Ye Xi knew who the warrior was: Calm Bulrush. Mud Mountain had only two Level 2 Warriors, the chief and him.
Not having expected to be found, the four had embarrassed looks on their faces.
The chief softly coughed and feigned composure. "We heard that you were almost done, so we came over to take a look."
"Then come a little closer to get a better view." Ye Xi pretended to not understand why they had been furtively hiding in the jungle.
The chief explained, "You said that just Plate and Carving were enough to help you. I was worried that we would disturb you."
Ye Xi suddenly understood. They thought that refining salt was some sort of shaman art and were worried that they might disrupt his ritual. Smiling, he said, "That's because it's so simple that just two people is enough. I just thought that more people would be a waste.
"It's actually very boring. Since you want to look, just watch from the sides."
Seeing that the fire was hot enough, Ye Xi placed the stone pot on top and ordered Plate to stir the brine with a wooden rod.
A stone pot was harder to heat than a metal one, and it took a while for white steam to finally start boiling off the surface of the water.
Slowly, the brine began to gurgle and pop.
"Put on more fire. The hotter the fire, the better," Ye Xi ordered Carving.
Courage and Horse rushed to get firewood.
"Will dry grass do? It burns very hot," Courage asked.
"Of course," Ye Xi replied. "But dried grass doesn't burn for very long."
Hearing this, Courage ran off and soon returned with a small mountain of dried grass.
There was so much of it that Courage's face was buried in it. Ye Xi was flabbergasted. Where had so much dried grass come from?
Courage smiled. "That kid Awl likes to spread dried grass on the ground. He gathered a lot, so I brought it all over."
Ye Xi: "…"
So you're turning someone's bed into firewood?
Horse's face was full of regret. "It's too bad I don't sleep on dried grass."
The others nodded in agreement, all of them filled with remorse.
With the large pile of dried grass to freely burn, the fire went crazy. Large bubbles popped and hissed out of the stone pot, and a great cloud of steam rose up like a beacon.
The yellow brine in the pot dwindled away, gradually revealing white crystals.
The chief stomped forward, excitedly looking at the pot, almost at a loss for words. "This is…"
Besides Ye Xi, everyone else ignored the flames roaring beneath the pot to gather around the stove.
Calm Bulrush, who had been very composed this entire time, was now so excited that his face went red. His voice was slightly shaky as he asked, "Could this white stuff really be salt?!"
Horse stared at the white crystals in the pot. Suddenly, he reached out and took a little pinch with his fingers.
Ye Xi was startled. The fire was still going! Did it not feel hot?
Horse stuck the finger covered with white crystals directly into his mouth.
Everyone stared at him, their eyes frighteningly crimson. Ye Xi suspected that if Horse did not taste anything, those present might choose to eat him alive.
"…Salty," Horse muttered.
"Salty," Carving unconsciously repeated.
"Salty!" Plate yelled.
"Salty!" the chief bellowed, stomping a foot on the ground in excitement.
"Hahaha, it's salty, salty!" Courage crazily laughed and then ran up to a tree and savagely punched it.
Ye Xi: "…"
He calmly watched all of them go crazy.
Horse sucked on his finger like he was a child until there was no saltiness left, whereupon he was forced to reluctantly pull his finger out.
Ye Xi saw that his finger was sporting a gleaming blister, but Horse seemed to not feel any pain. He stood next to the stove, staring at the pot while muttering something to himself.
Finally, the water in the pot was all boiled away. The yellow brine was gone, leaving behind snow-white crystals.
Only now did they stop their crazed behavior.
They simply stared in a daze at the stone pot. Ye Xi kindly reminded, "The salt is finished refining."
Ye Xi's eyes flew open. These were Warriors, people who sweat and bled but never cried, yet they slowly began to go red in the eyes.
Ye Xi's body went stiff, his hair standing on end.
A 1.9-meter man made of sheer muscle was silently shedding tears in front of him. This was just too much!
Plate's eyes were clouded with tears and his voice was choked by sobs. "Is th-this white substance really salt?" The salt he knew was yellow and mixed with dirt.
Horse's eyes were also red, and his voice was shaky. "It's salt, salt! I tasted it! It was salty."
Carving sniffled. Wiping away his tears, he said, "I hadn't thought there would be a day when our Mud Mountain would be able to produce its own salt."
Courage wiped his eyes, and his voice sounded like there was a ball of cotton down his throat. "If only our ancestors were here to see this."
The chief's face was streaked with tears, and he was the most agitated of the Warriors. "They know! They know that the days of our Mud Mountain will get better and better."
