Chapter 017: Befriend the Patriarch

Quartz, also known as silica, is one of the common rock-forming minerals. It is a translucent or opaque crystal with a hard texture and a greasy luster at the fracture.　　

Xiao Yun turned over the long strip of quartz stone in his hand, grabbed one end by his fingers and scratched it hard. The stone appeared white scratch when he used his nail to scratch it, a little stone dust was brought out by his nail, and the quartz stone in his hand was not damaged.　　

"That's right, this is quartz stone." Xiao Yun nodded silently. The density and hardness of quartz stone are very high. In the Stone Age on the earth, the ore used by primitive people as weapons at that time was quartz except obsidian. Obsidian should be found near the volcano, and quartz is more common.

"Are you ready to go?" 　　

Warrior Hongye opened the door curtain and probed her head into the house. The young Hongye didn't have the habit of wearing animal skins before it snowed. She still nakes her upper body and only wears animal skin shorts, all the strong muscles are esposed without reservation.....At this moment, she has an animal skin roll tied to her waist when a snow werewolf warrior goes out, a long bow with animal tendons straddling her shoulders, and a large number of bone arrows on her back. Prepared to lead the team out.

"Ready." Xiao Yun got up quickly, wrapped his animal skin bag up and rolled it into a backpack-style and then takes it on his back. "Let's go find Qingcao and Dahe. By the way, ask the patriarch if he can go."

"Patriarch?" Hongye didn't understand.　　

"We are looking for materials that can make ceramics. In the future, ceramics may be an important commodity for our tribe to trade with others. Of course, it is necessary to let the patriarch participate in us." Xiao Yun explained.

The two mud-brick houses side by side are now "collective bedrooms" for the tribesmen to spend the night, and the tents of each family are now small private warehouses. For the time being, the snow werewolf has not developed the habit of fixing which room to sleep in. They can sleep any room where they want to sleep. Xiao Yun entered the door of another room and saw the patriarch just wake Fleece up who was deadly sleeping, and folding animal skin quilts.　　

"Por...porcelain?" The patriarch said this new word with great effort and almost bit his tongue.

"The bright bowl named by Dahe, the bright thing is porcelain. The temperature of the pottery kiln can be raised to a certain level to produce porcelain. Porcelain is smoother than pottery. Since everyone likes bright bowls, why not try? We will burn better ceramics at shortly after. The stone used by Hongye as stone knives can be used to burn better porcelain. Let's find more of these stones today." 　　

Xiao Yun took out the quartz and gave it to the patriarch, but patriarch didn't receive it and just frowned and thought: "Ayun, you mean, you can indeed make a better...bright bowl?" 　　

"We work hard to find a stone suitable for burning, and we can definitely make a better ceramic." Xiao Yun accentuated the word "we". Anyone who has experience in the workplace and has led a team knows the different meaning of the two words "I" and "we".

The patriarch's hands on his knees trembled a bit. Whether Xiao Yun can burn better pottery is not just whether Xiao Yun can prove himself, but whether the wealth of the tribe can be improved.

The level of material shortage of the grassland tribe is obvious. Many tribes in order to buy the necessary pottery from the caravan every year, they must pay almost all of their property of tribe to exchange... Pottery is a consumable after all, and it will be damaged during use.

Xiao Yun believed that the patriarch did not pay enough attention to his own opinions, but in fact, the patriarch values Xiao Yun very much at all... Since Xiao Yun proposed to burn pottery, the patriarch did not allow him to undertake daily tasks like other snow werewolf cubs in the tribe. Because the patriarch knows that if the tribe can produce pottery on its own, it can save the tribesman months of collecting various furs every year...If the patriarch knows what did Xiao Yun thought about him that he will be so aggrieved.

"Well, let's go find a stone that can be burned together." The patriarch solemnly said.

