Chapter status: Unedited
Day two.
Zhen Jin made it a priority to scout out the entire oasis and found it unexpectedly auspicious and tranquil.
The footprints by the lake were basically all from lizards and scorpions. It was very easy to guess there was only a group of lizards and a group of scorpions near this oasis.
It was impossible to investigate the water, thus no one knew what was hidden in the lake.
However, based on the footprints left behind on the lakeside, it seemed that there were no traces of fighting, perhaps it proved that there were no threats in the water.
There were many small lifeforms.
Such as small lizards, scorpions, spiders, and jumping rats.
Sometimes there would be birds in the palm trees.
Following a discussion between everyone, Zhen Jin began to cut down the thick palm trees.
After taking all of the coconuts, he still wanted to process the tree trunks into firewood and the tree cores into short bows.
Zi Di made some potions, compared to the barren desert, the oasis contained plentiful supplies for her.
Cang Xu was in charge of twisting rope.
There were now only five people in the exploration team, among them there were two who could not walk and among those remaining, Cang Xu was an old man while Zi Di was a young girl, thus the manpower available took a steep decline.
Fortunately, the fewer team members there were, the less they required.
By the time morning passed, Zhen Jin had made five short bows. Zi Di had finished the preliminary grinding process and started testing all kinds of medicinal materials.
In the afternoon, Zhen Jin dredged up a large amount of mud from the lakeside.
Using the mud and fire, Cang Xu began to make pottery.
When evening arrived, Zhen Jin stopped cutting down palm trees, rather he climbed up them to pluck off the coconuts.
Coconut shells were very hard, even if they fell to the ground, they would be in perfect condition as long as they didn’t hit a rock.
Zhen Jin also plucked a large quantity of palm leaves.
Like the coconut water, regardless of whether it was the leaves or the tree itself, both emitted a sulfuric odor.
The first pot was created with Zi Di’s potions.
During dinner, the pot was placed in the fire and successfully boiled water.
Drinking hot water and eating roasted meat made Zhen Jin and the others feel blessed.
“This is the peak of worldly pleasures!” Zi Di sincerely exclaimed.
The morning of day three.
Whoosh.
A wooden arrow hit the top of a palm tree and caused a bird to fly away in fear.
Zhen Jin sighed below the tree.
“Although I can make a short bow, I am not good at adjusting it, thus the accuracy is very bad.
Zhen Jin’s left shoulder no longer affected his accuracy with the bow as it had mostly healed.
Gazing at the bird flying into the distance, Zhen Jin took out a wooden dart and threw it.
As he threw the dart, Zhen Jin activated the magic core and transformed his arms into bear arms for an instant. Then, he canceled the transformation almost immediately.
The dart moved like lightning as it violently and accurately hit the bird, causing it to fall to the ground.
Zhen Jin walked over and picked up the dead bird. The wooden dart embedded itself deep in the bird’s chest, only the end of the dart stayed in the bird as it almost went completely through.
At the moment, bird meat wasn’t that precious as there was still a lot of lizard meat. But bird feathers were an important source of arrow feathers. Bird bones were also useful.
Last night, Zhen Jin told himself to not use the magic core as much as possible.
But without bird feathers, arrows could not be made. In addition, birds were rare in the oasis, it could not compare to the forest or rainforest, as a result Zhen Jin could not let off any bird.
Picking up the bird, Zhen Jin returned to find a new rattan weaved basket.
The basket was filled with mud.
After breakfast was eaten, Zhen Jin’s original goal was to excavate mud and use these baskets to transport them.
As he was returning, he saw a bird, the young knight did not let it off and immediately shot it dead.
With one hand holding a bird and the other holding a basket, Zhen Jin returned to a temporary camp.
Zi Di was in the middle of building a tent in camp.
The tent was very crude, its framework was several wooden stakes that formed a stable triangular structure with palm leaves covering it. Rattan or rope was used to tie the wood and leaves together.
The wide palm leaves were layered on top of each other, and fluffy grass was placed on the floor to build a private place to rest that could protect against the wind and cold.
Five of these small tents would be built to house Zhen Jin, Cang Xu, and the others.
Zi Di already built one and was currently building the second. According to her pace, it was unlikely that anyone would sleep in the open air.
“An unexpected gain.” Zhen Jin gave the bird to Zi Di.
Zi Di raised her head and smiled to Zhen Jin: “Put it on the ground, I have a potion to give to you. Humans cannot smell it, but it can repel mosquitoes and poisonous ants.”
Zhen Jin took the potion and went over to see how Bai Ya and Lan Zao were doing.
The two of them were lying on the ground near each other.
Zhen Jin leaned over and felt Bai Ya’s forehead, he found that the fever had gone down and that his breathing was steady.
This was a good sign.
Zhen Jin felt a slight happiness, Bai Ya was better at adjusting bows than he was, but right now he could not place his hopes on him.
“I hope you wake up as soon as possible.” Zhen Jin’s heart silently blessed.
