Yang Yi woke up to find the bright sun blazing outside the tent.
That sleep had been incredibly satisfying. He felt as if he’d been reborn.
Let alone how he had been constantly on edge in this world, unable to sleep peacefully, not even back on Earth had he ever slept so comfortably.
His mind was clear, and his body felt light as a swallow. He almost wanted to take flight like a bird.
“Divine Envoy, you’re finally awake!”
Just as Yang Yi stepped out of the tent, someone greeted him.
“You’ve already been asleep for three days. If the chieftain hadn’t said you were fine, we would’ve thought you were seriously ill.”
Three days?!
Yang Yi was shocked. Only then did his empty stomach start reacting. He was so hungry that it was twitching.
He had indeed been on edge ever since arriving here. But after coming to this tribe, he had finally relaxed a bit.
At worst, he’d just die again. He still had two lives left.
But to sleep for three full days after letting his guard down? Was his mental state that fragile, and he just hadn’t known it?
In the past, even after three consecutive all-nighters, he’d only slept for a day and a night.
“Divine Envoy, you must be hungry now, right? The hunting party caught a white-feathered chicken yesterday. This kind of chicken is especially delicious. It is small in size, quick on its feet, and usually very hard to catch.”
The person speaking couldn’t help but swallow at the thought of that flavor.
Ever since Hei Lie arrived, the hunting party had grown significantly stronger. The number of animals they brought back each day was impressive, and they even managed to catch some beasts that were tasty but difficult to hunt.
If it were any other time, Yang Yi would definitely have been very interested.
But today, he planned to indulge himself!
He was no longer the timid, fearful, weakling worried about being harmed. Now, he could do what he wanted.
So—
Yang Yi took out a self-heating hotpot from his storage space…
A rich aroma began to drift through the tribe, drawing people’s attention whether they wanted to or not.
This time, Yang Yi didn’t care what anyone thought. He just wanted to enjoy a meal all to himself.
Objectively speaking, in terms of flavor, the self-heating hotpot couldn’t compare to the dishes made with the ingredients from this world. It was a noticeable gap. But right now, this was exactly what Yang Yi was craving.
Even if he’d gone without food for so many days and his body probably couldn’t handle something this spicy and greasy, he still wanted to do it, even if it killed him.
Before, in order not to stand out, in order to blend in with the group, he had been constantly holding back.
But after suppressing himself for so long, he just wanted to let loose and do something completely unrestrained.
Yang Yi knew full well how childish this behavior was and that it didn’t mean anything in the bigger picture. But he still wanted to do it anyway.
“Divine Envoy, what is this?”
Mao scurried over, his face full of curiosity.
Yang Yi picked up a slice of lotus root with his chopsticks and handed it to Mao, who opened his mouth and ate it. While exhaling rapidly from the heat, he didn’t hold back on his praise.
“So spicy! So spicy! So delicious! So good!”
Yang Yi laughed and handed him a few pieces of rock sugar.
After eating the rock sugar, Mao’s fluffed-up expression immediately calmed down.
The others looked on with envy. The aroma was simply too tempting, constantly teasing their appetites.
But no one dared to act as familiar as Mao, not even daring to step forward and ask what it was.
Truthfully, Yang Yi didn’t feel all that great while eating. It wasn’t very comfortable, but it still felt satisfying.
After such a long period of blandness, he finally got to satisfy a craving.
However, even the small bowl he had served himself ended up unfinished. After going hungry for days, his stomach was putting up resistance.
“Do you guys want to try it?” Yang Yi asked.
As soon as he said that, the nearby children’s eyes lit up, and they quickly gathered around.
The adults were tempted as well, but seeing that there wasn’t much of the self-heating hotpot to go around, none of them would fight the children for it.
Yang Yi often handed out rock sugar to the kids and was already used to it.
Weak young ones were often abandoned by some tribes, but at the same time, everyone understood clearly that the young determined the future of a tribe, so they were generally pampered.
Yang Yi handed the chopsticks to the nearest child. “Use these to pick up the food.”
The child curiously took the two wooden sticks and, under Yang Yi’s guidance, began trying to pick up vegetables from the self-heating hotpot.
At first, the movements were stiff. He dropped the food several times. But after a short while, once he got the hang of it, he became much more fluent.
He picked up a strand of enoki mushroom and put it into his mouth, then very considerately passed the chopsticks to the next child.
Before this, Yang Yi had always used the spoon from his military ration kit and hadn’t used chopsticks, so the people in the Spark Tribe were unfamiliar with them.
Everyone here ate with their hands, since their diet had mostly been based on roasting food. Stone pots took too long to cook anything.
It was only after they obtained aluminum barrels that they started having boiled food with every meal.
Pottery was scarce in the tribe, so people even had to line up during meals. Yang Yi hadn’t considered making them change their eating habits on the spot.
But now, to his surprise, everyone was learning extremely quickly. Each person was able to pick up food smoothly without needing a special adjustment period.
Some kids found it fun and even went to look for two sticks themselves to practice picking up stones on the ground. Yang Yi could visibly see them go from complete novices to skilled users.
