Chapter 24

Emily touched the thick wool of the sheep, which was soft and fine, her voice trembling with excitement, "This is wonderful!"

Male also smiled and nodded, "We were lucky today, it didn't take much effort to catch it. Dashan, you and Moon carry it back to the tribe."

This sheep was quite large, and though the thick wool obscured its true size, Emily estimated it weighed about seventy to eighty pounds. Leading it back would be difficult if it refused to walk, so Emily found Male's arrangement very reasonable.

Dashan and Moon had no objections and cheerfully used the rope Dashan had over his shoulder to tie the struggling, but ultimately helpless, sheep's front and hind legs. Meanwhile, Male used the "divine tool knife" to cut a tree branch as thick as an arm. He trimmed off the leaves, making a wooden pole for carrying the sheep. Moon handed her bamboo basket to Male, so now Male and Emily each had a basket.

Emily watched Male use the "divine tool knife," which was only about twenty centimeters long including the handle, to cut through the thick branch as if it were tofu. Her eyes widened in disbelief!

Moon stared at Male's actions with awe, her mouth agape in shock.

Dashan, having seen this before, remained expressionless.

Emily thought about how useful this tool could be in her hands for tasks like cutting vegetables and slicing through tough but not too thick materials. However, cutting such a thick branch effortlessly was beyond her capability!

Seeing this ordinary knife perform so extraordinarily in Male's hands, even Emily, who knew its origin, almost believed it wasn't just an ordinary knife—it was a divine tool!

There was a saying in the future: Poverty limits my imagination!

Emily felt it could be adapted here: Small strength limits my imagination!

No wonder Male could chop a thousand bamboo stalks in one night without breaking a sweat. He had just activated his bloodline power and wielded this "divine tool." From now on, whatever extraordinary abilities Male displayed, she wouldn't be surprised anymore!

After Dashan and Moon left, Male held Emily's small hand with his warm, dry hand. Although he stayed alert to the surroundings, he refused to leave Emily's side, fearing she might encounter danger.

Having caught the sheep today, Emily was already satisfied. Instead of focusing solely on any movements around her as before, she started paying attention to the plants in this forest.

The trees in this forest were sparsely scattered, allowing ample sunlight to reach the ground, resulting in lush vegetation. There were many green plants and occasional clusters of waist-high shrubs.

Emily recognized many familiar-looking plants whose names she couldn't recall, such as various wild grasses, as well as some unfamiliar ones. This left her feeling somewhat frustrated. In China, she could identify at least thirty different varieties of succulent plants, but when it came to edible vegetables, she was only familiar with those commonly found in supermarkets.

Today's daily task was to cut grass to feed the pair of rabbits. The grass Qingye cut yesterday was enough for today.

So, although the task wasn't completed yet, Emily didn't let anyone else do it.

As she followed Male, Emily kept looking around, unwilling to give up. Suddenly, she noticed a plant that looked very familiar, and she could even name it!

Emily was overjoyed—it looked like a peanut plant!

When she was in school, Emily had learned about peanuts in a lesson. She was very curious about this plant that, after flowering, produces its fruit not directly on the flower but secretly underground. She had specifically researched peanuts online, so she was quite familiar with its plants and characteristics.

Now, seeing this small clump of peanut plants, with its green leaves occasionally interspersed with a few inconspicuous yellow flowers, and considering the current warm but not yet scorching climate, it was likely just the beginning of the flowering period.

Indeed, if one is observant enough, life is full of surprises. The ancients did not deceive me!

Peanuts are rich in nutrients and can be eaten raw, cooked, or used for oil extraction. The leaves of peanut plants close at night and open during the day, mirroring human sleep patterns. They contain sleep peptides and are a natural sleep aid.

Although this small clump of peanuts wasn't much, Emily believed that since she found one clump here, there should be more elsewhere.

Now, this small clump of peanuts was just starting to flower. If she loosened the soil and fertilized it, it might increase the yield. However, since the compost wasn't ready yet and only wood ash was available, she decided to leave it alone for now. Once the peanuts started to form pods and the compost was ready, she would fertilize them to increase the yield.

