Chapter 206: Chapter 206: The Seasoning Tree

“Enough, you guys!” Gorei said, a bit embarrassed, trying to stop everyone’s teasing. He raised his hand and pointed at the beast pouch Yun Dong had snatched. “I found those wild fruits this morning. I thought they were interesting, so I picked a few.”

Actually, if Chang Xia hadn’t brought up sauce…

Gele really hadn’t planned to take out the wild fruit—he’d prepared it as a gift for Tianluo.

Over the years, whenever he went out hunting or foraging, as long as he left the tribe, Gele would always bring back a gift for Tianluo, regardless of its value or quantity.

“Uncle Yundong, let me see those wild fruits!” Changxia said excitedly.

The wild fruits of the Twilight Forest were full of wonders—take the white fruit, for example. Changxia liked to call it the “miracle fruit.”

Yundong quickly handed the opened animal-hide pouch to Changxia, while the surrounding tribespeople craned their necks, staring intently at the pouch in Changxia’s hands.

Changxia reached in and pulled out the wild fruits.

There were four fruits in the pouch, in two different colors.

One was caramel-colored.

The other was reddish-brown.

The two colors were quite similar, yet still distinct.

The skins were wrinkled, and there was no detectable scent.

“These wild fruits have thick skins, so they’re not easy to peel. Also, even though there are two colors, they actually grow on the same tree,” Gele explained.

“They… don’t seem like wild fruits,” Changxia said.

Most wild fruits have at least a hint of fruitiness, but she couldn’t smell anything from these—not sweet, not foul, no aroma at all.

“Uncle Gele said the inside is liquid. Changxia, try opening one up,” Nan Feng urged. Wild fruits with liquid inside? Nan Feng had never seen such a thing. Usually, beneath the skin, there’d be pulp or juice… Could it be like the coconuts from the Eastern Sea?

Weishan did border the Eastern Sea, but it was cold year-round—not exactly coconut tree territory.

Curious, everyone stared at the wild fruit in Changxia’s hands.

Changxia tried to pry it open, but just as Gele said, it was really hard—she couldn’t manage it. So she handed a caramel-colored fruit to Chen Rong. “Chen Rong, you try opening it. I want to see what the juice inside tastes like.”

Chen Rong took the caramel-colored fruit.

With a gentle squeeze, he cracked it open, revealing a reddish-brown liquid inside.

Immediately, a faint, savory aroma wafted out.

“Whoa!” Changxia exclaimed in surprise. She knew this smell all too well—it was light soy sauce! She might mistake other scents, but never this one. She dipped her finger in the reddish-brown liquid and touched it to her tongue.

“It’s soy sauce!”

“How is that possible—?”

Changxia stared in shock at the split fruit in Chen Rong’s hand.

The juice inside was bursting with a salty, savory flavor—exactly like soy sauce. And not just any soy sauce, but the finest kind.

“Chen Rong, try opening this reddish-brown one,” Changxia said, grabbing a clean wooden bowl and taking the caramel-colored fruit from Chen Rong. She gestured for him to open the reddish-brown one so she could taste its juice.

Crack—

With a crisp sound, the fruit split open.

A faint sour aroma drifted out.

Changxia was surprised. She’d thought the reddish-brown fruit might be a different kind of soy sauce, but to her astonishment, it was vinegar!

Holy crap—

Changxia couldn’t help but curse inwardly—not out of anger, but excitement.

“It’s vinegar, real vinegar!” Changxia was stunned. She looked at the soy sauce in her wooden bowl, then at the vinegar in Chen Rong’s hand.

What kind of treasure mountain was Weishan, exactly?

These wild fruits were incredible!

She’d thought the white fruit was already amazing, but now there were fruits that produced soy sauce and vinegar. Who said the Twilight Forest was poor and lacking in resources?

White fruit in one hand, soy sauce and vinegar in the other.

With a few more ingredients, you could practically set a whole table.

Chen Rong lowered his head, dipped a wooden chopstick into the light brown liquid, and confirmed, “It really is vinegar—better than any I’ve tasted in the Western Lands.”

