Building a Civilization and Raising Cubs in the Beast World – Chapter 04

Chapter 4

Bai Tu remembered that this was one of the taboos of witch doctors that Bai An mentioned just now. However, he was not a witch doctor. Even if he was in the past, he would not remember these rules now. There were not so many rules. Even if Tu Bing didn’t ask, he would tell everyone in the future. He waved his hand and took out the remaining plants to teach Tu Bing to identify them.

“These are onions. Add a little bit when stewing meat or soup, and the fishy smell will not be so strong. This is ginger. The leaves look like this. In addition to removing fishy smells, they can also drive away cold. When it’s cold, you can boil water with it and drink it. You won’t catch a cold easily… you won’t get sick easily. The rest are called great thistles. You can stew them into soup and they are also a kind of medicine. They can stop bleeding. You can dig some when you come across them in the future, but don’t dig them all up. Leave some and let them continue to grow…”

The Beast God Continent uses general terms for plants. All tall trees and shrubs are called trees, and all low plants are called grasses. Bai Tu simply used the names from his previous life since they looked almost the same anyway.

Tu Bing was stunned. In fact, she didn’t hold much hope when she asked, otherwise she wouldn’t have given up after being warned by Bai An. She never expected that Bai Tu not only told her the name and identification method, but also told her its use.

Afraid that he would not be able to remember too much if he talked about it at once, Bai Tu only talked about the three types used at night. Even though there were only three types, Tu Bing still couldn’t hide his excitement.

Bai An was afraid that Bai Tu would be angry at first, but now he is overwhelmed with joy. The witch doctor is willing to teach their tribe to find new food! This is a treatment that even the big tribes have never had!

Bai Tu noticed the eggs placed aside and asked Bai An: “Chief, should we keep these eggs to hatch chicks?”

It was early summer now and winter would still take a few months. A summer and an autumn would be enough for the newly hatched chicks to grow to a size where they could lay eggs. They could be eaten as meat or kept for laying eggs.

When I was a child, my neighbors and my family all raised chickens, and Bai Tu helped to prepare chicken feed. At that time, chickens in rural areas were never fed with feed. They were almost entirely fed with grass, grass meal, wheat bran and other substitutes.

There is no wheat bran now, but there is plenty of green grass. Bai Tu glanced at the grass not far away. The thing that is least lacking here is grass. It is everywhere. He can cut more in the autumn, dry it and save it for winter feed.

Bai An obviously had no experience: “How to hatch them?”

“Aren’t the eggs from the two hens today? Let them hatch them, how about I give it a try?” Bai Tu asked. When

Bai An heard the word “try”, he remembered that they almost refused the witch doctor’s attempt to treat Bai Chen in the evening. He looked at Bai Tu and nodded: “If you want to hatch them, just try.”

He agreed verbally, but in his heart he still felt that hatching chicks was not reliable. After all, even if the chicks were hatched, they might not be able to survive. It’s not just that they doubt Bai Tu’s ability, it’s that all the witch doctors in the entire Beast God Continent are like this.

I’ve only heard of witch doctors making medicine to save lives, but who has ever heard of witch doctors raising chickens?

Bai Tu had no idea what Bai An was thinking, and he excitedly picked up the eggs and sent them to the cave where the prey were kept. In addition to the chickens, there were also a few voles in the cave. Fortunately, the two were separated, and Bai Tu avoided the latter. Although they both have hair on their bodies, there is a difference between being furry and hairy. Some make people want to touch them, while others make people stay away from them.

Many birds suffer from night blindness at night, which made his movements easier. He moved a large rock, untied some of the vines wrapped around the pheasant, and tied the other end to the rock to give the pheasant some space to move around, but only within a short distance around the rock.

After tying up the pheasant, Bai Tu found some large leaves and a pile of hay, made two chicken coops and placed them next to the pheasant. He told Bai An not to let anyone else touch them, and mentioned that he might need to use two chickens from the tribe to test the food tomorrow. Only after getting a positive answer did he return to his cave.

After entering the cave, Bai Tu did not rush to rest, but first wiped his whole body with mugwort water.

There are many mosquitoes in the summer. Every time we have dinner, there is a lingering smell of blood around the tribe. When the temperature is high, the rotten smell of animal skins attracts these uninvited guests, especially in caves without any sealing measures. Using mugwort leaves cannot drive away all mosquitoes, but it is better than nothing. In addition, a lot of herbs were prepared in the cave these two days, so the number of mosquitoes is much less than when I just woke up.

The next morning, Bai Tu went to the chicken cave and found that the two hens were already nesting on eggs.

There were more than a dozen chickens in the cave. Except for the two we brought back yesterday, the rest were all listless. The field mouse was in good spirits and adapted well, but Bai Tu looked away after just one look. He was incapable of accepting such things.

