Why would they gather broombush on such a cold winter day?
Broombush, broombush. Of course it’s to make brooms and clean the place!
These kids are not big enough to go hunting yet, but they’re big enough to clean their classroom and bedroom by themselves.
As a doctor, if the situation allows, he’d naturally start teaching his students the importance of hygiene and being clean first.
Yan Mo took out his pickaxe and first demonstrated how to dig out the dried out broombush. He didn’t take the seeds, firstly because the best time to take the seeds had passed, and he had already taken some when he first found this place, secondly because they didn’t have a container for the seeds, thirdly, it reseeds itself abundantly. As long as this plant isn’t destroyed on purpose, the seeds that had fallen out naturally can easily fill out this place next spring.
“This broombush, also known as Burningbush (Bassia scoparia), is an upright herb plant. It will live for about one to two years. The seedlings and young leaves can be cooked and eaten, the seed is also called kochia seed, it can treat itchiness, promote urination and strengthen the body. If you wait until autumn passes and let the grass keep growing, you can cut it and make it into a broom. All in all, this is a very useful wild plant.”
Yan Mo clearly knew that these children couldn’t understand his words, but he continued explaining about broombush anyway. He is reviewing his own knowledge while at the same time making the children ‘open their ears wide’.
To quickly learn another language, you need to desperately want to understand what is said in it.
The nine children circled the Priest-daren and watched his actions, and just as Yan Mo expected, the little children heard him talking, but finding they couldn’t understand the words, each one of them started to get anxious.
“Br… oum…” Big-eyes captured these two words that appeared the most in his explanation, trying hard to mimic the pronunciation.
Yan Mo gave him a small smile, and repeated while pointing at the broombush, “Broom.”
Big-eyes was shaking with happiness, the other kids also repeated the words quickly, “Br…oum…”
“Not broum, broom.” Yan Mo had always had the patience to deal with stupid students. Mistakes are not a problem, as long as the kids want to learn. But after correcting them over and over again, he discovered that this method of correcting them one by one took a lot of time and effort. His body’s memory is also not helpful. This body’s owner learnt to speak naturally, no one taught him and there was no phonetic symbol or letter.
He didn’t plan on using his original world’s language system here, but he could still refer to his language learning experience to guide the language teaching over here. Ancient people in his original world had spent a lot of effort and care in making that language system anyway, why not use it? If he insisted on making his own from scratch, that’s just confusing the major and minor goal.
And so Yan Mo decided to use his language’s phonetic symbols to mark the pronunciation of the language here. As for the written form, he had never seen the letters here and had never heard Yuan Zhan and others talk about writings. Perhaps the three cities and god’s temples in their stories have writings to record things, but until he finds a writing of this language, he decided to use pictograms to help teach the language for now.
It’s quite easy to understand and learn pictograms because they look similar to the actual objects being described. He couldn’t copy his mother language’s words directly, the words had to correspond to this world’s situation so that it’s easier for these primitive people to understand them. He could compare things here with his original world and make a set of pictograms for this world.
But this project was rather large. Making a complete set of words (pictograms) will definitely take time. His priority right now is to teach them words for things they often see or had seen before.
As for words that hadn’t appeared in this world yet, he could only import them from his mother language.
Yan Mo couldn’t have known at this time that this world would gain a complete language system due to his off-handed decision today. It not only has phonetic symbols, but also has reason behind the shape of characters, making learning the language structured. In the future, Jiuyuan people would use it to civilise their new members and communicate with different cultures around it, but not only that, due to the strength and influence of the Jiuyuan tribe in the future, this language would become the most widespread and most spoken language around the world. At that time, Jiuyuan language could be said to be the common language of the world.
But the Yan Mo who just wanted to have a language teaching system to help himself teach some children right now, had no idea about the far-reaching effect it would cause in the later days, he also didn’t think that far ahead.
While teaching the children, he didn’t plan to let go of Er Meng and his group of warriors.
Since they’re already training their bodies, isn’t it even better to also do some actual work as they train?
Chopping trees, baking wood, follow his drawings and making some simple wooden furniture. While they’re at it, they could hunt secretly in the woods and look for things he’s searching for, that way no important matters get delayed.
