Chapter 280: The Fluffy Medicinal Herbs

In the time it takes to pierce a chest, an apprentice had sorted out every ingredient in the formula and placed them on the table.

Kraft saw familiar and unfamiliar things inside—the familiar parts mostly appeared in the kitchen and on the dining table as part of the seasonings.

As for the unfamiliar portion, it was truly impossible to distinguish; occasionally, Kraft could match something to a name he had heard by chance during Dai Wei's explanation, but he still could not tell them apart well.

After all, plant mummies and human mummies were much the same: both were shriveled strips, making it hard to see what they looked like in life.

Sliced tubers, segmented stems, curled leaves, and powdered substances.

With rare precision, Dai Wei took a small amount from each, weighed it on a smooth birch board to estimate the proportions, then used a tool that might be made of animal bone to scrape away all the powder and dust completely, striving for exact measurement.

His movements were somewhat stiff, occasionally stuttering by half a beat; he might have been deliberately performing a standard procedure he had not used in a long time.

There was reason to question the point of doing so. The variation in active ingredient content among naturally grown plants should far exceed the tiny mass left on the scale.

Following a specific order, half the medicines were added one by one into a lead pot to simmer.

Noticing Kraft's strange expression, Dai Wei explained, "Lead accelerates the reaction and improves the taste of the potion."

Whether it accelerates the reaction is unknown, but accelerating life is certain.

Under a low simmer, half the water in the pot evaporated; Dai Wei poured in the remaining medicines, refilled it with water, and continued baking.

Kraft watched the entire process with patience but without understanding; the water in the pot turned from clear to yellowish and then black, finally concentrating into less than one-third of its original volume—a thick, dark liquid.

An odor resembling a mixture of cough syrup, mustard, and scorched rice overflowed from it, delivering a heavy blow to the nasal mucosa, strong and forceful.

The maker scooped up a little of the medicine with a spoon about the size of a coffee spoon but deeper, and took a shallow taste on the tip of his tongue.

"Tsk tsk." Dai Wei made a clicking sound with his tongue, his expression relaxing; the finished product seemed to satisfy him.

Tongs removed the scalding lead pot from the charcoal fire, placed it on a charred cork pad, and pushed it toward Kraft, thoughtfully adding a new spoon.

"Thank you." Kraft's politeness made him take the spoon and say thanks, but his sense of safety made it hard for him to take even a shallow taste.

This thing looked like a man-made version of black liquor—black, viscous, and highly suspicious; the only major difference was that black liquor tempted people to touch it, while its smell only made people want to stay away.

It was hard to imagine what state of mind Mr. Barber and other patients were in when they swallowed this; perhaps the pursuit of certain functions drives people toward madness.

"Actually, the taste isn't as bad as the smell." Seeing Kraft's hesitation, Dai Wei said, "Honey should mask some of the bitterness."

【No, my concern isn't the bitterness.】

His two eyebrows tended to twist into a knot. Not tasting it felt like letting Dai Wei down; tasting it felt like betraying his body.

Kraft struggled to scoop out a little, held it up before his face, his lips moved as he recalled the glorious deeds of medical predecessors who tested medicines on themselves, but in the end he still could not persuade himself; he only brought it under his nose to smell.

No miracle occurred. The scent of heated spices masked most of the odor, and he was not a human analyzer capable of identifying molecular formulas by smell.

"Have you never thought to take out each medicine inside and test them one by one?"

"Why would you think that?" Dai Wei sounded slightly surprised at the suggestion of separating them.

"Reactions during the preparation process are hard to predict; changing even one or two ingredients can have an effect. Only a few people with extremely high skill can make optimizations."

"Uh, of course, I'm not saying your skill is in question; medicine compatibility is indeed a very complex subject and also tests luck. Even experienced physicians may invest a great deal of time and still come up with nothing."

It sounded a bit like alchemy; in fact, it really was much the same.

Kraft gave up trying to extract valuable information from Dai Wei, but still held a sliver of hope.

He didn't recognize the dead medicines; what about the living ones?

"Could you show me the living... I mean, the fresh materials?" Before resorting to testing them one by one out of desperation, he wanted to make one last desperate struggle, trying to stir his memory through the plants' appearance.

"That's quite difficult; fresh medicinal materials can mostly only be seen at their place of origin, but if you don't mind, I have an illustrated guide."

Some people's "On the Structure of the Human Body" was an old edition, but his medicinal guide was a new edition.

High-quality leather-bound cover, silver-plated corners, pure-colored paper, written in small script of the classic style, and it even had colored illustrations. The drawing even employed the latest style with a touch of perspective technique, striving to restore true colors and forms.

The page corners showed traces of being curled and then re-pressed flat, indicating the owner frequently flipped through and maintained it.

The book had no table of contents, but that did not stop Dai Wei from flipping by feel to the corresponding position, introducing these magical plants, as well as some magical minerals and animals, as if reciting his own family treasures.

"This is what fresh pepper looks like: smooth green bead strings. You don't see them often, since what we use is mostly dried. Dried pepper is sometimes used to clear the nose."

"Cinnamon is the same; it is actually tree bark. Collecting it causes great damage to the tree, and with rumors of effects that boost reproductive capacity, it has always been in short supply, so the price is not very friendly."

"But precisely because the formula contains cinnamon, I believe it is not something made up at random; at least it is a formula worked out by someone who knows certain medicinal properties."

When speaking about his specialty, Dai Wei became much more talkative. Regardless of whether the accuracy was open to question, his knowledge in the field of medicines was commendable.

Compared to the pharmacy professors at Rivers University, Dai Wei's understanding of medicines might not be systematic, but on certain special details and non-mainstream applications, he was deeper, leaning toward practical application.

Following the formula, Dai Wei flipped out each medicine from main to secondary, "... and this one, Purple Bell. The drawing is very beautiful, isn't it?"

The illustration matched its name perfectly: purple bell-shaped flowers hung in clusters on somewhat slender branches, with dark spots attached at the openings, beautiful yet carrying a subtle sense of danger.

"Actually, it isn't all purple; there are also pale yellow and red varieties. A more rigorous formula would specify which one to use, but this one does not."

"It is worth mentioning that Purple Bell is toxic in both its flowers and leaves, and this prescription does not specify that either."

"Toxic?" For natural plants, the other side of toxicity is often medicinal property.

"Ingesting this plant by mistake causes vomiting, as well as dizziness and headaches; there have been cases of death. Even professional pharmacists strictly limit the dosage when using it."

"Do you have palpitations?"

"I'm not entirely sure; people who suffer poisoning from accidental ingestion are not easy to encounter, and our usage is small, so detailed records are scarce."

An image used in a certain pharmacy class to fill the courseware was dug out from the memory trash heap, overlaid with the picture in the illustrated book before his eyes, sparking a bit of inspiration.

Immediately, various related information responded to the need, unfolding in his mind. "Then are there visual problems, such as patients saying the colors of objects change, turning yellow or green?"

"Probably? Poisoning usually involves some hallucinations."

"Hmm..." Kraft thought quickly, searching around the medicine names he knew for various features that could be used to describe them to Dai Wei. "Then does this plant have a lot of fuzz?"

Suddenly jumping from poisoning symptoms to a description of the herb's texture, Dai Wei took a few seconds to react; if he hadn't personally handled medicinal materials, he really couldn't have answered. "Ah, yes. Have you encountered it before?"

"I've never seen it growing in the fields, but I very much want to see it now."