There can't be a Harvest Moon in the RimWorld.

So, this person is a visitor? He's dressed like a savage; something doesn't seem right.

I searched for more information, and sure enough, there was a white message shaking below the system's open notification.

Visitor Notice: A visitor from the tribe has arrived. Please ensure their safety and basic needs are met. They will leave after a short stay. If they are attacked or accidentally injured during their stay, your faction's favorability will decrease. If favorability becomes too low, a state of war will ensue!

Oh! Someone really has come!

They really are guests from a tribe! No wonder they exude a pure, natural aura. The system even kindly provided me with details about this faction.

"Brownpool Tribe: These people have existed on the Edge World for a very long time. Perhaps their ancestors crashed on the planet a thousand years ago, or perhaps they are survivors of a cataclysmic event that destroyed civilizations. In any case, the majority of these tribes are native nomadic people who use primitive tools and weapons."

"Despite being technologically inferior, these tribes will become either dangerous enemies or valuable friends due to their numbers, courage, and skills in low-tech warfare."

"This tribe strives for a gentle way of life and is friendly to others, but they are a bit stubborn. They are very willing to trade and form alliances, even with strangers."

Fortunately, today's visitor was from a friendly tribe, and they brought gifts instead of bows and arrows.

What if one of these green-skinned monsters came along, yelling "waghhhhh!" and charging at me with a basic attack? Wouldn't I be in serious trouble?

"Hello, are you here to visit the tribe? Please come in." After learning this information, I felt relieved. With the system's information as a guarantee, there shouldn't be any mistakes.

Then I'll have to make sure I get along well with this visitor.

Otherwise, if the favorability rating drops to hostile, wouldn't the colonist system naturally activate things like the war system and invasion system?

I don't want to wake up to find a bunch of cavemen blocking my doorstep—according to the system's description, this Brown Pool tribe must have quite a few people.

But the visitor didn't come in, stubbornly insisting on saying the same thing: "You can't do it this way!"

"What's wrong?"

I was completely dumbfounded. You need to explain clearly what I'm lacking, or I'll sue you for defamation.

However, since we don't understand what this person is trying to say, we should humbly ask for their opinion.

The man dressed in animal skins turned around and looked at my territory, saying with a look of utter disappointment.

"Your territory is not allowed!"

"There is no water source!"

"No food!"

"There are no processing points!"

"Prayingly, there is nothing!"

"This won't do, this won't do!"

Okay, I've figured it out. The guests from this tribe have a limited language range; they can only utter one word at a time and express themselves in short sentences. Fortunately, there's a systematic translator, so I can understand the "technical terms" they use and get their meaning.

So you're saying my ranch is substandard?

Chapter 76 The Keeper of the Fire Seed

The short tribal man in front of me looked at me with such an accusatory attitude, which made me feel a little guilty.

After saying all that, the man said stiffly, "Come out here, to the water's edge."

So that means I'll go to the river with you?

I followed the man outside, turned right after leaving the house and walked to the end, where there was a slowly flowing river. The river originated from the streams of the Mads Mountains, and most of its water sourced from the large river that ran along the edge of the pasture and in the middle of the forest.

The remaining water was diverted to the front of the ranch, forming the tributary I see here. After flowing through Mineral Town Ranch, this tributary also nourishes Yodel Ranch and Mrs. Lilia's chicken farm, flowing through the entire ranch area before finally emptying into the sea.

Seeing this almost perfect flow path, I couldn't help but wonder if this tributary was a canal dug by the townspeople.

The uninvited guest ignored all of this and went straight to the riverbank. He scooped up a handful of water, observed its color for a long time, smelled it, and only after confirming that it looked fine did he cautiously take a sip.

Since this river is downstream of a mountain spring, the water must be very clear. Especially since my location is at the very upstream of the pasture area, there are no other sources of pollution above me.

As long as Gots doesn't pee in the river while he's on the mountain?

"Tsk, that's a risk. I'll have to do a surprise inspection of Gotz's hygiene habits another day."

However, the uninvited guests were not satisfied with the river's water source.

I could tell from the man's helpless expression.

"You can't drink it directly because it contains tree leaves."

After saying this, the person pointed to the decaying leaves and withered branches on the water for me to see.

I've actually noticed this as well. Since the upstream area is Mount Mades, the dense vegetation on the mountain will naturally affect the water quality of the pasture to some extent. While trees conserve water and prevent water shortages, they also produce humus, which can cause microbial contamination of the water.

Before I could even tell this person that I don't usually drink the tap water here and that I always get free meals and drinks from the owner of Dart, he had already rolled up his sleeves and started working.

The man found a tree branch and stuck it into the soft sand by the river. About three or four inches from the branch, water was clearly visible, indicating it had reached the permeable layer level with the riverbed.

Then, the man used a branch to dig at the ground, and soon dug a deep pit in the sand. Water quickly seeped out from the ground and filled the pit.

Once the white sand was dug away, dark river mud was revealed underneath. The deep pit was pitch black, and the water inside gleamed with a menacing black light. Perhaps because the soil was a mixture of mud and sand, the seeping water was covered with a layer of mud and sludge, making it look nothing like drinking water.

As expected, the uninvited guest also frowned, clearly dissatisfied with the outcome.

The man stood up and began searching the ranch for the necessary supplies.

Starting with pebbles, withered leaves, and small twigs, they quickly collected a large handful and piled them into three small heaps on the riverbank.

Then, the man started looking for moss on the riverbank.

Because the river water upstream is rich in humus, the riverbanks downstream are covered with a beautiful layer of green moss, which softly and fluffily covers the rocks along the riverbank.

