Xiong Yan drank his meat soup and said regretfully, “We didn’t bring enough animal hide bags and baskets. Otherwise, we could have brought back even more salt.”
Xiong Yue laughed and said, “Even if you had brought more hide bags, how could the three of you have carried more back?”
They had brought back nearly a hundred jin of salt, already far exceeding expectations.
Xiong Xuan then said, “I plan to go again. While that place hasn’t been taken over by other beastmen yet, we can go there and back overnight and try to bring back more salt.”
Tian Xuan looked up: “I’ll go with you.”
In the end, it was decided that the three beastmen, Xiong Xuan, Tian Xuan, and Xiong Qi, would go. Xiong Yan would stay behind. Hu Yi opened his mouth but then shrank back, burying his head in his chest, looking utterly dejected.
Xiong Yan walked over and gave him a light kick: “Go to sleep. You were exhausted this afternoon. Even a dog wouldn’t stick its tongue out as far as you did.”
Hu Er immediately jumped in front of Hu Yi, spreading his arms wide. He said angrily, “Don’t bully Hu Yi! I’ll turn into a fox and bite you.”
Hu Yi instantly stood up, shielded Hu Er behind him, gave Xiong Yan an apologetic and somewhat ingratiating smile, then pulled Hu Er and walked toward their straw hut.
Xiong Yan raised an eyebrow. So he was the villain now.
The animal hide shelters had already been moved near the wooden house. After everyone tidied up, they didn’t sleep but sat around the campfire waiting for Tian Xuan and the others.
It was boring just sitting around, and waiting idly tested their patience.
Lu Xuan clapped his hands: “Let’s filter the salt.”
His voice immediately drew everyone’s attention. Xiong Yue asked curiously, “What do you mean by filtering salt?”
Lu Xuan said with a smile, “It means processing the salt from the salt cave into salt that can be eaten directly.”
Xiong Yue said gently, “But we’ve always eaten the salt from the salt cave directly.”
Lu Xuan’s eyes widened slightly, he didn’t expect that.
But the salt cave was likely a whole salt mine, not exposed to the outside, without any pollution. Maybe eating it directly wasn’t a big problem?
“In my tribe, we always filter the salt before eating it. The chief said that unprocessed salt contains things that are bad for the body.”
It was time to use his former tribe as a shield.
Xiong Yan paused. He suddenly remembered a conversation he had overheard in the Lakeside Tribe, two beastmen arguing over how to exchange goods.
One of the beastmen had said that his salt had been specially processed to guarantee its cleanliness.
At the time, Xiong Yan had sneered to himself, salt was so white, who couldn’t tell if it was clean or not? “Specially processed,” indeed. If he wanted to raise his exchange rate, he didn’t need to lie so blatantly. The Lakeside Tribe beastmen were just full of tricks.
But now, hearing Lu Xuan say this, he suddenly felt that the Bear Tribe’s defeat at the hands of the Lakeside Tribe wasn’t without reason.
The Bear Tribe honored strength above all, while the Lakeside Tribe excelled at scheming. A few words from them had been enough to sow discord from within the Bear Tribe.
Suppressing a sigh, he asked Lu Xuan, “How do we filter it?”
Lu Xuan thought for a moment and said, “First, dissolve the salt in water. Then go to the river and wash some coarse sand, and burn some charcoal to add to the dissolved water. Finally, pour the brine into a pot and boil it dry.”
Xiong Yan mused, “That sounds easy enough. But what is charcoal?”
Lu Xuan pulled a half-burned stick of wood from the campfire, extinguished it, and said, “The burnt part at the front is charcoal. Just crush it into pieces.”
“All right, I’ll go to the river and collect some sand.” Xiong Yan stood up. Sitting here doing nothing, he wouldn’t be able to sleep peacefully anyway.
After taking two steps, he turned and called toward the straw hut, “You mangy foxes, come out and work.”
A moment later, Hu Yi emerged from the straw hut, with Hu Er close behind.
Hu Yi led Hu Er over to the campfire and said, his speech unclear, “Wait for me.”
Lu Xuan was about to say something, but when he saw the cubs playing by the campfire, he swallowed his words.
