When the twin’s abilities reached the fourth level, they began emitting a unique signal to all the surrounding animals and plants—a signal of kinship and friendliness. As a result, the creatures living in the wilderness around them did not actively attack the twins.
This was something Xu Song and the others had noticed shortly after settling in this new location. Even aggressive plants, which had attacked the twins before being roasted by fire, now peacefully coexisted with them. Not far away, a mutated leopard with strong aggressiveness even allowed Mo Tianyou to play on its back after a while, confirming the change.
Of course, while the twins could emit this signal to nearby creatures, it had limited effects when facing highly aggressive, irrational, or large-scale attacking animals. Additionally, the range of their influence was also limited compared to their detection range, covering only about a tenth or a twelfth.
In fact, the twins had this unique affinity ability from the beginning. When they first discovered Mo Tianyou and Mo Tiancheng, even though they had fallen into the grass, the nearby plants did not attack them. Tianyou could always find animals willing to serve as his mounts. However, at that time, they were still quite inexperienced, and most of the friendly plants and animals required direct contact to work their magic.
After their upgrades, the twins lived directly in the base, where there were no animals for them to study communication with.
When they went hunting outside, they often encountered groups of animals. Tianyou’s ability didn’t have much use against these territorial and highly aggressive animals. Still, if they initiated an attack, they would subconsciously avoid him.
By a peaceful river, Xu Song wore a straw hat and held a fishing rod. At the other end of the fishing line dangled a piece of earthworm, and although the fish had evolved and become more cunning, fishing was still relatively simple for Xu Song with his detection ability. He could locate areas with more fish, cast his line discreetly from a distance, and soon had a decent catch.
He pulled in five fish, each about the size of three or four catties before the apocalypse. These fish, which were only inches long in this water area before the apocalypse, now filled his catch.
After putting the fish in a basket submerged in the water, Xu Song slung the fishing rod over his shoulder and leisurely walked towards a nearby hill.
On the other side, Abu happily carried a recently caught prey and ran back. Today’s dinner and tomorrow’s meal were now secured.
“Back already?” Xu Song met Abu, who was carrying a giant rabbit, and patted its chin, making Abu wag its tail joyfully.
Animals near water sources rarely hunted each other, and Xu Song and the others naturally adhered to this unspoken rule. Therefore, every one or two days, Abu would go a bit farther to catch prey and bring it back to Mother Xu. Mother Xu would prepare the ingredients they needed for the next two days, along with some vegetables, and cook their meals, solving their food problem for that time.
How long Abu needed to go out depended on the size of the prey it brought back. For example, the rabbit this time, along with some vegetables, would be enough for Abu to eat for two days, so it would only need to go out again the day after tomorrow.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
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The fish were indeed quite ferocious, and if you tried to grab them carelessly, they might bite off your fingers or a piece of your flesh. Mother Xu’s electrical abilities were highly developed for this kitchen function.
In fact, if Mother Xu were to deal with aquatic creatures, she could simply release a few lightning strikes into the river, stunning a large number of fish and making them float belly up for easy selection. However, someone harbored deep resentment towards these aquatic creatures and would often go “fishing” to vent his frustrations, which is why he took on the task of fishing using a simple fishing rod.
“The earthworms are all used up today; I’ll have the ostriches dig up a few more later,” the ostriches were omnivorous animals, and most of the prey’s entrails caught by the family were given to them to enjoy. With such delicious food, they didn’t pay much attention to small earthworms.
Thanks to their innate abilities, they could easily dig up several worms with just a few clawed strikes, making it much more convenient than Xu Song and his twin doing it themselves.
With their nutritional needs met, the twin’s egg-laying rate had increased from one every one or two days in the past to nearly one egg per day per chicken now.
The family couldn’t eat all the eggs at once, so they processed the leftovers into salted eggs and scallion eggs. Mother Xu had indeed developed many techniques for this.
As for the surplus eggs, aside from occasionally giving some extra food to Abu, they planned to keep some for pickling and trade them for ammunition and seasonings with the people back at the base when they returned.
