Chapter 246: Mint and Coptis Chinensis
Du Ruo and Xiang Yuanyuan looked at each other and found it quite interesting. They didn't expect that in this day and age, there would still be people making pills in this way.
Du Ruo found it even more interesting. During this period of time, he had read a lot of knowledge about alchemy and medicine, and had been thinking about the pros and cons of the two methods. He didn't expect that he would meet someone in this field when he went out.
Du Ruo and Xiang Yuanyuan stood there for quite a long time, but they found that this man was a little too serious. After taking the pills, he ate sweet potatoes. After eating the sweet potatoes, he even wet white paper, wrapped an egg in it and put it in.
Occasionally he would pick up the gourd and take a sip. He seemed quite relaxed and seemed to be able to finish his lunch at the same time.
"Hello~"
After standing for a while, Du Ruo couldn't help but speak. The man was really focused, and if she didn't say anything, she didn't know how long it would take for him to notice.
"Huh? Who are you? We don't accept tourists here."
The man turned around. He was a little fat, and his sparse beard was not well-groomed, looking a little messy. He was a little surprised to see the two of them, and when he saw Xiang Yuanyuan, he subconsciously tidied up his sparse hair.
"We were just passing by and smelled your place, so we came to take a look."
Du Ruo smiled and explained, then began to get closer to Xiang Yuanyuan.
"Were you making an elixir just now? Can I try one?"
After getting closer, Du Ruo took a look at the somewhat simple earthen furnace and subconsciously sniffed it, trying to figure out what the other party was refining.
"You can't just take medicine casually. You must be hungry. Come, have a potato."
The man looked at Du Ruo, ignored his curious gaze, and didn't even mention the elixir. However, he was quite kind. He turned on the stove, reached in, and quickly took out a potato.
"Hoo~hoo~ It's a little hot. Let it cool down for a while. There are eggs in it, but it will take a while to cook."
The man held the potatoes in his hands, switched them between his two hands, blew air subconsciously through his mouth, and put all the soil into a small steel basin before handing it to the two men.
"Thank you very much."
Seeing the other party's look, Du Ruo didn't mention the elixir anymore. He took the small steel basin and handed it to Xiang Yuanyuan beside him. However, Du Ruo did not stop. After Xiang Yuanyuan took the steel basin, Du Ruo grabbed the potatoes in the basin in his hand.
"Eh!!"
When the man saw Du Ruo grabbing potatoes, he subconsciously wanted to shout something.
But then, he saw Du Ruo break the potatoes in half, put half of the steaming potatoes into the steel basin, and threw the other half directly into his mouth.
"Not bad, it has the smell of charcoal fire, and the moisture is roasted dry, it is really fragrant, it tastes like when I was a child."
Du Ruo put the potato in his mouth, chewed it slowly for a few times, and after tasting it carefully, he swallowed it. After eating it, he couldn't help but sigh.
"..."
The man moved his mouth but said nothing. He knew he had met a tough guy today.
When you put a freshly baked potato into your mouth, it is difficult to avoid being burned even if you move your tongue quickly and blow air to cool it down. What's more, it is impossible for an ordinary person to swallow such a hot potato.
But just now, Du Ruo just ate it like ordinary food and savored it carefully.
This made him, who often eats hot food, couldn't help but be amazed.
"Brother, can this furnace of yours be used to make elixirs? I could smell the scent of medicinal herbs from a long distance away, but I have never smelled medicinal herbs heated at such a high temperature, so I wanted to try it just now."
Du Ruo squatted beside the man, looking curiously at the fire under the furnace and the smoke coming out of it.
Because it was just an ordinary wood fire, the temperature was not too high. In the mountains in late autumn, such a fire was actually quite comfortable. However, Du Ruo was now a little curious about the structure of the furnace.
"Then try it."
After the man confirmed that Du Ruo was not trying to be stubborn by eating the potatoes like that just now, he did not refuse this time. He moved the stove over and this time he did not go in with his bare hands. Instead, he put on a pair of heat-insulating gloves and reached into the stove.
Du Ruo stretched his head and looked at some of the structures inside the furnace.
The stove was quite empty inside and you could see the charcoal fire underneath, but there were various racks on the walls.
Du Ruo looked over and saw eggs wrapped in wet paper on the bottom shelf, and also saw a casserole on the upper shelf. The man was now taking this casserole.
In addition, you can see corn, potatoes, and taro placed on other grids. I have to say, they taste really delicious.
"This is it. If you want to eat it, feel free to eat it. The rest will come later."
When the man saw Du Ruo's gaze, he quickly turned off the stove, but held the ceramic bowl in his hand forward.
Du Ruo retracted his gaze and looked at the ceramic bowl, which contained more than a dozen black pills. He picked up a pill from the ceramic bowl and placed it in his hand. It was very hot and felt a bit rough, like it was made of frosted material, and it didn't look carefully made at all.
Du Ruo picked it up and put it to his nose and smelled it. It had a slight smell of firewood, but no other smell at all, and it did not have the refreshing effect that he had smelled from a distance.
