"Hey, Kaelen, what are you looking for over there? Be careful not to get wet, the water is very cold!"

Susan pulled the cleaned animal hide from the river, saw Kaelen fiddling with something by the riverbank, and called out to Kaelen.

Kaelen was fiddling with a strange stone mixed among the uneven pebbles. This stone wasn’t gray or smooth like normal river pebbles, but had a crystalline structure, milky white mixed with faint pink streaks. Under the sun, its surface reflected sparkling rays of light like raw quartz.

However, what caught Kaelen’s attention was not its appearance.

He discovered that in the hollow near the water’s edge, where these strange stones lay scattered, there were many footprints of small herbivores. Even on the surface of the largest stone, there were traces of being worn smooth, as if it had been licked by countless tongues.

Furthermore, in winter, the river water receded, leaving shallow puddles along the bank. Kaelen noticed that a stark white layer of powdery film clung to the edges of these dried puddles.

A thought flashed through Kaelen’s mind, making his heart pound. He reached out a finger to swipe the white powder clinging to the stone, hesitated for a second, then boldly brought it to the tip of his tongue to taste.

A sharp, salty taste instantly spread through his mouth, stimulating his taste buds.

Salt!!!

He stood up and squinted at the opposite bank of the river.

Rock salt dissolved extremely easily in water. These fist-sized salt crystals scattered here proved that they couldn’t have drifted down from far upstream. Their source must definitely be right near this section of the river. Sure enough, on the mountain slope close to the water’s edge on the opposite bank, the vegetation was unusually sparse, revealing a patch of gray cliff crisscrossed with sparkling white veins.

To think there was a salt mine here!

Kaelen couldn’t hold back; he bent down again, swiped a little white crystal, and brought it to his mouth to lick.

Susan approached carrying the wooden basin of animal hides. Just in time to see Kaelen swipe the dirt and put it into his own mouth, Susan panicked and cried out:

"Oh my Beast God! Kaelen, why are you eating dirt? Could it be that your morning sickness has gotten this severe?!"

Susan had heard that some Sub-Beasts often craved strange things during pregnancy, such as tree roots, pebbles, and bark. Therefore, seeing Kaelen swipe a finger on the ground and bring it to Kaelen’s mouth, he assumed that Kaelen was also suffering from this peculiar craving. When Susan pulled Kaelen’s arm, Kaelen only smiled and did not explain anything, planning to return and discuss it with Sane later.

Previously, when he and Sane returned to the Crimson tribe, they were already moving into the valley; Kaelen’s intention to monopolize the valley was nipped in the bud. However, after nearly ten days of living with the people of the Crimson tribe, he grew increasingly fond of these fiery and passionate people, kindling the intention to move to Crimson in the future.

Over these past few days, he had been led by the Sub-Beast group to tour the entire valley. Except for the deep forest which they dared not enter, all the necessary places had essentially been visited. The Crimson tribe even built a wooden bridge across the river. The other half of the valley was quite bare compared to this side, and there were also quite a few swamps.

Now that he had picked up rock salt near the lower reaches of the river like this, he guessed that over there, besides peat, there was the salt mine. Since he already intended to choose this place as a future residence, the existence of the salt mine certainly couldn’t be hidden. If the Crimson tribe produced salt, the Obsidian tribe would also benefit; everyone wouldn’t have to wait until spring and travel all the way to the distant Hollow tribe to trade for salt anymore.

It was just that he needed to discuss it with Sane first. He didn’t understand these complicated political views; only Sane understood them clearly.

He picked up the remaining rock salt crystals on the riverbank and put them into his animal hide pouch. The Sub-Beast group, thinking he liked shiny things, smiled affectionately and said:

"You like these things? We have a lot of them at our place. Sometimes when my beastman hunts magical beasts, they also have these sparkling stones on their heads. He brings them back for me to play with. I used to have a stone curtain in my cave, it’s a pity the blizzard came so suddenly, I didn’t have time to take it down."

"I picked mine up while digging for wild vegetables. It was very hard, I could only break off a few small pieces. Although it isn’t transparent and brilliantly colored like the stones taken from the heads of magical beasts, it’s still quite beautiful."

"Oh, I have that too. Let’s go, Kaelen, let’s hurry back, we’ll show you."

Susan linked his arm with Kaelen’s, pulling Kaelen toward the animal hide tents.

