Several girls went to collect wood to make charcoal, while Lu Zhe continued making clay embryos.
The partners worked busily until nightfall, making two more batches of brick embryos and a large amount of charcoal.
As it was getting late, the brick embryos were not yet dry, so it was not yet time to fire them. They needed to be aired overnight first before they could be fired.
Let's call it a day for the hard work today.
By now, the water reservoir was already full.
Compared to seawater, the water flowing down from the mountains was four to five degrees cooler.
Although it could not be called cool either, it could still provide some relief from the scorching heat.
The girls with their dirty, sweaty faces simply could not resist the allure of the pool and rushed in to take a cold shower.
Looking back, Yongqiang and Shen Bing were left listless from the heat.
Lu Zhe fetched buckets of water to pour over himself, and the two oxen let out sounds of delight as they crowded towards Lu Zhe, competing to be doused.
Lu Zhe had no choice but to splash them with several more buckets before they finally stopped.
Just then, Lu Zhe noticed that the flowers on the cow dung pile had all wilted.
What was going on?
He pulled out one plant to take a look, and the roots had started to rot.
He pulled out a few more, and it was the same problem.
Lu Zhe was rather puzzled.
Weren't cow dung and flowers a perfect match?
Why did it burn the roots?
Was it because there was no compost?
Or was it that they ultimately belonged to different worlds, never able to enter each other's hearts?
How superficial...
As Lu Zhe looked at the pile of cow dung, his thoughts wandered a bit too far.
But the most confusing problem right now was not this.
He recalled how a bucket of instant noodles had ruined the teacher's succulents before. And now a pile of cow dung had ruined the girls' wild flowers.
If this continued, he would soon have the reputation of a flower-destroying brute.
He should transplant them somewhere else!
Because the sunlight was too intense during the day, Lu Zhe decided to plant the flowers behind the cow dung pile.
There were rocks, mud walls and fences here to provide shade and block the direct sunlight all day.
Lu Zhe took a shovel and started digging small pits to plant the flowers in.
Then he saw something unusual.
There was a thin layer of frost-like salt deposits on the exposed rocks.
The legendary saltpeter?
Lu Zhe knew about this stuff but it was his first time seeing it.
He was rather curious.
The ammonia in urine would convert to nitrates at certain times and adhere to the rocks.
In ancient times, commoners who could not afford salt would extract saltpeter from outhouses to eat. This was what they were eating!
Although it was a bit disgusting, they had no choice.
The human body would suffer greatly if it lacked salt. Without sodium chloride, they had to use sodium nitrate as a replacement.
Additionally, saltpeter, brimstone and charcoal could also be used to make gunpowder.
It wouldn't be bad to make some firecrackers to scare away the monkeys either.
But if they were not killed instantly and were left bloodied and screaming in pain, imagining that scene made Lu Zhe feel somewhat merciless.
So if it was to be done, the explosions had to be powerful enough for an instant kill. That would be the most humane.
Besides substituting for edible salt and making gunpowder, saltpeter had a third function!
Cooling!
Most nitrate salts would absorb heat when dissolving in water. There were even specialized saltpeter ice laborers in the Tang dynasty.
Of course, they used saltpeter minerals collected from mountainsides.
How would the cooling effect be with just this little bit of saltpeter?
He would try it out first!
Lu Zhe tossed the flowers aside, took a yogurt cup and carefully started collecting the saltpeter salt.
Soon he collected a small cupful.
He would test it out.
Lu Zhe fetched a large sized tin can, filled half of it with water, then poured in the saltpeter salt, slowly stirring it with a bamboo stick.
Lu Zhe distinctly felt the water temperature dropping. After a while, moisture condensed on the outer wall of the glass jar while the water inside continued cooling.
It really worked!
He placed the tin can on his chest and immediately felt his whole body cooling down pleasantly.
He quickly soaked a small bottle of water in the tin can.
Soon, the girls finished showering and came out wrapped in broad leaves.
"What are you doing there, Lu Zhe?"
"Something good!"
Hearing that it was something good, the girls crowded over curiously. Jiang Yao asked, "What is it?!"
Lu Zhe shook the tin can, "Feel this, it's very cool!"
Then Jiang Yao placed her hand on Lu Zhe's chest.
"Wow, it really is cool!" Jiang Yao exclaimed, "What's going on with you, Lu Zhe?!"
Lu Zhe frowned, "I just had the tin can against my chest for a while, that's why it feels cool!"
Qian Qian said, "Let me feel!"
Guo Er said, "Me too!"
Ning Shu grinned cheekily, "Haha, an ice-cold little bean sprout!"
"Stop putting your hands on me!"
Lu Zhe protested, "Ladies! I asked you to feel the tin can, not me!"
Shen Bing was the most sensible and restrained. She touched the tin can and also gasped in surprise, "It's so cool, Lu Zhe! How did you do it?!"
"When saltpeter dissolves in water, it absorbs heat and cools the water down." Then he took out the bottle inside, "Chilled water, everyone can try it!"
There was only enough chilled 350ml water for everyone to have one sip, but it was enough to instill a sense of hope and comfort in their hearts.
"Where did you get the saltpeter from?"
"The stone wall behind the cow dung pile."
"Ah? So we just drank cow dung water?"
"Of course not. It was just the sodium nitrate crystals that precipitated out. The water in the bottle is clean."
Shen Bing said, "Last time, Lu Zhe and Xiaoguo went to the rocky cliffs. If you didn't return on time, we might have had to extract salt this way to eat."
Jiang Yao complained, "We've been eating urine salt for a few days already."
Qian Qian spoke softly, "If we think about it as our own, I guess it's still acceptable."
Jiang Yao sighed, "Qian Qian, something's not right with you again!"
"No there isn't..."
