I don't understand this technology at all, since it's not something I'm good at.

Yang Rui, who had been very excited, suddenly fell silent. I think perhaps Yang Rui didn't even know how to train iron.

But now that we've found this iron ore, if we can't turn it into tools, then all our efforts these past few days will have been for nothing.

Everyone looked worried, but then I realized that iron smelting was simply a matter of high temperatures.

Then burning it should solve the problem.

So we modified the kiln again, sealing off almost every possible opening, leaving only one. Then we put the iron block into the clay pot we had already fired, and we kept watch outside.

Since we didn't know the time, we booked five hours.

Those five hours were truly agonizing for me.

But I knew that success or failure depended on this one move, so Wang Ping and Chen Jian had no intention of doing anything else and stayed with me by the earthen kiln.

Bai Wei and his group went to the nearby woods to find some more dry branches.

That evening, Wang Xiaoxiao and the others specially prepared the ones we had caught earlier and stewed them into a large pot of soup.

After finishing our meal, it was finally time to finish. When we took out the clay pot, we discovered that the raw iron blocks inside had finally shown some signs of melting, but something was still missing.

Chen Jian had a terrible headache, his brows were furrowed, and he kept pacing around me.

"Brother Sihai, what's going on? Why won't this thing melt?"

Wang Ping scratched his head and said, "I've never dealt with this before, but I feel that iron smelting can't be that simple. You just throw the raw materials in and it melts by itself? Do you need to add anything else?"

My head is throbbing because I really don't know anything about this.

At this point, there was simply no way to obtain evidence.

Just then, a bearded foreigner walked over, looked at us, and said a few words in his own language that I couldn't understand. I called over someone to help translate. The bearded man told us that something did need to be added to the mixture, but it was lime powder.

But where can you find any lime powder in this place?

And I think there was no lime powder back in ancient times, right?

After thinking it over, I think it might be that we didn't have enough time, or the temperature inside wasn't high enough.

I looked at Wang Ping and said, "Go and bring all the firewood we had before. I refuse to believe that these iron blocks will never be able to melt into molten iron."

Wang Ping nodded, and then Chen Jian and the other man brought over almost all of our firewood, and then continued to add more.

After waiting for more than three hours, it was already dark. Wang Ping was a little sleepy, and Chen Jian had already gone back to be with Liu Jiaojiao and Qiji.

As the moon rose and snowflakes began to fall again outside, I took a deep breath and patted Wang Ping on the shoulder: "Let's open it again and take a look at what's inside."

Wang Ping nodded. When we took the clay stove out, I couldn't help but feel overjoyed because the clay, which had always been in block form, had finally melted and turned a fiery red color.

Wang Ping was very excited. After taking it out, he poured it directly onto the stone wall next to him. The molten iron left a shape along the stone wall, and Wang Ping couldn't help but shout out in excitement.

"Sihai! We've succeeded?"

I nodded; it really was because the temperature wasn't high enough.

Looking at it now, this does require a very high temperature, but if we think about it that way, then we need even more firewood.

In addition to searching for more iron ore, we also need to collect more firewood.

The days ahead are likely to be even busier.

Sure enough, for the next twenty-odd days, we had no time to rest at all. Apart from taking turns guarding the camp, almost everyone else went out to search for firewood and iron ore.

Fortunately, through our unremitting efforts, we finally forged a long sword.

Although the knife has a rather strange shape, it is still very sharp after being sharpened.

Wang Ping held the knife, twirling it in front of me with a smug look on his face, then swung it down at the tree trunk beside him.

The tree trunk snapped in two, and cheers erupted from the surrounding crowd. Bai Wei was overjoyed and kept spinning around me.

"Zhao Sihai, could you forge me a long spear? I used to like Zhao Zilong the most; I thought he looked really cool with a spear. This long spear is practical and can even be used for self-defense! Is that alright?"

Bai Wei hadn't joked around with me like this in a long time, and since I was in an exceptionally good mood, I nodded almost without hesitation.

Next, our iron smelting technology gradually became more and more perfect.

It all started out as pig iron, but through forging it gradually became stronger and began to harden, but no matter what, it could never become wrought iron.

It's true that our technology was too rudimentary, but with these things, it's still much better than before.

Wang Ping and I also made a huge pot. This time we finally didn't have to use those clay pots anymore, and this big iron pot was enough to feed everyone in one meal.

These female colleagues can finally relax a bit.

The spiders we kept in the warehouse where we ate earlier had also produced quite a bit of silk, which Xiao Qiang and the others carefully collected. Wang Xiaoxiao, who knew how to knit, used the spider silk to make a small garment.

Surprisingly, the Miracle fits really well when worn, and it's very soft and doesn't tear easily.

The only problem is that there are so few of these spiders; after finding these, there were no more.

Moreover, these spiders are resistant to both cold and heat and are easy to survive, but they cannot reproduce. Otherwise, we would have solved our basic needs for food, clothing, shelter, and transportation.

The firewood had been running low for a short time, and the draft in the house was becoming increasingly noticeable.

Since these gaps in the wood couldn't block the cold wind, I finally decided to take everyone out to find some mud that could be used to make a clay stove. This would both block the wind and make the wood more sturdy.

More than a month passed quickly, but the snow outside showed no sign of stopping.

With nothing else to do, Chen Jian picked up the leaves that we had previously used to make tea, stir-fried them in an iron pot, and a fragrant aroma wafted out. When boiled in the pot, the taste was surprisingly no worse than tea.

That afternoon, we were chatting in the warehouse where we ate when suddenly there was a commotion outside. I rushed out of the warehouse and saw that snow was falling heavily outside. A large group of wild boars had come out of the woods like crazy, passing by our camp and leaving without looking back. They looked like they were running for their lives!

But after these wild boars ran past, no other animals appeared in the woods. So what were these wild boars afraid of?