He pulled a baked potato out of the fire and handed it to Hu Er. “Want one?”
Hu Er, who had been staring longingly at Hu Yi, instantly changed his expression. Grinning foolishly, he took the potato. It was a bit hot, so he tossed it from one hand to the other, looking utterly ridiculous.
Lu Xuan smiled and said, “Use some animal hide to hold it.”
Hu Er sat down next to him and said with a silly grin, “Potato, good.”
Xiong Yue gave a snorting laugh: “In your eyes, everything is good.”
Xiong Yuan also used a stick to pull another potato out of the fire and said to Hu Er with a gentle smile, “Here’s another one for you.”
In his eyes, Hu Er was like a cub who hadn’t grown up yet. When it came to cubs, he was always soft-hearted.
Xiong Yue muttered, “Being slow-witted sure has its advantages.”
Lu Xuan suppressed a laugh and said to him, “I’m going to get a wooden basin to hold water for dissolving the salt. Do you want to come with me?”
Xiong Yue nodded firmly: “Of course.”
The wooden basin was large and heavy, and even heavier once filled with water. Lu Xuan simply decided to refine the edible salt right next to the stone basin.
After the salt dissolved into brine, Xiong Yan and Hu Yi returned with the sand.
Lu Xuan washed the river sand clean, then mixed it with crushed charcoal and added it to the brine. He then poured the filtered brine into another wooden basin.
Finally, he boiled the filtered brine dry in a stone pot, revealing a pile of fine white salt.
Lu Xuan looked at the salt, which was identical to what he had known in his past life, and said happily, “Success! This is salt that can be eaten directly.”
The group circled around the stone pot, examining it closely. It was indeed finer than the salt from the salt cave.
Xiong Yan pinched a tiny amount between two fingers, first rolling it, then sticking out his tongue to lick it.
Sss~
It was really salty. He smacked his lips a few times.
“The texture is better than the salt from the salt cave. No impurities can be tasted.”
He then quickly drank some water to wash away the salty taste in his mouth.
Xiong Yue’s eyes widened with excitement: “So should we filter all the salt?”
Lu Xuan said, “It’s too late. Just make a small amount, enough to last a month.”
By the campfire, Hu Er, who had shifted into his fox form, was sleeping soundly with the three cubs in his embrace. Xiong Yuan, holding his two sleeping bear cubs, also hadn’t gone into the animal hide shelter yet, clearly wanting to wait a bit longer.
After filtering about fifty jin of salt, Lu Xuan couldn’t hold on anymore. Ever since coming to this world, he had been sleeping and waking early with a regular schedule. Suddenly staying up late was too much for him.
Several torches had already burned out. The only saving grace was that the moon in the sky was large and round, so Tian Xuan and the others wouldn’t be completely in the dark.
Xiong Yan packed up the filtered salt and waved for everyone to go sleep while he kept watch.
Because of his bear cubs, Xiong Yuan went into the animal hide shelter first. Lu Xuan yawned, tears squeezing out from the corners of his eyes.
Seeing that the three cubs were sleeping soundly in Hu Er’s embrace in his beast form, he decided not to take them away. He and Xiong Yue stumbled into the animal hide shelter.
When the sky was just beginning to lighten, Lu Xuan woke up to the sound of voices outside. Without the familiar fluffy feeling in his arms, he instantly exploded.
His cat ears and tail both popped out. Just as he rushed out of the animal hide shelter, he collided with Tian Xuan, his nose smacking right into Tian Xuan’s chin. The pain made Lu Xuan’s eyes water.
The soreness in his nose brought all his memories rushing back. Lu Xuan covered his nose with both hands, looked at Tian Xuan with tear-filled eyes, and said in a muffled voice, “You’re back.”
Oh my, his three cubs were still sleeping soundly in the fox’s embrace, completely unaware that their old father had been in a daze so early in the morning and nearly broke his nose.
Tian Xuan pressed his lips tightly together. He had made the sub-beastman cry.
The sub-beastman had rushed out so suddenly, he didn’t expect him to wake up this early. By the time he saw him, there was no time to dodge.
“Lu Xuan, are you crying?” Xiong Qi’s loud voice instantly drew everyone’s attention and woke up those sleeping inside the animal hide shelters.
