In a place with many herbivores, what else is there?
Plants?
Yes, there’s a lot of plants, but there’s just as much carnivores as well as other tribes with primitive people.
Yan Mo felt that his request is very simple, but who’d have thought Lie would show a face like ‘I just knew things won’t be so easy’ and like he’s accepted his fate.
“The biggest prairie near us, Feng Wei prairie, is three days away from us. That’s a hunting ground shared by several tribes. There’s always many prey there, but it takes a team of hundred people at least to hunt there. It’s just before winter arrives, so there will be more people hunting. “Lie clenched his hands
That reminded Yan Mo of the thousand-man troop back in the tribe.
“If we have to go to that place, we have to be very, very careful. “When he said this, Lie was already in a solemn tragic mood with ‘I won’t be able to go back’ and ‘it’s already good if just one person can escape and report back’ mindset.
When he saw everyone considering it so carefully like it’s a very serious situation, Yan Mo said with an out of place expression, “We don’t have to go there. If there is a relatively large population nearby, that’s fine too. I don’t want to hunt them, just want to follow them.”
“Follow them? We can find salt by following herbivores?” Bing asked immediately.
Yan Mo didn’t nod and didn’t shake his head, maintaining the appropriate amount of mystery. He didn’t have the ability to find salt mines, he could only find a way from some little common knowledge he knows. He remembered that in his original world, the ancient humans had relied entirely on the flesh and blood of animals to replenish their salt at first. Later, the primitive people living near the sea were likely the first to find this thing called salt. Then the people living deeper inland people accidentally found that some herbivores like to lick some rocks or soil, and so found salt for themselves too.
So, he decided to follow this example.
Anyway, he couldn’t think of a better way, he could only give this a try.
According to some bits of clues in the boy’s memory and his own guess, he even speculated it’s very likely the Yanshan priest found a salt mountain by tracking and observing herbivores.
No one thought it was strange that Yan Mo didn’t want to answer. Priests are always very mysterious characters. This ability to find salt through herbivores was definitely one of the abilities passed on by Yanshan priests, it’d be weird instead if the teen was willing to speak about it.
Yuan Zhan got up. He seemed to be looking for something that can be a marker. He finally pointed at a certain direction, “If not going to Fengwei prairie… There’s a smaller flock of ”Qian about a day away to the southeast of us.”
“Southeast?” Lie also got up and looked in that direction, “I remember there’s Du Ci race near that place, there’s quite a lot of them. Do we really want to head there?”
“Better than storming into Fengwei prairie with our small number. “Yuan Zhan calmly said, “This is the last hunting period before winter starts. Every tribe near Fengwei will be gathered there. The place also had the more ferocious grassland beasts. If we’re not careful enough and are found, we’ll end up either eaten by beasts or captured and killed by other tribes.”
“Duci race is really not easy to deal with. Their bodies are small, but it’s hard to fight the thorns in the lair. They can’t even speak our language. Anything we say to them will be useless. The Chief had always wanted to kill them, he just didn’t because he’s worried we’ll lose a lot of tribe’s warriors fighting them. Those savages don’t seem to have intention to disturb the surrounding tribes, either.”
Savages? Hearing these primitive people saying other people are savages is just…! Suddenly, Yan Mo’s interest about Duci race is piqued. If it’s a race of people who had just started to become aware, maybe they’d be easier to fool? The problem was just the language, not being able to get the meanings across would be more troublesome.
“As long as we move carefully and we don’t fight them over Qianyangs, those Duci clan won’t easily start with us. It’s not like they have endless poison thorns on them, when they use it too much they’ll also die.”
Yan Mo didn’t understand the second half of Yuan Zhan’s sentence. Why would the Duci clan die when they use too many of their stings? Is it because the thorns were too poisonous? Just by being in direct contact more, or for a longer time, the toxin would enter their bodies?
It makes Yan Mo even more excited, right now he really wanted to get his hands on some of those poison thorns and study it. If he manages to research an antidote for its toxin, then he’ll have an ace to protect himself or save lives.
