The Primitive Adventures of a Chipmunk 10

Chapter 10

The large fire continued to cook, and the boiling saltwater in the stone pot gradually evaporated in the high heat.

As the sun hanging high in the sky slowly tilted westward, the remaining saltwater at the bottom of the pot completely boiled dry. Distinct, pale yellow crystals adhered to the bottom and walls of the pot, like translucent diamonds, sparkling with tiny points of light in the sunlight.

The stone pot’s temperature hadn’t dropped yet, but Hua Shi’an was already impatient. He used a pre-prepared bamboo sliver as a spatula and carefully scraped a layer of salt crystals from the edge of the pot wall.

The saltwater had been filtered with coir sheets before being poured into the stone pot, but the resulting salt crystals still had some impurities. The pale yellow salt crystals were slightly coarse, with a noticeable graininess, like coarse sand, far from the table salt Hua Shi’an was used to.

Looks weren’t important; what mattered was the taste.

Hua Shi’an pinched a few salt crystals, extended the tip of his tongue, and licked them lightly. A rich, salty taste with a slight bitterness instantly spread between his teeth.

Incredibly salty, slightly bitter, the taste was infinitely close to coarse salt, but upon careful tasting, a faint earthy flavor could also be detected.

“Well, well, is it salty? Did we succeed?”

Besides Hua Shi’an, three other people were gathered around the stone pot: an expectant Lan, a solemn Jian, and a sweat-drenched Shan.

From the moment he started scraping the salt, they had all held their breath, not daring to exhale. When Hua Shi’an finally tasted the salt crystals, Lan could no longer hold back and asked anxiously.

This was salt, essential for survival. Hua Shi’an didn’t keep them in suspense. He handed the bamboo sliver with the salt crystals to the three of them, a joyful curve on his lips. “Of course, we succeeded. Look, this is coarse salt. Although it has a slightly bitter and earthy taste, you probably won’t taste it when it’s mixed with food.”

“Here, you guys try it.”

To have produced salt from just a pool of water, it was too magical!

The beastmen were overjoyed and burst out laughing. They then all reached out to pinch a large pinch of salt from the bamboo sliver and eagerly tasted it.

Are you eating wild fruit? Such a large pinch! Hua Shi’an wanted to stop them, but it was too late. The salt crystals entered the beastmen’s mouths without a single grain to spare, and their joyful faces instantly twisted into contortions.

“Oh my, I think I ate too much. So salty!”

“Ptui ptui ptui, this is too salty, saltier than salt rock.”

The siblings were frowning from the saltiness and quickly retreated to the side to spit.

But Shan, who was also frowning, didn’t spit. He stiffened his neck and swallowed it down.

You didn’t need to think to know how salty it was. Hua Shi’an subconsciously furrowed his brow and looked at him with concern. “If it’s salty, just spit it out. Why swallow it? Isn’t it overwhelmingly salty?”

Shan awkwardly touched his head and grinned foolishly. “It’s, it’s okay, not salty. Salt is hard to come by, we can’t waste it.”

Hearing this, Lan, who had just spat out the salt, blushed.

Looking at the thin layer of salt crystals in the stone pot, the joy in Jian’s eyes faded, replaced by worry. “Sigh, although we’ve boiled out the salt, the amount is too little. We only got this much in half an afternoon. I don’t know if it’s enough for one meal.”

“This is salt!” Lan glared at her brother and retorted logically, “You just need to add a little for flavor when you cook. Do you want to eat it like wild vegetables? Besides, I think this salt is saltier and more flavorful than salt rock.”

Hua Shi’an nodded and added with a smile, “The amount is indeed not much. Scraping both pots will probably yield only a handful of salt. But as Lan said, this is salt. To get this much from two pots of water is already a lot. The salt content far exceeded my expectations.”

“A high salt content is better than anything. At worst, it’s just a matter of spending more time and boiling a few more pots. The saltwater in the pool isn’t finite; it has a spring at the bottom that’s constantly seeping water. In the future, we can have people come over to boil it every few days, and the tribe will have an endless supply of salt.”

“Then what are we waiting for? Let’s hurry up and help.” The more Lan listened, the more excited she became. She bent down, grabbed a bamboo sliver, and beckoned to the stunned Jian and Shan. “The afternoon is only half over. Let’s quickly get the salt out and continue boiling while there’s still time!”

“Okay!”

“Coming.”

The two beastmen came forward to help.

Scraping salt, filtering water, adding firewood… the rocky beach, now with only four people, became busy again.

This went on for an entire afternoon, until the sun set and the sky gradually darkened.

It was almost completely dark. The last two pots of saltwater had boiled dry. Hua Shi’an and Lan hurriedly scraped off the salt crystals with bamboo slivers and packed them all into bamboo tubes. The two beastmen, following Hua Shi’an’s instructions, used empty bamboo tubes to scoop water and splash it on the stone pots to help them cool down quickly.

Having just moved into a new home and now with salt, they should be able to have a hot meal tonight. But they had to bring the two largest stone pots back, otherwise… there would be nothing to cook with.

The stone pots hadn’t completely cooled down yet when the main group that had gone out to find food returned. The sound of noisy, messy footsteps approached at an extremely fast pace. Hua Shi’an looked up to see a group of people running with the momentum of a thousand-strong army, kicking up fallen leaves and dust as they rushed down the slope.

