Chapter 148: The voice that pierced [her] heart (1)
Due to Yuan Jue’s shenanigan, time seemed to return to when Ruan Qiuqiu had just met him. The only difference was that they now had enough food stored to survive for a month and ample herbs.
Mr. Gray Wolf’s injury didn’t seem as serious as before. As she went through the routine of cleaning and applying medicine for Mr. Gray Wolf, she checked on his condition and then cleaned herself up too.
After tidying up the cave, Ruan Qiuqiu took mental inventory of their possessions as she cooked ginger water. There was now a door at the entrance of the cave that blocked most of the external environment, and the animal skin curtain in the bedroom had been replaced by one that was sturdy and thick.
She was grateful for the herbs and animal skins that Brother Raptor had given them. Mr. Gray Wolf now had three outfits.
There was still a pile of young bison meat in the storage room. They had almost finished eating the dried meat she had brought over. There was still some tuber powder. They hadn’t eaten the rabbit that Mo Yu had brought over last time, the fish that she had caught, or the three eggs that Mr. Gray Wolf had brought back. Those eggs had a lot of spiritual energy.
Ruan Qiuqiu swept her spiritual energy through the eggs and didn’t find any signs of life in the three eggs. Her idea to use his wolf tail to incubate the eggs fizzled out once again.
She had used a spiritual energy stone, and there were two left. The bigger one was about level 3, and the smaller piece had spiritual energy beyond level 4. Ruan Qiuqiu placed them next to Mr. Gray Wolf.
Although they wouldn’t run out of food, herbs, and firewood for a while, Ruan Qiuqiu didn’t plan on lazing about in the cave.
Lu Ziran’s unwelcome visit and her sudden illness made her uneasy. The condition of Yuan Jue’s injuries were much better than before, but he still hadn’t recovered to a healthy state.
The beast tide would come in two months. She had to improve her strength as soon as possible before then.
The sleet had been falling for a whole day, and there were finally signs of it stopping today. Ruan Qiuqiu cultivated while cooking the salt in the stone stove.
The morning spent working passed by quickly. She had circulated the spiritual energy over 30 times and slowly accumulated over 30 strands using her mutated water ability. Her strength had also reached the late stage of level 1.
Ruan Qiuqiu stretched and then poured the salt that had been separated by boiling into a small wooden container the size of her palm.
After recovering from her two-day cold, her body had become more flexible.
In the afternoon, Ruan Qiuqiu salted a portion of the young bison meat, hung it up in the storage room using leftover rope, and left it there to air dry.
Although the temperature was low, there was a limit to how long the fresh meat would last before going bad. It wasn’t sunny enough to dry the meat outside, so she could only use this method.
She had cooked all of the blocks of salt into coarse salt. After using her mutated water ability to get rid of impurities, there was only enough salt to fill three small wooden containers. She left one small wooden container for cooking and used the rest of the salt to continue salting the meat. Unfortunately, there was only enough to salt a potion of the bison meat.
She decided to use the remaining unsalted meat to feed the wolf.
In the storage room, there were also bundles of straw and the cape that Mo Yu had lent her from last time.
Using Little Yu’s straw cape as an example, Ruan Qiuqiu easily wove a tighter, more rain-proof cape using scraps of animal skin and straw. She also wove a hat. She was able to do this because of the survival skills and experience that she had gained in the post-apocalyptic world.
Ruan Qiuqiu wanted to weave a straw container, but unfortunately, she didn’t have enough materials to do so. She could only give up and plan to make one next time.
During her bustling for over half the day, the sleet had slowly died out. Thinking of her promise to Little Yu that she would give Mo Mao more of the treasure from Yuan Jue’s cave, she decided to go out after hesitating.
Ruan Qiuqiu packed fresh bison meat into the wooden container that Grandpa Mo had previously filled with fish soup. After thinking it over, she filled a smaller wooden container with a bit of salt. She planned to bring these items along when she went over to the Mo’s home to bring the droplets of healing water.
The bowl of fish soup from last time was very delicious, but she could still taste the bitterness that came from unprocessed salt in the soup. They probably didn’t have processed salt to use.
After packing her backpack and putting on the cape, Ruan Qiuqiu paced back and forth by the bed. She glanced at the sleeping beauty wolf.