Chapter 559
A Sustainable Development Strategy
The first test stone was medium-sized. Even if the previous bronzes could withstand the stone, they could not slice it in half so swiftly and smoothly with one strike.
The breath of the people in the room suddenly grew heavy as they stared with growing curiosity at the green bronze sword in Shao Xuan’s hands.
“Let’s try again.”
Shao Xuan motioned Zheng Luo to bring over the test stone that was on the furthermost corner of the shelf. These stones were at least medium-to-high grade stones. There were still some stone scraps left that were used previously for grinding. They were now used as test stones.
When they heard that Shao Xuan wanted to use a medium-to-high-quality stone to test the sword, the two leaders felt quite distressed. What if the sword bent? What can they do if there was a crack in the blade?
However, after Shao Xuan tested the sword, they became speechless.
Because he was worried about the sword, Zheng Luo only threw a piece of upper-middle-grade stone, which was not the hardest stone, but the bronze sword in Shao Xuan’s hand still easily left a hole on it, although it did not cut it in half like it did the other stone. This result already satisfied the people who were in the house.
“This sword is close enough to the one Gongjia Heng cast before, right?” Zheng Luo took the sword Shao Xuan handed over and carefully touched the point on the sword that sliced the stone. He did not see any cracks.
When he was still at sea, Gongjiaheng came back from Gongjia Valley and visited the Flaming Horn tribe. The stone used for the sword test was also of upper-middle stone grade, and it also caused similar damage to the stone. Thus, when Zheng Luo witnessed what just happened, he recalled some memories from that time. That sword was made by a craftsman from the Gongjia family! This sword is no worse than that made by the craftsman.
Zheng Luo suddenly felt a huge sense of pride and confidence. He wanted to shout out and tell the world so everyone would know about this sword.
Look, this is the weapon created by us, the Flaming Horn tribe! It can be matched with those created by the Gongjia family!
In terms of casting skills, the Flaming Horns were naturally not as talented as the Gongjia family who had a long family history of casting. Their techniques were insufficient, and there were also other methods to close the gap between them and the Gongjia family. See, didn’t they just succeed?
Of course, if the Gongjia family had blood from the green-faced fanged beast, they could surely cast better weapons, but they didn’t have them.
Zheng Luo and Duo Kang couldn’t help but celebrate the success in their hearts, but people from the Taihe tribe were also here. They could only guess how shocked they would be. After all, the Taihe tribe had always been ahead of the Flaming Horn tribe in terms of planting, breeding and casting. They really wanted to see their expressions.
What a pity......
They couldn’t see it.
Zheng Luo reluctantly handed the sword over to Ao. He had already seen it, and others were still waiting to see the first new green bronze knife that belonged to the Flaming Horn tribe.
As he opened the door and stepped out of the stone house, Zheng Luo held an ambiguous smile on his face. Only his steps were slightly brisk and trembling, causing the minor leaders outside to glance over at him. But shortly after, the minor leaders shifted their focus back onto the stone house.
Zhengluo had already come out, and the door opened, right? Does that mean that it is complete? Seeing their chief Zheng Luo like this, does it mean that they had succeeded?
So, after Zheng Luo left, the people who were anxiously guarding outside also crowded in.
Shao Xuan didn’t stay in there anymore. He had to look at the few green-faced fanged beasts and follow the plan they had discussed. After this, they would cast a bronze weapon every day, which meant they had to extract a bamboo tube full of beast blood every day for at least six days.
For now, the tribe decided not to kill all of the beasts. Instead, they were planning to keep them alive and use their blood for sustainable development.
When Shao Xuan came back, he also brought back some grass that the green-faced fanged beasts liked to eat. They already started planting these in the tribe, although they grew at a very slow rate. Even if the grass could grow, only a few patches could make it. It wouldn’t be enough to satisfy the bellies of the seven green-faced fanged beasts. They just weren’t sure what the beasts like to eat other than this type of grass.
If these guys were too picky, the Flaming Horns would not be able to implement their sustainable development strategy, and could only eat them as food after extracting their blood. Otherwise, the beasts would starve to death.
Speaking of which, they still didn’t know whether the meat of green-faced fanged beasts was edible.
Shao Xuan remembered that in Fearsome Beast Forest, the corpses of green-faced fanged beasts were incomplete and most of them evaporated along with their blood.
Forget it, they could decide this later. Let’s first see if these beasts eat other things.
When Shao Xuan thought about how to better implement the sustainable development strategy, a new excitement was spreading within the tribe.
The successful casting of new bronzes was indeed inspiring. Its creation was an extremely important matter for the entire tribe. Everyone in the tribe knew that this was a turning point for them. This would mark the start of tool innovation in their tribe.
The news of the success was not disclosed, and only leaders of the tribe and the people who participated in the tasks knew about it. Most people were unaware of this fact. They could only notice a sudden change in their leaders’ facial expressions today. The hazy weather caused their expressions to appear unhappy, but today they were smiling with unusual happiness.
After the first sword was cast successfully, Shao Xuan would continue to use the same method to extract blood from the beasts. This way, not only could they get the blood they needed, but also ensure the beasts stayed alive and uninjured.
With the experience gained from the previous day, Shao Xuan extracted a little less blood than the first day, because he noticed that the beast blood would become saturated after it was added to the molten alloy liquid. The green flame would only keep burning while the alloy liquid would stop flowing and smoothing out if the animal blood was added only after the alloy liquid had entered a saturated state.
Later, the new green bronze weapons cast all proved Shao Xuan’s guess. It also gave everyone a clear understanding of how they should use beast blood. They could estimate how much beast blood was needed for the amount of alloy liquid used.
For seven days, Shao Xuan extracted seven tubes of animal blood from the seven green-faced fanged beasts while the seven beasts still remained unconscious.
Including the big sword that was tested on the first day, a total of seven weapons were cast in seven days. Most of them were swords and axes, but they were all large. They were at least twice as large as those used by other tribes. The weapons used by ordinary people were too light for them.
The shape of the sword and axe were cast according to each warrior’s request. These preferences were shaped by their living habits. Only they themselves knew which weapons suited them most.
However, seven weapons were not enough. The major leaders all had weapons, but the minor leaders and other soldiers who made great contributions to the tribe still didn’t have theirs.
When everyone was ready to start the second round of casting, the seven green-faced fanged beasts finally woke up.
After they woke up, although their mental state was not the best, their temper was still irritable and they wanted to pierce whatever they saw with their fangs.
The extraction of blood still had some effects on them. It was fine for the first beast because it woke up in the middle of hibernation to look for food, but the case was not the same for the other six. They were woken up in the middle of hibernation, caught without having eaten any food, and their excessive movements in the forest also took a lot of energy. They were very hungry, and their green fierce eyes scanned around for food.