“Because I’m also not sure where that place is. When Lord Priest told me he was in a big hurry and I only remembered some important points from that time.” Yan Mo replied. In his face there was no usual fear and respect for third level warriors, his tone of speaking was also very normal.
Bing snapped out of his reverie. The little slave’s manner of speaking made him feel a bit strange, this slave was so daring. It also made him skeptical about the teenager’s identity, “New salt mine, how can the priest of Yanshan clan tell you about it?”
Handling this kind of thing was too easy for Yan Mo, his face quickly showed the appropriate grief and sorrow. “Because the Zhi clan attacked our tribe. All the priest’s disciples had been killed, The priest only had me with him at that time. He was going to give strength to the remaining warriors, so before he ran out he hurriedly spoke about that thing so that I could pass it on to the rest of our people. But when we escaped I was bitten by a beast and separated from my people… and ended up saved by Ah Zhan.”
Yuan Zhan, who was handing his leather armour to Cao Ting so she could help him put it on, raised a brow. Not calling him master?
They had burned a slave mark on Yan Mo’s shoulders, but he had no intention on becoming a slave. He’s confident that after knowing that he was the Yanshan priest’s disciple, Yuan Zhan, Lie, and others probably didn’t dare to treat him as an actual slave too.
Bing couldn’t be bothered wondering what was that weird thing Zhan was strapping on his body, he stared at the teen and asked, “Then going to the south is your idea?”
“Yes.” Yan Mo nodded.
“The salt is in south?”
“Possibly.” Yan Mo said slyly, not giving a fixed answer.
Bing stopped looking at the boy and instead turned to Lie, “We should immediately return to the tribe, and tell the chief and Lord Priest about this.”
“And then?” Lie unenthusiastically asked back.
“Then…” Bing was stumped.
Lie continued from his words, “Then, chief and Lord Priest will still send out a salt team with this kid, but because we haven’t told them about this they will hold a bigger expectation. say we’re unable to return, or can’t find that salt mine, you can imagine how disappointed they’ll be. If so, isn’t it better to find the salt first and give them a nice surprise instead?”
Bing fell silent. He admitted that what Lie said made sense. No matter if he went back to tell the chief and the tribe about this matter or not, the result would not change. Lord Priest would certainly still want Zhan to go out, so the chief would definitely make him go too, to settle Xirang and Feisha clans’ dissatisfaction.
When Bing was about to continue asking Yan Mo about the salt mine, he raised his head and was so surprised, the eagle eyes he’s most proud of was nearly blinded.
Zhan, Shan… What were they wearing?
It’s not the simple hide skirt common to the warriors and also not the beast coat warriors will put on during winter when they have to go get water, hunt food, or fight their enemies.
Beast coat was made by taking the pelt of a large beast and making a hole in the middle. When going out, just hang the coat by your neck. The beast coat could hang on back and front, covering both chest and back. If you tie it with a straw rope around your waist, it’d block the wind and wouldn’t be in the way.
What Zhan and others were wearing on their upper bodies can be called beast coats, but they’re completely different.
Looking closely, the base of the coat’s shoulders are thickened with a small piece of leather. The method was also simple, just making holes in the smaller piece and using a leather rope to bind it with the base leather.
Besides the shoulders, the coat’s chest and back area also had layers that were the same size as it. The layers of leather were tightly stacked, it looks very thick.
This type of leather that specially protects vital chest and back with several layers resemble thick tortoiseshell. was this called leather armor? Battle armor?
Probably to prevent the armor front and back from separating, the excess leather rope under the ribs can be fastened to make the armor fit tighter around the body.
The excess fur pelt naturally drapes over the waist, that part of the wear had no added layers, presumably to allow flexible movements.
Under the waist was their fur skirts. Further down, their lower legs it was also wrapped in animal fur, and their wrist was the same.
The fur on their legs was covered from above ankle to below knees, the fur on wrist was from wrist to elbow.
Whether it’s the wrist or ankle fur, the middle part was specially thickened.
This piece of roughly produced, but thick enough fur battle armor not only protected the warrior’s vital areas, but also perfectly outlined and flattered the warriors’ tall and powerful bodies, bringing out their imposing aura.
Why did no one think that we could make this, before?
After his shock, Bing’s expression became complicated.
Zhan, Shan, Diao and Meng who wore such suits of armour felt like strangers at first glance.
It’s only slightly changing the shape of the animal skins they’re used to seeing, then wearing it on their bodies, why do they appear so different?
Capable, fierce, powerful, feral, and full of masculine charm. The imposing manner they gave off was what’s more scary, these warriors seemed unbeatable. His companions, who he was familiar with, now felt like they have become much stronger.
No way! This is an illusion! Bing’s fists clenched. He can’t be suppressed by their aura. He’s a level three warrior, how can he display weakness in front of two level warriors?
Lie had been paying attention to Bing’s reaction, his initial shock then confusion turning into envy and finally frustration, unable to accept the change. When he reached the last stage, Lie made a look at Yuan Zhan.
