abcnovels
Chapter 183: 180: One is not enough? Have another one, one for each person!
Chapter 183: 180: One is not enough? Have another one, one for each person!
Chapter 183: Chapter 180: One is not enough? Have another one, one for each person!
Bi Fang smashed the reindeer bones and began to select bone fragments of the right size, then carefully ground them with a rock.
“Short-term survival without salt is not a big issue, but long-term lack of salt intake could lead to some very serious consequences, like nervous system weakness, general fatigue, and in more severe cases, it could even cause acids to accumulate in cells, leading to high acidity that damages DNA structures, which in layman’s terms means an increased risk of cancer.”
“The solution to this problem is actually quite simple. Near the sea, you can dilute sea salt from seawater, but sea salt contains too many impurities, so it can only serve as an emergency fix.”
“Additionally, you can collect your own sweat, or drink the blood of animals.
These are all good methods to replenish salt.”
[So Master Fang kept the deer blood to drink?]
[Damn, it’s going to be a week soon, wouldn’t it have gone bad?]
[This is true primitive survival.]
“No, I did not keep the deer blood to drink; I have better choices, which is to eat as much meat as possible!”
Bi Fang displayed the bone fragment he held in his hand to everyone, which originally was just a piece of broken bone but now had been turned into the shape of a fish hook!
“Catching animals is harder, but it’s also a good way to supplement salt. However, compared to the previous methods, it’s undoubtedly much more difficult.”
“This is a fish hook I made from the reindeer bone. We’ve almost finished eating its meat, but we can use its bones and blood to catch more fish.
This move truly stunned the netizens. Who would have thought that Bi Fang wouldn’t even spare reindeer bones and that there could be someone more skilled at extracting resources than him?
[Damn, even heartless capitalists don’t exploit resources like Old Fang does! He doesn’t even leave the bones!]
[Reindeer: I’ve been drained dry, truly not a drop left.]
[The weak: Hey, I can use the salt from my body, and I can sun-dry sea salt. The strong: Hand it over, I want to eat meat!]
“Bone-made fish hooks are a very old traditional method. They are made by grinding animal bones into hook shapes. Although it’s not very convenient or quick, they are stable and durable.”
The line was still drawn from his robe, which was visibly shorter than before the trip, now revealing Bi Fang’s ankles.
“Apart from this barbed point, I made the vertical end into a T-shape so that the line wouldn’t easily come off.”
Bi Fang tied the line tightly and turned to ask Etienne, “Can you give me a button?”
Etienne directly tore a button off his coat, and Bi Fang then tied it to the fish line as well.
“The best times to fish are early in the morning, at dusk, on a full moon night, or if you have a light source, then any night is possible. Fish behavior is hard to predict; their habits vary with species, and factors like the time of year, the salinity of the water, as well as temperature and current strength, all have an impact. But there are a few universal truths.”
“They like to rest in slowly flowing water, hide in rubble and rocks, search for oxygen-rich water, and look for food and warmth in the shadows of deeper lakes.”
“Some fish are also attracted to shiny things—you can hang tin foil, a button, a coin, a piece of colorful cloth, or any other shiny object on the hook.”
Bi Fang, barefoot, led Etienne to a beach strewn with pebbles, which was covered with white foam left by the receding sea, wet and slippery underfoot.
The black tide, with its white froth, crashed onto the pebble beach in front of them, occasionally scattering small, reflective-backed shrimp or crabs across the pebbles. These little creatures were knocked about by the incoming tide, but once they regained their balance, they kept struggling on, their reflections dotting the beach.
“These are also good ingredients. If we don’t catch any fish today, we can eat them.”
Bi Fang picked up a small crab and threw it back into the sea, then poured the reindeer’s blood and guts into the water, creating an area to attract fish.
After that, he lowered the fish hook, and then it was time to wait.
Etienne held the fishing line, while Bi Fang held a spear, ready to make a deadly strike when a fish was hooked.
After several minutes, the fish hook moved.
Splash, a wave splashed.
Bi Fang’s voice became very soft, “Hey, do you see that? That wave, it might be a big one!”
“Woah, feels like a big fish!”
“True, the water here is deep. Only Master Fang can handle it, sure to catch a
big one!”
“I know this, the North Sea fishing grounds in Europe are one of the world’s four largest!”
“Damn, now I remember, studied it in middle school geography!”
The audience was excited, and Bi Fang was calm and focused; at Etienne’s signal that the fish had taken the bait, he instantly thrust his spear forward.
Splash!
Struck by the spear, the big fish struggled violently, splashing water everywhere as Bi Fang lifted it out of the water.
Wiping the water from his face and aided by the moonlight, the tiger stripes on the fish’s back were faintly visible, allowing Bi Fang to quickly identify it.
“It’s mackerel!” Bi Fang’s face beamed with joy. The fish was not small, as long as an adult man’s lower arm, “This fish is very common, a very fatty kind with darker flesh, perfect for grilling!”
“Can we change up dinner then?”
Etienne was delighted; after a week of eating smoked and dried deer meat until it was tough, he was almost sick of it.
But Bi Fang shook his head, “Wait a second, what actually makes me happy isn’t that we can change the dinner menu, but that mackerel like to swim in schools and are attracted to light, and November happens to be the prime fishing season for them.”
Etienne immediately understood, “Can we catch more?”
“Exactly!” Bi Fang grinned, pouring more deer blood into the water, “Let’s work harder, we can catch a week’s worth of food!”
“Alright!”
The next morning, fish bones littered the ground and wisps of smoke rose, showing how bountiful their haul had been the night before.
A total of sixteen fish, another week’s food supply taken care of.
Smoked fish hung from the glider’s wings, a familiar scene replaying itself.
“You fly.”
Bi Fang had no intention of piloting the flying apparatus.
Etienne’s face fell; he knew he’d have to do the embarrassing task again.
“This is all sea; if we take the wrong direction, don’t blame me!”
Bi Fang ignored Etienne’s last struggle, “Go ahead and fly, I’ll be watching from behind.”
Settling into the seat, Etienne truly wanted to perform a Pugachev’s Cobra maneuver in the glider and shake Bi Fang right off, but he thought better of it. Life is precious, after all.
The sea was covered in sunlight, and seagulls gathered, flying low.
It was his first time flying over the sea, and everywhere looked the same, making it impossible to discern the direction. As they moved farther from the shore, islands became even rarer, sometimes taking an hour or two before spotting one, which was understandably unnerving.
However, as time passed, Etienne gradually relaxed and began to enjoy the unique experience.
“Today’s really nice weather.”
“That’s not necessarily a good thing.”
Bi Fang interrupted Etienne’s contentment, even beginning to suspect that the guy might jinx things.
Dark clouds loomed in the distance, ominous and foreboding, as if a demon who had mastered dark magic was bringing a tempest to devour the flesh of the monkXuanzang.