Everything proceeded smoothly, and after an hour of diligent modification, the stone powder and charcoal in the kiln were finally mixed again.

I lit the fire in the firebox once again.

With the ventilation system in place, the firewood underneath had only been burning for a short time when a small gust of wind began to flow in from the firewood inlet, directly into the interior of the kiln.

Seeing this, I couldn't help but feel happy. It seemed that there was no problem with my organization, so I added another bundle of firewood to the firebox.

As the temperature in the firebox below continued to rise, the charcoal at the bottom of the furnace bridge began to glow white, and the fire showed a tendency to spread rapidly upwards.

I quickly continued adding firewood into the firebox until it was completely full before I stopped.

This was a great success; it seemed to have been much faster than I had anticipated.

In just about an hour, the charcoal inside had burned through most of the kiln. At this point, the temperature emanating from the furnace was too high for me to stand beside.

The scorching heat rippled through the air at a visible speed, and even from a meter away, I was already drenched in sweat.

Another half hour passed, and the adobe kiln body became even redder due to the high temperature inside.

Even at a distance of one meter, I still felt extremely hot and unbearable. After standing there for a while, my body started to ache from the heat, so I had to move further away from the kiln.

Now I'm starting to worry that the walls of my shed might be damaged by the high temperature.

Fortunately, I had positioned the stove more than a meter away from the wall beforehand; otherwise, the wall would probably be smoking and burning by now.

This also reminded me that after this copper smelting is completed, I must add a heat insulation layer to the outer furnace body.

Otherwise, if the shed catches fire, all the hard work I've put into building it will be for nothing.

The entire furnace is now glowing red-hot, and I imagine the temperature inside must be even higher. At this temperature, there shouldn't be any problem smelting copper!

At this point, I became a little curious, so I lay down to look at the furnace bridge at the bottom.

At this moment, the furnace bridge had already been heated to a bright red, like steel, by a large amount of wind blowing in, and some liquid was dripping continuously from the furnace bridge into the firebox.

Upon seeing this, I could not hide my joy; the liquid dripping out must be molten copper!

With this molten copper, I'll work overtime today to forge a decent knife!

Now there's no need to burn firewood; the charcoal burning completely in the kiln is enough to refine all the stone powder inside.

I need to make plans for the future. Unexpectedly, this misfortune turned into a blessing in disguise; the modified ventilation system will significantly accelerate my smelting process.

I took some more clay and started to mold the wooden axe into the clay to create the shape of an axe.

I feel that an axe is more practical than a knife these days. Having an axe makes things like chopping trees much easier, and it's also much easier to make than a knife.

I also fired a ceramic pot in this kiln to melt copper, just waiting for the molten copper to be refined.

I can use this earthenware pot as a crucible to melt the collected molten copper again and use it as copper liquid for casting objects.

While waiting for the stone powder to be fully refined, I made several molds of everyday items out of clay.

I made a mold of almost every kind of everyday utensil I could think of, including hammers, chisels, bowls, and spoons.

Finally, I plan to make a pot. With a metal pot, I can say that I have returned to the civilized social order.

More importantly, I can once again enjoy the pleasure of stir-frying food in a pan, which is what everyday life should be like.

But making a pot isn't as easy as you might imagine. I do know some methods for casting pots, but these ancient techniques require paraffin or beeswax.

The principle of the lost-wax casting process is to use high temperatures to melt and drain the wax in the mold, thereby obtaining the cast object.

The lost-wax casting method is not feasible for the time being, so I can only try to make this pot in another way.

I started digging a hole in the ground with a stick. The first step in making the pot was to create the curved bottom.

After digging a pit of suitable size, I began to spread clay evenly on the pit to make it into a curved surface.

Next, I took some dry thatch, which I had prepared in advance so that it could be used for casting someday.

I laid all the thatch in one order, and after the first layer was laid, I started to lay the second layer in a crisscross pattern.

After laying three layers in total, and feeling that the thickness was about the same, I started to use clay to evenly spread a second curved surface on the top layer of thatch.

After completing the curved surface, I added several pouring ports at the edge for injecting molten copper. This allows the hot molten copper to be poured in instantly through these ports, filling the space inside.

Looking at these various molds that I made, although they weren't exactly beautiful, I was still very satisfied.

Everything is ready now, except for the final push.

About an hour later, the fire in the kiln began to dim. The temperature around the kiln was also not as intense as before.

I know it's time to reap the rewards!

First, I took out the molten copper that had solidified again from the firebox. At this point, it had either become countless copper particles the size of raindrops or small lumps of copper connected together.

It took me almost twenty minutes to rummage through all these things before I finally got them all out of the fire pit, cooled them with water, and put them into a basket.

I picked it up in my hand and it felt heavy. The metal smelted here probably weighs more than twenty pounds, which is enough to make some everyday items.

I then used tongs made of twigs to take out the fired pottery pieces one by one, but these pottery pieces didn't go as smoothly as when I was smelting copper.

Perhaps because I didn't air dry them properly and rushed the process too much, many of the ceramic bowls cracked.

In the end, only one cup and the earthenware pot were still barely usable, but the upper part of the earthenware pot had a crack about the size of a thumb.

Although I felt it was a bit of a pity, I knew that I had been too hasty. If the pottery had been air-dried before firing, the success rate would have been much higher.

However, it's already quite good that two items have been found so far, especially the pottery jar. Although it has a crack, the lower half is still relatively intact, and with a little more copper added, it can still be used.

Before the earthenware pot could cool down, I poured some copper into it, stopping only when it was halfway submerged.

Then I put the pottery jar back into the kiln and added some more charcoal around it. Soon the whooshing sound came again, and the charcoal became even brighter.