If Bai Ya woke up, he could actively feed himself rather than others doing it for him. He could eat more, take in more nourishment, and become healthier
And Lan Zao……
He was already awake.
He was still curled up on the ground motionless, he had a dull expression and an apathetic gaze like a lifelike puppet.
He was a bronze level battle qi cultivator, and his body was more robust than Bai Ya’s. However, his mental state was not good and had no interest in the food placed in front of him.
Zhen Jin softly sighed.
The young knight was not good at advising and comforting, but more importantly, his heart had a complicated view on how Lan Zao murdered his younger brother to survive.
Even the act of consoling Lan Zao caused Zhen Jin to feel faintly fearful.
Was this a type of dark self-forgiveness and self-indulgence?
If one continued to indulge, would one not lack a bottom line?
Would the magic core erode his heart, and replace the noble templar knight with a dark and depraved demonic disciple?
Zhen Jin carried the basket of mud out of the temporary camp and into a plot of vacant land.
There used to be a meadow here with lush knee-high grass, however it had been burned away.
A fire pit was dug in the vacant land, there Cang Xu was using moist mud to build around the fire pit.
He had already created a base prototype that surrounded the pit of fire like a circular cylinder.
“This is an earthen kiln. The firewood will burn underground, there is a grate here to divide the two layers. The firewood is burned in the lower layer, this structure will rapidly circulate air and cause it to burn even hotter.”
The earthen kiln prototype was shorter than Zhen Jin’s knee, however even a completed kiln wouldn’t even be half as tall as Zhen Jin.
Zhen Jin looked down and immediately saw the kiln bottom and the grate separating it. The grate was a round mud brick with a diameter of about thirty centimeters and an unknown thickness. The mud grate had apparently dried, and had small holes evenly distributed over it. Zhen Jin could imagine that once the kiln was lit and the dry wood below started burning, flames would come through these small round holes.
Although the earthen kiln was small and crude, when it was built, it would be much more stable than a bonfire, with a hotter flame, and be more useful.
“With this earthen kiln, we can fire tiles and brick, we can even build a tiled wooden house. As the scale of the kiln is expanded, or if we have more kilns, we can build bricks and brick houses.” Cang Xu explained.
Zhen Jin could not help but exclaim in admiration: “Scholar Cang Xu, what do you not know?”
Cang Xu smiled and shook his head: “I do not know very much. In fact, I have only grasped this knowledge in recent years. For a long time, I wanted to go to the Wilderness Continent to write my book. I researched information about the beast race and their life skills. The beastmen are comparatively backwards to humanity with most of them still in the era of tribes. There are few beast race city states in the vast wilderness continent.”
“So, is this enough mud?” Zhen Jin pointed to the basket filled with mud.
Cang Xu calculated for a while: “It is sufficient to build a kiln, but I fear there will not be enough left to fire a pot. I fear I still have to trouble you Lord Zhen Jin to go out and turn the ground again.”
Of course, Cang Xu did not plan to fire tiles and bricks.
After experiencing two teleportations, everyone knew that building camps and houses on the island had no practical value.
They were firing pottery because they needed water containers.
Zhen Jin, Cang Xu, Zi Di, everyone had a water bag. But these water bags could not store enough water reserves.
They needed more water, the more they had, the safer it would be.
The oasis was only a place to rest and reorganize, they still needed to continue trekking through the desert.
Having more water reserves meant that even if there were no new sources of water, everyone could support themselves for a long time. This could allow them to resist greater hazards.
Zhen Jin dumped all of the mud from the lake side and left the clearing with an empty basket.
He did not immediately go to the lakeside, but first sprinkled a potion around the outskirts of the camp.
No threats were discovered.
Currently, it seemed the oasis was still safe.
But it was comparatively better for Zhen Jin to go out and do these things.
Both Zi Di and Cang Xu would find it hard to resist an abrupt attack.
By the time Zhen Jin returned to camp again, Zi Di had finished building a third tent.
The rapid progress was due to the tents being very small.
They were made from a wooden stick frame with natural palm leaves draped over it. People who entered the tent could only lie flat to cover their heads and feet. It would be very difficult for them to turn over as these natural tents were like small green coffins that were sloppily made and very cramped.
Finding that Zhen Jin had returned, Zi Di immediately became relieved and went back to work.
She was kneeling on the ground with her upper body inside a tent, it seemed that she was adjusting palm leaves in the tent’s interior. Her lower body was outside the tent, her boots were no longer covered by her enchanted gown, and because of her posture, the gown clung to her rear, revealing an enchanting outline. Upon seeing this scene, Zhen Jin’s heart could not help but shake slightly.
Notes
It just dawned on me that Lan Zao has eaten every single member of his immediate family. Of the three, he personally killed two of them. The guy should have been born as an elf so he wouldn’t have to deal with cultural stigmas and guilt. It is like Cang Xu said, eating your own species is only considered taboo and lawless because other humans said so. This rule probably came to be because killing each other for food was counterintuitive to the survival of the group. But those in nature do not care about such moral qualms. Unfortunately the BFG lied to us when we were kids, how dare you Dahl.