They couldn’t just chop any trees. Yan Mo had gone into the woods with Meng beforehand and marked the trees that they could cut. As for the scum points that he will gain from this action… Yan Mo could only grit his teeth and accept it. Some scum points really couldn’t be avoided.
However, because he had helped the A’wu clan fight off the invasion of the little creatures, the guide had given him -2000 points in one go. By treating the 18 injured people, he got -1800 points. Three people had died, but because he tried his best to save them, the guide gave him -30 points. Other small and scattered rewards gave him a total of -136 points.
Right now, the total amount of his points’ reduction is -4952 points. It’s still far away from that awful 100,000,000 points, but it’s enough to make him happy.
Saving people was indeed the quickest way to reduce scum points! But where will he get so many people to save in this world?
Yan Mo didn’t get fixated on this train of thought for too long, he was more looking forward to the next point reduction milestone, will there be a reward for -5000 points?
Let’s get back to the main story, when Yan Mo found out the branch pieces leftover from the wood making process, his thoughts naturally went to making wood charcoal, but he had never had experience on this matter, he had only heard about the traditional method of making charcoal.
This traditional method is: dig a pit in the ground, spread easily ignited dried grasses in the pit, pack the branches neatly layer after layer above the grass. Moist wood can also be used. Light up a fire on the dried grass underneath, or it can be lit up beforehand. Lastly, seal the pit, but leave a small hole. Let the wood inside burn in a sealed condition. Someone needs to pay attention to the baking progress. When the charcoal is done, the fire needs to be extinguished with sandy soil or water. Dry wood is usually done after four days, moist wood needs seven days.
You could get charcoal by using this method, but it could also fail and not produce anything. The quality of the charcoal produced is just average.
He taught the traditional method to Meng, told him to try it out with other people, and simply washed his hands out of it.
Er Meng scratched his head. Yan Mo’s words are so vague. He only said this is testing the A’wu people, but Meng thought that this was more like testing him.
How deep should the pit be? Where should the pit be dug? How many branches do they have to put in? How to pile them? What do they do if the moist wood hasn’t burned off yet and the dried grass at the bottom has already burned out? How small should the small hole be? How do they check the situation of the wood inside? Most importantly, at what point is the charcoal considered done?
But when asking Yan Mo again, their Priest-daren would only say with an unfathomable look: this is a test for you guys, if I teach you everything, can it still be called a test? Use your brain first. Making these things can only be good for you guys and can’t be bad.
Meng didn’t want to use his brain. He’s more interested in the various wooden furniture Yan Mo had drawn, so he taught the charcoal making method to A’wu people and told them this is a test given to them by Priest-daren and it will make their lives better if they can make it, then he washed his hands off of it. He took a group of people to train in the morning, then struggled with making furniture in the afternoon.
The leader of the A’wu clan accepted the task. It’s the same with the task of tanning hides and making better hemp ropes. He and his clan members didn’t feel like this was a test, but a disguised help from Priest-daren so that they can live better lives.
A’wu people felt grateful from their hearts. Now they had a lot of food and would experiment on these three tasks when they are free. As time went on, they naturally learned some things from their repeated experiments and failures.
Aside from directing A’wu people to do these three things, Yan Mo also gave them a test with a longer time period. It’s to look for things. He clearly told them to tell him if they find the things he described or other items with special use, and that he would give them special rewards in return.
Yan Mo didn’t think much when he brought it up. He didn’t expect A’wu people to really be able to find anything useful. Ten days later, he let the kids on their first day off to go back to their tribe and see their families. When they go home, they can ease their families’ worries, and it will also give them a chance to show off. But the next day, Straight-brows, Big-eyes, and some A’wu people came to the left edge of the eye lake, escorting one person in the group who carried a hard rock in his both hands.
Straight-brows and Big-eyes ran to the stone house to look for Yan Mo. The other clan members couldn’t come to the house, only they could. The little brats were quite proud of this.
The calmer Straight-brows was still restrained, but when the other brats like Big-eyes and mischievous Sa got home, they became self-taught in boasting and flaunting skills. In their descriptions, the stone house turned into god’s temple. Priest-daren, who taught them knowledge and gave them delicious food to eat, was god himself! They’d been living in heaven itself!
