A Half-Finished Product

He retrieved the two animal hides he had preserved with salt from the storeroom: the tiger hide and the boar hide.

The former had a fine texture and the gentle sheen unique to the Thorn-Horned Mutant Tiger; the latter was tougher, making it a good material for leather armor.

Tang Zhixue spread both hides on the floor beside the fireplace and gently ran his fingertips over the inner side of the tiger hide.

Although it had been salted, it had not undergone professional tanning, so the hide had already begun to harden, with faint signs of stiffness in places.

Fortunately, he had scraped it clean at the time, leaving little fat or scraps of flesh.

"According to what other people shared in the chat channel, traditional tanning requires brains or alum, and I don't have either..." Tang Zhixue studied the two hides on the floor, rubbing his stubbly chin thoughtfully. "Since the Pure Heaven and Earth Divine Mantra can assist with forging and give iron ingots the power of purification, what about using it on animal hides?"

That was also why he had stopped after reciting the Pure Heaven and Earth Divine Mantra once and gone to fetch the two hides: to test whether his idea was correct.

The essence of the Pure Heaven and Earth Divine Mantra was to dispel unclean things, purify impurities, and impart purity.

The essence of tanning, meanwhile, was to remove the fat and residual connective tissue from animal hides, loosening and stabilizing the collagen fibers.

If the mantra's power could directly "purify" away the impurities that caused hides to rot and spoil, perhaps the tanning process could be greatly simplified, and might even produce leather far superior to that made through ordinary methods.

He got straight to work!

Tang Zhixue bought a large wooden basin through the trading box, along with a simple oil lamp made by Fang Yunxi.

Her experiment had succeeded, and Tang Zhixue traded a small piece of boar fat for the oil lamp.

With the oil lamp, the Shelter would no longer be plunged into complete darkness.

Because he had Water-Gathering Grass, Tang Zhixue did not currently place much value on freshwater resources.

He tore open the Supply Card containing fifty liters of fresh water.

Splash!

All the clean water poured into the wooden basin, and he submerged the entire tiger hide in it.

The previously clear water immediately turned murky upon contact with the tiger hide.

Then Tang Zhixue began quietly reciting the Pure Heaven and Earth Divine Mantra.

"Heaven and earth follow nature; foul qi disperses. Within the cavern lies profound emptiness; the Great Origin shines resplendent..."

As he recited, Tang Zhixue's hands did not remain idle.

He repeatedly rubbed the hide, then gripped its edges and wrung it hard, squeezing out the bloody water, salt, and murky liquid that had soaked into it.

Dark red wastewater dripped between his fingers, carrying a rank, bloody odor.

As he recited the incantation, waves of golden light spread outward from Tang Zhixue, repeatedly sweeping over the tiger hide in the water.

The somewhat murky water gradually became clear and transparent after the golden light swept through it. From that peculiar perspective, Tang Zhixue could see all the impurities in the water invisible to the naked eye being settled out and broken down by the power of the Pure Heaven and Earth Divine Mantra.

Simply put, Clear Qi was dealing with the filth.

Tang Zhixue did not notice the wisps of foul qi drifting from the oil lamp he had traded for from Fang Yunxi, which sat on the nearby table.

A layer of fine gray foam rose to the water's surface, giving off a faint, fishy stench. It was the fat and bloody grime remaining in the hide's fibers, driven out by the divine mantra.

At the sight, Tang Zhixue felt a surge of delight. His guess had been right!

Without stopping, he continued reciting the Pure Heaven and Earth Divine Mantra.

With each recitation, more foam collected on the surface, its color gradually changing from grayish white to dark brown.

After roughly ten minutes, no new foam rose to the surface, and the existing foam was gradually eliminated by Clear Qi as he recited.

Tang Zhixue reached in and lifted out the tiger hide, greatly surprised by how it felt.

The tiger hide had become exceptionally soft, like fine silk, and a gentle pinch revealed its delicate, supple resilience.

"This effect... unbeatable!"

Tang Zhixue gripped both ends of the tiger hide and twisted them in opposite directions until it stopped dripping and was tightly wrung into a "damp-dry" state.

After laboriously wringing out the tiger hide, he held it up to the firelight for inspection. He found that the previously yellowed, dull hide was now uniformly clean and white, without a trace of residual flesh membrane.

Even more surprising were the faint silver patterns that had appeared on its surface. They looked like natural cloud patterns and felt slightly warm to the touch.

[Item: Spirit-Patterned Tiger Hide (half-finished)]

[Grade: first tier]

[Description: A Thorn-Horned Mutant Tiger hide preliminarily refined by the Pure Heaven and Earth Divine Mantra. Its surface has been completely purified, and its fiber structure is loose and supple. It can be used directly to make leather goods. With further tanning and stabilization, it can become first-tier Spirit Hide of exceptional quality.]

"A half-finished product..." Tang Zhixue mused. "It still needs a tanning and stabilization step?"

He immediately asked about it in the regional channel, ultimately trading five White Melons to a webnovel writer to learn what tanning and stabilization meant and how to do it.

He raked some wood ash out of the fireplace and spread it evenly over the inner side of the tiger hide.

This was because the alkaline substances in wood ash could help stabilize the leather's fiber structure, preventing it from stiffening again.

Since the hide was now damp-dry, the tiny amount of moisture on its surface was enough for the wood ash to adhere, without being so wet that the ash turned to mud.

Tang Zhixue rubbed it vigorously with both hands, allowing the alkaline components in the wood ash to undergo a saponification reaction with the small amount of fat remaining in the tiger hide, further breaking down impurities while also drying and stabilizing it.

Once he finished applying the ash, he loosely rolled the tiger hide he had rubbed it into into a cylinder, flesh side out and fur side in, rather than compressing it tightly.

At this point, the tiger hide was already damp-dry, and its surface was covered in moisture-absorbing wood ash. Leaving it rolled up would not cause mold; instead, it would help the ash within the hide continue reacting with the fibers while keeping the leather soft.

After rolling it up, he placed it somewhere cool and well ventilated.

Tang Zhixue brushed the wood ash off his hands. "I should know how it turned out tomorrow morning."

Next came the boar hide.

Since the water in the basin had become clear again under the effects of the Pure Heaven and Earth Divine Mantra, Tang Zhixue could not be bothered to change it.

The main reason was that, to change the water right now, he would have to use the clean water collected by the Water-Gathering Grass, which Tang Zhixue found somewhat hard to accept.

With his experience tanning the tiger hide, he handled the Mud-Armored Boar's hide more skillfully.

The boar hide was much thicker and rougher than the tiger hide, and under normal circumstances would have been harder to tan.

But under the effects of the Pure Heaven and Earth Divine Mantra, he likewise completed the purification step in less than an hour.

There was no helping it; most of the time was still spent wringing water out of the hide.

The boar hide became soft and thick, its surface even retaining its naturally formed pebbled patterns, giving it a distinctive texture.

He likewise used wood ash to tan and stabilize it, then rolled it up and placed it beside the tiger hide.