Emily quickly asked Male for the knife and made marks on nearby trees, using the initials "hs," short for "huasheng," the pinyin for peanuts.

Seeing Emily so delighted, Male was puzzled. Could this thing be edible?

There was no mention of this plant in the oral traditions passed down through generations in the Nuwa tribe.

Male couldn't help but voice his concern, "Emily, can this kind of grass be eaten? Could it be poisonous? Our Nuwa tribe has never eaten this kind of grass."

Grass? Eating grass?

Uh... Emily suddenly felt like she had become one of those plump, ugly sheep from earlier.

Emily shook her head. From her previous research, she knew peanut leaves had sleep-inducing properties. If consumed, she worried they might make people drowsy all day.

"If I'm not mistaken, this plant should be peanuts. After flowering, it will produce peanuts underground, which can be eaten when mature. Right now, it's just starting to flower, and the fruit will mature in about sixty to seventy days. We'll see then. If they are peanuts, they aren't poisonous and can be prepared in many ways. They're also very nutritious."

Though Emily was eighty percent sure these were peanuts, she knew many plants could look very similar but actually be different species.

Male stopped asking questions, and the two continued onward. Besides discovering a few more clumps of peanuts, Emily found nothing else noteworthy. Male, however, leaped up a tree and caught a particularly beautiful, colorful wild chicken. Unfortunately, needing to use double the strength for the leap and the catch, he accidentally broke the chicken's neck.

How cruel! Emily thought to herself.

Male regretted it for a moment but was then spurred into determination. He refused to believe he couldn't control his strength after activating his bloodline power!

Not long after, a half-dead short-haired wild gray rabbit was added to his bamboo basket...

Seeing the rabbit trembling in pain, Emily felt that the chicken had been fortunate to die quickly. Male seemed to think the same, and with a squeeze of his hand, he ended the rabbit's suffering.

Male accompanied Emily as they slowly examined the plants, not specifically hunting, but Emily noticed that in this forest, with its primitive, lush vegetation, there was indeed plenty of wild game on the mountain!

Shortly after, they encountered another wild chicken pecking at the grass. From its color and tail feathers, it wasn't as beautiful as the previous one and was likely a hen. Male used the same tactic, quietly circling behind it. However, he accidentally stepped on a twig, startling the chicken, which flapped its wings and tried to fly away. Male leaped up and caught the chicken mid-air.

Captured animals always struggle and cry out. This chicken flapped its wings and pecked at Male, looking very lively and uninjured. Emily cheerfully handed Male the thin rope from her bamboo basket, allowing him to tie the chicken's wings and legs.

They wandered slowly for most of the day. Emily saw many plants that looked familiar but whose names she didn't know, so she wasn't sure if they were edible or could be cultivated. Male pointed out a few wild vegetables that could be eaten, and Emily picked some to put in her basket.

To her delight, Emily also found a large patch of shepherd's purse mixed with wild grass in a low, damp area. Higher up, water seeped out slowly, making this patch much more lush than other places.

At this time, the shepherd's purse had already produced mature seeds.

Although shepherd's purse is a wild vegetable, its rich nutrients, unique flavor, and medicinal properties for reducing heat made it popular. In the future, most shepherd's purse sold in markets would be cultivated.

Since it was a wild vegetable, it had strong survival abilities and wasn't picky about soil, making it easy to grow. Emily immediately began collecting the seeds.

Luckily, she had brought along the cloth bag she had used to store soybeans in her shorts pocket, which was perfect for these small seeds.

Male knew from tradition that this wild vegetable was edible, even though the Nuwa tribe didn't call it shepherd's purse. Hearing from Emily that it could be planted in the cultivated land, he pondered over it.

Emily was very confident about planting crops. Many edible wild vegetables could be found in the mountains, often flowering and seeding while they hunted. If these small seeds were indeed viable, Male could collect them for Emily whenever he encountered them.

As they reached the edge of a cliff, Emily noticed many fern plants. These wild vegetables, which looked too tough to be considered food, were highly popular in the future. People not only ate the tender fronds but also processed the roots into black fern root starch.

