Divine Tang Era

"Wow"

In the darkness, several sounds of salamanders could be heard.

Under the mushroom-shaped lamp, a ghostly figure was revealed.

Like a cunning rabbit, it moved swiftly, using the towering mushroom as cover.

The dragon salamander's nest wasn't built beside the underground river, but rather beneath a towering giant mushroom in the very center of the cave. Around the mushroom grew plants with leaves resembling taro roots; each tuber was as tall as a person, and its thick, long stems and leaves were enormous.

The dragon salamander's nest is located under the giant taro. Each nest is composed of soft giant mushroom skin, plant leaves, and cotton-like fluff.

Inside the nest, some were piled high with dragon salamander eggs, some were nestled with baby dragon salamanders, and some were newly hatched dragon salamander chicks, looking at their new world with silly, bewildered expressions.

Xu Dan kept his eyes and ears open, constantly monitoring his surroundings. He quickly moved from behind the towering mushrooms and trees, gradually approaching the location of the dragon salamander's nest. Suddenly, he felt a chill beneath him. Looking down, he realized he was still naked.

Depend on.

If you go around naked for too long, you'll forget that you're a person who wears clothes. Civilization will regress by millions of years.

He turned and looked around, intending to find something to cover himself with. If he were in the stalactite cave where he was, he certainly wouldn't have anything to cover himself with. But here there were mushrooms and plants, so finding something to cover himself with was too easy.

After observing for a moment, his eyes lit up, and he quickly ran to the side.

Beneath a towering giant mushroom, several small dragon salamanders playfully nibbled at its skin.

The giant mushroom skin was incredibly tough; it didn't even break when the baby salamander tried to tear it apart.

The little dragon salamanders shook their heads and nibbled for a while before finally biting off a piece. Then they chased each other and ran off happily. After they left, Xu Dan immediately ran out of his hiding place, cut a large pile of giant mushroom skins, cut strips of mushroom skins to make ropes, tied them up, and quickly carried them back to the stalactite cave where he lived.

He's very strong now, so carrying this much stuff isn't a problem for him.

After bringing the mushroom belt back to the cave, while resting, Xu Dan felt that his previous idea was a bit wrong.

He shouldn't be thinking about killing the dragon salamander for meat; instead, he should first make himself a set of clothes. Besides, to eat meat, he needed firewood, so he had to chop down trees. Thinking it over and noting down what he needed to do, Xu Dan returned to the Mushroom Forest.

The forest not only contains mushrooms, but also some tall trees, which appear so small against the backdrop of the towering mushrooms.

These trees have been growing in the cave for an unknown period of time, their thick trunks covered with moss and ferns.

Some of them had withered and fallen to the ground; others still stood proudly upright.

Xu Dan found a large, withered tree lying on its side and cut it into sections with his sword, carrying them back to the cave. He chopped down five trees in a row, not only the trunks but also the branches and leaves, carrying them all back to the cave, and also cutting down some thick, tough vines.

After returning, she didn't rush to the Dragon Salamander Cave, but instead started making clothes.

He wasn't particularly bright, but having spent his childhood in the village watching adults make clothes, he seemed to have learned the skill of sewing without any formal instruction.

Making clothes and pants is very simple. It's nothing more than cutting two pieces of mushroom-shaped fabric the same size as the top and bottom, and then sewing them together with a needle and thread. That's all.

Fortunately, he hadn't thrown away the pile of used fragments of ebony and jade-like beast bones. Xu Dan rummaged through the pile of scraps, found some usable materials, shaved them into the shape of needles with his short sword, and then figured out how to drill holes. He had the needles, but where was the thread? In the pile of vines.

The roots and bark of the vine are very resilient.

Xu Dan peeled off the skin and tore off the toughest inner layer to sew clothes and pants.

After it was finished, I tried it on and found that the soft mushroom-skin felt even more comfortable than cashmere.

With a good start, he got busy. Before long, two sets of clothes and several pairs of underwear appeared on his stalactite bed. He needed underwear; otherwise, it would be chilly down there. Besides, since there were dragon salamanders, mushrooms, and trees in the Mushroom Forest, there should be other creatures present, such as ubiquitous insects.

He was afraid that bugs would crawl in, which would be a real disaster.

If he didn't wear it, the many remedies for snake and insect infestations found in ancient medical books would probably be helpful to him.

Besides clothes, pants, and underwear, he also made three pairs of shoes.

They were supposed to be shoes, but they didn't even have soles; they were just mushroom-shaped leather to cover the feet. Luckily, the mushroom leather was of good quality, otherwise it would have torn up after a few steps. He had originally planned to make a few pairs of socks, but his needlework skills were terrible. The socks he made ended up inside the shoes, and the loose threads rubbed his toes raw, so they were useless.

He brought back a lot of mushroom peels, and after finishing those, he also made two bed sheets.

If we can find such good mushroom skins when we go to the Mushroom Forest tomorrow, we can sew them together and make a quilt and mattress.

If not, you can fill it with plant leaves and the cotton-like material you saw in the dragon salamander's nest before, which is also a good option.

Xu Dan has been staying indoors all day to make clothes and hasn't gone anywhere.

He ate, worked, slept, and ate again. The natural earth milk stored in the water cave would soon become drinkable, so he planned to cut open the dome where the stalactite pillars were located to see if there was any more earth milk inside. If not, he would have to catch a dragon salamander to eat.

Beside the water cave, the simple platform that had been built with stone slabs was repeatedly raised by him and is now almost reaching the dome.

On one side of the platform, there are stone steps leading up to the top.

This wasn't there before; Xu Dan rebuilt it later. Otherwise, constantly jumping around while holding onto the stone wouldn't be a solution.

The platform wasn't high enough to cut through the dome. Xu Dan went to the side and cut some more stalactite slabs to raise the platform. He stopped when he was almost near the dome, took out his short sword, and started cutting at the base of the stalactite pillars from which the ground milk was flowing.

He dared not cut too big, fearing that the milk would gush out, so he only tried to cut a small hole.

Clearly, he was overthinking it.

There was no gushing flow of geyser milk inside the cave as he had imagined; not a single drop was present.

Not knowing what was happening, and feeling puzzled, Xu Dan gripped his short sword again and slashed at the dome. He slashed again, widening the hole to a size large enough for one person to pass through. Peeking inside, Xu Dan discovered there was indeed a hole in the dome.

The cave is not large, about the height of a person and about an acre in width.

Upon closer inspection, he discovered a small ditch carved out by flowing water over many years near the dome where the stalactites were located, with traces of the stalactites still visible in the ditch. From this, he deduced that the stalactites must have come from elsewhere, and that the source of the stalactites could be found by following this ditch.

So he walked along the ditch.

The ditch was straight, and soon it came to an end.

A massive stone wall blocked the path of the ditch. The stone's texture was very strange, resembling stalactites yet crystal clear. Some water droplets oozed from the wall, slowly sliding down to the ground. The wall's surface was covered with cracks, like dragon scales, and liquid flowed within it; upon closer inspection, it was a golden color.

Near the ditch, there is a tiny crack in the stone wall, almost invisible to the naked eye.

Strands of golden liquid seeped out, merging with the water droplets rising from the stalactite walls, fading into a milky white liquid that dripped into the depression below. There was a gap on the side, leading to a small ditch.

Xu Dan suddenly realized that this was how Earth Milk came about.