The wicked female is extremely fierce, but she's pampered by her seven beast husbands.

Chapter 124 Salt Spring Brine Making
Before setting off, Ling Chengen went to the Hanshan tribe. As soon as Wu Zhuo brought her to land within the Hanshan territory, a gray crane flew over from not far away.

Judging by their beast forms alone, Ling Chengen couldn't quite discern the identities of the beastmen from the Hanshan tribe.

As the gray crane let out a clear cry, it landed in the jungle ahead. Soon, a young man with a head full of small braids jumped out of the bushes, smiling and waving at the two of them: "Young Master Ling, you're here to see Brother Xi, right? I'll take you there."

Ling Chengen jumped off Wu Zhuo's back and asked in confusion, "Is it far?"

"In the stone nest on the back mountain."

The gray crane youth was someone I had met before; his name was Hui Dongling, and he was an orc with a great talent for cooking.

Ling Chengen climbed back onto Wu Zhuo's back: "You lead the way."

She had never been to the stone nest in the back mountain of the Hanshan tribe, so she was not familiar with it.

In an instant, Hui Dongling transformed back into a gray crane and flew ahead of them.

The stone nest is located on the western part of the northern slope of Hanshan Mountain. The area is relatively desolate with sparse vegetation, but it is filled with a lot of stones.

Besides building a kiln that can guarantee a high temperature, calcining lime requires a large amount of limestone.

Limestone is not hard to find. To the east of the Stone Forest Tribe lies a vast plain, but to the west stretches a continuous mountain range, with countless barren mountains and stone forests.

On her way back from the secluded place, she saw many stone mountains and determined the location where limestone could be mined.

When Bai Qingyu returned to Hanshan yesterday, she took away some of the limestone that Bai Qingyu had brought back.

I have no idea how badly it burned overnight.

The three of them settled down near the stone nest. Before they even saw anyone, they could feel that the temperature around them was much higher than in other places.

Hui Dongling led them up a small path, and soon they saw four or five orcs from the Crane Clan.

The young man leading the group was Bai Xi, whom I hadn't seen for several days. He was squatting in front of a pile of grayish-white stones, holding a stone in his palm, looking down as if he were thinking about something.

Hearing the commotion, a group of people immediately looked over. Ling Chengen walked to the piles of separated stones and asked, "Are these all calcined?"

Bai Xi handed her the calcined stone in her hand: "I tried everything that A Yu told me."

They have currently built three calcining kilns, none of which are very large. They can typically produce a batch of calcined stones every three to five hours, all made of limestone.

But the results after burning were quite different.

Ling Chengen knew what was going on after hearing his explanation, but instead of answering his question immediately, he asked the system to help him filter the results.

"This batch of lime is usable, but the others are not."

Ling Chengen walked to the farthest corner, casually picked up a piece of calcined stone, and the stone turned into powder in his palm.

She twirled the kiln between her fingers, then turned and asked, "Do you remember how this batch was fired?"

Bai Xi nodded. The reason for separating the stones produced from each kiln was to make it easier to distinguish the conditions during calcination.

Ling Chengen pointed to a kiln that left a deep impression on him: "This batch was fired at a very high temperature for more than five hours. If this batch is acceptable, then all subsequent batches should be fired according to this standard?"

“Okay, I’ll take some first. I plan to use it to boil brine.” Ling Chengen pointed to the lime on the ground, wanting to get his permission.

Bai Xi waved her hand: "It was made according to your requirements. Apart from the effort and wood it took, it didn't take much effort. If you want to use it, take it all."

Seeing that Ling Chengen had put the lime into his spatial storage, he looked much more relaxed and stretched.

"But you've started making salt so soon?"

Do you need my help?

"If you leave, who will burn the kiln and make lime? Besides, Bai Xu is leading a hunting team out; don't you need to stay behind and look after Hanshan?"

Ling Chengen does need the help of a fire-type beastman, which would make it easier to boil brine. However, after Bai Qingyu arrived at the Stone Forest, Bai Xi and Bai Xu's burdens have increased considerably, and they may not be able to do as they please as before.

“My father is still alive. He’s just getting old, he’s not gone…”

Before he could finish speaking, a slap landed on his back.

Bai Xi turned to look at the disapproving tribal elder, then shrank back, saying, "I was just talking nonsense..."

"If the clan chief hears you say that, he'll definitely twist your ears off."

