Chapter 1182 - 1181: Grilled Nuannuan
The orcs made their weapons and tools using sturdy branches, preferably ones that had recently fallen off the trees. Dried-up branches were too brittle and broke easily, making them unsuitable for crafting.
The middle-aged orc slapped his chest with a loud thud: "Shaman Ji Nuan, don’t worry, leave this task to me. I’ll make sure to gather all the materials as quickly as possible."
Ji Nuan smiled and nodded: "I need a large amount. That cave you excavated yesterday needs to be filled to the brim."
The middle-aged orc’s jaw practically dropped. He could only scratch his head: "I’ll have the clan members work hard to collect it all."
Ji Nuan nodded: "Then I’ll have to trouble the Clan Leader with this task."
The orc chuckled in a silly, hearty way and shifted into his beast form before running back to his tribe. He had to share the task with the tribespeople—if they did well this time, food for the cold season would be one less worry.
"This clay is very sticky. Hopefully, when fired, it won’t crack."
Xiu Yan chuckled lightly: "And if it cracks? Worried about falling in, turning into roasted Ji Nuan?"
Ji Nuan squinted her eyes at the cheeky silver wolf beside her: "Well, we’ve all grown tired of desert wolf meat these past few days. Maybe it’s time to see if silver wolf beast meat tastes any good."
A low laugh rumbled from the orc’s throat, deep and seductive, unbearably so.
Ji Nuan steadied her heart, muttering: "So cheeky."
The orc’s deep gaze swept across her. He picked up a small lump of clay and held it out in front of her: "Doesn’t this look like you, Nuannuan?"
Looking at the stubby clay figurine adorned with two "ears," Ji Nuan internally refused to accept it: "I look much better than this."
Xiu Yan retracted his large hand and examined the figurine: "It clearly looks exactly like you."
Fuming, Ji Nuan pressed three muddy fingerprints onto the orc’s stern face, then doubled over laughing at his rare, embarrassed expression.
Xiu Yan gazed at her affectionately and silently picked up another lump of clay, kneading a tail and attaching it to the small clay figure in his hand.
Ji Nuan, inspired, molded a tiny clay cub resembling Xiu Yan’s beast form as a child. However, no matter how she looked at it, it resembled a puppy.
Worried the orc might mercilessly destroy her creation, she sheepishly decided to obliterate the evidence by mixing the clay cub into the building bricks.
In the end, she painstakingly sculpted a clay figure resembling her dashing beastmate.
The orc remarked that while it wasn’t as strikingly handsome as the real him, it was passable.
Seeing the undeniable amusement on the orc’s lips, Ji Nuan secretly mocked him in her heart.
He won’t admit it, but his body sure is honest—grinning so openly like that.
The brick-making process turned out to exceed both Ji Nuan’s and Xiu Yan’s expectations. The first successful brick they’d made had a few cracks, but the ones produced afterward were flawless.
The mud bricks for building the fire stove had been fired and prepared. The two then shifted to the spot where stone materials were previously discarded. These stones had been cleared from the cave excavated by the Sahara Tribe.
Xiu Yan selected several large stones and polished them into slabs of uniform thickness and size—these were to be used for the stove surface.
When constructing the fire stove, Ji Nuan thick-skinnedly commandeered some straw from Maomao and the others.
She chopped the straw into segments and mixed it with yellow clay, using the mixture to bind the bricks together while laying them. Once fired, everything would settle in place.