When Jiao heard that Yang Yi had woken up, she came to find him. The moment she arrived, she saw those “magical” two wooden sticks.
“So you can use them like that,” Jiao said, amazed.
“From now on, let’s use this method to pick up food in the tribe. Don’t use your hands directly. It’s too unsanitary.”
Jiao agreed without hesitation and, full of interest, eagerly gave it a try herself.
Before, when everyone saw Yang Yi eating with a spoon, they were already quite intrigued. It felt especially novel and different.
Now that there were more cooked dishes, eating directly with hands really had become inconvenient.
However, seeing that Yang Yi used a metal spoon, everyone had simply assumed that spoons had to be made of metal, so they didn’t think much about it.
Now that they saw food could also be picked up using wooden sticks, they instantly felt that this could work!
To help everyone naturally start using chopsticks and to celebrate the official inauguration of the Spark Tribe’s new chieftain, Yang Yi decided to host a hotpot feast that evening.
Lively and festive. It would also bring good fortune.
Based on previous barbecue experiments, the people here, both in terms of taste and digestion, handled spicy food quite well.
This area was rather damp and cold, so eating something spicy would also help dispel some of that internal dampness.
Such a move was extravagant by current standards. But for a special occasion, it was okay to splurge once in a while.
“Hei Lie and the others went hunting on the wasteland?” Yang Yi looked in the direction of the open plains, his brows slightly furrowed.
“Yes. The forest is too far. It’s inconvenient for a round trip. Today, the chieftain took some people to scout out the wasteland,” Jiao replied, thinking Yang Yi was worried. After all, the wasteland was extremely dangerous.
“Divine Envoy, you don’t need to worry. The chieftain isn’t a reckless person.”
Having his suspicions confirmed, Yang Yi unconsciously placed his hand over his chest, as if he could still feel the moment the contract had been signed that day.
The symbiotic contract was far more functional than Hei Lie had explained. Yang Yi could now faintly sense Hei Lie’s direction. He was currently quite far away.
There was a kind of resonance between the two of them. Whenever one thought of the other, they could sense it.
At this moment, Yang Yi also realized that the difference he felt today in his perception likely wasn’t just from a good night’s sleep, but rather the effect of the symbiotic contract.
Though he couldn’t share Hei Lie’s combat abilities through it, the contract still brought some changes to him.
With this understanding, Yang Yi felt even more at ease.
Without further hesitation, Yang Yi took out twenty large canteen-sized woks from his storage space. With these, the tribe’s overall standard of living would see a major improvement.
The ingredients here were all top-quality. Even with casual preparation, the food already tasted great.
Now with proper woks, chances were no one would ever want to look at the self-heating hotpots again.
“Divine Envoy, are these used for defense?”
Upon seeing the large iron woks, everyone’s first reaction was the same.
“No. They’re for stir-frying food,” Yang Yi said with a smile.
“Stir… stir-frying?”
This world didn’t yet have the concept of “stir-frying”, but from the word “food” that followed, they could roughly guess the meaning, though it was still hard to believe.
“It’s a method of cooking. The flavor is completely different from boiling or roasting.”
No one quite knew what kind of expression to put on. Such precious metal was used just for cooking?
The warriors who had joined later looked especially stunned, utterly unable to believe what they were hearing.
Extravagant. This was just too extravagant!
But no one said a word against it. On the contrary, they even felt proud.
Look, this is our tribe. So rich!
“Tonight, we’ll be making the kind of food you just ate.”
At those words, everyone burst into cheers.
Being able to eat their fill was the top priority, but that didn’t mean they didn’t wish for delicious food too.
Aside from the iron woks, Yang Yi also brought out a large pile of ingredients for making spicy hotpot base.
Yang Yi had never made hotpot base from scratch before. Now that he had to work with such huge woks so he simply took on the role of supervisor, guiding the people in the tribe who were in charge of food preparation.
The tribe now had over a thousand people. The ones selected to handle cooking were all the most naturally gifted in culinary skills.
Ever since the cooking team was formed, the tribe’s meals had noticeably improved in taste.
Once a wok was heated, they first rendered oil from animal fat. Yang Yi followed a recipe and instructed them step-by-step.
Yang Yi’s instructions lacked soul. He was just mechanically reading from the recipe.
Even so, the cooking team still grasped the essence, managing to figure out the right amount for every vague “appropriate amount”.
Once Yang Yi finished reading the recipe, he quickly slipped away because it was just too pungent for him to handle.
“Achoo. What is this smell? Achoo!”
“It smells so good! What’s the cooking team doing? Oh my god, I can already imagine how delicious tonight’s food is going to be!”
“It has to be the Divine Envoy! There’s no way the cooking team could make something that smells like this.”
“I really want to go see what it is…”
The aroma from live stir-frying was far stronger than anything the self-heating hotpot could produce, especially since it used the fats rendered from local animals. Even the broth was simmered from local creatures, rich and fragrant.
Waves of scent wafted from the heart of the tribe, drifting all the way to where people were working in the distance.
The temptation of good food was always hard to resist. Even if one tried to stay focused, the uncontrollable drool and growling stomach made it impossible to ignore.
At that moment, everyone had just one thought: hurry up and finish the work. It’s time to eat!
