"Hehe, guess what." The man carrying the load was very proud.

Seeing the white ore being carried up in baskets and put into the warehouse, and looking at the men whose faces were frosted but couldn't help but look happy, someone suddenly had an idea and asked, "Could this be a salt mine?"

"Haha, you guessed it right." The men laughed.

Because Hui was young, he didn't go to the Sun Tribe with them. Now his eyes widened and he asked exaggeratedly, "Did you steal the salt mines from the Sun Tribe?"

With the experience of stealing iron ore from the Sifang Tribe, the others immediately put aside their doubts after hearing what Hui said. They smiled happily and said, "You are amazing."

"That's not true," Kuangfeng said proudly. "We found a salt mine in the wild. This is what we dug out from the mine. Let me tell you, there's still a lot of salt ore out there. From now on, our tribe won't have to worry about salt anymore."

As soon as he said this, the elders who were watching the quarrels and fights among the crowd with a smile and trying hard to maintain their calm image could no longer hold back.

Lu looked at Qiao Yu anxiously: "Really? Yu, did you really find a salt mine?"

"Yes." Qiao Yu nodded, "But the location is not very good. It's far from here. It's only two or three days away from the Sun Tribe and the God Tribe."

"Ah? What should we do then?" Several elders became anxious.

Discovering a salt mine had been their long-cherished dream. Now, finally, their wish had been fulfilled, but it was in a place like that. If the Sun Tribe or the God Tribe discovered it, they would be starved of salt once again.

"Can we take advantage of this snow season to dig back all the ore there?" Shan asked.

Qiao Yu had thought about this problem a long time ago.

She shook her head: "It's too cold, everyone will get sick. The fundamental reason we want the salt mine is for everyone's health. We can't put the cart before the horse." At this point, she explained the idiom "putting the cart before the horse" to everyone.

After hearing what she said, everyone felt that it made sense.

Although they wore animal skins in winter, and some wild animal furs were very warm, not everyone had such fur clothing. Working in the wilderness on a snowy day could easily lead to illness, and illness meant death.

Salt mines are important, but they pale in comparison to human lives.

Moreover, the salt mine had existed for a long time and had not been discovered by the people of the Sun Tribe and the God Tribe for so long. They could just leave it there and mine it when the tribe was short of salt and it was less likely to attract the attention of the two tribes.

"How do we turn these minerals into salt?" Shi raised a new question.

None of the three merged tribes had ever owned salt ore, but they did trade it with others at the annual trade fair, so they had some knowledge of the matter. After all, some salts were more expensive than others, and their quality varied, their tastes varied, and their effects on the human body varied.

It's not uncommon for people from the Fire or Sun Tribes to steal salt ore and trade it for dried meat. Someone, tempted by the bargain, bought it back and ended up poisoned after consuming the salt, killing their entire family. Such incidents don't need to happen within their own tribe. Just one instance, spread at the trade fair, would spread to every tribe.

And the elders will pass this experience down from generation to generation.

Therefore, salt ore cannot be eaten directly and needs to be refined. This knowledge is known to everyone except ignorant children.

They only knew that salt ore needed to be refined, but they didn't know how to do it.

"I know how to do it," Qiao Yu said. "We'll talk about it tomorrow."

"Yes, everyone has worked hard. Go back and have a good rest. We can talk about this tomorrow." Shan Dao.

He didn't care about others, but he loved his daughter. A girl, she had been freezing outside with those men for nearly a month. After finally returning to the tribe, he couldn't rest, but instead he had to talk to her about this and that, and make her worry.

Qiao Yu instructed Shan, "There are a total of 184 loads. Seventeen have just been carried in. Keep count. I'm going back to my yard first."

When she left the tribe, the crops in her yard had not yet been harvested. She repeatedly asked Shan to help her harvest and dry them, and then she left in a hurry.

Now she wanted to see if Shan had harvested the crops as she had said.

Entering the yard, she saw a layer of snow on the ground, the ground beneath it plowed. The hemp, soybeans, ginger, and wild vegetables she had planted for seed had all been harvested. As for the grain she had originally called millet, it had been planted in the paddy fields of the growing area, not here.

Seeing this, Qiao Yu hurriedly pushed open the door and saw various crops piled up on the first floor, sorted by category. The millet she cherished most, along with its stalks, had been dried and piled on the eight-immortal table in the room. Soybeans were placed on four benches joined together. Hemp and ginger were placed on either side of the table. There were also some miscellaneous plants in the corner.

Worried that they didn't know how to take the seeds, Qiao Yu told them to pull or cut them off along with the straw, dry them thoroughly, and carefully place them in her house.

Now seeing that Shan had handled these things properly, Qiao Yu couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.

"Sister..." A burst of hurried footsteps came from outside. Qiao Yu turned around and saw a young man standing at the door.

Seeing her, Shanquan walked over quickly, grinned, and called out, "Sister, you're back?"

Qiao Yu reached out and touched Shanquan's head, sighing, "What on earth did you eat, boy? Why do you seem to have grown taller again?"

"Sister, you've grown taller too." Shanquan stretched out his hand, as if he wanted to touch Qiao Yu's head, but he stopped halfway and patted Qiao Yu's shoulder instead.

"Have I grown taller too?" Qiao Yu asked doubtfully.

"That's right." Shanquan said, "If you don't believe me, compare yourself to Father. You're almost reaching Father's ears."

Qiao Yu tilted his head and thought about it.

It’s true.

When she crossed over, she was only at the mountain's shoulder; but after a year and a half, she seemed to have grown to the mountain's ears.

Aside from Hei, the outlier, the people in these tribes were generally not very tall. Shan estimated his height to be around 1.78 meters, which was considered tall for the tribe. Qiao Yu and Shan Quan were likely not short either.

"How is the tribe during this period? Is there anyone who doesn't listen to father?" Qiao Yu asked.

"Everything is fine in the tribe, and no one disobeys my father. That's right..." Shanquan hesitated to speak.

Qiao Yu has a straightforward personality and is not bothered by seeing others wanting to say something but not saying it, especially when that person is her brother.

She slapped Shanquan on the shoulder, making him grit his teeth and say, "Where did you learn this nagging? If you have anything to say, just say it now, don't whine."