Su Bai frowned slightly in thought, his thick eyebrows almost connecting. He took a sip of water and muttered, “This time, they’re the ones proposing cooperation first. We need to maintain the initiative.”
Since it was the Spotted Deer Tribe that came to discuss cooperation, he could now negotiate terms with. After all, they were a Large Tribe and what did a Large Tribe lack? They had plenty of people, which was exactly what the Flame Dragon Tribe lacked right now.
[Facing a Tribe of over a thousand people, compared to the Black Snake Tribe, it is a world of difference. Even with about 300 people and the newly formed Archery Team, the Flame Dragon Tribe would still be vastly outnumbered. Even if, as a last resort, the Flame Dragon Tribe won, they would be left with very few people, and the Tribe would eventually perish. The best solution is to cooperate with the Spotted Deer Tribe. Their numbers could be of great use to us.]“Shaman, what’s wrong?” Yu Ying was worried upon seeing him silent for so long.
“It’s nothing, I’m just thinking about the Spotted Deer Tribe,” Su Bai put down his cup and stood up, saying, “Alright, enough thinking. Let’s make quill pens first.”
“Okay!” Yu Ying was particularly excited and asked, “Shaman, what do we need to prepare? I’ll go get it ready.”
“The first step is to select feathers. We need large feathers that are long and stiff.”
Su Bai recalled the steps for making quill pens and continued, “The second step is to process the feathers.”
Yu Ying nodded vigorously, one hand constantly tapping the palm of the other, and asked, “Shaman, how do we process them in the second step?”
“In the second step, we need to remove the scales from the end of the feather… Actually, bring me a feather, I’ll demonstrate it to you.” Su Bai said with a smile.
He felt a bit reluctant to continue explaining, as Yu Ying seemed quite confused. Still, it was an endearing sight.“Okay, I’ll go get one now.” Yu Ying turned and immediately ran out of the Teepee.
A few minutes later, the fox eared girl ran back with a handful of feathers, still panting.
“Have some water first. There’s no need to rush.”
Su Bai handed her a cup of water and asked, “Generally, if I don’t say it’s urgent, you don’t need to hurry like this, okay?”
“I understand.” Yu Ying nodded, holding the cup with both hands.
After the fox eared girl had some time to catch her breath, Su Bai picked up a feather and said, “The second step is to clean off all these excess parts.”
He removed the tissue scales from the feather, as well as some skin tissue attached to the feather shaft. He also gripped the feather, observing the writing posture, and removed any excess feathers that might interfere with writing.
“Okay.” Yu Ying squatted by the stone table, her hands propping up her chin, pink eyes staring intently.
“Xiao Yu, bring me the needle I gave you earlier,” Su Bai said.
“Yes.” Yu Ying got up and went to the wooden basin used for sewing linen clothes to get the needle.
Su Bai took the needle and cleaned out the excess material inside the feather to ensure it was clear. After cleaning out the debris from the feather, he looked up and said, “Alright, that’s it. Have people clean a batch like this first. We can move on to the third step after they’re clean.”
“I’ll head off now.” Yu Ying said as she stood up, her mouth half-open, afraid she might forget the steps she had just learned.
Su Bai watched the fox eared girl’s retreating figure, shook his head with a smile, and said, “That silly girl.”
Half an hour later, Yu Ying ran back to the Teepee with a pile of feathers, saying softly, “Shaman, I’m back.”
The fox eared girl was holding feathers from the Six Eyed Red Bird. The dark red feathers were quite beautiful and large.
Su Bai inspected the feathers and asked with satisfaction, “Good, they’ve been processed well. How did you clean their insides so thoroughly?”
The ends of the Six Eyed Red Bird feathers were cleaned very well, even inside the quills.
“We used the thorns from the Thorn Tree to pick them clean, so we could thoroughly clean them.” Yu Ying explained.
“Thorn Tree? Is that the thorn you used before to sew clothes?” Su Bai somewhat remembered seeing it. The thorns from the Thorn Tree were particularly sharp, thin, long, and hard, quite suitable for piercing through Animal Hide to sew clothes. However, the thorns were so hard that it was a bit difficult to tie vines to them.
“Yes, they’re very convenient for cleaning out the things inside the feathers.” Yu Ying nodded.
Su Bai looked at the feathers one by one and said, “Now that we’ve removed the excess, we can move on to the next step.”
“Shaman, what do we do next?” Yu Ying asked curiously.
“The next step will be a bit more complicated and time-consuming,” Su Bai thought for a moment and continued, “The next step is to harden the feathers.”
“Harden the feathers?” Yu Ying tilted her head and asked, “Shaman, I don’t understand. How do we do that?”
“Bring me some sand. We’ll use sand to harden them,” Su Bai calmly stated.
Making quill pens at this stage was a bit more troublesome and required some technical skill. Hardening the feathers involved heating sand, then inserting the quill into the hot sand for a period of time.
Finally, after the sand cooled, the feather would be removed. This process would make the feather very firm.
“Okay.” Yu Ying left the Teepee, confused, unable to understand how sand could make the feathers harder.
A few minutes later, the fox eared girl returned with a large pile of sand wrapped in several tree leaves.
“Shaman, where should I put the sand?” Yu Ying asked curiously.
Su Bai scanned the Teepee and finally focused on the iron pot, saying, “Pour it all into the iron pot.”
“Into the iron pot?” Yu Ying widened her eyes in surprise and asked, “Shaman, isn’t that for cooking?”
“We can wash it afterwards. The iron pot is very easy to clean.” Su Bai softly stated.
“Okay…” Yu Ying belatedly poured the sand in.
[noscript][/noscript]
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