Chapter 39: As Casual as Scattering Salt (A bonus chapter for our patron, H Aquarius)

Standing up and looking out over the grassland, where the weeds had grown nearly to his knees, Zhou Xu activated his "Eye of Insight" without a second thought. Lately, Zhou Xu had increasingly come to feel that the Eye of Insight was a truly useful ability. Whenever he was faced with uncertainty, relying on the Eye of Insight was never a mistake.

Once his vision expanded, everything became clear. Zhou Xu soon discovered that buried among the weeds were numerous skeletal remains and scattered fragments of broken walls.

"These wall fragments must have come from some kind of structure; there is no way the primitives of today could have crafted them. According to their legends, there must have been an era before this one, ruled by the Old Gods. It’s just that those Old Gods died out, and that era collapsed along with them, right?"

One had to remember that those so-called Old Gods wielded extraordinary power. For them to have perished and an entire era to have fallen, a terrifying war must have once erupted across this land.

"In other words, these stone walls and skeletal remains are very likely relics from that previous era."

At this thought, Zhou Xu felt a surge of excitement. The previous transmigrator did not possess the Eye of Insight, so there were things he could find that the other might have missed. He ordered Zhou Chongshan and the others to carry the skeletal remains they discovered along the way; after all, having already obtained the "Skeleton Control" mantra, he had a need to stockpile skeletons.

During this process, as his gaze swept through the swaying weeds, aided by the Eye of Insight, Zhou Xu soon spotted a faint glimmer deep within the grassland.

"Found it!"

Without hesitation, he locked onto the location and jogged over. Pushing aside the weeds, he saw the faint light buried beneath thick layers of dust.

"Everyone, come over and help."

Receiving the order, Zhou Chongshan and Dash did not waste words and immediately set to work. After digging through some six or seven centimeters of sandy soil, a corner of a stone slab appeared before his eyes.

"Dig it out."

Dash did not yet understand what their leader intended to do, but Zhou Chongshan and the others knew, having experienced similar things before. This made them dig with even greater vigor. The corner of the slab weighed at least seventy or eighty pounds, and being buried deep in the earth, it took quite a bit of effort to unearth it.

Once Zhou Xu saw the full picture and examined it from top to bottom, he could basically confirm that this had once been a stone stele. Its texture and style were different from the broken walls, though for some reason, only a corner remained. Under the observation of his Eye of Insight, he could see a character on this fragment, its strokes so faint they were nearly invisible.

The faint glimmer was emanating from this very character. Without hesitation, Zhou Xu absorbed it. Just as before, a new mantra character emerged in his mind. The meaning of this character was...

"Soldier!"

As before, a single character alone could not exert any substantive effect. However, these individual characters sparked some ideas in his mind.

"If I collect enough of these characters, could I obtain corresponding mantras by combining them? And as for the mantras I already possess, could I break those characters down and rearrange them?"

As this thought flashed through his mind, Zhou Xu felt his heart race. It felt as if he had just gained infinite possibilities.

The grassland was vast. Taking a look at the sky, Zhou Xu clearly had no intention of heading back just yet. The discovery of this mantra character made him even more convinced that there must be many more good things buried in this grassland.

Heaven rewards the diligent. With the efficiency of his exploration boosted by the Eye of Insight, his careful investigation led him to discover a second mantra character on a fragment of a stone stele at another location.

"Gift!"

By then, the sun was slowly sinking in the west. The grassland was not safe after nightfall. To avoid unnecessary trouble, Zhou Xu, who had collected a pile of skeletons and harvested two mantra characters, turned back in high spirits. He knew he wouldn't make it back to the Salt Lake Tribe today, so he decided to spend the night at the Black Moon Tribe's camp. In fact, he had made this decision from the start; before heading to the grassland, he had already signaled a tribe member to return to the Salt Lake Tribe to deliver the message. A lone runner was fast enough that, by his calculations, they should have arrived long ago.

Back at the Black Moon Tribe, the members who had recently pledged their allegiance to him were watching their new leader with eager eyes. Clearly, they dared not act without orders from him.

"Alright, start a fire and prepare dinner."

Dinner at the Black Moon Tribe was largely as Zhou Xu expected. Each person received about a bowl of fish soup and half a grilled fish. Truth be told, leaving aside the meal where they chewed on spider legs, the food in this tribe was superior to that of his own Salt Lake Tribe. This was the natural advantage of being backed by a freshwater lake and possessing abundant fish resources.

Of course, he had something they lacked: salt. With just a small amount of salt for seasoning, it was enough to turn their grilled fish and soup into something entirely different. For the members of the Black Moon Tribe, who had never tasted seasoning before, it was enough to completely reshape their worldview.

To them, the fish soup and grilled fish had already been delicious enough. Thinking back to when he first drank the soup and ate the grilled fish, Dash could almost swear he had thought he could eat it for the rest of his life without ever getting tired of it. But today, after tasting the food prepared by his new leader, just one bite completely overturned his previous vow.

Much like the casual way their new leader sprinkled the salt, he had effortlessly crushed the food their old leader had provided. At that moment, including Dash, the members of the Black Moon Tribe seemed to have been stripped of the power of speech. They didn't know what to say or how to describe their current feelings; all they could do was bury their heads and eat!

Perhaps it wasn't their imagination, but after finishing their meal, they felt their entire state of being had improved. And, of course, it was no illusion. This feeling was due to the replenishment of salt. Salt was not only found in "salt" itself; generally, the food they ate also contained biological salts, which primitives relied on to maintain their biological functions. But just like eating, "not being hungry" and "being full" were two different things. The amount of biological salt provided by their usual food could naturally not compare to the salt crystals Zhou Xu had sprinkled on top.