Accompanied by the warrior Hongye, Oxhorn, patriarch, Qingcao and Dahe, it will not have any objections against the cub Ayun to go to a place 100 kilometers away from the tribe. After the patriarch joins, the preparation work is more complete than before. The patriarch brought a small bag of green salt and half a bag of bean sprouts, some pottery pots and other things. This is to prepare for a meal on the way, lest everyone rush back hungry.

Hongye picked the quartz stone up near the goblin's burrow. The place is more than twice the distance from the edge of the forest where Oxhorn and Xiao Yun have gone. They can't walk slowly after the team setting off, they have to jog all the way. The others are fine, but Xiao Yun ran away that it's a little panting for an hour or so...No way out, the original owner's body is indeed weak among the snow werewolves, otherwise the original owner can't be melancholy and mentally ill.

After running for more than an hour, Xiao Yun couldn't stand it anymore. Even if he is wearing rattan sandals padded with animal skins, he feels the soles of his feet hurt. After all, there was no asphalt concrete road on the relatively flat prairie. There are rubbles, low-lying land soaked by stagnant water, and bushy vegetation that increase physical exertion.　　

Fortunately, there are also the elder brothers and sisters who are so powerful among the snow werewolves, such as Oxhorn and Hongye, they are accompanying him. These two snow werewolves take turn to carry him a distance and finally carry Xiao Yun to the place before noon...

On the back of a beautiful mountain range, a semi-circular, bare surface similar to baldness appeared in the ocean of vegetation more than one person tall, surrounded by some wood and rotten felt cloth. At the foot of that particularly delicate mountain, Many broken pottery remains and animal bones can also be seen.

"Is this the place where the goblin tribe who driven away by our tribe used to live?" Seeing the abrupt clearing across a distance, Xiao Yun was curiously regaining a lot of energy.

"Some small tribes in the underground world occasionally escape to the surface, hiding in corners to survive quietly." The patriarch nodded, "If it's a gray dwarf or a black dwarf, it's no bad. If the goblins, it must be driven away in time, otherwise, they will steal cattle and sheep."　

"Alright." Xiao Yun sighed. It seems that no matter which world, the goblin, they don't live well. Their treatment is as bad as a rat crossing the street and every body shouting to catch it....even the simple snow werewolves dislike them as well.

"Cat tribes and tauren tribes are often stolen by goblins. The tauren tribe we met when we migrated here reminded us to be careful of goblins in this area." Warrior Hongye said, "Those goblins can't deal with larger beasts. They can only live around tribes that can drive away beasts, but they like stealing. Nobody wants this kind of neighbor."　

"Okay." Xiao Yun immediately no longer sympathized with those little green skins. The kindly tauren in the grassland couldn't be friends with the goblins, so he should be less self-righteous.

About the goblin clan also knows that theirselves are not welcome, and they dare not live in tents when they come to the surface to survive. They still dig holes to live in. When they enter the "spotted" land, you can see one and a half of them near the mountain vegetation. A cave covered with vines, there are piles of stones and mud on the side of the cave, probably something that was taken out when the cave was dug.　

"My stone knife was found here." Hongye walked to the pile of rocks and kicked it twice, "Ayun, see if you are looking for these."　　

Xiao Yun was already shocked by the piles of stone mortars that looked like the site of a building demolition... The claws of the snow werewolf couldn't bear to dig so many stones, how did the goblins do it? !

When he walked close, let alone a lot of quartz was mixed in the large and small rocks. He had come for this, and he immediately squatted down to spread the animal skins and pulled the quartz stone from the gravel and soil. It's not easy to take such a trip. They can carry as much as possible they can.　　

"Hey, this is..."

After digging for a long time in a pile of rocks like construction waste, Xiao Yun found that a small layer of quartz was sandwiched in a larger rock, and the surface of this layer of quartz could actually be seen a little bright yellow crystal layer under the cover of rock and soil.　

Xiao Yun quickly pickes another piece of quartz to collide each other. The quartz stone is hard and brittle. After smashing the surface, it immediately exposed a bright yellow fault the size of a ping-pong ball.　　