Yuan Zhan dug out a suit of armor from his own bundle without speaking and tossed it to Bing.
Bing was stunned, nearly getting knocked over together with the bundle.
Lie was the one speaking first, “This is prepared for you, quickly change.”
On the other side, Diao was also picking out a suit and handing it to Que Ya. Que Ya was so happy his black-stained mouth couldn’t stay closed. He grinned hehe with a wide mouth, repeatedly asking with his characteristic wind-through-mouth voice, “There’s one for me? It’s really for me?”
Diao hit his right fist on his chest, “Brother!”
Que Ya also did the same, calling back profoundly, “Brother!”
Bing held the big bundle with a lowered head. He didn’t say anything but walked to another side and started changing. His slave quickly caught up to him and helped him.
Yuan Zhan didn’t think not getting Bing’s thanks was weird. Just like it’s not weird how they have prepared a set of armor for Bing and Que Ya.
In the tribe he and Bing were enemies, but when they step out they’re brothers of the same tribe! This cannot and will not be violated by any Yuanji warrior.
Yan Mo, who was watching the primitive men, noticed something. Where’s the shoes?
Why was no one wearing shoes?
Of course, that thing couldn’t be called ‘shoes’, it was more like fur wrap strapped to feet.[5]
But no matter whether it had the appearance of a shoe, wrapping a fur on your feet could help protect it from many dangers and wounds.
When he trekked mountains to look for herbs in last life, trousers and shoes were the most essential equipment and it had to be wrapped tightly without any opening. Because in the mountain there are many poisonous snakes and insects, it’ll be troublesome to be bitten or stung.
But last time he saw the warriors returned to the tribe bare-footed, and this time he specially made the foot wrap but they still don’t wear it. Even though he had clearly told them how to wear it.
Why? Are their soles and skin extra thick, so they don’t worry about the abrasions, bites and scratches?
To clarify the reason, Yan Mo personally fished out a foot wrap from the bundle and shook it towards his yellow-haired master.
Yuan Zhan threw a disgusted glance at the fur wrap. “Don’t use that, your feet will rot.”
Ha? Ah…
Realisation dawned on Yan Mo. He understood now. He had seen many cases of that condition — tinea pedis. It looked minor, but it could be a big headache for the sufferers.
The reason for it was mostly because the shoes were not breathable, their feet were in contact with moisture for a long period of time, or because of fungal infection.
Looking at Yuan Zhan’s expression, Yan Mo surmised that in the past Yuanji people had wrapped their feet with beast skin. Maybe because the improper tanning of the leather or because they didn’t pay attention to hygiene and ventilation, it had led to a serious case of tinea pedis, also commonly known as athlete’s foot. In the absence of the correct medication to treat it, athlete’s feet would only become more serious and finally their feet would look, smell, and itch badly. In the most serious case their feet will rot.
Athlete’s foot was one of the most common human refractory diseased in the world he was from. From ancient times to modern, all these thousands of years, there are countless number of patients tortured by it all their lives.
Yan Mo had a flash of realisation, can it be because of this that Yuanji tribe intentionally or not have overlooked the next development for fur usage?
*Bubp!* Heavy fur clothing hit Yan Mo’s head.
“Wear it, hurry up, don’t dally.” Yuan Zhan commanded.
Ya Mo didn’t fight him, he obediently put on the big pieces of fur, twisted it together into a coat on his body.
After everyone had worn their clothes, Meng and Diao who had a more lively character strutted around in front of their family’s slaves, showing off their latest style leather armor.
Yuan Zhan stretched his muscular thigh in front of Yan Mo.
Yan Mo: “……” The heck does that mean.
Having properly shown off to his slave that his body was more robust than the other men, Yuan Zhan went to another corner to talk with Lie.
Bing refused to be left out and also walked over.
The slaves neatly and quickly arranged the leftover luggages into different piles. Cao Ting first finished her family’s luggage before coming to help Yan Mo.
Because they had backpacks made, the things they brought can be easily packed. Everything that can be packed into the backpack was packed there. The bigger or heavier items, like their ladles, are hung on their waist.
Speaking of the backpack, there’s a small episode that had to be told…
At first Yan Mo wanted to have Cao TIng help him sew two kinds of bags, one was the slanting shoulder strap and another was the waist bag. He thought that they should be very simple to do.
But when making it for real, it’s actually very difficult! The technique was very hard, they lacked the materials, and the most important thing was that they simply didn’t have enough time.
After repeated discussions with Cao Ting, he threw away his original plans and finalised a more feasible bag and its production method.
A backpack with shoulder straps and a top cover.
The production method was like this:
First, make the two shoulder straps. For this they used two long tough leathers. Before sewing it, the long leather was folded several times, until they’re about as wide as half a palm, then, repeatedly stitch the folded leather until they’re tightly sewn together. This would greatly increase the strap’s toughness and durability.
