Chapter 172

The beast-kin in the form of a tusk-pig was swaying its short tail, shaking its head, and stomping in the mud.

Qi Bai thrust the stone shovel into the soil, tucking his sticky hair behind his ear.

The bright sun at the seaside was a bit dazzling. Squinting his eyes, Qi Bai scanned the dug-out small ditch and said, "Let's leave it at this for now."

Then he shouted loudly to the four beast-kin still treading the mud, "Let's head back!"

It had been three days since they arrived at the seaside. Apart from eating and sleeping, the four beast-kin had been leveling this patch of land. Now, they had roughly prepared about one mu of muddy ground. Qi Bai planned to use this one mu of salt field for an experiment. If it proved insufficient later, they could continue expanding to both sides.

As for Qi Bai and Sun Qing, they were responsible for digging a deep channel about half a meter wide to divert seawater into the salt field.

Sun Qing wiped the sweat from his forehead and glanced at the nearby coast. He didn’t quite understand why they were stopping when they hadn’t even reached the intended spot.

Over the past couple of days, Qi Bai had briefly observed the patterns of the tides. In this stretch of sea, the tide usually began to rise around 6 a.m. and 6 p.m., and ebbed around noon and midnight.

Therefore, they didn’t need to dig the channel too close to the sea. Otherwise, the rising tide would submerge the freshly dug channel, rendering their efforts useless. The current location was just right.

Sun Qing listened, half-understanding, but still diligently memorized every word Qi Bai said.

As he followed Qi Bai back to the grass shed, Sun Qing glanced back at the waves crashing onto the beach one after another, feeling even more admiration for Qi Bai.

The waves seemed never-ending. If Qi Bai hadn’t pointed out their patterns, Sun Qing would never have thought about it and thus wouldn’t have realized that they could leverage these patterns.

Back at the temporary camp, fourteen large pots were bubbling vigorously. Seven sub-beasts were each tending to two pots, using bamboo strips to stir the brine inside and occasionally adding more seawater.

Next to the grass shed stood a row of large bamboo tubes filled with seawater, left to settle and separate impurities.

Everyone entered the shed, picked up bamboo tubes filled with freshwater, and gulped down several large mouthfuls.

Ma Ling walked over to the open leather bag, scooped up a handful of salt, and said with a grin, "The salt we’ve produced this time is more than what the previous salt-seeking teams ever gathered."

Diao Lan tugged at the nearby leather bag. "We only have a few leather bags left. They’ll be full by tonight. Bao Bai, should we continue boiling salt tomorrow?"

Under normal circumstances, this wouldn’t even be a question—without leather bags, they would simply return to the tribe. But now, with the unused salt field outside, they might have to wait a few more days.

Diao Lan thought that if that were the case, she would take the others into the forest to find large leaves or dry grass to line the baskets, which could then hold a fair amount of salt.

Qi Bai shook his head. "No more boiling. We’ll set off first thing tomorrow morning."

After the tide rose today, he wanted to observe how much seawater would flow into the salt field. If the channel didn’t divert enough seawater, he planned to use bamboo tubes to manually fill the field.

Ma Ling calculated the space on the cart. The leather bags could be stacked layer upon layer. "We’ll still have some room to spare. Let’s go dig up some more seaweed."

Xiang Yu smiled at the sub-beasts. "You’ve been boiling salt in the grass shed for the past few days. Now that we’re about to leave, you haven’t even had a proper look at the seaside. Leave this to us. Let Zhu Ya take you to the shore to gather food."

The sub-beasts’ eyes lit up. They had been gathering on land for so many years but had never foraged in the sea.

Qi Bai immediately raised his small shovel. Well, no one could resist tidal foraging.

However, unlike the others, who were solely focused on searching for food along the coast, Qi Bai gazed at the swaying sea surface, pondering the idea of building a small boat to explore slightly farther out.

The group scattered along the shore, searching for seafood. Based on experience from Blue Star, the best time for tidal foraging was during low tide, when seawater receded and stranded marine life was left on the beach.

