Cang Shi entered the Teepee and put down the bundle of plants he was carrying, looking curiously at Yu Ying, wondering why his Niece was here with the Shaman.
Su Bai crouched down and pulled out one plant. The stem was very straight with more than a dozen branching leaves. It was another unfamiliar plant.
He looked up and asked, “Do you recognize this plant?”
“No,” everyone shook their heads.
Su Bai turned to Cang Shi and asked, “Weren’t you supposed to go hunting? How did you find this?”
“Uh…” Cang Shi nervously scratched his face with his index finger, his eyes shifting as he honestly said, “After entering the forest, we started looking for plants to make linen. We only found it this morning.”
Knowing the Tribe could make linen but lacked materials, how could he focus on hunting? He gave up hunting to search for plants.
“You forgot your mission?” Su Bai narrowed his eyes, his tone very calm.
Whenever he thought about important matters, he unconsciously made this gesture. He was very dissatisfied with Cang Shi’s behaviour. If they had found the plant for making linen by chance while hunting, he would have praised them. However, they had abandoned their task to search for this plant. If they hadn’t found the plant, there would be no prey either. If the Tribe had not found linen materials and lacked food, it would lead to a series of horrendous consequences.
Su Bai’s calm tone made him nervous, and his self-satisfaction at finding a potential linen material immediately dissipated.
“I’ll let this go just this once. Don’t ever let this happen again,” Su Bai flatly warned.
The Tribe’s rules must not be broken. He had many plans for the future, and if someone violated his orders, it would eventually lead to fatal consequences.
It was better to let people know his attitude now while there were early signs of trouble. This was to prevent them from testing his limits and causing irreversible consequences.
“I understand,” Cang Shi quickly lowered his head and responded.
For some reason, he really felt afraid of the calm-toned Shaman. It was as if it was the prelude to something bad happening.
“Shaman, see if this can be used to make linen?” Yan Jiao immediately helped to change the subject.
He glared at Cang Shi with annoyance. It seems like the team leader position had gone to his head. If the Old Shaman was still here, anyone who dared do something out of line during a hunt would definitely be severely punished. Cang Shi’s team leader position would have been taken away.
“…” Cang Shi sheepishly shrank his neck.
“Let me try first.” Su Bai ignored their minor actions and took one end of the stem, forcefully tearing it apart.
The stem was easily torn in half, with strands of fibre being pulled out. The texture was very straight.
Su Bai’s lips curved into a smile as he tore it a few more times. He nodded and said, “This is a great plant for making linen. In fact, it is even better than the ones I remember.”
“That’s great!” Yan Jiao exclaimed excitedly.
“It’s good that it can be used,” Cang Shi immediately felt relieved. If the plant could not be used, he would definitely be punished.
Merit could offset punishment, but without merit, punishment was certain.
“Don’t rush. There’s one more step I need to do to test it,” Su Bai shook his head, folded the torn stem, and then twisted it forcefully into a rope-like shape.
“Shaman, what are you doing?” Yan Jiao asked curiously.
“Testing if the plant is toxic,” Su Bai calmly said, dripping the green juice squeezed from the stem onto his arm. This was the most basic allergy test.
“Ah?” Everyone was stunned for a moment, unable to react in time.
“Shaman, let me try,” Cang Shi called out anxiously.
“Yes, let Cang Shi try,” Yan Jiao quickly added.
“Huh???” Cang Shi was stunned, looking at Yan Jiao in confusion. [Hey, shouldn’t you also be fighting to test it?]
“We’ll see the result soon,” Su Bai shook his head. There was no irritating sensation on his arm.
Everyone quieted down, looking worriedly at Su Bai’s arm.
Especially Yan Jiao, who had already placed his hand on the Stone Knife at his waist, ready to immediately cut off Su Bai’s arm if he showed signs of poisoning. This was to save his life. Of course.
Naturally, Su Bai did not know that someone was planning to cut off his arm to save him. If he had known, he would definitely have let Yan Jiao do the test instead.
In fact, he had preliminarily judged this plant to not be toxic. He was just testing it to be absolutely certain. He would never joke with his own life, after all.
After about fifteen minutes, Su Bai’s arm showed no abnormalities. He chuckled, “It’s not toxic. We can safely use it.”
“Shaman, how do we use this plant?” Yan Jiao quickly asked.
“It’s simple. Tear all these plants into thin strips. The thinner the better, all maintaining the length. Dry them under the sun before using them for weaving,” Su Bai explained carefully while demonstrating how to tear the plant fibres.
“It’s that simple?” Yan Jiao and Cang Shi exclaimed in surprise.
“It’s not difficult. The difficult part is the next few steps,” Su Bai said with a smile.
“Good, I’ll immediately tell everyone to start tearing,” Yan Jiao was about to rush out of the Teepee.
“Wait. I have more questions.” Su Bai called to stop the two who were about to run.
“Shaman, is there anything else we need to do?” Yan Jiao asked, puzzled.
“I want to know if this plant is abundant? Is it easy to find?” Su Bai asked helplessly. If it was too rare, large-scale production would be difficult.
“It’s not hard to find. There’s a lot deep in the forest,” Cang Shi quickly said.
Yan Jiao added, “They brought back a lot it.”
“That’s good. From now on, this plant will be called Ramie,” Su Bai borrowed the name of an existing Earth plant that could also be used to make linen.
“Ramie?” Yan Jiao and Cang Shi looked at each other, then quickly nodded. Having the word ‘mie’ (hemp 麻) in it made it easy to remember.
“Go on then” Su Bai waved his hand.
“Yes!” The two quickly ran out of the Teepee to mobilise the Tribe to tear Ramie stems.
[noscript][/noscript]