Braised Dragon with Soy Sauce

Although collecting cattail leaves is not particularly strenuous, only about ten leaves can be collected per day, making it rather inefficient.

That's why it took half a month just to harvest the thick cattail leaves for roofing.

Through the process of collecting cattail leaves, Mo Yuming realized that although Xinlan was still young, she was actually stronger than him.

Xinlan can carry heavy objects weighing dozens of kilograms without any effort. Every time she collects thick cattail leaves, she can run for four or five miles without resting, carrying three cattail leaves that are more than ten feet long on her hands. She is like a little ant carrying a grain of rice, running with a weight several times her own weight without feeling tired at all.

In this world, people are born with superhuman strength. Even ordinary adults without cultivation talent can easily lift objects weighing one or two hundred kilograms. Children like Mo Yuming, who have no foundation in profound arts, can also easily lift objects weighing tens of kilograms.

Fortunately, after Mo Yuming learned the method of breathing in and out, his energy became much stronger.

Although he has not yet awakened his spiritual root, formed a qi vortex in his dantian, and stepped into the initial stage of the human realm to officially become a cultivator of profound arts, ever since Li Mubai helped him to regulate his meridians, he has been able to clearly sense that after the spiritual energy enters his body, it will continuously gather in his dantian through his meridians every time he inhales and exhales.

Sensing the ethereal dantian, one could sense faint spiritual energy gathering and swirling, showing signs of taking shape.

According to the common knowledge of Xuan Gong cultivation, once the spiritual energy vortex in the dantian takes shape, it signifies the awakening of the spiritual root, officially stepping into the ranks of Xuan Gong cultivators and truly becoming a Xuan Gong practitioner.

Although his Qi Sea was not yet fully formed, Mo Yuming could quickly recover his strength by regulating his breathing after becoming exhausted, which greatly improved his physical fitness. Therefore, he did not feel tired from this kind of intense work.

Each time they moved thick cattail leaves, Mo Yuming could carry two cattail leaves weighing tens of kilograms on his shoulders, and he wouldn't fall too far behind Xinlan.

From collecting cattail leaves to building round houses, Mo Yuming and Xinlan spent nearly a month building two domed houses by the pond as their "studio".

After the studio was built, Mo Yuming obtained wooden buckets, baskets and other miscellaneous utensils from Zhang Tieqiao.

After preparing the tools, Mo Yuming wanted to find a few second- or third-generation elders to help, but those wild men roamed around like monkeys all day and he couldn't find anyone. He had to give up the idea and continue to work slowly with Xinlan. Fortunately, Xinlan didn't get annoyed and cooperated fully with Mo Yuming's work.

After the studio was completed, Mo Yuming couldn't wait to start his salt-making project. Salt is the most important ingredient in oil, salt, soy sauce, and vinegar; only with salt can dishes have flavor.

Salt is a mineral that needs to be purified before it can be used. Although there are many methods for purifying crude salt, many people do not know them, and the old men in the canyon do not know them either. Otherwise, Mo Yuming would not have drunk such bitter and astringent salty porridge on the first day.

For the great inventor Mo Yuming, purifying salt was as simple as a PhD solving a first-grade elementary school test.

Having learned from Xinlan that the salt in the canyon was ore rather than brine, Mo Yuming prepared a cloth bag and, led by Xinlan, went to the salt mine in the canyon to dig out salt blocks.

Although Xinlan didn't know what Mo Yuming wanted so much salt for, she found it novel and fun, so she was happy to join in and willingly became Mo Yuming's little helper.

Fortunately, the salt mine wasn't far from Mo Yuming's residence, and the two quickly arrived at their destination. It was located below a cliff, with a salt vein nestled between the rock strata. The people in the canyon had little need for salt, and over thousands of years, they had only managed to excavate a very small pit.

The mine was not deep, and the salt was not hard, so the two quickly dug out a large amount of high-quality salt.

Just as he was about to put the salt ore into a cloth bag, an old man dressed in animal skin, with a full head of white hair, a messy and tangled beard covered with dry grass and leaves, and looking like a wild man, suddenly jumped to Mo Yuming's side and handed him a large piece of animal meat.

"Cough, little one, eat! Salt is bad..."

The thigh meat of this unknown wild animal weighed several dozen kilograms and almost covered half of Mo Yuming's body.

The front of the thigh meat had just been grilled over a fire, and it was steaming hot, but the grilling process was not well controlled, and many parts were burned to charcoal, emitting a pungent burnt smell.

Some parts of the animal hide in the middle section were charred and twisted by the fire, while others only had some stray hairs burned off. The lower leg section was still raw, with the hair on the hide still intact.

It was obvious that the piece of meat was cut off without any processing; it was simply held in the hand and roughly roasted over a large fire, without any regard for whether it was cooked through.

Mo Yuming was startled when the old man suddenly jumped out and handed him a large piece of roasted meat that was still bleeding from the cut. He didn't know what to do.

"Grandpa Hu, don't try to make things difficult for Ming-ge with your animal meat, or I'll tell Grandpa Shi and he'll beat you up!"