Bai Xi really didn't want to continue squatting here burning stones; it was incredibly boring. "You all know how this kiln is fired. Why don't you keep firing the kiln here, and I'll go to Youdi to help her?"

Moreover, several of the orcs who came to burn lime this time were fire-type, so it's okay if he runs away.

"Then you should go and tell the clan chief yourself."

"We can just watch the firing process. We already know the fastest way to fire the kiln, and we can fire as much as needed."

Bai Xi patted the thick layer of dust off her clothes and turned to look at Ling Chengen: "What's your opinion? Do you agree?"

"I'm leaving now. You'll probably need to pack a bit more before you can go, so I won't wait for you."

Ling Chengen glanced at the sky. She still wanted to come back and rest tonight. If she delayed any longer, she wouldn't have much time to work today.

Bai Xi nodded: "It's Youdi, right? Then you guys go first. I know where it is, and I'll catch up with you later."

……

When Wu Zhuo and Ling Chengen arrived at Youdi, it was already very late.

Upon arrival, the two immediately began work, setting up their cooking stove near the salt spring.

They brought some firewood, but it was impossible to bring all of it from home. So after Wu Zhuo helped set up the stove, he carried an axe made of giant beast bone and crawled out of the cave again to cut some branches. He planned to dry the branches on the sunny ground and then store them all in the dry cave.

When Bai Xi arrived, he saw the large black pit in the heart of Youdi before he even landed.

He circled halfway in mid-air and saw Wu Zhuo pulling a bunch of tree branches down to the foot of the rocky mountain with a rope, and landed directly in front of him.

"Wu Zhuo, what's that blackened thing in that big pit? Did you burn it before?"

Seeing that he was blocking the way, Wu Zhuo looked at him, sweating profusely, and said, "Come and help me first."

Bai Xibang caught the other bundle of rope he threw over, hung it on a branch of the giant tree trailing behind him, gripped the rope tightly with both hands, turned his body, and hoisted the rope onto his shoulder.

The two of them worked together to drag the giant tree branches forward. Wu Zhuo then explained to him, "When we came here last time, there were many corpses here. Some were rotting, and some had long since turned into bones. Sister En said that we'll basically be making salt here from now on, so we have to protect the environment." "Rotting corpses easily breed a lot of mosquitoes that spread infectious diseases. To ensure that we don't contract terrible diseases, we have to burn the corpses together."

"Moreover, none of the water sources in this area are drinkable."

"Sister En said that there should be various pathogens and parasite eggs in the water..."

Bai Xi gasped in surprise, "If the people who disposed of the body find out, they'll probably cause her trouble."

Wu Zhuo turned his head and stared at him sharply: "You are not allowed to tell anyone."

"Do you think I can keep this from being discovered just because I don't tell anyone?" Bai Xi couldn't help but roll her eyes. "You two blatantly dug such a big pit to burn corpses. Any orc passing by would definitely take a second look. How could you possibly hide it?"

"What the hell."

Wu Zhuo knew he was telling the truth, but salt production was a major issue, not to mention the corpses in Youdi... most of them died during the cold season, and the fact that their bodies were simply dumped on the wasteland meant they had most likely been abandoned by their families.

"I see there are quite a few corpses around here. Since you've already started burning them, why not just finish them off once and for all?"

Bai Xi held onto the tree branch and pondered for a moment: "Then we'll take control of Youdi directly, carve out a new area, and solve the problem of disposing of corpses for other tribes."

Unlike humans, the orcs of the Beast World don't care much about the disposal of corpses. They basically just throw the bodies into the wilderness and let animals eat them. The remaining ones slowly decompose and eventually turn into a pile of bones.

Only a few orcs properly dispose of the corpses of their loved ones. To prevent wild animals from eating them, they either bury the bodies or burn them, scattering the ashes on the borders of their tribe's territory.

Looking at Bai Xi's cold and stern expression, Wu Zhuo said indignantly, "Do you think it's because I don't want to? There are two of us, En Jie and I, how can we manage? When she first arrived, she had to find a place to get brine, and I had to collect firewood everywhere. What's more, I don't have any special abilities, so I can only use firewood to burn these corpses."

Bai Xi chuckled and said, "You're quite capable, but this is only your second time here. If she can finish making salt today and take some salt powder back, Han Shan and Shi Lin will send people over to tidy up the place. It won't be a difficult task."

