CHAPTER 497: CHAPTER 488: THE BIG BOSS 6

Even though her tongue was uncomfortable, Shuangshuang’s heart was filled with joy. After putting down the fruit shell, she lunged forward and started frantically picking these gray and shriveled fruits! She didn’t even care if she might get pricked by the thorns on the vines.

Seeing Shuangshuang’s reaction, both Tie and Ben were a bit surprised. If Tie were living in modern times, he would be an exemplary father. He didn’t care about what Shuangshuang wanted to do. Seeing her frantically picking the fruits and seemingly liking them a lot, and considering that the vines were covered in thorns, he feared they might prick Shuangshuang’s small hands, so he immediately stepped forward to help pick the fruits.

Unlike Tie, Ben was more thoughtful. He noticed Shuangshuang’s excited expression after tasting the fruit and her eager fruit-picking, so he first picked one fruit and peeled it to take a small bite!

Because of Shuangshuang’s previous display, Ben acted very cautiously, taking a smaller bite than Shuangshuang. But it was of no use; the overpowering saltiness revealed itself at that moment. Ben felt like his mouth and tongue were overwhelmed by the intense salty flavor in an instant.

The saltiness in his mouth caused drool to flow frantically, and Ben’s tears came out from the saltiness. Yet, his eyes were shining, and he couldn’t bear to spit out the salt like Shuangshuang did. Instead, he grabbed the fruit shell filled with water and started drinking it rapidly, diluting the saltiness a bit at a time and swallowing the salty water!

After drinking a whole fruit shell full of water, he finally diluted the saltiness in his mouth. Ben handed the fruit he was holding to the tribe member beside him, saying, "This is salt!" Then he excitedly joined the fruit-picking team!

After Ben shouted that it was salt, all the Hunting Team Members, including Tie, paused in shock before quickly reaching for the fruit to scrape a piece of the flesh and stuffed it into their mouths!

Then everyone collectively shed tears due to the saltiness, but like Ben before, they couldn’t bear to spit the salt out from their mouths, so they kept drinking water to forcefully dissolve it and swallow it.

Once everyone used water to dilute the saltiness in their mouths, they all went crazy, rushing to pick the fruits, each with a face full of ecstatic excitement!

It’s really hard for everyone not to be excited—this is salt! For modern people, salt may just be an essential seasoning, but in this primitive society, salt is a life-saving treasure of unparalleled value.

The first thing is the preservation ability of salt on food. When there is an abundance of meat, it can be preserved using salt, so during extremely hot or cold days, there’s no worry of having no food and starving to death.

The human body also requires salt intake. Without it, one would feel weak, a condition that is merely sub-healthy for ordinary people but is deadly for warriors in this world.

Currently, the people of the Power Tribe can only consume salt by drinking blood. Witch Doctor Yu had once told Shuangshuang stories of how the Power Tribe, in its glory days, exchanged salt with the outside Great Tribe.

At that time, the Power Tribe had ample salt and food for the warriors, so their combat prowess was formidable, intimidating several Great Tribes around them who dared not covet the Power Tribe.

But ever since the decline of the Power Tribe, no other tribes have come to the Power Tribe for material exchange because the Power Tribe is too poor, lacking resources to exchange, let alone the priceless salt.

The Power Tribe, wanting to use salt, had to unite with several nearby small tribes to form a team and travel to a distant Great Tribe, using a lot of meat to exchange for a tiny bit of salt at the Mutual Market of the Great Tribe.

This tiny bit of invaluable salt within the tribe is managed by Witch Doctor Yu. But Yu doesn’t consume salt; instead, it is specially reserved for individuals with severe injuries who cannot be healed in one go by Yu’s witch power. The salt is added to meals to help them regain strength.

As for those who aren’t sick or injured, it’s been years since they’ve tasted salt. Previously, due to Shuangshuang’s constant illness, Yu gave Cao a special portion of salt to add to Shuangshuang’s meals, but the taste was so faint it was almost indistinguishable.

Who knew such precious salt would be right at their doorstep! And in such a miraculous form!

For so many years, everyone assumed the fruits were inedible because they tasted horrible when the juice was full and mature.

No one thought to try the dried-out fruits to see what they tasted like. As a result, this priceless salt was left unnoticed in the forest while they guarded the bit of salt exchanged with a lot of jerky, reluctant to consume or touch it.

While the Hunting Team Members were frantically picking the fruits, they couldn’t help but remember how, in the past, they often encountered many small animals in this area. Most of these small animals came here to pick and take away these fruits.

Back then, they joked about how those small animals had a great appetite for consuming such bitter fruits. Now, it seems it was foolish of the tribe, as the small animals clearly used the fruits to supplement their salt intake.

In fact, there’s an even more apparent evidence of the fruits’ value, which no one thought of due to Shuangshuang not leaving the cave and the simplicity of the primitive people’s thoughts. These fruits, numerous as they are, are enclosed in a strong peel. The peel is resilient and water-resistant, preventing the fruit from dissolving. Salt itself can be preserved for a long time.

Given that the salt fruits don’t degrade or disappear, why do the vines bear fruits every year only to have them vanish without a trace on the ground? The answer is simple: the fruits are clearly taken away by the animals in the forest!

Everyone, while quickly and gently picking the fruits without damaging the peel, lamented the loss of the salt fruits taken by the small animals before, thinking of how they were gnawed raw by animals. It made the Hunting Team Members’ hearts ache—what a waste it was.

This patch of vines grew robust and lush, with the vines bearing large and small salt fruits now completely dried and shriveled. Everyone in the Hunting Team had their huge backpacks filled, yet they couldn’t collect all the salt fruits.

Their backpacks were undoubtedly Shuangshuang’s achievement. Although previously, Shuangshuang was so ill that leaving the cave for a hundred meters was a distant wish, she still tried to do things within her capability.

For example, she taught everyone to cook water and meat using bamboo tubes, advised giving small children hot water to prevent illness—though there were just two kids in the tribe and she was one of them, being too sick to walk—to weave baskets, carrying baskets, storage baskets, and so on using willow branches or vines.