Gathering firewood and building a fire to roast meat were not difficult for her, but the lack of seasoning was a headache.
However, if there was no saltiness, she could create sweetness.
She covered the wild rabbit meat with her woven basket and stood up to find wild fruits. That apricot tree she had found earlier was a pity it was destroyed.
When she found a place with dense wild grass, she saw a few shriveled black berries. She squatted down to examine them. It turned out to be nightshade. She was lucky to find nightshade berries so late in the autumn.
Although nightshade berries were not sweet and had a slight sourness, it didn't matter. She could use her wood-elemental energy to exchange for better results.
As soon as she exchanged, it grew too much and withered.
Looking at the few nightshade berries that had burst open on the dry branches on the ground, revealing tiny seeds smaller than sesame seeds, Tian Jing frowned. These nightshade berries were more delicate than ordinary wild grass, and not easy to control.
However, she had seeds and special abilities, so she continued to plant and exchange.
She picked two nightshade berries, extracted the seeds, and cleared a square meter of clean ground. If she was going to plant, she might as well plant more. With her energy dispersed among many plants, it shouldn't happen like just now, right?
After digging holes and burying the seeds, she placed her palm on the ground and slowly channeled her energy. In the apocalyptic era, she had mostly cultivated combat-ready plants and vines, but she had never dealt with such delicate wild plants. This little thing was different from that apricot tree, and her energy needed to be controlled gradually.
Having the idea was one thing, but implementing it was not easy. She watched as the nightshade berries slowly turned purple, about to ripen, but she accidentally overdid it again.
Planting again! She refused to believe that a small nightshade berry could defeat her.
After several failures, Tian Jing found that not only had the nightshade berries grown larger, but the seeds had also become larger. Had they been optimized by her repeated use of her energy to stimulate their growth?
After two more failures, the nightshade berries finally settled at their ripest dark purple stage.
At this point, she only had twelve nightshade plants in front of her. Before, she thought a large number of nightshade plants could disperse her energy, but when controlling their ripeness, she found that too many were difficult to manage. So, she reduced them again and again, leaving these twelve plants in the end.
Each plant had six branches, with only two clusters on each branch, and each cluster had six berries about the size of grapes.
She reached out and picked a cluster, tasted it. The sourness was gone, leaving only a fresh fragrance and sweetness. Delicious!
In just a few bites, one cluster was gone. She picked another cluster to continue eating. This taste was even better than the apricots. As expected of optimized fruit.
After eating three nightshade plants with lingering satisfaction, Tian Jing then picked all the nightshade berries and returned to her basket to start the fire. After roasting the surface moisture off the rabbit meat, she mashed the berries and smeared them on the rabbit meat.
Seeing the pulp and seeds sticking to the rabbit meat, Tian Jing had a new idea. But for now, she needed to seriously roast the meat and fill her stomach.
As the branch with the rabbit meat turned over the fire, the aroma of the rabbit meat wafted out. The smell of meat mixed with fruit fragrance filled her nostrils, making Tian Jing's stomach rumble even louder.
After a few more turns, Tian Jing tore off the outermost layer of golden-brown rabbit meat and popped it into her mouth. Mmm, delicious, so delicious.
While eating, her hands were not idle, and she continued to mash the nightshade berries and smear them on the rabbit meat.
She ate it layer by layer, smearing and roasting, then tearing off another layer.
Tian Jing ate to her heart's content and decided to come back up the mountain for a private feast in the coming days.
After eating the last few nightshade berries, she stomped out the remaining embers in the campfire, covered them with a few handfuls of dirt, and ensured everything was safe. Then, Tian Jing went to practice her previous idea.
She went directly back to where she first found the nightshade, found the shriveled nightshade berries, extracted the seeds, and began the cycle of optimization.
This time, she decided to optimize more. She had optimized more than ten times before, so she would optimize twenty times. After all, her idea required something better to complement it.
Before, just the juice from the berries smeared on the rabbit meat was enough. The pulp sticking to the meat looked unappetizing and tended to burn.
Her idea was to extract the juice, or rather, extract the essence from the berries. Yes, she would call it essence.
This extraction was different from directly absorbing plant energy. Absorbing plant energy meant taking away the invisible life force from the plant. Extracting the essence required a physical form, which required more precise control of her special abilities.
It wasn't until she was almost done experimenting with the first batch of nightshade berries that a drop of dark purple juice, no, essence, appeared on her finger.
She put it in her mouth to taste.
This taste was indescribable. This was truly a delicacy. If this essence were smeared on meat and roasted, it would surely be more fragrant than the previous taste.
Since the method for extracting the essence had been figured out, she continued to practice.
She hastened the ripening of the remaining two nightshade plants, collected a batch of seeds, and planted them again. After one round of ripening, she could continue to extract the essence.
Only when she could extract a large drop of essence from each berry did Tian Jing stop experimenting. Experiencing the ultimate deliciousness on her tongue, she doubted if she could still eat the "pig slop" from the Tian family.
Compared to this essence, the corn flatbread she had for breakfast was indeed like pig slop.
She also needed to prepare a container, otherwise, if she wanted to use the essence to roast meat, it would be inconvenient to collect it.
It was time to go back. She had found two new ways to use her special abilities, and she was in a very good mood. She might as well carry a basket of pig feed back.
She looked up and saw that the sun was already setting in the west. It should be around three or four in the afternoon, which was a suitable time to go back.
She found a small patch of pig feed, used her special ability, and the pig feed quickly grew into a large patch. She filled a basket with pig feed and leisurely walked down the mountain.
When she reached the foot of the mountain and saw Tian Ping's figure, Tian Jing's good mood vanished. Among all the members of the Tian family, Tian Jing hated Tian Ping the most.
When the original owner was forced into a marriage exchange, this good sister had mocked the original owner for not resisting, and deliberately told the original owner about her background and the fact that the original owner's maternal grandfather had sent gold bars to the Tian family.
When the original owner was enraged and went to the brigade to report the Tian family, she had turned around and sold out the original owner.
Tian Ping treated the original owner this way solely because of the original owner's beauty. If she could, Tian Ping would have liked to destroy the original owner's appearance with her own hands.
After recognizing the man walking with Tian Ping, Tian Jing quietly followed him with her basket. She saw the two of them enter a dilapidated house not far from the foot of the mountain, which had a collapsed roof and a crooked wall.
Tian Jing turned and walked around to the back of the broken house. She stimulated the growth of an optimized nightshade seed, controlling the main branch to grow longer, extending it to above the crooked wall, and then stopped it. She adjusted the nightshade leaves at the tip and used them to look at the two people inside the broken house.
The couple inside were already kissing passionately. Soon, their breathing became rapid.
Tian Jing thought they were going to continue, and was about to leave when she saw Tian Ping push the man away. Huh? Tian Ping wasn't stupid, she knew how to give a little reward to keep the man hooked.
She casually put down her basket, sat on the pig feed, and leisurely used the perspective of the nightshade leaves to stare at the couple.