116: Chapter 116 Alchemy

"Forget it, forget it. These are for treating Old Li's injuries. Even if I want to taste them for freshness, I can buy more later; I mustn't delay Old Li's healing."

Chen Mo naturally respected Old Li immensely, so he resisted the urge to directly consume the medicinal herbs in front of him, took out his phone, and ordered a few donkey meat sandwiches and a bowl of donkey offal soup.

Once the delivery arrived, Chen Mo couldn't wait to shove it into his mouth.

The crust of the sandwich was so crispy it crumbled. The donkey meat inside had been braised beforehand, and after cooling naturally, a thin, jelly-like gelatin layer had formed on the outside. Eating it brought a cool fragrance, full of flavor.

"So yummy, so yummy."

Chen Mo finished a sandwich in two or three bites, then took a sip of the piping hot donkey offal soup floating with scallions and droplets of oil; he was instantly completely satisfied.

After eating and drinking his fill, Chen Mo began his Alchemy work.

The technique he used was water-processing, also known as water-rolling.

It sounded very archaic and elegant, but in reality, it wasn't anything profound; it was just mixing liquid into the herbal powder to serve as a binder to increase stickiness, so that the herbal powder could be better shaped into pills.

As for the types of liquids used as binders, they were quite varied.

The easiest way was to use cold boiled water. If one wanted to be more particular, they would dissolve natural honey in water; this could increase the stickiness while imparting a certain color and flavor to the pills. Besides that, using vinegar, wine, or medicinal juice was also acceptable.

Chen Mo turned on the gas stove, heated up the iron wok used for cooking, and poured in a bowl of water. After the water boiled, he threw in the piece of wild mountain ginseng worth tens of thousands, turned it to low heat, and simmered it slowly.

Chen Mo stood guard by the stove, watching the water in the pot; whenever it dried up, he would add more. He did this until the entire kitchen was filled with a rich medicinal fragrance. Chen Mo took a sharp breath, and a special aroma that was slightly bitter yet sweet was inhaled into his body through his nasal cavity; he instantly felt the circulation of his Internal Energy speed up by a fraction.

As expected of a wild mountain ginseng over ten years old.

Smelling this scent, Chen Mo knew the heat was just right. He turned off the fire, picked out the ginseng from which the herbal essence had been extracted, and casually placed it in a bowl.

Looking at the pot now, only a very thin layer of brown, semi-liquid substance remained. This was the thick medicinal juice boiled out of half a ginseng; this tiny bit of essence was what tens of thousands of dollars in cash had been squeezed into.

Chen Mo found another bowl, wiped it clean, and then carefully poured the medicinal juice into it.

He planned to use this ginseng juice as the binder; the main idea was to use the original broth to digest the original food.

With the binder ready, Chen Mo poured all the various ground medicinal powders into a stainless steel basin. Holding a pair of chopsticks, he kept stirring along the edge of the bowl, clattering away as he mixed the herbal powder just like beating eggs.

Until he felt the web between his thumb and index finger holding the chopsticks starting to heat up slightly, Chen Mo stopped his hand movements and looked into the basin.

He saw that the basin of herbal powder was now very fine, and the color was evenly distributed; it was clearly thoroughly mixed together.

"Hmm, this is about right."

Chen Mo then used the pair of chopsticks in his hand to gradually work the slightly viscous ginseng juice from the bowl on the side into the basin.

As the ginseng juice dripped down, it slowly dissolved. The herbal powder, which had been dry and crisp and wouldn't stick together no matter how much he stirred, began to show signs of clumping together.

Chen Mo continued to stir with the chopsticks, like kneading dough, mixing the basin of herbal powder with the ginseng juice into a paste.

At this step, it was actually almost done, but Chen Mo fished out a bottle of rice vinegar from the cupboard, used the cap to measure, and poured a little into the basin.

This, of course, wasn't for the sake of Old Li's palate, but because vinegar could dissipate stasis, invigorate blood, reduce swelling, and alleviate pain. Old Li's hidden injuries had been accumulating in his body for many years, which was exactly this type of symptom; using vinegar to shape the medicine was just the right treatment.

After pouring the vinegar and stirring it again, success!

Of course, this "success" only meant the medicine preparation was successful. There were other processes to follow. Otherwise, if he just took this stainless steel basin there, even if the Sanatorium security guards let him in, Old Li wouldn't dare eat it.

Next, Chen Mo took out a large medicine tray.

This medicine tray was also bought at the pharmacy. The whole tray was woven from bamboo strips. Especially the side used for holding things, it was woven extra densely, and with tung oil applied, it wouldn't leak even if it held water. It was a tool specifically used for making water-rolled pills.

Chen Mo poured the herbal paste into the medicine tray, then used his hands to rub and crumble the paste. Then, he lifted the tray and shook it back and forth. It looked like he was sifting something, but since this tray could hold water without leaking, there was no way the powder would spill out. Chen Mo did this mainly to utilize centrifugal force and friction to let the powder form granules through impact.

As he kept shaking it, Chen Mo suddenly felt that holding the tray and drawing circles with his hands constantly was very much like practicing Li-style Tai Chi.

The next second, he had a sudden inspiration and started circulating his Li-style Tai Chi. He planted his stance, immediately entered the rhythm, and his hand movements became very steady and rhythmic, while the movement trajectory of the medicine tray also became slow and smooth with his actions...

Chen Mo found it quite interesting, immersed himself in it, and unknowingly completed this process.

Taking a closer look at the medicine tray, wow! This large batch of pills, there were at least a few hundred of them, round and compact.

It seems Li-style Tai Chi really lives up to its name; it's got something to it.

With that, the water-rolled pills were made. Although more elaborate methods would add a coating to the outside of the water-rolled pills, such as talc coating, cinnabar coating, phellodendron coating, realgar coating, indigo coating, or soot coating, etc., with this coating, the inner pills would be more stable, easier to store, and look better.

But Chen Mo was too lazy to fuss over these trivialities. He just took the medicine tray and placed it on the balcony. It happened to be a nice sunny day, so he estimated it would be dried by tomorrow; then he would make a trip and deliver it to Old Li.

As Chen Mo was thinking this, he suddenly felt the position of the sun was a bit off. He took out his phone to check, only to realize it was already three in the afternoon!

Good grief, he clearly remembered it was only eight in the morning when the donkey meat sandwich arrived. By now, seven hours had passed; he hadn't realized he had been fussing around for so long.

Actually, thinking about it carefully, it was understandable.

Just boiling the ginseng juice took an hour or two, and the subsequent stirring of the herbal paste and using the medicine tray to form the pills was incredibly troublesome. Not to mention the skill required, it also demanded both patience and endurance.

Chen Mo: "It seems this water-based Alchemy is also a delicate job that takes a lot of effort!"

Actually, his original plan wasn't water-processing. With his nature of fearing trouble the most, he had thought about throwing all the herbs into a pot and brewing a decoction, which would be the most convenient.