Courage continued to wipe at his eyes, but the tears kept coming. "Look at how bright these white crystals are! It's so much better than what the Yellow Bear Tribe gives us."
The chief wiped his hand across his face and took in a deep breath. "Yes, I had no idea that salt could be as white as a cloud."
The chief still couldn't relax, so he turned and asked, "Ye Xi, is this really salt?"
The others stopped crying and turned to him.
Ye Xi firmly said, "It's salt. It is salt."
They breathed a sigh of relief and continued to affectionately gaze at the salt in the stone pot. Anyone who didn't know the truth would think that the salt was their reincarnated lover.
"Two days ago, I received an invitation to the Blackpond Tribe's trade fair," the chief suddenly said. He had completely calmed down now, regaining his cold composure.
A trade fair? Ye Xi's eyes brightened, his ears immediately catching onto this crucial term.
"What? The Blackpond Tribe is holding another trade fair?" the other Warriors called out in unison.
Courage clenched his fists and spat, "If we had known that the Blackpond Tribe would be holding a trade fair, we wouldn't have traded for salt with the Yellow Bear Tribe."
Horse frowned. "That's right. If we had known about this trade fair earlier, we would have waited until then to go and buy some. The Yellow Bear Tribe would not dare to bring low-quality salt to the Blackpond's trade fair… We lost out big."
"Ha, will we still need to buy salt? We can produce our own!" Calm Bulrush grunted. "The Yellow Bear Tribe is on good terms with the Blackpond Tribe, so they might have already known and came to trade salt with us before we received the news."
Everyone's faces chilled upon hearing this. The thought of the food they had traded away made their hearts ache.
Horse clenched his fists. "The Yellow Bear Tribe was no match for our Mud Mountain initially, but they were able to rely on salt to slowly get stronger and stronger until they can now bully and extort us."
Courage bitterly said, "They would naturally be no match for the Mud Mountain of the past."
Ye Xi curiously looked at them. The Mud Mountain of the past?
The atmosphere had suddenly become rather heavy.
Plate's eyes were dim, and he mysteriously said, "Our salt is so white, it would definitely be more welcomed than the Yellow Bear Tribe's."
Everyone's eyes brightened.
Courage heartily laughed, all his worries wiped away. "That's right. Their salt is yellow like dirt while our salt is white like the clouds. The Yellow Bear Tribe can't compare."
The chief breathed out all his turbid air and raised an eyebrow. "Alright, our salt is much better than theirs, so there's no need to let them bully us over salt any longer."
Calm Bulrush refreshingly said, "That's right. I'll lead the team to the trade fair that's coming in a few days. I'm already looking forward to seeing their nasty scowls!"
Courage's face stiffened and his eyebrows shot up. "For what reason should you lead the team? The shaman might send me instead."
"Of course he'll send me. You went last time, so it should be my turn now."
Even though this was true, Courage was extremely unwilling to give up. He truly wanted to see the dumbstruck look on the faces of the Yellow Bear Tribe for himself.
"But…"
"Alright, stop arguing." The chief broke up their quarrel.
Everyone fell silent.
The chief turned to Ye Xi and solemnly said, "Ye Xi, you've once more performed a great service.
"I represent all of the Mud Mountain Tribe in thanking you." The chief brought his right hand up to his left shoulder and hammered it, and then he hammered his heart. Finally, maintaining this stance, he bowed to Ye Xi.
Everyone paused, and then they repeated the chief's actions and bowed.
Ye Xi was shocked. He had never seen this sort of ceremony before, but he could easily guess that it was an expression of gratitude and respect.
He magnanimously accepted these bows, and once they straightened their backs, he imitated their actions, using his right fist to pound his heart and then bowing to them.
The Warriors were startled.
Ye Xi straightened his back and smiled. "If not for all of you, I wouldn't have been able to refine the salt. As a member of the Mud Mountain Tribe, I should be thanking all of you."
The Warriors glanced at each other. For some reason, they found their previous actions very stupid. Ye Xi was a member of their Mud Mountain, so why were they so grateful to him?
"Hahaha." The chief gave a refreshing laugh and patted Ye Xi on the shoulder, his eyes shining with admiration and sincere joy. "Good! You're right—I was being unreasonable. We're all members of Mud Mountain, so there's no need to put on such airs with each other."
The other Warriors looked at Ye Xi and warmly smiled.
Ye Xi sensed that the wariness and alienation in those eyes had completely disappeared, leaving behind only sincerity. At this moment, he knew that he had finally and authentically become one of them.