would have to join the gathering team on their expeditions outside to search for herbs.
For now, the stockpile in her dimension would have to tide her over.
Although her hand was still healing, Cang Yuan’s leg injury couldn’t be delayed any longer.
If it dragged on, he really might end up crippled for the rest of his life.
Therefore, she decided to perform the surgery on him in the next couple of days.