Soils where green moss grows generally have a salt content higher than 0.3%. The higher the soil salt content, the more green moss will grow, and the darker its color will be. In addition, green moss prefers moisture. When the humidity is too high, especially after the soil has just been fertilized and is moist and nutrient-rich, there will be more green moss. Or when there are many cloudy and rainy days and insufficient sunlight, it is also conducive to the growth of green moss in the soil.

The green moss that had been growing freely was quickly uncovered and spread out on the riverbank.

Then, an unexpected project began.

After filling the previous pit, the man dug another one, but this time the digging was much slower. He first dug a rectangular trench of the same depth. Black water immediately seeped out, but the man didn't care. After carefully building a 45-degree ramp, he began filling the ramp with various things.

First, a layer of small stones was piled up to form a wall, densely covering the entire slope. Then, prepared small branches were inserted into the gaps in the stone wall, and branches were also laid horizontally to form a crisscrossing tree branch frame.

After these basic operations, the entire water tank now had a fairly stable support base, and the silt underneath would no longer slide and collapse as water seeped in. The man then picked up some dry leaves and laid them on the frame, adding another thick layer of leaves to the frame.

Finally, around this layer of leaves, the person laid a layer of clean white sand from the riverbank, which then filled the gaps between the leaves and branches.

Finally, a carpet of green moss covered the slope, adding a touch of life to the dark pit and making it look exceptionally fresh and natural. I noticed that while placing the moss, the person also pulled a handful of unidentified substance from their animal skin bag and stuffed it under the moss.

Seeing this, I roughly guessed what this person wanted to do, so I rolled up my sleeves and started building with this uninvited guest.

Soon, the four walls of the pit were completed using the same method, and the ground was also repaired and covered with green moss as decoration.

"Wow, that's amazing! I never knew your skills were so superb!"

I exclaimed from the bottom of my heart.

This is undoubtedly a simple well for drinking water, built on the riverbank, drawing water through the seepage of the river.

Many primitive tribes use this method to obtain water because it allows the riverbank soil to permeate and filter impurities, harmful substances, microorganisms, etc.

However, the uninvited guest's actions were not so simple. The stones and branches served to stabilize the well and prevent it from collapsing or being trampled by people.

Leaves and moss, on the other hand, act as simple filters, removing harmful substances from the water. Because their gaps are extremely small, a large number of microorganisms and impurities are adsorbed onto them, resulting in clearer, filtered water.

This operation is no longer at the level of primitive people, but rather the prototype of a water purifier!

Water purifiers effectively filter out rust, sand, colloids, and adsorb residual chlorine, odors, discoloration, pesticides, and other chemicals, as well as bacteria, germs, toxins, heavy metals, and other impurities. The application of water purification technology in the drinking water sector has effectively solved endemic diseases caused by excessive levels of harmful substances in groundwater in many areas.

Most water purifiers use five-stage filtration technology. The first stage is a filter cartridge, also known as a PP cotton filter cartridge (PPF). The second stage is a granular activated carbon (UDF) filter cartridge. The third stage is a precision compressed activated carbon (CTO) filter cartridge. The fourth stage is a reverse osmosis membrane or ultrafiltration membrane. The fifth stage is a post-activated carbon (small T33).

The core of this technology is simply to filter water layer by layer, removing impurities through filter layers of different densities.

"That's amazing! How did you guys learn that?!"

The tribal visitor stood up, wiped the sweat from his nose, and said without much excitement.

"Because I am the keeper of the tribe's fire."

Chapter 77 Touching Tribal Role Models

"The custodian of the fire starter?" I asked, puzzled.

The tribal visitor nodded, his ashen face expressionless. He looked down and pulled a black object from his animal skin bag, handing it to me and saying...

"In the tribe, I light the fire, keep the fire, and extinguish the fire."

I took the black substance and held it in my hand. It felt very light. As the powder kept falling, it stained my palm black.

It is a piece of charcoal.

I asked, "Was this the same thing you put into the well just now?"

"Yes. The water is there to drink; it's unclean, you'll die."

I now understand who this visitor from the tribe is.

The fire keeper was a special position in the legendary primitive tribes, similar to a shaman priest, who was in charge of matters related to fire-making in the tribe.

The worship of fire may have begun when humans first encountered wildfires in the wilderness and used them to cook food and keep warm. Scientific analysis suggests that apes' experience with cooked meat was a key step in the evolution of human intelligence. If humans were still relying on plant leaves and fruits, the energy provided by foraging for food in a day would not be sufficient for hunting.

Therefore, once people who ate raw meat had the means to cook and preserve meat, human energy was fully restored, allowing them to devote more energy to the development of the species beyond mere survival.

Perhaps seeing that I didn't react, the tribal visitor tugged at my arm and emphasized again, "The water in the well is drinkable. The water in the river is not drinkable. If you drink it, you will die."

I then snapped out of my daze and nodded affirmatively at the person.

So the two of us started scooping water from the makeshift well. Because the digging process was done in stages, a lot of dirty water accumulated in the pit, contaminating the water that seeped out later. We had to scoop out the dirty water first before the water that seeped out could be drunk.

After repeatedly scooping out the equivalent of about three puddles of water, the water in the makeshift well finally began to ripple cleanly.

After being filtered through multiple layers of soil, leaves, charcoal, and moss, the water has absorbed most of the impurities, transforming the originally clear river water into more drinkable water.

After the water in the makeshift well had settled for a while, my fellow villagers and I couldn't wait to take a sip.

"Delicious! This method works!"

The tribal visitor and I exchanged a smile and he spoke in broken English.

"There must be water for life. If the water is wrong, there is no life. Many people have died in our tribe in the past."

I was silent.

Indeed, in modern society, such technology would merely be a basic addition to daily life. But for the people of the tribe, this technology was likely a lesson learned through risking their lives.