Chapter 526
Dig!
As soon as Shao Xuan reached the tribe, he called for the shamans, chiefs and hunt leaders to gather.
Promptly, the two shamans, two chiefs and three hunt leaders rushed into the house.
The messengers quickly delivered Shao Xuan’s message to them. Knowing that Shao Xuan wouldn’t gather them for a small matter like this, they dropped what they were doing and headed over.
They were relieved to know that Shao Xuan made it back safely after chasing the two robbers but what was making him rush back so urgently?
The few saw the large object as soon as they stepped into the house.
“What is this?” asked the shaman.
Shao Xuan peeled the rope and the large leaves back to reveal the emerald green cabbage.
They were in the house that they used for meetings which had a wide stone door so Shao Xuan didn’t have to squeeze the vegetable in. He was also careful when transporting it. Hence, the cabbage kept its original shape.
“I found something that may be very useful,” said Shao Xuan.
As he was speaking, someone walked into the house. It was Guang Yi.
Shao Xuan met Guang Yi in the Fearsome Beast Forest when he was heading back to the tribe. He asked Guang Yi to get two birds for him and bring it to the meeting house.
Guang Yi was holding two cubs as he entered the house. They were Dumb Birds from the Lu tribe.
“Dumb Birds” were a type of large birds that Shao Xuan seen before in the Lu tribe. Their upper limbs evolved to be degenerated so they could not fly, not that their large bodies allowed it in the first place. They had thick legs and were meaty. The Lu tribe reared them for food. Maybe they were tamed by the Lu tribe for too long, they almost lost all of their survival instinct. These birds were much dumber than any animal in the forest so they got the name ‘Dumb Bird’.
In their expansion, the Flaming Horn tribe did cultivate a lot more farmland and built more animal pens to meet their increased demands for food. They already bought some animal younglings to breed.
The Dumb Birds were the first batch to arrive. Although they were still babies, they were much larger than adult ducks.
Guang Yi brought another adult bird too but it was left on the wagon outside because it was larger.
“What are the birds for?” asked Ao.
“To test if this is edible.” Shao Xuan plucked two leaves from the cabbage and placed one in front of the two young birds and the other into the adult’s mouth.
Even though the flying squirrel was fine after it ate it, it was better to be safe than sorry.
Shao Xuan was even thinking about mashing the leaves into a paste if the birds didn’t want to eat the leaves but they all dug into it happily.
The lifeless bird on the wagon became energetic after a few bites. It bit on the leaf at a much faster pace than the young birds.
The people in the house soon understood Shao Xuan’s intentions as they looked at the birds feasting happily.
“This… is edible?!” said Zheng Luo excitedly.
The tribe members always felt a sense of accomplishment when they found a new edible plant. They were a family of edible beasts from their years of hunting but they had limited knowledge of edible plants.
They were excited about the new addition to their diets. The few plants they brought over from the other side of the sea hadn’t borne any fruits or matured so they had a limited selection of fruits and grains to repeat every day.
They didn’t have a shortage of food. Even with just hunting and gathering in the forest, they had plenty of food to pass around. Being able to plant a new species was more of a status symbol.
Even the visiting tribes knew that having something others don’t is a sign of how well your tribe is doing. They brought along speciality produce from their tribes as a gift to Flaming Horn.
The times were different now, any tribe that a larger variety of crops were better than others.
Duo Kang thought to himself, ’Planting this as a bluff would be great too. This will surely shock the other tribes.’
A vegetable ball grown exclusively in the Flaming Horn Tribe?
Doesn’t sound bad. Who said Flaming Horn couldn’t produce novelty vegetables. Not anyone can grow such a big plant!
Everyone in the house stared at the huge vegetable ball, lost in their thoughts. Shao Xuan had no idea what their actual thoughts were. He just continued observing the two birds.
Ten minutes passed.
One of the younglings pooped and looked slightly tired but it was overall still fine. The adult one outside was even more energetic than before and was fussing to have another piece.
Seeing as the birds didn’t face any problems, Duo Kang volunteered to try it, “Why not I have a taste?”
“Wait, no need to rush.” Shao Xuan stopped him from tearing a leaf.
“Why not? If it really is edible, we should hurry to plant it. We can’t let the other tribes get this!” Duo Kang really wanted to show it off to the other tribes.
“This isn’t the most important thing.” Shao Xuan reached into his bag to get the Vein of the Sky.
He carefully removed the dirt from the plant and lifted the Vein of the Sky that was missing a small part of its root.
“This… is it…” Gui He couldn’t quite name the familiar-looking plant.
Ta looked at the roots and said, “I think I’ve seen this before but not really.”
Ta was contradicting himself but everyone there understood what he meant. It felt familiar but they were sure they had never seen a plant like this before.
Shao Xuan could relate to them. They all had a basic understanding of anatomy from their hunting experiences but they never saw the full circulatory system of a human before. Furthermore, when they activate their totemic energy, they can feel the energy slowly spreading through their bodies following the paths of their blood vessels so in a way, they can “see” the vessels.
That was why Gui He and the rest said it felt familiar.
“It looks like our veins so it’s called Vein of the Sky!” said Shao Xuan.
“Vein of the Sky?!!” Zheng Luo and the old shamaness shouted at the same time.
When they were at the sea, they heard about this plant before but never saw it. The last time they even heard about it was from the people of The tribe which was years ago.
“Vein of the Sky? The plant that can connect broken blood vessels?!” The old shamaness’s voice was shaking from excitement.
Duo Kang and Zheng Luo had their faces red with anticipation too.
“So that is what the Vein of the Sky looks like!”
“Shao Xuan where did you find it?!”
Eight pairs were looking at Shao Xuan attentively now.
Shao Xuan told them a quick recap of how he found the two plants.
As they listened to Shao Xuan’s descriptions, they usually calm and composed elders had heavy breaths thinking about the possibility of a thousand-year-old Vein of the Sky.
“Dig it out!!” The two shamans said.
The chiefs and hunt leaders rubbed their fists and palms, ready to get everything on the piece of land.
“For the cabbages…” said Shao Xuan.
“That too!”
“Dig them. Dig them all!”
Even a dumbass would know how valuable the Vein of the Sky is and the people of Flaming Horn would not let go of this opportunity. The cabbages had untapped potential. They were edible and were large. Maybe they grew fast too or more importantly they had strong adaptability!
They had nothing to lose.
If the yield was bad, they still have something to harvest. Their large scale farming just started so everything was still in the testing phase, nothing was out of the discussion.
If they managed to successfully plant these two plants, this wouldn’t be a small feat and could greatly boost the tribes people’s confidence.
In the ancestral records, during their golden ages, Flaming Horn tribe were not only one of the best in battles but also in farming, crafting and other skills. Currently, Flaming Horn was waking up from their slumber to restore their place as the best in the world.
The leaders discussed the house a little longer before checking in on the birds. The birds were all fine.
That proved it, the plant was edible.
Now, they were determined.
There wasn’t much time to experiment around. They were afraid the other tribes would notice the plants so they had to act quickly and move all the plants to the tribe before continuing their experiments,
Hence, Shao Xuan led a large group of people into the forest, including one chief, two hunt leaders and many team leaders. It would be hard to ignore such a large movement in the tribe, maybe one or two from the visiting tribes had followed them but they didn’t care. It was theirs, they won’t show any mercy for those who tried to challenge them!