Chapter 9: The Great Cause Begins

Baifeng used fire to ignite the reeds in the pit; his great cause of salt production had finally taken its first step.

After burning the jars and tiles for half a day, it was time to open the kiln; taking them out one by one, he didn't expect that a few tiles had actually shattered this time, but fortunately, the most important perforated water jar was fine.

Once the bundles of reeds had burned into black ash, Baifeng attempted to begin filtering.

But honestly, Baifeng only knew that reeds could be used to extract Luyanyan; when it came time to actually operate, he was panicked, fearing failure.

The newly fired perforated water jar had holes the size of rice grains at the bottom, used for seeping water.

Baifeng packed the reed ash into the jar, and after filling it halfway and packing it down, he poured water inside to leach out the salt content.

Baifeng used two stone slabs to set up an operating table, placed the jar on top, and used a pot underneath to catch the filtered water; he rinsed the half-jar of ash with water over a dozen times.

When the pottery pot could hold no more water, he placed it over the campfire to boil and evaporate the moisture; to Baifeng's surprise, a substance resembling salt really did slowly appear.

Having obtained the desired result, Baifeng replaced it with fresh reed ash and continued to wash out the salt.

By lunchtime, Baifeng was already a bit hungry, but looking at the little ash remaining in the pit, he decided to boil out the salt before making food.

However, during this time, he went to look at the shadow of the wooden stake he had set up after the rainstorm; for the past two days, the shadow had been shortening, but today, the shadow began to lengthen before reaching the shortest point of yesterday's shadow.

Baifeng finally confirmed the date; yesterday was the Summer Solstice, and today was the first day after the Summer Solstice. However, this Summer Solstice date is not fixed; it is either June 21st or 22nd in the Gregorian calendar.

Baifeng treated this day as the 22nd; why didn't Baifeng use the Agricultural Calendar? The Agricultural Calendar should be more suitable for the north of Huaxia.

This is because calculating the Agricultural Calendar is too difficult; Baifeng didn't learn it in his past life, so he would see if he could meet the old man Huangdi in this life and wait for him to calculate the almanac.

It took Baifeng quite a while longer to finish filtering the reed ash; the water in the pot was yellow-black, and Baifeng tasted a little—bitter and salty! Sure enough, he could make salt.

Baifeng put the pot into the campfire to burn with a high flame, needing to boil the water dry quickly so that the salt could crystallize.

The water became less and less, and the granular salt became more and more; in the end, there was a very thick layer of salt at the bottom of the pot.

To avoid scorching the salt, Baifeng scraped it all out and placed it on a clean stone slab to let it air-dry naturally.

The salt made this time was about the size of half of Baifeng's fist, but the color wasn't good—it was a mix of white and black; there was no help for it, as the filtering process was too simple.

Dipping a finger in to taste a little, it was salty with a hint of charred fragrance, having a unique flavor; in his past life, this stuff would have been sold for a sky-high price.

For the pot used to boil the salt, Baifeng added water directly and then boiled meat; this pot of food didn't need any more salt, as it was already flavorful enough.

Baifeng had taken precautions yesterday and made two small jars with lids; once fired, they were the most suitable for storing salt.

Now that Baifeng had solved the source of edible salt, he had to consider improving the camp; at least a house with sufficient insulation that was waterproof and windproof was a must.

Baifeng did not intend to stay in the Wasteland for his whole life; whether for the meaning of life or the unbearable loneliness, it was destined that Baifeng would leave here to find a suitable human tribe.

But in Baifeng's head, there were only scattered memories from the previous owner, nothing more than where wild fruits were, how to catch birds, or that business of procreation in the primitive era.

There was nothing useful at all, but what Baifeng could be sure of was that the tribe Baifeng was once in was a standard fishing and hunting tribe; they didn't eat people, and there were many people in the tribe.

But Baifeng couldn't remember where that tribe was, nor could he remember any acquaintances in it; what if he went back and there was a little black kid—what if it was his own son?

