I Became The Chief Of A Primitive Village-Chapter 360: Making Medicinal Ointment

In the evening, the rain continued to fall without any sign of weakening, creating a misty scene as far as the eye could see.

Su Bai stood by the window watching this scene as he softly said, "To think it’s really been raining all day!"

This was his first time experiencing rain that lasted an entire day. Back on Earth, it would rain for at most half a day. Having it rain for an entire day was something he had never encountered before, and it gave him a peculiar feeling.

"Shaman, the weather has gotten a bit cooler. Would you like to put on a hemp garment?" Yu Ying asked with concern.

"It’s fine, I don’t feel cold." Su Bai shook his head.

Perhaps due to his Physique becoming stronger after transmigrating, he no longer felt cold.

Others had added extra Animal Hide clothing because after a day of rain, the air was inevitably more humid. Still, even if the temperature had dropped a little, it was not particularly cold.

"Shaman, why did you suddenly bring back so many plants?" Yu Ying asked.

"These are herbs that I had brought back from the greenhouse," Su Bai said.

These herbs were brought back from the Hunting Ground, and then their seeds were planted in the greenhouse.

Over the next few days, he had used his Healing Shaman Technique on them, so they were ready for harvest after just a few days.

"What are they for?" Yu Ying asked, confused.

She noticed these herbs all had strange smells to them. Some pleasant and some unpleasant, with many different scents.

"They’re for making medicine that everyone can use." Su Bai explained.

He planned on making some herbal medicines for the Tribe to use, which would save him a considerable amount of time. After all, right now, whenever someone in the Tribe got sick or had minor ailments, they would seek his, the Shaman’s, help.

The previous Old Shaman was the same. He often was busy helping treat the sick.

It was not that Su Bai did not want to help treat them, but it was too tedious and time-consuming when too many people came seeking his help, Furthermore, it would waste his Shaman Power.

If there were ready-made medicine they could use themselves. This would make things much simpler.

"How do you make the herbs into medicine, Shaman?" Yu Ying asked.

"It’s not difficult, it’s all written in this book. We just need to follow the instructions written inside." Su Bai said.

He had already prepared the herbs in advance, selecting only fresh medicinal materials, discarding any that were rotten or had yellowed leaves.

"Oh, I see." Yu Ying looked at the herbs with an expression of only partially understanding what the Shaman had just said.

Su Bai placed a strange-looking herb into a bowl and began crushing it with a wooden stick.

The herb was crushed into a fine paste, and then new medicinal materials were added and ground together.

"Shaman, should we put everything in?" Yu Ying was about to add the other herbs from the table.

"Wait, don’t rush. The herbs need to be put in order." Su Bai quickly stopped her.

If he had not stopped her, she would have put all the herbs on the table into the mixture.

"Oh okay, should we add this one then?" Yu Ying held up another strange herb.

"Not that one yet, bring me the red plant." Su Bai said.

"Alright." Yu Ying responded immediately, bringing over the red plants.

Su Bai put five or six kinds of herbs in the stone bowl and began grinding them, then poured the mixture into another container.

"Shaman, what’s the next step?" Yu Ying asked, looking at the colourful mixture of crushed plants.

"We need to add some other ingredients and continue crushing them. Then, we’ll start cooking the mixture to make an ointment." Su Bai said seriously.

Chinese herbal medicine needs to be made into a dried powder or ointment form. This way, the mixture could be stored for longer.

"Cook it into an ointment?" Yu Ying looked confused.

"Yes, this is the most important step. We must follow the instructed process very carefully." Su Bai explained.

Making the ointment was not that simple, because the first consideration was the formula. Since everyone’s innate and acquired Physical constitution varies, ideally, the formula should be customized for each person. Of course, in a Primitive Tribe such as this, it was not possible. Thus, the formula needed to be made, that would suit the majority of people.

The second step was selecting the herbs. The ointment requires the highest standard of carefully selected medicinal materials.

The third step was soaking the medicine. The cut pieces needed to be placed in a special container with an appropriate amount of water and thoroughly soaked for 24 hours.

After mixing the medicine evenly, they would be placed in a covered container. Ideally an earthen pot, though copper, enamel, or aluminum pots could also be used. However, not iron pots. This was to avoid any potential chemical reactions.

Afterwards, add an appropriate amount of cold water for soaking, generally about 15 centimetres above the medicine’s surface, and let it soak for about 24 hours. This way, the effective components of the medicine could be easily extracted.

Updat𝒆d fr𝑜m freewebnøvel.com.

The fourth step was extraction. The soaked pieces would be boiled in a medicinal copper pot for 3 hours to extract the juice.

Later, more water would be added and boiled for another 3 hours, combining the medicinal liquids multiple times. The dregs would be pressed to extract the juice, and added to the above liquid. Afterwards, they would leave it to settle for 6 to 12 hours.

After settling, whatever remained would be filtered through a strainer to remove the impurities, keeping only the clear medicinal liquid.

The fifth step was to increase concentration, which was quite an important step. The clear medicinal liquid would be heated to 120 degrees in the medicinal pot.

Additionally, finely prepared medicinal liquid would be added, heated till boiling, and the foam would be skimmed off. The decocted liquid would then slowly cook over low heat to evaporate and create a concentrate. Meanwhile, someone would need to be constantly stirring to prevent the bottom of the mixture from burning. Over time, with more of its moisture evaporated, it gradually formed a thick paste.

Then comes the next step – adding gelatin and other fine materials to the concentrate, constantly stirring until the gel blocks completely dissolves, then pouring it into the medicinal copper pot to continue heating and stirring until the medicine forms threads when dripping.

During this process, special attention needed to be paid to the ‘hanging thread’ stage of thickening the mixture. Usually when this condition appears, it means that the ointment was close to completion. After this comes the final step.

The final step would be packaging. While still hot, quickly pour it into a cleaned and sterilized container.

Naturally, a pot containing the freshly made ointment would be very hot. That was why the packaging must be done quickly. Otherwise, the thick ointment would easily congeal.

"Is it very difficult?" Yu Ying asked.

"Of course, the process is very, very complex," Su Bai said without hesitation.

If it were not for wanting to make things easier in the future, he would not have wanted to make the ointment. It was simply too troublesome!

Furthermore, Chinese medicine decoction distinguishes between strong and gentle heat. Generally, making medicinal decoctions into ointments needed the use of gentle heat.

In summary, the process was extremely complex. It was definitely not something someone without experience could do well in. Su Bai estimates he would also need multiple tries before he could get it right…