Crossing to Live in the Wilderness Plains 113
Chapter 113
After crossing the mussel-covered rocky beach and climbing over two rock mountains, Chen Qi began to notice some white crystals mixed in with the mud around the vicinity. Without a closer look, it was hard to distinguish whether they were rocks or salt stones.
“That’s the Salt Mountain over there.” Axu pointed to the rock mountain not far away that was much taller than the surrounding ones, distinguishing it from the others.
The Salt Mountain’s appearance wasn’t significantly different from the surrounding rock mountains. It still had the reddish-brown sandstone exterior, but it appeared more barren, with very few if any green plants visible compared to the other rock mountains.
The Salt Mountain had a huge cave on the side facing away from the Salt-Water Lake. As they ventured further toward the cave, the white crystalline formations became more abundant. Around the cave entrance, they could already see the appearance of the salt stones that were typically used.
Chen Qi was surprised and pinched off a bit of the salt stone to taste it. It was salty, with the familiar bitterness of the unrefined salt stone. He spit out the salt stone and Aze quickly handed him a bamboo tube filled with water from his backpack. Chen Qi took it, opened the lid, and rinsed his mouth. “Is this entire mountain made of salt stones?”
Axu nodded, “We usually collect salt stones from inside the cave. The ones outside are mostly covered in dirt and are not as clean as the ones inside.” As he spoke, Axu led the group of them into the cave.
Even the ones from inside the caves had so many impurities in them. Chen Qi silently complained in his heart.
Crossing to Live in the Wilderness Plains (CLWP) is translated by Betwixted Translations. The site you’re reading this chapter on stole our translation.
Inside the cave, as far as the eye could see, it was almost entirely composed of white salt stones, entirely different from the reddish-brown sandstone layer outside. Perhaps due to frequent foot traffic underground, it was damp and humid, and although the cave entrance was large, the interior space was only about half the height of the entrance, about ten meters tall. The cave did give the appearance of being artificially excavated.
Axu walked to the innermost part of the cave and effortlessly dug out a salt stone the size of a fist with his transformed claws. He handed it to Chen Qi. “These are the salt stones.”
Chen Qi took a closer look and confirmed that the salt stone was indeed identical to the ones he had obtained at the gathering. He asked with a little puzzlement, “This cave seems like it was recently excavated. Do you only have this one salt mountain here?”
Axu shook his head. “There is also another salt mountain on the other side. We used to collect salt stones there, but a few years ago, we found that the salt stones there started to look different, so we moved to collect salt stones over here.”
“Different?” Could there be variations in salt?
“En. The further you dig into the salt mountain on the other side, the more transparent the salt stones became.”
Chen Qi wasn’t well-versed on the topic of salt, so he did not press further with questions. He planned to visit the other salt mountain in person when he was free, and then he could find out what the so-called transparent salt stones were all about.
With efforts from the three females, digging out the salt stones wasn’t too difficult, and it didn’t take long to fill three large hide backpacks with salt stones. The females naturally didn’t let Chen Qi carry anything. Of course, he wouldn’t have been able to lift those heavy backpacks anyway. It would already be considered impressive enough if he was able to walk back to the tribe without being carried on Aze’s back, considering there were no proper paths on these rocky mountains; the females usually climbed up upon the rocks. Thus, having an ordinary person navigate this rugged terrain was not just a matter of physical exertion.
After more than a year of training and adapting, Chen Qi’s physical strength had improved significantly from his initial weak condition when he first crossed into this world. Even walking through the rocky terrain, he was able to keep up with the pace of the females’ without much trouble.
By the time they returned to the rocky beach, evening was already approaching, and with the gradual retreat of the Salt-Water Lake’s waters, the beastmen were ready to begin their hunting activities for the day once again.
Today, the hunt was not under Achu’s leadership, but a middle-aged female with brown hair. Chen Qi had met this female once before, when they first arrived at the Salt-Water Tribe; he was the one guarding atop the fig tree on the outskirts of the tribe. Chen Qi recalled that his name was Aming, as called out by Ashu at that time.
