Satisfied with carrying a small jar of refined salt back home, Kaelen planned to wash his hair first before making corn cakes, but Sane stopped him.

"Winter is cold, so washing your hair at night makes you prone to getting sick. How about you bear with it for a bit and wash it tomorrow noon? Let me catch the lice for you tonight, okay?"

Kaelen thought for a moment and felt it made sense. After all, there was no modern technology or wind-attribute abilities here, so being unable to dry his hair would lead to a cold.

[Alright then, let’s go make corn cakes.]

"Okay." Sane affectionately rubbed his nose against Kaelen’s, then hurriedly went to prepare the utensils for making the corn cakes.

The corn had been force-ripened but still retained its freshness; the kernels were full of milky white sap and very easy to cut with a bone knife. After scraping more than ten mature ears of corn, Sane washed the small stone mill in the house, and the two of them began grinding the kernels. Kaelen was in charge of adding the corn and pouring water into the mill, while Sane pulled the rotary axis, occasionally stopping to scrape the wet cornmeal down into the basin.

After grinding all the kernels, Kaelen took some arrowroot starch, mixed it with a little water until it was slightly thick, and poured it into the cornmeal. He sprinkled in a little refined salt and mixed everything well. There was no sugar or shredded coconut, but with just a bit of salt, the pure and unadulterated flavor was enough to awaken the latent sweetness in every corn kernel.

Sane spread the young corn husks evenly on the table. Kaelen scooped spoonfuls of the thick cornmeal onto the husks, spread it out slightly thin, and folded the edges of the leaves into a rectangle. Sane clumsily followed suit, but his cakes were either lopsided or had the filling bursting out.

Kaelen looked at his handiwork and laughed heartily. Being laughed at by his Sub-Beast, Sane wasn’t angry; he just took the opportunity to lean in and sneak a peck on Kaelen’s lips, receiving a scorching glare in return.

The two of them laughed and joked while making the cakes, and soon filled a basket with them. The water in the clay pot had boiled, so Kaelen arranged the cakes on the multi-tiered wooden steamer that Cassian had made for him, and then Sane put them into the steaming pot.

While waiting for the cakes to cook, Sane washed his hands and brought over a bowl of hot water. He spread an animal skin on the ground near the fire, wanting to catch lice for Kaelen. Kaelen lay on Sane’s lap, his eyes glancing up at the wooden bowl. He frowned at the disgusting parasites swimming in it and immediately said, [This bowl must be kept separate. From now on, you cannot use it to hold food anymore!]

Sane chuckled. "Our house is full of clay bowls now, we don’t eat from wooden ones anymore. But rest assured, I will definitely keep it separate."

Kaelen nodded and lay back down on Sane’s lap, letting him continue to catch lice for him. Sane gently parted the hair, meticulously checking every hairline to ensure not a single louse or nit was left on his partner’s head. With the warmth rising from the fire and his head being stroked, Kaelen’s eyelids grew heavy and stuck together.

"Sane, what is your family cooking that smells so good?"

Along with the booming voice came the sound of messy footsteps, and right after that, the animal skin curtain was lifted. Quinlan stepped in first, his steps faltering slightly when he saw the scene inside. The beastman walking behind saw him freezing in the doorway, gave him a light push, and said:

"Go inside, why are you blocking the door like that!"

The noise woke Kaelen from his drowsy state. He immediately sat up and tidied his hair. Sane looked at the beastmen at the door with a death stare, radiating a chilling aura in all directions.

Kaelen patted Sane, telling him to go receive the guests. He stood up from the animal skin rug, took the bowl of water soaking the lice to dump it out, and stored it in a corner. In his heart, he muttered to himself that he should speed up making bricks to build a new house. Otherwise, one day when the two of them couldn’t hold back and were doing this and that, having someone suddenly barge in would be too embarrassing.

Really, back in the Obsidian tribe, everyone was clearly very polite and usually called out at the door before entering a house. How come after just two days here, they had already been assimilated by these striped tigers?

"Ahem!" Quinlan coughed lightly to hide his awkwardness. "We hunted quite a lot of thick-furred prey, and wanted to ask if you would like some?"

These small-scale individual hunts belonged to personal property. As long as the beastmen finished their work in the tribe, they could team up and go together.

Sane thought for a moment and asked, "What do you want to trade?"

The group of beastmen said, "We want some golden seed fruits. Our families all like eating them."

Kaelen was stunned. He had force-ripened all the corn in the field today and dried it for an afternoon, so it should be very hard by now.

[There are no fresh ones, but there are cooked ones. Is that okay?]

Over ten ears of corn yielded a lot of cakes, and Kaelen was even planning to share some with Priest Nyx and Collins’ group.

The beastmen sniffed the fragrant aroma in the air. Trading for golden seed fruits would require cooking them anyway. If there were already cooked ones, it would be even better; they could eat them immediately upon returning. Therefore, they straightforwardly agreed.

Food was scarce. Originally, they planned to use two animal skins to exchange for one golden seed fruit. Now, with each person carrying back a basket full of golden seed cakes, they felt that Kaelen might have given them a bit too much. Sane said, "This is just enough. The golden seed fruits expand when made into cakes; calculating the total amount, it perfectly matches the corresponding number of fresh fruits."

