Chapter 29 The iron pot is first formed
In the end, the demands would inevitably fall on the Hanshan tribe. Ling Chengen, unusually balding, tapped his chin with his finger, his brows furrowed, and he let out a soft sigh.

Chongzhen looked at her worried face with amusement: "You're not afraid to see Bai Qingyu, are you?"

Ling Chengen: "What do I have to be embarrassed about? I'm just afraid I won't even be able to get through the gates of the Hanshan tribe."

The original owner's battle record is verifiable; she's probably already on the Cold Mountain Tribe's blacklist. Getting in isn't that easy. Even if she says it's about discussing cooperation, the other party might not believe her.

"Then why don't you take Yu Shaochen with you? Maybe that will make things easier?" Chongzhen didn't mention her desire to watch the excitement at all, appearing to be wholeheartedly thinking of her best interests.

Ling Chengen didn't respond to his words, but said, "When it comes to discussing cooperation, we need to show some sincerity. It's hard to convince the people of the Hanshan tribe with just empty words."

It's very likely that the cooperation won't be reached.

Looking at the few potatoes left in the basket, Ling Chengen decided to take all of them with him when he went to the Hanshan tribe.

Having made her decision, she stopped worrying about whether the cooperation could be finalized, knowing that there would always be other ways to resolve the situation.

Half an hour later, Ling Xiao and Ling Xiaoxi came out of the cave one after another. Yu Shaochen squatted by the stream and washed all the animal hides he had taken off, then hung them on a tree branch to dry.

But he was still not quite satisfied, because he felt there was something off about it.

"I washed it so many times, but I still feel like it's not clean enough." Yu Shaochen sat on the ground in distress, smelling the scent between his fingers... it was too strong.

Seeing his gloomy expression, Ling Chengen thought for a moment and said, "I'll tell you a method in a bit. Try it and you'll find that the resulting product has a stronger cleaning ability."

Yu Shaochen asked curiously, "What method?"

Ling Chengen recalled for a moment and quickly gave a general idea of ​​the procedure: "Take the wood ash we burn, add water and boil it, then let it stand for a while, and take out the clearer liquid from the top."

"Last night I rendered a lot of white lard, didn't I? I'll melt some in a pot, then add the extracted liquid and stir. Once it thickens, I'll pour it into a mold to cool and set. It'll be ready to use once it's dry."

In the post-apocalyptic world, many resources are scarce. This rather crude method of soap making actually existed in early books and was even described in many novels, so soap making is not difficult.

Most people don't have the time to make these little gadgets; they prefer to exchange them for other items, since they can easily get a lot of soap with just a little bit of supplies.

"It might not work the first time, but you can try a few more times. Anyway, there's been a lot of prey lately, so there's no shortage of fat. We also have animal pancreas with wood ash or soapberry powder, which can basically make it."

Yu Shaochen listened with great interest and immediately wanted to try it.

However, there are no extra stone pots available for him to try at the moment.

Chongzhen stared intently at Ling Chengen, who was speaking eloquently, unable to tear her gaze away from her.

He always felt that Ling Chengen was a bit strange, because she seemed to know a lot of things that others didn't know, but she probably hadn't even done it herself before, yet she could talk about it so eloquently.

He considered many reasons, but none could explain this phenomenon.

It was obvious that she herself was aware of this abnormality, but she never intended to explain it.

Breakfast was still roast meat with mashed potatoes, and egg drop soup made by Chongzhen, with only some greens and a little salt added to the soup.

Ling Chengen looked at the salt jar and saw that a lot of salt had been lost, feeling that the search for the salt lake was urgent.

After lunch, she packed the lunch she had prepared for Ling Xiao and then followed him to the meeting point in the tribe.

The tribe's metal-type superpowered warriors were very cooperative, bringing out all their collected metals so that Ling Chengen could simply choose what he wanted.

Lei Sang, in particular, took Ling Chengen directly to his own cave to select items. He and his mother were both metal-type mutant beastmen, so their home was stockpiled with all sorts of metals.

Seeing his enthusiasm, Ling Chengen remembered what Wu Zhuo had told her before leaving last night: Lei Sang wanted to trade his prey for some roasted meat so that his young and females could have a taste.

However, Ling Chengen declined last night, as she genuinely didn't have time recently.

Once this door is opened for Leisang, other orcs in the tribe will definitely want it too.

The problem with this kind of thing is not scarcity, but inequality.

So she plans to wait until she finds the salt lake and collects a large amount of salt, then teach the orcs in the tribe all about how to use seasonings and salt, as well as how to make roasted meat.