However, this situation was impossible; at this time, one only knew the mother and not the father, but in terms of people and time, Baifeng really might be a "cuckold" who takes over someone else's family.

He wouldn't think about those random things for now; Baifeng's plan was to at least forge an Iron weapon and make a set of primitive Leather Armor or Vine Armor before leaving here.

But now, the Stone Axe he had stolen was almost on the verge of going on strike.

Of the tiles Baifeng fired this time, only thirteen were intact; they were certainly not enough to make the roof of his own house, but they were enough to make a small shed for storing food.

However, Baifeng did not continue making tiles, but instead took his axe and prepared to go to the mountain behind the camp to see if he could find an open-pit Coal Mine.

Now, Baifeng, naked and carrying an axe, bypassed the stone wall of the camp and kept searching toward the back.

Once he got behind the camp, Baifeng was a bit dumbfounded; he had never explored there before, and now that he saw it, he didn't expect that this stone wall was not part of a single giant rock, but a cross-section of a continuous rocky mountain.

The entire rocky mountain had few trees, mostly shrubs, with large areas of rock exposed on the ground.

Baifeng walked over to investigate; bright black shale, layer upon layer, made Baifeng very excited—if this kind of shale was here, then there must be coal.

He gave it a light tap with the axe handle, and a piece of the shale fell off; it was very brittle and all weathered, but fortunately, the area around Baifeng's camp was still very solid.

As Baifeng walked and searched, he soon discovered scattered pieces of coal with golden particles on them. These golden particles were iron disulfide.

This kind of coal was a bit of a "chicken rib" to Baifeng; burning it was toxic, and smelting Iron? That was a bit beyond his skill level.

After tossing it aside, he continued to search and stop, and Baifeng finally found an open-pit Coal Mine; it wasn't too big, but for Baifeng, it was enough to last him until his next life.

After picking out a lot of coal that was low in sulfur, large, and of good quality, Baifeng carried one piece by hand and returned to the camp; he had no equipment to transport it, but he couldn't return empty-handed.

Baifeng returned to the camp, knocked off a piece of coal, and threw it into the campfire; soon the coal was ignited and burned merrily.

To facilitate transport, Baifeng cut some bamboo and then split it into bamboo strips; Baifeng didn't care about aesthetics, so he used a Torch to heat the bamboo strips until they were soft, and finally wove two large baskets with handles.

The bamboo baskets were thick but very ugly, and the gaps were large, but Baifeng didn't care; he even sighed that he was truly a skilled craftsman, clever and dexterous.

Before it got dark, Baifeng used the bamboo baskets to carry a large pile of coal back to the camp; Baifeng estimated that even if he fired the kiln another five or six times, this coal would be enough.

Of course, Baifeng's axe was always kept in the basket; this was his only reliance in the Wasteland.

Sitting on the ground cooking, Baifeng looked at the meat-smoking racks all over the camp, the mountain-high pile of coal, the neatly arranged Pottery, and the salt he had made himself. Baifeng felt that some of his ideas finally had a chance to be realized.

Having eaten his fill, Baifeng chatted with the stone "Heaven and Earth"; although there was no response, and it looked like Baifeng was very strange.

But this was Baifeng's only solace when he was most lonely at night, and besides, Baifeng felt that if he didn't keep talking, he might not be able to speak in the future, losing the ability to speak.

Baifeng added firewood to the campfire and also put in some coal; after all, in the wilderness, it wasn't sealed, so he wasn't afraid of poisoning, and the summer campfire was mainly to deter wild beasts.

After placing his axe and Knife beside him, Baifeng lay down to sleep peacefully. The campfire and the meat-smoking fire that stretched across the entire camp were his greatest protection.

But Baifeng didn't expect that the protection he thought was safest was actually a "Maginot Line: Wasteland Primitive Edition."

In his sleep, Baifeng heard rustling in the camp and the chewing sound of something; Baifeng opened his eyes but didn't dare to act rashly, pretending he was still asleep.

Once his hand touched the axe and Knife, Baifeng suddenly rolled over and stood up; the animal also stopped chewing, its green eyes looking at Baifeng.