Of course, they didn’t know the words ‘god’s temple’, or ‘heaven‘ and such at this point, they could only do their best to describe everything with their limited imagination and vocabulary.
The little kid A’wu’s story was from his experience about surviving death, and finding his world had changed when he woke up. He showed off to his father and brothers and sisters about everything he has now. His family who pushed him out to be the sacrifice at the lake back then started to regret. Why didn’t they jump out as a sacrifice back then?
This was naturally also one of Yan Mo’s aims. He did good things, of course he had to let the natives know. Since he had done acts of kindness, he wanted the other party’s gratitude. At the same time, he wanted the natives of this world to envy and long for this life, that they would actively ask him to take in their children as his students, and actively ask him to impart his knowledge to them.
Only when people are faced with competition will they make progress. More often than not, envy and jealousy are important elements that push development.
Returning to the present time, Yan Mo was dissecting the small monster when he heard knocks on the door. The disruption made him very unhappy.
Then he heard the respectful call from the kids outside and pushed down his anger, changing into a kind appearance before opening the door.
When the kids saw Yan Mo, they saluted him before anything else. Their greeting is the same greeting warriors use, the right hand balled and pressed on the left chest, but the kids added another movement on their own and lowered their small heads to Yan Mo.
“What’s the matter?” Yan Mo stood there and blocked the view to the interior.
“Priest-daren!” Big-eyes rushed to speak first, but he couldn’t explain anything clearly with the Jiuyuan language he had only learnt for a few days.
With no other choice, Yan Mo could only touch his forehead.
Big-eyes was so excited he could faint, and his words become even more jumbled. When he went back, he would definitely tell everyone in the clan about this. Priest-daren touched his head too! Aaaah!
Yan Mo, who couldn’t understand what Big-eyes was saying, could only put his other hand on Straight-brows’ forehead. Straight-brows started explaining.
This time, Yan Mo understood what had happened.
“You said that someone in your clan had found a strange clay from a pool of mud? The clay in the pool can trap wild animals who step into it, but when the clay was taken from the pool it will become a rock after one day, is that it?”
The two kids nodded continuously.
“Where is the person who found this thing now? Take me to him.” Yan Mo had the intuition that they might have found something big this time, but he kept his face very calm and collected.
When A’wu people saw Yan Mo coming, they all prostrated to the ground.
Yan Mo didn’t stop them, this is not the time to show his kind and amiable persona.
Yan Mo raised his hand lightly and Big-eyes shouted with A’wu language, “Priest-daren said everyone rise.”
Only then did the A’wu people dare to get up. That middle-aged man who held a rock in his hands took a small step forward and raised the rock while saying something.
Yan Mo listened carefully. The other man was saying: This rock is the rock taken from the mud pool. He had discovered the mud pool way before. He had seen wild animals got stuck inside it and were slowly swallowed by the pool. Hearing Clan Leader saying Priest-daren wanted them to look for unusual items, he immediately thought of this mud pool. He even ran over to the place. He thought to scoop out some mud to carry it to the Priest-daren, but just one day after his trip, the mud had turned into a rock. He thought that it was like magic.
Because the Clan Leader had gone to hunt with the warriors, he told the priest disciple about it. Big-eyes couldn’t sit still after hearing about it and immediately took him to the priest. Straight-brows was worried something might happen, so he called a few people over and also came with Big-eyes and the man.
Yan Mo received the rock. He couldn’t make out why from just looking, but he could consult the guide.
He has never used the second guide to organic lifeforms and the third geo-hydro guide, not even once. He could use this opportunity to test his new tools.
Yan Mo summoned the guide and made it flip to the third part. He put his right hand on the rock and not even two seconds after he put his hand on the rock, a sentence appeared directly in his brain:
Inquired item: Mineral. Under the range of the third guide. This item entry requires +2 scum points for a brief description and +5 scum points for a full entry. Please choose between the two options within five seconds, select by saying it or strongly thinking about it.
This was not the first time the guide has “spoken” inside Yan Mo’s brain. After the day that he got a fever and awakened his communication ability, it could be that his brain has upgraded and met the lowest requirements of the guide to activate direct communication in the brain. Many times after that, he didn’t need to look at his right hand anymore, he could directly see his daily scum points balance in his brain.