At this moment, Xinlan jumped in front of Mo Yuming to block Ah Hu, put her hands on her hips, and pouted as she shouted.

"Brother Ming, don't listen to him! You can't eat that beast meat, it'll give you a stomachache!"

"Wow, freshly grilled, great meat, delicious..."

The old man named Ah Hu said to Xin Lan with a grin. Ah Hu was an old man who was born and raised in the canyon, and it was said that he was at least 150 or 160 years old.

Xinlan had told Mo Yuming that these native old men had no fixed abode, wandering around the canyon all day, keeping company with the monsters in the canyon.

If it weren't for the discipline and guidance of Mo Wen, Li Mubai, and others, they would basically be considered savages.

The meat was indeed very fresh, probably from a recently slaughtered animal. Although it was a mess from roasting, the bits of uncooked meat peeking out from the charred remains suggested that the meat was quite tender.

"Uncle Ah Hu, this meat is burnt, it doesn't taste good. Go back, wash it, add some salt, and roast it until it's cooked through, then it will taste good!"

Mo Yuming pointed to the meat in Tiger's hand and said.

"No, Ming-ge, Grandpa said we can't just eat anything that Grandpa Long and Grandpa Hu give us. If we eat it, we'll get a stomachache and won't be able to stand it. You can't eat it either. You have to let Grandpa check you first before you can eat it!"

Xinlan was afraid that Mo Yuming wouldn't understand, so she said anxiously.

Mo Yuming nodded, holding Xinlan's hand, indicating that he understood. In fact, even if Xinlan hadn't said anything, Mo Yuming naturally wouldn't have eaten that half-cooked and filthy animal meat.

"Tiger, could you help us carry this bag of salt back?"

Although it wouldn't be difficult for the two children to carry a large bag of salt back, why not take advantage of the free labor that suddenly appeared?

"I'm moving the salt back..."

Erhu grabbed the salt bag with one hand and the beast's leg with the other, and vanished from the spot in a flash, just as suddenly as he had appeared.

When Mo Yuming returned to his residence, the salt bag was carelessly tossed aside by the pond, and Old Man Hu was nowhere to be found.

After making all the preparations, Mo Yuming immediately began the work of purifying salt.

Due to limited resources, Mo Yuming could only use the most primitive method. Although it was somewhat troublesome and time-consuming, he didn't intend to make a large batch at once, so it was relatively easy to manage.

First, Mo Yuming and Xinlan found a suitable stone mortar by the pond behind the house. They emptied the mud and debris from the mortar and then washed it clean with water.

Next, clean water was taken from the pool and poured into the stone mortar. Since the mortar was not large, Mo Yuming only took a few kilograms of salt blocks and put them into the pool. Then he and Xinlan picked up a smooth wooden stick and stirred it continuously in the mortar until all the salt blocks in the mortar dissolved.

Next, they sat patiently by and waited. The brine in the mortar slowly clarified and separated into layers. The undissolved salt lumps dispersed, turning into coarse salt particles, which sank to the bottom of the mortar along with the insoluble impurities.

After cleaning up the floating debris on the surface, Mo Yuming gently scooped out the top layer of saturated salt solution from the stone mortar with a small wooden ladle and poured it into a wooden bucket that had been prepared beforehand.

Then, scoop out the undissolved salt grains and turbid solution from the bottom of the mortar and put them in a small basket, allowing the turbid solution mixed with the salt grains to seep out.

Next, they cleaned the stone mortar again, placed the basket on it, and repeatedly rinsed the salt grains in the sieve with the saturated cleaning solution in the wooden bucket until the salt grains in the sieve became clean and transparent.

Actually, salt grains washed with clean, saturated brine are called washing salt. The salt grains are uniform in size and contain very few impurities, making them quite clean. They can be used after being dried in the sun or oven, and their quality is not much different from the grayish-white salt powder that Grandma Huang painstakingly produced.

In this enclosed canyon, this was already quite good. However, Mo Yuming did not give up. His ultimate goal was to produce refined salt that he could eat on Earth.

Although the technology wasn't complex, it was relatively tedious and time-consuming. It simply involved dissolving and clarifying the washed salt again, extracting, precipitating, and drying it. After repeating this process several times, very pure salt could be obtained. Lacking drying equipment, Mo Yuming had to find another way.

Fortunately, the thick cattail leaves in the canyon were large and sturdy, and Mo Yuming reserved several leaves when building the house, intending to use them for salt production.

He laid several thick cattail leaves on a relatively sunny, flat area, slightly raising the edges of the leaves so that the center was slightly concave. Then, he evenly sprinkled the extracted, pure, saturated brine onto each leaf and let it dry slowly in the sun.

After a long wait, the moment of harvest has finally arrived.

As the water evaporates, rings of snow-white salt begin to form on the leaves, fine and even, whiter than the previous washing salt, and the salt crystals are much smaller.

Mo Yuming took out two small wooden knives he had prepared beforehand, whittled from wood, and handed one to Xinlan, instructing her to gently scrape the salt grains off the leaves and collect them, following his instructions.

