Chapter 193 Moss Sugar Powder, Moss Cool Soup, Pure Natural Perfume Flavor
Shu Xin asked the cooks for some processed moss pieces. These moss pieces were to be mixed with acorn flour and baked into moss cookies—moss cookies are sweet and crunchy, with a refreshing taste and not greasy at all.
After eating some moss fragments, Shuxin confirmed that these mosses really did have a natural sweetness, and that gray moss was even sweeter than red and yellow moss.
Shu Xin immediately thought of using the moss to make sugar. As soon as the flower fairy brought it up, the elven cooks smiled and presented her with a large sugar jar.
Inside the transparent glass jar of cardamom, instead of the light red or light brown powdered sugar that Shuxin remembered, it was filled with tiny light green crystals.
"This is... moss powder?" Shu Xin asked in surprise.
Lilia, who was cracking egg liquid into a large bowl, smiled and nodded upon hearing this: "Yes, Fairy Flower, this was extracted by Ananna using refining magic."
Ananna, who was helping to process the egg mixture, said a little embarrassedly, "I was just trying it out..."
"It's good that you tried it. The most popular dish now is moss soup!" Meimeilin came over with a small bowl of soup. "Fairy, would you like to try some? I put in very little moss powder, so it shouldn't be too sweet."
Lilylian, who was standing guard in front of the steamer in the distance, raised her voice: "The cold soup is refreshing even without ice! Fairy Flower, please try it! It's delicious!"
Once again impressed by the wisdom of the people, Shu Xin happily accepted the small bowl of moss-infused cold soup.
Moss cool soup is made by boiling moss flakes and moss sugar powder. It lives up to its name, being cool and refreshing, somewhat like mint water, but sweeter. Mei Meilin said she added very little moss sugar powder, but Shu Xin thought it was already quite sweet.
If the flower fairies were to drink moss-infused soup, they would definitely sprinkle plenty of moss powder on top. On such a hot and dry day, drinking a bowl of sweet and cool soup must feel incredibly refreshing—no wonder it's the most popular dish.
Shu Xin took some more powdered sugar and tasted it.
Moss sugar melts in your mouth, leaving a strong sweet aftertaste on your tongue, and you can definitely taste a very noticeable cooling sensation between your lips and teeth. The only drawback is that compared with sugar powder made from thorn berries or palm fruit, the magic of moss sugar is almost non-existent, which makes Shuxin think of sugar substitutes.
However, moss is really easy to grow. Judging from what Ananna said, making moss sugar powder shouldn't be too difficult either. Shuxin finished her bowl of sugar water, returned the bowl to Meimeilin, and then went to find Pengpengan and Nuonoli to discuss with them whether or not to build a sugar powder workshop.
The final decision was to build a magic workshop specifically for sugar making, since the moss field was underground, and the newly built sugar powder workshop was divided into two parts: the surface part and the underground part.
The Sugar Powder Workshop No. 1 in the underground city was built directly next to the moss field, making it convenient for the flower fairies to pick and harvest fresh moss. After the bundles of moss were sent into the workshop, the moss would be cleaned, cut, crushed and processed into moss slurry under the action of one magic circle after another.
After the moss is processed into moss slurry, the next production step is carried out in the sugar powder workshop No. 2 located on the ground. The moss slurry is transferred to the ground through a magic circle, where it undergoes primary, secondary, and tertiary refining and final crushing in the magic workshop on the ground, finally producing moss sugar powder.
Following the process outlined by the Tree of Life, the final moss powdered sugar produced was completely different from the one Ananna had hand-rolled—
The moss sugar powder that Ananna made is called sugar powder because it is a common name used by flower fairies. It is not actually a powder, but rather crystalline granules like the white sugar in Shuxin's memory, only the color is a light green, which looks quite pretty.
The workshop produces it in large quantities as a powder, which is quite fine and snow-white. The instructions provided by the Tree of Life specifically state that the sweetness of the moss sugar powder has been greatly enhanced.
