We made you the chief, and now you've become the world's chief?

Chapter 166 An Unexpected Gain in the Search for Gold

Are prophecies always true?
Even if it were absolutely accurate, Xia Minghao still couldn't be certain.

If the so-called Dragonborn prophecy is just a fabrication, it will be a major misleading experience.

The consequences of making decisions under such misguidance could be so severe that Xia Minghao might find it difficult to bear the consequences.

Therefore, Xia Minghao only used it as a "reference answer", which may not be accurate and is only for reference, but it can also be considered a line of thought.

As for what specific ideas will emerge, we'll have to wait until we actually make contact with the Fire Tribe to find out.

The first thing to do now is to find out exactly where the gold dust in this stream originates, to clarify the specific location, and to lay the foundation for the future promotion of the currency.

Once a certain material foundation has been achieved, these invisible hands will be summoned!
……

……

……

The next morning, before dawn, Xia Minghao was already up, naturally because of the gold mine.

When it comes to gold mines, it's not just because of their role in future economy and trade; to be honest, Xia Minghao also really wants them.

It's no wonder that the tribes I've seen often associated gold with gods; this thing has an inherent charm.

Since the mission is to search for gold, there's no need to bring too many people. We'll only bring a few of the more clever members of the deer rider team, as a way to test their deer riding skills.

There were ten people in total, all carrying standard wooden spears, which were also their training equipment.

Xia Minghao would only distribute the bronze weapons used in actual combat when it was time for battle.

With a sharp weapon in the body, the murderous heart starts from the beginning.

Although Xia Minghao was confident that these people wouldn't dare to or wouldn't harbor any murderous intentions towards him, the situation inside the group was less certain.

If a conflict or dispute arises and someone actually dies, it will be a huge loss.

"Chief, should we continue searching for a way today?"

Then, a voice rang out; it belonged to the most clever of the deer riders from the Great Lakes tribe.

But this person's name was unusually difficult to pronounce, so Xia Minghao simply called him Hua Lian (Flower Face) because his face was indeed covered in flowers, but they were not birthmarks; they were burn marks.

I heard that when he was little, his mother didn't take good care of him, and as a result, he fell headfirst into a fire.

To be alive after being burned like that is incredibly lucky.

I don't know if it's because he suffered this kind of hardship when he was a child, but he developed an extremely fierce personality. I heard that he once fought a gorilla one-on-one with his bare hands.

Later, other people arrived, otherwise the gorilla would have already twisted his painted face off.

"Today we're going to walk, but not look for the way; we're going to look for something else."

Riding a deer and setting off early, they were naturally much faster than the others who came to work on cement and concrete.

Hearing the sound of deer hooves, the little fox that had been "borrowing" a shed in the cement factory quickly ran away, leaving only silence behind.

Instead of rushing to the stream, Xia Minghao walked to the cement road and dismounted to feel the hardness of the cement.

First he stomped on it, then he stomped on it a few more times, and finally he took out the survival knife he was carrying and stabbed it hard at the edge of the cement road where it wouldn't get in the way.

The blade did not pierce the hardened cement, but only left a shallow mark.

This situation seems to be almost complete. The hardening process is from the outside in, which is why it has taken so long. For the time being, the surface has been sufficiently hardened, and there is no problem with the deer cart being able to move around.

Once we find the gold mine and return, we can tell Datan that the road is now passable, which will further improve efficiency.

We now have enough raw materials for concrete, and it is estimated that we can start pouring the wall tomorrow.

"All of you grab your shovels and come with me."

Xia Minghao spoke to the group, and then they took away all the few bronze shovels hanging in the shed.

We rode the great stag and headed towards the stream.

Following the stream upstream, it only takes a few tens of minutes to reach the end.

Unexpectedly, the source of this stream was actually a small lake, similar in size to the one in the Insect Valley.

The stream is estimated to be about three or four kilometers long. It begins to resemble a river at its source, but it is far less wide than the river outside Yanquan Mountain. It should be said to fall into the ambiguous zone between stream and river.

However, due to the drop in elevation, the water flow is quite rapid not far from the source.

Is this where the gold mine is? Could the gold mine be in this small lake?

If that's the case, then it'll be a bit tricky. This is clearly a small lake formed by groundwater. As we dig deeper and deeper, the water will gradually replenish it.

Gold mines can't be on the surface. If they exist in a lake, they must be deep underground. Does that mean we have to dig underwater to work on them?
If that's really the case, there's nothing that can be done. Metal is a rare resource, and finding even one is already considered lucky, so naturally, it's impossible to give up easily.

“Go and see if there are any beautiful stones, similar to bronze, but brighter!”

Even placer gold, which has not been smelted, is more beautiful than bronze; its natural metallic luster can even be described as penetrating.

Only when refined brass is placed together with gold can the effect be so convincing as to be indistinguishable from the real thing.

The group, each carrying a bronze shovel and a wooden spear, scattered in all directions.