Pheasants are used to flying around outside in search of food and are not adapted to the dim environment of a cave. What’s more, in order to prevent the pheasants from escaping, all the caught pheasants were tied up tightly. It was good enough if they were still alive. As for their appetite, it was very likely that they would not have good appetite.

Bai Tu stroked his chin and thought, should he give these prey some freedom? After all, it’s not enough to just eat without laying eggs.

Every member of the tribe has the responsibility to provide food for the tribe, and chickens are no exception.

The tied-up prey in the tribe was fed by teenagers who were in their teens and were still too young to join the picking team. As usual, Bai Dong took Tu Shi and Tu You to pick a bunch of grass to feed the chickens. Unexpectedly, as soon as he entered the cave today, he saw someone about to let the tribe’s chickens run away.

The three men stood at the entrance of the cave in fear. Bai Dong howled, “We can’t free them! The chickens ran away and we can’t catch up with them!”

Tu Shi also wailed, “It’s over, it’s over. The hunting team is not here now.” Pheasants are very fast and can fly. Only a few people in the hunting team in the entire tribe can catch up with them.

Rabbit You was embarrassed: “Tu, do you really want to eat the chicken? Just untie one secretly. If you untie all of them, you will be discovered.”

The white rabbit explained with a frown: “We didn’t let the chicken run away. We only untied the part on its body. The legs are still tied. This way the pheasant can’t run away and can only move around in the cave. It will eat more food and if we’re lucky, it can continue to lay eggs.”

There were thirteen pheasants in total, nine of which were hens. Excluding the two that were sitting on nests, there were still seven. It would be a good choice to keep the eggs for eating or to continue hatching chicks.

The three of them then looked carefully, and sure enough, although the vines on the backs of all the chickens had been untied, not a single one escaped.

Worried about the past, the teenagers became curious about Bai Tu’s words.

Bai Dong: “Bai Tu, how do you know that eggs can be laid after being untied?”

Tu Shi: “Did the previous witch doctor tell you?”

Tu You’s eyes were full of admiration: “Bai Tu, you are amazing!”

“I figured it out myself. If I raise more, I can eat them anytime.” The tribe is short of food now, and most of the living things are kept to be exchanged for salt later. What everyone eats depends entirely on what they catch that day, and breeding is much more stable.

Seeing the children’s expectant faces, Bai Tu waved his hand: “Okay, go feed the chickens, I’ll go collect herbs.”

Farming is not something that can yield results overnight, so Bai Tu naturally would not put all his energy on just a few chickens. There are more important things to do outside.

The picking team sets out at dawn and returns in the evening, staying outside all day. Bai Tu also had to help Bai Chen boil medicine at noon. He felt dizzy after walking for a long time and was not suitable to walk outside for a whole day, so he did not follow the picking team. Instead, he chose to walk around by himself after breakfast.

Great burdock, thistle, Panax notoginseng, rush, mint, Imperata cylindrica… not limited to those for stopping bleeding and reducing inflammation, this time Bai Tu collected all the herbs he knew. After all, there are so many people in the tribe, and if someone has a headache or a fever, they won’t have to come out to look for herbs at the last minute.

Moreover, he always felt that there was no need to waste so much knowledge. Besides, after these herbs were prepared and mixed, they could be used to exchange supplies with other tribes. Only when the tribe is strong can life be better in the future. A tribe that is not exclusive and united is hard to come by.

Witch doctors are so scarce, so there will be no shortage of people who want medicine that can cure injuries and illnesses.

Bai Tu discovered one thing. There are too many poisonous plants here. He didn’t feel anything in the small area at the foot of the mountain the past two days, but now the farther he walks, the more there are. He thought that Bai Qi and others were too cautious because they were so shocked yesterday, but after looking at the plants here, he realized that it was right to be careful. Poisonous plants such as wild celery, nightshade, and Xanthium can be seen every time he walks a distance. If the orcs who have little knowledge of plants pick them directly without selection, the possibility of poisoning is indeed high.

However, these poisonous plants can also be used as medicine, and it is dangerous to leave them here, so Bai Tu packed them all up and took them away. I don’t know if it was his body’s instinct or because he hadn’t been active in the tribe for a few days, or if it was the farmer’s genes that played a role, but after digging up one plant, he wanted to dig up the next one. He felt like there were so many resources on the ground that it would be a waste if he didn’t pick them up. He never thought that one day he would become addicted to collecting herbs. The bone knife given by Bai An was much more useful than the stone chips he found two days ago.

In addition to herbs, Bai Tu also found plants similar to potatoes. The rhizomes were also somewhat similar, but they were slightly smaller than the potatoes he ate in his previous life.