It wasn't until nightfall that Mo Yuming and his companion finished collecting all the salt grains from the leaves, though it was only a small half-jar. Mo Yuming was still incredibly excited.

Although it took a whole day to obtain only half a jar of salt, by Earthly standards it would be a terrible waste, and might even be considered foolish. However, in this barren canyon, it was different; this salt was an invaluable treasure.

Mo Yuming wasn't bothered by the small harvest. He understood that to produce more refined salt, he just needed to prepare more salt-making equipment. Moreover, Mo Yuming was confident that starting tomorrow, he wouldn't have to do these things himself anymore.

Back inside, Mo Yuming asked Xinlan to place the collected refined salt on the table. Then, he dipped his finger in the salt and put it in his mouth. "Mmm...!"

It's really good! It has a fresh and pure aroma, and the pure salt grains even have a hint of leafy fragrance. The quality is even better than the refined salt I eat on Earth.

Mo Yuming closed his eyes, quietly savoring the salty sensation of the salt grains dissolving in his mouth, as if he were tasting an incredibly delicious meal.

"Ptooey! Ptooey! ...So salty! So salty!"

Mo Yuming heard Xinlan's furious shouts. He opened his eyes and saw Xinlan spitting frantically on the ground with an extremely strange expression.

"what happened?"

Mo Yuming asked, puzzled.

"That stuff you made is so salty! It's awful!"

"How much did you eat?..."

"I saw you eating it, and it looked so delicious, so I grabbed some to eat too, but it tasted awful! ... You lied to me! You're so mean! I..."

Xinlan felt that Mo Yuming had lied to her because the salt was too strong, and she couldn't help but cry, tears welling up in her eyes.

Mo Yuming was stunned. What was going on?! Why would I lie to you for no reason?!

"Wait! You just said you grabbed some food, right? How much did you grab?"

"That's all I caught!"

Furious, Xinlan grabbed a handful of salt and showed it to Mo Yuming, mimicking how she had eaten it earlier.

"You ate so much?! Are you eating it like candy?!"

Mo Yuming almost jumped up, about to say, "Even others don't eat candy this big of a mouthful," but he swallowed the words back. He suddenly remembered that this wasn't Xinlan's fault; the little girl was so old and this was the first time she'd seen refined salt, so naturally she didn't know its properties. Seeing him eat a few grains, she mistakenly thought it was something delicious and grabbed a handful. He felt he should bear some responsibility. So, he quickly suppressed a laugh and gently explained:

"Lanmei, quickly rinse your mouth with water to get rid of the salt. You can't eat salt like that; it's a seasoning for cooking, not something you eat directly!"

"Didn't you just eat some too?"

Xinlan calmed down a bit after rinsing her mouth with water several times, but she was still angry. She answered angrily, clearly implying that Mo Yuming did it on purpose.

"I just dipped my finger in a few grains of salt, look... that's all!"

Mo Yuming then dipped his hand in a few grains of salt and showed them to Xinlan.

Xinlan's anger subsided considerably upon seeing this, but she still felt somewhat wronged and shouted at Mo Yuming:

"You did it on purpose! Why didn't you say so before?!"

"Okay, okay! I did it on purpose, I'm sorry! I deserve to be punished, so how about I cook for Lanmei tonight?"

"That's pretty much it!"

Xinlan finally calmed down. Seeing this, Mo Yuming quickly ran out of the house, unable to contain himself any longer, and could only cover his mouth to secretly laugh…

With salt, cooking becomes much easier. Mo Yuming cut a piece of meat from the dried deer leg hanging on the wall and washed it.

This was the reindeer that Old Mo killed to replenish his blood when he was first rescued. He only ate a small portion at the time, leaving most of it uneaten. Old Mo then cut it into pieces and hung them on the wall to dry for later consumption. For some reason, the venison didn't spoil even though it was hanging there.

Since there were few seasonings available, people mainly ate wild fruits, and occasionally picked some wild vegetables and mushrooms, chopped a few pieces of meat, and cooked them together.

This was Mo Yuming's first time cooking since arriving in this world. The method was the same as before: simply put chopped deer leg meat and some wild mushrooms into a pot, add water, and put it on the stove to boil…

"It's so delicious!" Xinlan exclaimed excitedly after taking a bite of the wild mushroom and venison stew cooked by Mo Yuming.

"Brother! How did you make this? It tastes so good! It's so delicious! ... Mmm... Delicious! Just as delicious as Grandma Huang's!" Xinlan said happily as she ate heartily without caring about her image.

"Actually, I just added a little salt. Hey, eat slowly, don't burn yourself!"

Creating something delicious and substantial in a canyon is no small feat. It's simply impossible for two children under ten years old to accomplish.

However, Mo Yuming didn't intend to put in the effort himself. There were plenty of bored old men in the canyon; he just needed to bring out something decent to attract their attention and convince them that this wasn't just childish nonsense. To put it bluntly, he needed to let the facts speak for themselves, leaving them no room for doubt.