Chronicles of Primitive Civilization’s Growth

Chapter 25: Wu Da and Xi Men

Luo Chong spent a whole day preparing them, first retrieving his backpack, then cutting down some small trees to peel and twist into ropes, making some simple horse gear.

The leading male Blue Horse Antelope had a bridle tied around its head, while the six female antelopes were divided into three groups of two, their necks roped and bound to a horizontal short wooden stick. Luo Chong secured them in a series, forming a 1-2-2-2 formation, ensuring none could escape this time.

Leading the antelope group, Luo Chong found a small stream where he stewed dried rabbit meat for dinner. The antelopes were on a hunger strike, having not eaten since being captured by Luo Chong. They only drank a little water at the stream earlier.

Lying by the stream, Luo Chong squinted at the evening sky, “Tch, pretending to be so dignified with me, if you have the skill, don’t drink water either.”

Luo Chong muttered disdainfully, completely unconcerned about their hunger strike.

To the northeast of the stream, there was a colorful stone mountain, the one Tree Elder had pointed out from the watchtower. It was now close to Luo Chong, about two or three kilometers away, less than half an hour’s journey.

The mountain wasn’t exactly the color of burning clouds as Tree Elder had said, but it wasn’t entirely wrong either; part of it was indeed red. The mountain had sparse vegetation and plenty of stones. From several kilometers away, massive granite rocks could be seen reflecting a variety of vibrant colors under the sunset.

The entire mountain resembled a fallen rainbow, with every color—red, orange, yellow, green, cyan, blue, purple—present, along with large areas of gray and white. All the colors were distributed in bands stretching towards the northeast.

Holy crap, jackpot! This must absolutely contain a mine. Judging by the colors alone, it’s a belt-like deposit of multiple minerals. It’s unclear which mineral is predominant though.

Belt-like deposits are often formed by volcanic lava flows. If they were caused by geological compression, the deposits would mostly be layered, which is easy to distinguish. There’s likely a volcano somewhere far off.

It was completely dark. Although Luo Chong wanted to go check it out, he could only suppress his urge. He had spent all day twisting those ropes and was exhausted. Thus, he fell asleep early.

The next morning, just as dawn was breaking, Luo Chong was awakened by a series of throaty calls. Squinting, he looked around. The fire was slowly emitting wisps of blue smoke, with only a few glowing pieces of charcoal flickering. Luo Chong added some wood, and soon the fire reignited.

The dim surroundings were instantly illuminated, exciting Luo Chong immensely. He resisted the strong urge to laugh out loud and lay down, pretending to still be asleep.

In the small grove where Luo Chong had tied the Blue Horse Antelopes, the two female antelopes that had escaped yesterday returned with eight young antelopes. Moreover, they had somehow brought along an adult male antelope.

That male antelope was mounting a female antelope tied to a tree, throatily challenging the tied-up male antelope.

Holy crap, this is Pan Jinlian bringing her children and Xi Men Qing to challenge Wu Dalang! Luo Chong lay on the ground trying hard not to laugh, his body trembling with suppressed mirth.

Wu Da, whose horn Luo Chong had broken, was furious but could only helplessly watch as his wife was ravaged by Xi Men Qing. Even if he weren’t tied up, he wouldn’t stand a chance against him. His horn was broken by Luo Chong, leaving him much shorter than Xi Men. What could he possibly use to fight back?

Unable to bear seeing Wu Da continue to suffer, Luo Chong quietly hid behind the bushes. These were all willingly delivered to him, and it would be a shame not to capture them all.

Luo Chong didn’t disturb Xi Men’s affair but quickly made several simple rope loops, planning to catch the two runaway Pan Jinlians first. Once he controlled all the female antelopes, he was confident Xi Men wouldn’t dare to run away.

It was still dim, and Luo Chong quietly approached the two Pan Jinlians from behind. While they were watching Xi Men, he swiftly looped the ropes around their heads and pulled tight, causing them to collide with each other. The two female antelopes bolted again but couldn’t get more than ten meters before stopping, as Luo Chong had already tied the other end of the ropes to a tree.

The young antelopes were confused, stopping when they saw the female antelopes suddenly halt. One by one, they were caught by Luo Chong.

By the time Luo Chong returned to deal with Xi Men, he had just reached the peak of his life as an antelope and was abruptly hooded. Enraged, Xi Men retracted his equipment and charged at Luo Chong, but after running only five meters, he found himself stuck, like Wu Da, circling around the tree.

Naturally, what followed was another violent smashing of horns. Amidst Wu Da’s delighted throaty sounds, Xi Men was also hooded and could no longer boast.

After finishing these tasks, the sky was already bright. In high spirits, Luo Chong drank salty meat soup mixed with wild vegetables. The wild vegetables were a type of plant similar to purslane that the Blue Horse Antelopes ate. Since they could eat it, it was surely non-toxic. Luo Chong added a bit to the meat soup, finding the taste quite good.

After breakfast for both the antelope herd and Luo Chong, the group set off again. Xi Men carried Luo Chong, while Wu Da carried Luo Chong’s backpack. Behind them, two large and two small lines of eight Blue Horse Antelopes followed, a total of eighteen antelopes led by a young boy heading straight toward the Eight Color Mountain to the east.

The mountain with eight colors was called Eight Treasure Mountain by Luo Chong, truly filled with treasures, quietly waiting for Luo Chong to develop them.

There were many large red dirt mounds on the mountain, not the hematite Luo Chong had fantasized about, but termite mounds instead. However, termite mounds weren’t useless; they were excellent weathered clay. Pottery made from termite mound clay would definitely be better than that made from riverbank clay.

The orange ones were rooster comb stones, also known as realgar. They were very brittle, easily crumbled into powder and could be used as medicine. Externally, it treated snake and insect bites, and internally, it treated parasitic infections.

Ancient China had the custom of drinking realgar wine during the Dragon Boat Festival, which was essentially a deworming medicine, serving the same purpose as the candy pills mothers gave their children when they were young. Realgar was a very distinctive mineral.

However, this stuff must never be burned. The main component of realgar is arsenic disulfide, a toxic substance. Especially after burning, the yellow smoke reacts with oxygen to become arsenic trioxide, also known as arsenic, which is extremely poisonous.

The yellow ones were wax stones, with a greasy surface, interspersed with many golden yellow copper ores, containing almost 80% copper, qualifying as rich copper ore.

This was the first metal Luo Chong had found, and he excitedly dug further to see the depth of the mine. When he reached a meter deep, the vein changed. Layer upon layer of pyrite appeared beneath, albeit quite scarce.

Pyrite is easy to identify, being yellow stone flakes, all flaky, with its main component being iron sulfide, different from hematite, which is mainly composed of iron oxide.

It seemed the nearby volcano was an acidic one, producing minerals with high sulfur content. Finding pyrite near realgar was normal, as realgar itself is a sulfide.

However, there was too little pyrite here to smelt iron. It should exist as a by-product of the rich copper ore.