Ling Chengen followed Lei Sang to a huge tree. He looked up at the tree, which was over 20 meters tall and covered an area of ​​several hundred square meters. The branches and leaves on the tree crown were layered and very dense.

Many small birds were perched on the branches, and judging from their aura, they were ordinary birds, not beastmen.

Leisang pointed to the area above, hidden by leaves, and proudly introduced, "That's my tree nest up there. Would the young clan leader like to go up and take a look?"

Ling Chengen wanted to refuse, but Lei Sang enthusiastically pulled her arm, afraid that she wouldn't go: "Come on, come on, my cubs really like the young clan leader, but they can't fly yet, so they can only stay in the tree nest most of the time."

As he spoke, he transformed into his beast form and grabbed Ling Chengen, flying him up into a tree.

Ling Chengen: "..."

Can't you have a little sense of boundaries?!

After being lifted onto the tree branch, Ling Chengen numbly stepped onto the thick trunk and jumped into the large tree nest.

Lei Sang is a Silver Horned Night Owl. His tree nest, though called a nest, is actually a huge house built between a few tree branches.

The house was mainly constructed using materials such as mud, vines, spider silk, and branches, and consisted of four round, bulging little nests.

The entrance to each small nest is not high, about 1.5 meters, and you have to bend over to go in, but the inside is quite large and very clean and tidy.

As soon as Ling Chengen stepped into the small nest, a silver-horned night owl, which looked like a chick, hopped out and bumped into her ankle.

Then, she looked down at the little cub whose chubby body couldn't stay steady. Like a little ball, it was about to roll out of the tree nest and fall off the branch in the blink of an eye.

She quickly bent down and scooped the little one back up.

The dizzy little owl squatted in her palm, its head tilted blankly. Its round face and pair of yellow and black eyes curiously looked at the guest who had scooped it up.

"Cuckoo?"

Ling Chengen looked at the owl cub that she could easily devour with her hands clasped together and couldn't help but curl the corners of his mouth: "Hello, little cub."

"Goo-"

The little one jumped once in her palm, but because it was too chubby, it couldn't jump very high and fell heavily into her hand.

It's obvious that she's been well taken care of.

Lei Sang, wearing a fur skirt, jumped down from above, peered at the little cub crouching in Ling Chengen's arms, and said with a smile, "I told you, our little one really likes the young clan leader."

Ling Chengen returned the baby night owl to Lei Sang, reminding him, "It almost fell just now. You still need to be careful when raising kittens."

Lei Sang nodded quickly, put the cub back into its little nest, and blocked the barrier below the entrance to prevent the cub from falling off the branch. "The metal is all in the largest tree nest on the left. Young clan leader, you can go and see for yourself. If you like it, you can take it with you."

Leisang peered to the right and called out "Mother!" A female orc who looked to be in her forties came out of the nest.

“Mother, the young clan leader needs to find a type of metal. I’ll take her to the storage room to take a look. If she finds one that you like, I’ll dig some more for you next time.”

The woman with two small silver horns on her forehead waved her hand dismissively, saying, "Pick whatever you like, pick as many as you like. You won't use them normally, and they'll just pile up again in a while. If you can't fit them all in, you'll just throw them out."

Ling Chengen: "..."

Although I don’t understand it, I respect it.

Lei Sang scratched the back of his head, chuckled, and pointed to the nest where the metal was stored, saying, "Young Chieftain, hurry up and go. Before the hunting party sets off, I can tell you where those things came from."

Ling Chengen walked into the tree nest and found that this tree nest had a small window, while the tree nest where the cubs were raised had no windows at all.

Despite being an orc, Silverhorn Night Owl clearly prefers dark environments.

Ling Chengen squatted inside the tree nest, examining the metal pieces on the ground one by one.

But still afraid of making a mistake, I used an energy point to activate the recognition function.

The Lei family collected these metals, mainly copper, iron, tin, and zinc, with some gold, silver, and aluminum, but in small quantities. In addition, they also collected tungsten, chromium, and manganese...

It must be said that his family's collection of metals is quite comprehensive.

At least she had the iron she wanted, and a good amount at that, more than enough to make two large iron pots.

Ling Chengen selected the iron and then picked out the copper.

Do you know where these two metal ores were found?

Ling Chengen walked out of the tree nest with several large pieces of metal and asked Lei Sang, who was squatting on the tree trunk.

Lei Sang stared at the dark, unremarkable metal for a long while before reaching out his hand and saying, "Looking at it like this, I can't really tell. Give it to me, and I'll use my special ability to sense it."

Iron is easily oxidized, so the initial appearance of the extracted iron will definitely be different.

Seeing him use his supernatural ability to sense things, Ling Chengen asked curiously, "How do you distinguish the differences between each type of metal using your supernatural ability?"

