March 30th, afternoon.
Jiang Xuan, along with Chi Shao and Shi Qiu, returned to the Vine Tribe carrying three bags of salt ore and round potatoes and other edible tubers.
When they once again saw the Ancient Vine of Stone Mountain, the bamboo forest, and the totem pattern on the giant rock in front of the bamboo house, an indescribable feeling of ease came over them.
Jiang Xuan thought, this is the feeling of coming home.
"Chief, Chi Shao, Shi Qiu, you are finally back!"
Gou Teng and Nan Xing ran over excitedly, and those wanderers who were busy clearing the wilderness felt relieved to see the chief return.
After staying here for a few days, the wanderers deeply cherished the days of having a house to live in and enough food to eat.
If the chief had met with an accident, such good days might end.
Jiang Xuan carried a bag of salt ore and said, "The trip took a little longer, sorry to worry you. Let's talk inside."
Jiang Xuan walked into the bamboo house, put down the beast hide bag, and took out a piece of salt ore from it.
Gou Teng and Nan Xing gathered around, curiously looking at the stone, Nan Xing asked, "Chief, is this salt?"
Jiang Xuan chuckled, "This is salt, but it is toxic now and can't be eaten yet."
"Ah? Toxic?" Nan Xing had initially wanted to try a piece, but he quickly pulled back his half-extended hand.
Jiang Xuan said, "Don't worry, I have a way to turn it into non-toxic salt. First, take a pottery jar to the creek and wash it clean, fill it with water, and bring it back."
"Alright, I'll go right away."
Nan Xing took a pottery jar and went to the creek excitedly to wash and fill it with water.
Jiang Xuan, meanwhile, walked out of the bamboo house to find some soft moss nearby.
The moss was thick and grew densely, and when washed, it could serve as filter cotton cloth.
The process of purifying coarse salt is simple; many people in Jiang Xuan's previous world have done it, consisting of just four steps:
Dissolution, filtration, evaporation, crystallization.
The most crucial step is filtration, as long as you filter out the impurities in the salt ore that are insoluble in water, after evaporation and crystallization, the purified salt is edible.
Of course, mere filtration cannot remove all impurities in the salt ore since some are soluble in water.
If conditions allow, it is best to further purify it into refined salt.
Jiang Xuan now lacks the conditions, so he can only use the simplest method, and considering the tribe's people's constitution, consuming slight impurities wouldn't pose much of a problem.
Jiang Xuan found a piece of thick bamboo, chiseled away the node on the top, and made a hole at the node at the bottom.
Then, he lined the bottom of the bamboo with clean moss, grabbed several handfuls of charcoal from beside the hearth, and placed them inside the bamboo.
Charcoal has an adsorption effect; adding charcoal to the filter can remove smaller impurities from the salt ore.
On top of the charcoal, he placed another layer of moss, added a layer of stones, then more moss, another layer of charcoal, and more stones on top, sealed with moss.
Finally, he poured a large amount of clean water into the filter for a simple rinse.
A simple primitive filter was thus completed!
With five layers of moss, two layers of charcoal, and two layers of stones, it should remove most impurities from the dissolved salt ore.
Chi Shao and the others watched Jiang Xuan create the primitive filter with full attention.
Although they did not know its specific use, they felt inexplicably that this thing was impressive.
After Jiang Xuan completed the primitive filter, Nan Xing had already cleaned both pottery jars, one of which was also filled with clear water.
"Chief, can I do something?"
Gou Teng looked at Jiang Xuan with anticipation, eager to get involved.
Jiang Xuan said, "Find a piece of beast hide and spread it on the ground, place a flat stone on top, and then crush these salt ores."
"Alright, I'm on it."
Gou Teng didn't understand why these stones were called salt ore, but that didn't dampen his enthusiasm for work.
He found a beast hide, and then two stones: one flat placed in the middle of the hide, the other used to crush the salt ores.
Then, Gou Teng took a piece of salt ore from the beast hide bag, placed it on the flat stone, and, following Jiang Xuan's instructions, crushed the salt ore finely.
Jiang Xuan then scooped the crushed salt ore into an empty pottery jar, filling about one-third of its capacity, then began to add water and stirred constantly with a bamboo stick.
As Jiang Xuan stirred, the salt crystals in the salt ore gradually dissolved, the water became turbid, with a lot of insoluble sediment at the bottom.
Jiang Xuan let the pottery jar sit for a while, waiting for the suspended particles in the water to settle before starting filtration.
He poured out the water from the other pottery jar, placed it down, and handed the primitive filter to Chi Shao.
"Sister, help me hold this bamboo tube steady."
"Alright."
Chi Shao held the primitive filter with both hands, placing it above the empty pottery jar.
Jiang Xuan then lifted the pottery jar with salt water, gently pouring it into the bamboo tube.
"Swoosh..."
As the salt water flowed in, layers of moss, stones, and charcoal filtered out most impurities, making the water flowing into the pottery jar relatively clear, although still slightly reddish.
After pouring the salt water, Jiang Xuan returned to the creek to clean the bottom sediment of the pottery jar, returned to the bamboo house, and filtered the salt water once more.
After filtering three times, the obtained salt water was now very clear, with almost no visible color.
Jiang Xuan placed the triple-filtered salt water on the hearth, cooking it over stone blocks.
This was a relatively long process, requiring sufficient patience.
As the salt water boiled, Jiang Xuan occasionally stirred it and joined the others in crushing the remaining salt ore.
After they had crushed an entire bag of salt ore, the water in the pottery jar had noticeably evaporated a layer, with a small amount of white crystals visible on the jar's inner wall.
Jiang Xuan carefully scraped off these crystals with a piece of bamboo shell.
He pinched a small amount of salt crystal between his fingers and placed it on the tip of his tongue.
A rather pure salty taste stimulated the taste buds on the tip of his tongue.
The salty taste was already very close to true edible salt, without the bitterness and astringency of impure salt.
Chi Shao and the three youths watched Jiang Xuan eagerly, hoping to see something on his face.
"Very salty!"
This was Jiang Xuan's first sentence.
"This is the real salt that we can all eat!"
This was Jiang Xuan's second sentence.
"That's great!"
Nan Xing was the first to cheer, proud to have personally participated in the salt-making process, a feeling of excitement that was simply indescribable.
"Come, everyone try some."
There wasn't much crystallized salt, so Jiang Xuan divided a small amount among each of them.
Chi Shao carefully placed this bit of salt on the tip of her tongue, then closed her mouth, savoring the taste.
Before long, her eyes were slightly moist.
"It's really salt..."
The Deer Tribe used to have salt, usually obtained from larger tribes, exchanged with beast hides, beast bones, and other items.
Not only was it expensive, but it was also not pure, with strong bitter and astringent tastes.
Originally, they thought that with just a few of them, they might never have the chance to eat salt again. Yet unexpectedly, Jiang Xuan made better salt.
The three youths felt the same way, even licking their fingers clean.
Salt, something every household in Jiang Xuan's previous world could afford, was exceptionally precious in this barbaric world.
Being able to eat salt was a blessing.
Eating relatively pure salt was a very blessed thing.
At this moment, all five of them felt very blessed.