CHAPTER 714: 【708】BEAST WORLD FARMING 18 (2 MORE)

"There was plenty of clay here, enough for her to make all kinds of pottery she wanted. It would be too troublesome to transport it back for making, so she thought it better to do it right here."

"With plenty of sunshine, it was good for drying, but the only downside was that it was the rainy season, and she feared she might have to keep an eye on the weather at any time."

"Unfortunately, she was in her animal form at the moment and couldn’t talk; only the adult animals could speak."

"Thus, she had them take her to forage for food. Now that the clay had been found, it was time to taste the food and also to look around to see if there were places like salt-alkali land."

"If they still couldn’t find any, she would have Jin Han take her to the sea to make salt!"

"In the rainy season, the rain was plentiful, but it came and went quickly, and there weren’t many days of continuous rain."

"Now her human form’s shapeshifting duration was getting longer every day, from an hour or two to three or four hours."

"With that time, she was pushing the three animals to help her with pottery making."

"To make pottery, they had to dig a pit first."

"After the big pit was ready, they would take the needed clay and crush it with stones, then add water until all the clay in the pit was soaked."

"Next, she led the three brothers to play with mud, which seemed fun but was actually very physically demanding."

"She placed a large lump of mud on a flat, big stone and shaped it into a large round cake. This cake was the foundation for making a clay kiln; since there was nowhere here to hold water, she had to build a large container, and she designed the cake to be one meter and twenty centimeters in diameter, which was quite laborious to make."

"Seeing her work so hard, they took over the task voluntarily, and she just watched from the side, only needing to give instructions with her lips when necessary."

"Once the cake was shaped, they used their fingers to dig holes of the same size on its surface. These holes would later serve as vents; firewood would be placed below, with pottery on top. After it was done, they put it on flat ground to dry naturally."

"Since a lot of mud was needed, they were almost always working with mud every day, if not on the way to do it, then slapping and forming the clay blocks."

"After the disk had dried, they dug a U-shaped hole in the ground next to it, piled up the processed clay to seal the mouth of the U, and raised it to the same level. Then, they dug a hole below for filling firewood."

"The entrance to the hole was smoothed out by patting it down, and then they threw in firewood to start the fire. They fired it until it was half-dry, and then they covered the U-shaped hole with the round disk they had made the day before. She had already sealed the kiln here, so it was almost circular, and the measurements matched the disk well."

"After covering it with the disk, they continued to add more firewood and kept burning until the disk and the surrounding clay were completely dry. Then they removed the ash from the firewood inside and let it cool naturally."

"Finally, they started to coil long strips of clay around in circles, eventually squeezing out a water barrel-shaped kiln about one and a half meters high. Then, they slapped out three or four rectangular bricks and placed them under the round disk, above the firewood opening, to form a layer for the firewood."

"From above, the round disk’s main function was to bear weight (above) and to provide ventilation (below)."

"Though the process seemed simple, they actually toiled for two days."

It wasn’t until the third day that the clay kiln was finally completed, and after the completion of the kiln, came the task of pottery making, and before that, a pottery wheel had to be made.

Afterward, it was time for them to unleash their imagination, because Tangtang had never done this before, so everything was in the experimental stage. Fortunately, they had clay and water at hand. Although it was strenuous and some of the pottery came out cracked, as they made more and with each piece, their experience grew. With increased experience, the quality of their work naturally improved.

In order to have cooked food readily available, the brothers set up a cooking stove right outside Yin Ye’s home, complete with a clay pot on top of it for boiling water, bowls and plates for eating, spoons, and jars for storing food. After busying themselves with these creations for over half a month, this was when Tangtang had stabilized her transformation, human form by day and beast form by night, indicating that her body had almost fully recovered.

Then they began to form the habit of gathering firewood, as they needed to boil water and cook every day.

Ah right, the little bear cub survived, saved by her. But even so, the people in the tribe still did not accept her suggestion to feed the cubs boiled water and cooked food, because for them, the danger of lighting a fire was greater.

She had not expected to change their habits overnight, but after this event, Witch Doctor Nanny felt she had potential and started to teach her with even more seriousness than before. It was quite clear that she intended to groom Tangtang as her successor.

Ever since they had vessels to hold water and cook with, Tangtang had the opportunity to divide and cook the food Yin Ye and the others brought back. However, she started to miss the allure of flour and rice, having grown tired of eating only meat and fruit every day.

The tasteless food without salt and seasonings had caused her sense of taste to lose its function.

One day, while Jin Han was flying with her at low altitude, she saw many small animals gnawing at the ground on a large plot of white land where no plants grew. It wasn’t just the ground they were gnawing, even the dirt on the walls was not spared. Moreover, there were no plants growing near that area, and most importantly, the soil was white.

Her eyes lit up, and she suddenly realized something.

"Jin Han, quick, land on that empty land,"

Jumping down from Jin Han’s back, Tangtang’s heart raced at the sight of the layer of salt frost congealed on the soil surface.

She rubbed her finger on the ground, then brought it to the corner of her mouth for a lick, and the taste of salt finally filled her mouth.

"This is great, this is salt!" she exclaimed. "What are you waiting for? Give me your Bone Knife, I need to scrape some of this white frost to take back and make salt."

Raising her head to observe the expanse of salt-alkali land, which covered at least twenty acres, she considered it quite a large area.

Although this place didn’t have as much salt as a salt mine, or the same purity, successfully extracting salt from it would still be an achievement.

As she scraped the salt frost, she turned back to ask Jin Han, "Have you seen this kind of land that forms white frost often?"

Jin Han, mimicking her actions, crouched down to taste the strange flavor. Though unfamiliar to him, he hesitated upon seeing the white frost crystals before him.

"I’m not sure, but I’ll check next time I come across such a place," he replied.

"That would be best. Remember this taste; this is the taste of saltiness. With this, you won’t always have to drink the blood of animals. Although scraping salt frost is just making do for the lack of a better option. If we could find a salt mine, that would truly be a boon for many," Tangtang ventured.

But even without a salt mine, having salt-alkali land was still a good thing. She looked up at the land and noticed that it was not entirely barren; sparse patches of green grass appeared here and there. However, compared to other places, it was more desolate.