Once you've boiled it down to a very shallow layer, you can lift the bark box out to cool naturally, then fill the other bark boxes with water and continue boiling.

Anyway, there are plenty of these bark boxes; if one gets burned, just replace it. But as long as the water inside doesn't dry up, one box can basically be used to boil water four or five times or more.

It's not that the bark box will catch fire, but the bark will become softer and softer after being boiled in water repeatedly, and eventually it will need to be supported with stones to prevent it from collapsing.

Since we didn't have to worry about fuel, we started a huge fire, and the entire stone wall was scorched by the fire, emitting waves of intense heat.

Unable to withstand the intense heat emanating from these eleven walls, we could only throw firewood into the fire pit between the stone walls from a distance.

With the help of the high heat, the brine inside the bark box evaporated very quickly. Towards the end, we had to lift the box off the stove every fifteen minutes and put a new box filled with water on top to boil.

At noon, we roasted some wild boar meat that we had brought out to eat as a temporary meal, and we continued doing this until evening.

I tested the saltiness of the brine with my finger after evaporation, and it was quite good. It tasted extremely salty, so it would definitely be fine for making salt.

Because highly concentrated salt water is much heavier than regular water, for safety reasons, I had everyone carry only half of their baskets.

Even so, the brine in most of the baskets weighed nearly a hundred pounds. Su Su had originally hoped that everyone would carry as much as possible back, wanting to fill most of the baskets with brine like the men.

I quickly stopped Su Su. We didn't have any saline solution; we could always come back and get some. Carrying too much weight could cause serious problems if she tripped or fell while walking.

In the end, Su Su didn't raise any further objections and carried less than half of the saline solution on her body as I requested.

I nodded in agreement. A team must obey arrangements and cooperate in order to unleash its full potential.

Our group of seven carried the highly concentrated saline solution we had collected that day and started walking back. We rested several times along the way before we finally brought all the precious saline solution back.

We cleared out one of the large water tanks used for storing water in the tribe, and then everyone poured the highly concentrated salt water they had collected into the large tank.

This huge vat truly lives up to its reputation as a magical artifact used by the tribe for storing water. Even after we poured in all seven of our brine, it only filled a small portion of the vat.

It seems that we'll have to make a few more trips to the brine spring to fill this large vat.

That evening, Su Su cooked us a meal of twice-cooked pork with wild boar meat, a dish she had learned to make. This time, she did all the cooking herself, and I didn't even have a chance to give her any instructions.

She seemed born to cook; everything she did was so meticulous. Naturally, the dishes she made earned everyone's praise.

After the meal, Dante kept pestering me to see how to make the coarse salt I had mentioned.

I'd like to do it too, but I haven't found all the necessary materials yet. Saltwater can only be used for distillation; it can't completely remove all the impurities.

To make coarse salt, you also need soybean milk made from ground soybeans. The process of making tofu is used to neutralize and absorb the magnesium chloride in the salt water.

Of course, such tofu is not edible. It's fine if it's left to sit for a few days, but if someone gets metal poisoning and dies from it, that would be a tragedy.

The reason why soybeans can flocculate and absorb some harmful substances in salt water is related to their high content of soybean protein.

The main components of soybeans are protein and fat, with protein content of about 36%-40% and fat content of about 18%-20%.

Soybeans typically contain around 25% starch, which gives them a role in providing energy and in food processing.

Adsorption is achieved by soybean protein, while the starch contained in soybeans plays a role in flocculation and clumping.

When starch is heated to high temperatures, it becomes a viscous fluid. When this fluid starch comes into contact with soy protein particles, it adheres to them and flocculates into a block.

I don't have any luxurious crops like soybeans on hand right now; all I have are potatoes and some cassava.

So I'm considering whether it's possible to artificially synthesize a flocculant similar to soy milk, based on the proportions of soybeans.

First of all, I've ruled out potatoes, not because they can't be used as a raw material.

It's because those potatoes have already sprouted and turned completely green.

The main toxic component in sprouted potatoes is solanine, also known as glycoalkaloid.

The solanine content in normal potatoes is very low, generally between 0.005% and 0.01%. However, when potatoes sprout, turn green, or rot, the solanine content increases significantly, especially in the eyes, inside the skin, and around the rotten areas.

Consuming excessive amounts of potatoes containing high concentrations of solanine may cause poisoning symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, and diarrhea.

I don't believe that high temperatures can break down solanine. Such toxic plant alkaloids generally have relatively stable chemical structures, and high temperatures don't have a significant destructive effect on them.

Therefore, there's no need to risk trying this again; we're left with only cassava as an option. However, the main component of cassava is carbohydrates, which is starch.

It doesn't contain much protein, and putting it in salt water won't cause it to absorb harmful substances.

This time, I naturally set my sights on the wild boar meat we got yesterday. Weren't we looking for protein? Isn't all the lean meat on this guy protein?

However, this is just my guess. I don't know the difference between soy protein and animal protein. I can only try to see if it works.

I admit that doing this is a bit extravagant, but as long as we can extract the coarse salt, the cost is bearable.

There's a saying that goes, "You can't catch a wolf without risking your cub." Without further ado, I had everyone prepare firewood, metal pots, and other equipment.

I slipped into the room where the pork was hung and cut off about two pounds of lean meat. I wasn't sure how much meat I would need to absorb all the impurities in the pot, so I took a little more than I needed.

Next up was the cassava. I had Dante peel the cassava and then use a stone to mash it as finely as possible.

I found a piece of wood to use as a cutting board and chopped the two-pound piece of meat into a smooth, watery paste.

Although the indigenous people didn't quite understand what I was doing, I was too lazy to explain to them that it involved some chemical principles.

By this time, Dante had almost finished crushing the cassava, and I asked Su Su to put the crushed cassava into a ceramic basin filled with water.

After washing out the white starch, the remaining cassava residue will be kept to feed the wild boars tomorrow.

My plan was to prepare a mixed flocculant using a 7:3 ratio of pork to starch. However, there's no time to wait for the starch to settle slowly, so I had to add more minced meat to the starch and mix it well.