Quinlan’s group said nothing more and went home carrying their baskets. Kaelen looked at the pile of animal skins on the table, secretly considering what to do with them. Sane gathered the pelts and stored them neatly in a corner, saying, "After drying them tomorrow, let’s ask Randy’s group to make you a cloak and some gloves. The moisture in the air is increasing; I reckon it will be cold in a few days."

Kaelen nodded, and the two of them finished the remaining corn cakes in the pot. Admittedly, each dish had its own flavor. Sane ate this steamed golden seed dish and felt it was even sweeter than when boiled or grilled. The chewiness was just right, not too sticky, and it felt filling in the stomach. He didn’t even need to eat much meat.

"This fruit looks small but is much more filling than the golden tuber threads. Eating too much of the golden tuber threads even makes the stomach feel a bit hot."

Kaelen agreed on this point. No matter how good the stomachs of the people here were, eating too much arrowroot vermicelli would cause internal heat. Corn was different; it had a cooling nature, was rich in nutrients, and provided a long-lasting feeling of fullness. Currently, the existence of wet rice or wheat hadn’t been discovered, but there was already arrowroot, corn, sticky millet, and sorghum; Kaelen believed he would find them soon.

Mentioning sorghum, Kaelen remembered that Walter had followed the beastmen group into the magical beast forest, and a trace of envy couldn’t help but rise in his heart. He also had an ability, why couldn’t he go? Kaelen anxiously waited for his morning sickness period to end; at that time, he could go a bit further and explore more things.

After eating and drinking his fill, Kaelen felt a bit sleepy again. Once he finished his oral hygiene, he climbed back into bed and rested his head on Sane’s lap. Sane once again diligently began catching lice for his partner, only stopping when the fire gradually died down.

---

When Kaelen woke up the next morning, Sane was no longer in the tent. People were coming and going outside, and the footsteps passing by his tent subconsciously lightened, causing a wave of warmth to rise in Kaelen’s heart.

He felt he should work harder so that everyone could be well-fed and warmly clothed, have houses to live in, meat to eat, and no longer worry about illnesses or natural disasters.

Hmm, first start with the disgusting lice on their heads!

After cleaning up and taking care of his personal needs, Kaelen ate the millet porridge Sane had stewed in the pot. Once finished, he began preparing to make soap and liquid shampoo.

The alkaline ash water had been soaking since yesterday noon; today, it only needed to be filtered to be usable. He took a piece of grass-fiber cloth, folded it in half, and covered the mouth of a large wooden bowl with it, then slowly poured the ash water over it to filter.

After filtering it twice, Kaelen had the lye water he wanted. He divided it into two parts: a large portion for making soap, and a smaller portion for making shampoo.

He made the Fiend grass soap first. First, he washed the Fiend grass, crushed it in a mortar, wrapped it in grass-fiber cloth, and squeezed out the juice. He heated the wild boar fat by placing it in a large wooden basin set inside a pot of steaming hot water. Once the lard melted, he added a little refined salt to deodorize it.

After taking the lard out of the pot, he hovered the back of his hand over the fat’s surface and felt it was still warm. Kaelen used one hand to hold the bowl of alkaline ash water and slowly poured it into the basin of fat, while his other hand gently stirred with a stick. After pouring all the ash water, he continued stirring for a while longer until the liquid inside thickened like cream, then he poured in the Fiend grass juice.

Once the juice and the creamy liquid blended together, Kaelen stopped stirring. He poured the soap cream into a flat wooden tray, patted it a few times to dissipate the air bubbles, and then stored it in a cool, well-ventilated place.

The soap needed a few days to solidify into bars. If Kaelen wanted to deal with the lice nest on his head, he could only rely on the shampoo.

To maximize the lice-killing effect, Kaelen used mosquito-repellent grass as a fragrance. The smell of the mosquito-repellent grass was a bit pungent, so he couldn’t add too much. He only took a small handful, crushed it, and squeezed out the juice.

Utilizing the pot he just used for the soap to make the shampoo, he placed it on the stove, poured in the previously melted lard, heated it a bit more, and then poured the remaining lye water into the pot. The process for making shampoo was quite similar to soap, but it had to be continuously boiled over low heat to force the saponification process to happen faster. This process took about over an hour.

Once the soap cream block had turned translucent, Kaelen used the tip of a chopstick to take a bit of the cream and dissolved it in a cup of warm water. Seeing that there was still a layer of fat on the water’s surface, he stirred for a while longer and tried again. This time, the water mixed with soap was clear, with a little white foam floating on top, and there was no layer of fat.

Kaelen applied a little of the water onto the back of his hand. After waiting a moment and seeing no allergic reaction, he was very satisfied. He poured in the mosquito-repellent grass juice, continued to boil on low heat, and gently stirred so the juice would completely dissolve into the soap. Because there was very little mosquito-repellent grass juice, his shampoo was very thick. Kaelen poured it all into a wooden box for storage. As for the part stuck to the sides of the pot, he let it cool down; he would mix it with water later to wash his hair.

After being busy for a long time, it was already noon. Kaelen stretched his back to relieve the stiffness, then stood up, packed up his things, and carried his pile of tool design blueprints over to Cassian’s place.