No Chirping (continued)

Jian Mo examined the herb. The leaves were ovate, opposite, and had fine hairs on the back. Rubbing the leaves revealed a distinct musty, woody odor, confirming that it was indeed the Stinky Banban.

Jian Mo nodded. "It really is Stinky Banban. Let's keep looking."

The young people cheered and took the lead, continuing their search for medicinal herbs.

The mountains are rich in medicinal herbs. In addition to finding many herbs that they would need today, Jian Mo and his group also found some extra herbs, including some tonics. Jian Mo had them all dug up.

Autumn is also a good season for collecting medicinal herbs, as most herbs are ripe, especially those that use bark or roots. Harvesting them at this time yields excellent medicinal effects.

After spending a day in the mountains, everyone's baskets were almost full.

Today's harvest was plentiful, and Jian Mo was in a good mood. She even suggested that they hunt some game to make soup.

This statement was unanimously supported by the young people, who said that they didn't need to do anything; the young people could handle it themselves.

Then, Jian Mo saw a flock of fat chicks flying in the air and Pallas's cats running on the ground, heading straight for the mountains and forests.

Qi Ming called out to them from behind, "Remember to hunt game that's best suited for soup—"

Someone spoke up, "Understood."

The sound echoed through the mountains.

Jian Mo and the others went back to process the medicinal herbs first.

I gathered quite a few herbs today, but not all of them were available. Jian Mo picked and chose, and finally managed to put together three prescriptions.

There's nothing we can do about it; after all, these are wild medicinal herbs, and we can only collect whatever we can find, so there's not much room for being picky.

The harvested medicinal herbs need further processing before they can be used. Jian Mo divided the work among the people, assigning some people to be responsible for some herbs.

After receiving the medicinal herbs, everyone went about their own business: some washed them, some sliced them, some crushed them, some baked them, and some soaked them in oil.

Jian Mo sure everyone wore masks to avoid getting infected herself.

Many people stayed to process the medicinal herbs today, and the herbs were processed very quickly.

Before it even got dark, they had obtained three small buckets of medicinal liquid.

Jian Mo took a look and said, "Let's use it today, and observe the effect tomorrow."

Whether a pesticide is effective or not can generally be observed within a day.

Qi Ming had no objection. "Then let's go up the mountain again."

Jian Mo followed everyone up the mountain, personally diluted the pesticides, and divided the vegetable garden into a large triangle, sprinkling the three pesticide solutions on the three corners to prevent them from interfering with each other.

In any case, the damage to the entire vegetable garden was roughly the same; there wasn't any area with an unusually large number of insects or an area with an unusually small number of insects.

The watering cans from the Rain Rising Tribe look like shower heads—except the nozzles have tiny holes drilled in them, and the water sprays fairly evenly.

After inspecting the plots, Jian Mo marked the three vegetable patches, specifically using charcoal to write the prescriptions for each patch on a wooden board, and then placed the boards next to the patches.

"Alright," Jian Mo said, washing her hands at a cold water puddle away from the vegetable garden. "We can come back to check on it tomorrow morning."

Qi Ming: "Then let's go down the mountain. The hunters should have already brought back their prey."

Jian Mo had no objections. "Let's go, let's go back and make some soup."

Wu Jiong transformed back into a giant wolf, and the other orcs also reverted to their beast forms. They rushed down the mountain and returned to the Rain Rising Tribe before nightfall.

Then Jian Mo saw the prey the young men had brought back that day—at the very front was a large Cave Beast.

It's that kind of Cave Beast whose farts smell like they've been thickened with cornstarch, and are incredibly smelly.

Jian Mo looked on with disbelief. "Weren't you going to hunt prey that could be used to make soup?"

Wan Zheng quickly brought out a Purple Bird and a Long-tailed Bird from beside the Cave Beast: "These are the prey for soup; the Cave Beast can be stir-fried or stewed."

A young man from the Rain Rising Tribe quickly added, "We hadn't planned to Cave Beast, but since we encountered it, we couldn't just let it escape, so we brought it back."

Jian Mo understood. Neither of these tribes were particularly skilled hunters, so it wasn't surprising that they couldn't find suitable prey and had to make do with what they had.

Qi Ming asked, "Doctor Jian Mo, how would you like to eat? You can decide."

Jian Mo didn't stand on ceremony. "We'll use the two birds to make soup, and as for this Cave Beast, let's stir-fry it while it's fresh."

"Jian Mo," a young man from the Cypress Branch Tribe raised his hand, his eyes sparkling, and asked, "Can we have hot pot? Or the spicy hot pot that your Riverside Tribe invented?"

Jian Mo: "That works too. You should have chili peppers here; we can just make a soup base."

Qi Ming: "Yes, we recently traded vegetables for a lot of ingredients, so we can find more varieties to make hot pot."

Jian Mo got excited. "Then let's make hot pot! We can use the clear broth for vegetables and the spicy broth for meat. We can make the hot pot base ourselves by chopping bones; all we need are chili peppers and peppercorns."

Qi Ming: "Yes, I have everything. I'll go prepare it."

Others chimed in, "We'll help."

So, amidst everyone's busy work, two rows of hot pots were ready, one row with clear broth and the other with spicy broth, allowing people to choose their preferred flavor.

Everyone ate hotpot and chatted, enjoying themselves immensely.

Jian Mo sat in the crowd, watching the two originally hostile tribes chatting enthusiastically, and felt quite happy.

After dinner, the fat birds transformed back into their animal forms and flew away.

They have night vision and can fly at night. Moreover, they rarely encounter large wild animals while flying, making it safer than walking on land.

Everyone felt relieved and let them go back, telling them they could come back the next day if they were interested.

The next day, the fat birds arrived very early, chattering outside and urging everyone to go and see the effects of the pesticide.

Jian Mo yawned, still sleepy-eyed, and was pushed out the door.

Once they started climbing the mountain, he lay on the giant wolf's back, hugging its neck, and quickly fell asleep again.

The giant rabbit Qi Ming ran alongside the giant wolf, asking with some concern, "Is Doctor Jian Mo asleep? Is that alright?"