The Plant Master Becomes A Mute Sub-Beast: Farming And Laying Eggs

Chapter 172: Chapter 172: Full of Treasures

Upon arriving at the warehouse, Cinder had his people bring out all the roots and fruits they had collected recently. The old Priest also hobbled over at this moment, placing a small leather bag into Kaelen’s hand, and said:

"This is something my teacher gave me as a parting gift many years ago. He also did not know what kind of plant seeds these were, only saying they were passed down from his teacher’s teacher. Every generation of ours has tried to plant it ourselves, but it would not sprout. By my generation, only this small handful is left."

Kaelen accepted the bag of seeds, speaking softly to the old Priest that he would examine it after inspecting all of these roots and fruits.

To make it convenient for Kaelen to inspect, Cinder had his people carry over a wooden table and several heavy chairs, placing all the various roots and fruits on it. Kaelen pulled out a chair for the old Priest to sit down first, then he sat down on the side, carefully examining each type of root brought over.

First was a brown root with a rough skin and a strong fishy smell. This was a poisonous root and could not be eaten.

Next was a small round root with a few slightly wilted leaves still attached on top. Looking at the shape of the leaves and stem, it somewhat resembled the cabbage family.

"Someone fetch me a basin of water, please."

"Let me, let me!" A beastman quickly spoke up, running to the riverbank to fetch water.

When the water was brought back, Kaelen put the small root into the basin to wash off the brown dirt on the outside, revealing the true appearance of the small root. The skin was slightly bumpy, having a creamy brown color and a faintly pungent smell. He used a knife to cut the root in half, and the spongy white interior immediately appeared.

He cut another slice and put it into his mouth to taste. A sweet, slightly spicy flavor mixed with a hint of bitterness lingered on the tip of his tongue. Kaelen raised his eyebrows, the face hidden behind the mask unable to conceal a smile:

"Oh, this is truly a treasure."

The old Priest asked: "Can it be eaten?"

Kaelen nodded: "It can be eaten, but eating it would be too much of a waste. This thing is called a sugar beet, it can be used to make sugar." Kaelen nudged Sane standing next to him. Sane immediately understood and took out a square wooden box from the cloth bag at his waist, taking a sugar cube from the box and placing it into the old Priest’s hand:

"This is sugar, sir, please have a taste."

The old Priest looked at the square brown sugar cube in his hand, held it up to examine it, then broke it in half, handing one half to Cinder. The two slowly put the half sugar cube in their hands into their mouths.

As soon as the sugar touched the tip of their tongues, a sweetness like needle-tailed beast honey immediately flooded their oral cavities. Both the old Priest and Cinder’s eyes lit up. Cinder didn’t dare to swallow it, just keeping it in his mouth while speaking, making his voice sound a bit muffled:

"Sweet... so sweet. It is exactly as sweet as needle-tailed beast honey!"

Kaelen laughed and corrected: "The needle-tailed beast has another name, which is a bee. The sugar you are all eating is made from the syrup of the sorghum plant. In terms of sweetness, it can indeed be compared to honey, but in terms of fragrance, it is not as good."

He then pointed at the sugar beet on the table and said: "This thing can also produce sugar, but the sugar made from it will be white. It will be a bit sweeter than the sugar cube you are eating."

In modern times, sugar beets were first cultivated by the Romans. By the 19th century, the sugar beet truly rose to prominence with the discovery that it could be used to produce sugar. Sugar beets usually set seeds for propagation in their second generation.

In the first generation, the plant would focus on nourishing the root and leaves. After being buried in snow for a winter, they would revive and begin the second generation. In spring, the root would quickly sprout, sending up a floral stalk 1 to 1.5 meters tall, blooming with thousands of small dark green flowers.

By the end of summer or autumn of the second year, the flower clusters would dry up and turn blackish-brown. And this time coincided exactly with the time the seeds on the plant began to mature. Kaelen turned to ask Chief Cinder:

"This thing has already begun to form clusters of black fruits, right? Are there a lot?"

