“Beautiful and miraculous Divine Envoy, I have finally met you. You are just as dazzling as the legends say. Even the most radiant moonlight cannot compare to even half of your charm.”
Jin Huan enthusiastically stepped forward, boldly and sincerely offering her praise, her brilliant smile so dazzling it hurt the eyes.
Before Yang Yi could react, an exceptionally stunning face came right up close to him. The golden-ringed snake on her head flicked its tongue at him, making his whole body instantly stiffen.
Hot breath rushed directly against Yang Yi’s forehead, and in a flash, his ears turned red, as if his entire body was steaming with heat.
Yang Yi himself didn’t even know whether he was frightened or simply overwhelmed by the beauty of such a woman.
Jin Huan was even more beautiful than everyone had said. She stood over 1.8 meters tall, with a full bosom, a slender waist, and endlessly long legs.
From afar, as she strode forward, it was as though the topmost Victoria’s Secret angel was walking the runway, carrying the aura of galloping horses, her stunning features radiating with a presence that looked down upon the world.
Jin Huan had used the cosmetics Yang Yi had given her. In just a short time, she had already mastered them with precision, able to make herself appear even more dazzlingly glamorous.
All along her way, everyone was drawn to her, staring without blinking.
Her beauty was flamboyant, confident, even brimming with aggression—a beauty that made one instinctively want to submit. From a distance, she naturally drew all attention, becoming the absolute focal point of any crowd.
It was the perfect embodiment of the spirit: “This old lady is the most beautiful under heaven.”
While people admired her beauty, not a single one dared to harbor dirty thoughts. Coiled around her body, the golden-ringed snake might leap at you at any moment, baring its venomous fangs.
The aura she exuded did not come solely from her beauty, but from the formidable power hidden beneath that gorgeous body.
The sudden heat on his waist jolted Yang Yi back to his senses. Beside him, Hei Lie was watching him calmly, pulling him back to clarity at once.
“Our Divine Envoy does not like being too close to others.” Hei Lie calmly pulled the two of them apart.
Jin Huan winked at Yang Yi, then stepped back two paces without minding. She didn’t beat around the bush, but went straight to the point, firing off her questions crisply.
“We want to obtain the method of making fine salt. You want us to keep supplying you with salt; we can agree to that. But we must know: how much? And how often?”
Hei Lie said, “The method of making fine salt is only in exchange for your tribe providing our tribe with salt from now on.”
Jin Huan narrowed her eyes slightly. “What do you mean?”
“Our tribe will trade for however much salt we need, using goods of equal value. What you need to do is guarantee that every time we can trade for it, you give us priority over other tribes.”
The Green Python Tribe’s salt trades were always limited. If they liked what was offered, they would exchange; if they didn’t, they would refuse.
Each time, there was a fixed amount. Once it was all gone, no matter what was offered, they would not continue trading. It could truly be called willful.
In the past, Yang Yi would not have kept pressing them. He would have gone to seek out more tribes that had salt to trade.
But here, the distance to other places was far too great. He would need to assign people specifically to fetch salt. It’s dangerous and troublesome. At least for now, he didn’t want to spend the effort.
That was why he much preferred to obtain enough salt from the Green Python Tribe and maintain a stable cooperative relationship.
Jin Huan was utterly astonished. She turned her gaze toward Yang Yi. “My beautiful Divine Envoy, do you have no objections to this?”
Jin Huan knew very well what this meant and found it unbelievable.
“If you praise me as a handsome Divine Envoy instead, I’d be even happier,” Yang Yi said with a smile.
“Our Spark Tribe has always emphasized that we and the Green Python Tribe are friendly tribes. We want to build good relations with you. We will use actions to prove everything. I believe that in the future there will be much cooperation between us. This is merely the first step in showing our sincerity.”
Jin Huan placed a hand on her chest, her expression moved. “Handsome and beautiful Divine Envoy, your heart is as pure as your looks.”
“……”
There was no way to escape from the word ‘beautiful’.
Yang Yi’s mouth twitched. Having lived for over twenty years, only after coming here did he discover that he could actually be associated with the word beautiful.
“I can agree to trade salt with you,” Jin Huan continued, “and just like how we give you more benefits when exchanging for your furs, we will also give you additional advantages. However—” She paused.
“What is it?”
