Volume 1: Farming Chapter 22 Developing New Skill Points
The physical fitness, stamina and combat capability of a snow werewolf have nothing to do with gender, but only with body shape. As for the body shape of adult snow werewolves... 90% of them are muscular men like Hongye, and the remaining 10% are strong men like Ashan. Even if they are not warriors and have not honed their fighting skills, their own bodies are powerful weapons.
"roar--!"
Qingcao, a deft bricklaying expert, jumped out from the bushes, grabbed the top of the wild boar's head and pushed it down hard, forcing the wild boar to the ground. Then she swung her long legs and leaned over the wild boar's back, suppressing the wild boar with her weight of at least 90 kg. Then she opened her mouth and bit the wild boar's cervical vertebrae fiercely from behind. There was a sharp sound of tearing flesh, and a large piece of the hard skin on the back of the wild boar's neck was torn off by Qingcao.
"..." Xiao Yun's eyelids twitched.
“┗|｀O′|┛Ah~~”
Dahe, who was only slightly taller than Ashan and not considered strong among the snow wolves, charged from the side and knocked down a male wild boar with a long snout and fangs on both sides, weighing at least 400 kilograms. Then, he used all four limbs to fiercely hug the wild boar's head and shoulders like a facehugger (...), and pushed the wild boar's chin up with both arms, showing his sharp teeth and biting the wild boar's throat; the wild boar was in pain and rolled wildly on the ground, but Dahe held its big head tightly, and used his hands with his ten fingers interlaced to push up its chin so that its ferocious big mouth could not fight back, and his teeth with strong bite force bit the wild boar's throat tightly, almost pulling the wild boar's throat out.
"..." Xiao Yun stared with dead fish eyes, his scalp began to numb... Very good, Dahe is indeed very intelligent, he knows that the throat is easier to bite than the back of the neck...
This is how ordinary adult tribesmen fight wild boars. The Snow Wolf Warriors are naturally even more unbearable to watch... uh, even more ferocious. For example, Hongye, the beast among beasts, is covered in blood after killing a wild boar, as if he had taken a bath in a slaughterhouse...
The snow wolves feared the wild boars, and what they feared was the number of wild boars in the group. After all, no matter how powerful a snow wolf warrior was, he would inevitably get injured if he had to deal with more than two strong male wild boars at the same time. Xiao Yun, the bad guy, came up with an idea of setting a trap and greatly reduced the number of wild boars. The snow wolves were no longer polite and would fight them head-on... The chief, a middle-aged man whose teeth were almost damaged by himself and who could not tear a wild boar apart like the young men, could beat a wild boar to death with the help of the rattan net.
After an extremely brutal (for wild boars) melee fight, except for a few that turned around and fled, most of the wild boars were left as reserve food by the brutal snow werewolves. Among these reserve food, the wild boar that fell into the pit, fainted, and was then trampled to death by its companions was the luckiest one, at least its body was intact...
The snow wolves howled excitedly, and the cubs who had been watching the whole thing cheered and rushed forward, jumping and shouting. Only Xiao Yun stood there silently, stroking his throbbing heart with his hand - damn, this scene was too bloody and not suitable for children, he needed some time to calm his irritated nerves.
After taking a quick look around, Xiao Yun found that the young cat man who joined the battle in the second half also had a pale face and was feeling uncomfortable. He then felt a little better... It was not that his acceptance was too poor, but that the contrast in style between the usually silly and cute snow werewolves and the fighting was too great.
"Ayun--! Fried fish!" The ox horn, whose half body was covered with wild boar blood, punched Xiao Yun with shining eyes.
"..." Xiao Yun's mentality immediately returned to normal, as steady as an old dog.
"Send the wild boar meat back first, then transport the acorns." Xiao Yun walked out to remind the ecstatic tribe leader, "It will probably take several trips. How about allocating manpower now?"
"Ah, that's right." The tribe leader quickly controlled his emotions and said, "Then... let half of the tribe members send the wild boar back?"
"We need to prepare so much wild boar meat for processing after we send it back to the tribe, so we need to be more careful in allocating manpower." Xiao Yun shook his head and counted the manpower with the tribe leader on his fingers: "We left four people to watch over the house. The people who went out, including Qingyan, make a total of 29 people. I estimate that there are 70 to 80 wild boars in this batch. It will take several trips to transport them with rattan and grass trawling nets. In this case, we have to leave people to watch over here. I think Hongye, Ashan, and Niujiao are just right. They are not afraid of any beasts attracted by the smell of blood, so we will go with three people."