“Alright. Then we’ll go there. The sun is going to go down the mountain soon. First, we have to quickly find a place for tonight. Southeast….. The closest resting place in that direction is still quite far, we have to hurry!” Lie looks up at where the sun is on the sky, then immediately calls for everyone to hit the road.
Everyone stood up one after another, without another word, just put on their backpacks and set off. They’d spent a long time here because of the quicksand incident that now the sun was already in the middle of setting. It’s only about the height of two persons from the highest peak of the God Hasa mountain.
There were no more talks along their journey. Everyone was engrossed in hurrying their steps. When they passed through a water source, everyone quickly drank a bit of water. Yan Mo wanted to look at the plants around the area, but there wasn’t enough time. Before he could, Yuan Zhan already rushed him to keep up. At this time, Yan Mo hadn’t realised how dangerous it would be when they entered deep into the grassland.
Finally, just as the horizon was tinted in red, the group of people reached the place Lie said they can spend the night at. The spot was a bit farther from the water, backed by a small mound. There were some remains of past fire pits and bones, it should be one of Yuanji tribe warrior’s campsites when they hunt.
It’s not completely dark yet. Yuan Zhan handed the teen to Cao Ting to look after, then left to hunt with Bing, Diao, and Shan with their wooden spears.
Lie took out two flints, gathered a handful of dry grass and put it on the fire pit spot, then gave the stones to Wen Sheng.
Wen Sheng hit the flints together above the dry grasses. He did it for a long time, but there’s still not enough sparks to ignite the grass pile below the stones. They really did keep going, for a long time. They even changed the person in charge of fire in between tries, but up until Yuan Zhan’s group came back from cleaning their hunts at the previous water source, they still hadn’t managed to make a fire.
In the end Lie declared, “Tonight, fire god’s mood is not good. let’s huddle closer to each other.”
Hah?! Yan Mo stared at Lie. He just couldn’t believe his ears. Don’t tell me this is the reason you all don’t use fire much in the wilderness? Because lighting a fire completely depends on your luck?
“No fire is also good. We won’t attract beasts with the smell of food. It’ll be cold at night, everyone move closer to each other when sleeping.” Diao had an expression that told Yan Mo this was a very normal situation; he totally didn’t regard it as a problem.
Last time when Yuan Zhan said this, Yan Mo also wanted to refute. This time, it concerned his safety and comfort while camping, so he couldn’t hold back, “Wild animals are afraid of fire, if we have an open fire, they won’t dare to come over even if we do roast our food. Moreover, lighting a fire can drive away mosquitoes, we will also sleep warmer near a fire pit. There’s piles and piles of benefits.”
“But, we need fire to light this up ah. We’re not at the tribe anymore. In the tribe, there’s someone looking after a fire, you can just go take it when you need it.” Meng said. There’s nothing else they can do.
It turned out those words like ‘no fire, less beasts noticing us’ is all to comfort yourself because you can’t start a fire?
To think about it, it’s not strange that the warriors found it difficult. In his original world, there was a period of time where human beings are not fond of travelling a long distance. Generally, they could hunt and gather near their homes and they’d rarely spend the night outside of their establishments. It was also after they’d had convenient fire tools like steel flint(4), flint stone(5), and fire tinder(6), that enabled them to have fire even at night and in the wilderness, that more people dared to go farther from home.
For Yuanji people, they probably got the courage from their numbers when they travel far from home. With more people, there’s more slaves they can leave lighting up fires to. They could make the slaves try to ignite fire one by one, as long as one of them succeeded, the entire camp wouldn’t have to worry about not having their own fire.
But once you have smaller number of people and less tools at hand, wanting to light up fire becomes very difficult. Just like them right now. It was already dark. No one wanted to keep wasting time and energy making fire. They just wanted to quickly fill their stomachs and sleep.
Yan Mo scratched his scalp. There must be lice in his hair.
It’s not like you couldn’t make fire with stones, but you’d have to look at what it’s made of, if you want to get a good result. For example, pyrite ore, ores with phosphate and copper, or flint stones.
