Boiling edible gelatin doesn’t require any special techniques—just clean the bones thoroughly and simmer them for several days and nights, allowing the collagen inside to hydrolyze.
However, during the process of making edible gelatin, you have to be careful: at the start, don’t add too much water—just enough to barely cover the bones is about right. But you also can’t let the water in the jar get too low, or you’ll ruin the batch.
After fetching water and lighting the fire, Qin Tian said a few words to Ye Lin, then returned to the cave to get some deep sleep. He was on night shift, so he needed to rest up in advance.
While she had to watch over the Golden Eagle, Ye Lin also had to keep an eye on the jar. This required her to multitask.
In the past, Qin Tian absolutely wouldn’t have trusted Ye Lin with this, but after that night, he understood that this wasn’t anything difficult for her.
It was only the first day, and the Golden Eagle was still in high spirits. With Ye Lin—such a dangerous person—nearby, the Golden Eagle didn’t dare close its eyes at all.
Realizing this, Ye Lin dug into the earth right in front of the Golden Eagle, not paying too much attention to it, only glancing over occasionally.
There were only five Earthen Jars in the camp. Three were filled with dried pork, one with pork fat, and the last with water.
Every jar was full. If they acquired anything else, there’d be nowhere to store it. So Ye Lin needed to make more Earthen Jars for backup.
The wind blew and clouds drifted by. Soon it was noon. The weather grew hot, so Ye Lin took shelter in the woods nearby. The entire time, the Golden Eagle’s gaze stayed fixed on Ye Lin; once she walked away, it began pecking at the hemp rope.
Seeing this, Ye Lin immediately picked up two pieces of bamboo and struck them together forcefully.
“Pa –”
A loud crack rang out, and the Golden Eagle, just about to act, was startled and turned its head to stare fixedly at Ye Lin, not daring to move again.
Ye Lin’s energy was consumed by these three things: tending the fire, keeping watch on the Golden Eagle, and making pottery. By the end of the day, she had molded three Earthen Jars and one large jar.
***
Qin Tian woke up a little after five in the afternoon. He’d wanted to sleep longer, but just couldn’t, so he got up.
After getting up, Qin Tian took Han Pi to the water to fetch water and collect fish. Once back, he prepared the meal. After finishing all that, he swapped shifts with Ye Lin.
The shift change was at eight in the evening. After an entire day, the Golden Eagle’s presence was undiminished—it still stood proud, chest out, eyes sharp.
Sitting down in front of the Golden Eagle, Qin Tian glanced at the rabbit in the Trap. He’d deliberately left it there as food for the Golden Eagle, but it was still alive.
He paid the Golden Eagle no mind, and like Ye Lin, kept himself busy. He brought out the frame that stretched the Wild Boar Skin.
After all Qin Tian’s treatment these past days, the greasy layer on the Wild Boar Skin had been cleaned off, but there was still a strong stench.
That smell came from the black bristles—he needed to use a knife to scrape them off before he could sew the skin into clothing.
But not all of these bristles were useless. For example, the Boar Bristle on the neck was long and stiff—Qin Tian collected all of it, planning to make Toothbrushes.
Using a tree branch as a Toothbrush was possible, but the cleaning area was small, and wood splinters could get stuck in your teeth. It was nothing compared to a real Toothbrush.
Compared to the fatty layer, handling the bristles was much easier. Qin Tian gripped the knife horizontally, scraping up and down as if performing gua sha. The stiff bristles fell away in clumps, and before dawn, the bristles from four Wild Boar Skins were all cleaned off.
Putting the four Wild Boar Skins aside, Qin Tian picked up bamboo strips, whittled them into the shape of a Toothbrush, then used the knife to drill neat rows of small holes. After that, he twisted the cleaned Boar Bristle together, doubled it over, and threaded it through the holes.
To make sure the Boar Bristle wouldn’t fall out, he packed each hole as full as possible with bristles—enough to completely fill the space.
This made it hard for Qin Tian; to get the job done, he had to use a wooden pick to poke the bristles through, bit by bit, working until 2 a.m. before all the holes were stuffed.
Finally, Qin Tian used fine hemp rope to tie the bristle bundles tightly at the base. Now there was no worry the Boar Bristle would fall out.
“Ding — Host has crafted a Toothbrush. Gained 200 points.”
Hearing the System’s notification, Qin Tian rubbed his eyes. Working on things at night was just too much for his eyes; he didn’t want to keep going. For these kinds of handmade goods, it was better to leave them to Ye Lin.
After working so long, Qin Tian was tired. He stopped fiddling with things and turned his burning gaze to the Golden Eagle, trying for some wordless communication.
Unexpectedly, the Golden Eagle just turned its head away, looking as proud and aloof as ever, clearly unwilling to acknowledge Qin Tian.
“There’ll come a time when you submit to me.” Qin Tian laughed, unconcerned.