Yan Mo focused his thoughts to tell the guide his selection: Brief.
He’ll select the brief version first, if the basic information is good enough he doesn’t need to open the detailed version for now. After all, the detailed version is going to add 5 points to his balance.
After stating his selection, the brief information about this stone quickly appeared in his brain. It was extremely brief, only one sentence.
——Viscous lime plaster. Has strong sticking ability in liquid form, air dries into a solid rock. If the rock is burned into ash or smashed using other methods and mixed with water, it will return to its viscous state.
Thank you, Creator God Pangu! He had just worried if he would get a series of chemical names in the information, like how much calcium carbonate is in the viscous lime plaster, or that it contains XXX and YYY and there are ZZZ amounts in there.
But this simple explanation, although short, gave him enough information that he understood the use and special features of this mineral.
Maybe the guide is also more inclined to include the usage when giving out these informations, ba. If it lists out a bunch of chemical names and formulas, if the user is someone who hasn’t studied that area, how can they figure out how to use the things?
Yan Mo stretched out his hand onwards that A’wu clansman. The middle-aged man immediately move forward tremblingly and lightly touched his forehead on his finger.
“I need some time to study what use this thing has for us. When I have confirmed that it is useful, I will reward you.”
“No, no need for reward, Priest-daren. I ask you…” Thud. The middle-aged man suddenly dropped to his knees and prostrated. “If this rock is useful, I ask Priest-daren to take in my child as a disciple, please, Priest-daren!”
Yan Mo pretended to think over it for a bit, then lightly nodded his head.
The middle-aged man cried from the burst of joy, but he pressed down his excitement, because Priest-daren hasn’t determined if the rock is really useful or not.
The A’wu people who came together with him looked at him enviously.
“I can still go look for the other things, I will go look…” Yan Mo has already left with the rock, but the middle-aged man was still there with clenched fists, talking to himself about his plans. It’s not only him who had this idea, the other clan members who originally didn’t think much about item searching now started to take it seriously and decided to look for things as soon as they get back.
Following the middle-aged man, several A’wu people came over to “present treasures”.
Yan Mo received them for some time. He actually got two herbal medicines that are quite good, but he already ran out of patience. He directly passed down his words that because he is busy with a lot of things, he will only meet A’wu people on a selected day and just once a week. The actual day and time of the meeting will be communicated through his disciples.
After passing on this message, Yan Mo finally got some peace and quiet. He also had the time to study his newly collected plants and minerals. He loved dissecting the most, but he has dissected every inch of that little monster. That little monster has been cut everywhere, it’s close to falling apart. In other words, he ran out of things to play with, but after breaking his fast, his hands are now itching for action. He could only go research some other things.
Jiu Feng felt so alone. His little two-legs suddenly became busy. Everyday he would just shut himself in the stone house with those little little two-legs, Jiu Feng didn’t know what they’re doing in there.
He’s not happy and every night he’d peck little two-legs’s hair when they’re sleeping. As a result, he saw little two-legs taking out a white and cold looking strange thing and shaved off the little hair he had left!
“Chieek—!” No hair to peck, not happy. No little two-legs to play with, more unhappy! But little two-legs would help him rub his stomach at night, it feels nice, ah. Little two-legs had also collected his fallen feathers, guruu, gruu. Why did he feel happy again now?
Alright, he’ll catch a Tulong today and give it to little two-legs to eat. He definitely never ate it!
On that day, Yuan Zhan came back covered in snow.
Counting from the day he set off to today, he has been gone for twenty-one days.
Author’s note (translated):
Happy little theatre:
Yan Mo: Other people’s seepweed marsh has a lot of crabs living in it, a lot, a lot of them! It’s even their local speciality! Why can’t I find even one at my place?
Guide: You’re here to be reformed, you still want to eat crabs? Even if there are, I’ll make them shut themselves in their caves!
Yan Mo: I got nothing to do in winter, anyway. Tomorrow I’ll take a group of people to the marsh and dig around!
Guide: Go. Eat one crab, add 1000 scum points. ♡
Yan Mo: … Suddenly wants to retaliate against the world!
Padam: strictly speaking, the translation of this chapter title is Awu clan offers treasures. Ah I want to eat crabs too.
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