Aside from stones, with the current conditions, another way to make fire that he could think of now was drilling wood. But while the method seemed simple, the tools to make it had specific requirements. It’s so late and dark already. It’d be hard to to find the dry wood board, stiff twig and tinder that can be easily ignited. If they want to drill with high speed, it’s best to also make a bow drill[2].
“Can you show me those stones?” Yan Mo asked.
Lie didn’t mind showing it. He threw the stones over to Yan Mo when he asked. This kind of stone was everywhere behind the mountain.
Yan Mo didn’t have a good understanding about minerals that are not the ones he can use to make medicines. He just wanted to have a look. As a result, he really did notice something off when he got the stones.
The two stones seemed to have been used for a long time, and the corners had become a little round and smooth.
Yan Mo asked right after, “These two stones… were the edges sharper when you first got it?”
“Yes, we picked it up from where we grind the stones. There’s many crushed stones like that there.” Meng answered without much thought.
“Then, was it easier for you to get a spark when you use the stones at first?”
Meng looked to his brother, Lie thought back before nodding.
“In that case, try to see if you can break the stone open and get a sharper edge. Then use the sharp edge to beat and grind the other stone. Maybe this time it’ll make sparks faster. While one person hit the stones, someone else should lie on the other side and blow on the dry grasses…… Wait, bring me some of those grasses.”
Meng was the fastest in their group. He darted away, grabbed some grasses then handed it over to Yan Mo.
Yan Mo felt the grass, it was relatively dry, but still not to the effect of tinder that was easier to light up.
So, Yan Mo took two stones, and put the grass in the middle of the stones and began to rub them together.
“What are you doing?” Meng asked, curious.
It’s not just Meng who was curious, nearly everyone who could see in the night were watching him. Yuan Zhan took out his coarse salt, diluted it in the wooden ladle’s water and slowly coated it on the prairie rat that had been skinned and had its organs removed.
Yan Mo answered him without lifting his head, “Rubbing a fire tinder together.”
“Fire tinder?” Everyone’s ears pricked up.
“It’s something that burns easily, made from dried moss, dried grass dust, or dried feathers and the likes. It’s better to rub the things together again before using them, try to make them airy… I mean airy, like make it feel lighter and softer.” Yan Mo patiently explains: “When you make the fire, put these easily burned tinder under the flint. The sparks will fall on it, gently blow on it to make the fire bigger, then add more grasses when the tinder is lit up. But you have to make sure you don’t add too much. This will gradually start the fire.”
Meng’s eyes were sparkling, “Little slave, you really know so much.”
“…I am a priest’s disciple.” Sorry, I just summed up the knowledge my ancestors had accumulated for god knows how many millennia. Even if I didn’t tell you right now, once you have developed for a long time, you’d naturally improve your fire making methods bit by bit.
“But I think, even our priest’s disciple Qiu Ning is not as knowledgeable as you. He should be a little older than you, too. Zhan said you’re already 14 years old, and I’ve counted the knots Qiu Ning hanged outside of his tent, there’s sixteen.” Meng was extremely proud of his ability to count to twenty. Although he couldn’t even figure out how old his brother really was, no one around here remembered their own age, save for one or two exceptions. People like Zhan who could accurately remember they’ve lived for seventeen years was the weird one.
After saying that, Meng also reached out and pinched the boy’s face, “Are all priest disciples so weak and thin? There’s not even a bit meat to pinch on your face.”
Just wait till I catch up on my nutrition, see if I’m still weak and thin by then. Yan Mo grabbed his hand and pushed it away, “Don’t mess around. If you’re too free and have nothing to do, help me roll out more tinders.”
“Ok! Give me that.” Meng was someone who couldn’t be idle. He directly sat down and grasped a handful of grasses, rubbing them between his fingers.
Lie pursed his lips as he glanced at the boy. They were from different tribes, but he was now worrying whether the teen would suffer the curse from his tribe’s previous priests’ spirits after divulging so many of Yanshan priest’s secret teachings.