Lei Sang sat on the tree branch, looked up and thought for a long time, finally giving an answer with a troubled expression: "Feeling?"

"How easy or difficult is it to control each type of metal with your superpower?" Ling Chengen tried to guide him.

Lei Sang shook his head and said, "Not necessarily."

"Well, let's take this black ore in my left hand as an example. If it's iron, as you mentioned, Young Chieftain, and this brown metal in my right hand is copper, then the iron is easier to control."

"I want to deform this piece of iron. It will definitely take less time and require less special ability. But the one on the right is a bit harder to control."

Ling Chengen watched thoughtfully as the metal in his hand slowly faded, and couldn't help but raise an eyebrow.

Could it be due to the inertness of the metal?
The iron in Lei Sang's left hand quickly turned silvery-white, while the copper in his right palm slowly turned purplish-red.

She paused for a moment. Pure iron and pure copper?
"Come with me." Ling Chengen took the two metal objects from his hand and jumped down from the tree branch, which was more than ten meters high.

Lei Sang leaped down from the tree and chased after Ling Chengen.

At the meeting point, many orcs squatted or stood, curiously gazing into the distance. Some, growing impatient, asked Ling Xiao, who remained seated, "Chieftain, what is the young chieftain planning? How much longer do we have to wait?"

Ling Xiao raised his imposing tiger eyes, looked at the other party calmly, and said in a deep voice, "Can't you wait even a little while?"

"No, how could that be?" The orc who asked the question immediately waved his hand and said with a smile, "We're just curious. Why did the young chieftain suddenly want to find metal? Didn't you say she's not a metal-type orc? What use does she have for metal?"

Ling Xiao patted the bamboo tube and backpack on his body, raised his eyebrows and asked, "Was the meat I shared with you at noon yesterday delicious?"

"It's delicious!" the other orcs immediately chimed in. "Is it served at noon today?"

"There's nothing for lunch today. This is what my wife Enen prepared for me. If you want to eat it, just have your family prepare it. It's just a matter of grilling it over a fire; it's very simple."

Ling Xiao suppressed his urge to show off, waved his hand, and indicated that it was not difficult.

But how difficult is it in practice? Does he, a fire-type superpowered warrior, not understand?

"Oh, Chieftain, don't try to fool us. We tried it last night, and it was terrible. It wasn't nearly as good as the ones you shared."

"Yeah, I roasted it until it was all black last night, and my female gave me a beating, saying I was wasting the prey and that I should have eaten it raw."

Ling Xiao pondered his eldest daughter's thoughts, and looking at the tribal warriors who were discussing among themselves, he suddenly remembered the salt lake that Enen wanted to find.

In the past two days, although he still couldn't grill meat as well as Enen, he had figured out that the key to grilling meat was the heat and the seasoning.

Salt is the most important ingredient in this seasoning.

He pondered for a moment and said, "I think that besides paying attention to the fire, the only thing Enen Barbecue needs is salt for seasoning."

"Salt? Is it rock salt? Rock salt is such a big piece, how do you use it for seasoning?"

"That's right, you can't just crush the salt and sprinkle it on the meat, can you? You can only lick the salt, you can't eat it directly."

“Enen extracted some pale yellow salt, but she said this kind of salt shouldn’t be eaten in large quantities. Once she finds the salt lake, she’ll be able to make cleaner salt to eat, and then she’ll teach everyone how to grill meat,” Ling Xiao said casually.

"Hey, what's the point of the young clan leader searching alone? It's dangerous for her to run off by herself. We can help look for her while we're out hunting, right? Many hands make light work, and we can find her faster."

"Yes, yes! Chieftain, just ask the young chieftain what kind of salt lake he's looking for. We can take a look around while we're out hunting."

Ling Xiao looked at Ling Chengen running over from a distance and said with a smile, "Why don't you ask Enen?"

On his way there, Ling Chengen overheard what they were discussing. Without saying a word, he explained the characteristics of the salt lake and then took Lei Sang home.

She described the general shape of the iron pot to Lei Sang, but Lei Sang didn't quite understand, so she could only make a rough model of the iron pot out of clay and have him make it according to the model.

The first batch of finished products had very obvious flaws.

However, Lei Sang was a very patient orc. When Ling Chengen said that the first version was not good because the thickness of the iron pot was uneven, he was even more meticulous when he controlled the deformation of the iron pot the second time.

The finished product this time is even more perfect.

I personally prefer chapters of 4k+ words, which roughly corresponds to a relatively complete plot point, so I'll probably be updating daily with four chapters per day from now on.

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(End of this chapter)

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