Book Synopsis
Book Tags
Donation Rankings
Comment
0 Comments
You May Also Like
墨書 Inktalez
"Have you heard that there's a gathering causing trouble here?" Zhou Liangzhang pushed aside the grass with an abacus, his eyes darting around in search of someone.
"In response to your inquiry, my lord," Seventh Uncle trembled as he bowed, "I am merely fulfilling my filial duty—leading my children and grandchildren to clear the waterway for the Dragon King."
Just as Zhou Liangzhang was about to explode in anger, the One-Armed Veteran suddenly slammed a hammer down on the rock drill. Chunks of stone flew up, grazing Zhou Liangzhang's cheek and leaving a mark on the glossy satin collar of his garment.
"You!"
"My hand slipped," Old Soldier said, shaking his empty right sleeve. However, the cold glint in his one eye made the Yard Officers collectively take a step back. "Back in the day, Salhu..."
Before he could finish, several Yard Officers had already grabbed Zhou Liangzhang and were dragging him away. Lin Dahe noticed that as they left, Zhou Liangzhang secretly scattered something into the crevice—some kind of black powder that could burn skin!
"Don't touch that!" he hurriedly stopped Aunt Wang's son from trying to clean it up. "Use a wooden shovel to scrape it off and seal it in a clay jar."
Cui Xiaoman squatted down, poking at the powder with a twig. "It's the same stuff we found in the fields last time..."
"The same kind," Lin Dahe said, looking toward the western mountains. "The Zhou Family Mine must have something strange going on."
The system interface suddenly updated: [Task Progress 38%], while the countdown had reached [62:07:22]. Even more unsettling was that the red dot representing Zhou Liangzhang was rapidly moving toward the county town—where a skull icon flickered, marking "Household Finance Wang Dian Shi."
When the last loose boulder was pried from the rock face, everyone fell silent. Moonlight streamed through the newly opened gap, illuminating the gray-white rock layer opposite—it looked like a cold iron wall; even striking it with a steel drill only left a white mark.
"Firestone Rock." The One-Armed Veteran tapped it with an iron hook; the echo was dull like a drumbeat. "This material was used for the beacon towers of the Great Wall back in the day."
Lin Dahe felt the rock surface as system analysis data scrolled before his eyes: [Silica content 92%, Mohs hardness 7]. He opened the skill tree for "Basic Demolition Techniques," and a red warning popped up: [Lacking basic materials such as Nitre and Sulfur].
"If only we had thunder cannons..." Zhao Blacksmith's son muttered quietly. "My grandfather said they used those when mining during the Hongwu period."
In the ancestral hall late at night, oil lamps cast shadows of three figures onto the family tree. Lin Dahe was flipping through records related to firearms when the One-Armed Veteran suddenly pressed down on his hand. "The village does have Nitre."
They followed Old Soldier to the grass hut where Mad Old Woman had lived. Moonlight slanted through broken windows, illuminating a faded spinning wheel in the corner. Old Soldier lifted a floorboard to reveal a clay jar wrapped in oilcloth.
"We found this while repairing the roof two years ago," he said as he pried open the wax seal, revealing a jar full of gray-white crystals. "The old woman hid it her whole life."
Lin Dahe pinched some between his fingers and touched it to his tongue; an intense numbing sensation made him sneeze—this was high-purity Nitre! The system immediately displayed a formula: [Potassium Nitrate 75% + Charcoal 15% + Sulfur 10% = Black Powder].
"We're short on Sulfur," Old Soldier sighed. "Within a hundred miles, there's only..."
"The Zhou Family Mine!" Cui Xiaoman burst in from outside, her skirt dripping with water. "I followed the tracks of the ore carts and found them refining Sulfur in West Mountain Hollow!"
She opened her palm to reveal several pieces of yellow-green ore that glimmered eerily under the light. Just as Lin Dahe reached out to take them, an alarm from the system blared: [Arsenic-bearing Pyrite poses contact poisoning risk]!
"I'll go get it tomorrow," Cui Xiaoman said, wrapping up the ore in cloth but suddenly began to cough.
"No way!" Lin Dahe grabbed her wrist firmly. "I have a plan."
Comment 0 Comment Count