Clumsy Beast, Keep Your Paws Off-Chapter 424: Turning the Sea into Salt

The elders and their females were overjoyed. The idea of eating such wonderful food every day filled them with excitement. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

"You are truly a generous female," one of the elder’s wives said, clutching Su Qinglan’s hand. "To share such secrets with us... the Merman tribe will never forget this."

Su Qinglan smiled happily, for sharing such a delicious recipe was no problem. In fact, she hoped they could develop their eating habits and discover more delicacies in the world.

The beastmen are simple minded people. They rely on strength, and they hardly focus on anything aside from hunting or playing.

They have never thought about upgrading their living space or inventing new delicacies. Maybe after eating her good food, they will realize that life is no longer plain.

As the feast continued, the atmosphere was warm and filled with laughter. Su Qinglan watched the Merman tribe leader, Uncle Tang, as he enjoyed a third helping of the spicy crab. She realized this was the perfect moment.

"Uncle Tang," Su Qinglan said, her voice calm but clear. "I wanted to discuss something with you. How exactly do you make your salt?"

The entire table went silent. The clinking of shells and the sound of chewing stopped instantly.

Everyone looked at her with wide, questioning eyes. Lan Yue and her mates froze, and even the tribal elders looked speechless. In the beast world, salt was a lifeline.

Asking about it was like asking for a tribe’s deepest, most dangerous secret.

Uncle Tang set down his crab leg, his expression turning serious. He did not look angry, but he was clearly confused.

"Dear child," he began slowly, "we do not make salt. We just have it. We find it, and then we trade it with the outside tribes and markets."

He assumed Su Qinglan was asking because she wanted a share of their precious supply. After all, her food was so delicious because she used salt so skillfully. He figured she was curious about where the salted stones came from.

"We do not create it from nothing," Uncle Tang explained. "Our warriors go to a secret place to find salt rocks. We bring the rocks back, grind them into powder, and that is what we sell. It is very rare and very hard to find."

Su Qinglan was stunned. Salt rocks? She blinked, her mind racing. So they are using rock salt!

She realized that the Merman tribe had no idea they were sitting next to an infinite supply of salt. They were relying on luck to find salt mines under the water, which was why the price was so high and the supply was so low.

They guarded these salt rocks with their lives because it was their only way to bargain for land beast skins and fresh meat from the land.

Su Qinglan’s eyes sparkled with a wild, brilliant light. "Uncle Tang, what if I told you that you do not need to go looking for rocks anymore? What if I told you that you can make salt directly from the seawater right in front of us?"

The silence that followed was even heavier than before.

The tribe leader and the elders looked at her like she had just said she could turn sand into gold. Lan Yue’s husband, the leader’s son, nearly dropped his bowl. Even Su Qinglan’s own mates were paralyzed with shock.

Hu Yan, who was busy feeding the three cubs, stopped with a piece of fish in mid air. He looked at Su Qinglan with eyes full of worship, as if she were a goddess who had descended from the heavens.

Shi Feng and Han Jue stared at her, their hearts thumping. They knew their female was smart, but they never imagined she held the secret to the most precious item in the world.

Only Xiao Long was nonchalant, like this is not new. He knew his female is the best.

And Rong Ye was so stunned that his brain had fried.

The three cubs, Xiao Yi, Xiao Er, and Xiao San, were the only ones oblivious to the tension. They continued to chew happily on their food, their little tails wagging, while the adults around them felt like the world was shifting under their feet.

"Make salt from the sea?" Uncle Tang whispered, his voice trembling. "Is such a thing truly possible? If we could do that, the production would increase a hundred times! Every family could eat delicious food, and the Merman tribe would never go hungry again."

The elders began to whisper urgently among themselves. If Su Qinglan was telling the truth, the power of the Merman tribe would soar beyond anything they had ever imagined.

Su Qinglan looked at the sea of disbelieving faces. Even Uncle Tang, the wise tribe leader, looked like he had just been told the moon was made of dried meat.

No one could wrap their heads around the idea that the water they swam in every day was actually liquid gold.

"Listen to me," Su Qinglan said, using the simplest language she could. "When you swim and accidentally gulp down a mouthful of seawater, what does it taste like? Is it sweet like a coconut?"

Everyone shook their heads in unison, like a row of little chicks. "No," Uncle Tang said slowly. "It is bitter and very salty."

Su Qinglan smiled brightly. "Exactly! The salt is already in the water. The salt rocks you find in the deep caves were actually made by the sea a long, long time ago.

The water got trapped, the sun or the earth’s heat dried it up, and only the salt was left behind to harden into rock. We do not need to wait for nature to do it. We can do it ourselves."

A collective gasp went around the table. Han Jue, Hu Yan, and Rong Ye all nodded frantically.

They had tasted the sea many times, but they had always assumed the Mermen had some magical, secret way of growing salt stones deep underwater. They never dreamed the salt was just floating there in the waves.