Where did they get those pottery jars?
After scanning the surroundings, they discovered that these orcs also had baskets on their backs. And these baskets were bigger than any they had ever seen before!
"Captain! Where did they get this fire from?!" The orcs of the Thunder Tribe were so shocked by the flames that suddenly rose up in the distance that they almost cried out.
Shen Nong ignored the surprise and confusion of the Lei tribe beastmen. He sprinkled peppercorn powder from a small bamboo tube into the minced beef, seasoned it, and then began to shape it into meat patties. Lu Shuang took out an iron pot, placed it on the makeshift stove, and poured oil into it.
"Sizzle—" The meat patty fell into the oil, and the high temperature brought out the aroma of the meat, mixed with the fragrance of the seasonings, making people unable to help but swallow their saliva.
The earthenware pot was filled with water, and heated stones were thrown in directly, quickly yielding a large pot of hot water. After the chickens and sheep were bled, Lang Yu deftly began scalding their skin and plucking their fur. He had done this many times when he was in the caravan, so he was very experienced and the fur was cleaned thoroughly.
After removing the chicken's innards, marinate it with seasonings. After cleaning the lamb, also coat it with seasonings, then place it on a rack over the fire to roast. While roasting, turn it over, occasionally brushing it with honey and sprinkling it with cumin.
After marinating for a while, the chicken is wrapped in leaves, sealed with mud, placed in a dug pit, covered with soil, and then simmered over a fire.
The Wood Tribe had been preparing this meat for quite some time, and the Thunder Tribe's orcs couldn't even remember the four words they had said at the beginning, "Hurry up."
They never expected anyone to cook meat so deliciously; the aroma was so enticing that they couldn't tear themselves away. They wanted to get even closer, pressing their noses against the meat to smell it.
A slightly younger orc from the Lei tribe swallowed hard and let out a "Yo-ho!" which caught Shen Nong's attention. "What are you sprinkling on the meat?"
“Seasonings.” Shen Nong pointed to the bamboo tube beside her and introduced them from left to right: “Chili powder, cumin powder, Sichuan peppercorn powder, and salt.”
The orc scratched his head; apart from salt, he had never heard of any of the other ingredients. "What are those powders? Do they taste good when added to meat?"
Seeing the orc gnawing on his fingers from the aroma of the meat, Shen Nong, who had been deliberately trying to attract the attention of the Thunder Tribe orcs, noticed the meat patties were ready. He picked one up with chopsticks, drained some of the excess oil, wrapped it in three or four layers of leaves, and asked, "Want to try some?"
The orc instinctively tried to get up, but ultimately restrained himself and glanced at their leader.
The leader of the Lei tribe swallowed hard but didn't say anything, just nodded. It smelled so good; he wanted to try it when it arrived.
On his way back with the meat pie, the young orc was almost too captivated by the irresistible aroma of meat to move. If it weren't for the intense gazes of his tribesmen ahead, he would have loved to immediately stuff it into his mouth and taste what it was like.
As soon as they arrived, the meat pie in the young orc's hand fell into the hands of the Thunder Tribe leader, who took a bite without hesitation and almost swallowed it whole.
The team leader chewed on the meat pie in his mouth. He couldn't describe the taste, only that it was the best meat he had ever eaten. Each bite was unforgettable, and he wanted more. The young orc pounced on him, grabbing his thick arm. "Captain, save me a bite!"
In the end, the remaining half ended up in the hands of the young orc. Fearing that other orcs would try to take it from him, he stuffed it all into his mouth.
This tastes amazing!! So delicious!!
It's so delicious!!
As the Wood Tribe orcs began to eat, the sun had already set, the sky had turned orange-red, and the clouds were incredibly beautiful.
They had a very good meal, including meat pies, roast lamb, stewed chicken, and a separate seaweed and meatball soup.
The Thunder Tribe orc sat to the side, sniffing the aroma, occasionally slurping up the drool that was about to spill out.
"Leopard Mountain!"
A shout came from behind the woods. The leader of the Lei tribe, who was guarding Shen Nong and the others, snapped out of his daze and replied, "Here!"
"What are you doing sitting here? You haven't gone back for so long, the priest thought something had happened to you. What's that smell?" After a rustling sound, about a dozen more orcs appeared in the forest. The orc who spoke took a few steps forward before he saw the Wood Tribe orcs eating meat in front of him.
Leopard Mountain replied, "Chieftain, they came from elsewhere to trade with the tribe. I told them the tribe didn't need to trade and to leave as soon as they had their fill of meat."
After saying that, Leopard Mountain whispered again, "They have something that makes meat taste really good. Why don't we talk to the priest and trade some with them?"
Xiong Lei rejected the idea without hesitation, "The tribe doesn't even have salt, why would they trade for those strange things?"
Shen Nong couldn't hear Bao Shan's words very clearly, so she sat down next to him and whispered what Bao Shan was saying to him.