Xia Minghao also began to observe the specific situation around the small lake, find the place where the water flowed out, find the lake mouth by going up, and then dug down with a shovel.

But when he felt the shovel digging down, Xia Minghao's heart skipped a beat.

Something is wrong!
After digging it out, Xia Minghao frowned immediately upon seeing what was in the shovel.

But what they found in the shovel was a thick layer of silt.

Silt is a good thing, second only to bird droppings, and can be used as a natural fertilizer for agricultural cultivation.

But now we need to find the source of the gold, and if the source is all mud, that's not a good thing.

At the end of the stream, they found placer gold. Logically, the gold mine at the source should also be a placer gold mine, but it was just silt.

It's impossible for placer gold to be washed out of silt. Placer gold is heavy and will be buried in the silt, making it impossible for it to be washed away.

There could absolutely be no placer gold mines here, so where did the placer gold at the end of the stream come from?

He thought finding the source would be easy, but he didn't expect that he couldn't even find the right source. For a moment, Xia Minghao was a little confused.

Where does alluvial gold actually come from?
"Chief!"

Just then, Xia Minghao suddenly heard a shout.

It's the voice of a painted-face actor.

Could it be that the painted face has been found?
Turning his head to look, he saw that the painted face was eight feet away from the water source.

"what happened?"

Although he knew it probably wasn't a gold mine, Xia Minghao still patiently walked over to see what Hua Lian had discovered that made him so excited.

"Chief, look what this is! I've never seen anything like it before."

Upon reaching them, the man with the painted face pointed to a patch of grass and asked a question.

Xia Minghao looked closely and first saw a small tail that looked like a cotton ball.

Only when I crouched down to look did I catch a glimpse of the tail's owner.

A rabbit!
rabbit!

Without saying a word, Xia Minghao pounced over and hugged the rabbit to his chest.

Good heavens, we didn't find a gold mine, but we actually found this stuff.

But after he got it into his arms, Xia Minghao lifted it up and realized that his action had been unnecessary.

This rabbit is really bold; even after being caught, it still kept chewing on grass roots.

Are wild rabbits really that unwary?

I picked up the rabbit and examined it closely. The rabbit did match my impression of it; it was quite round, with short, thick ears.

But it was precisely this perfect match that aroused Xia Minghao's doubts.

My impression came from a pet store, but wild rabbits shouldn't look like that.

"Go find the other rabbits and catch them all. Tell everyone else not to look for the ones I just mentioned, but to go find rabbits instead."

"Bald!"

Hua Lian didn't understand the pronunciation of "rabbit" and pronounced it awkwardly, but Xia Minghao didn't correct him much. Instead, he looked at the rabbit in his hand again.

Just then, the rabbit finished chewing on the grass roots and seemed to realize it had been caught, its little legs starting to thrash about. Xia Minghao, meanwhile, was recalling the science videos he had watched while slacking off earlier.

It seems that domestic rabbits and wild rabbits are quite different, even not the same species. Just like pheasants and chickens.

Could it be that I'm so lucky again, having encountered the ancestor of the domestic rabbit?

If that's really the case, then it would be a rare and joyous occasion.

The rabbit infestation that initially occurred in Australia was caused by domestic rabbits, not wild rabbits.

When it comes to breeding, domestic rabbits are the most suitable, as their reproductive capacity is far superior to that of wild rabbits.

They gained a strong reproductive capacity, but lost sufficient ability to survive in the wild.

If humans hadn't developed rabbit farming by then, domestic rabbits might never have existed in the world again, and delicacies like spicy rabbit heads would have been even more expensive.

Faced with such a good thing, Xia Minghao fell into thought for a moment.

How could I be so lucky? The chickens I encountered weren't wild chickens, but domestic chickens that could be tamed, and now I've even run into a wild rabbit.

It seems that these species in this other world were all created specifically for humans...

"Chief, the bald man is gone, we can't find him..."

"Can't find it?"

After watching the silly rabbit for a while, Xia Minghao heard Hua Lian come over and ask a question.

Looking into the distance, I saw the others still searching everywhere, but without success.

The area is fertile with water and grass, so even if domestic rabbits aren't rampant, they shouldn't be rare.

If this happens, there is only one possibility: the rabbits here have a large number of natural predators.

In addition, this rabbit is silly and doesn't know how to hide, which is why it has directly made itself an endangered species.

Regardless of whether it's endangered or not, we still need to get at least one.

Otherwise, there's no way to take the one we have back for breeding.

"Keep searching, there will always be something. See if there's anything there, maybe in the cave."

Xia Minghao addressed the group and began his own search.

Domestic rabbits can easily produce three or four litters a year, and with proper breeding, they can even produce seven or eight litters. Each litter can have as few as three to five offspring, or even more than ten.

This would be an enormous source of protein, and Xia Minghao certainly wouldn't let it pass him by.

I made up my mind that I had to find at least one more person of the opposite sex no matter what, but I never expected that this search would take up an entire morning.