“Our supply is limited. To show our sincerity, I won’t hide it from you. It’s not that we refuse to exchange salt because our tribe is wealthy, but because we truly don’t have much salt.”
Hei Lie asked, “How much can you give us in exchange?”
“About enough for two thousand people to last through one cold season. If you ration carefully, it can be enough to get through both the cold season and the light-rain season.”
“That’s far too little.” Hei Lie frowned. “We already have nearly three thousand people now, and the number will only keep increasing. That amount cannot meet our needs at all.”
“This puts me in a difficult position as well. I would also like to take out more salt to exchange for more goods for my tribe. But the salt we can eat is too little. Unless—” Jin Huan hesitated, then continued, “unless you are willing to take this kind of salt. If so, I can guarantee you can exchange for as much as you want.”
Jin Huan handed over a red-colored clod of earth. Hei Lie stepped forward to take it, licked it with his tongue, and immediately spat it out.
“This is nothing but salty soil. The taste is awful.”
“Yes. We have a great deal of this kind of salt, but it cannot be eaten.” Jin Huan’s gaze turned toward Yang Yi.
“Beautiful and handsome Divine Envoy, since you can turn our red salt into finer, refined salt, could you also make this kind of salt into edible salt?”
Yang Yi looked at the red clod of earth and asked, “These clods come from the same place as those red salts, don’t they?”
Jin Huan hesitated for quite a while before finally nodding. “Yes.”
“If I’m not mistaken, your red salt should have been discovered inside a rock cave, correct?”
Jin Huan’s face stiffened slightly, her expression turning a little unpleasant.
The Green Python Tribe’s source of red salt was a secret, never spoken of to outsiders.
Their salt was special. Compared to the salt brought by other tribes, its taste was much better.
If not for the comparison with refined salt, they were very confident that their salt was the best; other tribes’ salt was far more bitter.
But now, this secret had been spoken out loud by the man before her, a man who looked as though he could be crushed with a single finger.
Before she could react, Yang Yi continued:
“Salt generally comes from several possible sources: the sea, salt lakes, underground well salt, alkaline land, and certain rock caves. Previously, the salt our tribe traded for was sea salt. Compared with your red salt, it contains more impurities harmful to the body, and removing them is not easy. At least for now, we still cannot refine it into edible salt that meets my standards.”
Jin Huan’s pupils shrank. “You know about salt lakes? And underground salt? How are they supposed to be extracted?”
“The method for extracting salt from salt lakes is the same as for sea salt—usually through evaporation. Underground salt, on the other hand, requires additional steps: digging wells to draw out brine, just like the water wells you saw earlier. Compared with your cliff salt, it is much more troublesome. You are lucky you can obtain salt directly just by digging.”
Jin Huan could not hide the excitement on her face as she eagerly asked, “Then how exactly do you sun-dry salt?”
Yang Yi explained the general process step by step. Jin Huan suddenly understood, pressed her lips together, and fell into deep thought.
Yang Yi and Hei Lie exchanged a glance. It seemed the Green Python Tribe not only possessed cliff salt but also had a salt lake. It was just that they didn’t know how to sun-dry salt.
If that was the case, then there was no need to ever worry about a lack of salt in the future.
Salt was far too important in daily life. Without solving this problem, a tribe could never truly grow strong.
The Green Python Tribe’s salt was clearly of higher quality than the salt Hei Lie had previously brought back. With their current techniques, the harmful impurities in it could already be removed. It was an excellent choice.
As for the salt lake and the salty earth in their hands, Yang Yi guessed they would likely not be much worse. A simple test would make it clear.
Back then, Yang Yi had spent a hefty sum in the marketplace to purchase testing equipment precisely for situations like this.
“Beautiful and handsome Divine Envoy, our Green Python Tribe is willing to sign a Divine Contract with the Spark Tribe. Our two tribes will be allies forever. As long as the Spark Tribe needs it, we are willing to keep exchanging salt with you—for only half the cost that other tribes must pay!”
Jin Huan seemed to be glowing all over, her brows arched upward, her joy plain to see.
The Green Python Tribe was powerful and wealthy, but they also had many goods they wished to trade for, especially the items brought by caravans from the Western Continent. There were far too many things they desired.
If they could obtain enough salt, then they would no longer need to calculate and measure every exchange so cautiously as before!
