Chapter 457: Chapter 371: Why Isn’t She From Our Tribe?
’I might be old, but I’m not stupid. I would never say something so brutally honest out loud.’
Just as the Snow Tiger Witch was being cornered by the witches from the other tribes, sweating profusely, Wu Yue and Yuan Lang walked in from outside, humming cheerfully.
The moment he saw Wu Yue, the old Snow Tiger Witch almost burst into tears. ’You damn brat, you’re finally back! You nearly screwed me over!’
He forced a seemingly amiable smile onto his withered old face. "Yue, hurry and tell these witches where that salt came from!"
Hearing the Snow Tiger Witch’s words, the three other witches instantly fixed their sharp gazes on Wu Yue.
Wu Yue, who had been humming a little tune, almost bit her tongue. "Uh... Heh heh!"
"What’s with the ’heh heh’?! Spit it out!"
The three witches were dying to know the answer. But this old coot, the Snow Tiger Witch, had been stalling for ages without giving them a straight answer. Now that someone who could provide an answer was here, they were naturally desperate.
Wu Yue chuckled and took a stone pot from behind her back. "I boiled it from water."
Boiled from water?
’You can boil salt out of water? Do you take the three of us for idiots?’
Seeing their expressions, which screamed ’You’re lying to us!’, Wu Yue chuckled and took a few chunks of rock salt from the bag at her side, tossing them into the stone pot. "I figured you witches wouldn’t believe me, so I brought some rock salt along.
You’ll see for yourselves whether or not it can be boiled into such pure salt."
The stone pot with the chunks of rock salt was placed on the stove outside. The witches sat around it, all watching the changes in the pot with rapt attention.
As Wu Yue stirred, the rock salt in the stone pot gradually dissolved, turning into a pot of somewhat cloudy saltwater.
"This is the pure salt?"
The Black Wolf Witch looked at Wu Yue with suspicion.
Wu Yue just chuckled. "This is only the first step."
Yuan Lang lifted the stone pot from the stove. On the ground beside it sat another clean stone pot, but this one was covered with a straw mat.
He poured the saltwater from the first pot into the new one through the straw mat, repeating the process several times. Only when Wu Yue said it was enough did he place the remaining saltwater back on the stove to boil.
As the boiling continued, the saltwater in the pot gradually evaporated. Just as the three witches were about to doze off, Wu Yue’s cheerful voice sounded beside them. "It’s ready."
The Black Wolf Witch was the first to perk up and look. He saw that a layer of sparkling salt had appeared at the bottom of the stone pot. It had a faint blue tint and was quite beautiful.
It was exactly the same as what the Half beastman Warriors had poured from the bamboo tube earlier.
"It really was boiled!"
The Flying Eagle Witch stared at the salt at the bottom of the pot, murmuring to himself.
The Snow Tiger Witch gloated, a smug grin stretching from ear to ear. "How about that? I didn’t lie to you, did I? The Witch Disciple I selected is naturally the most outstanding."
Before he could finish gloating, the Black Wolf Witch, his face dark, shot up from his small stool, rushed over to the Snow Tiger Witch, and let out a low growl. "Your damn salt is just boiled from rock salt! Why were you bullshitting earlier about trading for it from some Shuishan Tribe?!"
At the Black Wolf Witch’s words, the faces of the Flying Eagle Witch and the Lion Witch darkened as well.
The Snow Tiger Witch chuckled drily. "Uh, well, this is obviously for the future of our Polar Forest! Come, come, let’s talk inside. If we talk out here, those shameless folks from the Red Flame Plain might overhear."
While coaxing his three old comrades, he turned back and gestured to Wu Yue with his mouth. "You, kid, come in too."
’Get in here, quick! I can’t take this heat alone!’
Amused by the witch’s frantic expressions, Wu Yue followed the important figures inside.
"Yue, when you spoke like that in front of the altar just now, did you have a plan in mind?"
The Snow Tiger Witch asked Wu Yue directly, not waiting for the other three witches to speak.
The young female nodded very seriously. "I went along when the Beastman Warriors were hunting for Fierce Beast Crystal Cores. I don’t know why, but all the Fierce Beasts in the deep forest have migrated outwards.
Even on the outskirts of the deep forest, we can encounter very powerful Intermediate Fierce Beasts. This makes hunting for Crystal Cores much more difficult for us.
But these tribes from the Red Flame Plain, just for letting us pass through their territory, demand so many Crystal Cores from us.
This year, they even want to increase the number of Crystal Cores.
The reason they dare to do this is that if we, the tribes of the Polar Forest, want to trade for salt, our only path is through the Red Flame Plain to the Sea Side Tribe.
But what if another tribe appeared now, one that could trade salt with us without us needing to pass through the Red Flame Plain?"
"In that case, the Scorpion Tribe and the Yan Yan Tribe wouldn’t dare to increase the number of Crystal Cores!" the Flying Eagle Witch said, his eyes lighting up.
"Exactly. Not only can we not let them increase the number, but we must also reduce the number of Crystal Cores we give them. We can’t let these tribes of the Red Flame Plain grow stronger.
Our Polar Forest is adjacent to the Red Flame Plain. If they grow stronger, all our hard-earned Crystal Cores will just be used to upgrade their Beastman Warriors.
If I were a tribe from the Red Flame Plain, once my tribe became powerful enough, I would simply take the Polar Forest’s territory for my own. Then I could hunt for as many Crystal Cores as I wanted."
The four witches naturally understood this logic. For years, they had been controlling the number of Crystal Cores they handed over to the Red Flame Plain. However, without Crystal Cores, the Red Flame Plain tribes could still use witch medicine to upgrade.
But the tribes of the Polar Forest could not survive without salt. This was their weakness.
"Only we know how to produce this pure salt. We must keep it a secret. Then the people from the Red Flame Plain tribes won’t doubt what we said earlier. At that time, if you witches act a bit more nonchalant, this matter will surely succeed.
Even if the Red Flame Plain tribes want to conquer our Polar Forest territory, without enough Crystal Cores to upgrade their Beastman Warriors, all they can do is wait."
After Wu Yue finished speaking, the looks the Flying Eagle Witch, Black Wolf Witch, and Lion Witch gave the Snow Tiger Witch were filled with unbearable envy and jealousy.
’Why wasn’t such a clever young female from one of their tribes?’
’Could it be that even the Beast God favored this thick-skinned, crusty old Snow Tiger Witch?’
Snow Tiger Witch: "..."
’Be jealous if you want, but must you resort to personal attacks at the drop of a hat?!’
The small meeting between the Four Great Tribes of the Polar Forest concluded, and they reached a consensus on the matter of the Crystal Core trade.
The next day, the tribespeople of the Scorpion Tribe and the Yan Yan Tribe were once again invited to the open space below the altar. But this time, they could clearly feel the assertiveness of the Four Great Tribes of the Polar Forest.
Not only did they refuse to back down any further, but they also demanded to reduce the number of Crystal Cores provided to them, stating clearly that the remainder would be used to trade with another salt-owning tribe.