"Qingcao, Dahe and Qingyan have to go back to the tribe to continue building houses. They will go back with the people who transported the wild boars in a while. Three more people are gone. The wild boars sent back need to be processed quickly. Select an adult tribesman and Yangmao and the other cubs to drag the wild boars to the river bank, to the pit where we dug the clay, and dig a ditch to put water in to soak the pork to remove the blood, and then cut it into pieces and strips to air-dry. That's nine people gone..."
"Of the remaining fourteen people, Chief, you take nine people to transport the wild boars, and the remaining three will work with me to get the acorns out of the oak forest and pile them outside to prevent the escaped wild boars from returning to the oak forest or other wild animals from causing trouble. After all, the jungle is not our home turf..."
There are 32 people in the tribe, 12 of whom are underage cubs (including Xiao Yun). In terms of manpower, the gap is really huge. The tribe members used to be very cautious when recruiting manpower because the tribe was really short of manpower. But no matter what, the tribe leader has never calculated the use of manpower as carefully as Ayun. Looking at Xiao Yun counting on his fingers one by one, the tribe leader looked confused...
People who rely on experience and habit to handle things, when they meet someone who can count 123 clearly and logically and make arrangements and commands, they will naturally obey the arrangements as long . This can be regarded as the habit of intelligent creatures... Unless there is a brainless halo that lowers intelligence, generally no one will jump out at this time to sing a different tune for face or other reasons, preparing a stage for others to slap in the face. Xiao Yun obviously did not have a brainless halo, and the tribe leader's IQ was not too big of a flaw. He thought Xiao Yun was right, so he followed his suggestion.
Xiao Yun heaved a sigh of relief. In fact, the main purpose of his making so many arrangements was to be able to continue to go into the jungle to "pick up treasures"... He was accompanied by three adult tribesmen, and Hongye, Ashan and Niujiao were also there to support him. There was no reason for the tribe leader to stop him outside and leave him alone.
While the men were being assigned, the tribesmen happily dragged the wild boars out of the pit. This hunting method of digging a pit and waiting for the prey to fall into it was unprecedented, but none of the Snow Wolf people were so stupid as to think that only the prey killed with hard fighting was delicious, and to criticize any tricks that violated empiricism. Including the cubs, when they saw the wild boars being dragged up and piled up into a small hill, they cheered non-stop and almost laughed their faces off.
"No more hunger and spiciness this winter!" - This is the most direct reaction of the Snow Wolf Man... The smelly wild boar meat is not delicious? When your stomach growls with hunger, you will chew on a stone if you can, believe it or not!
They dragged up all the wild boars, including the one that was stabbed to pieces by the stakes, and sent them back according to the assigned personnel. Xiao Yun waited for the tribe leader to lead the people away, and told Uncle Ashan and others to keep an eye on the wild boars like a big-tailed wolf. Then, while the tribesmen were still immersed in joy, he led the three tribesmen assigned to him into the jungle...
Among these three people, one was a warrior of the tribe, and two were originally in charge of grazing. They had never dealt with Xiao Yun and were unaware of Xiao Yun's "dark history" of trying to sneak into the jungle many times. They didn't bother to guard against the restless cub and were brought into the pit by Xiao Yun.
"If the jungle isn't too dangerous, it'd be better to be in the jungle!" After entering the lush jungle from the withered grassland, Xiao Yun felt much more comfortable. It's not that he likes the jungle environment, but there are countless treasures waiting for him to dig...
Of course, digging for treasure does not mean seeking death. Xiao Yun does not intend to run around in the jungle. He walks honestly towards the oak forest. If the thing he is looking for grows in this jungle, then there is a great chance that such a thing will appear in the oak forest.
The altitude of the grassland is not high, the water resources are abundant, the air humidity is high, and the temperature near the southwest is not as extreme as in the northern part of the grassland. It is covered with ice and snow for at least half a year. Judging from the growing plants, the temperature in the central and southern parts of the grassland is still relatively suitable, and the temperature in autumn should be around ten degrees - so the question is, a standard Chinese who has received the most basic education in biogeography and knows how to eat and loves to eat, what kind of association will he have after knowing the existing environmental information?
That’s right…these are the leaders in the fungi world in autumn and winter, and also the must-order dishes for Xiao Yun when eating hot pot: shiitake mushrooms and enoki mushrooms.
Shiitake mushrooms and enoki mushrooms are both known as winter mushrooms. They both prefer an environment with high air humidity and can grow in a low temperature environment of 8 to 25 degrees. If these two types of fungi exist in this jungle, Xiao Yun will definitely be able to find them.
