Chapter 74: The Iron Age

“Leader, what are these?”

Three objects suddenly appearing beside the furnace immediately drew the attention of everyone in the camp.

Xia Hong’s ability to conjure objects out of thin air was no secret in the Great Xia camp; coupled with the miraculous nature of the iron-smelting furnace, everyone was intensely curious about these three items, all staring at Xia Hong with eager expressions.

Some of the people from Stone Camp had also gathered nearby—mostly the young, the curious; among them were Shi Ping and Shi Lu, Shi Qing’s children.

Xia Hong made no effort to conceal anything and gave a general introduction to the three objects.

The Great Xia people, who trusted Xia Hong completely, were instantly thrilled upon hearing the objects’ powerful functions; but Shi Ping, Shi Lu, and the others from Stone Camp, faced with something utterly unprecedented, wore expressions of doubt.

“Leader, give it a try—activate the wooden dummy, let me spar with it.”

Xia Hong had no intention of wasting time explaining; hearing Yuan Cheng ask him to demonstrate, he waved his hands vigorously in refusal.

【Resources: Wood 1140 Coal 144 Iron 312 Silver 0 Gold 0】

The coal and iron mines were still unlocated; the three buildings just constructed had already consumed so much, leaving little remaining. Until new resources came in, not a single unit could be wasted.

Xia Hong’s brow twitched slightly as he stared at the small remaining pile of coal, picked up a small piece, and tossed it into the iron furnace.

Boom…………

The instant the coal entered, flames surged upward, a wave of heat radiating outward from the furnace, instantly raising the temperature inside the cave.

“So warm—the heat emitted by the coal is this intense!”

“I’m not cold anymore, and the cave entrance is wide open!”

“Did Luo Ge’s camp send us a lot of coal? Can we use it all from now on?”

“Not yet. Once we all break through to the Excavation Realm and can mine coal ourselves, we’ll be able to use it for heating.”

…………

The camp members, sensing the rising temperature, began murmuring among themselves.

Xia Hong felt the heat radiating from the coal and immediately understood why Luo Ge’s camp rarely used wood for heating.

The heat output of coal and wood were not even in the same league, and the smoke produced by burning coal was negligible compared to wood.

Not to mention its use in forging weapons and tools.

The moment the coal was thrown into the furnace, the system displayed the daily consumption rate: twenty units per day.

Twenty units equaled four hundred jin.

Xia Hong couldn’t help but whistle inwardly—this consumption rate was terrifying.

But then he remembered Luo Ge’s camp, where each square wooden house fifty meters on a side burned one hundred and fifty units per day; since this furnace covered a hundred-meter radius, burning four hundred jin daily didn’t seem excessive.

In short, they were poor.

They currently had only 144 units of coal total—enough for seven days of heating if used entirely, but they simply couldn’t afford to burn it.

Xia Hong took a deep breath, picked up two more pieces of coal and tossed them into the furnace, then selected a fist-sized piece of iron ore from the ground.

By weight, iron ore was half the volume of coal; a forty-to-fifty-jin piece of coal was fist-sized, but this fist-sized piece of iron ore in Xia Hong’s hand weighed over a hundred jin.

“According to Luo Ming, iron ore in this world doesn’t need refining—just melt it with coal fire, pour it into a mold to shape it into an ingot, then hammer it repeatedly until forging patterns appear, and it becomes a weapon.”

“The more forging patterns, the stronger the weapon. Generally, once it reaches ten-fold forging, it can pierce the defenses of low-grade cold beasts!”

Recalling what Luo Ming had told him before leaving Luo Ge’s camp regarding weapon forging, Xia Hong’s eyes darkened with thought.

Compared to his past life, this forging process was obviously illogical—but the iron ore in this world was clearly not the same as that on Blue Star.

The weight alone proved it.

Remembering Wang Ming’s massive six-hundred-jin blade, Xia Hong stopped overthinking, selected fifteen pieces of iron ore—roughly six hundred jin total—and placed them directly atop the furnace, then added several more pieces of coal beneath.

“Leader, are you planning to forge a weapon?”

“Of course—he just said that black stone can be molded into any shape. Once the iron ore melts, pour it into the mold, and the weapon will appear, right?”

“Great Xia can forge its own weapons now.”

“We probably don’t have enough iron—maybe only a few weapons can be made now. Once we find an iron mine, everyone will have weapons.”

…………

Xia Chuan and the others watching nearby, seeing Xia Hong’s actions, immediately guessed his intent and all grew excited, murmuring among themselves.

If only it were as simple as they thought.

Xia Hong shook his head silently, said nothing, and walked over to the black polishing stone, placing his hand upon it.

After merely feeling it for a moment, he immediately understood.

The polishing stone deformed under light pressure but became incredibly hard under force—somewhat like a non-Newtonian fluid from his past life, yet clearly far more advanced.

Xia Hong flattened the polishing stone, then gently pressed it into the shape of a blade ingot.

Now, he simply waited for the iron ore to melt.

The heat from the furnace made the entire cave as warm as spring; since no one had slept anyway, everyone gathered around, chatting idly as they waited with Xia Hong for the ore to melt.

After over three hours, nearing the second half of the night, the iron ore atop the furnace finally melted into a glowing, milky-white liquid.

Xia Hong moved the polishing stone to one side of the furnace, stepped forward, and carefully poured the molten liquid into the newly pressed blade-shaped groove.

Hiss…………

As the liquid touched the polishing stone, it solidified instantly, releasing a thick cloud of white smoke.

Long moments passed until all the molten iron was gone; Xia Hong released his grip and looked down at the polishing stone, a smile spreading across his face.

“Go get some water.”

Xia Chuan immediately ran to the wall, scooped up a ladle of water.

Xia Hong took the ladle and poured it onto the polishing stone.

The sudden temperature shift triggered another violent burst of white smoke.

No one showed impatience; all leaned forward, necks stretched, waiting for the smoke to clear and see whether the blade ingot had formed.

After more than ten breaths, the smoke dissipated, revealing on the polishing stone a long, black blade ingot—half a meter long, narrow at the top, wider at the base, with a distinct curve at the hilt—undoubtedly the shape of a blade.

“This is just the ingot—it’s not a blade yet, is it?”

“It’s very close. It probably still needs shaping—didn’t the Leader bring back a blade before? We’ve all seen it.”

“It needs forging. The Leader knows—he’s doing it now. Look.”

…………

Xia Hong lifted the blade ingot from the polishing stone and placed it atop the furnace, then began gently kneading the polishing stone again.

Under his light pressure, the polishing stone quickly took the shape of a hammer; when he left a half-meter handle, he stopped.

He secured the blade ingot on both sides of the furnace with wood, raised the polishing hammer, took a deep breath, and brought it down with full force onto the ingot.

Clang…………

A crisp strike rang out through the air.

Clang… clang… clang… clang… clang…

A rhythmic series of hammer blows followed; to the listeners, it sounded like celestial music, their faces filled with anticipation, pupils reflecting the sparks from Xia Hong’s strikes, as if something deep within them had been gently stirred.

Xia Hong moved like an endless machine, striking harder and harder.

He didn’t know what the others in the camp were thinking,

but his own emotions had reached a peak of exhilaration.

Because the blade ingot he was forging now, in some sense, marked the official beginning of:

The Iron Age for Great Xia Camp.

(End of Chapter)