Lu Xuan felt deeply embarrassed. Tears had wet his long, dark eyelashes. His eyes widened: “I’m not crying.”
Xiong Qi lowered his head and leaned closer to Lu Xuan: “But there are clearly tears at the corners of your eyes.”
Lu Xuan urgently explained: “It’s a natural bodily reaction.”
Xiong Qi didn’t understand: “What does that mean?”
Tian Xuan’s face turned cold, his gaze sharp as a knife: “Is the salt put away? Is the foundation dug? Is the wooden house built?”
Xiong Qi was stunned: “Didn’t we say we’d sleep for half a day and build the wooden house in the afternoon?”
Tian Xuan’s voice was cold and hard: “Then go sleep.”
Xiong Qi: “But I haven’t eaten yet.”
Tian Xuan: “Then go eat.”
Xiong Qi: “But—”
An arm suddenly wrapped around his neck, cutting off his words. Xiong Xuan pulled him away.
“You talk too much.”
“How do I talk too much? Tian Xuan talks too much, he usually doesn’t talk at all.”
“…” Xiong Xuan: “Let’s go.”
Xiong Yue lifted a corner of the animal hide shelter and took a look. Everyone was there, no one was hurt. He shrank back inside and went back to sleep.
After calming his two little bear cubs, Xiong Yuan came out to share some affection with Xiong Xuan. Having been gone all night, Xiong Yuan had been very worried.
Xiong Yuan’s eyes were full of Xiong Xuan: “I’ll make some meat soup for you.”
Xiong Xuan’s expression was gentle: “No need. You slept late last night. Go back to sleep for a while. I’ll come keep you company later.”
Lu Xuan didn’t dare let go of his nose, his voice completely muffled by his palm. He asked in confusion, “Tian Xuan, aren’t you going to eat?”
Why was he looking at him with such a bitter, resentful expression?
Tian Xuan’s face was unpleasant. He lowered his eyes and said, “I’m sorry.”
Then he turned and left.
Lu Xuan was baffled. Why apologize?
The lynx cub, drowsily opening its eyes in the fox’s embrace, saw Lu Xuan and brightened up. It hopped over to him in a few bounds.
“Ahhh~”
Daddy, Daddy, Daddy~
Lu Xuan had no choice but to let go of his nose and answered, his eyes still teary, “Yes, my cub.”
The other two cubs woke up as well. Lu Xuan, carrying his sweet burden, turned around and went back into the animal hide shelter to catch up on sleep.
When everyone gathered together again, it was at the delayed lunchtime.
Only then did Lu Xuan learn that last night, the three beastmen had brought back three hundred jin of coarse salt from the salt cave, and it had already been stored away.
Xiong Yue was full of energy: “Doesn’t that mean enough to last us until the cold period ends?”
Xiong Yuan smiled: “Just about.”
Xiong Yue stood up and fetched a stone bowl, which contained the fine salt they had filtered last night. He placed it in front of everyone.
“This was taught by Lu Xuan, edible salt after filtering. It’s better than eating the salt directly from the salt cave.”
Tian Xuan, Xiong Qi, and Xiong Xuan had only made simple roasted meat when they returned. They had seen the salt in the stone bowl and had only thought it looked fine and clean, different from the salt cave salt.
They didn’t expect Lu Xuan to be involved. Xiong Qi was very curious: “Lu Xuan, how do you know so many things?”
Lu Xuan didn’t feel like talking. His nose was sore and uncomfortable.
He said listlessly, “You just know too little.”
Xiong Qi thought about it. Apart from hunting, he really didn’t seem to know much. Since meeting Lu Xuan, he had learned many things.
So he said to Lu Xuan very seriously, “Then teach me.”
Lu Xuan nodded perfunctorily: “Okay.”
Xiong Qi was satisfied. He took a big bite of roasted meat and felt that the surrounding forest was especially green today.
Amid the green, there was also a touch of red, and that red was moving.
Xiong Qi narrowed his eyes. His simple, honest demeanor suddenly turned serious. In an instant, he leaped several meters away. When he landed again, he had transformed into a gray bear nearly four meters tall.