Shu Xin initially had no concept of this "significant improvement," so after seeing the finished product from the workshop, she took a small pinch and tasted it, just like before, and then her mouth was hit with a brutal blow—
It's terribly sweet! So sweet it's almost bitter! Even after spitting out the powdered sugar, everything she ate still tasted sweet all day long!
Is this powdered sugar? It's saccharin!
That moment made Shu Xin never want to eat any sweets again—even though she ate a big bowl of snow dragon fruit ice cream the next day.
Although it cannot be eaten directly, this moss sugar powder is very convenient for making soup. No matter what kind of soup it is, just sprinkle some refined moss sugar powder in at the end, and it will turn into a big pot of sweet soup.
To distinguish it from the moss sugar powder handmade by the flower fairy with refined magical talent, Shu Xin viciously named the finished product produced by the magic workshop "Moss Sugar Essence".
The flower fairies with a sweet tooth were overjoyed. Although they received very little moss saccharin, and could only add a tiny bit each time they cooked rice, just that tiny bit of moss saccharin was enough to make the soup sweet.
This also resulted in a strong sweet smell permeating the residential area at mealtimes. In addition, the air was filled with the fragrance of the color-changing bell vines. After eating and drinking their fill, the flower fairies who went to work in the dungeon were like people who had sprayed on floral perfume. They flew around and made the air in the dungeon smell very fragrant.
This all-natural perfume even has top, middle, and base notes: the top note is a rich and romantic sweet scent (actually, it's the smell of lingering sweet soup), the middle note is a gentle and light floral scent (the scent of bellflowers hasn't completely dissipated), and the base note becomes a tranquil, refreshing, and long-lasting grassy scent (the scent of the mossy fields in the underground city).
Shu Xin always felt that if things continued like this, the flower fairies would eventually be pickled and flavored. Thinking about it, it made sense; it was normal for the little fairies to have their own fragrance!
The supply of powdered sugar is now quite plentiful, but the supply of powdered salt is decreasing rather than increasing—the earliest salt rocks discovered at the edge of the Twin Moon Snowfield have already been dug out.
Every time Shu Xin finished eating, she couldn't help but go to the kitchen to look at the salt jar, and every time she looked at it, her heart ached. When she went to look at it today, there was only a little salt left in the transparent jar.
Looking at the salt powder jar in front of her, Shu Xin hesitated. Should she eat it all up in a few meals, or use it sparingly to try and last a few more days? It was a difficult decision...
Hearing hurried footsteps outside, Shu Xin curiously went to investigate and saw Nuonuo Li, who was on her way to the rooftop to find her. Shu Xin quickly dispelled her invisibility spell.
"What's wrong, Nonori?"
The official's expression was somewhat complicated: "Your Highness, a large-scale collapse has suddenly occurred at the northernmost boundary of the underground planting area. Peng Peng'an and I have confirmed that there have been no casualties. A new underground cave has appeared in the collapse area, and the patrol team has discovered a new underground lake inside the cave."
"Isn't this a good thing?" Shu Xin asked. The appearance of new underground caves means that the underground city has new land, and new underground lakes are new water sources. Why doesn't Nonoli look very happy?
“The air inside the new underground cave is toxic. The collapse did not cause any casualties, but the two patrol teams that entered the cave to investigate were all poisoned and unconscious. They have now been sent to the medical room for treatment,” Nono said solemnly. “They brought out some lake water, Your Highness. That underground lake is a saltwater lake and cannot be drunk.”
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Author's Note: Wow, the sun is finally shining! I got my salary and the heating is fixed. The electric blanket saved my life! I wrapped myself in my fluffy robe and thick carpet socks, then slurped up a delicious bowl of hot and sour noodles. Waaaaah, I finally have an appetite! I'm alive again!
I'll update one chapter first, and then I'll write more! I'll update as much as I can today!
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