Wild potatoes? His subconscious told him that this thing was edible, but he had heard before that untamed potatoes might be poisonous. Bai Tu put the potatoes in a backpack. To be on the safe side, he decided to go back and try it before eating it. Double protection would be safer.

He also saw a few plants of beans and eggplants, but unfortunately now is not the season for these foods to mature, and it will take several months before they can be eaten. Bai Tu carefully dug them out with soil and planned to plant them in the open space at the foot of the mountain.

Without any timekeeping equipment, he could only rely on the sun to judge the time. After walking around outside for two or three hours, he picked half a basket of herbs and found some potatoes. However, Bai Tu only dug up four or five large ones. He didn’t find any ripe fruits. After all, the picking team passed by here every day and had picked them all long ago. Seeing the sun rising higher and higher, Bai Tu wiped the sweat from his head and walked towards the river.

Although he had plenty of time, he did not go too far. Besides being repeatedly told not to go to the edge of the territory as it was easy to run into people from the Mad Lion Tribe, another factor was that his body and equipment were not strong enough.

He was wearing simply tanned animal skins and simple straw sandals that he had woven himself, which hurt his feet when he walked fast. This body probably hasn’t walked a long distance, as there are no obvious calluses on its hands and feet, and it has to rest for a while after walking for a while.

The river next to the tribe now looks more like a stream. The water level is very shallow and you can see the rocks at the bottom of the water. Even if you fall in, it will only be up to your knees. Everyone washes animal skins and other items here.

There were several large rocks on the shore. Bai Tu picked one that was close to the water and sat down on it. He took out the herbs and slowly washed them, leaving some that could not be washed separately.

The riverside was full of reeds and weeds, which blocked out the sun completely. Perhaps because it was close to the water, it was cooler than the cave.

Bai Tu looked at himself in the water. He looked almost the same as in his previous life, except that he was weaker and his skin color was unhealthily pale. There were two faint scratches on his wrist, barely visible. If it weren’t for the difference in skin color, they would have been easy to ignore. When he first woke up, he thought they were marks from pressure. The next day, they were still the same, and he realized that he had probably been injured before.

He was just sitting there doing nothing, and the lush reeds next to him attracted his attention. Bai Tu slowly stretched out his evil hands.

The tribe’s backpacks are made of vines and are rather rough. They are usually used to carry fruit. A few broad leaves are placed inside to prevent the fruit from leaking out.

The backpack made of reed leaves is tighter and has no large gaps. The only drawback is that the load-bearing capacity may not be good enough. Bai Tu plans to give it a try. It can be used to hold light items and can also be placed inside a vine backpack, saving the effort of finding bedding every day.

It seems easy to see others weaving baskets, but when I try it myself I find it is not that easy. The materials that are woven very obediently in other people’s hands become like a rebellious teenager with legs in my hands, and as soon as I put one side in place, the other side becomes wrong.

Bai Tu tried it six or seven times before he found the trick. The reed leaves finally stopped moving. Then he didn’t dare to breathe, for fear that a loud breath would ruin the beginning he had just made.

After weaving and unweaving, he finally made a crooked reed basket that was barely recognizable. However, it was quick once he mastered the method. Bai Tu also weaved a straw hat for himself and walked back wearing the newly made hat.

After returning to the tribe, he first placed a few seedlings in a cool place and sprinkled some water on the soil. Then he went to the chicken cave and picked out two small roosters to test whether the potatoes he dug up were poisonous. The pheasants here were a bit like a combination of wild and domesticated, but also a little different. Their wings and tail feathers were longer than those he had seen before, and the roosters were more colorful.

The experimental method is very simple. Feed them a potato in two halves, and then check again after a while to see if they are still alive.

There was a bonfire in the tribe that was always burning. When it was about to go out, someone would add more firewood. Whoever wanted to, just pulled out a lit branch and a new bonfire could be started in a few strokes.

There are more herbs this time, so Bai Tu adjusted the prescription. Fresh herbs have more water, so they need to be used in larger quantities.

Bai Chen was still unconscious, with some redness and swelling around the wound, and his body temperature was slightly higher than his, but a rabbit’s body temperature is one or two degrees higher than that of a human, which meant he was not having a fever. Bai Tu breathed a sigh of relief. With the orcs’ strong recovery ability and the help of herbs, it was only a matter of time before they woke up.

As for remaining in rabbit form, Bai An explained that it was easier for orcs to recover in beast form.

After dinner, Bai Tu went to observe the two chickens, found no adverse reactions, and returned to his cave.

There was a piece of nuts in the fire that he had put in before the meal. He dug it out with a branch, let it cool down, broke it open, and carefully tasted it. Because it had been roasted for a long time, the outermost part was almost carbonized and it tasted a little dry in the mouth, but Bai Tu was still very excited. It was the first time he had eaten staple food since he came to the Beast God Continent. It was not easy.

