Chapter 238 Able to eat their fill and survive
Upon seeing the flower fairy carrying a huge and strange fruit in the kitchen, the elven cook and the flower fairy helpers greeted her chatteringly and then all gathered around in amazement.
"What is this? It's so big!"
"The flesh is very thick; it seems perfect for making a thick soup."
"I think it would also be suitable for making desserts."
"But it doesn't smell very sweet?"
The flower fairies' "not too sweet" taste was just right for Shu Xin, and she was already looking forward to the desserts that could be made from green cassava.
However, seeing a flower fairy trying to touch the green cassava, Shu Xin, despite having already cast a magic barrier around it, quickly warned, "Don't touch it! It's poisonous! Extremely poisonous!"
Why bring such a poisonous fruit into the kitchen? Both the elves and the flower fairies were filled with confusion.
Shu Xin couldn't help but laugh. She happily introduced the green cassava, emphasizing its incredibly high yield.
As soon as they finished speaking, the once bustling kitchen suddenly fell silent. They looked at the enormous, sweet-smelling tuberous root in front of them, at the Flower Fairy with a bright smile and pride in her eyes, and at this plant, which the Flower Fairy said could produce dozens of plump tuberous roots even if it was planted in the ground and left unattended.
Shu Xin thought that everyone would either be skeptical and find it hard to believe, or they would be as excited and thrilled as she was. However, she did not expect that after she announced the good news, the flower fairy who had been eagerly trying to touch the green cassava suddenly let out a loud wailing and burst into tears.
One by one, they all burst into tears.
Suddenly, a chorus of cries erupted from the kitchen, startling the patrol team guarding the Flower Castle, who flew over to investigate. After understanding the situation, the eldest warrior at the head wiped her face and, in a trembling voice, explained to the somewhat bewildered Flower Fairy:
"We are so happy, sir! Thank you so much! Our friends and family back home can finally eat their fill and survive!"
Shu Xin pursed her lips, feeling a pang of sadness in her heart, and her eyes welled up with tears.
She was just a visitor from another world, and she found the seemingly endless suffering of the flower fairies unbearable.
If she had also personally experienced much suffering, torment, and the pain of separation and death, upon suddenly hearing this earth-shattering good news, she would probably burst into tears while laughing. These unstoppable, surging tears, filled with deep emotion, would be both a lament for the premature deaths of her relatives and friends and a heartfelt celebration for the future when her relatives and friends would be free from hunger.
With their good mood restored, the cooks and helpers enthusiastically began the detoxification process for the green cassava. The process wasn't difficult, just very tedious:
First, peel off the hard, bluish-purple outer skin. Also, thoroughly peel off all the bluish-purple flesh near the skin, leaving only the pure green flesh.
It is important to note that during this step, your palms and any part of your body should not come into contact with the juice seeping from the cut surface.
If you accidentally get it on your skin, don't worry too much. Just rinse it off with clean water immediately. Although the green cassava juice will cause a burning pain when it stays on your skin for a short time, it won't cause any more serious consequences. As long as you wash it off in time, the pain will be greatly reduced. This experience was provided by an unlucky flower fairy who accidentally came into contact with the green juice.
However, this sap must not be ingested. It is extremely poisonous and takes effect very quickly. The elves are large and may be able to hold out until the healing magic takes effect, but if it were a flower fairy who is too small, she would be poisoned to death before the healing magic could even take effect—the Flower Fairy repeatedly emphasized.
After that, cut the green fruit pulp into small pieces or thin slices, soak them in clean water for ten to fifteen days, and change the water six to eight times a day until the water turns from light green to transparent and colorless.
The resulting green liquid is naturally undrinkable, but it can be used as an insecticide. Sprinkling it evenly on wheat fields can effectively kill wheat weevils. The green juice from the previous step can also be diluted with a large amount of water and used as an insecticide—this valuable information is provided by the Tree of Life.
Finally, boil or steam the soaked green cassava for at least two hours until the flesh, which was originally firm, is completely soft and the color changes from dark green to translucent light green. It should be easily mashed with your fingers. At this point, the green cassava has little toxin left and can be processed into various dishes or eaten directly.
Besides this method, the Tree of Life also provides two other methods for detoxification:
One method involves not peeling the cassava, but simply cleaning and chopping the harvested green cassava, and then soaking the cassava pieces in the Sun Spring water.
This soaking only takes about three days to completely remove the toxins, but it is only applicable to the Sun Spring water in the Land of Sin. During this period, the spring water is poisonous and cannot be drunk normally. It can only be drunk normally after the water body has purified itself. The water purification takes about two days, so the total time is about five days.
The Sun Spring water in other territories does not have this effect, so it is clear that this method cannot be widely adopted.
