His gaze turned to the soapstone slab beside the fireplace, which he always considered the ideal low-heat reaction platform. It constantly absorbed the radiant heat from the fireplace, maintaining an evenly warm and dry state across the entire slab.

Then, he used a wooden spoon to scoop most of the mixed minced meat, especially the fish and grouse innards, onto this warm soapstone slab.

There was no intense sizzling sound, nor any burnt white smoke. The even and gentle heat from the soapstone seeped into the minced meat, causing it to slightly contract. He patiently pressed and stir-fried the meat on the slab with the wooden spoon, ensuring the heat evenly penetrated every strand of tissue.

He explained this seemingly redundant step to the camera: "I’m not trying to cook it thoroughly. High temperatures can destroy many protein structures and cause the scent to dissipate. I’m merely using low heat to let the fats and tissue fluids in the innards slightly seep out."

"This process can break the cell membranes, making it easier for the encapsulated smell molecules, such as amino acids and esters, to release into the water, significantly enhancing its early-stage dispersion capability."

When a pungent, almost acrid, mingling scent of fishiness and burnt aroma spread, he finally picked up the waterproof storage bag containing grouse blood from the workbench. The blood inside had long since solidified into an irregular dark red frozen lump.

(PS: This is my first time seeing frozen blood too.)

He did not try to melt it but placed this "blood ice" on another clean slab. With the previously used round stone as a hammer, he carefully and forcefully broke it apart into small dark red ice granules resembling pomegranate seeds.

Then, he separated a large portion of these blood granules and unhesitatingly sprinkled them onto the warm soapstone slab, mixing them with the slighty steaming minced innards.

As soon as the blood granules touched the warm slab and meat, they started to melt, emitting a faint sizzling sound. Yet, they did not revert to an evenly liquid state but rather quickly separated.

Pale yellow serum seeped out first, absorbed by the minced meat and starch powder, while the remaining dark red blood clots physically mixed with the innards like tiny pieces of meat.

He stirred quickly with the wooden spoon, the cold blood draining some heat from the slab, just enough to prevent the minced meat from overheating.

Finally, he uniformly sprinkled most of the ground bulrush root powder into this semi-melted mixture in batches and stirred and pressed vigorously with the wooden spoon.

A wonderful physical reaction occurred. The starch powder from the bulrush root rapidly swelled with water upon being moistened by the serum, undergoing gelatinization, tightly bonding the blood clot granules and minced innards together.

Like countless tiny sponges, it encapsulated the blood and minced meat, locking them tightly. The previously loose mixture, under his stirring, gradually turned into a compact and elastic dark red dough-like substance.

Lin Yu’an’s face lit up with a satisfied smile.

"It’s done!" He scraped the water-specific scent bomb off the soapstone slab and placed it on a piece of birch bark, showcasing his masterpiece to the camera.

It looked like a roughly textured, deep red cake, with visible traces of blood clots and innards on the surface, emitting an extremely intense fishy aroma.

Lin Yu’an poked the compact dough-like substance with the handle of the wooden spoon, "Look, the starch from the bulrush root has fully gelatinized, forming a perfect slow-release matrix."

"It firmly locks those blood clot granules and complex innard flavors inside, with enough weight to quickly sink. Underwater, it will slowly dissolve like a candy, continuously releasing scents to attract fish."

He didn’t clean the still-warm soapstone slab. The fish paste and serum residues on it made the best base layer.

Then, he piled the rest of the minced meat, primarily made of rabbit innards, onto it, adding all the remaining grouse blood ice granules, and additionally incorporating a few crushed hairy scale fish.

While pressing the mixture with the side of a stone knife, he said: "Land predators have a more sensitive sense of smell for mammals but are equally unable to resist the temptation of high fats."

"So in this formula, while retaining the hormonal scent from the rabbit innards and the bloody sweetness of grouse blood, the oil from the hairy scale fish greatly enhances its energy signal."

He still added a small amount of bulrush root powder, but much less than for the underwater bait.

"This time, the goal isn’t to make it a hard solid but to utilize the water absorption of starch to blend the serum, innard tissue fluid, and fish oil into a form that won’t easily freeze into clumps, able to slowly release scents even at low temperatures."

He stirred all the ingredients evenly using the wooden spoon, resulting in a much softer, glossy, intensely aromatic "attractant salve" than the first bait.

"This form is best used for traps." He also scraped this salve onto another piece of birch bark.

"It can be divided into small pieces and placed near the trigger mechanism of a lasso, or stuffed into the crevices of fallen logs."

"Because of its strong scent explosion and presence, it makes attracted animals linger longer, gnawing and sniffing, greatly increasing the chance of triggering the trap." 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝙬𝙚𝓫𝒏𝓸𝓿𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝙤𝓶

After doing all this, he looked at the two types of bait before him. One was for large-scale underwater fishing, like a hard pastry slow-release bait, and the other was for precise trap luring, like a thick explosive salve.

With their formulas and forms entirely different, a sense of taking destiny back into his own hands arose spontaneously!

He didn’t rest immediately, instead using the residual glow of the fireplace to start planning the action for tomorrow.

"Alright, folks, the ammo is ready; next is how to accurately deploy them on the battlefield."

He relaxedly told the camera: "We’ll set off at dawn. The plan is simple: first, head to the riverbank. I’ll chisel open the ice hole near the fishing net and break this solid ’scent bomb’ into pieces, putting them about five meters upstream from the net."

"This way, the current will carry the scent, constantly washing over my net, turning the entire water area into a huge olfactory trap. With more underwater visitors, the chances of netting them naturally increase."

"Then, I’ll take this ’attractant salve’ into the forest. But I won’t just place it in one spot; I’ll smear a bit on the trigger rod of traps, which is a deadly temptation."

"Additionally, I’ll tuck a tiny bit along critical spots of the rabbit trail. What I aim to do is create an irresistible ’scent highway,’ guiding all nearby predators into my trap array."

"Both the water and land system probability increases will be activated simultaneously."

He threw a piece of dry wood into the fireplace, his eyes shining with confidence in the orange glow, "Now, we’re all set, just waiting for the morning light."

————

(2:01, just finished typing, considered posting some innard pictures, but let it be...)