Chapter 37: Twelve Moves
Seeing that Yi Yun was the first to follow his instructions, Zhang Yuxian nodded with satisfaction.
The others did not think likewise. Zhao Tiezhu looked at Yi Yun eating the tree and sneered, it isn’t so simple eating wood.
You may be trying to be a hero, but I’ll see how you burst to your death later.
When the people faced famine, people ate grass roots and tree bark. But no one tried eating wood, especially uncooked hardwood.
Besides termites or borers, few animals in the world ate wood. The wood fibers in the wood was not something the stomach could digest.
“Go! Dig up some Guanyin clay!” Zhang Yuxian ordered. Guanyin clay was actually magnesium silicate. No one knew why it was called Guanyin clay. Maybe during the famine periods, the people looked to the Guanyin goddess for help. This clay could fill the stomachs, so it obtained such a name.
But in reality, Guanyin clay was a poison. It was not harmful in small amounts. But slightly larger portions would result in indigestion. It would be impossible to excrete it out, and a person would eventually die of abdominal distension.
Coincidentally, the Lian tribal clan had such a material. Some people may wonder why would people eat the Guanyin clay if they knew it could kill?
This was because of the ignorance of the local people. They believed that if they had a sincere heart, they would receive salvation from Guanyin.
The second reason was that Guanyin clay tasted much better than tree bark and grass-roots. Its appearance and taste resembled flour. Some people who could not resist the temptation under extreme hunger would die from eating too much.