Cinder nodded: "Yes, this thing is just across the river, a short distance from the tribe. Because the flowers are very beautiful, we just left them there year after year, so they have grown into a whole area as large as the vegetable fields in the tribe."

Kaelen nodded in satisfaction, he said to Aaron: "Take ten bone sickles and lead twenty warriors with somewhat deft hands over there. Remember well, only cut the fruit clusters that have turned completely blackish-brown. When cutting, you must be gentle, place them immediately into the rattan trays lined with coarse cloth underneath, absolutely do not let the seeds fall and scatter on the ground. After bringing them back, dry them completely in the shade before using your hands to rub out the seeds."

Aaron nodded vigorously, immediately turning around to leave. He knew those tiny seeds would soon turn into piles of pristine white sugar, bringing an invaluable source of wealth to the Crimson tribe.

Kaelen turned to look at the dumbfounded Chief Cinder, seriously instructing:

"Chief Cinder, that seed-bearing flower part is only secondary. The sugar beets growing lush green leaves underground are the true roots. When the harvest season arrives, you should have your people dig them all up, select the largest, healthiest, and most intact roots, and bury them in underground sand cellars to keep them from freezing during winter. When replanted next spring, they will flower and bear seeds ten times the amount you currently have. For that number of seeds, our Crimson merchant caravan will purchase them at a high price, or exchange them for salt and food for you."

Hearing this, Cinder’s chest heaved violently, his rough hands clenching into fists out of excitement. Salt and food! These were things one had to risk their lives searching for supplies to be able to exchange for, yet now he only needed to put in a little effort planting within the tribe to receive them!

"Lord Cael... you can rest assured! I will personally bring warriors to guard that plot of land day and night, absolutely not letting any rat or magical beast dare to dig up even a single root!" Cinder’s voice was filled with determination.

Kaelen smiled with satisfaction. He shifted his gaze away from the sugar beets, continuing to scan the pile of roots and fruits on the large wooden table. At this moment, his eyes caught a rattan basket full of long, bulky roots. Their outer skin was a dark reddish-purple covered in dirt and sand, and a few of them rubbing against each other even exposed a glossy orange-yellow inner rim. At the top of the root stalks, a few sections of dense vines with lush green heart-shaped leaves were still attached.

Kaelen picked up a root, feeling its weight and firmness in his hand. He used his fingernail to lightly scrape the reddish-purple skin, and a drop of milky white sap immediately oozed out, carrying a faint, incredibly familiar sweet fragrance.

"Does this thing grow in abundance at your place?" Kaelen raised his head and asked.

Chief Cinder looked at the basket of roots, scratching his head as he replied:

"Very much so, Lord Cael, this kind of vine grows creeping all over the riverbanks, encroaching on the entire grassy field. Some roots have a red skin and yellow flesh like this, while others have a white skin and white flesh. But having the lesson of the poisonous root... ah, the potato from before, we did not dare to eat it. Now, even though we know potatoes can be eaten if cooked thoroughly, I still dare not let the clansmen touch it. We still have to wait for your confirmation."

Kaelen smiled and said: "It is good that you are being so careful. This thing is indeed an extremely good item, compared to the potato it is only better, not worse. It is just that one must know how to prepare it."

Kaelen dug out a white-skinned sweet potato from the rattan basket, held up the two types of roots, and analyzed them one by one for Cinder and the old Priest:

"Both of these roots are generally called sweet potatoes. This yellow-fleshed sweet potato is called honey sweet potato, its taste is incredibly sweet. It can be baked, boiled, dried, or cooked into porridge... This white-skinned, white-fleshed sweet potato is high in starch but bland in taste, often used to be processed into glass noodles.

You have eaten our glass noodles, right? How did it feel?"

Chief Cinder swallowed a gulp of saliva: "It is both chewy and soft; toothless elderly people and young children can both eat it. Moreover, the noodle strands evenly soak up the broth and salt, making it both delicious to eat and keeping you full longer compared to just eating meat and vegetables."