Bing’s hand was handling his own prairie rat while his eyes looked over to the boy with skeptical look. Would a priest disciple of another tribe be so nice?
At first Yan Mo wanted to find something for the other slaves to do, but he found that Yang Wei and Xia Fei had been sitting at the same place since the sun had set. When he looked over to Wen Sheng and Cao Ting, Wen Sheng was not affected by the darkness but Cao Ting seemed to be relying on her sense of touch as she worked.
Is it night-blindness caused by insufficient nutrition as they grow up? Yan Mo had heard that a lot of people had this problem in ancient times. Even in modern times, there were a number of people in the mountain villages who couldn’t see in the night though their eyes were open.
But then, why were all the warriors of Yuanji tribe alright? Because they had better nutrition than the slaves?
Then, why could Wen Sheng and himself see clearly?
Ee? Not right! Why was everything so clear to him?
Yan Mo looked at his own palm then raised his head and looked at the people and things around him over and over. Eventually finding something weird.
He’d always sleep just as the day turns dark back in the tribe. Even if not sleeping immediately, there were torches lighting everywhere, so he hadn’t found out the change with his eyes. But now he was out of the tribe’s territory. Yes, there were stars in the sky as natural light. But, according to common sense… being able to see his own fingers right in front of his eyes was already good in the absence of firelight, how was he able to see the surroundings as clear as in daytime when it’s 20 and 30 metres away from himself? He could also see a rough outline of things farther than 30 metres.
He is a doctor. He couldn’t be anymore clear on what a normal human eyesight could see. His eyesight was definitely better than normal.
What’s going on here? He didn’t find out that he had such good eyesight at night when he had just arrived, ah. When did he start being able to see so clearly at night?
He had heard and personally verified that people living in savannahs or in certain special circumstances would have eyesight several times better than normal people because of their environment and food. These people could also generally make things out in the night because they had adapted to their environments. Just like when we couldn’t see anything at first in a dark environment, but as our eyes adapted we could see more clearly.
His eyesight was like using a night vision device, and even clearer. It’s not the same as the things he knew before. Because it was too clear. He could even clearly see a small worm, as little as a fingernail, wriggling at the underbrush two metres away from him.
Was the guide transforming his body? Just like his self-healing ability that’s growing stronger with time?
Or…… was it the Yaopeng eye Yuan Zhan shoved into his mouth that day that caused this change with his eyesight?
Yan Mo looked at Yuan Zhan who’s busy working with a rather complex mood. If that’s really true, that’d explain why Diao and Cao Ting looked at him with eyes of different kinds of envy that day.
Da Shan, the strongest among them, broke a small piece of the flint with a bigger stone in the camp. Now the flint had a sharp edge.
Following Yan Mo’s instructions, Meng was responsible for hitting the flints together, Wen Sheng was blowing into the fire, Da Shan was responsible for adding more grasses. After going at it for a while, to their surprise, they really managed to light a fire.
Once they could see a big enough fire, there was a small cheer in the camp.
Maybe it’s because they’re too excited, or in order to get better effect of scaring the beasts away, or perhaps in order to keep warm. Aside from Yan Mo who was pretending his legs can’t walk, the other eleven people worked together and lit up three more fires in succession.
After that, no one said they want to eat raw meat or nibble on salted meat. People who couldn’t bear the hunger and had just nibbled on some salted meat felt a little regretful at this time. But they only ate a little, there’s fresh meat available in front of them, they didn’t mind eating more.
When Yuan Zhan and the other three had gone out, altogether they only caught four prairie rats and two hares, since they were apprehensive of getting attacked by nocturnal animals in the dark.
But coupled with the salted meat carried by others, the twelve people managed to eat a full meal tonight.
When roasting meat, Yan Mo who had nothing to do took out the time to summon the guide and check out his scum points reduction status.
The guide lit up and, as he ordered, showed him the list of current individual reductions and reduced scum points in total.
‣ Made one beast leather clothing, -10 points.
‣ Taught others how to make leather clothing. Crafting difficulty reached level one, -1 points.
