Chapter 152

Chapter 152

Just thinking about food made Qi Bai's stomach start growling.

Since there was only one stove in the kitchen, and the pottery pot was currently simmering pigskin, tonight's dinner had to be made using the oven.

Qi Bai mixed some sweet potato flour and spread it on a pottery plate, then sprinkled some smoked meat and radish roots on top of the sweet potato flour before placing it in the oven to bake.

Qi Bai had originally thought it would turn out well—wasn't this just a coarse grain version of a large pizza? However, this attempt failed. The cake on the baking tray dried out and cracked, crumbling easily when lightly broken, completely different from the soft, sticky cakes made by boiling.

This was despite Qi Bai watching carefully the whole time, cautiously smelling the aromas coming from the oven's front panel and quickly removing the pottery plate as soon as he detected any burnt smell. Otherwise, if baked a little longer, it might have turned into stone-like blocks.

But even failed dishes weren't wasted by Qi Bai.

Since he was home alone anyway, Qi Bai wasn't fussy. He picked out the smoked meat and dried radish from the baking tray, then threw all the remaining dried cake into hot water to soften before devouring two bowls of soaked cake.

Qi Bai wiped his mouth and let out a burp.

Sometimes you just have to accept circumstances. In modern times, although Qi Bai hadn't lived extravagantly, he'd always eaten good food.

But after experiencing days when even grass roots couldn't fill his stomach and a small piece of meat had to last a whole day, Qi Bai absolutely wouldn't waste any food—anything edible would go into his stomach.

Moreover, recalling days in the hospital when he was so hungry his stomach hurt but couldn't eat anything, he was very satisfied with his beastman's robust body.

Full and content, Qi Bai stretched his muscles and continued working.

The pigskin in the pottery pot had been simmering from morning until now, about six or seven hours. Qi Bai felt it was about time to check the effectiveness of this pigskin glue.

Qi Bai randomly took two pieces of wood from the firewood pile, scooped a small spoonful of slightly yellowish liquid from the pottery pot, applied it to the cross-sections of the wood, joined the two pieces together, then pressed them together somewhat nervously.

Qi Bai's heart was drumming too—would it work or not?

But in just this short while, Qi Bai felt increased resistance between the two wooden blocks in his hands.

He tried gently pulling the wood apart and found the pieces had already bonded together. Qi Bai's eyes widened—this worked incredibly fast!

"Awoo!"

Qi Bai hopped around the room holding the wood blocks. He'd actually succeeded! Not only that, but this pigskin glue was even more effective than the chemical glue he'd used before.

Qi Bai gently patted his cheeks with both hands. There was still so much glue liquid in the pot—he needed to process it quickly.

Placing a large wooden basin by the stove, he put a winnowing basket on top of it.

This winnowing basket was woven from the finest bamboo strips with very fine mesh, now perfect to use as a sieve.

Pouring the pigskin water from the pottery pot onto the winnowing basket, the unpulverized pigskin remained on top while the thick soup flowed through the gaps into the wooden bucket.

Although it took considerable time, looking at the full basin of glue liquid, Qi Bai felt only a deep sense of accomplishment.

Qi Bai collected the pigskin residue from the winnowing basket. The residue was still soft, and Qi Bai thought it might yield more glue if simmered again. He saved it to simmer later.

Qi Bai took out a small bamboo tube and filled it about halfway with pigskin glue.

Although there were at least ten pounds of pigskin glue in the wooden basin, Qi Bai didn't plan to give it all to Hou Su at once.

After all, Hou Su wasn't from the Black Mountain Tribe. He needed to leave him wanting more, so he'd stay here peacefully.

Wrapping the small bamboo tube in animal hide, Qi Bai put on his large cloak and slowly made his way through the heavy snow.

Smoke rose warmly from chimneys along the road, and occasional conversations from inside houses made Qi Bai feel like he was walking through a village far from the city.

He felt like a traveler who could return to his city home at any time.

But these fantasies were soon broken.

"Leopard Bai, why are you here at this time?" Ci Yi, holding firewood and just stepping out of his home, ran into Qi Bai.

Qi Bai smiled and said, "I came to bring you wood glue."

"This... so soon? You already have wood glue?" Ci Yi tucked the firewood under his arm and turned to open Hou Su's door. "Teacher, teacher, Leopard Bai is here with wood glue!"

Hou Su had just finished eating—stewed meat made by his student Ci Yi—and was sitting on the heated bed, picking his teeth with a bamboo stick.

Hearing Ci Yi's words, the bamboo stick slipped and stabbed into his gums, immediately bringing a sweet metallic taste to Hou Su's mouth.

By then, Qi Bai and Ci Yi had already entered the room. Hou Su didn't seem to feel any pain as he jumped off the bed and said, "Where is it?"

Qi Bai handed over the small bamboo tube he'd been keeping warm in his clothes.

Hou Su peered at it and frowned. "What is this?"

"This is wood glue. Just apply this glue directly where you want to connect, put the two pieces of wood together, and after a while they'll stick."

Hou Su said suspiciously, "Really?"

Qi Bai chuckled lightly. "Why don't you try it and see?"

"Right!" Hou Su immediately started moving, testing it according to Qi Bai's instructions.

Before long, sounds of Hou Su's amazed breathing filled the room. Looking at the glue liquid in the bamboo tube, he felt dizzy: "This... this glue, how much more do you have?"

