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Chapter 46 - Boiling Salt

The next day, Eric needed to sew a few small bags to hold the activated charcoal.

He wasn't skilled at sewing, so he took some linen cloth and went to find Jessica. Grass was on a day off today, and seeing his intention, she also quietly sat down to help sew.

Eric was extremely grateful and brought them some sweet rice wine as a thank-you gift.

"We should be the ones saying thank you," Jessica said gently: "Thank you for taking care of Flower so well."

Grass looked at him, her eyes showing a degree of agreement. Although she wasn't good at expressing herself, she had seen all the changes in Eric.

"Well then, I should also thank you, Jessica, for making those tools for me..."

This back-and-forth thanking was so troublesome!

Eric thought with distress, quickly grabbing the finished cloth bags and making a run for it, leaving the jar of sweet rice wine behind. For someone with social anxiety like him, these kinds of polite scenes were the worst; they were so embarrassing he just wanted to crawl into a hole.

But he had to admit, the craftsmanship of the mother-daughter duo, Jessica and Grass, was excellent. The small bags were sewn with neat, dense stitches.

Eric put the dried activated charcoal into each bag, tied them up, and then embarked on his next great endeavor: refining salt.

He took out a jar of coarse salt and dissolved it in water, then stirred in kitchen ash. Eric's heart trembled as he stirred. It was his first time, after all, and watching a precious jar of salt turn into black, murky water made him a little anxious.

Heavens, please don't let this fail! Salt is so hard to come by here!

He spread a layer of linen cloth over a hollow bamboo tube, placed a bag of activated charcoal on top, and then slowly poured the settled saltwater through. After it was filtered, he placed a small iron pot on the fire, poured the filtered saltwater in, and began to boil it.

With a strong fire, the pot of saltwater slowly evaporated until only sparkling white crystals remained at the bottom.

It was refined salt!

He dabbed a little with his finger and licked it. It was incredibly pure, with no trace of bitterness left.

Success!

He really wanted to set off fireworks to celebrate. He could finally eat refined salt!

With refined salt, he could finally make soy sauce. The fermented soybeans had been dried until they were as hard as rocks. Eric brought out a large ceramic jar, prepared the soybeans, refined salt, and water according to the ratio, and put everything into the jar.

The final step was finally done. The soy sauce he had longed for would be ready to use in just over a month.

Once he found the sea in the future, he would definitely make fish sauce. Soy sauce and fish sauce—two indispensable condiments in the creation of delicious food.

Meanwhile, in the training valley, Max fought only one match before refusing any more challenges from the others. He nimbly leaped onto a mountain peak and walked along a path, searching for something.

Until now, it had only been other warriors who skipped out on work; this was a first for Max. Sam, in particular, had snuck back early numerous times since Eric started cooking, and had been pinned to the ground and taught a lesson by Max countless times.

Seeing Max leave, the whole group was extremely curious, and one by one, they all jumped up to follow him.

Finally, Max stopped in front of a patch of grayish-white rocks. He scratched at them a few times, and after confirming, he turned and waved for everyone to come over.

"Max, are you looking for this type of rock? It doesn't look special at all," Michael said in confusion, picking one up.

"This is the type of rock Eric uses to make sugar," Max said nonchalantly.

"Oh, you're finding it for Eric," Michael teased, then suddenly reacted: "This rock can make sugar?"

The other warriors were also in disbelief. One even stuck out his tongue to lick it, then grimaced at the astringent taste.

Max looked at this group of unreliable Snow Wolves, a vein throbbing on his forehead: "This is an auxiliary ingredient. It doesn't have a sweet taste."

Although the gray stone wasn't edible, hearing that it could be used to make sugar, the Snow Wolf warriors still dug it up with gusto until the large wooden barrel Max had brought was full.

After the training was over, Max pulled the large wooden barrel to find Eric.

At that moment, Eric was by the brick kiln, molding ceramic jars. He increasingly felt that he had too few jars at home and couldn't just keep taking Luci's. He decided to fire some himself.

However, watching others do it in videos was easy. Why was it that in his hands, the lump of clay was like a wild horse breaking free from its reins, flying into his face with just one spin? He angrily wiped off the mud, his eyes fierce as he picked up more clay to continue.

When Max arrived with the limestone, he saw an Eric with a face as smudged as a calico cat, sitting there angrily "playing with mud," with Robin and Leo squatting beside him, watching intently.

After an immense effort, Eric finally managed to create a model of the simplest jar shape and carefully set it aside to dry.

Just then, he caught sight of a tall figure in the corner of his eye. Looking closely, it was indeed Max, and behind him, he was pulling a large wooden barrel full of limestone.

He smiled, ran over, and looked up, saying:

"Max, you dug up the limestone for me!"

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