Divine Tang Era

"Huh?"

Just as he was about to leave, Xu Dan realized he had grown taller.

He never cared about his height. He was just a little kid; what difference would it make if he grew taller? Besides, he had no reference points and didn't even know how tall he was. But ever since he dug the stone house, with its stone door, stone bed, and stone chairs as reference points, he began to know whether he had grown taller or not.

Xu Dan pulled his foot back, leaned against the door and gestured to himself. He had indeed grown taller, but not by much.

Standing by the door, he carved a mark on it with his short sword, turned around and gestured, feeling that he was about half a meter tall.

He didn't know the exact number, but it hovered around half a meter, not exceeding one meter. Because one meter was quite high, he knew.

After several days of hard work chopping firewood, Xu Dan plans to go to the Dragon Salamander Cave today to catch some dragon salamanders to roast. It's a pity there's no salt in the cave, otherwise he could steal some dragon salamander eggs to pickle. He just doesn't know if the soft eggs laid by dragon salamanders are edible after pickling.

Having traveled back and forth for a while, I've become very familiar with the path to Longni Cave.

Xu Dan went to the stalactite wall, moved the stone blocking the cave entrance, went inside, and moved the stone back to block it, so that nothing could get through.

Upon entering the Dragon Salamander Cave, he hid behind towering giant mushrooms, moving swiftly to avoid being discovered by the group of dragon salamanders. Approaching their nest, he peeked inside; the large dragon salamander wasn't there today, presumably out again. He'd been calculating for the past few days, and it seemed his prediction had come true.

Inside the dragon salamander nests, some were piled high with dragon salamander eggs, some were nestled with baby dragon salamanders, and some were newly born dragon salamander cubs unaware of the dangers of the human world.

Some of the baby salamanders, not wanting to be left out, ran around and played near the salamander's nest.

Xu Dan felt that his actions in the Dragon Salamander Cave were too blatant, so he came up with a plan. He cut down a dead mushroom, hollowed it out, dug a hole on each side for emergency use, and dug two more holes in front for looking around. He then climbed through the hole and walked around the cave openly.

Of course, he didn't dare to be too arrogant and always avoided the little dragon salamander.

Otherwise, when you see the little guys coming, just squat down on the spot and transform into a mushroom spirit, so that the little dragon salamanders won't notice anything amiss.

Along the way, the little dragon didn't notice anything amiss.

When Xu Dan came before, he was busy cutting down trees and harvesting mushroom skins, and hadn't had a chance to fully explore the cave filled with towering giant mushrooms. Now, with such perfect camouflage, he started wandering around the cave. He had previously been looking for some cotton-like fluffy things he had seen in the Dragon Salamander's Nest, and he found them on one side of the cave, but unfortunately, it wasn't the season for them, and only a few remained.

Xu Dan didn't mind and took it off, hiding it in his clothes.

Suddenly I remembered that I seemed to have forgotten to make a bag to hold things, so I'll cut some mushroom peels later to make one.

He didn't dare to cut mushroom skins carelessly, lest he encounter poisonous mushrooms; he only dared to touch them when he saw signs of dragon salamander bites.

After circling around and returning to the vicinity of the Dragon Salamander's Nest, Xu Dan suddenly noticed some small Dragon Salamanders running forward at high speed. Not knowing what was happening, he followed them. A few slower small Dragon Salamanders passed by him, and seeing such a large walking mushroom spirit, they couldn't help but take a few curious glances, some even wanting to go up and take a bite.

Fortunately, his friends called out to him, allowing Xu Dan to escape unscathed.

It seems that the mushroom spirit's body isn't so safe after all.

Xu Dan followed the little dragon salamander slowly, and after a while, they came to a stone wall.

A group of small dragon salamanders stood at the foot of the cliff, looking up. The largest and strongest were at the front, decreasing in size towards the back, each gazing up at the rock face. On the cliff, grew an old tree. Its trunk was not tall, but its roots were ancient, resembling the roots of an old banyan tree in an old city of Fujian province.

