Chapter 456 (2/2)

Most of the people in the village already knew about the tribe going to take the salt mines back, the general atmosphere was tense and solemn in the tribe. The few families he passed were preparing for war. Some warriors had to sew beast hide clothing and pouches themselves because the people who hadn’t awakened their totemic power could not pierce the sturdy fearsome beast hides with their bone needles. All they could do was sew other pouches using regular leather, braid straw rope etc.

Shao Xuan saw Wacha at the duck house talking to the person in charge.

When the keeper saw Shao Xuan, he hurried over to report what happened during the past few days. In general, it was the same as before. However, the ducks were less active during the day now and often stayed inside the duck house. The green duck was the same, most of the time brooding its eggs in its house. Those eggs were taking a long time to hatch too, so far nothing happened.

“Oh, right!” The keeper slapped his forehead, almost forgetting something. “Elder, you said to bring all the ducks who are still laying eggs into another pen. I realised there wasn’t just one!”

The keeper said Bai Guo finding an egg wasn’t a one-time incident, for the patrol team found more. Although there were just three, it was good news.

“These ducks laid eggs but did not brood them. The patrol team brought the eggs back with the ducks. Here, the two ducks with grass-dyed necks were the ones who laid the eggs. But we can’t match the eggs to the ducks though.”

“It’s fine, just continue separating them. If we care for them well, they might even lay more eggs during winter. But their eggs might not have the same properties.”

“Is it?” The keeper was a little disappointed. But it was better than no eggs. “When ducklings mature and lay eggs, would that work?”

“I think so.”

“Heh!” The keeper rubbed his palms, excited.

Since Shao Xuan was looking for Wacha, the keeper left to check on other pens. Shao Xuan and Wacha sat on two wooden blocks and Shao Xuan told him why he was here.

“Salt mines?” Wacha understood when he remembered Shao Xuan had never been to the mines so he told him its history.

Shao Xuan was not familiar with the salt mines here. In the past, there were salt ponds around his tribe and since Flaming Horn was in an isolated region, no one fought over it. Then, when they moved, they also found a salt lake. Although it was a little far away, there were also no tribes there. Other than Flaming Horn, no tribe was willing to live within a forest filled with dangerous beasts.

On this side, this was his first time witnessing conflict over salt mines.

Most of the salt in the tribe had already been processed. The ones he had were already ground and put in little ceramic containers. Due to his special position in the tribe, he never worried about his salt supply.

However, with the agreement between the three tribes, war was imminent. Before that, he wanted to know more about salt.