Dragging a trawl made of rattan , Xiao Yun squatted on the ground with his tribesmen to pick acorns. His eyes were focused on the lower roots of the oak tree and the rotten wood lying on the ground. It was true that there were many fungi that adapted to low temperature environments in nature at this time of year. They were mixed in the humus layer of the rotten wood in clumps here and there. However, Xiao Yun didn't recognize these fungi, so he didn't dare to reach out - don't think that only colorful ones are poisonous mushrooms. There are many fungi that are harmless to humans and animals like oyster mushrooms but can kill people. Xiao Yun had a college classmate in Yunnan Province. According to this classmate, local people in Yunnan Province would accidentally eat poisonous mushrooms every year, and he didn't dare to take the risk.
After dragging the items back and forth twice and picking up several hundred kilograms of acorns, Xiao Yun finally found the suspected target.
"Eh...why does this look similar, but not quite the same?"
On the back of a fallen tree trunk, Xiao Yun found some suspected mushrooms lying on the bark. The color and shape were very similar to the mushrooms he knew, but... the cap was very small, the stalk was only a little long, the color was light and impure, and there was almost no mushroom meat.
"Wild mushrooms grow on oak trees. This fallen tree looks like an oak tree... It's weird. How could it grow like this? Is it a mushroom? Maybe it's some poisonous mushroom pretending to be one... Forget it, let's look for it again."
Xiao Yun stared at it for a long time but was not sure whether it was shiitake mushrooms or not, so he simply gave up. After all, it was like trying to find shiitake mushrooms or enoki mushrooms. There was no way to find it by force.
After giving up the suspected mushroom, Xiao Yun stood up reluctantly and turned around - less than two meters away from where he was squatting, on the trunk of an oak tree that was so thick that two people could hug it, a large number of densely growing but relatively small mushrooms were staring at him in an orderly manner.
"…What the hell?" Xiao Yun looked back at the diseased mushrooms on the fallen tree trunk, then at the healthy mushrooms. "——What the hell!"
Shiitake mushrooms need a certain amount of light. Shiitake mushrooms grown from mycelium in the shade will not develop well... And although shiitake mushrooms can adapt to low temperatures, they cannot grow too low. The average temperature now should be below 10 degrees, and shiitake mushrooms will grow slowly...
"Ayun?"
The tribesmen who were picking acorns obediently looked up and found the cub Ayun squatting under an oak tree with his head down, looking as if he had lost all hope in life.
"Uh... it's okay." Xiao Yun raised his head with difficulty. "We need this tree. I'll mark it and cut it down later."
"..." The tribesmen obviously couldn't keep up with Xiao Yun's thinking. Weren't they picking acorns? Why were they talking about cutting down trees again?
After marking a few oak trees that could be cut down and used as basswood for mushroom cultivation, Xiao Yun continued to pick up acorns and look for traces of enoki mushrooms. He also picked some larger mushrooms and put them in the animal skin bag he brought with him... Shiitake mushrooms can be used as MSG, which he learned from watching chef Wang Gang's cooking video.
The tribesmen found him picking mushrooms, hesitated for a moment and reminded him: "Ayun, this kind of wood flower cannot be touched."
"Um?"
"In the past, some of our tribesmen ate the flowers that grew on this kind of wood and became sick, and it took a long time to recover," explained the tribesmen.
"Oh, it's okay. This mushroom really can't be eaten casually. Nine out of ten are poisonous. The ones I picked should be non-toxic. I will do an experiment later and catch a small animal to try it. If it is poisonous, I will throw them all away." Xiao Yun said. It seems that the snow wolf man has suffered from poisonous mushrooms.
The tribe members showed a dull expression... Are there such things as catching animals to test poison?!
After picking up several thousand kilograms of acorns (so many that you could easily gather several kilograms of them on the ground with your feet), Xiao Yun finally found the enoki mushrooms...
Enoki mushrooms are also fungi that like to grow on oak wood, and are better adapted to low temperature environments than shiitake mushrooms. After Xiao Yun found the fungus of Enoki mushrooms, the clusters of Enoki mushrooms growing close to the ground were so numerous that they were hard to keep up with.
Needless to say, Xiao Yun dragged out a leather bag full of enoki mushrooms. The wild enoki mushrooms were not as neat as the artificially cultivated ones. There were many deformed mushrooms and the color was not very good. But anyway, they were not going to be sold, so there was no need to pay attention to the appearance.