The Crimson tribe mainly consisted of the Striped Tiger clan. Their hunting skills were truly top-tier. Even though they didn’t have many warrior beastmen, their capabilities on the other side of the magical beast forest were universally acknowledged. Kaelen, however, was thinking about something else. The Sub-Beasts mentioning the colored crystals inside the heads of magical beasts suddenly reminded him of the magic stones from his previous life.

Where were magic stones usually obtained from in his previous life?

It seemed to be from mines, and some were also taken from high-level magical beasts. Magic stones were graded similarly to the ranks of magicians. Magicians of a certain rank would use magic stones of that same rank for cultivation. After cultivating, they would gather the stones that had been drained of Magical Energy and sell them to mortals down on the surface.

Mortals would use high technology to craft them into beautiful pieces of jewelry. Although worthless in terms of cultivation, they were very comforting spiritually. He remembered that in his past life, science and technology on the surface had developed immensely. Before he passed away, they were already able to build airplanes that flew to altitudes level with the Magic City.

The Magicians deeply despised these things called high technology, because in front of them, those things couldn’t withstand a single blow. However, there were a few who were interested in these items, such as old man Lincoln who guarded the library door. He would always bring electronics from the surface back, then study them and replace their power sources with magic stones.

Kaelen had even been gifted a blender and a fan by Lincoln, which used magic stones instead of electricity, and he had used them for quite a long time. Unfortunately, after Lincoln passed away from old age, he never saw anyone making these things anymore.

Sometimes Kaelen would let his mind wander, thinking about what those people would do to survive if one day the Magic City suddenly fell and Magicians could no longer use their abilities. Away from their abilities, they were so weak that even a gust of wind could blow them over. Therefore, when thinking about trying to awaken abilities for the people in this place, he had added a very special note: never rely entirely on magic.

After the Sub-Beasts brought the animal hides back to hang out to dry, they began running back to their homes to fetch their collectibles to show Kaelen. Kaelen examined the items they brought over. There was a perfectly round, dark green stone, quite similar to the color of Sane’s scales; Kaelen guessed this was some kind of jade. There was also one that looked like the quartz stone he used for firing pottery.

As for the things taken from inside the heads of magical beasts, they were diamond-shaped. Depending on their different grades, their smoothness and the depth of their colors varied. Kaelen held a red one in the palm of his hand, closing his eyes to try and feel it. There was indeed energy inside, but the energy was extremely tyrannical, rejecting his intrusion. Kaelen did not dare to probe any further. He picked up a green stone representing the wood attribute and continued to explore.

This stone was much milder. He tried using the energy absorption method from his past life. The green energy in the stone resisted slightly, then obediently entered his body. When Kaelen finished absorbing and opened his palm, the green color had disappeared, and the stone had become as transparent as ice.

"Huh, where did the color of this stone go? Kaelen, what did you just do?"

Kaelen shook his head, pretending he didn’t know. After all, only Collins’s group knew that he had special abilities. Susan picked up the stone, held it up to the sunlight, and said:

"It’s very beautiful like this, looking just like a water drop. It must be because Kaelen held it in his hand just now that made it change color."

The Sub-Beasts were clueless, yet they actually believed it. They even tried to shove everything into Kaelen’s hands. Kaelen hurriedly waved his hand, only taking one of each color. There was red, yellow, brown, and blue. He wanted to take these back and ask Sane if they had ever hunted this kind of thing before, and partly because he wanted to try using his Wood-element ability to see if he could tame the energy inside them.

"Ah, the hunting team is back!"

Susan cried out in excitement.

Kaelen turned his head and saw a vigorous team walking in this direction, the murderous aura on their bodies not yet fully dissipated. The black-haired Sane mixed amidst a group of red-haired beastmen looked completely out of place, but his charm was undeniable.

Many young Sub-Beasts couldn’t help but blush. However, knowing that Sane already had a mate, they purely just appreciated the view; no one harbored any impure thoughts. Sane stood in the welcoming area, glancing toward the Sub-Beasts, searching for Kaelen’s figure. Seeing that Kaelen was also looking at him, he raised his hand and waved twice to greet Kaelen.

His entire body was covered in the metallic stench of blood. Before washing clean, he would not get close to Kaelen, afraid that the smell would make Kaelen nauseous. Kaelen smiled and gave a slight nod to show that he understood.

Barton handed a large leather pouch to Collins, then arranged the working formation. They needed to process this pile of prey before it got dark.

Kaelen took the initiative to say goodbye to the Sub-Beast group and walked toward Collins’s tent. He guessed that inside the leather pouch Barton handed to Collins were the unfamiliar fruits and vegetables that he had told them to look for while out hunting beasts.