"OMG! Citrine!" Xiao Yun was startled, "Wait a moment, the quartz crystal is indeed a crystal... Why do goblins become the thief? If they only dig enough crystals and sell them, they can support themselves!"　　

"There is such a beautiful thing in the stone?" The patriarch beside him was also surprised.　

"Patriarch, can this thing be sold for money?" Xiao Yun asked hurriedly.　　

"Uh...I remember that the Tiger King's Tent does have a lot of beautiful gems. Wait, Ayun, are these gems hidden in the stones?" The patriarch couldn't recover at all.

"Of course the minerals are mined from stones, but this one is so small and there are so many impurities... I can only watch and play like this. It doesn't do much as a display." Xiao Yun shook his head and put this yellow piece The stone layer around the crystal was smashed away as much as possible, and he put it in his pocket to take it back. Goblins can dig up crystal veins by digging any cave. The mineral deposits on the grassland may be richer than he thought. But it didn't make much sense. Without a professional mining team, he couldn't be a jeweler. Besides, he couldn't fill his stomach with jewelry, so he chose to farm.

Xiao Yun doesn't know how deep the hole the goblins dug. In addition to the quartz stone, there are many gray-white feldspars in the pile of stones outside the cave. Feldspar is also a very common ore, which is mostly produced on the rock bed. , The hole dug by the goblin had already been dug under the rock formation...Unfortunately, the hole was too small to climb in, otherwise Xiao Yun wanted to go in and see.

The animal skins that brought were covered with quartz stones and accidentally discovered feldspar as much as possible, and the stomachs of several people were groaning. This is not difficult for the snow werewolf who is good at hunting. Hongye carried a bow and wandered around and dragged his head like a robe back. Qingcao and Dahe gathered some old and yellow wild vegetables nearby, plus the patriarch's belt. The bean sprouts and salt that came out were just a meal.

On the way here, there was a cumbersome Xiao Yun. Hongye trot for four hours to reach the distance and a group of people walked for more than five hours. When returning, everyone had to carry the ore. No one could carry Xiao Yun. The return speed was naturally slower. The tribe's sky is all dark... just in time for supper in the tribe.

After a night's rest and getting up early the next morning, Xiao Yun took the patriarch to discuss the glaze--basically he said that the patriarch listened, and his speach should not be imperative but consultative. Pay attention to using "we" instead of " "I", he will bring up the main opinion, but if there is any decision to let the patriarch do it, we must let the patriarch have the illusion that "I am also the decision maker"... Well, anyone who has engaged in sales and fudged customers knows this routine.

As soon as the discussion came down, the patriarch naturally left the grazing work and took the initiative to cooperate with Xiao Yun to burn the materials for the sleeves... Quartz stone and feldspar need to be burned before they can be smashed into powder. It will consume a lot of fuel. This reputation for fuel-wasting Xiao Yun wants patriarch and him together to carry it.

Burning stones is not as particular as pottery. When the kiln is filled the mud models, it can be burnt as high as the high temperature. The stones are burned and brittle and broken into powder. The horns of this grinding process are avoided. The patriarch, the grass and the river are dry. I was very diligent; I got the quartz powder and feldspar powder for glazing, and then I have to ponder the problem of natural pigments.

The earliest pigments were derived from minerals and plants. Don't think about minerals at this time. Plants can be used... Still discussing with the patriarch, pulling the team to the forest, and getting back a bunch of flowers and grass. Soaking and smashing to see the purity of the color, choose a kind of purple flower with a big flower plate that they don't know its name, and a kind of purple berry that is particularly unpalatable and not eaten by birds. After boiling, use a wooden stick to stir and obtain a mix the dark purple natural juice with quartz powder, feldspar powder and marsh silt, and the pure natural handmade glaze is complete.