It was a quiet night. Qin Tian kept vigil with the Golden Eagle until dawn, then swapped shifts with Ye Lin, who continued the watch.
***
The next day during Ye Lin’s shift, as Qin Tian instructed, she made eight Toothbrushes. That night, Qin Tian worked the processed Wild Boar Skin repeatedly with his hands.
In the tanning craft, this is called “softening the hide”—the goal is to turn stiff, dried skins supple and fluffy.
On the third day, Ye Lin molded another three Earthen Jars and a bathtub big enough to lie in. That night, Qin Tian placed all the clayware Ye Lin had made into the Kiln for firing.
On the fourth day, Ye Lin made more than fifty stone arrowheads, while Qin Tian continued with the edible gelatin.
After four days and nights of simmering, the once-full jar of water had dwindled to just a tenth of its original volume, thick and cloudy—barely enough to fill one Earthen Jar.
Letting it sit for a while, the edible gelatin solidified, taking on a yellowish-white, translucent, springy look like jelly.
This gelatin, made from boiled bones, is edible gelatin, extremely nutritious—but it doesn’t have much flavor on its own.
For long-term storage, Qin Tian broke it up with chopsticks and set it in a cool place to air dry. After a while, the edible gelatin would harden into granules, able to be stored for years.
These days, Qin Tian and Ye Lin took turns boiling the Golden Eagle. Other than occasional trips to the Bamboo Forest and their morning and afternoon visits to collect fish from the traps, they stayed at camp, facing off with the Golden Eagle.
However, after all this time, the Golden Eagle still seemed determined to resist. It wasn’t until the morning of the fifth day that things changed.
***
After four days and nights without food or water, the Golden Eagle was at its limit, swaying unsteadily, looking as if it might collapse at any moment.
By nightfall, it no longer had its former spirit, listless and exhausted. It even tried to go after the rabbit in the Trap, but was scared back by Qin Tian.
If the Golden Eagle had tried for the rabbit at the very start, Qin Tian wouldn’t have stopped it. But now, with the “boiling eagle” process half complete, if the Golden Eagle succeeded, all their earlier effort would be wasted.
Still, since the Trap was within the Golden Eagle’s reach, Qin Tian didn’t dare remove the rabbit, so each day he just tossed some grass in the pit to keep it alive.
Foiled in its attempt to steal food, the Golden Eagle’s spirit broke. Listless and wilted, it ignored Qin Tian’s watchful eyes and simply closed its own.
At that moment, there was a loud “pa!”—the Golden Eagle snapped its eyes open in shock, only to see Qin Tian looking at it with a half-smile.
“Surrender sooner and you’ll suffer less.” Qin Tian shook the bamboo tube in his hand, speaking to the Golden Eagle, looking just like a villain in an interrogation.
As if it understood, the Golden Eagle slowly lowered its head. Qin Tian was stunned—this was the exact gesture an eagle makes when it submits.
Originally, Qin Tian thought it would take eight days to tame the Golden Eagle, but it only took five—he could hardly believe it.
Coming back to his senses, Qin Tian felt the Nu Beast Mark on the back of his hand light up, and he waved it toward the Golden Eagle. This time, the mark smoothly transformed into a streak of red light, shooting into the Golden Eagle’s body.
It felt just like when he’d used the Nu Beast Mark on Han Pi. From that moment, Qin Tian sensed a mysterious connection between himself and the Golden Eagle.
***
“Ding — Host has tamed the Golden Eagle. Gained 5,000 points!” The System notification chimed at the perfect moment.
“Not a Nu Beast Mark?” Qin Tian was surprised—he’d thought all taming missions would award Nu Beast Marks, but actually, he preferred points.
Not thinking too much about it, suppressing his excitement, Qin Tian gave the Golden Eagle an order, “Sand Eagle, move back.”
Normally, if you want a Golden Eagle to hunt outside, after taming it, you’d have to train it to understand commands and signals.
But with the Nu Beast Mark, Qin Tian could communicate with Sand Eagle to some extent, making that step unnecessary.
Under Qin Tian’s command, Sand Eagle obediently stepped back without any hesitation.
“It worked!” Even though the System had already notified him, seeing the Golden Eagle obey made Qin Tian genuinely excited.
“Hungry!! Hungry!!”
“Children! Children!”
Just as he was rejoicing, Qin Tian received a message from Sand Eagle—especially the part about “children” piqued his interest.
Golden Eagles in different regions have different times for courtship and egg-laying, but most lay eggs between February and April. Based on the information from Sand Eagle, it was very likely she’d already hatched her chicks.
“Could Sand Eagle have surrendered early because she was worried about her children?” Qin Tian wondered to himself.
No matter what, Sand Eagle having chicks was great news for him—he could have her take him back to her nest and bring the chicks to camp to raise.
With Sand Eagle in the sky, Han Pi on land, and aside from the Titanoboa, he could practically walk this forest with his head held high!
Premium Chapter
Login to buy access to this Chapter.