Yuan Zhan went to the mountain cave as soon as he’s back, then went to check the stone house. He needed to meet his Priest-daren and talk to him about the situation around these parts. he also had something else to tell him.
Yuan Zhan, who didn’t have a habit of knocking doors, directly pushed the door. But it didn’t open. He then recalled that little thing called door bolt Yan Mo made, and so can only knock the door.
The door was opened and hot air rushed from inside. Yuan Zhan lowered his head and saw a little kid.
Yuan Zhan can’t make his scary face gentler, coupled with the cold air outside, it made the kid step back a little. He turned to look at Priest-daren who’s sitting crossed legged on the ground.
Yan Mo stood up and walked over to Yuan Zhan. “You’re back.”
A very normal greeting, but for Yuan Zhan, who had ran around in cold weather and snow for more than half a month, hearing this was like drinking a bowl of hot soup.
“Let’s go to the mountain.” Yan Mo could tell that Yuan Zhan had something to say. He also wanted to ask what he had seen in these twenty one days, but here was not the right place to talk.
Yuan Zhan threw a glance around the stone house, he felt that the stone house had changed a lot from the one before.
When he looked carefully he found that it did change a lot. Firstly, it’s much cleaner, and secondly the stone house had more things in it now.
Even though there’s much more things in it, the house still seemed tidier than when he lived here with Meng.
The most eye-catching thing in the house was not the children, but the addition of that wooden item that looked like a shelf. On the shelf, there were a row of wooden bowls and two short and thin wooden sticks. Aside from that, little trinkets were scattered around them.
Yan Mo followed Yuan Zhan’s questioning eyes and saw the shelf. He explained, “Oh. That’s the first wood shelf Er Meng and the others made according to my drawing. It’s very rough but quite sturdy. This house is too small and there’s a lot of things. Now that we have a shelf, the kids can put their stuff on it. Beddings are stacked against the wall, rolled up during the day when they’re studying and spread out when it’s time to sleep. This way the room appears wider and tidier.”
Yuan Zhan then looked at the thing in front of each kid, ……sand?
Yan Mo smiled. “Those are sand plates used for writing and counting. I had Er Meng make it for me.”
He then turned to the kids sitting in the room and said, “I won’t come back again today. By tomorrow, I want to see that every one of you have learned the materials taught today.”
He pointed at the place he sat at before. There’s also a wooden sand plate there, he had written very simple additions within ten on it. In front of the sand plate were several tiny twigs and seeds for visualisation.
The little kids didn’t understand Yan Mo’s words, but they understood what his movement meant. They all nodded together and said, “Yes, Priest-daren.” These kids have mastered these words better than anything else.
One with heavy steps, the other with light steps, the two people walked on snow towards the small rock mountain.
Yuan Zhan had dug out a cave in the rock mountain. It had a wooden door fitted on it and a small fite pit had been dug. It’d be very warm inside when a fire is lit.
Yuan Zhan was thinking if he should take Yan Mo’s sand plate from the house. He felt that he would be able to explain some things better using that thing. But when he came inside, he found a bigger sand plate at the corner of two walls.
“I come here and talk to Er Meng sometimes, that thing makes explaining things easier.”
That’s great! Yuan Zhan went to the fire pit, took the leftover ember and dried grass and blew on them before adding in firewood. It’s been a long time since he had eaten or drunk something hot, if not because of his earth controlling abilities, he wouldn’t dare run around outside in the heavy snow.
When Yuan Zhan was studying the stone house, Yan Mo was also examining him.
After not seeing him for more than half a month, the young man clearly looked thinner. The exposed skin on his face and body had become red and cracked from the cold air. There were some small wounds still healing on his body, but his overall spirit seemed pretty good.
After igniting the fire, Yuan Zhan went deeper into the cave and took the thing hehid there before. He hugged it in his arms and walked to the young boy, then randomly threw it at him.
Yan Mo turned around, about to take the stone pot outside and take the snow, when his face got hit by something.
Yan Mo hurriedly put down the stone pot and grabbed the thing covering his face.
It felt soft to touch, the weight and feeling on his head was like some sort of high quality fur.
When he got the thing down and can look at it, Yan Mo’s eye widened.
“How is it? It’s a good thing isn’t it? When I saw it I immediately want to take it for you.” Yuan Zhan said with some smugness in his words.
