Chapter 88: Chapter 88: The Distillation Pot

Once Sane left, Kaelen took out pen and paper, writing incessantly. He looked at the anatomical diagram of the beastman on the paper, falling into deep thought.

Previously, he had asked Walter to use his ability to observe the warrior beastmen’s bodies in the dark, and then describe every single detail to him. The source of a beastman’s Beast Energy was located right in the middle of their forehead; when the beastmen activated their Beast Energy, the energy source would begin to travel from the forehead through the right meridians, down to the feet and then back up, twisting into a vortex in the lower abdomen, then continuing down the left foot and up to the forehead.

This circulation mechanism was very similar to a Mage’s cultivation mechanism, the only difference being that the starting point of a Mage’s energy was the lower abdomen.

Kaelen tapped his forehead. He didn’t know the cultivation method that Sane’s group had learned. Perhaps due to the world’s restrictions, or the Temple had played some trick. Any beastman who looked at the warrior training book would engrave the contents in their head, but absolutely could not transmit it to others in any form, whether by speaking, writing, or demonstrating.

The warrior training book had fallen into Cipher’s hands, and currently, Obsidian’s legacy could be considered broken. Kaelen had tried applying the Enhancement Magic cultivation method from his previous life to the warrior beastmen before, but the results were not promising; they could only use their original method.

The newly awakened group had absolutely no problems. This meant that if they wanted to cultivate his method, the old group of warrior beastmen had to completely abolish their previous Beast Energy and cultivate from scratch.

Given the tribe’s situation, they were not allowed to take that risky move. Kaelen shifted his attention to the magic stone taken from the magic beast’s head. This thing was too berserk; even though it had been purified by his ability, the magical properties were not entirely eliminated.

If beastmen were to use this thing, it would be no different from handing them Banshee grass to sniff.

"Kaelen! Time for lunch." Susan’s call rang out, breaking Kaelen’s train of thought, and only then did he realize it was already noon. He neatly stacked the papers, accepting a tray of food Susan handed him, and smiled, signing:

[You aren’t at home grading papers for the students, but ran off to be a food delivery person?]

Susan placed his own food tray on the table and chuckled: "I’m about to be driven crazy by their homework, so I ran out to eat with everyone. Seeing the kitchen preparing food for you, I took the job of delivering it, and conveniently brought my food over to eat with you."

The two sat down and began to eat; Susan talked about his teaching job while eating, and Kaelen occasionally responded with a sentence or two. After finishing the meal, Susan made two cups of sorghum honey water, adding a bit of sour apple juice.

"This life is so wonderful. Getting to eat our fill, and getting to drink this sweet and sour water."

Kaelen smiled without saying anything. Susan continued:

"Right, Kaelen, is there any way to make my skin as smooth as yours? Look, my face is about to split into several mounds of earth."

Kaelen looked at Susan’s face, then touched his own. His face was like this because he had long-term applied turmeric juice to hide his true appearance, and over a long period, his new skin became this smooth. Besides, ever since awakening his previous life’s ability, being nourished by the Wood-element ability, his skin became even more flawless.

Kaelen lowered his head, thinking about various types of skin creams, and finally discovered that the most useful thing in this era of scarcity was essential oil. Distilling essential oil was just like distilling alcohol, it was entirely feasible. Additionally, they could reduce the lye content in the soap to the lowest level, which could then be used as a facial cleanser.

Since he was currently at a dead end regarding the improvement of the training method anyway, he might as well do something else.

Kaelen immediately dragged Susan along to make a distillation pot.

A distillation pot was very easy to make; to save the effort of molding a new pot, Kaelen just took a straight earthenware jar with a lid, typically used for storing pickled vegetables, to use as the pot. Next, he made a funnel-shaped rack with only six sturdy bamboo splints, without any secondary splints. At the apex, a hollow bamboo tube was placed, aligned so that when the lid’s knob was flipped upside down, it fit perfectly into the middle of the bamboo tube. And with that, the distillation pot was finished.

Kaelen then dragged Susan along to pick flowers. He had had his eye on the gardenia tree near the coal mining area for a long time, but temporarily hadn’t figured out what to do with it. Thanks to Susan’s suggestion, he finally thought of essential oils and perfumes.

[Susan, please call a tribesman who is good at climbing trees over here to help me.]

"Good at climbing trees?" Susan looked around for a while, his eyes lighting up as he called out loudly: "Kayden, hurry over here and help us."

Kayden was a leopard beastman currently working on transporting peat. Hearing Susan’s call, he paused his work, running over with mud-stained limbs: "What’s the matter?"

Kaelen: [Sorry to trouble you. Please help us chop down all the branches of this tree and carry them to the empty clearing right behind that rock for me, I will trade salt with you.]

Kayden waved his hand: "It’s just a small matter, no need to pay me." Saying that, he transformed into his beast form, agilely climbing up the tree, using his claws to chop down all the large branches of the gardenia tree, leaving only a bare trunk and a top branch.

After chopping them down, he dragged all the branches to the clearing Kaelen specified.

"Done, do you need my help with anything else?"

Kaelen shook his head: [That’s all done, thank you.]

"Don’t mention it, I’ll take my leave then." Kayden turned and went back to his workplace.

Waiting until Kayden was quite far away, Susan leaned into Kaelen’s ear and whispered: "This young guy is pursuing Nicholas. See the bag he’s wearing at his waist? It was made by Nicholas; it seems he has taken a liking to this beastman."

