Brewing Wine

Wang Hong kicked the masked man and cursed, "Idiot, why couldn't you just stay home? You had to come out looking for death. Who would keep an immortal pill and not eat it immediately, leaving it for you to snatch? Pig! Even if you were given immortal cultivation methods, could you actually cultivate them? If it were that easy, wouldn't there be so many mortals in the world, brainless ones!" He kicked him again as he spoke.

After venting, Wang Hong felt slightly calmer. During the fierce fight just now, he had been so focused that all he could think about was killing the opponent.

Now that he had calmed down and looked at the corpse before him, he felt a wave of discomfort.

This time was truly too dangerous. If he hadn't managed to land the sneak attack, he would be the one lying on the ground now.

He found a piece of cloth and covered the corpse, then began to treat his own wounds. The wound on his chest was deep enough to see bone. Fortunately, he had gotten a bottle of White Jade Powder from World-Saving Hall last time.

He added a little salt to cooled boiled water and carefully cleaned the wound with the diluted salt water. While gritting his teeth from the pain, Wang Hong felt quite manly. It was a shame there was no audience to witness his heroic posture as he calmly opened his wound to clean it without changing his expression.

After cleaning it once, he sprinkled the White Jade Powder evenly onto the wound and then bandaged it with boiled linen cloth. He then washed down the remaining White Jade Powder with water.

Wang Hong mused that he would need to prepare some healing medicines himself in the future, but he lacked the medicinal herb seedlings.

Truly good medicinal herbs were rare and could not be bought with money.

The main ingredient in White Jade Powder was White Jade Ganoderma that was under ten years old. This medicinal herb was extremely picky about its growing environment; it would usually wither and die before reaching ten years of age. It could only grow for more than ten years in extremely special environments.

After Wang Hong finished dealing with his own matters, he endured the nausea and discomfort and searched the masked man for a while. He found a few taels of scattered silver and also a bottle of White Jade Powder. It seemed that White Jade Powder was indeed a must-have medicine for martial artists when traveling or for robbing and stealing.

He then removed the masked man's mask and saw a thin man with a pale complexion, around fifty years old. Wang Hong had never seen this person before.

Wang Hong went to report the matter to the patrol team and had them carry away the corpse. By the time he finished, it was already late at night. Due to significant blood loss, his head was a bit dizzy. Wang Hong ate all the remaining meat broth and then fell asleep.

The next day, Wang Hong took a few days off from his military formation instructor, Old Demon Feng, to focus on recuperating at home. He was currently steeping a pot of tea and drinking it slowly, holding a very old book in his hand.

At this moment, a "knock! knock! knock!" sound came from outside. It turned out to be Zhang Tiemao, Li Xiaoya, Hua Wenjue, and Lu Jingou, who had heard that Wang Hong was injured and had come to visit him.

During this period, the few of them often practiced formations together. They were all young at heart and didn't have too many schemes, so they quickly became friends.

Wang Hong brought out a large plate of raspberries to entertain them. It seemed that things in the Mysterious Space would slowly mutate over time. These raspberries used to be only finger-sized, but now they were almost as big as pigeon eggs. Eating them also had a slight effect on increasing cultivation, although it wasn't as noticeable as the Rice and Wheat in the Mysterious Space.

Li Xiaoya picked one up, put it in her mouth, and gently pressed it with her tongue. The entire fruit burst, turning into sweet juice that flowed down her throat. Li Xiaoya let out a comfortable "Mmm" and asked, "Wang Hong, where did you buy these fruits? They're so delicious!"

Zhang Tiemao popped three fruits into his mouth and said, "These must be wild ones from the mountain. I've picked these raspberries on the mountain before, but they weren't this big, nor this tasty."

"I picked them on the mountain yesterday. Unfortunately, that tree was too small, and this is all I could get after picking the whole thing," Wang Hong said, deliberately saying he had picked them all to avoid them asking him to take them to pick more later.

Lu Jingou, while stuffing fruits into his mouth, said indistinctly, "These fruits would make excellent wine if brewed. I used to often pick wild grapes on the mountain to make wine. Brewing these fruits should be even more fragrant and mellow than wild grape wine."