Crossing to Live in the Wilderness Plains (CLWP) is translated by Betwixted Translations. The site you’re reading this chapter on stole our translation.
Whale sharks didn’t appear at the lakefront every day looking for food, and today, the beastmen encountered a massive octopus. It was different from the small octopi that Chen Qi had obtained from Ashu. This octopus was enormous, easily over ten meters in size. It had already surfaced without any prompting from the beastmen, and its massive tentacles thrashed about erratically, as if trying to drive away the obstructing beast people .
The octopus’ entire body was slippery, making it challenging to catch. Aming didn’t dare to jump onto its back like he would’ve with a whale shark. After all, the octopus has eight arms, each equipped with suction cups and considerable strength. If it ensnared a beastman, it could easily strangle them.
Despite its seemingly slow and dull appearance, the octopus’s movements were incredibly agile. While it might have appeared that the beastmen were surrounding and hunting it, Chen Qi couldn’t help but feel like this massive octopus was toying with them like a plaything.
After a brief standoff, it seemed like the octopus had had enough. It suddenly submerged into the water and then released a large cloud of ink, turning the entire surface of the water black and obscuring everyone’s vision.
Several females quickly wielded large pieces of wood and thrust them into the water in an attempt to block the octopus from escaping. However, when the ink dissipated from the water’s surface, there was no sign of the octopus anywhere.
……
It was the first time Chen Qi witnessed the beastmen failing in a hunting endeavor.
Clearly, the beast people of the Salt-Water Tribe were no strangers to failure in hunting. Their faces didn’t show any signs of disappointment and they all calmly tidied up their things in an orderly way. Even if they failed once or twice, they did not lack food during the summer. And even if they were unsuccessful with hunting for several days in a row, they could still go out beyond the tribe to gather wild fruits to eat.
“Octopus is really not easy to catch.” Ale and Ashu, who had watched the entire process, approached the group. Ale even conveniently took Aze’s backpack from him when he arrived.
“Didn’t you bring a big bag of octopus to exchange with me last time?” Chen Qi had always thought that catching octopi should be relatively easy to them, given the large quantity they had brought over previously.
Ashu pursed his lips. “It took me two months to catch that bag full of octopus.”
“……”
“Unfortunately, we can’t eat octopus today.” Ashu complained, a little frustrated.
“You really like to eat octopus?”
“Of course, octopuses don’t have bones. Everyone in the tribe likes eating it.”
Chen Qi pondered on this and realized that in the Salt-Water Tribe, most of the hunted prey were indeed soft-bodied animals. Even when it came to fish, they targeted massive species like whale sharks. These prey were not like the big freshwater fish in the Chishui River, which had a lot of small, fine bones.
“Are octopuses common in this area?” Chen Qi inquired.
Crossing to Live in the Wilderness Plains (CLWP) is translated by Betwixted Translations. The site you’re reading this chapter on stole our translation.
Axu nodded. “There are many octopuses in the Salt-Water Lake, but octopuses are usually very cunning, so catching them isn’t easy.”
Chen Qi smiled thoughtfully. “I know a relatively simple way to catch octopus, but I haven’t tried it before, so I’m not sure if it will work. Do you want to give it a try?”
“What method?” Ashu’s eyes lit up as he looked at Chen Qi.
“I’ll need to go back and gather some tools.”
Chen Qi explained the method briefly to the others, and they exchanged surprised looks. It seemed so simple; could it really catch octopuses?
Once back in the cave, they put away the salt stones collected that day, and the sun-dried mussels had also dried out enough after a day under the sun. Chen Qi planned to set them out to dry again in a couple of days to prevent the meat from becoming too tough. It was already approaching evening, and the sun would set soon. The work of making the dried mussels can only be continued tomorrow.
Many of the pottery brought in this time were jars. Chen Qi took five or six of them, then crafted a simple net using ropes to secure the jars. This way, he could lift the jar without having the jar mouth facing downward.