It was one thing for the tall and sturdy beastmen to be running at the front, but what was with the thin, middle-aged man sprinting wildly, sandwiched between several beastmen? Was that the Chief Mu he knew?

Hua Shi’an was stunned. By the time he came to his senses, Chief Mu and Yong were already standing in front of him.

Without even a second’s rest, Chief Mu tremblingly reached out to Hua Shi’an, gasping for breath, “Salt… huff… where’s the salt? Did you… boil… huff… it out?”

His hand was trembling like a sieve, and he almost couldn’t catch his breath. Those who knew would know he was asking for salt; those who didn’t would think he was asking for nitroglycerin. Hua Shi’an didn’t dare to delay and quickly called out to Lan, “Quick, show the chief the salt.”

“Oh, oh, okay.” Lan deftly retrieved a bamboo tube from a crack in the rocks.

The bamboo tube filled with salt crystals was truly like nitroglycerin. The moment Chief Mu got his hands on it, his hand stopped trembling, and his breathing became lighter, as if he were afraid a heavy breath would blow the salt away.

A bamboo tube as thick as an arm, filled to the brim.

Is this salt? The translucent white crystals were like the stars in the night sky, sparkling brilliantly in the faint light.

As if handling a rare treasure, Chief Mu gently and slowly cradled the bamboo tube to his chest, freed his other hand, and then carefully pinched a pinch from the tube.

Almost at the same time, the panting beastmen and sub-beastmen around them swarmed forward, all reaching into the bamboo tube to get some salt and taste it carefully.

As the salt crystals entered their mouths, a series of audible gasps sounded around them. With a cry of alarm, the night-shrouded rocky beach instantly erupted.

“Salt, it’s really salt!”

“So salty, so flavorful.”

“How amazing. Was this shiny stuff really boiled out of water?”

“That’s great, that’s great, we have salt!”

…

The cheers were endless. Chief Mu held the bamboo tube as if it were a priceless treasure and threw his head back, laughing heartily. “Hahaha, hahaha! The Beast God protects us, the Beast God blesses my Squirrel Tribe!”

“It’s not just the Beast God’s protection. We have An to thank for finding the salt.” The usually stern Yong looked at Hua Shi’an with a smile, his complex gaze filled with admiration and gratitude.

“That’s right!” Chief Mu nodded heavily, then turned his gaze to Hua Shi’an and said quite solemnly, “For being able to find food, to find salt, and to settle down in the Giant Tree Forest so smoothly, An deserves most of the credit.”

“Our Squirrel Tribe hasn’t had a priest for many years. I see this as the Beast God’s guidance as well. How about this? From now on, the sub-beastman An will be the priest of our Squirrel Tribe!”

The powerful words echoed, and the crowd, which had just quieted down, erupted again.

“P-Priest? A priest should be an elderly beastman!”

“The Lord Priest is the messenger of the Beast God. Can, can An be the priest?”

“Why not! How much has An contributed to the tribe? Who cares if he’s a beastman or a sub-beastman.”

“Exactly! Without An, we might have starved to death long ago. He was sent by the Beast God to save us. He should be the Lord Priest!”

“Yay, Lord Priest!”

“An, from now on, you are our Lord Priest!”

Doubts, agreements, affirmations… without needing Chief Mu to say much more, the beastmen convinced themselves. The group, as if injected with chicken blood, excitedly rushed forward and surrounded Hua Shi’an.

He had been inexplicably surrounded and inexplicably made the priest. Hua Shi’an was a bit dazed for a moment. After carefully searching his memories, he finally understood what kind of “position” a priest was.

A priest, rumored to be the closest person to the Beast God, was also known as the messenger of the Beast God. It was said that a priest would perceive the Beast God’s guidance and thus predict impending disasters or make decisions beneficial to the tribe’s development.

Hmm… a bit like an imperial preceptor in ancient times?

Hua Shi’an wasn’t very clear on what he needed to do on a daily basis. The tribe hadn’t had a priest for a long time, and the position had always existed in legends. The only thing he was clear on was that the priest had a high status. When necessary, even the chief of a tribe had to follow the priest’s arrangements.

Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown. Being a priest was probably not that easy.

Hua Shi’an was about to refuse subconsciously, but before he could speak, Chief Mu shook his head and sighed, “Making An the priest was not a spur-of-the-moment decision. I’ve been wondering about this for a while. Think about it. An met a stranger in the forest, the stranger taught him to identify plants, the plants he taught him to identify were from the Giant Tree Forest, and we happened to flee into the Giant Tree Forest. Isn’t all of this a bit too coincidental?”

“Hiss, that seems to be the case,” the beastman Lang gasped.

Another beastman’s eyes widened. “Now that you mention it, it’s true. Could it be… the Beast God’s guidance!”

Chief Mu smiled smugly and said with great certainty, “That’s right! So, An should be the tribe’s priest! The stranger he met was probably the incarnation of the Beast God, who came specifically to show us the way and help us through our difficulties.”

“The Beast God protects us!”

“Thank you, Beast God! Thank you, Lord Priest!”

Hua Shi’an: … A priest is a priest, I guess I can do it.

Perhaps there really was a Beast God in this world. His arrival in this world was in itself a fantastical and wonderful journey.