Chapter 1191 - 1190, Embarrassing Incident
The firewood has been steadily consumed, but the cave used for storing wood was filled up the day after Maomao and the others packed their own cave to the brim.
In the Food Storage Cave, wild beasts previously pickled or recently smoked hang from the walls, while several grass baskets near the edges are filled with dried cactus and other edible desert plants.
Ji Nuan worried that if they only ate meat all the time, she might face some unspeakable awkward problems.
During the hunt two days ago, they brought back more than thirty giant-antlered beasts.
The Food Storage Cave was already full, so they kept ten beasts and gave the rest to the small tribes as payment.
They also informed them that firewood would no longer be accepted starting tomorrow.
Because the cold season was only three days away.
What disappointed Ji Nuan was that they still hadn’t found wood suitable for making doors.
The doors in the Watson Tribe were made of wooden trunks as hard as iron, but the oasis did not have such resources.
In the end, they had no choice but to make do with locally sourced stone to build doors.
In the surrounding tribes, everyone was busy preparing in the past few days as well. On the day the cold season began, temperatures would suddenly plummet, so they needed to hurry and hunt while they could, then consume as much food as possible to strengthen their bodies.
And the beasts hunted the day before the cold season would need to be preserved as food supplies for the harsher days.
Ji Nuan didn’t hide her methods of preserving food, but what puzzled her was that no tribe had come to ask her how to make food last longer.
What she didn’t know was that most of the food she traded to the small tribes had already been eaten quickly. Because they didn’t understand how the beasts could be preserved for long periods, they made sure to consume them as soon as possible after receiving them.
Sometimes, they noticed that the beasts didn’t develop strange odors even after a few days, but it never occurred to them that the food could be stored for extended periods.
When they acquired more food, they would trade it with nearby tribes for more easily preserved plants.
And the other tribes that managed to get some of this meat naturally consumed it immediately without sparing any of it.
This was why none of the orcs had ever figured out that the food Ji Nuan exchanged wouldn’t spoil.
As for where all the food went after each hunt undertaken by Shaman Ji Nuan, well, it wasn’t their concern, and orcs never bothered thinking about it.
The next morning, Ji Nuan went to the elder Shaman’s cave, where the guard at the entrance was a young orc who seemed just on the verge of adulthood, his face still carrying traces of youthful innocence.
When he spotted Ji Nuan, he quickly bowed respectfully and greeted her, "Shaman Ji Nuan."
"Is the elder Shaman here?" Ji Nuan nodded and asked.
The orc nodded shyly. "The elder is inside, sorting the herbs."
"Who’s here?" A robust voice called out from within the cave.
In a respectful tone, the orc answered promptly, "Shaman Ji Nuan has come."
Soon, the sound of footsteps echoed from within the cave, and moments later, the elder Shaman appeared at the entrance.
The elder Shaman’s face broke into a broad grin. "Shaman Ji Nuan, you’ve found some free time?"
Ji Nuan smiled back. "That’s right! If I don’t get prepared, this cold season will be tough to endure!"
The elder Shaman shot her a mock glare. "I told you to live inside the tribe, but you refused. Would my large Watson Tribe really fail to provide enough food for a Shaman?"
Ji Nuan blinked innocently. "If I eat, won’t that just mean one of the tribe members has to go hungry? Besides, if my food runs out, I’ll definitely come by to freeload from you, elder Shaman!"