Chapter 74: Refining Saltpeter After Wining And Dining
“Hey, little fellas, stop being so anxious. Let me draw up an inventory of today’s harvest, haha…”
He played with Big Spark and Little Spark for a while before placing both chickens on the floor and leaving Oreo to play with them instead.
Su Mo strode toward the storage area and began to throw stuff out.
First out was the huge piece of saltpeter that had filled up the storage s.p.a.ce.
The saltpeter minerals were extremely pure and basically did not need further processing. They could be immediately crushed and used. If any warmongers caught sight of these, they would be driven crazy with excitement.
Su Mo looked at the storage area that had already been filled with sulfur and had no choice but to place the saltpeter minerals in the guest bedroom instead.
The smell of the saltpeter was not as pungent as the sulfur, especially since it had been collected from a natural saltpeter mine. Aside from a slightly bitter smell, it was quite hard to identify its other scents.
“These saltpeter minerals weigh about three to five hundred catties. It seems I won’t need to make a second trip for them in a while.”
Su Mo placed all the saltpeter minerals together in a neat pile and nodded in satisfaction.
The joy of acc.u.mulating a large quant.i.ty of supplies, much like a squirrel would, was indescribable.
All he needed now was a little charcoal, to mix them up in the right ratios, and he would be able to manufacture gunpowder.
“If it’s about food supplies… This large 15kg bag of rice would be able to alleviate that concern!”
“There are also two cans of canned food. If I consume them slowly, I should not have any food problems for a whole month!”
Su Mo took out the survival supplies he had procured and carried the large bag of rice toward the stove.
He had been eating bread soup and biscuit paste over the past few days. While these two items were initially fine for a few meals, the repet.i.tive taste made them rather unappetizing after a while.
Su Mo’s stomach began to growl when he looked at the rice and his mouth started to water.
A normal person could probably consume about two liang worth of rice, which meant that one catty of rice would usually be enough for three whole days.
Of course, for someone like Su Mo who was rapidly getting physically stronger, his daily exertions left him in a constant state of hunger. He would have to consume at least 3 to 4 liang worth of rice for him to eat his fill.
“That’s strange. Why am I having such good luck? If every bronze treasure chest actually contained enough rice or food for a person to eat for a month, then no one would actually be lacking food during these early stages.”
Su Mo used some psychic energy water to wash the rice while mentally a.n.a.lyzing the situation.
If his luck had been slightly better and he had gotten two bags of rice instead, it would easily last two to three months if he rationed it properly.
However, it was quite clear that his situation was an anomaly.
There were far too many who were lacking food, with some even going to the extent of tearing off tree barks and eating dirt to satiate their hunger.
“It’s too difficult to judge at this time as there aren’t enough samples. It might just be that I have better luck, seeing that I’m able to always get the good stuff.”
He tossed this temporarily unsolvable question to the back of his mind and placed the rice into the wok, which was being heated up. Su Mo sat in front of the stove as he silently waited.
It was fine that he did not have an electric rice cooker. Using a wok and cooking the rice traditionally with firewood would make it even more fragrant!
First, he cooked the rice in the wok until the hard core in the center was almost soft. Then he placed a wooden cover right above the water line within the wok. He made sure that the rice was leveled flat on the wooden cover before using another wooden lid to cover up the wok.
It took about ten minutes before Su Mo could smell the increasingly strong fragrance of the cooked rice coming from inside the wok. He could not help but smile.
A bowl of rice would be nothing special in the civilized era on Earth.
If one went to a buffet, you could request for ten, even twenty bowls of rice, and no one would bat an eyelid.
However, during these uncertain times in doomsday wasteland, this smell could easily bring someone to tears, even for Su Mo, who did not flinch when faced with hundreds and thousands of kobolds.
The glutinous and fragrant aroma, that made one’s body tighten in antic.i.p.ation; that made one’s scalp tingle, became even stronger as it wafted out together with the steam.
Even Oreo, who was still playing with Big Spark and Little Spark, was overwhelmed by it!
Oreo, who always had a bright, clear look on her face, suddenly went into a daze as she stared intently at the clouds of white steam wafting out from the wok.
The two chickens’ senses of smell were poorer but, after a short pause, also smelt the fragrance of the rice.
These poor wasteland creatures had never smelled such delicacy before!
Oreo, Big Spark and Little Spark had probably never experienced ‘rice’ before in their food vocabulary.
Oreo followed Big Spark and Little Spark’s example, and sat in line in front of the wok with bright, expectant eyes, waiting hopefully for Su Mo to throw some food her way.
However, these three little guys had yet to experience the full limits of their senses!
As Su Mo put aside the steaming rice in the wok to cool it down, he poured oil into another wok. After it began heating up, the fragrance of the oil began to join the mix of aromas.