But in the Beastmen Continent, such concerns were unnecessary. The shallow waters and rocky bays provided enough for everyone to busy themselves with. Shielded by rocks, these areas had perennial shallow pools where, without even turning over many stones, one could find palm-long prawns and large sea snails.

The only caution was that these prawns, of unknown species, were exceptionally fierce. Their pairs of blue-purple pincers were nearly as large as crab claws.

Qi Bai had just tied up a large prawn with grass rope—it was necessary, as an untied prawn could shred and destroy everything else in the basket, including seaweed—when he heard Sun Qing and Zhu Ya talking.

Sun Qing, listening to Zhu Ya’s frantic scratching, felt uneasy. He stopped turning over stones and asked, "Why do you keep scratching your neck?"

Zhu Ya immediately stopped scratching and covered his neck with his palm. "It’s itchy."

Qi Bai glanced at Zhu Ya’s neck. No wonder it was itchy—a large red patch stretched from his neck to his back.

Sun Qing clearly saw it too. He hurriedly threw the wooden tongs into the basket. "Why are you so red? Are you bleeding?"

The tribespeople gathering nearby quickly gathered around. Qi Bai picked up a piece of kelp from the ground and wrapped it around Zhu Ya’s neck like a scarf. "It’s not bleeding. It might be a sunburn."

Sunburn?

Everyone looked at each other in confusion. What kind of injury was a sunburn? They had never heard of it.

Because the sun was harsh and it was easy to get wet by the sea, several beast-kin, including Zhu Ya, had taken off their thick leather garments.

But to be honest, beast-kin were hardly afraid of the sun. Before they had leather garments, they had been exposed to the sun all day long. How could they get sunburned so easily?

Even Qi Bai, whose albino fur made his skin much fairer than the others, was quite resilient. A day in the sun would at most make him slightly red all over, but certainly not as severe as Zhu Ya’s condition.

So Qi Bai wasn’t sure whether Zhu Ya had a simple sunburn or a UV allergy.

Regardless, Zhu Ya couldn’t stay under the scorching sun any longer.

Besides, they had already been at the shore for over an hour. It was nearly noon, and the tide was about to reach its peak. After this, the tide would ebb, and the waves would grow stronger, making the shore unsafe.

Qi Bai watched the encroaching shoreline and decided to lead everyone back.

He turned to Diao Lan. "When you went into the forest these past few days, did you see any edible plants with juicy leaves?"

Whether it was a sunburn or a UV allergy, Zhu Ya needed to cool down immediately and apply something to soothe the inflammation. Aloe vera would have been ideal.

But not only was there no aloe vera by the seaside, Qi Bai hadn’t seen any in the Beastmen Continent all this time, let alone now when it was urgently needed. So he asked Diao Lan if she could find plants with similar effects.

Diao Lan thought carefully for a moment. "This morning, I saw some grass by the stream. I’m not sure if it’ll work, but I’ll go pick some now."

Zhu Ya swallowed hard, his face crestfallen. "Is my injury serious?" He felt the previously smooth skin under his hand becoming bumpy. When he glanced at his arm, he saw many small red dots had appeared in the blink of an eye, frightening him.

Qi Bai nodded. "So you must not scratch it."

Zhu Ya immediately nodded and dashed back to the grass shed. He needed to hide quickly to avoid the sun.

Qi Bai reminded the others, "Everyone, go put your leather garments back on. If the sun feels unbearable, stay under the grass shed and don’t come out."

Everyone nodded obediently, unconsciously touching their own necks. Looking at Zhu Ya’s neck and shoulders, they felt as if sparks were prickling their own skin. They certainly didn’t want to suffer the same injury.

It wasn’t really Zhu Ya’s carelessness to blame. Ultimately, the weather had changed too quickly. It had only been a few days into spring, yet the sun could already burn someone like this. One could only imagine how intense the sunlight was now.

Back in the grass shed, Qi Bai removed the kelp wrapped around Zhu Ya’s neck. Using a leather cloth dipped in freshwater, he gently pressed and cleaned the area, avoiding any vigorous rubbing.