Ning Shu sighed, "It's a pity there's so little of it. Once we use it up it'll be gone."
"No, this can be used indefinitely!"
"Used indefinitely?"
Lu Zhe nodded, "Sodium nitrate does not actually react with water, it just dissolves in it. Using boiling, we can obtain the sodium nitrate crystals again. When added to water again, it will still absorb heat and lower the temperature."
Tang Xiaoguo said happily, "So taking just a tiny bit each time, it can be used indefinitely?"
"There will be some loss during the boiling process, but with more stock, it can indeed be used indefinitely."
"How can we obtain more of it?"
Shen Bing pondered, "Either find a saltpeter mineral source, or boil large vats of feces, or collect it bit by bit from beside the dung piles."
"Boil vats of shit?! Are you serious?" The girls' eyes widened:
"You can't be joking right?"
"Such a hentai idea, would it be real?"
"Do we even have large vats?"
"It's precisely because we don't have large vats that your ideas of boiling shit will remain but a dream!"
The girls spoke in unison, "We are absolutely not disappointed by that!"
Ning Shu asked, "Lu Zhe, what do you estimate is the possibility of finding saltpeter minerals on this island?"
Lu Zhe said helplessly, "How would I know? At least in all the places I've explored, I haven't seen any traces."
Jiang Yao nodded, "Which means we can only collect it bit by bit from beside the dung piles, right?"
y came from. The chests contained supplies, currency, class-change scrolls, skills, talents… and even godhood! The laws of the world were completely rewritten. This became a world where everyone gambled with their fate! Some people, despite having nothing, opened a divine artifact and rose to the top, eventually ruling the world. Others went bankrupt, opened nothing but worthless junk, and leaped from skyscrapers in despair. Lin Ye arrived in this world from another reality, utterly bewildered. “What is going on? Why is everyone a gambling addict?!” “Opening chests? No way. I refuse to gamble. I’ll start with myself!” Until— On his first chest, he obtained a Mythic Talent: Void Incarnation! He could become completely intangible, pass through all things, and reduce everything to nothingness! … On his fiftieth chest, he obtained a Mythic Weapon: Blade of Karma! With a single slash, karma shattered, twisting the universe and overturning the myriad phenomena of creation! … On his ninety-ninth chest, he obtained a Mythic Divine Treasure: Primordial Purple Energy! It could split open the heavens and earth, create all things, and evolve countless worlds with a single thought! Lin Ye: “Now that I think about it… shouldn’t someone have told me that every chest is guaranteed to contain something Mythic?!”
s the Eldest Princess, renowned for her cold and aloof detachment, became the most docile of lambs, obeying his every command without question. But when the final move was played on the chessboard, as Gu Chenghan seized everything and ascended on the verge of apotheosis, that very Princess suddenly embraced him from behind, her tone carrying a dependence never heard before: "Wait... you haven't yet... commanded me to love you forever." Gu Chenghan froze abruptly. She... hadn't been hypnotized?! ... [The Eldest Princess's Diary] [When my soul was extracted, becoming the sole spectator outside my own shell] [At first, there was overwhelming fury, until I saw] [How he used my sword to effortlessly shatter my inescapable doom] [How he wielded my authority to eradicate fatal conspiracies I had never even detected] [Like a deity, he rescued me from the deep mire I was trapped in] [If not for those annoying vixens, he and I would be a match made in heaven] [I think I am ill, gravely ill] [My deity should belong to me alone] ... "Hypnosis? Oh, it succeeded, my dear Master." "Only this time, it's my turn to hypnotize you."
nd fell into a coma while saving his younger sister from an out-of-control car. He became a vegetable. No one knew that his consciousness had crossed into a world of cultivation. Over the course of sixty years, he began as the lowest kind of mine slave, struggling to survive amid mountains of corpses and seas of blood. By sheer chance, he eventually obtained the complete memories of a fallen Immortal King. Alchemy, medicine, formations, feng shui, physiognomy, artifact forging… Every great inheritance of the cultivation world was now his. But when he opened his eyes again, he discovered that ten full years had passed in the modern world. To pay for his treatment, his father had sold the family’s shop and house, leaving himself covered in lasting injuries and illness. His mother had cared for him day and night, and more than half of her hair had already turned white. His younger sister, who had been only fifteen back then, was now twenty-five. To help repay the family’s debts, she had been forced to lower her head and put on a smiling face in places of glittering lights and endless revelry. Only then did Chen Xuan understand that what he had lost was not merely ten years. He had lost the life his entire family was meant to have. The good news was that he had brought back the memories of an Immortal King’s entire lifetime. The bad news was that his soul had returned alone—his cultivation had not come with him. Spiritual energy was scarce, resources were depleted, and the modern world still had firearms, surveillance, capital, and laws. If he wanted to protect his family, break free from everyone’s control, and become truly invincible beneath the heavens, he would have to start all over again.
ng to die together with you." Lin Xuan is dead, his body thrown into the river by his scumbag lover and her accomplice. She, the president of the Su Group, is decisive, ruthless, and ice-cold. For three days and three nights, she had his body fished out of the river, and without hesitation, she kissed the bloated corpse of Lin Xuan. She laid down beside him in a cold coffin, their fingers intertwined, a smile lingering on her lips as she closed her eyes. The noble and cold-hearted woman, only bending for one man—Lin Xuan. Lin Xuan, with his golden finger, is reborn and returns to the day of his wedding to the treacherous woman. Su Qiang comes to steal the bride. Lin Xuan's eyes light up, eager to pledge his loyalty on the spot, but instead, her kiss transfers a glass of drugged wine into his mouth, causing him to pass out... 【Male Protagonist with Single Female Lead】【Yandere Tycoon】【Action-Packed】【True vs. Fake Heir】