‣ Made one beast hide armour, -20 points.
‣ Taught others how to make hide armour. Crafting difficulty reached level two, -2 points.
‣ Made one backpack, -10 points.
‣ Taught others how to make backpack. Crafting difficulty reached level three, -3 points.
From the three items above he received a total of 79 points scum points reduction, including passing the knowledge to someone else directly or indirectly.
And on the aspect of saving people, just as he expected, he got full 400 points reduction.
In addition, the method to rescue people from quicksand also gave him -20 points.
Him teaching others how to make fire before reduced 20 points from his scum points.
Yan Mo glanced at the last line. He was puzzled about the small points gained from fire making, but then recalled that this fire making method had already existed. He was merely summarising what he knew a bit, so giving a small 20 points reduction was reasonable.
But the funniest and strangest thing was, in his many scum points reduction items, there was this line included: ‣ Fed three starving hardback dragon once. Low satiety value, scum points reduced -1 points.
When he read this line, Yan Mo almost cursed out but then found himself caught between laughter and tears. So this also can reduce the scum points? Then if he had killed the hardback dragons, would he get scum points added?
But this could only wait to be proven later, because Yan Mo’s brain was completely seized by another line from the guide.
—— Congratulations to the exile, scum points reductions accumulated have exceeded 500 points. The current total scum points reduced is 638 points. In order to reward the exile’s initiative to reform and to help in exile’s reformation, reward: One Herbal Medicine Bag is released, the volume is 5m3. Please receive the item in this guide’s reward section.
Features: This medicine bag can only contain things that are herbal medicine, medicine, and items related to both categories. Items put inside the medicine bag will remain in the state they are in when put inside, until taken out. The guide will not provide another bag in case of loss. Please use the reward well and use it frequently, in order to attain a righteous mind as soon as possible.
Yan Mo almost slapped the pages back to the reward list. As noted by the guide, the reward section that only had one item before now had two entries.
Yan Mo didn’t take the reward out immediately, he was not that brainless. His fingers traced the words Herbal Medicine Bag over and over. He was so excited his mind was all over the place.
For a herb gatherer, what do they want the most? Aside from the skills of identifying and correctly digging and drying herbs, who wouldn’t want a treasure item like Qiankun pouch that doesn’t take up space, is not the real weight and keeps the item’s freshness?
Now that he had this little thing, though its 5 m3 volume was not big, he didn’t need to worry there’s no place to carry them in when he found medicinal plants on the road! The most important point was, it could keep the medicine ingredients’ freshness as when it was first picked. This was simply a godly function!
Now that he got this reward, Yan Mo suddenly felt that it’s really worth it to save those four before. Even if they go kicking their benefactor in the teeth later, even if Yuanji tribe’s warriors are all lacking gratitude, it didn’t matter to him anymore.
Heh. That’s right, I’m here to reduce scum points and earn rewards, what will your thank-yous do for me? A certain man thought distortedly.
Maybe because he was too excited and had no outlet to talk about it, Yan Mo could only vent his excitement in another way, “I can make fire fold[2].” He said quietly to Yuan Zhan sitting next to him.
“Fire fold?” Yuan Zhan savoured the last bite of the tender bones and swallows, then tried his best to pronounce the words.
“A tool that can store fire starters. It’s small and you can carry it on yourself. If you’re outside of tribe and have to make fire, this tool makes it so much easier to light the fire.”
Yuan Zhan’s fingers bent, his expression turned more serious. “How to make?”
“I need a tube, from bamboo. …Oh right. You might not even know what bamboo is. Make a tube from a wood that can stand fire, a stone tube will work too. It needs to be this long, and this wide. The tube inside is hollow, one end must be sealed well and the other end is the mouth. It’s usually closed with a plug. The fire starter is stored in it, you just open the plug when you need it.”
“Won’t the fire go out when put in such a barrel?” Yan Mo was right that Yuan Zhan hadn’t heard of bamboo, but Yuan Zhan cared more about this method of storing a fire starter.