"You're gathering all this to prepare firewood, right?"

Bai Xi looked at the branches of the giant tree that was more than 30 meters long behind her.

This must be a branch from a giant pine tree; the cut is fresh, so it must have just been cut off by Wuzhuo.

Pine wood burns easily, but it doesn't burn for very long.

"I'll go check the surrounding area in a bit to see if there are any beech forests, as that kind of wood is more durable."

The two of them worked together to drag the giant pine trunk to the open ground, and Wu Zhuo, carrying a bone axe, began to chop away with great enthusiasm.

Bai Xi followed the path he pointed out, passed through the narrow mountain road, and finally saw Ling Chengen filtering salt spring water with a cloud-like garment in an open space outside the mountain road.

"Is there anything I can do? Just tell me." Bai Xi observed for a while, then stepped forward and spoke up.

"Bring that bucket over, cover it with the cloud-like garment, tie a rope around the edge of the bucket, and then scoop spring water into it."

Bai Xi immediately started moving, looking at the gushing spring water, and exclaimed in surprise, "This is the salty spring water you were talking about?"

"Why don't you try it and you'll know?" Ling Chengen straightened up and glanced at him.

Bai Xi scooped up a handful of water, gently licked it, and was instantly amazed by this natural salt spring.

"It really is salty?"

He rubbed his hands together and grinned, saying, "It's much saltier than seawater."

"That's for sure. This is brine that flows out of underground salt wells, and its concentration is much higher than that of seawater."

Ling Chengen stared at him intently: "However, I don't plan to let too many people know about the salt springs here for boiling and making salt, so you have to learn it today. I might not be coming back tomorrow. I'm going to visit the tribes on the eastern coast. I made an appointment with them beforehand to teach them how to make salt from seawater."

Bai Xi asked, puzzled, "We already have control of the salt water here, why would we go to such lengths to find something closer?"

"It's common knowledge that the salt mines of the large southern tribes have unstable production. What do you think they would do if they knew that our tribe had also discovered a salt mine that could reliably produce salt powder, and that the quality was even better than their salt rocks?"

Bai Xi frowned: "Won't they forcibly take it over?"

There is absolutely no other possibility.

The two large tribes in the south developed because of the salt mines. If it weren't for the salt mines... they might just be medium-sized tribes with scarce resources now.

"Therefore, having an external channel as a smokescreen is very important."

While busy with his work, Ling Chengen analyzed with him, "Although seawater salt production is inefficient, the raw materials are inexhaustible, unlike salt mines. After a long period of mining, the salt mines are depleted, and the output gradually decreases. Once the method of seawater salt production spreads, even if large tribes want to control salt production again, they will have to see if other coastal tribes are willing to listen to them."

The tribes along the eastern coast are no pushovers; they also have a sea tribe backing them up.

Historically, their relationship with inland tribes has not been harmonious.

Whether it's the Daxing tribe or the Kruma tribe, they all want to gain an advantage over the coastal tribes...

It's not that easy.

To some extent, the coastal tribes' decision to supply salt to the inland areas would diminish the status and prestige of those two tribes.

At the same time, she was also able to make a fortune during the crucial period when sea salt was being sold inland.

After all, supplying salt to the entire Northern Beast Plains tribe was not her goal.

She just wanted to use this opportunity to make money, then use the sea salt to build relationships and find out about the tribes in order to prepare for her next plan.

Once she has acquired a large amount of land and possesses sufficient power, she can regain control of salt production.

Although Bai Xi didn't hear her subsequent thoughts, she realized that she had grand ambitions.

“I will learn salt making from you first. If I have enough time, I will try it once. If it works, you can leave the whole thing to me.”

Ling Chengen smiled faintly: "Why don't you filter the salt spring first? There's a lot to do."

The three of them worked busily in the secluded place all day, and finally boiled up a light white salt by evening.

The salt was piled up at the bottom of the pot, not completely dry, but with little moisture visible, like sand washed by seawater.

By simply spreading out the remaining salt to dry in the sun, or by drying it directly, you can obtain salt powder that is even purer than before.

Bai Xi couldn't wait to spread the salt out to dry the next day, so she removed the firewood from the bottom of the pot and used her supernatural ability to dry the salt inside.

He reached out and cupped the dry, fine salt sand in his hands, and a sincere and pure smile spread across his usually arrogant face.

"Let's go back now!"