The “Divine Contract” was the most sacred of all contracts. To violate it meant being punished by the gods, and the punishment was extremely harsh.
No matter how powerful one was, no one could resist it.
Reaching a “Divine Contract” was not an easy matter, which was why such contracts were rarely established in ordinary times.
Jin Huan’s willingness to sign a “Divine Contract” was also a show of their sincerity—a way of exchanging true heart for true heart—so that this cautious and suspicious tribe would formally accept the Spark Tribe as an ally.
Yang Yi smiled and said, “I’m very glad to see that you’re willing to do this. I will teach you the methods of sun-drying salt and refining fine salt, until you have truly mastered them.”
“That really couldn’t be better!”
“But the refining of fine salt is time-consuming, laborious, and complicated. It is by no means an easy task. You must also be mentally prepared.”
To purify coarse salt into fine salt, it must first be dissolved, distilled, and filtered to remove the insoluble impurities. After that, chemical reactions are used to remove the soluble impurities within.
Fortunately, the soluble impurities in the Green Python Tribe’s red salt could mostly be removed with limewater.
Limewater was comparatively easy to obtain. One only needed to find limestone to produce it. Limestone was not difficult to acquire.
It was just that it still required processes like burning, distillation, and other steps, which made it rather troublesome.
The entire set of procedures consumed many resources and required a lot of manpower to complete.
If one wanted to produce it in large quantities, the cost would still be extremely high.
In the past, common folk for long periods ate coarse salt of poor quality, because fine salt was too costly.
Jin Huan laughed unconcernedly. “The better a thing is, the harder it should be to obtain. That is what makes it truly special and precious.”
Hei Lie and Jin Huan, in the name of their tribe, signed the sacred “Divine Contract”. Yang Yi felt deeply curious in his heart. Did such a contract truly hold that much power?
After signing the Symbiosis Contract with Hei Lie, Yang Yi did indeed find that they became more in tune with each other. He could even vaguely sense the other’s direction. But once he grew accustomed to it, that deeper feeling was no longer there.
In daily life, nothing much happened, so there was rarely a need to activate it.
Hei Lie would sometimes get injured, but as a powerful warrior, he would never let Yang Yi share in his pain.
Nowadays, Yang Yi often forgets that he had signed such a contract with another man.
“Today is a special day. Let’s have a drink.” Yang Yi handed a cup of liquor to Jin Huan.
Jin Huan thought it was sugar water. She had already heard from Xiang Zhang how Yang Yi treated his guests. She accepted it, praised the exquisite cup, and downed it in a single gulp—only for her eyes to go wide.
“This is…”
“This is liquor. I don’t know if you’ll like the taste.”
“You actually have liquor!” Jin Huan was utterly thrilled. She barely managed to restrain herself from sticking out her tongue to lick the cup.
“This is even stronger than what the Western Continent trading caravans bring! Oh, I can already feel the excitement rising in me. By the gods, I actually just swallowed it down like that, without even carefully savoring the flavor!”
Jin Huan was full of regret. In the past, whenever she obtained liquor, she would always sip it little by little.
Liquor was one of the most expensive goods brought by the caravans of the Western Continent. If a tribe was not prosperous, it simply could not afford to trade for it. Yet no one could resist the allure of such a food.
The Green Python Tribe also had what they called liquor, made by having women chew a certain special plant. The liquid they spat out would ferment into a drink that lifted people’s spirits.
It was one of the tribe’s most beloved foods. There were even people specifically dedicated to doing this.
But ever since tasting the liquor brought from the Western Continent, their tribe’s own liquor had become utterly tasteless.
Now that they had tasted the Spark Tribe’s liquor, they realized there could be something even more wonderful!
Yang Yi poured Jin Huan another cup, and the people who had come with her were also given theirs.
But each person only received a very small cup—just enough for a tiny sip, barely enough to taste the flavor.
It wasn’t that Yang Yi was stingy, but he hadn’t bought much liquor from the marketplace. Since he himself didn’t drink, and liquor couldn’t satisfy hunger, he had only bought a little to enrich the storeroom.
What he had taken out this time was rice wine, which could be brewed as long as rice was harvested.
“We want to trade salt for this liquor! The more the better!” Jin Huan narrowed her eyes as she finished her second cup, her whole being filled with satisfaction.
