"Qing Wu, before we came to the Yaoshan tribe, we ate everything in the forest, and some of our sisters were poisoned to death," said a girl with a flat nose.
The other one also nodded, "That's right, two little sisters in my tribe, Qing Wu, died after eating the fruit. We only ate that kind of fruit in the first two days."
The girl with the flat nose said in a low voice: "Old Amu said they were taken in by the mountain demon to serve them."
Yao Xiaoqing thought for a moment after hearing this, "Some fruits in the forest have been crawled by poisonous insects, leaving venom on them. If you are unlucky enough to pick them and eat them, you will be poisoned to death."
"Oh! It turns out that the fruits were crawled by poisonous insects, and it wasn't the mountain demon who took them away." Everyone understood after hearing this.
Looking at the chattering girls, Yao Xiaoqing clapped her hands and said, "Okay, everyone, please be careful when you go up the tree to collect silkworm cocoons. Don't fall down."
"It's Qingsha." Everyone responded in unison.
Shan Amu carried a bamboo basket and collected silkworm cocoons from low places, and everyone searched among the leaves.
Yao Xiaoqing found that these wild silkworms were emerald green, a bit like live chili peppers, and some were light yellow. More than a dozen people chewed dried meat and searched for two or three hours in the forest. They only found two baskets of silkworm cocoons.
Shan Amu looked at the gray-yellow silkworm cocoons and said, "Xiaoqing, what is the use of collecting silkworm cocoons?"
Yao Xiaoqing said with a smile: "It can be made into quilts or weaving. The quilt made from this thing is light and warm. With it, we don't need to cover it with heavy animal skins."
Shan's eyes lit up after hearing this, "What a good thing! Let's get some back and raise them."
Yao Xiaoqing nodded, "We don't seem to have this kind of tree over there. I wonder if it eats green leaves?"
She still remembered that when she was the village chief, the county gave training on silkworm breeding. She also vaguely remembered the method of collecting silkworm seeds that she read in the book. It seemed that the silkworm cocoons were placed in a cardboard box with paper specially used for collecting silkworm seeds underneath.
When the silkworm chrysalis breaks out of its shell, it will mate. After mating, the male moth will die due to exhaustion of energy in the body, and the female moth will immediately start laying eggs.
A female moth can lay more than 200 eggs. The eggs she lays naturally stick to the paper and are spread evenly one by one. The eggs are collected and used the next year.
"Ah~" Suddenly a scream came.
Yao Xiaoqing pulled out the dagger and said, "Ah, hurry up and call someone!"
"Hey!" Shan Amu ran towards the salt mine.
The girls ran out of the woods quickly, and everyone looked at Yao Xiaoqing in panic, "Qing Wu~, Axia has been taken away."
"Have you been captured? Do you know which tribe they are from?" Yao Xiaoqing held the dagger and looked into the forest, hearing the sound of feet stepping on dead branches.
One person said, "I didn't leave, I came this way."
Several people gathered around her, "I don't know, but there is a long-worm totem painted on her body."
At this time Mu Feng and a warrior came over, "Xiao Qing, what's going on?"
A dozen men with camouflage paint on their faces, some carrying pheasants, some carrying hares, one of them walked out of the forest holding Axia.
Axia kept struggling and screaming, "Let me go, let me go..."
After getting closer, everyone could see the gloomy, winged insect totem on their chests at a glance.
The man in the head has a square face and a broad forehead, and has a tube bone inserted into his waist. It is unclear whether it is a human or an animal.
Mufeng looked at the totem and thought about it for a moment, and found that he had never seen a tribe with such a totem. He raised his knife and shouted: "Let her go."
"Qingwu~wuwu..." Axia looked at Yao Xiaoqing with tears in her eyes.
At this time Xiongniu and the others also came, "What happened? Who are they?"
"Are you a witch?" The tall and strong man holding Axia looked at Yao Xiaoqing, "Which tribe are you from?"
Mu Feng asked in a deep voice: "Which tribe are you from?"
The man next to the tall man stared with red eyes, looked at Yao Xiaoqing and the others and licked his lips obscenely, "Hua, there are so many women!"
Yao Xiaoqing looked into the eyes of these people and suddenly remembered the legend that people's eyes would turn red if they ate them. He also thought about what Huo and the others had mentioned about cannibals. He felt that these people were not good people.
"Brother, do it."
Before he finished speaking, he pulled the trigger of the crossbow, "Whoosh! Whoosh!" The arrow shot through the air and hit the man holding Axia between the eyebrows, as well as the two people standing next to him.
The man followed the arrow and arrived in front of the man in a blink of an eye. He pulled Axia over and pushed her to Shan'am's side.
"Come on~" Mu Feng also rushed over with a machete in his hand.
The three of them fell to the ground suddenly, and other sluggish men rushed over with bone knives and stone axes.
Mu Feng swung his machete and chopped off the bone knife that was stabbing him. The dagger in Yao Xiaoqing's hand came out like a snake and cut the man's throat with the knife.
"Xiao Qing, you move so fast!" Mu Feng laughed.
Yao Xiaoqing glanced at him and said, "You're not bad either!"
She found that the fighting power of the tribe's warriors was much stronger than before. They also had strategies for attacking the enemy. The machete went straight to the enemy's vital parts with clean and neat movements.
With kung fu and sharp weapons, it would be a one-sided crushing battle against the enemy. It seemed that Jiang Li's training was effective.
The fighting soon ended.
The bull pulled out the arrow from the middle of the tall man's eyebrows and looked at the ribs on the man's waist. He felt that they were a little different from the ribs of animals. They were not as thick as those of the animals they captured.
"Xiao Qing, I don't think the tube bones on his body are from animals."
Yao Xiaoqing looked at the thick white bones and thought they were cannibals. "Brother, have you ever seen cannibals?"
Mu Feng shook his head, "No, the cannibals were driven into the mountains a long time ago."
Xiongniu said: "Xiaoqing, do you suspect they are cannibals?"
Shan Amu came over and said, "Xiao Qing, I saw cannibals when I was young. Their hair was yellow, their faces were white, and their teeth were black. They looked like mountain monsters."
She walked closer and looked at the corpse lying on the ground, then looked back at a few people, "These people are much prettier than the cannibals. The totem on their body is somewhat similar to the cannibals. It is also a long worm, but without wings."
Yao Xiaoqing turned to look at them, "Let's go back and ask Amon."
Mu Feng nodded, "Let's go back and cover the entrance of the cave, and then we'll leave." After saying that, he left a few warriors behind and ran towards the salt mine with Xiong Niu and the others.
They found a cave entrance in the mine where salt was found. Every time they came, two people were left on guard, and the cave entrance had to be covered with vines when entering or exiting. This time, they arrived in a hurry and did not have time to cover it.
Shan'am said to A'xia and the others: "Pack your things and get ready to go."
The girls are busy,
Everyone poured the collected cocoons together and carried them to the foot of the mountain. Mufeng and the others also carried the salt down the mountain. They poured the salt into the bamboo basket and led the ox back.
There was a rumble of thunder in the sky, lightning fell on the mountain opposite, and the top of the mountain glowed silver.
"It's going to rain, everyone, walk faster."
A group of people quickened their pace, but were still drowned in the thunderstorm.