Chapter 86 - 32: Shipping Out
November 24th, according to the newly devised plan, Chen Zhou began transporting firewood up the mountain and stocking up on fresh water.
Close to the forest, firewood was naturally abundant. All he needed to do was walk down the gentle slope and chop down those short trees to obtain a large amount of fuel.
However, living trees contained high moisture content, and if not dried, they would burn with thick smoke and were hard to ignite.
Most of the time, Chen Zhou chose drier branches or dead trees instead.
As for fetching water, taking it from the river at the foot of the mountain was too far. He spent most of the day traversing the woods, exploring, and found the source of the stream in the ravine of Broken Cliff.
It was a stream trickling out of a rock crevice, not much in volume but minimally affected by the dry season and flowed continuously.
With some patience waiting for the bucket to fill up, it was enough for daily use.
In addition, he put a lot of effort into dragging the large iron pot from the kitchen up the mountain.
Compared to the regular iron kettle, this one had a much larger capacity, able to hold one and a half buckets of water, allowing him to boil a week's worth of drinking water at once, so he could focus more on his tasks.
November 26th.
Just after sunset, as the earth lay in twilight, Chen Zhou struck the fire starter, igniting the pyramid-shaped pile of wood inside the cave.
The dry wood on the lower layer easily intensified the fire, while the wet wood atop prolonged the flames, stacked layer by layer, requiring just a single spark.
From twigs and dry leaves to thick logs, the flames spread rapidly.
Thick smoke.
Heat waves.
The crimson glow illuminated half the mountainside, the snake-like black smoke licking the edge of the cave, rising straight up into the windless night.
Like an ancient frontier beacon tower, Chen Zhou's figure was almost hidden in the night, silhouetted by the fire and light.
The temperature kept rising, forcing him to retreat ten meters away, sitting on the slope and washing his face with the spring water from the nearby bucket.
Lai Fu stood even further back, lifting his head among the stumps of felled trees, quietly watching the scene at mid-mountain.
His eyes reflected the firelight, and this merciless creation instinctively made him feel afraid.
Even though he had lived with humans for years, familiar with guns, explosions, and human-built structures and food, all those things seemed insignificant before the blazing flames.
The underlying oppression in his bloodline made it impossible for him to confidently approach his master as usual, only able to watch from afar.
The firewood burned quickly, releasing all its stored energy in less than an hour and a half.
The "pyramid" collapsed at a visibly rapid speed.
The temperature dropped, and the half-burnt charcoal fell from the top, sinking into the soft ash.
Chen Zhou nearly fell asleep from the warmth of the flames. He washed his face again to rouse himself, lifted the bucket, and while the sand and gravel layer was still warm, directly splashed water onto the cave wall.
Sizzle~
The steam, imbued with the earthy scent, rose like a cloud filling the cave, obscuring Chen Zhou's view.
He set the empty bucket aside, then quickly fetched a second bucket, pouring it over another section of the cave wall.
The steam grew denser, but it rose and dissipated quickly.
Under the effects of thermal expansion and contraction, cracks appeared within the tightly bonded sand and stones, separating and weakening them.
The damp cave wall dripped with warm water droplets, its surface blackened by smoke, obscuring its original color. On the ground remained a pile of extinguished charcoal and muddy ash from grass and wood.
Taking advantage of the heat, Chen Zhou picked up the crowbar, prying at and dismantling the fire-scorched sandstones.
The stubborn, hard stones fell down like rain, making him wary of a potential collapse, so he cautiously withdrew from the cave.
Piece by piece, stone by stone.
The crowbar became a key triggering a chain reaction, initiating this unusual downpour.
The bonfire extinguished, leaving dim light.
Fortunately, the high ground and faint starlight and moonlight provided enough visibility.
Chen Zhou watched as the sand formed a thick soil layer, far surpassing the total amount he could excavate in a day's work.
But the flames hadn't burned evenly; the top was most affected, losing the most sandstones, with some from the sides too, while the portion extending deeper into the cave accounted for only about one-third of the total.
Once the sandstones ceased falling, Chen Zhou continued prying into the cave wall, stepping on the piled soil.
After digging about half a meter deep, the effects of thermal expansion and contraction diminished, and the sand layer became hard and resistant again.
Clang~
The crowbar struck the ground as Chen Zhou shook his head.
The method of burning and watering was indeed effective, yet the time consumed in preparing firewood and hauling water was too much, allowing only one burn every two days on average.
Moreover, as more trees were felled downhill, accumulating firewood would take increasingly longer, inevitably reducing work efficiency.
In this manner, aside from saving time in making tools, the fire-burning method had no significant advantage.
"In just four days, it'll be December, and I haven't started working on my flintlock gun yet. Who knows which day in December the Cannibal Tribes will land on the island."
Gazing at the rock face with a straight line of soot in the darkness, Chen Zhou found another reason to abandon the fire-burning method.
If by any chance the Cannibal Tribes landed around December and saw the conspicuous smoke on the mountainside, coming over to investigate, with his current weaponry, it would be tough to fend them off.
This would undoubtedly be inviting trouble and courting disaster.
"Then, the only option is demolition."
...
November 28th was the fourth mysterious reward day. Before this day, Chen Zhou was busily experimenting with the explosive effects of black gunpowder.