He opened up a packet of Fuling pickled mustard and, the instant he poured all 250g of it into the wok, a full-bodied aroma of sour and sweet, mixed with a tinge of spiciness, came rus.h.i.+ng out, completely overpowering the fragrance of the rice.
After three or five seconds, Su Mo picked up the wooden cover from the side and poured all the rice into the wok. He started to stir-fry it.
Whoos.h.!.+
Whoos.h.!.+
When Su Mo’s actions went upward, the eyes of the three little guys followed suit!
When Su Mo’s actions went downward, the three little guys immediately lowered their heads, sometimes even touching the ground!
From beginning to end, the wok seemed to control the actions of all four of the shelter’s inhabitants.
Finally, the rice was covered with every drop of paste from the pickled mustard. Wafting out was a fragrance wonderful enough for others in the apocalypse to die happy after smelling it.
“Done! It’s time to eat!”
The moment he announced ‘Done’, Oreo’s two little hind legs immediately began to push off rapidly against the ground, springing toward him on all fours.
With the speed of light, she arrived in front of Su Mo with her food bowl in her mouth.
Big Spark and Little Spark imitated her actions as well as they nodded continuously, hinting at Su Mo to place their share onto the floor. They were guaranteed to finish every last morsel!
Looking at the three, who had greedy looks on their faces, Su Mo did not keep them waiting.
He first gave Oreo three big scoops and later a small scoop for Big Spark and Little Spark. He poured the remainder into his own bowl.
Gulp, gulp. The next moment, only the sound of ravenous eating could be heard in the shelter.
Once in a while, coughing could be heard from someone having eaten too quickly.
A meal that had used close to one catty of rice had been eaten clean by Su Mo alone, along with three to four hundred milliliters of psychic energy water.
The situation did not look remotely like someone trying to survive in the doomsday wasteland.
The only thing that was missing in this image would be the words ‘Diary of a Gourmet’ plastered onto Su Mo’s head!
The remaining burnt rice in the wok was all poured into Oreo’s bowl. Su Mo got up and returned to the supplies storage.
This time, it was to take out the canned yellow peach!
He opened the can with ease and picked out a piece of fruit with his chopsticks, placing it in his mouth. The wonderful fragrance of the fruit immediately filled his mouth.
He bit on the yellow peach and the refres.h.i.+ng sourness secreted from within the flesh of the fruit filled his entire mouth with the scent of the yellow peach.
He enjoyed himself while swallowing the piece of fruit and, when he noticed the hopeful eyes of the three little guys, Su Mo once again gave a piece to Oreo while biting half a piece off to be shared with Big Spark and Little Spark. He finished off the other half of the fruit.
He looked at the remaining yellow peach in the can with regret, before turning away and closing the can tightly, placing it back into the supplies storage.
At this current stage, canned food was considered a strategic supply. Eating them could not be considered enjoyment, but instead ‘luxury’.
A piece of fruit a day would be enough to supply him with enough vitamins.
These two cans would probably be enough to last him one month without any issues!
At that moment, Su Mo completely understood the feeling of safety that came about when one had enough food stored away.
“Well, today’s mission to collect saltpeter can be considered complete. We even surpa.s.sed the target!”
After wining and dining, it was time for work. Su Mo did not rest as he immediately moved a small piece of saltpeter onto the workbench.
“Although its level of purity is pretty high, it would be better for me to try refining it if possible. Maybe once it achieves good-quality, the ‘ingredient’ created using it might become even more powerful!”
He went to the energy distribution room to connect the generator to the electrical supply. He switched on the workbench and, after conducting his own examination, Su Mo put on his ‘robotic arm’.
It was simple work to refine the saltpeter. All he needed to do was crush them and place them into water to heat them. After the water boiled, he would begin to filter it carefully.
Su Mo put in some psychic energy water reluctantly and began concocting a solution.
He brought out a wooden basin he had prepared and repeatedly crushed the dirt-white saltpeter minerals with his right hand. Next, he carefully ground them into fine powder.
He brought the resulting salpeter powder to the workbench and slowly poured it using the robotic arm to guide it toward the psychic energy water. He closed up the tube after filling up two-thirds and began to heat it up.
The distillation tube’s temperature began to rise quickly as the flames spouted underneath it.
Su Mo kept the temperature under control, keeping it at a steady 80 degrees. He then began to filter any insoluble impurities.
He shook the remaining solution, placing it at the center of his workbench. Su Mo waited patiently for the solution to cool down.
Once the temperature fell to 20 degrees, he began to once again filter any extra substances remaining. Dots of white powder began to crystallize in the beaker.
The next moment, Su Mo quickly summoned the System to examine the saltpeter powder.
He was astonished by what he saw!