The other members of the Green Python Tribe also felt incredibly fortunate. As Xiang Zhang had said, the Spark Tribe truly was a place full of surprises.
Yang Yi shook his head. “I’m afraid we can’t agree to that.”
“Why not? We can give you more salt in exchange!”
“We don’t have enough manpower. Brewing liquor requires planting more crops, and right now our manpower is only enough to plant food for ourselves. Liquor is a fine thing, but it cannot fill our stomachs.”
Jin Huan waved her hand broadly. “Then are one thousand people enough for you?”
Yang Yi froze for a moment. That was way too straightforward!
Hei Lie, however, was not surprised in the least. As soon as he learned Yang Yi had liquor, he already knew the people of the Green Python Tribe would never be able to resist such a temptation.
Even Chief Blackstone was addicted to fine liquor. No one knew how many goods he had given to the caravans of the Western Continent just to trade for it.
Many people in the tribes went mad for this liquid, which once made Hei Lie feel disgust toward its very existence.
Later, he slowly came to realize the problem wasn’t with the liquor itself, but with people’s uncontrollable desires.
“You’ve agreed to our earlier proposal?”
“Isn’t it just digging earth and doing the same work those outsiders do? As long as you promise not to treat them as slaves, we’re willing to use their labor to trade for the things we want.”
“All our people in the Green Python Tribe are very strong. You’ll find it well worth it.”
Jin Huan had come for the sake of refining fine salt, but not for that alone.
They had their eyes on many things—chili peppers, wool products, and now the newly added treasure of liquor.
To obtain even a single jug of liquor from the Western Continent required an enormous price.
At present, salt alone was not enough to exchange for so many things at once.
Since they had chosen cooperation, Jin Huan naturally considered the feasibility of Hei Lie’s proposal to employ their manpower.
The Green Python Tribe had manpower in abundance. Sending out a thousand people was nothing. It would also help ease the pressure within their tribe.
This proposal had already tempted many of them earlier. They were just still observing.
When Xiang Zhang visited last time, he paid close attention to the situation here. His report back was very positive.
Today, as Jin Huan made her way through, she too felt the relaxed atmosphere of the Spark Tribe, which gave her even more confidence.
“I’m glad you’ve made such a decision. For the first batch, let’s tentatively set it at one hundred people. Let them try it out. If there are no issues, you can send more later.”
Hei Lie offered the thoughtful suggestion.
“There’s no need to make it so troublesome!” Jin Huan said straightforwardly. “But you must arrange for some of our people to join the house-building teams.”
Although the Spark Tribe’s formal buildings had not yet been constructed, they already had relatively simple mud-and-thatch houses. Built according to the planned layout, they were very neat and looked quite comfortable.
Some houses even had fireplaces built inside. As long as a fire was lit, the whole house would warm up.
The fire could also be used to boil water or cook food—truly serving two purposes at once.
Unlike Yang Yi, who was long used to tall buildings and saw thatched houses as shabby, Jin Huan and her group were amazed: so it was possible not only to live in caves, but also to build homes to live in!
And with the decorations added by some skillful young women, the houses looked beautiful and unique. If even temporary dwellings could be so desirable, then how breathtaking would the real houses be?
Thinking of the pictures she had seen before, Jin Huan also felt longing in her heart, hoping that they, too, could one day live in such homes.
Inside the houses were carefully crafted pieces of furniture. She could already imagine how enjoyable it would be to live in such a large home.
Though the temple was still only at the foundation-laying stage, its scale could already be seen.
Jin Huan could hardly wait to see what it would eventually look like. Would it really be as grand as the pictures she had seen?
Sending manpower over was also a way of learning, to lay the groundwork for building such things in their own tribe in the future.
“Of course,” Hei Lie said. “We’ll make everything clear to you about how to assign the work. If someone is unwilling, they can be switched out. But once the contract is signed, they must be where they are supposed to be, on time, without shirking. The tasks must be completed, no excuses.”
“If our Green Python Tribe agrees, then we will carry it out strictly. If anyone dares to mess around, there will be no need for you to act. Our Green Python Tribe will deal with them ourselves!”
That very day, Jin Huan also tasted the Spark Tribe’s food that Xiang Zhang had praised so highly, and she was completely captivated.
As a level four warrior, she could even more experience the benefits that chili peppers brought them.