“Take… where did you take this from?” Yan Mo’s voice trembled a little. The thing in his hand is the most civilised item he had seen since he arrived to this world. The feel, the pattern, and the sewing, it’s obviously a long-sleeved fur coat, something that shouldn’t appear in the primitive society!
“What’s wrong?”
Yan Mo’s eyes was complex as he stared at the fur overcoat, “I just knew god won’t make it easy for me, I was just about to start and he already got me such a formidable opponent.”
Yuan Zhan watched him with tilted head. What’s this kid mumbling about? He spoke in god’s language Yuan Zhan can’t understand again.
“Is it too late to return this thing now?” Someone’s eyes looked numb.
“Return? Why?” Yuan Zhan looked at the boy with a face that said ‘are you stupid’, then ordered, “Stay and sleep here tonight. This must be enough for me to do you for a few days, right?”
Yan Mo held back the impulse to throw the fur coat at his face. He took off the stiff clothes he had on and put on the soft fine fur coat on.
Once he had put it on, Yan Mo nearly let out a moan. It feels so nice! It’s warm and flexible, and fit so snugly to the body. This is what clothes should be like!
Yuan Zhan stared at the boy wearing the fur coat. His adam’s apple moved, but not too clearly. He discovered that the boy unexpectedly looked rather good like this? His face seemed fuller than before, when he took off his pelt clothes Yuan Zhan clearly saw that his butt looked plumper than before.
Awoo—! Really wants to take off the clothes he just put back on!
Yan Mo took out golden needles and waved it at the drooling young man looking at him with green eyes. “Say it. Where did you get this clothes from? State everything clearly from time, place, course of events and who you met!”
Yuan Zhan wiped his drool. “I’m hungry.”
Yan Mo just received a high quality fur clothes from the other man, so he decided to give him a little something back. As for the person who got robbed, what’s done was done. Thinking that Yuan Zhan can run back and with a face like nothing happened, the situation must not be that dangerous.
Yan Mo took the stone pot and followed his original intention to go out and scoop the snow. He walked back in and put the stone pot on the fire pit. This time he’s not only boiling water, but also cut out some of the cured meat hanging on the wall. He used the scalpel to cut them to thin slices and took out some herbal medicine and fruits from his medicine pouch, putting everything into the stone pot.
“What’s that in your hand?” Yuan Zhan was rubbing his hands and feet, with one glance, the scalpel immediately captured his attention.
Yan Mo looked at those dirty hands that was rubbing feet with dislike, but still handed the scalpel over to him, “This was one of the treasures ancestor god gave to me. It’s sharper than other blades, you have to be caref…”
Before he could finish, Yuan Zhan who was quick to test blade’s sharpness had already cut his finger.
Yuan Zhan didn’t care, he put his bleeding finger in his mouth and licked it, but his eyes stayed on the scalpel with a clear desire for it.
“Good thing.” Yuan Zhan readily praised. “Can you give that to me?”
“Can’t. I only have this one.” Yan Mo stretched out his hand.
“If I knew you wouldn’t let me do it, I’d use the clothes to trade with your little knife.”
“I won’t trade it for ten clothes!”
Yuan Zhan curled his lips. He raised a little slave for nothing, give him meat, build him house, gift him fur and he still won’t let him do it even once. Yuan Zhan couldn’t help pinching his cheek.
Yan Mo glared at him. “You just used that hand to rub your feet, how can you use it to touch my face! Give it back!”
Yuan Zhan didn’t know why a hand can’t be used to touch his face if it had been touching his feet, but he still returned the scalpel to him. He added, “This doesn’t look like it’s made of stone.”
“I also don’t know what material it is.” Anyway it didn’t look like metal. Yan Mo, who had just received a pleasant gift, was in a pleasant mood. He didn’t stay angry for long, after getting his scalpel back he wetted it with snow then put it over the fire to sterilise it.
Yuan Zhan casually said, “Looks like some kind of bone.”
“Bone?” Something flashed in Yan Mo’s brain, but it flashed away too quickly, he didn’t grasp it.
Yuan Zhan’s head craned forward, he sniffed, “What are you making? It smells nice.”
Yan Mo took a wooden ladle and said as he stirred, “Meat broth with medicinal herbs, drives away cold and replenishes Qi. Too bad it’s not goat meat, that would’ve made the soup more effective.”