Next was the backpack body. This needed a comparably big base, first cut it into the square pattern, make holes on the edge where stitching was needed. The holes should be small and slightly crowded together. Treat the small holes as button holes, secure the hole edge with stitching.[1] This way, the holes’ edges will not easily tear from the weight and pulled cords later. Then take each sides and line the holes up, use leather cord to bind it together.[2] Sew everything up and down and repeat the stitch several times. Finally, the cylindrical body for the bag was done.[3]
Next, connect the backpack to its straps. Because the sewing material and technique was not developed yet, Yan Mo had considered it over and over, and cut parallel openings on the top and bottom of the bag. Insert the back straps from bottom to top, then out of the cut openings. The cut openings are sewn onto the straps tightly, the straps inside the bag was also sewn onto the bag’s inner lining. As a result, the risk of the bag tearing and separating due to too much weight can be minimised in their current limited circumstances.
Last, making the bag mouth and top cover was relatively easier. They made holes on the top opening and tied a leather cord on it, to close, just pull the cord togehter.[4] The top cover to prevent rain from getting in bag was another leather piece sewn to the top part of the bag.
The backpack made was about the size of a rice bucket that can hold 10 kg of rice. It could bear weight up to 15 kg, packing thirty adult fist sized cured meat was no problem, but doing that will fill up the backpack entirely.
Don’t think that that production method was quite easy, there’s a lot of places that needed sewing. It took a lot of time just to secure the leather cord holes. Even with Cao Ting, Wen Sheng and Yan Mo working together, it was still too much workload. Yuan Zhan had Da Shan take some pieces and ask He Tu and Lie’s slave to help out.
Even so, working until night for these days, all of them only finished making five of these backpacks.
That’s why they could share a complete set of leather armor for each Bing and Que Ya but there’s no more of these bags.
Lie issued a whistle, everyone moved closer to the riverbank. Yan Mo counted the number of people in the team again.
In addition to the seven warriors, the group had five slaves, including him. There’s a total of twelve people, ten men, two women.
He knew Cao TIng and Wen Sheng. The robust woman named Xia Fei was Lie’s slave, she’s not that much older than Cao Ting. Bing’s slave was Yang Wei, he looked a little more than twenty years old and seemed a bit timid.
Meng and Que Ya didn’t bring their slave.
Only after a few days did Yan Mo know that the two brothers Lie and Meng share a common slave, in various meanings. And fortunately Xia Fei was strong enough to handle double load.
As for Que Ya, he had trouble just providing for himself, there’s no way he could keep a slave.
Thus Yan Mo found out that the slavery system in this world was very abnormal. From Yuan Zhan and other’s descriptions, it can be seen that if the master had no way of making their slave submit in every aspect then it’s better to not get a slave. Because if the master was only blindly suppressing their slave but not giving them enough to eat, it’s very likely that the slave will retaliate and kill the master.
Those who didn’t want to be enslaved may also run away. In the future Yan Mo would find out that Bing also thought that his slave, Yang She, had run away.
“Yanmo.”
Yan Mo looked up to Lie who had called him.
Everyone was looking at him.
Yuan Zhan stood beside him and supported him up.
“I don’t need all the details of the new salt mine from you, but if we continue south it’s very likely that we will be in more danger. You need to give us the first hint.” Lie said seriously with a tense face.
Yan mo did rapid calculation in his mind, did he really want to go south? Maybe east was not bad too.
No, still going to south. If the old priest’s god’s eye was to be believed, he said that there’s big snow in the north. Proving that the north here was colder than south, so if he went southward at least he wouldn’t have to worry about hitting the south pole.
But what if the south was more terrible and more dangerous than Yuanji…
“Yanmo?” Lie called him, as if urging.
“We need to find the sea.” Yan Mo opened.
Sea, he used the chinese pronunciation. There’s no other way, since the original’s body’s memory doesn’t have a word for sea.
“Sea?” Lie’s pronunciation was a bit odd.
Yan Mo nods. “The sea is a very big lake, bigger than the lake and rivers. It’s as wide as the sky and the color is a deeper blue than sky. Seawater smells salty, bitter and fishy.”
“There’s salt in sea? Or is the salt in someplace near sea?” Yuan Zhan asks.
“Our clan priest once told me the salt in sea is not only inexhaustible, it’s also easier to get. There’s are also food in the water, a lot of food.”
Everyone’s eyes widened, their faces filled with incredulity and joy, “Really? There’s really such a place?”
“My priest said there is.” Yan Mo continued to trick people.
“Where?” Bing grabbed the chance to speak first before everyone, could hardly wait to get the answer.
“At …the end of the continent.”
As usual, Yan Mo talked bigger than he can handle. He thought that he’d be faced by speechless faces and he was ready for someone to open their mouth and ask where the continent’s end is.
He was thinking of taking out a bit of detail to awe these primitive people, so that his status would not be merely a guide to locate salt. Later after learning more about the geographic condition around, he would infer the next direction to go.
Who could’ve thought that just after his words fall, Que Ya who talked with wind in his mouth shouted, “I’ve heard of the continent’s end! I heard someone talk about it!”
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