Bai Tu was reluctant to continue roasting the remaining ten potatoes, as he planned to cook them and eat them later. I didn’t go out again in the afternoon. I used the reed leaves I brought back to weave two straw mats and spread them on the ground and placed the medicine.

Most of the collected herbs need to be dried in the sun, so two straw mats are placed, one outside the cave entrance and the other on the open space inside the cave.

The third one, Tu Cai, who was sewing animal skins, came over and looked at the things under the herbs with some curiosity: “Tu, what is this?” After what happened last night, everyone knew that Bai Tu could save people, but he was different from the legendary witch doctor and was easier to get along with.

“Straw mat.” Since Bai Tu had already used it, he didn’t plan to hide it from others. “Use reed leaves, the long leaves like those by the river. You can also weave larger ones and use them to spread in caves for sleeping. You can also make backpacks and straw sandals.”

Bai Tu took out the simple backpack he had woven by the river in the morning. “These reed leaves are too fresh. They can only hold light things. They will be stronger after drying.”

Tu Cai couldn’t put this backpack made of new materials down and looked at it over and over again.

“The weaving method is a little more complicated than the previous backpacks. If you want to learn, I can teach you.” Bai Tu took the initiative to speak. It would be too troublesome for him to teach the tribesmen bit by bit. It would be better to teach Cai, and then Cai would teach others.

Tucai was immediately flattered.

Tucai had done much more handicrafts than Bai Tu, and quickly mastered the skills. Under Bai Tu’s guidance, she weaved a complete backpack.

Bai Tu used reed leaves to weave a cushion for himself and asked casually, “Cai, is our tribe close to the Lion Tribe?”

Tu Cai nodded, “Yes, our tribe’s territory is small, and the surrounding tribes are very close to us.” After saying that, fearing that Bai Tu was still thinking about the quarrel, he advised, “Tu, you must avoid Foxbu when you meet him in the future. There are too many people from the Lion Tribe, and their caves are not big enough for the hunting team to live in.”

The Snow Rabbit Tribe can still use the caves to raise chickens, so the number of people is much less, not to mention that the Rabbit Tribe cannot beat the Lion Tribe in a one-on-one fight.

“The cave is not big enough to accommodate you?” Bai Tu repeated these words. His own tribe had too many people to accommodate the Crazy Lion Tribe, and now they had to take in a group of Rabbit Tribe who had nowhere to go in the winter. Moreover, there were conflicts between the two sides. Would he be kind enough to choose to shake hands and make peace, or did he have other intentions?

“Yes, the Crazy Lion Tribe likes to rob orcs from other lion tribes, take them back to have children, and only raise the strong ones. Then the number of people increases, and they like to fight.” The Lion Tribe is different from the Rabbit Tribe. The Rabbit Tribe will only choose one partner, while the strong lions can find several partners. If they can’t find one, they will fight, and the winner will take the partner of the loser.

The Snow Rabbit Tribe has lived here for decades, but is still smaller than the Crazy Lion Tribe which has only moved here a dozen years ago. Thinking of the Crazy Lion Tribe, which was famous for its cruelty, Tu Cai sighed and focused her attention on weaving the backpack again.

Bai Dong and his friends came back to rest after carrying enough branches. They squatted beside the two of them to study. In front of the children, Bai Tu did not ask anything else.

Bai Dong sighed: “Tu, you really don’t look like a witch doctor.”

Every year when the salt exchange team comes back, many children in the tribe will chase them to listen to what is happening outside, a considerable part of which is about witch doctors.

After hearing so much, everyone’s impression of a witch doctor is that of an old man with a wrinkled face, a gloomy expression, and who gets angry easily. But they never expected to meet Bai Tu, who is completely opposite to the legend.

Bai Tu explained: “Because I’m not a witch doctor.”

Tu You still had eyes full of admiration: “But Tu is better than the witch doctor. Witch doctors can’t weave mats.”

Bai Dong was curious: “Then is he the same as the Beast God, who knows everything?”

Tu Shi asked: “Tu, can you let the Beast God defeat the Crazy Lion Tribe? They are so annoying. They steal our prey and our territory.”

Tu You nodded and agreed wildly: “Tu, let the Beast God drive them all away.”

Bai Tu was speechless. Kids, this is a typical villain’s speech, do you know? People who talk big usually don’t have a good end, and where do all these big wishes come from.

Bai Tu: “Remember one thing.”

The three children sat in a row, looking serious.

Bai Tu also emphasized seriously: “I am a human, not a turtle in the wishing well.” Even if there really is a beast god, it is impossible to fulfill these strange wishes.

“What is a wishing well?”

“What is a turtle? Is it powerful?”

Bai Tu: “…” Forget it, just destroy it.