Cave Refuge

The sudden blaze that had erupted in the camp naturally drew out those survivors who had been hiding within their Companion Spiritual Treasures, after all, being attracted to the excitement seemed to be a gene engraved in human bones.

It was the allure of the flames that had caused many to leave their cabins and stand on the deck, and with more people out and about, it was natural that someone would notice the small black serpents that had once infested the camp were now devoid of flesh, reduced to mere Snake Skins.

When the crowd discovered this, they voluntarily left their Companion Spiritual Treasures and made their way to the ground, where they began to scramble for the fleshless Snake Skins scattered about.

Although no one knew why the small black snakes had died, upon closer inspection of the Snake Skins picked up from the ground, they found that the internal flesh had vanished, leaving behind a very clean internal body.

Perhaps in the eyes of most people, Snake Skin wasn't very useful, but in this time of food shortage, regardless, compared to "Guan Yin soil," Snake Skin could not only satisfy hunger but also provide some supplemental nutrition.

Many didn't know that animal skin is actually a very high-quality food ingredient, and the more high-end food made from animal skin is the famous Donkey-hide Gelatin, which mainly uses donkey skin, while the Aspic commonly seen and eaten by ordinary people in cold dishes is made from pork skin.

The preparation method is quite simple, it just requires ordinary pork skin, which needs to be cleaned of bristles. If there is time, one can use tweezers to pluck them out slowly, which produces a cleaner result.

Otherwise, for a lazier approach, one can place it directly over a gas stove to scorch, using flames to burn off all the surface hair, then use a brush to clean off the charred skin.

After dealing with the outer skin, use a knife to scrape off the grease adhering to the inner skin, blanch the pork skin in water to clean it once more, then cook over high heat before switching to a simmer. Cook for over half an hour to extract the pork skin's gelatin. Once cooled, it's ready.

Although the production of Aspic is relatively simple and the raw materials are not costly, it is rich in collagen and has a texture as smooth and refreshing as jelly, making it a very delicious cold dish.

Moreover, since it contains skin fat, it's quite filling. Though it can't completely replace staple food, eating it for a few days straight won't have any negative impact on the body and can be considered a rather excellent substitute for grain.

However, to make this dish, various types of animal skins are required, so although its value is much lower than meat, its yield is even less than that of meat.

That's why, normally, such materials are easy to obtain when there's no shortage of meat; when meat isn't scarce, there's no need to consume this as a substitute.

But now in the camp, because Dong Tianyu had used the Three Flags, not only had all the small black serpents infesting the camp been eliminated, but also their flesh and bones were absorbed, leaving nothing behind.

Although the small black snakes were venomous, the organs producing Toxins were their venom sacs, and their weapons for injecting prey with venom were their Poison Teeth.

Under the effect of the Bloodthirsty Banner and White Bone Banner, whether it was the bones inside the black snakes or the flesh organs, all were turned into Bone Essence and Essence of Flesh, and were completely absorbed by the White Bone Banner and Bloodthirsty Banner, leaving no trace of Toxin in the remaining Snake Skin.

Moreover, scales are actually a form of bone, so now that the skin of the black snakes had no Snake Skin left, the remains just needed to have their heads and tails removed and a brief cleaning, then they could be directly used as food ingredients.

Even if one doesn't want to spend time making Aspic, the skins could be directly roasted or cooked on a griddle.

In summary, these Snake Skins left behind were like the soybeans that children would eat until they vomited before the Natural Disaster; it might initially make one happy to be full, but if one ate them for every meal every day, it would absolutely be maddening.

However, luckily for now, Ye Liuyun still had many Food Bricks in storage. Compared to the Food Bricks made of three layers of coarse grains, three layers of straw, and four layers of unknown plant fibers, Snake Skin was indeed a rather delicious ingredient.

Perhaps it was because there were so many Snake Skins leftover in the camp that the survivors were very orderly in gathering the Snake Skins from the ground, and there were no altercations over them.

Now back at his family's home, Dong Tianyu was also helping his parents collect the Snake Skins left in their yard. While the Thompson Family weren't lacking food, if everyone else was constantly collecting Snake Skins and the Thompson Family alone ignored them, it would implicitly show they were not in need of food, which could attract envy from others.

Really, at this time, any family that could live in the villa district basically didn't have a shortage of food, but all the residents living there, holding a mindset similar to the Thompson family, were also collecting the Snake Skins from the ground.

However, unlike the quick and efficient collection elsewhere, most residents in the villa district were picking up the Snake Skins at a much slower pace, as if they were all deliberately dragging out the work.