Chapter 6 Shocking! The wasteland in the eyes of the big boss has actually unlocked life...
Ever since Lin Yue unearthed that pile of broken stones and gold that Gray had so ruthlessly scorned, his gaze towards this place has changed.
He now firmly believes that the land beneath his feet is not as barren as it appears on the surface, but a treasure waiting to be discovered by someone destined to find it.
So when he dragged Gray, who had been acting crazy with a "I'll just watch you go crazy" look on his face, on a new round of searching for useful stones, his exploration range was significantly expanded, and he paid more attention to those unusual-looking landform features.
Persistence pays off. It was mainly due to Lin Yue's blind luck that, as they explored upstream along a dry riverbed, Lin Yue noticed that the land on both sides of the riverbank had a strange white color.
The ground was crusted and almost barren, with only a few strange plants with extremely tenacious vitality and thick, twisted leaves scattered about.
"Hey? Gray, look over there!" Lin Yue pointed to the patch of white ground. "What's that? Is it snowing?"
Gray looked in the direction he was pointing, frowned, and seemed somewhat wary of that area. "...The Land of Bones," he uttered.
[System Translation: The other party refers to it as the 'Land of Bones,' which carries a negative connotation and may be associated with death and misfortune.]
"The Land of Bones?" Lin Yue was even more curious. "Why is it called that? Are there bones buried down there?"
Gray shook his head, pointed to the twisted plants, then to the ground, “…Poisonous soil. Plants…strange. Animals…don’t come.”
[System Translation: The other party stated that the soil there is poisonous, the plants that grow there are strange, and animals avoid that area.]
"Poisonous soil?" Lin Yue took a few steps closer, squatted down, and picked up a small grain of white soil, rubbing it between his fingertips. It felt somewhat rough and had a slightly... astringent taste?
White crystals, compacted soil, abnormal plant growth, animals avoiding it... This looks so much like... a saline land.
"System! Quick! Scan the soil composition!" Lin Yue excitedly called out telepathically.
[Soil scanning in progress... Component analysis: Sodium, chloride, and sulfate ion levels are severely excessive, and the pH value is high. Conclusion: Severely saline-alkali soil.]
[Note: This soil is unsuitable for most crops, but it is rich in sodium chloride and other salt minerals.]
It really is a saline land.
Lin Yue's heart started pounding wildly again.
Salt, that's a wonderful thing!
More than just a condiment, it contains essential minerals necessary for maintaining life.
In a place where even getting a clean drink of water is a struggle, obtaining a stable supply of salt must be extremely difficult. No wonder those who stayed behind, like Gray, were generally in poor health.
“Gray! This isn’t poisonous soil! This is… a treasure trove!” Lin Yue shouted excitedly to Gray, pointing to the white expanse of land. “There are… um… delicious salty stones in here!” He tried his best to explain in a way that Gray could understand.
Gray looked at him blankly, clearly unable to understand why Lin Yue was so excited about this land of bones that even animals would avoid.
Lin Yue didn't bother to explain; all he could think about was how to get the salt out.
Simply scraping the surface won't work; there are too many impurities. Salt production? There doesn't seem to be much water here.
I've got it! The brine leaching method.
He remembered reading some popular science articles before, which said that you can dissolve the salt in the saline soil with water, filter out the mud and sand, and then heat or evaporate or dry the brine to get relatively pure salt crystals.
Let's get right to it.
Gray watched in bewilderment as he personally scraped some topsoil from the salt flats and brought it back to camp.
Then he found a relatively clean rocky hollow, laid out the cloth that his poor T-shirt had given him for filtering, and poured the saline soil onto the cloth.
Next, use the previously filtered water to slowly pour onto the saline soil.
The water dissolved the salt, seeped into the fabric, and dripped into the stone trough below, forming a cloudy but distinctly salty brine.
This process was slow and used a lot of water. But Lin Yue was full of energy.
After collecting a small amount of brine, he found a naturally formed shallow stone slab and poured the brine into it.
The next step is to heat and evaporate the water.
He carefully placed the stone slab beside the fire, using the heat of the flames to bake it. As the moisture evaporated little by little, a layer of white crystals began to form on the bottom of the stone slab.
It's salt, snow-white and delicate salt crystals.
Although the amount was small, just a thin layer, Lin Yue was so excited that he almost burst into tears.
He carefully scraped off the salt crystals and collected them on a clean, large leaf.
"Success! Success! The first batch of refined salt in this other world has been produced (self-proclaimed, who knows if there is actually refined salt outside the forest)!"
Lin Yue held the salt, which was more precious than gold in their current situation, and smiled like a 200-pound child.
Gray also came over to look, and when he saw the pure white crystals, his eyes lit up with curiosity. He stretched out his finger, dipped a little bit of the salt crystal, and put it in his mouth.
The next second, his eyes widened again, even more shocked than when he drank the filtered water last time.
It was an extremely pure and intense saltiness, a taste he had never experienced before! It was far more intense than the experience of occasionally licking certain minerals or eating certain naturally salty plants.
He made a series of incomprehensible gurgling sounds in his throat, and his eyes were filled with disbelief as he looked at Lin Yue.
[System Translation: The other party's emotions are fluctuating drastically: Shock +50%, Desire +30%, Confusion +20%. They are trying to understand what this white powder is.]