Shen Nong slowly ate a meatball. He had originally planned to first arouse the orcs' desire to trade, so that they wouldn't be too wary of them, and then naturally mention that there was salt available for trade, so that the orcs would lead him to the priest of the Lei tribe to discuss the trade.
It seemed he didn't need to lead the way. Shen Nong waved his hand, and seeing the orcs from the Lei tribe looking over, he said, "We have salt in our trade. Do you want some?"
"How do you know our tribe is short of salt?" Leopard Mountain asked bluntly.
Shen Nong pointed at Xiong Lei beside her with her index finger, "Didn't your clan leader just say that?"
"You can hear us?" Xiong Lei was shocked. How could the other person hear their conversation at such a close distance? But this person didn't have the aura of beast blood. Was it too strong for him to sense?
Shen Nong smiled, without saying anything explicitly. He pointed his thumb back to the basket on his back, "There's salt in there. Do you want to trade?"
Xiong Lei hesitated. All the other tribes who sent enough priest candidates to the Beast City received salt. But after the Lei tribe had all their priest candidates taken away by the orcs from the Beast City, they didn't see a single grain of salt.
He didn't doubt that the foreign tribe was deceiving them, but he was worried about what the Beast City would do to the Lei tribe if they really made a deal with them.
If they trade salt to the orcs from the foreign tribes, the Beast City will surely send people to kill them.
Xiong Lei ultimately decided to give up and warned, "We are an affiliated tribe of Beast City. If you don't want to be targeted by Beast City, you'd better leave quickly."
Through the nano-camera, Shen Nong learned that when the high priest of Beast City demanded that each tribe hand over its people, the priest of the Thunder Tribe was the only one among the surrounding tribes who dared to oppose the high priest of Beast City. This person was a good breakthrough point for the Wood Tribe.
He wanted to meet the priest, so he had to persuade the orc in front of him.
"As long as Beast City doesn't find out, that's fine," Shen Nong replied calmly.
Xiong Lei seemed not to have heard him clearly, "What did you say?"
"As long as Beast City doesn't find out, isn't it enough that you and we have a deal?" Shen Nong walked to the baskets and lifted the animal skin covering one of them. "We're quite a distance from Beast City. As long as no one in the tribe tells anyone, how will Beast City know what you've been doing in secret?"
This method is tempting, but Xiong Lei is not all brawn and no brains. He said, "If we don't eat salt for a long time, we'll die. If we want the Beast City to not find out, do we have to kill a few of our own people every now and then?"
Shen Nong laughed and said, "Just say it's some leftover cured meat from before, isn't that enough?"
Xiong Lei was somewhat surprised and couldn't help but ask, "Which tribe are you from? Do you also know how to preserve meat with salt?"
"Wood Tribe," Shen Nong answered crisply, knowing the other party wouldn't understand anyway.
Cured meat can be preserved for a long time, and even longer if placed in a pit dug underground. Xiong Lei wholeheartedly agreed with Shen Nong's method, but it was not entirely up to him. "You will come back to Lei tribe with me to see our tribe's priest."
The Wood Tribe group packed their belongings and followed behind the Thunder Tribe orcs.
Lei Qiu, the priest of the Lei tribe, was a tall young man who stood out among the priests who were generally smaller than the orcs. Standing next to Xiong Lei, he was even a head taller than Xiong Lei.
Xiong Lei roughly told Lei Qiu what had happened in the forest. His attitude was straightforward and without hesitation. After listening, he nodded boldly and agreed to make a deal with the Mu tribe.
"I see you have something else; bring it in so I can take a look."
From Shen Nong's perspective, Lei Qiu was completely immersed in the joy of "shopping" for the next period of time.
They selected a considerable amount of animal hides, painted pottery, and various seasonings, but in the end, they clung to two glasses, reluctant to let go. Finally, Xiong Lei spoke up to remind them, "They are an outside tribe, and they don't use the crystals we trade with Beast City... So, Priest, you should put all of these back, otherwise the tribe won't have enough meat and animal hides to trade for salt."
[Host! Host!]
The system suddenly screamed, giving Shen Nong a headache. He frowned, enduring the discomfort, and asked, "What's all that screaming about?"
We must buy their crystals!
"Why do you still accept crystals that have no energy?" Shen Nong asked curiously.
The system chuckled, "You don't understand, do you? These energyless crystals, once placed in the Spirit Realm for a few days to accumulate some spiritual energy, become spirit stones used for trading in the cultivation world."
Shen Nong understood and asked directly, "How many infrastructure points?"
After agreeing on the price with the system, Shen Nong said to Lei Qiu, who looked worried, "We'll buy crystals."
Shen Nong had planned everything meticulously, but she hadn't anticipated that the Lei tribe possessed an unusually large quantity of crystals. Two-thirds of the goods they brought were bought by the Lei tribe. If the timing hadn't been so inconvenient, Shen Nong would have really wanted to ask Lei Qiu how the Beast City had given their tribe so many crystals.
