lcionline Chapter 168 The Old Priest's Gift
Chapter 168 The Old Priest's Gift
The two groups of orcs returned laden with their spoils. As they were leaving, Hu Yang produced a bone knife from who-knows-where and handed it to Lin Baiyan, saying, "This is what the old priest asked me to give you."
"Consider this a gift to thank you for bringing us here to collect."
The bone knife was about the length of an adult's forearm and shaped like a dagger.
Lin Baiyan quickly waved his hand, "Old priest, you're too kind. There's no need for that."
When Lang Cang saw the bone knife in Hu Yang's hand, his eyes changed for a moment. He suddenly asked, "Is this the bone of a Golden-skinned Beast?"
Hu Yang looked at Lang Cang with some surprise, "You know?"
Lang Cang nodded. "I saw one once before when I was in the south. Golden-skinned beasts are supposed to only live in the south, so how come you have one?"
Hu Yang smiled and said, "That's right. This bone knife was brought back by the old priest when he was young, when he traveled with his people."
“This bone knife is very hard; the old priest said it’s perfect for you.”
Lin Baiyan had heard Lang Cang mention the Golden-skinned Beast once before. This beast was covered in sharp spikes, had an extremely tough outer skin, and was very powerful and difficult to hunt. Bone knives made from their bones were also extremely hard.
"This is too valuable, I can't accept it." Lin Baiyan shook his head.
Seeing this, Hu Yuan took the bone knife from Hu Yang and put it in Lin Baiyan's hand, saying, "The old priest likes you, that's why he's willing to give you the bone knife."
"If we're talking about something valuable, it's the knowledge you've taught us that's priceless!"
Seeing their sincere expressions, and not wanting to offend the old man, Lin Baiyan could only accept the gift, saying, "Please thank the priest for me."
Hu Yuan laughed heartily, "Come visit when you have time, he'll be very happy!"
Lin Baiyan nodded seriously, then suddenly seemed to remember something, "Wait for me a moment."
He ran back to the tribal cart, took out a bamboo tube, and poured out a full tube of honey.
After closing the lid, he ran to the front and stuffed the bamboo tube into Hu Yang's hand, saying, "This is the animal honey we just came across by chance. We're giving the old priest a jar to try."
Upon hearing Lin Baiyan's words, Hu Yang's gaze towards the bamboo tube changed, and his expression turned somewhat grim. "You went and provoked those needle beasts?"
"How was it? Did any of you get stung?"
These two orcs are really bold. They would avoid the dense swarms of needle-like beasts, but these two not only didn't run away, they went up to harvest their beast honey.
Upon hearing Hu Yang's words, Hu Yuan stepped forward and tried to pry Lin Baiyan open, "Let me see if you've been stung?"
Lin Baiyan felt a warmth in her heart when she saw their actions, and shook her head slightly, "We're lucky we weren't stung."
Hearing him say that, Hu Yang and Hu Yuan breathed a sigh of relief. Then Hu Yang looked at Lang Cang and Lin Baiyan seriously, "This beast honey is indeed a good thing, but you have to be alive to enjoy good things. Don't be so reckless next time."
Lin Baiyan nodded, "You should accept them. We took quite a lot."
Hu Yang nodded and carefully placed the bamboo tube into the basket, which was then wrapped with several layers of animal hide.
This beast honey is something that can only be obtained by chance. To get it, one must first withstand the siege of the needle beasts and then survive to bring the honey back.
The peach-picking activity concluded after a friendly exchange between the two tribes.
After returning to the tribe, Lin Baiyan divided the peaches he had picked into three parts. One part was stored in the innermost part of the cave so that he could eat fresh peaches for a few days. Another part was steamed and dried three times to make dried peaches. As for the last part, Lin Baiyan decided to boil them into peach preserves!
They hadn't considered canning before because they lacked white sugar, but now that they have honey, they can use that instead. After canning, they'll put the canned goods in the innermost storage cave so they can be stored for a longer time.
This honey looked truly rare. When Lin Baiyan placed the ten bamboo tubes of honey on the wooden table in the cave, Tu Lin's jaw nearly dropped. His eyes lit up as he stared at the beehives inside the bamboo tubes. "Where did you get so much animal honey?"
Lin Baiyan then recounted their encounter with the beehive in the peach grove to Tu Lin. When he mentioned that the two of them used smoke to drive away the honey, Tu Lin's expression was exactly the same as Hu Yang and Hu Yuan's before.
He also reached out and patted Lin Baiyan a few times, but it didn't seem to hurt or itch at all.
Tu Lin's face was stern. "You're not allowed to do such dangerous things again!"
Lin Baiyan chuckled sheepishly, "Okay, okay!"
Rabbit Forest muttered a few more words, and then the two sub-beastmen, seeing so much honey, exchanged a glance and chuckled.
According to the tribe's rules, the beehive was found by Lin Baiyan and Lang Cang. After handing over a portion of the honey they obtained, the rest belonged to them.
After squeezing all the honey out of the hive, Lin Baiyan obtained five large bamboo tubes of honey. He took out two of the tubes and said, "These two buckets of animal honey are for the tribe."
Just as Tu Lin was about to refuse, Lin Baiyan stopped him first, "Uncle Tu Lin, I know what you're going to say, but I am the priest of the tribe and enjoy more of the tribe's resources. It is only right that I make any contribution to the tribe."
As a priest of the Azure Flame tribe, he always received the most food and supplies, but in return, he should give back to the tribe.
Seeing his resolute expression, Tu Lin had no choice but to give up and carefully hid the bamboo tube in the storage cave.
Wash the remaining honeycomb residue, add water and boil it in a large earthenware pot. The yellow foam floating on top of the pot is beeswax. Remove the foam and filter it again to get a whole, clean piece of beeswax.
Filter the water used to clean the honeycomb residue, put it in a large earthenware pot and continue cooking, then add some honey and wampee.
After the moisture content decreases, turn the heat to medium-low and simmer until it becomes thick. Then let it cool. This is honeycomb candy. This honeycomb candy is a bit like the maltose we used to have. It's sweet and sticky. Lin Baiyan rolled up the honeycomb candy like maltose and gave each member of the tribe a small stick.
It was the first time everyone had tasted such a rich sweetness, so they cherished it and licked the candy in small bites.
Ai Xun ate only a little before putting the stick into a clean bamboo tube, intending to save it for the cubs at home so that the little lynx could eat it twice.
The little cubs held up small wooden sticks and happily circled around Lin Baiyan, occasionally licking the honeycomb candy on the sticks.
Today was definitely their happiest day yet. Tiger Green and the others were steaming dried peaches, while Priest Brother was cooking beast honey. The little cubs were running around busily.
Once the honey is ready, you can start making peach preserves.