Chapter 75 The Salt-Making Method in the Other World
Mila squatted in front of the salt mine, finding it hard to associate the black ore with the pristine white salt.
"Is the salt we eat really extracted from here?" Mila asked softly, now more at ease than in the early morning.
"Isn't it incredible?" Henry marveled. "The world is far more complex than it seems. In my homeland, people can reach the sky and the earth, traveling hundreds of miles in a day."
"What? How is that possible?" Willow's eyes widened, and her mouth was agape.
If it were something else, it would be one thing, but the idea of flying and traveling hundreds of miles in a day was a bit daunting.
"Haha... Nothing is impossible. Maybe we can do it too in the future? Well, maybe..."
Henry chuckled. The lack of an industrial foundation here made the idea of building small planes and excavators seem far-fetched, but there were other ways to explore.
"The flying object? Could it be bird tribe orcs? But I haven't heard of any sightings of bird tribe orcs for a long time." Ellie frowned in puzzlement.
Henry blinked and awkwardly replied, "Bird tribe orcs? Orcs with wings?"
"Have you seen them, Henry?" Mila asked in astonishment. "I haven't seen them in five or six years."
"No, I haven't. You're the first orc I've seen." Henry shook his head, realizing how little he knew about this world, even about bird tribe orcs.
Mila said, "They were the freest of all, but they disappeared during the extreme cold storm five years ago."
Mila's tone carried a hint of sadness. The other orcs had always envied the avian tribe orcs because they could frolic freely in the sky.
"Enough about the sad things. Let's start making salt now." Henry quickly changed the subject.
Continuing in this vein would only bring up more painful memories, and that wouldn't make for a pleasant day. It was better to see the beastman girl smile.
"How do we do it?" Ellie asked excitedly. She has always been interested in some peculiar research, and recently, she has been bugging Willow to teach her how to make sweets.
"Bring all the tools!" Henry called out.
Immediately, someone ran to fetch the items, and soon a pile of tools was brought in: salt-making sieves, hammers, burlap, charcoal, wooden barrels, iron pots, and even a small millstone for grinding wheat.
Then, the door was guarded by soldiers. Those left in the house were all trustworthy. Whenever Henry had something to do or a plan to make, the door would be guarded, and even the roof would have someone watching.
Henry said, "Let's begin!"
Henry took a small hammer and smashed the large salt chunks into smaller pieces, about ten or so pounds, then poured them into the millstone, adding water and vigorously turning the millstone.
Mila took over and effortlessly turned the millstone, making it creak. Even the cat-like orcs, who were not known for their strength, were stronger than humans.
The salt ore, ground into powder, was washed with water, creating a murky, grayish-black liquid that carried the crushed minerals into a wooden barrel beneath the millstone. After grinding about ten pounds of salt ore, a whole barrel of murky water was obtained.
The people present couldn't understand this process at all; they didn't see a trace of salt.
Henry took another wooden barrel, covered it with two or three layers of burlap, and poured the murky water into it. Soon, the burlap filtered out many impurities.
The water in the barrel also changed color; it was no longer grayish-black but a brownish hue.
"The color has lightened." Ellie quickly took out a notebook and started writing on it.
"The salt is in this water. The reason why you don't see white salt is because there are too many impurities in this water." Henry paused, explaining to everyone.
Then he took another wooden barrel, covered it with six or seven layers of burlap, and poured the water into it again. The color changed once more, becoming a light brown with a hint of pale red.
Henry said, "Now the water is relatively clean, with most of the impurities filtered out. The next step is to remove some of the toxic impurities from the water."
Henry took a custom-made wooden barrel, shaped like a funnel with a pointed bottom, and wrapped several pieces of charcoal in burlap, crushing them with force.
"Charcoal is a good thing; it can not only be used for burning but also absorb many toxic substances," Henry explained.
Henry stuffed the wrapped charcoal into the funnel-shaped wooden barrel, then added another package on top and placed the funnel-shaped barrel on top of another smaller wooden barrel.
Then he poured the water into the funnel-shaped barrel, and the water slowly passed through the charcoal, turning faint blue as it entered the wooden barrel below.
"The color has changed again." Willow also felt very surprised.
"In this way, the solution obtained is safe and free of toxins. The next step is to evaporate the water." Henry set up an iron pot and poured the light blue water into it, and Willow started a fire.
"Is that all?" Mila leaned over, looking at the boiling water in the iron pot.
"You'll see the salt in a moment." Henry chuckled. This was still the salt-making method he had researched on the other side of the earth.
As time passed, the water in the iron pot evaporated, revealing a layer of light blue crystals underneath.
"Is this salt?" Wyatt's eyes widened. It was completely different from the salt he had seen before.
"This is called rock salt. You'll know once you taste it." Henry shrugged, picked up a piece of rock salt, and touched it with his tongue. It had a pure salty taste without the bitterness.
Wyatt directly picked up a piece of rock salt the size of his little finger and put it in his mouth. Even though his face wrinkled from the saltiness, he was reluctant to spit it out.
This was the salt they made themselves; they no longer needed to buy expensive sea salt.
"I want to try."
"Salt is so magical. If we don't try it, we'll regret it."
"I want to take some back for cooking."
Salt merchants, be afraid. Your overpriced salt will be left on the shelves.
