Luo Chong spent the entire day dealing with them. First, he went to retrieve his Back Basket, then he chopped down some saplings, stripped their bark, twisted it into rope, and made some simple harnesses.
A halter was tied around the head of the lead male antelope. The six females were divided into three groups of two, each pair side by side, their necks looped with rope and tied to a horizontal Short Wooden Stick. Luo Chong fastened them into a chain, forming a one-two-two-two formation. This time, none of them could even dream of running away.
Leading the Antelope Herd, Luo Chong found a small stream and stewed a pot of Dried Meat to settle dinner. The antelopes were staging a hunger strike. Ever since Luo Chong had captured them, they had not eaten a thing and had only drunk a little water by the stream just now.
Luo Chong lay beside the stream, squinting at the evening glow in the sky. "Tch, what are you putting on airs for? If you've got the guts, don't even drink water."
Luo Chong cursed disdainfully, completely unconcerned by their hunger strike.
Slightly north of east from the stream stood a colorful Stone Mountain—the one Elder Tree had pointed out from the Lookout Post. It was very close to Luo Chong now, only about two or three kilometers away, less than half an hour's journey.
That mountain wasn't the color of the burning clouds Elder Tree had described, but he hadn't been entirely wrong, either. Part of it was indeed red. The whole mountain had sparse vegetation and was covered in stone. From several kilometers away, enormous granite boulders could be seen, reflecting a riot of dazzling colors beneath the setting sun.
The entire mountain was like a rainbow that had fallen to earth. Red, orange, yellow, green, cyan, blue, and violet—none were missing. There were also great swaths of gray and white. Every color appeared in bands that stretched continuously toward the northeast.
Holy crap, I've struck it rich. There's definitely ore here. Judging only by the colors, this is absolutely a banded ore vein where multiple minerals coexist. I just don't know which mineral is the primary one.
Banded ore veins were mostly formed by the impact of volcanic lava flows. If they had been created by geological compression, the veins would generally be layered instead. The distinction was easy to make. It seemed there was very likely a volcano in the distance.
Night fell completely. Although Luo Chong badly wanted to go over and take a look, he could only suppress the urge. Twisting all those ropes during the day had tired him out, so he went to sleep early.
The next day, when the sky was only beginning to brighten, Luo Chong was woken by a series of "honk, honk, honk" cries. He squinted and looked around. Wisps of blue smoke rose from the fire, with only a few red-hot coals still flickering on and off. Luo Chong added a bundle of firewood, and before long, the flames caught.
The dim surroundings were instantly illuminated, exciting Luo Chong for quite a while. He forcibly suppressed the urge to throw back his head and laugh, then lay on the ground and began pretending to sleep.
In the little woods where Luo Chong had tied up the Blue Antelope, the two females that had escaped yesterday had returned with eight young antelopes. They had even somehow dragged an adult male antelope back with them.
That male was mounting one of the females tied to a tree, honking provocatively at the bound male.
Holy crap, this is Pan Jinlian bringing her children and Ximen to show off in front of Wuda! Luo Chong lay on the ground, holding back his laughter as his body trembled.
Wuda, whose horns Luo Chong had smashed off, was furious but could only watch helplessly as his wife was ravaged by Ximen. All he could do was circle around the tree. Never mind that he was tied up—even if he wasn't, he still couldn't beat the other male. Luo Chong had broken off his horns, leaving him far shorter than Ximen. What the hell was he supposed to fight with?
Unable to bear watching Wuda suffer any longer, Luo Chong quietly hid behind the bushes. This was a gift delivered right to his door. If he didn't keep them all, he would be letting their goodwill go to waste.
Luo Chong didn't disturb Ximen's good time. He quickly made several simple rope snares, planning to capture those two escape-loving Pan Jinlians first. Once all the females were under his control, he refused to believe Ximen would still run.
The sky was still very dark. Luo Chong quietly approached the two Pan Jinlians from behind. While they were still watching Ximen, he suddenly looped the snares around both their heads. He pulled the ropes backward, making the two collide. The females immediately bolted again, but they had not run ten meters before they could go no farther—Luo Chong had already tied the other ends to a tree.
The young antelopes were still bewildered. When they saw the females suddenly stop running, they stopped too, only to be captured by Luo Chong one after another.
When Luo Chong returned to deal with Ximen, Ximen had only just reached the peak of his antelope life before a snare dropped over his head. Ximen flew into a rage, tucked away his equipment, and charged at Luo Chong. He hadn't run five meters before he realized he could only circle the tree like Wuda.
What followed was naturally another round of violent horn-smashing. Amid Wuda's gloating honks, Ximen was fitted with a halter as well and could no longer strut around proudly.
By the time all this was done, the sky had brightened considerably. In excellent spirits, Luo Chong drank salted Meat Broth with wild greens added. The wild greens came from a plant the Blue Antelope ate, something resembling purslane. Since they could all eat it, it definitely wasn't poisonous. Luo Chong put a little in the broth, and it tasted pretty good.
After the Antelope Herd and Luo Chong had finished breakfast, the group continued onward. Ximen carried Luo Chong, Wuda carried Luo Chong's Back Basket, and the rest followed in rows of two large and two small. A procession of eighteen antelopes and one boy headed straight for Eight-Colored Mountain to the east.
Luo Chong called the Stone Mountain of eight colors Eight Treasures Mountain. It truly was filled with treasures, lying there quietly everywhere and waiting for Luo Chong to develop them.
There were many large red mounds on the mountain. They were not the hematite ore Luo Chong had imagined, but merely termite mounds. Still, termite mounds were not useless. They were all excellent weathered clay, and pottery fired from termite-mound clay would certainly be better than the clay by the river.
The orange mineral was Cockscomb Stone, also known as realgar. Its texture was extremely brittle; a pinch was enough to crush it into powder. It could be used as a medicinal herb. Applied externally, it could treat snake and insect bites, and taken internally, it could kill parasites in the body.
In ancient China, people also had the custom of drinking realgar wine during the Dragon Boat Festival. In truth, it was simply deworming medicine, with the same effect as the candy deworming tablets mothers made their children eat. It was a mineral that was very easy to identify.
But this stuff absolutely must not be burned. The main component of realgar was arsenic disulfide, which was poisonous. The yellow smoke released when it burned was especially dangerous. After reacting with oxygen, it became arsenic trioxide—in other words, the infamous Arsenic Trioxide. It was lethally poisonous.
The yellow mineral was Yellow Wax Stone, its surface greasy and slick. Mixed within it were many pieces of chalcopyrite that glittered with golden light. Their copper content reached nearly eighty percent or more, making this a rich copper ore.
This was the first metal Luo Chong had found, and he excitedly dug farther down to see how deep the deposit went. When he reached a depth of one meter, however, the ore vein changed again. Layer upon layer of pyrite appeared below, though it was very sparse.
Pyrite was easy to identify. It consisted of yellow stone flakes, all in a flaky form, and its primary component was Iron Sulfide. That made it different from hematite, whose primary component was Iron Oxide.
It seemed the volcano nearby was probably an acidic volcano, producing minerals with extremely high sulfur content. Finding Iron Sulfide beside realgar was perfectly normal, since realgar itself was a sulfide.
Unfortunately, there was too little pyrite here to be used for Iron Smelting. It should exist as an associated mineral alongside the rich copper ore.
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