Nicholas was precisely the Manul cat Sub-Beast who had learned crocheting from Kaelen. He glanced at the bag Susan pointed out; it was a waist bag crocheted from flax grass yarn, both durable and lightweight, capable of holding a lot of things.

Susan pointed out a few more people: "That kid with the spiky tuft of hair over there is Uncle Talon’s nephew; he’s been pursuing Cecil for a long time, but every time he visits, he gets beaten flat by Cecil’s Daddy. That guy on the right swinging the hoe accidentally saw Xeno bathing the other day, and was blackmailed into marrying him. Actually, Xeno purposely waited for the guy to pass by to strip."

Kaelen: [...] Alright, how many couples were currently in love, how many were in ambiguous relationships, and how many had eaten the forbidden fruit before marriage in the tribe today, he now knew them all. Susan truly lived up to being the eyes of the tribe; perhaps later he should be assigned to the intelligence team.

Accompanied by Susan’s rambling, the two quickly planted over a dozen gardenia branches into the ground, spacing each branch about five to six meters apart. Once planted, Kaelen channeled his ability into the branches, urging them to root into the soil, then bypassing the growth process and proceeding directly to the blooming process. This saved both time and Magical Energy.

In an instant, the entire area they were standing in was engulfed in pure white, with a faint fragrance that relaxed the mind.

"It smells so good, and the flowers are so white. Kaelen, so this is the flower of this tree, it is so beautiful."

Kaelen nodded: [Quickly pick them all down, if we leave them until tomorrow they will all be ruined.]

Gardenia flowers only bloomed in early and mid-summer; under this freezing winter weather, they definitely would not last through the night. Fortunately, the gardenia tree was a perennial plant; as long as it could establish stable roots, there would be flowers to pick every summer.

Susan let out an "oh". Seeing so many flowers again, the two of them definitely couldn’t pick them all, so he hurriedly ran off to find other Sub-Beasts. Hearing that this flower could make skincare products, the Sub-Beasts immediately brought baskets to join in, and soon the flowers were all picked, the baskets of flowers filling the kitchen area.

It seemed one distillation pot wasn’t enough; Kaelen instructed everyone to prepare a few more pots themselves, and then taught everyone how to distill floral essential oil.

[Not all flowers can make skincare products, everyone must not pick indiscriminately.]

After cautioning everyone, he began instructing them on how to make it. First was plucking all the gardenia petals, discarding the innermost layer of flowers, the stems, and the pistils, then washing them thoroughly. Put the petals into the pot, pour spring water to cover the petals, then place the bamboo tube funnel in. Flip the pot lid upside down, with the knob facing downwards.

[To prevent the steam from escaping, we need to seal the gap between the lid and the pot body. Mix clean mud with grass into a pliable lump, then smear it around the gap, remember not to be too forceful lest the mud falls inside the pot.]

Kaelen meticulously used the mud to weld the mouth of the pot shut, then washed his hands and scooped cold water to pour onto the pot lid.

[Next is boiling it with a large fire until the water boils, then lowering the fire to simmer. If the water on the lid becomes as hot as the water we use for bathing, scoop out half, then add new cold water. Remember not to scoop it all out, otherwise the pot lid will crack.]

[Wait until you can no longer smell the fragrance escaping, and it’s done; extinguish the fire and take the water inside the tube out, pouring it into an earthenware jar or a wooden jar is fine.]

Kaelen patiently explained step by step, and the group of Sub-Beasts followed suit one by one. There were only five distillation pots made from upright jars; everyone worked for an entire afternoon to finish the picked petals, obtaining quite a lot of distilled water.

Kaelen distributed a bamboo tube with a lid full of essential oil to each of them, instructing on how to use it: [Apply a little on the back of your hand first; wait a while, and if it doesn’t itch or turn red, then you can use it on your face. Remember to wash your face clean and let it dry first.]

Waiting until everyone had applied it to their hands, after a while seeing no one was allergic, he continued with the instructions. Pour a little essential oil into the palm of one hand, pinch the index and middle fingers of the other hand together, dab into the essential oil, and apply it to the face. Next is pressing the two palms together, rubbing gently so the essential oil coats both hands evenly, patting the cheeks, and massaging the face from the inside out and from bottom to top.

Susan exclaimed: "Kaelen, this thing smells so good. Can I apply it on my body?"

Kaelen nodded: [Of course you can.]

Gardenia flowers were not used as perfume and fragrance products for nothing. Its scent was light but long-lasting, and not too irritating to those sensitive to scents.

It was quite late, and this area was also used for eating and drinking, so Kaelen said: [It’s late, everyone take the remaining portion to the bath foam making area first. Tomorrow I will instruct everyone on how to make bath foam from this.]

The group of Sub-Beasts enthusiastically carried the gardenia essential oil to the soap making area. Kaelen put away two bottles of essential oil, reserving a portion for Walter and Draven. He himself didn’t need it; he still preferred the citrus scent of the Fiend grass.

After a busy afternoon making floral essential oil, Kaelen was no longer troubled by the recent events. At this time, a guard beastman rushed over in a panic, calling Kaelen to the prairie area, because the deformed group had arrived at the prairie, but Sane’s condition was somewhat unstable.

The beastman carried Kaelen on his back, saying anxiously:

"After the Chief saw the beast form of a deformed person, his complexion was not very good, and just a moment later his Beast Energy became incredibly violent. We can’t get close to him at all."

Kaelen’s heart sank heavily. What kind of beast form could make Sane lose control?