Banhe Tribe (continued)

The people of the Eighteen Bends Tribe were taken aback at first when they heard him ask this, then they laughed, "Of course not."

Jian Mo looked at the mushrooms, then at the Long-tailed Bird, her meaning clear. "So what are you doing here?"

The people of the Eighteen Bends Tribe laughed even harder, "We're testing for poison here. You don't know, we have a lot of mushrooms here, and many of them look alike. Some poisonous mushrooms hide very deep inside, so we have a habit of feeding poisonous mushrooms to Long-tailed Bird."

Jian Mo: "The Long-tailed Bird was poisoned, so you won't eat it. If it hadn't been poisoned, you would have cooked the Long-tailed Bird and mushrooms together and eaten it, right?"

The people of the Eighteen Bends Tribe nodded with smiles.

Jian Mo followed behind the people of the Eighteen Bends Tribe.

They put the relatively uninjured Long-tailed Bird into an enclosure, and before putting Long-tailed Bird in, they deliberately clipped the long feathers from their tails and wings.

Jian Mo a little skeptical. "Will this really keep them locked up?"

The people of the Eighteen Bends Tribe said, "Long-tailed Bird are very vain. If you cut off their tail feathers, they will become very depressed and just want to hide. They won't want to go out at all."

Jian Mo hadn't expected this characteristic. Looking at the Long-tailed Bird huddled in the bird pen, she realized that everything has its weaknesses.

After looking around, Jian Mo asked, "How long have you kept the longest-lived Long-tailed Bird here?"

After some discussion, the people of the Eighteen Bends Tribe came up with a definitive answer, "Four years. If you raise it for too long, it will stop laying eggs, and its meat won't taste good."

Jian Mo: "Are there any birds kept in enclosures that hatch their own chicks?"

A member of the Eighteen Bends Tribe said, "There are some, but only a few. They don't like to incubate eggs in their enclosures, and often they just die before they even have a chance to incubate."

Jian Mo didn't quite understand. "Why did it just die after being cared for? Did it die of illness?"

The people of the Eighteen Bends Tribe smiled honestly, "Not entirely. Some of them couldn't be tamed and ended up being eaten by us."

Jian Mo a lot of questions, and the people from Eighteen Bends answered them all. She even invited him to raise Long-tailed Bird together.

The people of the Eighteen Bends Tribe said that no other tribe in the vicinity raises long- Long-tailed Bird, and everyone thought it was strange that their tribe did.

Jian Mo said that if these high-quality birds could be domesticated, they would be an important asset, and there's nothing strange about that at all.

The people of the Eighteen Bends Tribe were very happy and told him that when he returned, they would give him two Long-tailed Bird and some bird eggs so that he could take them back to the tribe to raise.

Jian Mo was even happier and immediately took out a dagger to give to the people of the Eighteen Bends.

While they were chatting, other people from the Eighteen Bends observed the situation and, finding the Long-tailed Bird unharmed, began to butcher it and make bird soup.

It's getting late. Now that the bird soup is ready, it'll be perfect for dinner.

The stewed bird soup of the Eighteen Bends Tribe is made by stewing cured meat and mushrooms together in a large earthenware pot.

The thick earthenware shards absorbed a lot of heat and then slowly released it, sealing all the soup, meat, mushrooms, and other ingredients together in the earthenware jar for slow simmering.

The umami flavor of the mushrooms and the aroma of the cured meat slowly infuse the soup and also permeate the bird meat.

As everyone chatted, their attention naturally drifted to the bird soup—it smelled so good.

This rich and mellow aroma is increasingly captivating, making one's mouth water.

After patiently waiting for an unknown amount of time, the people of the Eighteen Bends Tribe finally announced, "Dinner is ready! Everyone, come and eat!"

So everyone gathered around several large earthenware jars, waiting for their meal.

The earthenware jar was opened, and a rich, fresh aroma wafted throughout the surrounding area.

Some people helped ladle the soup, while others scooped the Long-tailed Bird out of the earthenware pot, chopped them into pieces, drizzled them with a special sauce, and placed them in front of everyone for them to eat.

Jian Mo took a sip of the soup. He could clearly taste the umami flavors of the Long-tailed Bird, the mushrooms, and the cured meat.

Each flavor is unique, and they all blend together in one pot of soup.

When you taste it again, you can experience the layers of umami flavor released, tantalizing your taste buds to the extreme.

Jian Mo held up the bowl and exclaimed, "Delicious!"

The people of the Eighteen Bends Tribe warmly invited us. "Try the bird meat, it tastes delicious!"

Jian Mo picked up a piece of meat and tasted it. She found that the bird meat was very tender and delicious, especially after absorbing the rich aroma of cured meat. The taste was absolutely amazing.

Jian Mo: "It's delicious! This combination is perfect."

The people of the Eighteen Bends Tribe said, "It's a pity our mushrooms are not quite up to par. The best mushrooms are from the Banhe Tribe. They have a kind of Banhe Mushroom that they use to cook Long-tailed Bird; it's so delicious it makes you want to swallow your tongue."

Jian Mo: "Are these mushrooms really that delicious? Is their tribe far away? If not, shall we go and get some to try?"

The next sentence was spoken by Jian Mo to Wu Jiong.

Wu Jiong said, "It's not far, just a little below the Eighteen Bends Tribe. We'll have to pass through their tribe on our way back."

Jian Mo: "Let's make arrangements, let's go try some tomorrow."

The people from the Eighteen Bends Tribe said, "Other things are fine, but we really recommend exchanging our mushrooms for theirs. So many people have tried them, and not a single one has said anything bad about them."

Others corroborated this. "Their mushrooms have an incredibly delicious flavor. They're great on their own, and they taste different when stewed with meat."

The caravan members happened to be here, and after discussing it, they decided to set off for the Banhe Tribe tomorrow, exchange the mushrooms, rest for a day in the Banhe Tribe, and then return.

Jian Mo, "What do the people of the Banhe Tribe like to trade? Can we trade the things we brought?"

The people of the Eighteen Bends Tribe said, "Don't worry, they often trade mushrooms with other tribes. They'll take anything they can use. We've been their neighbors for so long, and we've never heard of them refusing any tribe's offer."

Jian Mo smiled and said, "The main thing is that the Banhe Mushroom' sounds so delicious, I'm really worried we won't be able to get it."

After lunch, everyone changed the items they wanted and prepared to rest, planning to head to the next tribe early the next morning.