I Became The Chief Of A Primitive Village

Chapter 469, Just Dry It Out

Translator: Silavin

“But Shaman, it’s too dark at night, we also can’t see clearly who’s in the Tribe.” Co Co expressed her concerns.

“It’s not a major issue. If people from your Tribe have survived, they must have been assigned as slaves.” Su Bai paused, then continued. “They certainly won’t be living in wooden huts. At most, they’ll be sleeping in Teepees outside, and they may very well be working at night, so finding them should not be too difficult.”

“I understand. I’ll definitely do my best.” Co Co said earnestly. She, who had initially appeared calm and quiet, suddenly became extraordinarily serious and resolute. With her clean, neat short hair combined with this expression, she looked perfect to execute any task given to her.

“Don’t overthink it for now. Let’s go salt drying first. Once we’ve planned out the process to create salt, we can discuss about your Tribe’s matters.” Su Bai said.

The primary purpose of this outing was salt drying, so this immediately doable task needed to be arranged first. As for reclaiming the Sea Fish Tribe or observing the Coastal Tribes, everything would have to wait until the salt drying was sorted out.

“Yes,” Co Co nodded.

“Where along the coast has no Tribes or is relatively far from other Tribes?” Su Bai asked.

Since salt drying needed space, and they could not let others know about it, everything had to be done in secrecy.

“Fly forward, keep flying until the end. There are almost no Tribes there because it’s too far, and ordinary people simply can’t reach it.” Co Co pointed to the left front.

“Good, let’s go there then.” Su Bai nodded.

*Whoosh whoosh whoosh…* The hot air balloon began to fly towards the left front under control, continuing for several hours before reaching the destination.

When Su Bai saw the place, he finally understood why not many people could reach it.

Although there was a large open space, a high cliff separated the middle. Crossing that cliff would certainly take considerable time and would be quite dangerous.

However, this cliff obviously provided excellent assistance for salt drying, as people from the Tribe could dry the salt here without being discovered.

The hot air balloon began to descend slowly under skilled operation, eventually landing on the beach.

“Shaman, how do we start salt drying?” Sha Lan curiously asked. When her feet touched the beach, she felt an unprecedented softness. This was a feeling that forest soil could never provide her. The sensation of sinking into the sand when stepping on it was too strange. Moreover, these fine white sands looked particularly beautiful, completely different from the land she usually walked on.

The others were also all observing beneath their feet, some even bending down to play with the sand.

“The process goes from seawater to evaporation pools, crystallisation pools, crude salt, and then mother liquor. That’s how salt is dried.” Su Bai explained.

Back on Earth, the main method of extracting salt from seawater was the ‘salt field method’. Though ancient, it was still a widely used technique.

“How do we do that? Is it very complicated?” Sha Lan asked.

“You need to choose the correct climate with abundant sunshine. Then, select a large, flat beach area, and begin building salt fields.” Su Bai said.

“Salt fields? Shaman, what are salt fields?” Sha Lan continued to ask.

“Salt fields are places for salt drying, generally divided into evaporation pools and crystallisation pools,” Su Bai explained simply.

In fact, salt fields mainly involve channelling seawater into evaporation pools. When evaporation reaches a certain level under sunlight, it would be poured into the crystallisation pools.

Then, the seawater becomes a saturated salt solution, and salt gradually precipitates in the sunlight.

The resulting crystals would be common crude salt, and the remaining liquid, called mother liquor, could be used to extract various chemical materials.

In ancient times on Earth in China, those that lived near the sea would use seawater to make salt by channelling it into salt fields, concentrating it through evaporation by sunlight and wind until it became saturated, allowing salt to crystallise further. These basic steps were not too difficult; the most important step was creating the salt fields.

“Shaman, where should we place our salt fields?” Sha Lan looked around, seeing sand everywhere.

Su Bai carefully observed the surrounding environment and finally found a suitable place for salt fields, where there was less sand.

He noticed the soil content was higher here and said, “Let’s create the salt fields here. Okay, start digging.”

“Yes!” The Warrior Trainees immediately nodded and began digging.

Since they were just experimenting and drying a small amount of salt for use during the snow season, the salt field dug out was not very large, and it did not take long, about twenty minutes to complete.

“Continue digging a channel that extends to the sea,” Su Bai continued to command.

The current task was to channel seawater into the evaporation pools to begin salt drying.

“Yes.” They picked up their hoes again and began digging the channel, tools they had specifically brought for this outing.

Ten minutes later, a long channel was dug, and seawater began to flow slowly through it into the salt drying pools.

“You all watch. After this seawater gradually dries up, crystals will form, and then…” Su Bai began explaining to the Warrior Trainees. After all, he needed to pass on the knowledge to them, and they would oversee the process afterwards. He still needed to return to the Tribe and could not stay here for too long.

Since salt drying could not be completed in a short time, he needed to instruct them in advance.

“Yes.” The Warrior Trainees nodded seriously.

After explaining for about fifteen minutes, Su Bai ordered them to start preparing to find a place to stay.

They would need to spend one night by the sea and set off early the next morning.

Also, tonight they would send Co Co to the Sea Insect Tribe to check if there were any survivors from the Sea Fish Tribe.

*Whoosh whoosh whoosh…* The hot air balloon rose again and began flying towards the forest, as staying by the ocean would be too cold at night, and the strong smell of the seawater, and the humidity, would make it impossible for those new to it to sleep through.

An hour later, the hot air balloon stopped at a secluded location in the forest.

Some Warrior Trainees began setting up Teepees, while others went hunting to prepare food for the evening.

“Shaman, is that all it takes for salt drying?” Sha Lan asked.

She had listened particularly attentively to the whole process explained by Su Bai.

“Of course, you’ll see for yourself,” Su Bai smiled.