In one afternoon, Xiao Yun and three tribesmen diligently transferred tens of thousands of kilograms of acorns, and the tribe leader and others also sent back all the wild boars they hunted. The tribe leader, who had tasted the sweetness, did not doubt Xiao Yun's behavior of collecting poisonous "wood flowers" at all. When Xiao Yun took out shiitake mushrooms and golden needle mushrooms and asked to catch a small animal to test the poison, he directly dug up a nest of mice and brought it back...
In order to send the acorns back to the tribe as quickly as possible, the tribesmen decided to eat a meal on the spot and then drag the acorns overnight, making sure to solve the livestock feed shortage in the last few days before the snow fell. After using mice to taste shiitake mushrooms and enoki mushrooms to reassure the tribesmen, Xiao Yun directly threw the two fungi into the pottery pot for this "picnic".
“…Huh?”
The brave gourmet, Gyu-Kaku, was the first to reach out with his chopsticks to pick up the cooked mushrooms and put them in his mouth. After chewing them for a few times, he showed a puzzled expression.
"What? It doesn't taste good?" Xiao Yun was quite surprised. Could Niu Jiao be picky about food?
"No... how should I put it, it has a very strange fragrance. I have never eaten anything with this flavor before. It feels very novel." Niu Jiao said as he picked up the hot mushrooms from the pot with his chopsticks, "Hmm... soft and fragrant, the taste is very strange."
"Ayun." The clan leader quickly picked up the bowl and handed it to Xiao Yun. He was not as smart as Niu Jiao who could get used to using chopsticks so quickly under the temptation of food.
Xiao Yun used a spoon to scoop food for the tribe leader. On the other side, Ashan couldn't help but hold out his long chopsticks... Now in the tribe, only Niu Jiao, Qingcao and Ashan can use chopsticks skillfully. No one else has the ability to pick up food from the boiling pottery pot. Qingcao stayed in the tribe to build a house, and Ashan was the only one who could play with chopsticks as well as Niu Jiao.
"Delicious!" Uncle Ashan's reaction was much more direct than Niu Jiao's. He looked at his eldest nephew with great pride while eating.
"Oh, that's strange, why do bean sprouts and meat taste so much better when cooked together?" Niu Jiao said curiously.
"...Okay, stop stirring the pot and serve food to others first." Xiao Yun said with a smile.
Boiling meat is healthier and safer than grilling it, because thoroughly cooking can kill bacteria and parasites in meat products, and it also saves salt compared to grilling. However, seasonings are scarce, and meat cooked with only salt does not taste as pungent as grilled meat. Now that mushrooms can act as MSG, all meat can be stewed.
Well... Of course, another inconvenience of boiling meat is that it is full of soup, unlike grilled meat that can be eaten directly. Fortunately, now the tribesmen can barely use chopsticks to scoop up the meat, which has solved the problem of promoting boiled meat.
Enoki mushrooms can get stuck in the teeth, which is not good for the middle-aged and elderly with bad teeth. The chief ate a few bites and then stopped eating enoki mushrooms. He focused on the smaller number of shiitake mushrooms, bean sprouts, and barbecued meat, which was easier to eat than barbecued meat. He was sweating while eating the hot soup. The other tribesmen were not as picky as the chief. The first time they ate enoki mushrooms, they were so delicious that everyone looked satisfied.
"Everyone knows that many wood flowers are poisonous and cannot be eaten. Don't try other wood flowers after eating these two kinds of mushrooms." Xiao Yun did not forget to remind the tribesmen, "These two kinds of mushrooms can grow on oak. After we transport the acorns, we can cut some oak tree segments and plant these two edible mushrooms in the tribe. As for those growing in the wild, pick those that can be picked, and don't force those that cannot be picked."
"Yeah, yeah!" The tribesmen who were busy eating nodded one after another. Whatever Ayun said was right.
The other half of the tribe, who were waiting for their turn to use the bowls, were almost drooling: "Eat up quickly, and leave some for us so we don't finish it all!"
The tribe leader, who had a smaller appetite, passed the pottery bowl to the next tribe member, patted his warm belly with satisfaction, and burped a few times. Only then did he realize what Xiao Yun had just said and almost jumped up: "Ayun! You said this kind of wood flower can be planted and grown? Just like we plant beans?!"
Xiao Yun recalled his limited knowledge of the cultivation techniques he had learned from watching documentaries: "It's possible to grow them. Winter mushrooms grow on trees and dead wood. We can try to simulate the environment in which winter mushrooms grow... But I can't guarantee it. We have to try it to know."