The more he spoke, the brighter his eyes shone: "My Lord, within ten miles around our place there is a lot of it, and over by the neighboring tribe there is an even vaster expanse." Speaking up to this point, Chief Cinder slapped his thigh with a smack and stomped his feet heavily: "Oh Beast God, every year there are still people starving to death in their tribe, yet who would have thought that the very thing to save their lives was growing all over the ground!"

He spoke with a tone full of regret, and the people around also sighed endlessly. In times where everyone was struggling, if large tribes had the heart, they would support smaller tribes a little, but that little bit was barely a drop in the bucket. The people who were bound to die would still die.

Kaelen and Sane looked at each other, and Sane smiled, rubbing Kaelen’s head.

Previously he had thought that his mate teaching other tribes how to survive was truly nurturing enemies for their own tribe, but now, he suddenly felt that Kaelen doing so was incredibly right.

In this world, there were not a few evil people, but the miserable lives were even more countless. If one could extend a hand to pull them out of the quagmire of despair, helping them stand firmly on their own feet, then that was the true capability of a prosperous tribe.

Not only would their conscience not be ashamed, but Crimson’s prestige and influence would take root deeper into the hearts of the Northern people than any iron-clad carriage or crossbow muzzle.

After rubbing Kaelen’s head, Sane turned to speak to Chief Cinder: "We will stay for ten days. During these ten days, you should send out four teams to follow our four vice-captains to learn farming, food processing, animal husbandry, and reconstructing livelihoods.

After ten days, we will leave one-third of our supplies here, and you will be in charge of purchasing and exchanging for the resources we need. In addition, after finishing learning what we teach, you should go to the surrounding tribes and teach it back to them.

Can you do it?"

The old Priest’s hands trembled: "You... you are willing to teach that precious knowledge to us?"

One must know that in the past, their tribe always had to plant undercover people to learn secretly, and no one ever took the initiative to teach them. Of course, apart from the Bramble tribe. Thanks to Chief Carat of Bramble teaching them how to build wooden houses, they no longer had to crowd into caves like before.

Kaelen nodded affirmatively: "Knowledge is bestowed by the God of Knowledge upon all his believers, it does not belong exclusively to anyone. As long as you can learn it, it becomes yours."

Therefore, do not say who copied from whom, because there are people who only need to look at a certain structure to be able to make a similar finished product. If they do not have the core knowledge, even if you hand them a detailed blueprint, they still would not be able to do it.

Not just current knowledge, but even tangible and intangible culture is the same. If the starting point of every nation and country is from a common point, there naturally must be similarities in culture. Do not open your mouth to criticize others for imitating you.

Of course, technologies, finished products, artworks, and cultures that have registered creative rights, tangible and intangible property rights, belong to private ownership. Manufacturing, using, and trading them arbitrarily without their permission is exactly stealing.

Thinking of this, Kaelen recalled a rather agonizing issue in modern society, roughly ten years before he died and reincarnated.

In that era, there was a type of core technology invented by humans, which was ’Artificial Intelligence’. Under the boom of the AI technology revolution, a series of utilities were born, bringing along many issues related to copyright infringement.

Sometimes, even the original authors could not prove that others were using their original works to create various derivative versions, forcing them to bite the bullet and swallow their bitterness, leaving the derivative works to run rampant.

Of course, no matter how good an AI product is, it lacks a source of emotion. If they are authors with a professional foundation who dedicate themselves wholeheartedly to their works, the readers who love them will never abandon them.

The more he thought about it, the more he felt he was going a bit too far. Kaelen shook his head vigorously to throw these rambling thoughts out of his mind, continuing to examine the remaining types of roots. Unexpectedly, he also found carrots and onions.

In addition, there was another root with a very familiar smell that Kaelen temporarily could not remember. He planned to take it back and try planting it using his Divine Energy.