Taking advantage of the fact that it wasn’t completely dark yet, the group of them arrived at an area where Axu had indicated that octopuses were more abundant. They placed the jars underwater, and secured them with ropes to floating pieces of wood on the surface of the water. These pieces of wood were then fastened to rocks along the shore with vines, ensuring they wouldn’t be swept away by the water’s current.
The group of people followed Chen Qi’s instructions with a mix of curiosity and skepticism. They couldn’t wait to see the results the next morning and were eager to take Chen Qi to check on their efforts.
Chen Qi, however, was not in a hurry. Instead, he had them gather the mussels that needed to be dried that day. By the time they had boiled and shelled the mussels and spread them out to dry at the entrance of the cave, it was nearing noon. Ashu and Ale were the most impatient ones, and kept asking Chen Qi if they could go check on the jars from yesterday to see if they had caught any octopuses.
After patiently waiting for the mussels to dry, Chen Qi finally gave the go-ahead. The two females eagerly rushed to the lakeside.
Last night, Axu had informed Achu about their plan to catch octopuses. Seeing that they were going to check the results, Achu, accompanied by Lu Se, curiously joined the group heading to the lakeside.
“Chen Qi, can I pull it up now?” Ashu crouched on a floating piece of wood, nervously gripping the rope. He whispered to Chen Qi on the shore, fearing that a loud voice might startle any potential octopuses they had caught.
Chen Qi nodded, signaling that Ashu could start pulling up the jar. Ashu took a deep breath and slowly began to pull the rope, trying his best not to make too much noise.
After the jar was pulled out of the water, Ashu peered into the jar’s opening for quite some time. The people on the bank began to think that they must not have caught anything when suddenly Ashu, full of excitement, quickly bounded back upon the floating wood to the shore. He put the jar in front of Chen Qi and exclaimed, “We caught some, we caught some! There’s really an octopus.”
As Ashu’s voice fell, Ale, from the other side, also came running excitedly, holding a jar. “I also caught one too. There’s really an octopus! It filled up the entire jar!” With that, Ale seemed a bit conflicted and added, “But we can’t get the octopus out. Do we have to break the jar?” That would be such a waste. Making pottery wasn’t easy, especially in the case of the Salt-Water Tribe, where there was no clay available for pottery-making.
Chen Qi took out a piece of salt stone from his bag and had Aze crush it. Then, he took the jar from Ale’s hand, placed it on the ground, and sprinkled the crushed salt into the jar’s opening. The octopus, which had initially been curled up inside the jar, started to move. When it extended its body out of the jar, Aze’s sharp claws pierced through the octopus’s skin, lifting it out entirely.
Despite the jar not appearing very large, the volume of the octopus was actually two to three times the size of the jar when lifted out.
Achu was amazed when he saw this. “I didn’t expect it to be so easy to catch an octopus. If the jar were a bit bigger, could we use this method to catch a big octopus like the one from yesterday?”
Chen Qi patted the salt off his hands and nodded, “In theory, it should be possible to catch the big octopus using this method. Octopuses like to hide in hollow containers, and this approach is much easier and less dangerous than trying to catch them directly.”
Words from the Translation Crew
Miiya: I have 0.01% of CQ’s knowledge on these things. 10 of 10, would not survive transmigration.
Translator: Miiya
Editor: MushroomNight73
Proofreader: Yume
Editor stepping into the realm of MTL translating, starting with CLWP. Support this translation with a Ko-fi. Three Ko-fis will add an extra chapter from the stockpile to the next weekly release.
Why don’t they evaporate filtered salt water to get pure lovely flaky salt??? Flaky sea salt is yummy!
Miiya: I have 0.01% of CQ’s knowledge on these things. 10 of 10, would not survive transmigration.
same here. especially if it comes to cooking. But Miiya, we just have to find ourselves some omnipotent husbands! Where’s the problem 😀