Xia Minghao was exhausted from searching.

Holy crap, it can't be that I really only had one left and I found it!
Looking at the listless rabbit in his hand, Xia Minghao felt helpless.

There is another way now, which is to release the rabbit and see if we can find the rabbit hole.

Maybe other rabbits are staying in the burrow, and you might even find a litter of baby rabbits.

Of course, this also carries certain risks. Just like investing, if you put your money down and can't catch up, you'll lose the rabbit.

But if you can't find any other rabbits, having just one is meaningless; at most, it's just a treat.

"Painted Face, get everyone else over here. I'll release the rabbit in a bit, then you all keep a close eye on it and don't lose it."

"Yes, Chief!"

Upon hearing Xia Minghao's order, Hua Lian immediately summoned all the people who were still searching for the rabbit hole.

The group of people were so engrossed in searching for the rabbit hole that they could barely stand as they walked towards them.

"With this rabbit, the Xia tribe will never lack meat. Your mothers, fathers, brothers, and sisters will all be able to eat meat when they join the Xia tribe."

"Do you want your families to be able to eat meat?"

"miss you!"

The reaction to his words was even stronger than Xia Minghao had imagined.

Suddenly it dawned on me: no wonder in modern society, bosses preferred employees with families; they were definitely more motivated!
Upon hearing the chief's words, everyone focused their attention on the rabbit.

The rabbit probably finally realized its situation; as soon as it was placed in the grass, it immediately took off running.

Fortunately, he jumped high enough that he wasn't completely hidden in the grass, allowing everyone to see him clearly.

The rabbit ran ahead, and the crowd chased after it. Remembering the chief's words, everyone was almost completely focused.

Xia Minghao watched the rabbit's movements. At first, it was completely chaotic, but after running for a while, it became clear that it was heading downhill.

After jumping around for a while, Hua Lian suddenly grabbed the rabbit and then waved and shouted at Xia Minghao.

"Chief! Chief! There's a hole here, that's how we prevented the bald man from falling in."

They found the hole!

Xia Minghao strode forward and looked at the cave entrance. If it weren't for the rabbit leading the way, it would have been really hard to find.

The nearby grass was quite dense, providing excellent concealment.

No wonder they say rabbits don't eat the grass near their burrows; it's because they want to hide their burrows.

He first peered inside for a while, then took the rabbit from the painted-face man's hand and gave an order.

"dig!"

The painted-face men received the order and immediately brought shovels to widen the hole.

The hole was dug bigger and bigger until it finally became a large pit, but no other rabbits were seen inside, only the clear tunnel.

A cunning rabbit has three burrows?

Xia Minghao looked at the rabbit in his hand and thought about the silly rabbit's reaction when it was first caught.

This can be called a cunning rabbit?
Since he had gained nothing, Xia Minghao could only hope that it was indeed the case that a cunning rabbit had three burrows, just as he had imagined.

"Chief, there's nothing in here."

"I know, fill the hole."

The others looked visibly disappointed, as if they thought their families wouldn't be able to eat meat.

After filling the hole, Xia Minghao encouraged everyone again, and then, in the same manner, released the rabbit from his grasp once more.

This time, the rabbit had also been trained and no longer ran around randomly, but instead went straight in another direction.

This time, it didn't run far before Hua Lian, quick as ever, caught the rabbit.

Before Xia Minghao could even give the order, everyone had already started digging.

As expected of a tribe that has experienced wits and courage against gorillas, their comprehension is much better; they started digging without even being told what to do.

As they walked toward the crowd, before they even reached their destination, they suddenly saw the painted-face man turn around in surprise, and the others also showed the same joy on their faces.

"Chief! There are so many bald men here!"

found it!
I walked over quickly and sure enough, I saw that there was not just one rabbit in the hole, but a total of seven or eight little rabbits.

The baby rabbits in this litter haven't opened their eyes yet; they seem to have just been born.

When they were brought back to the light of day, they began to flutter about, seemingly very uncomfortable.

Great! There are even baby rabbits available. The Xia tribe's animal husbandry industry will have to start with them.

"Chief, this is a stone that looks like bronze!"

Suddenly, the painted-face character's voice rang out again.

Xia Minghao's attention remained focused on the rabbits, a smile on his face, as he began to think about the 108 ways to eat them.

Upon hearing Hua Lian's voice, he initially nodded intentionally or unintentionally, but after thinking about it, a look of surprise appeared on his face.

What did the painted-face guy just say?
Are there stones that are similar to bronze?

Could it be placer gold?
Where? Where is it?

"Here, Chief, is this it?"

Xia Minghao quickly looked in the direction the painted-face man was pointing, and sure enough, next to the dug-out rabbit burrow, he saw a small grain of fine golden sand, buried in the soil and not very noticeable.

Is it really placer gold? But how did it end up here?
This place is quite far from the stream!
(End of this chapter)