I've been transported to the orc continent.

As one of the three essential skills for time travel, making soap is not difficult, and the raw materials are easy to find.

Making soap is also very simple. In the time-travel novels Bai Ling read in his previous life, many time-travelers like him used soap as their first pot of gold.

Bai Ling doesn't intend to make money from soap; he just wants to make life more convenient.

Bai Ling carried a basket of wood ash on his back to the edge of the square, where he sat on a stone and waited for his people.

The first to arrive were Ye and the round-faced orc. Both of them ran over carrying jars of beast oil. They ran up to Bai Ling, panting, put down the jars, and then quickly ran to the square to carry wood ash.

One after another, the tribesmen came running over, each carrying a jar of animal oil. There was already a lot of wood ash around Bai Ling, so the tribesmen who came later didn't need to fetch any more wood ash.

Most of the people who come to learn how to make soap from Bai Ling are young female beastmen. It's not that other beastmen don't like soap, but rather that young beastmen have more free time.

Bai Ling first sifted the wood ash through a sieve to remove impurities, then poured the wood ash into a ceramic basin, followed by pouring clean water into the basin.

"Don't add too much water, just enough to cover the wood ash," Bai Ling explained to the tribespeople while picking up a clean wooden stick to stir the wood ash water. "Don't stir too vigorously. Stop stirring once the wood ash has completely dissolved. Use seashells to scoop out the dirt floating on top."

These were not complicated actions, and the tribesmen learned them quickly. Each tribesman had a ceramic basin in front of him, and they used a wooden stick to slowly stir the wood ash water as Bai Ling instructed, and finally scooped out the impurities floating on the surface of the wood ash water.

After letting the wood ash water sit for a while, Bai Ling started filtering it. Since there was no cloth in the orc world yet, Bai Ling used a sieve to filter the wood ash water.

"The sieve didn't filter it very cleanly, so we don't need to use the final wood ash water."

Bai Ling lit a fire and placed the earthenware pot filled with wood ash water on the fire to heat it. Of course, he kept stirring the water as it boiled.

Bai Ling didn't have any test strips on hand, so she couldn't determine the pH value of the wood ash water. However, there were always traditional methods for making soap. Bai Ling took out a feather she had picked up on the road, boiled the wood ash water for a while, and then put it in the water to test it.

If the feathers are unharmed, it means the pH level is still not up to standard.

Xiao asked, "Ling, what's this for?"

Bai Ling smiled mysteriously: "You'll find out soon enough."

*

Bai Ling tried several more times. On the last try, the feather dissolved as soon as it touched the wood ash water.

"If you put the feather in the wood ash water and it disappears where it touches the water, then the ash water is ready." Bai Ling handed the feather to Yue beside her. "Yue, try it. Just lightly dip the feather in the water."

Yue took the feather and gently dipped it in the wood ash water in front of him. He stared intently at the feather in his hand, but right before his eyes, the feather that had been dipped in the wood ash water disappeared.

It was as if there was an invisible giant mouth in the grey water, swallowing the feathers that touched it.

Yue found it very strange, but then she thought about how many strange things Ling had done, and once she thought about it that way, Yue no longer found it strange.

Yue handed the feather to Xiao beside her. Bai Ling had several feathers on her side. These feathers quickly passed through the hands of all the beastmen. Everyone started burning wood ash water at about the same time and finished boiling it at about the same time.

Bai Ling first added a handful of salt to the earthenware pot, then took the animal fat jar beside her and used a seashell to scoop the animal fat into the pot: "We need to add the animal fat while stirring. When doing this step, everyone should stay away from the earthenware pot. Remember not to add too much animal fat at once, add it in small amounts."

The beastmen followed Bai Ling's example and added animal oil to the earthenware pot. After adding it a few times, Yue asked, "Ling, how much animal oil should we add?"

"When it becomes quite thick, stir it with a wooden stick, just like when rendering animal fat."

The beastmen were used to manual labor, so they added animal fat to the earthenware pot according to their own intuition; a little more or less wouldn't cause any major problems.

The liquid in the earthenware pot bubbled and simmered. Bai Ling took the pot off the fire and poured the soap liquid into an earthenware basin.

The beastmen followed his example, pouring the soapy liquid from the earthenware pot into a clean earthenware basin.

After completing this step, all that's left is to wait for the soap to cool down. The beastmen gather in twos and threes, judging each other's soaps to see whose is the best.

The tribe has a habit of soaking and washing animal hides with wood ash, but not with using animal oil to wash things. The beastmen believe that animal oil is difficult to wash off animal hides, but they don't know that animal oil mixed with wood ash can make the most primitive soap.

Now that the weather is cooler, the soap liquid in the ceramic basin cools down quickly and then slowly solidifies.

Bai Ling held a dagger in her hand, broke the soap in the earthenware basin into pieces, and then used the dagger to pick the soap out of the basin and place it on clean leaves.

"The soap needs to be dried, which takes at least half a month. Once it's dried, you can use it to wash your hands and face."

“But we can try the soap now to see if it works,” Bai Ling said, grabbing a handful of wood ash with his hands, which were covered in animal oil. His hands immediately turned black and dirty.

"Yue, pour some water into my hand."

Upon hearing this, Yue walked over, carrying a ceramic basin filled with water. She poured the water onto Bai Ling's hands, and after her hands were completely wet, Bai Ling rubbed her palms and the backs of her hands with soap.

The soap hadn't completely solidified yet; the slippery soap swayed back and forth in Bai Ling's hand, quickly turning into a thin layer of white foam.

"Yue, continue pouring the water."

Yue poured the water from the ceramic basin onto Bai Ling's hands again. Bai Ling rubbed her hands together, and the fine foam was quickly rinsed away.

Bai Ling raised her hands so that the tribespeople could see clearly: "Look, there's not a trace of ash on my hands."

The tribespeople gathered around and examined Bai Ling's hands closely. Sure enough, they found no trace of wood ash, and Bai Ling's hands were not sticky at all.

As all the beastmen know, once you touch animal fat, it's very difficult to wash your hands clean with water. Your hands will always have a layer of sticky animal fat on them. If you touch other things with animal fat on your hands, it will be even harder to wash them clean.

Ling's hands were covered in animal oil and a handful of wood ash, which would normally be difficult to wash off, but with a quick rub and wash with soap, her hands became clean immediately.

The young beastmen's eyes lit up; for them, who loved cleanliness, soap was truly a wonderful thing.