At that moment, Shu You returned with two handfuls of grass. "Diao Lan and Shu Rong went deeper into the forest. They asked me to bring this grass back first."

Qi Bai took the grass leaves. They weren’t gel-like like aloe vera leaves but resembled purslane. They were among the thickest leaves available in the north.

After washing the wild grass thoroughly, Qi Bai crushed it with a stone and applied the paste to Zhu Ya’s inflamed back. He then placed a damp leather cloth over it and said, "Take the cloth off after a while, dip it in water again, and reapply."

That was the extent of the treatment. As for what kind of grass Shu You had brought back and whether it had any anti-inflammatory properties, no one knew.

But in the Beastmen Continent, these were the best conditions available.

After applying the damp leather cloth to Zhu Ya, Qi Bai left the rest to nature. It was about time to check if his channel was working.

Wave after wave crashed high onto the shore, scattering water droplets like shattered stars along the coast.

Ma Ling and Sun Qing stared in awe as seawater surged into the channel and flowed into the salt field through the sloped ditch. In no time, the salt field was half-filled with brine.

Qi Bai then used a stone shovel to seal both the inlet and outlet with mud.

The salt field was only about eighty percent full. At this level, it was even with the sea surface. Further filling would require manual effort, but Qi Bai had no such plans.

Clapping the dirt off his hands, Qi Bai let out a long sigh of relief. His task for this trip was complete. The next step was to wait until the tribe needed salt again and then return to check the results of the salt field.

Early the next morning, under the shimmering light reflected off the sea, the group dug a large pit outside the grass shed and buried the seven large pottery pots inside. As for the seven large stone pots, they didn’t require such care and were simply stacked in a corner of the shed.

The salt-filled leather bags were tightly tied with leather ropes and stacked layer upon layer on the cart with the openings facing upward. Around the outer edge were four large baskets filled with seafood. After loading all these, there wasn’t much space left on the cart.

Qi Bai reached out, lifted the small calf onto the cart, and tucked her among the salt bags. Then he transformed into his beast form and leaped lightly onto the cart.

The little calf let out a frustrated moo.

There was no helping it. Among the nine sub-beasts on this trip, their beast forms were agile ones like snow leopards, lynxes, wildcats, and squirrels. Hers was the only form that couldn’t jump. In her beast form, she needed help getting on and off the cart.

At that moment, a short-legged Corgi landed on the cart with a "thud."

See, Niu Xi thought, even Quan Nan, whose beast form was a dog, could manage to jump onto the cart with a little effort.

"Let’s go! Back to the tribe!" Xiang Yu reminded everyone to hold on tight as the two fully loaded carts began moving forward.

In just a few days, green grass had gradually spread across the land, with occasional wild rabbits and roe deer grazing by the roadside.

As the two carts rumbled past, the animals would startle and run away, only peeking out curiously after the carts had passed.

They tilted their heads in confusion. What kind of beast-kin were these? They had never seen them before.

Ma Ling and Xiang Yu were very familiar with the route to and from the seaside. The group didn’t need to stop to find their way, and the journey proceeded smoothly.

However, when they were only half a day away from the tribe, Xiang Yu, who was pulling the cart, suddenly slowed down and turned into the dense forest.

The little snow leopard lying on the salt bags twitched his ears, quickly raised his head alertly, and peered into the distance.

On the other side of the forest, a tremendous rumbling sound that shook the ground was approaching.

Just as everyone was preparing for the worst, the little snow leopard on the cart widened his round eyes and dashed out like lightning.

On the wide grassland, the little snow leopard奋力迈动四肢, racing toward the majestic独角白狼.

The white wolf’s aura of杀戮 vanished the moment the small figure appeared.

He ran toward the小雪豹, and as they met, he gently bit the back of the snow leopard’s neck and tossed him upward.

"Meow~"

The snow leopard was thrown into the air, limbs splayed, before landing in a mass of fluffy fur.

He struggled to free his head from the fur and saw that behind the white wolf, the hunting team appeared in a long line. Their carts were piled high with prey.