“Yuck!” Nan Feng said, “Changxia, the flesh of this soy sauce fruit tastes awful.”

“There’s flesh inside the soy sauce fruit?” Changxia turned to ask. She’d only tasted a bit of the juice earlier and hadn’t looked closely. At Nan Feng’s words, she used chopsticks to split open the soy sauce fruit.

Sure enough, between the skin and the juice, there was a layer of fruit flesh.

It looked a bit like coconut meat.

However, the flesh of the soy sauce fruit was dark brown—probably from being soaked in soy sauce for so long.

Changxia picked off a piece the size of a fingernail and put it in her mouth.

“…Dark soy sauce.”

She mimicked Nan Feng’s disgusted face and quickly scooped water from a wooden bowl to rinse her mouth.

“The flesh of the soy sauce fruit can be used to color food, but don’t eat it directly,” Changxia said happily. This soy sauce fruit was truly magical—the juice was light soy sauce, the flesh was dark soy sauce. She decided to call it “soy sauce fruit”—the name fit perfectly.

“If the caramel-colored one is soy sauce fruit, what about the reddish-brown one?” Nan Feng asked curiously.

“The reddish-brown one has vinegar inside, so let’s call it vinegar fruit,” Changxia decided. She split open the vinegar fruit and saw there was no flesh, just the slightly sour vinegar.

Soy sauce fruit, vinegar fruit.

The tribespeople repeated the names a couple of times, then suddenly wondered what to call the tree that bore both soy sauce and vinegar fruits.

Changxia thought for a moment.

“Seasoning tree,” she said. “After breakfast, let’s ask Uncle Gele to lead us to the seasoning tree and see if we can transplant it. If not, we’ll just gather more seasoning fruits to bring back to the tribe. With soy sauce and vinegar fruits, I can make some new dishes for everyone.”

At the mention of food, everyone immediately started eating their meat faster.

Changxia asked Chen Rong to open the remaining two seasoning fruits. She mixed up two bowls of dipping sauces—one with soy sauce, one with vinegar—and had everyone try them with the plain stewed venison.

“Hiss—”

“This is absolutely amazing!”

After tasting it, everyone was blown away.

“The sauce is milder than fish sauce,” Chen Rong commented.

Changxia replied, “Fish sauce is made by fermenting small fish and shrimp. Soy sauce fruit is a wild fruit, so it’s not surprising they taste different. I’m just curious why no one in the tribe ever discovered the seasoning tree before.”

Given the temperament of the tribe, how could they not have discovered the seasoning tree after all these years?

“The tribal totem warriors aren’t very interested in anything besides meat—wild fruits and vegetables don’t appeal to them much. It was only after the shaman of the Sacred Mountain of Kana suggested it that the tribe slowly started to change their mindset, eating some wild fruits and vegetables alongside their meat.”

Chief Gen explained, “The beast tribe values a balanced diet.”

This only started after Su Ye became the shaman.

Before that, the beast tribe survived on roasted meat, rarely touching wild vegetables and only occasionally picking wild fruits to stave off hunger.

“...” Chang Xia understood now.

The beast tribe lived a pretty leisurely life. The prey in the Twilight Forest was enough for them to thrive and multiply. Wild fruits and vegetables were optional for them.

So, naturally, they wouldn’t go out of their way to pick or store them.

It was only after the shaman spoke up that the tribe gradually developed the habit of eating wild fruits and vegetables.

That explanation actually made sense.

But—

Chang Xia still felt indignant!

The Qinghai Plateau has the Luminous Stone and Ice Crystal Grass, the East Sea has its foundation stones, and yet, she really thought the Twilight Forest had nothing special.

But reality proved her wrong.

The Twilight Forest isn’t lacking in treasures—it’s lacking in people who can recognize them.

The seasoning tree is a true treasure.

So are the white nuts.

The beast tribe has been spoiled by the Beast God. Even when treasures are right under their noses, they fail to notice them.