Chapter 120: Chapter 120: The Amazing Foundation Stone

Chang Xia stiffened, rolled her eyes, and replied, “I could barely leave the tribe before. At most, I wandered near the beast dens. How was I supposed to know if a stone was pretty or not?”

“…Chang Xia, do you like these little pebbles?” Nuan Chun walked over, holding a few finger-sized, colorful pebbles. They looked beautiful.

“River stones? I love them,” Chang Xia replied.

These river stones, smoothed by years of water flow, were polished and rounded. Holding each one in her palm, she could feel their cool, gentle texture. They weren’t as valuable as jade, but they still made Chang Xia’s heart flutter.

“There are plenty of these pebbles at White River. I’ll pick more for you,” Nuan Chun said with a smile.

Chang Xia said, “Great! I’ll make a pond in the courtyard of my cave dwelling and line the bottom with river stones. Then I’ll catch some colorful fish to put in.”

She was planning to pave the courtyard with stone slabs, so a pebble path wasn’t necessary. But she couldn’t bear to waste such pretty stones.

Thinking it over, she immediately decided to build a pond in the courtyard.

She already had a flower bed—how could she not have a pond?

But if she was going to build a pond, she’d have to rethink the flower bed’s layout.

“Haha!”

Everyone burst out laughing.

Clearly, they were infected by Chang Xia’s childlike enthusiasm and couldn’t help but chuckle.

Just for the love of river stones, she wanted to build a pond in her courtyard. Good thing her cave’s courtyard was spacious enough—if she still lived in the old beast den, there’d be no room for all her ideas.

“Alright, I’ll go to White Lake and catch some fish for you,” Chen Rong promised.

He was more than happy to fulfill such a small wish for Chang Xia. Besides, he enjoyed gradually building a home with her—it gave him a real sense of accomplishment.

After their playful interlude, everyone went back to searching for rocks.

During this time, Maple Leaf found another fist-sized piece of glass-type jade.

Chang Xia beamed as she took the jade.

When she had time, she’d practice carving on ordinary stones to see if she could make some jade pendants or plaques. When Chen Rong brought out that big piece of glass-type jade, Chang Xia felt like she was seeing the Bird Tribe’s ice crystal grass.

Jade ornaments—after thousands of years of evolution on Earth, their prices had never fallen.

This showed just how irresistible jade was to people.

Chang Xia firmly believed that if food couldn’t win over the Bird Tribe, the jade in her arms would be the best bet.

In the end, Chang Xia and Chen Rong chose snowflake rock as the primary material for paving the courtyard of their cave dwelling.

First, snowflake rock was hard enough to be ground into paving slabs.

Second, its color matched the cool gray of ironwood perfectly.

Other types of rock just wouldn’t look as harmonious.

Overall, Chang Xia didn’t want the stone slabs to overpower the simple, rustic feel of the cave dwelling.

Snowflake rock was extremely tough, and quarrying it wouldn’t be easy. But that was no problem for the beastfolk. Now that she’d chosen it, the next step was to collect snowflake rock, break it up, and make uniform slabs.

Unlike building a beast den, the requirements for paving stones were much higher.

“How do we quarry the stone?” Chang Xia frowned, looking at the massive boulder in front of her. Snowflake rock was hard and perfect for paving, but without explosives in the Twilight Forest, how could they break it up and grind it into slabs?

The courtyard was large—they’d need a lot of stone slabs.

And grinding slabs was different from making stone pots.

“Just have Chen Rong transform and smash it.”

“Ew! Is that really how the tribe quarries stone?”

Chang Xia was shocked by Nan Feng’s reply. She stared at Chen Rong in disbelief. She’d seen him make stone pots before, but she’d never seen Yadong quarrying.

She knew of a fire-and-water method: pile firewood on the rock and burn it, then douse it with water. The sudden heat and cold would make the rock crack.

But that method used a ton of firewood, and there wasn’t time for that now.

“Nan Feng, stop teasing Chang Xia,” Maple Leaf said, exasperated, giving Nan Feng a couple of knocks on the head. She untied her beast pouch and poured out a few fist-sized, transparent stones.

They looked a bit like clear white crystals.

“Maple Leaf, what kind of stone is this? It’s so pretty,” Chang Xia asked, eyes wide with curiosity.

Up close, they looked almost like high-grade diamonds.

She couldn’t help but pick one up.

It was surprisingly heavy—much heavier than it looked.

A fist-sized piece must weigh dozens of pounds. If Chang Xia hadn’t gotten stronger, she probably couldn’t have lifted it.

“Foundation stones. They’re tools for quarrying, and can also be used to grind stone tools. Don’t underestimate these foundation stones—any one of them is worth a hundred beast pelts,” Maple Leaf explained. Earlier, Kong Shan had told her that Chang Xia was coming to the rocky beach to collect stone for paving the cave courtyard.

Contents

Maple Leaf got a few foundation stones from Elder Yami.

Normally, you don’t need foundation stones for quarrying.

Foundation stones are extremely precious—there are only ten in the entire Heluo tribe, acquired through trade. Over the years, two have been used up, leaving just eight, and each one is worth a fortune. They’re valued at a hundred beast pelts, and that’s no exaggeration. In the Twilight Forest, only the fiercest beasts like wolves, tigers, and leopards qualify as “beasts” for this comparison.

It took the Heluo tribe many years to accumulate enough to trade for ten foundation stones.

With two already used, only eight remain.

“The Fish Tribe is just as stingy as the Bird Tribe!” Nan Feng grumbled.

Nuan Chun smiled, pulling the twin cubs into her arms and handing them a few pebbles to chew on. She countered, “Foundation stones are rare. It’s not surprising the Fish Tribe charges so much.”

In the Twilight Forest, many beast tribes can’t even afford a single foundation stone.

They have to quarry stone with their bare, beast-transformed hands, so they can’t even build proper dens—just caves or makeshift shelters of wood and hides.

Those shelters can’t keep out wild beasts, let alone wind and rain.

The strong stay strong, the weak remain weak.

That’s the eternal law!

Hearing all this, Chang Xia finally realized that the foundation stones were traded from the Fish Tribe. Also, quarrying isn’t just about smashing rocks with brute force—you need special tools like these foundation stones.

But how do you quarry with a stone only the size of a fist?

“These foundation stones are amazing. How do you use them?” Chen Rong stepped forward, picking up a foundation stone and weighing it in his hand. In the Western Lands, quarrying is done with copper tools or manpower—he’d never seen anything like a foundation stone before.

“Want to take a guess, Chang Xia?” Nan Feng teased.

Other than the twin cubs, only Chang Xia and Chen Rong didn’t know how to use the foundation stones.

Nan Feng couldn’t help but speak up—she wanted to see Chang Xia make a fool of herself.

Nearby, Maple Leaf and the others just smiled, clearly curious to see if Chang Xia could figure it out.