Although Emily liked eating ferns and fern root starch, she couldn't identify which ferns were edible. She valued her life too much to risk eating unknown plants.

At that moment, Emily regretted not having books like "The Complete Encyclopedia of Plants" or "Compendium of Materia Medica."

Reluctantly taking her eyes off the large patch of ferns, she spotted another large bamboo grove on a distant hillside.

According to Male, the bamboo in the mountains was larger and of different varieties than the ones he had cut by the river. However, it was further away, and they usually only ventured there for hunting when the weather was cooler. They would stay for several days, bringing back enough game to feed the tribe for a few days, and the cool weather would prevent the meat from spoiling.

Male also shot a few birds with his arrows. Emily didn't recognize the species, thinking they looked a bit like pigeons but unsure. When she asked Male, he responded in the Nuwa tribe language, and the system translated it as turtledove.

Emily was very satisfied; today's trip to the mountains was quite fruitful!

In addition to the game, they had a sheep and a hen for domestication and had discovered wild peanuts. She also collected some mature shepherd's purse seeds.

They found some more peanut-like plants in different places, though they were scattered and few in number. Around noon, Male and Emily returned to the place where they had split up with the other hunters from the tribe. Soon, the other hunters began to gather.

Each hunter had either one or two animals hanging from their belts, wild vegetables in their baskets, or tuber-like roots similar to yams. Some even had wild fruits, including red hawthorns. Emily wasn't fond of the sour taste of hawthorns, but she remembered that they were good for digestion and could be used to make snacks like candied hawthorns, sugar-coated hawthorns, hawthorn slices, and hawthorn rolls. They were also used as a medicinal ingredient, though she didn't know the specifics.

She increasingly wished the system could provide her with a comprehensive plant encyclopedia, but unfortunately, her system had limited interactive capabilities.

Unlike the quiet and vigilant atmosphere when they went up the mountain, the Nuwa tribe members were now in high spirits, having returned with abundant harvests.

When they saw the trembling hen tied up in Male's basket, squeezed between the gruesomely dead wild rabbit and another wild chicken, they burst into laughter.

Male didn't take offense and seriously advised them, "There have been more animals lately. If possible, try to capture them alive. Emily says we can raise them, so we won't have to worry about food during the cold season."

Everyone's eyes lit up at his words, but their excitement quickly faded. Uncle Feng, with high cheekbones and a broad jaw, voiced everyone's concerns: "We've tried before, but the most we could keep them alive was two or three days. They don't seem to survive long in captivity. Perhaps they just don't want to be confined."

Emily glanced at Uncle Feng in surprise. Although the Nuwa tribe survived by hunting, his words suggested a belief that all creatures had a spirit. It seemed that while they hunted and ate animals for survival, they still respected the animals themselves.

Male knew about the difficulty of keeping captured animals alive, but he couldn't bear to discourage Emily's confidence. In front of the tribe members, he remained composed: "Emily wants to try, so let's let her. If it doesn't work, it's no different from before. But what if it does?"

Emily was taken aback to realize that Male didn't have much faith in her ability to domesticate animals. This guy! He had less faith in her than Bajiao and Yue Liang, who believed in the "messenger of the Nuwa goddess."

While she knew that animal husbandry was common in the future, she had never personally raised livestock, only pets like cats and dogs. There were many factors beyond human control, and what if the chicken or sheep got sick and didn't survive?

Emily steadied herself and smiled, agreeing with Male's words: "Let's give it a try. Maybe it will work!"

Uncle Feng and the other tribe members had no objections. With plenty of game available, it was worth trying to keep some animals alive for Emily to raise. If successful, it would help alleviate food shortages during the cold season.

When they returned to the Nuwa tribe, they found the group Male had assigned to build the toilet waiting at Male's door.

Emily had discussed the construction of the toilet in detail with Male, explaining that human and animal waste could be fermented into natural fertilizer. Male had then arranged for people to start building the toilet. It seemed the construction was already completed?