The old tree's leaves are emerald green, like jade, and together with its aged and mottled roots, they are embedded in the stone wall, resembling a natural beauty.

At the base of the tree is a trunk about the size of two arm spans, which branches into four or five thick branches. From each branch, twigs grow out on both sides, and at the end of each twig hangs a round fruit.

The fruit is about the size of a macadamia nut, with a greenish-blue exterior and a slight sheen.

Suddenly, a fruit fell from the tree, and the little dragon salamanders, who had been waiting for a long time, jumped up and scrambled for it. One of the larger and stronger little dragon salamanders won first, biting the fruit and swallowing it in one gulp.

Those who didn't get to eat the calamari didn't cause a ruckus; they still lined up obediently and waited.

The baby salamander that ate the fruit left its previous position and went back to its nest to sleep.

As Xu Dan turned around, he noticed that the little dragon salamander's eyes seemed to have gained sentience. It seemed the fruit was extraordinary, capable of awakening the dragon salamander's intelligence. Another fruit fell, and the little dragon salamanders below leaped up to scramble for it, creating a chaotic scene.

Xu Dan seized the opportunity to slip into the group of baby salamanders and stood there upright.

The little dragon salamander was dumbfounded when it saw a mushroom spirit running over, but it was too busy watching the fruit to pay attention to it for the time being, which saved it from trouble.

Just then, another fruit fell.

Xu Dan leaped up, grabbed the fruit, and ran away.

The little dragon salamander was stunned to see the mushroom spirit suddenly grow arms. It wanted to chase after it, but couldn't bear to leave the fruit on the tree. Watching Xu Dan leave while simultaneously looking at the fruit tree, it was torn with conflicting emotions. The next moment, the falling fruit from the tree made them forget everything, and they began scrambling for the fruit again.

Xu Dan ran outside as fast as he could, afraid of being entangled by the little dragon salamander.

He was overthinking it; the little dragon salamander didn't chase after him at all. After running for a while, he turned around and saw that the little dragon salamander wasn't following, so he stopped.

Although the fruit was delicious, he didn't eat it. He planned to save it and find someone to check what it was after leaving the cave, so as not to kill someone by eating it.

Having explored most of the Mushroom Forest, Xu Dan was familiar with the locations of everything. So, he decided to head back, collecting leaves and mushroom peels along the way, and incidentally knocking out a small dragon salamander to drag back.

Back in the stone house, he first cut a piece of stalactite to make a stone box, and put the fruit inside to preserve it.

Then he spread the collected leaves on the bed, covered it with a sheet, and a soft mattress was made. A few cotton-like clumps were stuffed into the leaves to make a pillow. As for the mushroom skins, he sewed them into the sheet to make a quilt. Finally, he no longer had to lie on the cold stalactite bed.

Having done all that, he began to deal with the dragon salamander.

The underground river connects to the Mushroom Forest. Fearing that killing the small dragonfish by the river would be discovered by the larger dragonfish, Xu took the small dragonfish to a distance to kill it, burying its internal organs and debris in sand. After processing the small dragonfish, he placed it on the stone stove he had prepared, only to find that the stove was too small.

Fortunately, there were many stalactites and stalagmites in the cave. We found a stalactite that was taller than a person and hollowed it out, making a small hole on each side and top.

Below, a place to store ash was dug, and a simple smoked meat stove was ready.

He found a tree branch, threaded the tail of the small dragon salamander through it, and hung it upside down over the small holes on both sides. Then he placed firewood around the inside of the smokehouse and made a stone basin in the middle to hold the dragon salamander meat oil.

Time passed little by little, and the baby salamander meat gradually cooked.

When Xu Dan saw that it was about time, he put the prepared fresh branches and leaves resembling pine and cypress into the stove, and thick smoke rose up.

He quickly plugged the stove opening, and a plume of smoke immediately shot out through the hole left on top.

The underground river inside the cave is flowing water, almost silent, surging forward. As soon as the smoke from the smoking stove rises, it is drawn by the surging river and carried downstream.

Xu Dan was amazed by this scene.