After the transaction was completed, it was already quite late. Shen Nong was about to lead the Wood Tribe beastmen to find a place to rest in the forest when Lei Qiu stopped her, insisting that they stay at the Lei Tribe's place.
The reason was very simple: he heard from Leopard Mountain that Shen Nong and his friends could cook very delicious meat, and he got hungry just listening to them and wanted them to cook it for him.
The nano-camera was currently showing the entire Lei tribe. Shen Nong hadn't discovered any hidden ambush by the Lei tribe, which suggested that the Lei tribe's priest was simply craving it.
...
Shen Nong had seen quite a few orcs in the Beast World, including over forty priests from various tribes. Although everyone had a different personality, none of them were as outgoing and friendly as the priest from the Thunder Tribe. In modern terms, he was incredibly sociable.
When the other person put their arm around Shen Nong's shoulder for the third time, Ze sat down between the two with a dark face.
Shen Nong brushed honey onto the roasting lamb and casually asked, "I heard you're an affiliated tribe of Beast City? Is Beast City particularly nice?"
Lei Qiu held a roasted lamb leg in one hand and put the other on Ze's shoulder, looking at the bonfire in front of him with great melancholy. "Sigh, what's so good about it? Beast City is no longer the Beast City it used to be."
After saying that, he took a big bite of the roasted lamb leg, his mouth dripping with oil.
"What do you mean? Even if it's different, isn't it still Beast City?" Shen Nong pretended not to understand and asked seriously.
“You’re from an outside tribe, you don’t know anything about Beast City.” Lei Qiu smacked his lips, unable to resist the aroma of the meat, and took another big bite. His words were also unclear. “When the four major tribes were around, Beast City wasn’t like it is now.”
Lei Qiu swallowed the meat, withdrew his hand from Ze's shoulder, picked up a branch from the ground, and poked at the fire in front of him.
The fire crackled and popped, but he said nonchalantly, "Anyway, it's been a long time, so there's no harm in telling you."
“Before Beast City changed, there were four major guardian tribes: the first was the Wood Tribe, the second was the Water Tribe, the third was the Fire Tribe, and the fourth was the Earth Tribe.” Lei Qiu finished speaking and chuckled, “I heard you’re also from the Wood Tribe? That’s the same name as the tribe that was wiped out.”
Shen Nong chuckled softly and nodded in agreement. She recalled what the elders of the Wood Tribe had said: their tribe had initially migrated from the Beast City.
Chapter 118
Dreams
Lei Qiu poked at the fire, his eyes occasionally glancing at the lamb Shen Nong was roasting. After swallowing hard, he continued, "I heard about the existence of the four tribes from the previous priest, back when he was a child."
They say that for some unknown reason, the four major tribes vanished overnight, and Beast City began to change afterward. The High Priest also became different from before. I don't know what Beast City was like before the changes, but from what the previous priest said about the past, it seemed much better than it is now.
Shen Nong felt there was something strange about Lei Qiu's words. After thinking for a while, he finally realized what was wrong. "What does 'the High Priest has also changed from before' mean? Does it mean that Beast City hasn't changed its High Priest yet?"
“That’s right.” Lei Qiu said matter-of-factly, without feeling anything was wrong. “The High Priest is the child of the Beast God, so he won’t grow old.”
Never grow old...
Shen Nong typed into the system, "Could the other party really be the offspring of the Beast God?"
Normally, when Shen Nong asked these kinds of questions, she would get a "permission denied" message. This time, however, the system unusually gave a definite answer: "No, there are no gods in this world right now."
"There are no gods now, does that mean there really were in the past?" Shen Nong pressed.
The system fell silent, then emitted a "Permission denied" notification sound.
Shen Nong understood; this was another confidential question. He stopped wasting time asking unanswerable questions and focused on roasting the lamb, listening to Lei Qiu's rambling, "They're all beastmen, but the High Priest insists on creating beast slaves. Once a beastman is designated as a beast slave by the High Priest, he can only eat tree bark and dirt all day long, and can't rest; he has to work non-stop."
The elderly in the tribe who can't hunt live better than the beast slaves. As the high priest, he shouldn't be doing such a thing.
Shen Nong nodded in deep agreement. This was the first time Lei Qiu had received affirmation from someone else. He smiled and said, "No tribe around here would dare to agree with what I'm saying. Aren't you afraid?"
"What are you afraid of?" Shen Nong asked in return.
Lei Qiu was taken aback, and after a long while, he came to his senses and agreed with Shen Nong's words, "Yes, what's there to be afraid of!"
"Thunder Tribe Priest, what do you want to do?" At first, Shen Nong thought that the Thunder Tribe Priest was just outspoken and overly familiar, but now, listening to the other party's tone, she felt that it was not that simple, or at least not entirely so.