Chapter 11: The Function of the Stone Mill

He hesitated and said, "After washing clean, pinch with salt rock, but wild vegetables aren't like meat; they get crushed easily."

Then some Beastmen soaked the salt rock in water with wild vegetables, but they couldn't gauge the soaking time, and often when they took them out the vegetables were rotten beyond recognition.

And even if some Beastmen accidentally pickled the salted vegetables and dried them, because they're too salty, females and cubs endure the salty taste but end up with diarrhea; other Beastmen, seeing that, no longer dare to eat them.

Therefore the Witch Doctor later banned this "poison" salted vegetable from appearing in the Tribe, and it was ruthlessly eliminated.

Yun Li heard them recounting, word by word, the impracticality of using salt rock to pickle wild vegetables, and looking at the dried wild vegetables sun‑dried for a few days, she fell silent at once.

She wondered whether the Tribe's salt rock was inherently poisonous, causing the pickled salted vegetables to be unpalatable and even turn into "poison."

But that doesn't add up; if the Tribe's salt rock were toxic, then the foods she had previously flavored with it would have accumulated toxins in her body, making her feel unwell.

Yet Yun Li felt none of that; perhaps Beastmen bodies are special—so long as each intake of salt granules is small, even if toxins enter, their bodies can digest them themselves.

Therefore eating fully pickled salted vegetables is impossible; the one‑time accumulation of toxins is too much for a Beastman's body to digest, leading to health problems.

"A Li? A Li?"

"Hmm?"

Yun Li was snapped back to attention by He and saw her adopt a kindly tone, urging her to discard the dried vegetables: "…Mu Qing isn't unable to support you; why waste your mind on these trivialities as before? Better think about how to keep your body healthy, then have a clutch of little snakes with Mu Qing."

Mu Qing at that moment had just finished beating A Hu and walked in; hearing He's words, his body instantly stiffened.

But perhaps recalling Yun Li's several previous firm stands on his side, he quickly relaxed, walked to his female companion, and said to He:

"A Li's body hasn't been nurtured yet; I'm not in a hurry."

Actually he had considered being fine without cubs, but that thought passed through his mind only to be overtaken by another desire—to have a few cubs sharing Yun Li's bloodline.

Better not little snakes, but wolf cubs as A Li described.

He looked at him with a hint of pity, though his face showed none, and simply smiled, "It's not urgent; A Li's health is the most important."

Yun Li: "If there are any later, we'll have them; now that there's nothing, what's there to say."

After speaking, she seemed to recall something and turned her head, asking, "I don't think I've ever seen your beast form?"

She didn't know what kind of snake Mu Qing was.

Mu Qing thought that male Tribe members instinctively feel fear when they see his beast form, and for a moment he didn't know what to say.

Fortunately Yun Li's question was just a spur‑of‑the‑moment casual ask, not waiting for He to find an excuse to deflect the question from Mu Qing, Yun Li nudged Mu Qing and said:

"How many pieces of salt rock does your household still have? Hand me one; I have a use for it."

Seeing Mu Qing turn and go into the house, He, with a face full of disbelief, said, "We just talked so much; are you still planning to keep pickling wild vegetables?"

Yun Li thought, of course; her wild vegetables are already sun‑dried, and if she doesn't pickle them, how could she finish them in a few days?

Yet she shook her head, "Let's not pickle for now; I'll show you what that stone mill is for."

Upon hearing that, He and the others exchanged glances and followed Yun Li to a device linking two circular stone plates, one above the other.

"What could this thing be used for?"

One female looked back and forth but couldn't figure it out.

"It's for grinding things; if something can't be crushed by hand in one go, you use it to grind—it's more convenient."

Yun Li also knew Beastmen are strong, especially cultivated ones, who can almost break hard stone with bare hands, but sheer strength doesn't always mean efficiency; a tool is still more convenient.

He looked at the stone mill, his face full of doubt, "Just two stone plates placed together—what can they grind?"

"What's the hole on top for? And there's a wooden rod inserted?"

The other females stared at this oddly familiar stone device, curiosity bubbling, not knowing what Yun Li's stone mill could actually do.

"I'll make it work for you right away."

Saying that, Yun Li's gaze fell on the salt rock in Mu Qing's hand, and she said, "A Qing, crush the salt rock, and place the crushed pieces onto this plate of the stone mill."

He tugged at Yun Li, "That big piece of salt rock can last a long time; are you really willing to waste it?"

Why does it seem Mu Qing's female is a bit inept at daily life, or perhaps harbors resentment about Mu Qing becoming her First Beast Husband, deliberately giving him a hard time?

Yun Li frowned and retorted, "I never intended to discard that salt rock, so why call it waste? I just want to grind it fine, so that when Mu Qing's not around I can also use it."

Otherwise, holding such a large stone, how long would she have to rub meat before she could have a meal.

And it's also quite unfamiliar.

He's face flashed with surprise; she glanced at the crushed salt on the stone mill, then at Yun Li, still not quite understanding, and said:

"But once it's ground, how do you use it? If you find it troublesome, you could soak the salt rock in water, then use the brine to grind meat and roast it."

"However, once the salt rock gets wet it must be dried quickly, otherwise the rock becomes useless; later using it to rub meat makes the meat taste odd and can easily make Beastmen sick."

Yun Li picked up the tiny fragments on the stone mill and said, "Isn't it useful once ground to this degree? Then you can just sprinkle it on the meat, right?"

He and the few females behind him exchanged glances, "Fine is fine."

The ground bits are too little, and they aren't as easy to store or last as long as the salt rock.

Their Tribe in Heiyan Shanmai is considered a mid‑size tribe, but each drought season they only secure four to five hundred plus stones of salt rock (1 stone = 50 kg), so each Beastman gets only one stone of salt rock per year.

Considering Beastmen's huge appetites, even an ordinary female can eat forty to fifty jin of meat daily; cubs during growth consume as much as adult females, and cultivated Beastmen eat even more—so hundreds of jin per day is not unusual.

If Mu Qing weren't a Qing Rank Beastman, he'd always be at the forefront when seizing salt rock; otherwise he wouldn't be able to produce a salt rock the size of an adult's fist for Yun Li to waste.

The Original Owner wasn't as clear about the Tribe's annual salt rock allocation as He and the others; after all, she had to labor to secure her own food and shelter, so merely receiving free salt rock each year was already enough, and she didn't ponder further.