“Go fetch a few more bags of salt for me,” salt was needed for preserving meat, making dried meat, and sausages, and for pickling salted duck eggs, among other things. Not to mention that salt was still essential for seasoning food to ensure the family’s health.
So, in their daily cooking, they often ran out of salt in the kitchen.
“Today’s rabbit is quite big,” Mother Xu said as she watched Yue Zheng finish skinning the rabbit and select a rabbit leg for drying. This leg would require salt for preservation.
Tiancheng directed the steel vine to sun-dry the freshly peeled rabbit hide, while Xu Song turned to the container truck to get some salt.
The two container trucks were parked together, one storing various fabrics and sewing equipment, and the other containing a variety of dried food, seasonings, a large refrigerator, and so on.
After searching in a wooden crate in the corner, Xu Song took out a few bags of salt and said, “There’s not too much salt left in the truck, maybe six or seven bags.”
Mother Xu was briefly puzzled. “No salt left?”
Xu Song clarified, “Not completely out, but there are still six or seven bags.”
Mother Xu’s brow furrowed. “Six or seven bags won’t be enough. We’re using salt quite quickly.” With the abundance of game in their current situation, the consumption of salt had increased proportionally.
Xu Song wasn’t aware of how quickly the salt was being used, but Mother Xu was. She said, “We haven’t needed to go to the city or return to the base recently. At this rate, we might run out of salt before the next trip back to the base.”
Xu Song was momentarily puzzled and looked up at Yue Zheng, who also had a furrowed brow. Seeing Xu Song’s questioning look, Yue Zheng reached out and patted his hair, saying, “I’m going to check the map.”
“The map?” Xu Song wondered why he suddenly seemed interested in a map. Were they looking for a nearby city to gather salt?
Indeed, Yue Zheng was searching for salt, but not in the urban area. He was looking for a place where salt was produced.
Mother Xu quickly processed the game, cooked some meat for Abu, and then prepared dinner with the freshly cut meat. She also stewed two of the fish and opened up one for grilling on an iron grill over charcoal. The other two, cleaned and stored, went into the refrigerator for a later meal.
The stove was placed in the center of a V-shaped space, with an iron box below it for barbecuing. Inside, there was a supply of firewood made from dried and withered wood that Mo Tiancheng had grown. Besides some smoke, it was a very convenient way to utilize waste.
It was fortunate that the stove was located outside, so the odor of burning had no impact on the people inside the RV.
On top of the iron grill, there were several crisscrossed iron bars, which they had collected on their journey. They were used to hold a large pot for stewing meat for Abu and could also support the iron grill for barbecuing various ingredients.
The weather had already turned hot, and Mo Tiancheng had used his plant abilities to twist branches and grow them into shapes of chairs and tables in the courtyard. Some of these “furniture” were adorned with fresh green leaves and various blossoms, resembling the living plant furniture used by elves in fantasy novels.
Mother Xu soon prepared the food and placed Abu’s meal in a large wooden bowl to cool down. After stewing the entrails and mixing them with vegetables and grains, she filled the ostriches’ feeding trough. Then, she called her children to join her for the meal.
Xu Song and Yue Zheng sat on a double chair with a perfectly sized small table in front of them. Yue Zheng was still engrossed in his map and frequently checked the information on his wristwatch.
“Have you found what you were looking for?” Xu Song asked as he served Yue Zheng his meal and placed it in front of him.
“Yeah…” Yue Zheng replied, then after a moment of searching, he set the map aside and picked up his bowl. “I checked the salt production areas and the situation at the base,” he continued, casting a glance at the people sitting around them. “The base issued a mission to collect salt over ten days ago.”
Xu Song raised an eyebrow, pondering for a moment.
“These past few days, the rewards for this mission have been slightly increased, although it’s not very noticeable. But…”
“Is the base running low on salt?” Xu Song understood his implication and realized he hadn’t been attentive enough to the issue of salt.
Yue Zheng nodded, confirming, “Yes. The base is in need of salt.”
Thanks for the update 🤣❤️🤣❤️🌳🦮🦔🦗🐝
Salt 🧂. Thank you