CHAPTER 700: 【694】BEAST WORLD FARMING 4 (THIRD UPDATE)

Below the Rocky Mountain lay a gorge, with streams crisscrossing through it. The water here was crystal clear, the air filled with the scent of decaying plants and lush greenery—it was intense. The surrounding trees soared into the clouds, each so thick that five or six people couldn’t wrap their arms around them. Unwittingly, one might have thought they had stumbled into a primeval forest.

Deservedly called an ancient forest, many of the plants here weren’t found in her world. Even the wild chickens and rabbits that Jin Han caught were much larger than those of later times, and these food sources, usually beneath their consideration to hunt because of their small size, were routinely ignored.

Just as the human world was divided between the poor and the rich, there was a hierarchy in the Beast World, with powerful predators at the top like tigers, lions, and Leopards, and weaker creatures below, such as the Rabbit Clan, Cat Clan, deer, sheep, and others. No matter the divisions, mammals had always been the leaders in this world.

As for Tangtang’s residing Diao Clan, they couldn’t be classified as part of the Fierce Beast Clan, nor were they Weak; they were somewhere in the middle.

Creatures like the Golden Eagle, a dominator of the skies, even though avian, were still categorized within the mighty creatures of the Fierce Beast Clan.

In the Beast World, there were both Beastmen and wild beasts. Upon reaching adulthood, Beastmen would transform into humanoid beasts, but wild beasts could not—this ability was hereditary and was the key distinction in this world. It could be said that no matter how powerful a wild beast was, it would eventually become food for a Beastman.

Too hungry to take in her surroundings, Sugar decided to tackle her growling stomach first.

Without pots, pans, ladles, or spices—let alone knives, processing an animal was a considerable hassle.

To eat cooked food, she first had to make Fire. Every child who had undergone nine years of compulsory education knew the principle of making Fire by friction, but actually doing it was incredibly tough. If it were easy, those wilderness survival shows wouldn’t spend all day trying to start a fire from sunrise to nightfall.

With the considerable strength of Beastmen, she gathered some easily combustible tinder, and had Jin Han strike flints and rocks to generate sparks. When the flint struck stone, the sparks landed on the tinder and started a flame.

This was the first method, and since it was already getting late, she had no idea which method would be quicker, so she found a particularly dry piece of wood and used a sharp stone to drill a hole in it. She then had Jin Han whittle a sharp point from another piece of wood, which she inserted into the hole and rapidly rubbed between her hands, sprinkling the resulting black charcoal dust onto the tinder. Cradling it gently, she blew, producing a flame.

However, as beautiful as the thought was, the execution was incredibly challenging. Her hands turned red from the effort and still bore no fruit; meanwhile, Jin Han managed to create sparks and ignite the tinder. She couldn’t express how thrilled she felt at that moment, as she hurried to arrange the prepared kindling and dry wood. In no time, the fire caught on.

Witnessing these two fire-starting methods, Jin Han looked at Tangtang in amazement, "How do you know how to do this?"

In the eyes of Beastmen, fire was sacred, a source of warmth, but it could also bring disaster. It was something that could inadvertently cause a forest fire or an all-consuming blaze, quite terrifying, hence females making Fire was strictly prohibited in the tribe. But he hadn’t considered that this little female might have such ideas about creating fire.

It wasn’t that these methods were unfamiliar; in fact, the males of the tribe all knew how to create fire, but the females with such knowledge were few and far between. Their capacity for self-care was weak, they were physically fragile, and they couldn’t handle the consequences. In emergencies, they didn’t possess the males’ steadiness, so across the Beast World Continent, aside from foraging and caring for the young, females generally lacked the ability to live independently.

Yet this little female before Jin Han’s eyes was clearly different from any he had encountered.

"You catch on to things when you’ve seen them enough. What’s so strange about that? Don’t your people make fire?"

Jin Han shook his head, "All of us males eat raw food, while the females either eat fruit or some bird eggs, or meat that is easy to digest. We only make fire for sacrificial activities or when it is extremely, extremely cold."

Eating raw food? Could it be that they are still in the Old Stone Age? Without cooked food, wouldn’t there be a lot of parasites?

The flora and fauna of this era seem to grow dozens of times larger than those in later generations. Even the parasites are stubborn, aren’t they?

Thinking about the possibility of having parasites inside his body, Tangtang frowned, "It’s better not to eat raw food, it’s not good for your health. Don’t eat it anymore in the future."

Jin Han could barely hide his astonishment. Perhaps this was the first time he had ever heard such a claim in his life?

Tangtang didn’t explain much, for he would understand it bit by bit in the future.

Without sharp knives to handle these small animals, Jin Han used his own sharp claws to gently slice, and the rabbit’s skin was completely peeled off, the internal organs were also cleaned out. Once the fire was raised, and with no utensils to heat water to scald the chicken feathers, he burned off the feathers with fire, then found some safe large leaves to clean them, wrapped the clean wild chicken and rabbit in leaves, covered them with a layer of yellow clay, and buried them in the hole he had pre-dug. Afterwards, he covered it with earth and then piled up the previously burnt ashes layer upon layer, accumulating flammable leaves while adding firewood on top layer by layer.

"What are you making?" For the simple and brutal Beastmen, such a complex method was unheard of and unseen by them.

Tangtang smiled mysteriously, "You’ll find out in a bit."

Jin Han, worried that Tangtang would not have enough to eat, also caught a few fish from the stream. Seeing that each fish weighed about five jin, the corners of her mouth twitched violently.

Damn, true to a world untouched by humans, everything is big, even the fish have become monsters. Such a big fish—she would struggle to finish it in one meal.

At first, she thought Jin Han had caught the fish for her, so she didn’t think much of it, but when he finished killing and grilling the fish and handed it to her, she was shocked.

"For me?" Although the fish had been grilled, the strong fishy smell still made her uncomfortably dodge.

Jin Han observed her reaction, his beautiful eyes showing a hint of disappointment, "Don’t you like it?"

"I’m not very fond of fish, it’s a bit fishy. You eat it, I’ll just have a little."

It would be too rude not to eat anything that someone else had grilled, so she tore off a small piece and placed it on a clean leaf, then peeled the bark off two thin branches to make chopsticks, giving one set to Jin Han, "You eat too."

Beastmen aren’t picky about food and eat almost anything, but in fact, they don’t really like fish either. One reason is the fish scales, and another is the bones, which can cause discomfort in the stomach if swallowed. Today he caught fish thinking that with fire, he could scrape off the scales, but he hadn’t expected that females would not only scrape fish scales but also gut the fish to remove the internal organs. Such refinement in food preparation also broadened his horizons.