Putting it in his mouth, Du Ruo began to chew it, savoring the changes in his body while chewing, and then chewed it into pieces and swallowed it.
Du Ruo could feel that the "spirit" was a little more active, but as for other effects, Du Ruo didn't feel much. However, one thing he could be sure of was that this was harmless to the human body when eaten. Of course, it was not completely without side effects...
"How about it?"
Xiang Yuanyuan looked at Du Ruo eating and asked curiously. Even the man next to her was looking at Du Ruo.
"I can't taste some of the herbs. You try."
Du Ruo took out another pill from the ceramic bowl and handed it to Xiang Yuanyuan, asking her to try it. The temperature in the mountains was still quite low and it got cold quickly. Plus, the man had taken it out a while ago, so these black pills would not be too hot at this time.
"it is good."
Xiang Yuanyuan took the pill from Du Ruo's hand with a smile, and put it into her mouth without hesitation, while Du Ruo and the man were looking at Xiang Yuanyuan with smiles.
As soon as the pill entered her mouth, Xiang Yuanyuan started chewing it. In an instant, the originally smiling Xiang Yuanyuan stopped smiling. All her facial features were wrinkled together, and her mouth was open, revealing the pill inside that had been chewed into a black substance.
"Hurry, hurry, hurry, come on, spit it out."
Du Ruo originally wanted to play a prank on Xiang Yuanyuan, but after seeing this scene, he felt a little reluctant, so he quickly took out a bottle of water from his arms and let Xiang Yuanyuan drink a sip so that she could swallow the pill.
"Gudong gudong~~ Huh~ It's so bitter... "
Xiang Yuanyuan took a few big gulps and then let out a long sigh, but her brows were still tightly furrowed. Looking at the remaining black pill in the ceramic bowl, she didn't want to try it again at all.
"Benzoin, agarwood, mint... you also added coptis root, no wonder it's so bitter."
Xiang Yuanyuan finally recovered, but immediately she blurted out a series of Chinese medicine names.
"Amazing beauty, you can even taste this."
The man immediately gave a thumbs up when he heard it, then took out a pill and put it in his mouth. He frowned and chewed it for a few times, then took out the gourd and drank a sip, and then continued:
"I've been feeling a bit irritated lately, so I made these pills to calm my nerves and relieve my internal heat. However, since I didn't have enough honey, I put in less, so it's particularly bitter."
The man laughed as he spoke. In fact, after he ate the first one, he found it very bitter. He had been thinking of tricking his fellow apprentice sisters in the temple into having a taste of it, but he didn't expect Du Ruo and Xiang Yuanyuan to show up, so he just let them have a taste.
"Hehe, it just so happens that I've been eating quite spicy food these days, so it seems to be a good remedy for you. Do you still want to eat it?"
Du Ruo also laughed, but he really didn't expect that Xiang Yuanyuan could taste the medicinal ingredients even though it was so bitter.
After all, he had less contact with medicinal herbs, and most of them were put in medicinal wine. Unlike Xiang Yuanyuan, he ate medicinal herbs as snacks when he was a child.
"Eh... no, I'd rather eat potatoes."
Xiang Yuanyuan waved her hands repeatedly with a look of disgust on her face. The combination of coptis root and mint is bitter and refreshing, and when you add in refreshing herbs like agarwood, the bitterness lingers in the mouth. Only those who have eaten it know the difference.
Only someone like Du Ruo, who has extremely strong "spirit, energy and spirit", can easily control his body and remain calm while eating.
"Are you two here for tourism? Or do you have business in the temple?"
The man has already seen that the two people in front of him are not simple. One of them can tell the ingredients of the refined pill almost exactly after taking it, and the other one... he can't figure out the trick, but no matter how he looks at it, he doesn't look like an ordinary person.
"I'm here for tourism, and I really came here following the smell of medicinal herbs. I just didn't expect there was a Taoist temple here."
Du Ruo just squatted on the ground, looking around curiously, with no intention of hiding anything.
But to the man, Du Ruo seemed even more unfathomable.
When refining the elixir, the strong smell of medicine will appear when the refined honey and medicine powder are mixed, and when the elixir is just put into the furnace. He knows the distance between where he is and the main road for tourism. In a straight line, it is definitely more than 300 meters.
If Du Ruo was not lying, he could still smell the scent from such a distance, which meant that Du Ruo's nose was basically the same as a dog's.
"By the way, what kind of Taoist temple is this? I can't see it on the map."
Du Ruo was quite curious about this place. Of course, he was mainly curious about the alchemy of the man in front of him. It happened that he had recently started to study these things, so he was thinking about whether he should learn something from him.
"Our Taoist temple belongs to the lineage of Zhang Tianshi's disciples. We worship our founder, Wang Chang, who has been living in seclusion here for generations and does not accept incense, so it is unknown to outsiders."
Speaking of the Taoist temple, the man put down the gourd in his hand, stood up, bowed towards the main hall, and said respectfully that as for the Zhang Tianshi he mentioned, this was Zhang Daoling, and Wang Chang was Zhang Daoling's disciple.
(End of this chapter)