Seeing Gray's reaction, Lin Yue felt even more confident.
He handed the leaf to Gray: “This, ‘salt.’ Good stuff. Eat a little every day, and you’ll be…strong!” He tried to explain it in simple words.
Gray hesitated for a moment, then carefully took the leaf and put away the precious salt like a treasure.
At dinner time, Lin Yue specially added a small amount of freshly refined salt to the Bluebird Wild Vegetable Stew.
Gray's eyes widened when the stew, emitting a richer aroma and bearing a distinct saltiness for the first time, was served.
He practically grabbed a huge bowlful and then wolfed it down. The way he ate... um... um... um...
Lin Yue tried it himself, and the taste was indeed improved by more than one level! With the addition of salt, the natural umami flavor of the ingredients was better brought out, and the texture was also much richer.
"Indeed, salt is the soul of cooking!" Lin Yue* exclaimed with deep emotion.
Both of them thoroughly enjoyed the meal. Gray's stamina seemed to have improved considerably from the salt, and his eyes even looked brighter.
After the meal, the atmosphere was unusually peaceful and serene.
Lin Yue felt this was a good opportunity for in-depth communication. He wanted to know more about this world, especially about this place that seemed a bit off.
He cleared his throat, carefully choosing his words in the alien language he knew, aided by the system's translation, and asked, "Grey... this place (pointing to the surroundings) is strange, isn't it? The water... is poisonous. Many plants... are also poisonous. And... those terrifying screams at night..." He tried his best to describe the anomalies and dangers of the place.
Gray's expression turned serious, and he nodded. He gazed into the dark depths of the distant jungle, his eyes filled with deep apprehension and a hint of... resigned helplessness.
“...Yes. This place...has been...abandoned.” He uttered the words slowly, his voice low.
[System translation: The other party replied, "Yes, this is an abandoned place."]
“Abandoned? Why?” Lin Yue pressed. “The land here looks… alright?” He pointed to the ground.
Gray paused for a moment, seemingly organizing his thoughts. Then, in an almost whispered, taboo tone, he uttered the word: "...the cursed...land."
[System translation (key information captured): The other party refers to this place as... 'the cursed land'.]
Lin Yue's heart skipped a beat; he had finally heard that name. He might have vaguely seen similar words in some system prompts or scan information before, but this was the first time he had confirmed it from a local.
"The Cursed Land?" Lin Yue repeated, his tone carrying just the right amount of surprise and question. "Why...is it called that? Is there some...curse involved?"
Lin Yue then asked more about the specific manifestations of the curse.
"You say your thinking has slowed down and you have difficulty speaking... But in the past, or rather, those who escaped, were their language and thinking abilities... much stronger than they are now?"
Gray nodded vigorously, a hint of longing and disappointment in his eyes. "...Yes. Before...we...sang...told stories...and built...better...things."
[System Translation: The other party confirms that the past inhabitants possessed stronger language and thought abilities, enabling them to engage in more complex cultural and manufacturing activities.]
This further confirms Lin Yue's conjecture.
He recalled that when the system had previously notified Gray about his physical condition, it seemed to have mentioned something about mineral imbalance. Could this so-called curse, causing physical weakness and slowed thinking, also be related to long-term salt deficiency?
Perhaps the so-called "curse" is very likely a phenomenon of civilizational decline caused by the combined effects of environmental degradation, nutritional deficiencies, and information isolation.
Salt deficiency leads to decreased physical strength and sluggish thinking; lack of clean water and food causes illness and developmental problems; toxins and mutated organisms in the environment pose dangers and cause mental stress; isolation from the outside world leads to knowledge gaps and language regression...
All of this combined seems like a curse, doesn't it?
"I see... I see!" Lin Yue felt he had grasped the core of the problem. "This is not a supernatural curse at all; it's a problem that can be solved through science and development!"
His gaze upon this land no longer held only the greed of a treasure hunter and the excitement of an engineer, but also a heavy sense of responsibility.
[System Notification: Congratulations, host, for your profound understanding of the causes of the Cursed Lands. The first stage of the hidden quest chain, "Wasteland Reconstruction Project," titled "Survival and Cognition," has reached 70% completion. Please continue exploring, uncovering more truths, and seeking ways to improve the current situation.]
“No problem,” Lin Yue clenched his fist. “Since I’ve run into this, I can’t just sit idly by. This land, I, Lin Yue… will take it over!”
He turned to Gray, his eyes shining brightly: "Gray! Believe me! We can change this place! We can make it prosperous, healthy, and full of life again!"
Gray was startled by his sudden outburst of enthusiasm and looked at him blankly, his eyes filled with concern as if to say, "Is this guy talking nonsense again?"
Lin Yue: "..."
Okay, the communication hasn't succeeded yet, and we still need to work on it. But that's alright; practice is the sole criterion for testing truth. Once things get better, you'll have no choice but to believe it.
“One day, I’ll make you understand,” Lin Yue patted Gray on the shoulder again, “and then we’ll eat salted roast meat every day.”
Gray's Adam's apple bobbed, seemingly a little tempted by the suggestion of salted roast meat?
A note from the author:
----------------------
Lin Yue (sprinkling salt): Gray, this salt can keep you alive!
Gray (licking his fingers): Roast meat with salt... can you get a wife with that?
Lin Yue: ...Get out of poverty first, then find a partner!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
