Chapter 77 - Pottery (1/2)

Ch77 - Pottery

There were many things that the Giant Pig Tribe had that the Big Bear Tribe didn’t have. For example, there was no sign of pottery anywhere in the Big Bear Tribe.

In addition, there were also some plants and other things that the Big Bear Tribe didn’t have.

However… For goods like pottery, the production methods and technology were actually in the hands of the Beast God Temple.

Zhu Zhan spoke, “Do you know why each and every one of the big tribes all support the Beast God Temple? It’s because there are many things that only the people of the Beast God Temple know how to make. For example, pottery.”

The priests for those big tribes were all arranged and selected by the Beast God Temple, and their knowledge wasn’t passed down from generation to generation. Those priests were all loyal to the Beast God Temple.

At the same time, the Beast God Temple controlled techniques that the other tribes didn’t have themselves, such as the knowledge required to make pottery.

Only the people of the Beast God Temple could make pottery, but pottery was more useful and effective than stone tools. That meant that in their Giant Pig Tribe, anyone with a smidgeon of status used pottery.

In addition to this, the people of the Beast God Temple also controlled the spread of various areas of other knowledge.

Zhu Zhan spoke a lot and then suddenly added, “Since your tribe has a messenger of the Beast God, you should be able to make pottery, right?” He was grateful to Zhou Ji for saving him, but to be honest, he didn’t believe that Zhou Ji was the Beast God’s messenger.

If he was really the Beast God’s messenger, why didn’t he stay at the Beast God Temple? Or at the very least, he should have appeared in a large tribe… The quality of life in the Big Bear Tribe was still incomparable to life in those big tribes.

The priest: “I’ll go ask!”

Zhu Zhan: “……”

Was the knowledge required to make things like pottery something that could be obtained simply by asking? Wasn’t that too simplistic?!

Take their Giant Pig Tribe as an example – they had always been envious of the Beast God Temple and wished that they could make pottery on their own. Yet what was the result? They had researched it for a very long time and still hadn’t figured it out.

As for going to the Beast God Temple and convincing their people to switch allegiances… The people there had great faith in the Beast God and would rather commit suicide than divulge any of its secrets!

However, the priest was full of confidence regarding Zhou Ji.

So, that day, Zhou Ji was basking in the sun at the entrance to his own cave when the priest came over and asked, “Zhou Ji, do you know anything about pottery?”

Zhou Ji: “Yes.”

See? He knew that Zhou Ji would know! The priest looked at Zhou Ji, “This pottery thing sounds very useful… How is it made?”

“Shape it out of mud and then burn it with fire.” Zhou Ji said.

Zhou Ji had always felt that stone tools weren’t easy to use. Now that the priest had mentioned pottery… It suddenly occurred to him that they could fire bake clay to make pottery.

To say nothing else, clay pots were definitely better than stone ones!

Before, the people in the tribe had spent all their time working hard in order to get enough to eat, and it wasn’t convenient for him to have people set aside hunting for the sake of firing clay. Now however, they could give it a try.

He didn’t actually know the specific techniques required, and just firing clay probably wouldn’t create proper pottery… but they could give it a go. What was there to be afraid of?

Of course, Zhou Ji didn’t know how to fire clay bricks. He had seen pictures of cave life in books before, but he had only flipped and glanced through them and hadn’t paid much attention to it all.

However, he didn’t mind doing some more research into it now.

Zhou Ji had people dig a pit outside of their valley and also sent others out to obtain some mud from the foot of the mountain behind the valley.

Fired pottery couldn’t be made with just any kind of mud. At the very least, soil that was full of detritus was unsuitable for pottery. However, the mud behind the valley was very pure and didn’t have any flowers or grass bits mixed in. It should be usable, right?

If it couldn’t be used, they would just switch to another type.

Zhou Ji lay back in a reclining chair carved out of a giant piece of wood and watched as the people of the tribe bustled about.

The people from the Giant Pig Tribe: “……”

Zhu Zhan: “Are these people crazy? They actually plan to fire pottery!”

The people around Zhu Zhan also had incredulous expressions on their faces, “Is pottery so easy to make?”

“Do they really believe that this person is the messenger of the Beast God?”

“What Beast God’s messenger. I think he looks like a swindler.”

“Everyone is busy, but he’s doing nothing at all…”

……

Although they were told that Zhou Ji was the one who had fixed Zhu Zhan’s leg, the people of the Giant Pig Tribe didn’t actually believe it. They were also unable to summon up any goodwill towards Zhou Ji.

Everyone in the Big Bear Tribe was bustling about, but this Zhou Ji was incredibly relaxed, which made it difficult for others to like him.

“Let them mess around! They’ll soon discover that they’re doing pointless work.” Zhu Zhan stated, “However, this tribe really did help us out… Shouldn’t we go and do something for them?”

“We can join the hunting team?” One of Zhu Zhan’s subordinates suggested this. Zhu Zhan’s leg hadn’t fully healed yet, and his recovery would take at least half a month. During this half a month, they planned to remain here in the tribe.

It was dangerous outside. It was better if they remained in the tribe so that he could recover fully first.

“That’s possible.” Zhu Zhan agreed, “You guys go and join their hunting team to help out!”

Having confirmed their plans with Zhu Zhan, Zhu Zhan’s subordinates immediately went to find Xiong Ye who was in charge of the hunting team, “We’re all experienced soldiers who can join you on hunts.”

“Are you able to catch elephant birds alive?” Xiong Ye asked them.

The people of the Giant Pig Tribe: Why would they want to catch it alive?!