This stuff wasn't snake saliva, but its effect was similar. More importantly, Hou Su had prepared himself to wait many days, never expecting the stuff to be delivered after just one day.

Qi Bai couldn't say "as much as you want": "Don't worry about how much I have. There's definitely enough for your use for now. But since I've solved your problem, the crossbow should yield results soon, right?"

"Yes, yes, yes!" Hou Su said, his hands trembling slightly. "Very soon!"

With this liquid, not only could he complete the current crossbow project, but many of his previous ideas about weapon construction could now be realized. How could this not excite Hou Su?

Almost as soon as he finished speaking, Hou Su turned back to tinker with his crossbow.

Qi Bai waved at Ci Yi, indicating he didn't need to mind him, and quietly left Hou Su's house.

Qi Bai thought that with Hou Su's problem solved, he just needed to wait for Hou Su to complete the crossbow.

However, early the next morning, Hou Su arrived at the kiln site making a tremendous commotion.

Several people making pottery blanks in the first room of the kiln site hurried out at the sound.

Niu Xu's hands were covered in mud: "What's wrong? What's wrong? Is someone injured?"

Niu Xu's partner Niu Shuo was a squad leader in the hunting team and happened to be patrolling the plains today. Hearing this noise, her first thought was that Niu Shuo and the others had encountered beasts from the Scarlet Mountains and someone had been injured.

Quan Nan comforted: "Don't imagine things. The plains are half a day's journey from the tribe. Even if something happened to them, news wouldn't have reached back yet."

Niu Xu choked up—she wasn't comforted at all, and Quan Nan's words actually made her more anxious.

Lu Guo shook her head and stopped Ci Yi who was following behind Hou Su: "What are you doing?"

Ci Yi's face was also full of anxiety. Seeing them, he quickly asked: "Where's Leopard Bai? Is he in the room?"

Quan Nan pointed to the room on the far right: "Leopard Bai is over there. Why are you looking for him?"

Hearing Quan Nan's words, Hou Su immediately started running. Ci Yi didn't have time to chat with them and quickly followed his teacher.

In the newly built forging room, the bellows by the furnace roared as Xiong Feng pulled them. Qi Bai and Shu Lin几人 stared intently at the iron blocks in the furnace.

"It's ruined! Leopard Bai! It's ruined!" Hou Su shouted as soon as he entered the room.

Qi Bai stepped back repeatedly. What was ruined? How was he ruined?

Then, Hou Su said as if gasping for breath: "The snake saliva! It's ruined!"

"Teacher, it's not snake saliva, it's wood glue. Wood glue." Ci Yi followed behind Hou Su, quickly correcting him.

Hou Su raised his voice: "Whatever it is! What should we do now!"

Qi Bai breathed a sigh of relief. Okay, as long as he wasn't ruined.

Qi Bai took the lump of pigskin glue Hou Su handed him, kneaded it in his palm. The pigskin glue was soft and elastic with excellent texture. He asked puzzled: "Isn't this fine?"

Hou Su glared: "How is it fine? The wood glue doesn't work on wood! It just burns and chars when heated! How can you say it's fine? It's clearly unusable!"

The two stared at each other, the atmosphere suddenly awkward.

Qi Bai cleared his throat lightly. Well, it seemed he'd forgotten to tell Hou Su and Ci Yi how to use this pigskin glue yesterday.

Like fish bladder glue, pigskin glue quickly solidifies at room temperature, especially in the cold temperatures of winter. The method for using it is simple—just add water and heat it into liquid form to use normally.

However, yesterday Qi Bai had brought liquid glue that could be used directly, and he hadn't spoken much with Hou Su, so he'd forgotten to mention this.

When Hou Su woke up this morning and saw the pigskin glue had become a lump, he'd secretly rejoiced.

He instinctively treated the pigskin glue as snake saliva—didn't snake saliva also become hard solid?

But when Hou Su used the method for snake saliva—heating the pigskin glue with fire—instead of becoming viscous, it simply charred. Only then did Hou Su panic.

Had he ruined the precious glue? This... he couldn't afford to compensate for it! Hence the earlier drama.

After getting Qi Bai's response, Hou Su felt somewhat reassured.

But hearing the suppressed laughter of Quan Nan and Shu Lin behind him, a trace of anger appeared on Hou Su's pale face: "Why didn't you explain clearly earlier? Making me and Ci Yi worry for nothing!"

"Yes, yes, yes," Qi Bai quickly said with an apologetic smile.

Hou Su snatched the pigskin glue back from Qi Bai's hands and ran back to the tribe even faster than he'd come.

After watching the drama, Quan Nan and the others weren't in a hurry to leave now: "Leopard Bai, are you starting to forge iron now?"

"Mhm." Qi Bai looked at Quan Nan and said, "Quan Nan, go see what Hu Qiao and Xi Zhou are doing. If they're free, have them come help us with the forging. With only Xiong Feng here as a horned beastman, I'm afraid we won't manage."

Quan Nan said somewhat awkwardly: "Does it have to be those two? There are so many horned beastmen in the tribe."

Qi Bai deliberately said seriously: "Of course. Those two were just smelting iron in the furnace room a couple days ago. How could others compare to them?"

"Then..." Quan Nan looked behind her, "then have Lu Guo go find them. I have things to do."

"Making pottery blanks is mine and Niu Xu's work, not like you're just here to play today," Lu Guo said with a smile. "Hurry up and go."