“These chili peppers must become one of the items we exchange for from now on!” Jin Huan declared firmly.
Hei Lie wasn’t surprised. Once someone had tasted them, no one could resist their allure.
“As long as we have a good harvest, we’ll definitely trade them with you. But you have to know, whether it’s farming or animal raising, there’s always a loss. There are years of abundance, and there are years of shortage.”
With Yang Yi’s reminder, Hei Lie never locked agricultural trade into absolute terms, in case a natural disaster struck one year and the contract became a burden.
“How troublesome!” Jin Huan was clearly displeased, but she still agreed in the end.
Yang Yi suggested, “If you want to always have what you need, you could also start planting.”
Jin Huan waved her hand. “Our tribe lives in the jungle. It’s not like your wide open land. Putting in all that effort would be less worthwhile than simply trading with you.”
The Green Python Tribe indeed found planting difficult, though overcoming the hardship wasn’t impossible—just that clearing land required much more work.
Unlike the Spark Tribe, who could burn away the vegetation with a single fire and then immediately turn the soil.
In Yang Yi’s view, having things yourself was always better than depending on others. Otherwise, if the day came when someone cut off their supply, they would be placed in a very passive position.
Even with the current salt-trading agreement in place, Yang Yi still would not give up on finding his own salt pools.
Since the other side didn’t care, Yang Yi didn’t say more. He was merely offering a reminder.
The fact that the other party preferred trading was a good thing for Spark anyway. Yang Yi believed that the Green Python Tribe surely had many good things of their own.
Jin Huan stayed in the Spark Tribe for a day. When she saw Yang Yi’s hammock, she liked it very much. She even made one herself out of vines and slept in it.
After sleeping in it once, she fell in love with it and planned to make one when she returned, intending to sleep in it from then on.
The Green Python Tribe also had no concept of beds. They all slept on animal skins or straw mats spread directly on the ground.
But the jungle was very damp, and things often grew moldy, making it uncomfortable and even easy to get sick.
“You’ve given me great inspiration,” Jin Huan sighed, feeling that it was fortunate she had come on this trip. There were many good things here that could be put to use.
Yang Yi was generous. “I hope it will be of help to you.”
“Beautiful and handsome Divine Envoy, the Green Python Tribe will always welcome you. We will greet you with the highest courtesy.”
Jin Huan gazed deeply at Yang Yi, her beautiful eyes seeming as if they could pull someone right in.
If it had been before, Yang Yi would surely have turned red at the ears. But after dealing with this a few times, he was now able to remain calm.
The Green Python Tribe did not intermarry with outsiders, but they—especially Jin Huan—were very warm and loved to flirt everywhere. It was not to be trusted, not to be trusted.
“The Divine Envoy will surely visit your place someday as a guest,” Hei Lie said with a slight smile, though his smile was far from gentle.
Jin Huan held the goose-feather fan Yang Yi had made, half-covering her face as she posed with a look of forlorn despair, a sight that tugged at one’s heart.
The fan was something Yang Yi had made on a whim from the feathers of Goose King he had picked up earlier. When Jin Huan saw it, she had quite unceremoniously claimed it for herself.
“Don’t be fooled by her. People of the Green Python Tribe just like to flaunt their charm.”
After coming in with great vigor and leaving fully satisfied, once Jin Huan and her group had gone far enough, Hei Lie turned to Yang Yi with a stern expression.
Yang Yi was stunned for a moment, then suddenly laughed.
As for forming a union with people here—honestly, Yang Yi had never once considered such a thing.
Even before, he had always been indifferent to such matters. While others were thinking about how to meet pretty girls, he had been immersed in games.
There had even been beautiful girls who confessed to him, but he turned them all down, earning himself the nickname of “monk” from his dormmates.
After coming here, even while trying to blend in, he still felt he was a special kind of existence.
Blushing in front of Jin Huan was nothing more than an instinctive reaction upon seeing an attractive opposite sex.
Seeing Hei Lie’s serious face, Yang Yi smiled and said, “Don’t worry, I’ll stay in the Spark Tribe. Besides, we’ve already formed a contract. Where else could I possibly go?”
Hei Lie’s dark, gleaming eyes looked at him deeply. “I’d rather you stay because you truly want to, not just because of the contract.”