“So you don’t burn it off…… Even if I talk about it you won’t get it. When it’s made later, you’ll see.”
Yuan Zhan didn’t get angry that he looked down on him. In his opinion, this was a part of the priest’s ability. The young man then purposefully lowered his voice, “What is bamboo?”
Yan Mo tore off a piece of the meat, “That’s something good!” And he started telling Yuan Zhan about (popular science version of) bamboo’s general facts and its benefits.
“I’ve never seen that kind of plant around here.” Yuan Zhan’s face was full of regret. “A wood that can stand fire…… I don’t know. Stone tube, though, maybe we can tell some slaves to make grind one. You should’ve told me earlier.”
Tell you earlier, so that you can hand me over to your Lord Priest faster? Yan Mo held back from rolling his eyes. He tore off quite a big piece of meat, and sent it over to the teen’s mouth. All the while convincing himself over and over: just think of it as father feeding his son!
Yuan Zhan who was treated like someone’s big boy opened wide, “Aah..” and took all of the meat inside his mouth in one go. His hand crept upward, stroking the little slave’s back.
Yan Mo got goose-bumps from that touch. However, when he thought about this group of people… The one person who can actually protect him now was this fierce boy who treated him half-like his wife. If he wanted to convince these people, first he must win over his ‘man’.
And to get someone intelligent, naturally crude, had resolute character and ruthless when fighting to be softer to him… First of all, he had to be the soft one. Moreover, he had to keep his approach artful.
Of course, Yan Mo absolutely would not admit what he’s doing was seducing someone. He just considered it as taming a beast!
At night. Yuan Zhan, who was actively approached by the little slave, felt hot all over his body. Regardless whether or not there were people listening near them, he hugged Yan Mo and rubbed against him for half of the night.
Fortunately for Yan Mo, Yuan Zhan didn’t actually enter him because they’d have to rush again tomorrow. Yuan Zhan was afraid he’d get injured again.
In Yan Mo’s ears were the howling of various unknown beasts not far away, as well as the undisguised xx sounds within the camp. To top it off he also felt the sensation of various small bugs crawling around him. He let the young boy rub against himself while he recited the Chinese Medicine book’s outline in his mind.
When he woke up in the morning, Lie and Que Ya who were in charge of the first shift couldn’t stop expressing their praises. They said that it’s so rare that they could sleep so comfortably when outside the tribe. Not only was there a warm bonfire, there was also a big animal skin coat that was doubly used as bedding spread over the ground.
Yang Wei crawled up from edge of the camp, but his master Bing bumped against him and almost made him fall over. When Cao Ting woke up, her master Diao helped her to stand up.
Meng who popped out from beside Xia Fei had a strange look when he looked at Yan Mo. He hesitated for a bit before jumping over in front of Yan Mo. “I still have one more.”
“What ‘still have one more’?” Yan Mo didn’t pick up his meaning at first.
Meng was about to explain, but Yuan Zhan who was in charge of the last night shift already came over and pushed him away. “Pack up, it’s time to go!”
Author note (translated):
Small theatre 1:
Yan Mo was brushing his teeth with a grass root. He brushed hard with a sneer on his mouth.
Yuan Zhan passed by…
but then walked back to him, crouching down and poked him, “Who angered you? Look at your angry puppy face!”
Yan Mo snapped the grass root out of his mouth. His mouth wore a sneer again, “Did you know? We nearly can’t appear today, nearly left hanging by that quicksand holes.”
Yuan Zhan: “What happened?”
Yan Mo: “Someone I asked Guide God to check for me. Just now Guide God told me that last night that person who should be writing read a novel from 7 pm straight to 12 am! And, she didn’t even write one character! The most hateful thing is that she also spent half an hour to check whether a character in the novel actually exists in reality because she’d become smitten to that character!”
Yuan Zhan: “……What are you talking about? I don’t understand a word! What is that Guide God? Is that the priest who told you to go south to look for the sea?”
Yan Mo…… stuffed the grass roots into Yuan Zhan’s mouth. “Just brush your teeth!”
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