Hua Wenjue elegantly picked at a fruit and said, "Little brats shouldn't learn bad habits, always trying to drink like adults."

"You're only a year older than me, and I didn't see you drink any less of the wine last time," Lu Jingou quickly retorted.

The speaker meant nothing by it, but the listener took note. The raspberry bush in Wang Hong's Mysterious Space, which was only half a person tall, had now grown taller than a person. The most troublesome thing was that it could produce a batch of fruit every few days, and if not picked in time, they would fall to the ground and re-root.

Originally, he had planted this raspberry bush just for him and his Younger Brother as daily snacks. Sometimes, if there were leftovers, Wang Hong would store them in several large jars. Those large jars of raspberries could be used to try brewing wine.

Wang Hong discovered a benefit in the Mysterious Space: as long as things didn't directly touch the ground, they could be preserved indefinitely without spoiling.

However, once they touched the ground, anything with even a trace of vitality would sprout roots and grow. Previously, Wang Hong had made a wooden frame to place in the Mysterious Space for storing harvested grains.

To his surprise, after two days, new roots grew from under the wooden frame, and the frame itself was covered in tender new branches. Later, Wang Hong would dry the wooden frames in the sun and then bake them with fire before placing them inside.

The few of them played around for a while. During this time, they also urged Wang Hong to be careful, as things had been unstable in the academy recently, with people often sneaking in. Speaking of the masked man, Wang Hong naturally embellished his heroic deed of bravely fighting the masked man, exaggerating it quite a bit. He received admiring glances from Zhang Tiemao and Li Xiaoya, as well as suspicious looks from Hua Wenjue and Lu Jingou.

When they were leaving, they invited Wang Hong to go hunting in the mountains together once he recovered. Wang Hong thought about how vast Qingyang Mountain was; as long as they entered the mountain, it would be difficult for others to find him, so he readily agreed.

North of the valley where Qingyang Academy was located, there was a cluster of residential houses. The academy's instructors and their families lived in this area.

In front of the family residential area, there was a not-too-long street. The side of the street closer to the residential area was lined with small shops, while the opposite side was filled with small stalls and vendors.

Small items needed for daily life could generally be bought and sold here. As for large transactions, people usually chose to go to the county town.

Wang Hong was currently walking down this street, looking with great interest at the shops and stalls on both sides of the road. As soon as a passerby glanced at a vendor's stall, the vendor would immediately start shouting enthusiastically to attract business.

Most of what the vendors sold were local specialties and mountain goods. Some were also items that academy students were selling off as surplus, or herbs they had collected from the mountains, or game they had hunted, which they then sold here. The shops sold daily necessities such as oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar, tea, clothing, food, housing, and transportation.

Wang Hong found a Wan Family Wine Shop and walked straight in. As soon as he entered the shop, the aroma of wine wafted towards him. Rows of half-person-tall wine jars met his eyes.

Before Wang Hong could speak, a cheerful young woman approached him. "Young sir, are you here to buy wine? Our shop has all sorts of fine wines, including ten-year-aged Jade Orchid Spring, twenty-year-aged Golden Jade Liquid, and freshly brewed Shao Daozi."

Wang Hong thought for a moment and said, "I want to buy some wine to make medicinal wine. Which kind would be good?"

The young woman introduced, "Then you should use the freshly brewed Shao Daozi. It has a strong kick and is affordably priced at fifty wen per jin."

Wang Hong immediately agreed and asked for a hundred jin of wine, which was divided into ten small jars. He also asked the shopkeeper for some brewing yeast. In total, he paid five taels of silver, with the brewing yeast being a gift.

Wang Hong returned to his small courtyard, dug up five forty-year-old Ginseng plants and five forty-year-old Purple Ganoderma, and steeped them separately into the wine jars. He then sealed the openings with beeswax and buried them in the Mysterious Space.

He then crushed all the remaining raspberries in the Mysterious Space, mixed them with brewing yeast, stirred them evenly, and sealed the jar openings. From now on, he would just need to turn and stir them every few days.

In fact, fruit wines could be made by simply crushing berry-type fruits without adding brewing yeast, but compared to adding brewing yeast, the wine would have more impurities and a poorer body.