“Goat?” When goat was mentioned, Yuan Zhan felt excited for some reason. “I was about to tell you, I found a pack of wild mountain goats while heading north. There are about three to four hundred goats, and can’t be less.”
“Really? Is it far from here?” Yan Mo became excited too.
“Far.” Yuan Zhan successfully calmed Yan Mo down with one word. “About eight to nine days journey northwest, on a rock mountain near the dark forest.”
Yan Mo didn’t have a measure for how far is a day’s journey. What he knew was that Yuan Zhan said it’s a distance measured roughly from what warriors can cover within a day’s walk.
In his original world, if in a day they can walk for tens of hours, an average person can normally cover a distance of 20-40 km, if they are stronger, they could make it to 50-60 km. When he put Yuan Zhan on the latter category, he can temporarily estimate his ‘a day’s walk’ into 50 km.
Counting with these numbers, the eight to nine days journey in his words would mean about 450 km.
“Did you walk slower than usual when it snowed?”
“Of course.” Yuan Zhan’s starving stomach couldn’t endure the delicious meat broth smell. He asked Yan Mo for the wooden ladle and stirred forcefully, wanting it to just boil already.
“How much slower?”
“Half.”
That would be 220-250 km roughly. It’s still too far. Maybe he could let Er Meng lead A’wu people to make sledge?
But he didn’t need to rush to it, they’re not lacking food right now.
“Did you find the location you wanted for the tribe?” Are there high civilisations living there? Then why haven’t they found there’s such a big salt lake here? He didn’t think that one Jiu Feng would be enough to scare off an entire tribe of highly civilised warriors.
Yuan Zhan nodded. He couldn’t help from ladling the soup for himself, but Yan Mo sharply found out and hit the back of his hand.
“It has to boil, there’s medicine in it. Wait obediently!”
Yuan Zhan glared at the young man. After few seconds of glaring, he rubbed his nose and obediently stirred the pot.
Yan Mo put back his needle and continued to ask, “Are there other tribes around it?”
“Didn’t see any. I only reached that place after ten days. There are no other tribes in the whole area, I even went to the lake to check. There are strong beasts, but I didn’t see what beast, maybe they sleep inside in winter.”
Ten days journey, which meant 250-300 km. But if he didn’t find other tribes, then where did he get the fur coat from?
Yan Mo slightly calmed down after hearing that there were no strong enemies nearby, and quickly turned to the basic requirements for tribe’s life, “How are the food compared to here?”
“Enough food. That place is enough to raise another Yuanji tribe. Aside from the mountain goats there are giant bulls, wild horses, longhead beast, and many wildlife like deers, rabbits, foxes and wolves.”
“Looks like we’ve walked to a place with more beasts than people.”
Yuan Zhan shot him a weirded glance. “Beasts had always been more than people.”
“Right.” Yan Mo made himself smile. It’s just that he had taken it for granted again that there would be people everywhere in this world, when he heard that there were no one occupying such a large territory, he was surprised.
“I plan to move while it’s winter.” Yuan Zhan suddenly said.
“Eh? Winter? Why?” Yan Mo was startled.
“The journey to that place is dangerous but it’s okay as long as we avoid the territory of the wolves and longheaded beasts. I’ve checked the route, they just need to follow behind me.” The soup’s not done yet, so Yuan Zhan simply stood up and pulled the sand plate over. He used a twig to draw a very basic line map.
“As for why it has to be during winter, I suspect there are very strong beasts there. If we don’t take advantage of winter when they’re sleeping to occupy the territory, next spring we’d have to fight along the journey, the loss will be too big.”
Yan Mo considered the plan, “But there’s nothing there and we have many children, if we go now…”
“Not everyone.” Yuan Zhan had clearly thought about it on his way back. “I’ll take a group of people first and build houses over there. The location I chose is not far from that rock mountain with the goats. My ability controls rock and soil, it’s easy to take the rocks from there to make houses. This time the stones don’t need to have ridges and holes, it can just be stuck together with mud, I’ve tried it.”
When he mentioned mud, Yan Mo remembered the lime mud, “While you were gone, we found a sticking agent that works better than mud for stone.”
