...
The tribal warehouse stored a large amount of iron ore acquired in a trade with the Beast Feather Clan last year, but it had remained untouched ever since.
Now that the snow was lting rapidly, the air had beco damp. With the iron ore just sitting in the warehouse... An Jin wondered, ’Will it rust?’
But more than half a year had passed, and the tribe still hadn’t found a suitable fuel.
Ordinary, resin-rich wood was fine for cooking, but it was nowhere near enough to slt iron ore.
Only a high-energy fuel like coal could possibly lt the iron ore for slting.
No wonder Beast Gathering City had been so quick to trade away the iron ore. The truly scarce resource must be high-energy fuels like coal.
Coal was ford from the fossilized remains of ancient organisms and was usually buried hundreds of ters deep underground or within mountains. With the Beast World’s level of technology, excavating it in large quantities was a near-impossible task.
’For now, the only option is to look for a substitute with a similarly high energy content...’
An Jin sighed. She set down the bamboo tray, got up from the bed, and stretched, her joints letting out a few soft pops.
She gazed out the window at the white haze.
The long, hard winter was almost over. Outside, a white mist shrouded everything. The air was thick with moisture from the lting ice and snow; a single deep breath was enough to make you choke and cough.
The gradually lting snow nourished the earth, revealing the dark brown soil beneath. Tiny, yellowish-green blades of grass poked through the damp ground, their tips bent under the weight of the white frost.
The pristine, refreshing natural scenery was truly uplifting.
An Jin had only woven two baskets before she noticed several large bites on her skin. Then, she spotted a long-legged mosquito on her leg. SMACK! She slapped it hard, and a large sar of blood spread across her palm.
"My god, how much blood did this thing drink?"
An Jin went to the small river to wash her hands, then returned.
During the cold winter, most insects had either died or gone dormant. However, a small portion had hidden in the warmth of the wooden hut and were now beginning to awaken. Starving after an entire winter, the mosquitoes were out for blood.
The insects of the Beast World were also shockingly large. A single mosquito could be as long as her finger, and who knew if they carried so kind of ancient pathogens.
Ling Hong hurried back, a short-limbed but plump animal held in his jaws. From a distance, he saw An Jin pour half a basket of wild grass onto the ground, her slender arms lifting a heavy wooden board to pound at it.
"Awoo?"
He quickly cleaned the prey by the river, stored it in their cold storage, and then washed his bloodstained hands before coming over to crouch in front of her.
"What are you doing?"
Ling Hong looked down at her curiously. He reached out, picked up a bit of the grass she had pounded into a pulp, and put it in his mouth. His expression imdiately turned strange. "You can’t eat this grass. It has a really strong taste; even most insects won’t touch it."
"That’s exactly why! Because the insects hate it, I’m going to make incense out of it!"
"Incense?" ’But it tasted so sour and bitter,’ he thought.
An Jin pointed to the red welts on her skin and sighed. "You Beastn have tough skin, so these bugs don’t bother you. They just keep biting ."
"See? It’s only been a short while, and I already have two or three more bites. They’re itching like crazy."
Ling Hong imdiately took the wooden board from her. "Then I’ll help you," he said, his voice laced with concern and urgency.
Seeing her panting from exhaustion, one hand on her lower back, he gently guided her aside. "Forget it, you go rest for a while. I’ll do it. I just need to pound it into fine pieces, right?"
An Jin nodded and found a large rock to sit on. "Then it needs to be sun-dried. After that, you just put so in a small stone box and light it to use it."
Ling Hong tried pounding with the wooden board a few tis but found it inefficient. Instead, he gathered all the grass into a large hollow in a rock and began punching it, one fist after another. He quickly pulverized all the leaves.
"!!" An Jin’s jaw dropped. She was, once again, stunned by the imnse strength of a Beastman.
Coincidentally, the weather was perfect over the next few days. The sky was clear and cloudless. After nearly three months of non-stop blizzards, it was as if the sky had no more rain or snow left to give.
The two wasted no ti. Working together, they spread the pulverized grass out on a clean patch of ground to dry.
After baking in the hot sun for two days, the grass powder was completely dry and soft. Ling Hong gathered it all up and stored it in a stone jar.
An Jin then took a portion of the powder, placed it in a small stone box, lit it, and closed the lid.
A few small holes had been deliberately made in the box’s lid.
Soon, wisps of white smoke began to drift out from the small holes, releasing a peculiar fragrance that filled the entire room.
’This wild grass is just like the sweet wormwood I read about in my past life,’ she thought. ’It even has the sa insect-repellent properties.’
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