Nothing else happened during the next few days of the journey, and no useful herbs were found.
After Xuan took Meng Yuqing across the grassland, they found that the plants became increasingly scarce as they walked forward.
At first, the trees around were not as tall and lush, and then gradually you had to walk a long way to see one or two trees, and occasionally you would see one or two dead trees.
Later, the dead trees were no longer visible and only some lifeless-looking grass grew on the ground.
Later on, even weeds were rarely seen, and all that could be seen were vast expanses of barren land and protruding boulders.
During the stretch of the road where the vegetation first began to decrease, there were unexpectedly many wild animals.
There are herbivorous beasts digging up grass roots or licking the exposed soil directly. Under the cover of grass and trees, carnivorous beasts hide behind and watch them intently.
Xuan took Meng Yuqing and carefully walked around them. He was not prepared to have a conflict with these beasts.
Meng Yuqing's warehouse had already stored enough animal meat for the two of them to eat for several days a few days ago.
As they went deeper, the plants became fewer and fewer, and the wild animals also began to gradually become fewer.
When they no longer saw plants, they encountered very few wild animals.
Because there are no plants, beasts that eat grass will not stay here, and for this reason, beasts that eat meat will not come here.
Without the cover of grass and trees, it would be more difficult for them to catch prey than usual.
The lack of wild beasts means that no orcs will settle here.
Meng Yuqing sat on Xuan's back, looking at the surrounding environment, thinking that this salt mine might be bigger than he imagined.
Xuan was still leading him inside, and only slowed down after they entered between two bare hills.
He carried Meng Yuqing on his back to a pile of rocks sandwiched between mountain walls, and then put Meng Yuqing aside.
"We're here. You sit here and wait for a while. I'll go push these stones away." After saying that, Xuan started pushing the stones.
Meng Yuqing looked at the stones and felt a little ashamed. It was not that he didn't want to help, but each of the stones piled here was huge for him, and almost each one was bigger than him.
But these stones were nothing to Xuan. He easily pushed them away one by one.
After working for about an hour, the stones were gradually moved away, revealing the cave entrance hidden behind the stones.
Meng Yuqing stuck his head out to take a look. It was a dark passage, but his body had been strengthened by the system, so he could barely see clearly.
The entrance to the cave was very large, and Xuan had no problem walking in in his beast form.
"Come here, this is the place. We dug out the salt stone from here." Xuan turned around and sat next to the cave entrance, raised his paw and waved to Meng Yuqing.
"Hahahaha..." Meng Yuqing couldn't help laughing. It really looked like a giant black lucky cat.
Xuan was so confused by the laughter that he put down his paw and walked over to Meng Yuqing. He circled around her twice and asked in confusion, "What are you laughing at?"
"Hahaha, it's nothing, nothing. I just remembered something happy." Meng Yuqing shook his head and reached out to touch Xuan's paw.
Xuan stopped and let him touch him.
After touching for a long time, Meng Yuqing, who had had enough, raised his head and looked at Xuan, smiling and said, "Let's go in."
"good."
Meng Yuqing followed Xuan into the cave and found that the passage inside was wider, allowing at least three orcs to walk side by side in their beast form.
The passage was a relatively gentle downhill slope. On the way, Meng Yuqing touched the mountain wall next to him, thought about it seriously, but ultimately did not lick it with his tongue.
Instead, let the system identify it, and the system will give feedback very quickly.
"Under appraisal—stones with low salt content are not considered salt ore."
He nodded and no longer paid attention to the mountain wall.
After walking about two hundred meters, Meng Yuqing realized that they had reached the bottom and the Qingshan tribe had not dug very deep.
The cave was too dark, so he picked up a stone from the ground and put it in front of his eyes to examine it carefully. It was orange. He had seen it in his own world, so he could recognize it. It was salt ore.
Recalling the journey Xuan had taken him from the trees to here, he estimated that this salt mine would be useful to the people of the Qingshan tribe forever.
To put it bluntly, in this area, if you dig a hole in the ground and lick a stone a few times, you might be able to replenish some salt.
However, because it is too desolate and there are no wild beasts, orcs rarely come here.
The Qingshan tribe was so much richer than he had imagined. No wonder Xuan didn't even blink when he suggested that a lot of salt was needed to preserve food.
"Our tribe has truly found a treasure!" Meng Yuqing looked towards Xuan with delight. "I heard Qiuye say that we sometimes trade with other tribes. Have we ever traded salt?"
Xuan pondered for a moment, then held up a piece of translucent orange salt ore and said, "My father and his companions go to the market every year to trade, but they rarely bring this kind of top-quality salt. They usually pick the ones that look similar to real stone, and they rarely use them at the market."
As he said this, he took out a gray-looking stone from a corner and handed it to me.
Meng Yuqing took it and looked at it carefully. It should contain a lot of salt, but there are also many impurities, which makes the whole piece of ore look no different from an ordinary stone with a little color.
He put down the salt ore in his hand. "So most of it is kept by the tribe for their own use, right?"
Xuan replied softly, "No, after leaving the market, the father beasts will go along the route to some very small tribes and exchange these salt stones with them."
"A very small tribe? Do they have anything to exchange?" Meng Yuqing couldn't help but think of Bo and the others.
Xuan shook his head and continued, "Father Beast said that they could exchange anything they wanted. We didn't really want their things anyway. It was really hard for them to survive, and the amount we exchanged was not much. We just came out of the market. Those small tribes would only think that we exchanged salt from the market. They would not think that our tribe has a salt cave."
After a pause, he said with some regret, "Father Beast said that some small tribes were still there when I went there the first year, but they disappeared when I went there the second year."
Hearing this, Meng Yuqing felt a little uncomfortable. Although there are hateful people like the wandering orcs in this world, there are more people who are struggling to survive.
"What about the Shuilin tribe and the Shijiao tribe? Have we ever traded with them?" Shaking off these complicated thoughts, Meng Yuqing continued to ask.
"Not really. Their abilities can be exchanged for enough salt at the market," Xuan said, squatting down and starting to pick the salt ore on the ground.
It was difficult for Meng Yuqing to see things here, so he could only stand aside and watch him pick out one and put it into the warehouse.
After a while, the two of them actually had a lot of fun doing something that was originally boring.
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