Come to next step, it is the result of experimental glazing. This time, Xiao Yun can put it on a stone pedestal, use the grained bones (Hongye, the provider of bone grinding craftsmanship) as the axis, and a wooden disc that can be selected steadily as the turntable. Use the movable turntable to make four The clay pots, two water pots, and thirty clay bowls were put into the cave for biscuits, that is, they were dried at low temperature for five hours and then taken out; the uncooked mud embryos were very easy to damage, and Xiao Yun would not let others touch his hands. I personally apply the glaze, half of the mud embryos are plucked out of their own hair (...the wolf form of the snow werewolf, the fluff under the abdomen is relatively soft and tough) to make a small brush and patiently brush the glaze up, and the other half is dipped in the glaze Method (Pour the glaze liquid in a larger container, carefully put the embryo body in it and soak for a few seconds and then take it out), after the glaze liquid is dry, put it in the cave and go through the pottery burning process.

This time the pottery preparation work has been done for several days, and even the patriarch participated in the whole process, which naturally attracted the attention of the whole clan... The herders who had returned to the tribe for the night went to the pasture, and the first words of those who stayed behind were: "Is the pottery ready?"

Under this kind of anticipation, Xiao Yun was okay, but the patriarch was too nervous. After the temperature began to drop, he ran to the earth kiln and squatted, staring at the stone slab covering the kiln with his eyes...

As time passed, Xiao Yun felt the temperature of the outer shell of the cave and felt that it was almost ready to open the kiln. Before he said the name of Oxhorn, the patriarch rushed on and pulled the mud on the slab with his claws... Then he followed before. Like Ah Shan who had opened the kiln, he coughed loudly.

".... should get the mask out later, wear a mask and open the kiln." Xiao Yun looked at the patriarch who coughed up tears and couldn't laugh or cry. Although he had ulterior motives in flicking the patriarch over as the whole coolie, now he feels how much the patriarch is. It's so cute.　

Removed the slabs and other smoke and dust in the cave dwelling, and then reached out to take out the pottery inside—without looking at it, Xiao Yun knew that the pottery burning this time was a great success just because of the smooth touch that he felt.

Xiao Yun didn't really understand the difference between pottery and porcelain. Anyway, he didn't find kaolin. He used pottery clay, so even if the burnt material had a glazed smooth surface, he thought it should be classified as pottery. The burned pottery is better than the original pottery in this world, so it is not cheeky to call it ceramic...

This batch of pottery, including large pots and pots, is no longer the original earthy red of the original clay. Under the action of the glaze, the surface of the pottery after high temperature densification not only has a smooth and bright surface close to modern industrial pottery, but also

There is also an even and beautiful layer of purple; in the afterglow of the setting sun, the purple pottery coming out of the kiln reflects a faint halo. Even Xiao Yun, who is used to seeing good things, has to click on 32 praises—beautiful! A rough, natural and primitive beauty!

The patriarch was completely speechless. He didn't dared to grab the lavender bowl for a while, but knelt on the ground and gently stroked his fingers... It's so beautiful, than he had seen in the king's account. The shiny tableware is even more beautiful. How can such a magical thing be made with your own hands? ! He couldn't believe it himself!

Xiao Yun was not as shocked as the patriarch. He sat cross-legged, took a bowl and played with it in his hand. After enjoying it for a while, he suddenly slapped his thigh: "It's misguided. You should get another light-colored glaze to put the bowl inside and the bowl. The colors of the walls are distinguishable. The inside and outside of this bowl are purple. It will reduce the appearance of food and reduce appetite when used to pretend to eat. Oh, why didn't you expect this? It's a failure!"

The patriarch looked at him in shock...

Xiao Yun mumbled dissatisfaction for a long time, and looked at the patriarch: "Next time we burn the perfect finished product and save it as a commodity. This batch of bowls will be used in the clan together with the previous batch. What do you think of this, patriarch?"

The patriarch whose face is beginning to twist: "..."

If the patriarch also understands modern language, he must have only one sentence to say now: Go way, I can't befriend with you!