Those returning from outside the tribe were hit by a wave of intense aroma as soon as they entered, and were literally pushed back a couple of steps.
It was so fragrant that it made their mouths water.
But the spiciness was no joke either. Some warriors whose talents were in sensory perception had tears streaming down their faces on the spot.
Once they got used to it, they couldn’t wait to see what it was.
But the first thing that caught their eyes wasn’t the food. It was the large iron woks over the fire.
Everyone had the same thought: What amazing metal… what incredible weapons those could make!
But very soon, they were pulled back by the food’s allure. The pot was filled with a bright red broth, with a thick layer of oil on top, and chili peppers floating on it, bringing a spicy aroma.
Inside, the pot was packed full with all kinds of things: meat and organs from various animals, along with root vegetables and the like.
A small fire still burned underneath the pot, and that fragrance kept seducing the taste buds. Anyone who got close would subconsciously swallow their saliva.
Next to each pot were several rattan baskets filled with all kinds of thoroughly washed vegetables, along with pre-sliced meat.
As long as the food inside was finished, you could just add more in and boil it again.
With the twenty pots divided out, at least fifty to sixty people had to share each one.
Therefore, it was impossible to dip and eat at the same time. Some people used pottery to scoop up some and squatted off to the side. But finally, everyone could eat together.
To be on the safe side, Yang Yi still had someone make a wild mushroom pot.
Actually, the taste was extremely delicious. Yang Yi himself was eating from this side.
The mushrooms here tasted exceptionally good—truly deserving of the old saying, “So good you could swallow your tongue.”
However, not many were appreciating it at the moment. The locals had long gotten used to it.
Mushrooms were plants they had recognized and eaten for a long time. Although many were poisonous, after generations of experience, they had come to know quite a few edible ones.
The environment here was different from that of the Blackstone Tribe, and the mushrooms growing here were also different. The ones they had picked before were very few.
Yang Yi didn’t recognize them either. Even with books in hand, he didn’t dare to try them recklessly.
There were quite a few poisonous mushrooms that looked very similar to the non-poisonous ones. Sometimes, with just a single careless mistake, even seasoned experts could fall into the trap.
Yang Yi had once known someone who specialized in selling wild mushrooms. One time, he slipped up and got poisoned, straight into the ICU.
The plants in this world were far more dangerous than those on Earth. The variety was extremely abundant, but trying to find the edible ones among them wasn’t so simple.
But everything changed once Hei Lie’s group arrived, because one of the warriors among them had the talent of plant affinity!
On her very first day here, she displayed her exceptional talent and returned with a large collection of mushrooms picked from nearby.
That warrior was a girl named Qing, thin, small, and delicate-looking.
Though she was a warrior, her combat ability had always been weak, even inferior to that of a strong ordinary man.
At first, she had almost been sold off. Some people had even doubted whether she was truly a warrior. It was Hei Lie who kept her.
Everyone thought she had simply gotten lucky to become a Level One warrior, and that there was no chance she’d rise any further. Unexpectedly, she became a Level Two warrior and now had even advanced to Level Three.
The significance of a Level Three female warrior was far greater than that of a male one. It meant she could give birth to more outstanding warriors.
Even though she hadn’t awakened any innate talent, she was still a treasured presence in the Blackstone Tribe and was highly sought after.
Yet Qing had followed Hei Lie without hesitation when he left. During the arduous journey, her talent gradually began to reveal itself.
She was close to plants, able to sense the properties of vegetation. Most directly, she could tell what was edible and what wasn’t, or how to process some poisonous plants to make them edible.
For places where gathering was an important source of food, such an ability was incredibly valuable.
Along the way, it was also thanks to her presence that they managed to avoid some plants capable of releasing hallucinogenic or anesthetic effects, and even dodged attacks from man-eating flowers, preventing everyone from getting hurt.
Plant-type talents were extremely rare—only heard of in scattered rumors. They hadn’t expected to actually encounter one.
After Yang Yi found out, he immediately put her in charge of planting matters. This was a true expert!
The topic had drifted a bit. If it were under normal circumstances, everyone would surely be endlessly praising the wild mushroom hot pot. But today, under the comparison with the red oil spicy hot pot, it paled in comparison.
Unlike many people on Earth, this world lacked oil but not salt. The flavor options were limited. This kind of food was not only tempting, but could also replenish what the body needed.
“This flavor is amazing! I thought grilled meat was already the best food, but I didn’t expect there to be something even more delicious in the world!”
“I’m starting to suspect that this meat and these vegetables aren’t the same ones we usually eat. Why do they taste so different from usual?”
Voices of praise rose and fell, while others were too busy stuffing their faces to speak.
Even though it was everyone’s first time using chopsticks, their speed was anything but slow. They picked up food with surprising skill.
Sweat was pouring down their faces, their lips were already a bit swollen and red, yet they still couldn’t stop eating.
Hei Lie was also eating with great joy. His chopsticks moved so fast they left afterimages, and his mouth never stopped moving.
He finally managed to spare a moment, glanced at Yang Yi, and spoke with a complicated expression: “Looks like I’ll have to work even harder now.”
