Chapter 4

Xia Cao looked puzzled, “Why does the witch ask this? Doesn’t everyone know how to do it?”

Everyone knows?

“I see…” Lu Yu furrowed his brows in thought.

“Xia Cao, Witch!” A black-skinned, skinny little boy ran in, excitedly saying, “The meat has been divided up. The king asked you to come out and eat.”

Xia Cao put down what she was holding and stood up, “Alright.” Lu Yu also stood up.

The little boy looked up at Lu Yu with starry eyes, “Witch, they said you can make things disappear and then reappear, and you can also heal wounds.” He scratched his head, looking regretful, “It’s all my fault for running to catch rabbits just now and not didn’t able to see it.”

Lu Yu thought for a moment, then reached his hand out in front of the boy, palm facing up. A small red pill suddenly appeared.

“Here, take this. If you get injured catching rabbits, just eat it.” The boy’s eyes widened in amazement,

“Really, for me?!” Lu Yu nodded with a smile, “Thank you, Witch!” The boy took the pill carefully in his hand, then turned and ran out, shouting, “Mom! Look what the Witch gave me!”

—

“Witch, this is such a valuable thing…” Xia Cao worriedly said.

“It’s okay. Originally, this pill was for everyone to use for healing wounds.” And besides, it was from the rabbit that Shan Pu killed, it was their joint effort, so it’s only right to give it to the Matai people.

They walked outside.

The once huge elephant carcass was now just a bloody skeleton, looking quite horrifying.

All the Matai people were sitting on the ground, with a clean leaf in front of them, on which lay raw meat still dripping with blood.

“Witch, come sit here.” Shan Pu, sitting next to the Matai king, stood up and waved to Lu Yu.

Lu Yu saw something wrong with the scene in front of him, but upon hearing his call, he didn’t have time to think and walked over.

On the way, he received countless admiring glances, especially from the group of children where the little boy had been, each one excitedly looking at Lu Yu, like a row of puppies wagging their tails, just missing the wagging.

Shan Pu pointed to a piece of meat placed diagonally down to the right of the Matai king, “Witch, this is the tenderest meat we’ve prepared for you. I don’t know if you’ll eat it or not. If not, there are a few fruits, but it’s better to eat meat. Eating meat will fill you up and give you strength…”

“Wait!” Lu Yu finally realized what was wrong.

…They didn’t even have firewood for a fire pit?

Lu Yu asked dryly, “This meat… is it to be eaten like this? Raw?”

“Yeah…” Shan Pu scratched his head, “Does the Witch want to roast it with fire?”

Of course! Rubbing wood for fire! Roasting meat! Your language is so developed, don’t tell me you don’t understand!

Lu Yu forced a smile, “Yes.”

Shan Pu frowned, “But we don’t know how to make fire. The people who knew how to make fire are no longer here…” 

Finally, he pursed his lips, “What’s the point of roasting meat? It’s not tasty at all, it’s bitter and tough, and hard to chew, it’s better to eat it raw.”

Lu Yu was speechless, “But… eating like this, won’t it make your body uncomfortable?”

Shan Pu innocently said, “No, oh—ouch.” 

Xia Cao slapped him on the head, worriedly saying, “It will, our bodies weaken every few days, and we can’t eat anything, even if we do, we’ll vomit it out. It takes two or three days to get better. Before… when the tribe helped roast the meat, it wasn’t like this.”

Eating raw meat every day, even iron men can’t handle it.

Lu Yu understood now. The Matai tribe was a disciplined and highly organized race, but these people who had escaped probably only knew how to kill, with no logistics support.

Clearly, they had organized the cave quite neatly, but they were dressed in crude animal skins, and their weapons were just wooden sticks, without even a stone hammer.

Now they don’t even know how to make fire, and they’ve been happily eating raw meat for ten years.

They’ve become completely complacent.

Lu Yu turned his head towards the sitting Matai King and said, “King, I can make fire. Can I roast meat for everyone? Eating raw meat will make you sick.”

Ignoring the murmurs of the tribe, the Matai king calmly said, “Go ahead.”

Lu Yu nodded, turned around, and let the Matai people go pick some branches and stones.

The Matai people dared not disobey the king’s order and got up to find them.

But they had already made up their minds never to eat the roasted meat made by the witch.

After all, the king couldn’t force the meat into their mouths!

Lu Yu formed a circle with stones, placed easily flammable twigs in the middle, and made a simple bonfire. Then he inserted two y-shaped thick branches on either side of the bonfire, serving as a grill.

He had Shan Pu string the meat prepared for him onto a long stick.

Shan Pu hesitated, “Witch, why don’t you roast other meat first?” It’s not that he didn’t want to give the meat, any amount of meat was fine for the witch, but this piece was the freshest and least gamey meat from the elephant carcass. If they roasted it and the witch didn’t want to eat it, they would have nothing left.

Lu Yu remained expressionless, “Use this one.”

“Alright…” Shan Pu reluctantly skewered the meat to the side.

Lu Yu took out his tinderbox from his ring, then took out two pieces of flint from his tinderbox.

Thanks to the game interface telling him that these stones could make fire, he was initially not very skilled, but now he was more proficient.

He held the two pieces of stone, struck them together a few times, and sparks fell onto a highly flammable leaf. The leaf suddenly burst into flames. He protected the small flame with his hand and put it into the pile of twigs in the bonfire.

The fire ignited.

The Matai people cheered.

Lu Yu flicked the flame, adjusted the height of the y-shaped branches, and took the giant skewer of meat strung by Shan Pu, laying it horizontally on top.

“Huh? Witch, why don’t you put the meat into the fire?” Shan Pu urgently stopped him.

Lu Yu: ???

Shan Pu earnestly instructed, “That way, the meat will cook.”

… So it turns out you’ve been eating charcoal-grilled meat all along, huh?

Lu Yu brushed aside his hand.

Turning the skewer of meat, he grilled it for a while, then took out a few important items from his backpack.

Rock salt powder, peppercorns, wild peppers.

These items were sealed in hollowed-out wood, treasures he had found in the past ten days.