Another method involves peeling the cassava, then slicing or cutting it into chunks. After that, place the slices or chunks of fresh green cassava in an open area where the sun can shine directly on them and expose them to the sun until they are completely dry and the dark green flesh turns into a light green. This process also takes about ten days.
However, dried green cassava still needs to be soaked and cooked before eating, but the soaking time has been shortened from several days to one day, and the cooking time has been shortened from more than two hours to about half an hour.
After comparing them all, I personally think that the initial method of soaking and steaming is the most convenient and quickest. It doesn't require a specific location, as long as there is a sufficient water source. Although it takes a bit longer, once it's done, it's ready to eat. You can process a large batch of green cassava meat at once and then store it to eat slowly.
However, whether to use the soaking and steaming method or the sun-drying, soaking and steaming method is up to the flower fairies to choose. Or, using both methods together is also fine.
Currently, the Sinful Lands are only using the first method. The main reason is that there are more and more children in the territory now. If the green cassava that has been dried is stolen and eaten by some ignorant and greedy children, even if it is just the smallest piece, it can kill the little flower fairy on the spot...
While waiting for the green cassava to undergo detoxification, Shu Xin started a new research project—once the green cassava was steamed and cooked, she would begin to study how to extend the shelf life of the steamed or cooked green cassava flesh.
The search for and research into alternatives to flint also needs to be arranged. Even though the Tree of Life is a very large tree and the number of withered branches is enormous, after so much consumption over such a long period of time, its reserves are already low. She can't just cut down the branches of the Tree of Life that are already growing well and burn them into flint!
It's likely that there aren't many flints in other territories, otherwise the flower fairies' staple food wouldn't be various leaves and fruits that can be picked and eaten raw.
We need to find flammable materials that are easy for flower fairies to collect and store, and promote them in conjunction with green cassava. After all, green cassava needs to be steamed or boiled. If we rashly push green cassava out, the flower fairies will be guarding a mountain of food but will not be able to eat it. Wouldn't that be even worse?
There's a chance some starving creatures might just eat raw cassava, which wouldn't increase the flower fairies' survival rate, but rather their mortality rate!
Before Shu Xin could even taste what the magical version of cassava from another world tasted like, the magic tree caravans that had left the Kingdom of Ganar under the guise of business to gather intelligence returned with their respective messages—
"The forest dwarf tribe has been defeated. Other tribes are discussing whether to form an alliance or seek help from the elves. The elves have not yet made any statement."
"Human mercenaries have entered the Emerald Forest and begun constructing a garrison camp. The logistics personnel providing supplies are actually standard magical puppets, and the identity of their employers has not yet been determined."
"The war between the white dwarves and the wind whistles has escalated. The gray dwarves, black iron dwarves, and red gold dwarves have declared war on the wind whistles, while the water whistles, earth whistles, fire whistles, and wind spirits have declared war on the white dwarves. Several human empires have declared their support for the wind whistles, and several human states have declared their support for the white dwarves."
Upon receiving the latest intelligence, Shu Xin felt her vision blurring, one black circle after another.
The forest dwarves never fought human mercenaries? Shu Xin had thought the forest dwarves could hold out for a while, how could they have been defeated so quickly!
The remaining tribes are still discussing whether to form an alliance or cling to a powerful force. What are they discussing? Of course they are! They should hurry up and form an alliance, hurry up and go to the elves to beg and beg for their help. Are they going to slowly ask each other's opinions one by one? With over a hundred tribes, that would take forever! They don't want to be wiped out by the humans one by one!
And why haven't the elves reacted at all! She was extremely nervous when she received the news that the humans were coming to attack the forest dwarves!
...Wait a minute, could the Elf race be on the verge of extinction like the Snow Clan before?
The Snow Clan's tragic state was still vivid in my mind, but at least the Snow Clan had a relatively healthy underage member who could go out and about, and a chieftain who was on the verge of death who could contact Shu Xin in time. The Elf Clan, however, had not been heard from until now. Could it be that their current situation was even more miserable than that of the Snow Clan?
Realizing this, Shu Xin cursed out loud in an uncivilized manner.
Shu Xin wasn't surprised by the news that the human mercenaries had started building their encampment, and the appearance of the magical puppets was even more expected. Unfortunately, the worst-case scenario had occurred.
As for the seemingly unremarkable battle between the white dwarves and the wind sprites, it now appears to have become the fuse, and it seems that an unprecedented war is about to erupt.
It seems like everything outside is in complete chaos.
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Author's Note: Shu Xin: Drink it while it's hot! [melted]
————
There's something so funny I have to share it with you all:
I've restored the update, so I applied for a ranking and they actually put me on the list, even though it's a web version. But something is better than nothing!
Then I went to the webpage to see where my article was, and it turned out that the list only showed the first seven characters of the article title!
So my article title is displayed as—
Even flower fairies want to get gay.
Haha ...
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