Cthulhu Gonfalon

Chapter 875: Vol V Chapter 235

As a result of remedying the great drought that implicated the entire Dominant Continent, Sui Xiong once produced a great amount of salt. That was really a great amount, an amount which was enough to be piled into a mountain.

Of course, this salt was coarse salt. It was bitter and astringent. Perhaps the poor people would not mind its taste, but Sui Xiong personally detested it. From his point of view, this kind of salt was trash. Not only did it taste bad, but it also contained a lot of minerals that were harmful to the human body—no matter how lacking Sui Xiong was in scientific knowledge, he also knew that seawater was undrinkable. The key reason why it could not be consumed was not that it was dirty, but rather, it had a lot of harmful minerals in it.

Sui Xiong once heard a popular science explaining why seawater could not be consumed. The excessive salt content was no doubt one of the reasons. The other reason was that it contained many other minerals. He could not remember exactly what the specific names of those minerals were, but he did have some impression of their names, like vomiting salt, Epsom salt, k… Just by listening to the name, one could tell what consequences would be.

So even though he had acquired mountains of salt while extracting freshwater from seawater for the purpose of disaster relief, he was unable to find a good way to use them. Ultimately, he tasked the chief scientist of the Church of the Void Mask, Palin, with a project to research for a way to purify the coarse salt into edible salt.

Since the solar evaporation technique was also available in this world, naturally, there would also be ways to turn coarse salt that contained a great number of impurities into refined salt that contained almost no impurities. But those ways required the assistance of magic and cost too much. They did not carry much practical value, except that they could be provided for the enjoyment of the upper classes.

The dedicated spell, “purification of coarse salt,” was a mid-rank spell. The mages who were capable of casting this spell would at least have to be the equivalent of knights. And each day, they could probably cast this spell up to two or three times. So adding everything up, they could only purify as much as 10 to 15 jin of salt a day. The spell, “purification of saltwater” was of a slightly lower level. Mages who were almost mid-rank would be able to cast this spell. Ordinary mid-ranked mages could use it about 10 times a day. But considering how salt could only be obtained after the saltwater had been subjected to complete evaporation, the efficiency of making refined salt from this spell was in fact, not as good as that of “purification of coarse salt.”

In general, considering the human resources and spellcasting materials, the value of one jin of refined salt purified by magic was probably worth about 20 gold coins—this was its cost. It was purely the production cost. And only the cost of using the solar evaporation technique could be so low. If it was cooking salt, every jin would cost three to five gold coins more. Adding on transportation… Refined salt from inland areas could at times be sold for more than a hundred gold coins per jin!

This was undoubtedly a profiteering industry. But actually, there were very few people engaged in this trade. Very, very, very few. Because in most situations, people would rather go for coarse salt that cost less than five gold coins per jin.

What? You say it tastes bad? You say it’s bad for health?

Then eat less!

This was why the market for refined salt was not big, and the profits were not very rewarding.

The mission Sui Xiong entrusted Palin with, was to research a way to purify coarse salt while keeping the cost to a minimum. And it was still the same old rule where research budget was of concern. There was no need to worry about money. Spend as much as was required.

Even so, it still took Palin more than a decade to complete this research.

The way that he and the team of researchers he led had finally found was surprisingly simple.

It was so simple that only two words were needed.

“Powder” and “wash.”

Yes, these were the two words. Palin had based the name of this salt on these two words.

The specific method was not complicated at all. First of all, grind the coarse salt till it was fine, as fine as possible. Generally, it was best if it could be as fine as rice flour. Then pour the salt into brine. As more and more of it dissolved in the brine, it would gradually reach the point where the salt was no longer soluble in the brine—in physical terms, this was known as “saturation.”

This kind of saturated brine could no longer be able to dissolve salt. But it could dissolve the impurities contained in the salt. By washing the powder obtained from grinding the coarse salt with this saturated brine, it was possible to obtain refined salt that contained a minute amount of impurities.

After washing, there would only be a very small amount of impurities in the fine salt. If necessary, this salt could also be used to make a saturated brine for a second washing, and even for a third time…

Generally speaking, the fine salt obtained after three rounds of washing would be completely free of any strange smell. It would be very pure. Palin also added some other means of removing impurities like filtering and precipitation in this process. And finally, the outcome was this fine salt that was as fine as rice flour, as white as crystals and had a superb taste.

He named it “washed powder salt.”

Having listened to Palin’s report, Sui Xiong also inspected their research institute, and he could not help but feel happy for them wholeheartedly.

“This is a remarkable achievement!” he said. “Oh Palin, if my assumption is right, if you’re willing to spread this technology widely, this will be a meritorious contribution that might be enough for you to be sealed a god—of course, it will presumably be a weak Divine Power at the lowest level.”

Palin smiled and did not show any trace of excitement.

It was not that he despised the weak Divine Powers. No matter what, “weak Divine Powers” were still gods. They were great immortal existences that were on a level that was far beyond the reach of mortals. But it was just not what he was pursuing.

“It wasn’t me who truly made such a huge contribution to the research of fine salt,” he said. “It was Fira Kenji.”

Of course, Sui Xiong knew who Fira Kenji was. This man, known as the “Green Magician,” was originally the cook of a Pighead. After a certain adventure where he devoured the soul of an ancient wizard who attempted to seize his body for resurrection, he became a magician. Then with Miramon and Maddow’s help, he studied and created the Green Magic that was characterized by “devouring the demon beast and learn its spells…”

He had also seen Fira inside the research base. Because the life of a Pighead was not long to start with, Fira was already a white-haired man. His chubby face was gradually becoming thin, which showed that his life was approaching the end—the battle against the soul of that ancient wizard had no doubt, greatly benefitted him, but it also cost him to lose many years of his life. Furthermore, in order to finally fulfill his wish of many years that involved an old-time opponent, Ruby Slyu, he had desperately risked his life and used taboo means to win his opponent in the Fighter Championship. And then he finally settled the scores of being looked down upon and being bullied during his years as a youth.

Now, he was almost at the end of his life. Although it was not to the extent of walking with trembling feet, the truth was that it would not be strange even if he were to fall asleep tonight and never wake up the next day.

Sui Xiong knew what Fira had gone through in life. But Sui Xiong had never expected this quick-tempered Pighead, who had limited ability and seemed to only rely on his luck and the help of friends, to become a magician. He even became the key figure of the invention of the technique of purification of coarse salt!

Looking at the peaceful smile on Fira’s old face, he could not help recalling a famous saying.

This was truly… Never judge a book by its cover!