Yan Mo first explained what sticking agent is, then said, “I’ve tried baking the stone into ashes and breaking it to pieces with rocks. When it’s mixed with water, it can return to mud state again. Since this primitive mud is very sticky, I’ve tried mixing sandy soil into the mud. As long as we pay attention to the water content and not let it dry in the middle, the mud mixed with sand will also stick. And if you leave the mud mixture for a day or two, the mix will harden into a stone, it’s very sturdy.”
“Are there a lot of it?” Yuan Zhan was thinking, if there are many, maybe he could build houses straight from this mud.
“I’ve checked the mud pool, it’s not big. The area is not more than one square metre. The depth varies around the edges. I used a two metre long stick to measure, it didn’t reach the bottom, there no way to know the depths of the centre. But I don’t recommend using it to build a house, it’s too wasteful. It’s best to use it to stick stones together. A raw mud stone as big as a head, when smashed and mixed with sand and water, is enough sticking mixture to build two to three houses. I’ve calculated it.”
“Okay. I’ll take some stones and try to use it.” He had the ability to control earth, he didn’t even need fire to make these mud stones into powder. Yuan Zhan talked lightly at this moment, not knowing the surprises the lime mud would bring to him later.
Yan Mo looked at his drawing on the sand that showed how the tribe would look in the future. He even recalled the concept of city walls that Yan Mo drew before. The guy planned to make a stone wall to surround the territory before building the houses.
But because of his limited experience, the living place in Yuan Zhan’s mind was a simple and plain primitive village.
Though Yan Mo didn’t know about architecture and city planning, he had eaten pork even if he had never seen living pig. He, who lived in the era of information like the modern society, was naturally unimpressed with this type of little stronghold village, this territory that was too easy to be toppled over by the enemy.
At the same time, he can’t talk to Yuan Zhan about building a city that has waterway around it, or dividing areas based on functions or water source construction right now when they lacked manpower.
“Making stone wall to block off wild beasts is a good idea, but the area you circle is too wide, and just one wall is too weak. I suggest building a smaller one, enough to protect a small area for our one hundred people. That way, we can build sturdier wall and houses. Have you ever thought of this, if the wall is wide enough for people to walk on it, we can fight off beasts from the top of the wall. ……”
Yan Mo then started a class for Yuan Zhan, using drawing and words to open up his thinking.
Yuan Zhan was extremely serious in listening, but his attention was instantly drawn away once the meat soup in the pot boiled.
Yuan Zhan didn’t care about scalding his tongue, he sat next to the stone pot and ate noisily with the wooden ladle until sweat came out from his forehead. Not long after, the entire pot of soup was finished, not even a drop of the soup is left.
“No more.” Yuan Zhan scraped the bottom of the pot with wooden ladle and stuffed his mouth with that burnt stuff he scrapped up.
Yan Mo checked his pulse. “There’s no more, but you can’t eat other things. Stuffing stomach until full isn’t always good. Remember, you can’t eat other things within two hours.”
“Make it for me again tonight, I’ll hunt.”
Yan Mo rolled his eye at the young man’s tone, taking it for granted he will cook. “Eat at the stone house tonight, I’ve taught those kids how to make meat soup. I have also been eating with them during these time.” He’s not interested in cooking for others. “Right, just where did you steal this coat from?”
Yuan Zhan didn’t want to eat with a bunch of little kids, but the soup was too delicious, he reluctantly agreed. “Oh, you mean that fur ah. I stripped it off that person.”
“Person? What person?” Yan Mo’s brows scrunched up.
“A woman. Red hair, white skin, big breast, round butt.” Yuan Zhan threw away the wooden ladle that has been licked clean and lightly said, “I carried her back.”
“What?! Where is she?”
Author’s note (translated):
Nonsense little theatre:
Yuan Zhan: I’m back!
Yan Mo: People who travel out has to bring back local souvenirs, take it out.
Yuan Zhan: There!
Yan Mo: …What is this?
Yuan Zhan: Woman.
Yan Mo: Where did you go that the local products are women?
Yuan Zhan: Country of women. We don’t need to worry about how to multiply our numbers later! I’ve thought it over, I get all the princesses, you get the queen and prime minister.
Padam: Special period due to CG celebration and mid year holiday, how many is translated in a week is uploaded next week until august ends. Can’t promise much though!
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