Chapter 39 The Art of Playing it Hard! For the sake of cement, let's go! ...

The group headed deeper into the mountains.

The further you go, the more precipitous the terrain becomes, and the more peculiar the vegetation becomes. Some tree branches are strangely twisted, the colors of the rocks are varied, and a faint, indescribable mineral scent permeates the air.

"Uncle Stone Fist, are you sure this is the way?" Lin Yue looked at the increasingly unfamiliar surroundings and felt a little uneasy. "This place looks... a bit eerie."

Stonefist scoffed, “What’s there to be afraid of! We dwarves make our living by digging for food in these piles of rocks! Follow me, you won’t go wrong!” Although he spoke toughly, his hands clenched unconsciously, clearly showing that he wasn’t entirely unconcerned about this area.

After walking for most of the day, and crossing a steep mountain ridge, the view suddenly opened up before us!

A huge, almost pure white rock wall*, like a block of tofu cleaved open by a god, suddenly appeared before them!

The rock face shimmered dazzlingly in the sunlight, creating a striking contrast with the surrounding dark rocks. Scattered below the rock face were white stones of various sizes; some were porous, crumbling into white powder when pinched, while others were relatively hard, possessing a marble-like luster.

"This is it!" Stone Fist pointed to the white rock wall, his tone tinged with pride. "This is the 'snowflake stone' I was talking about! Look, isn't it different from ordinary stones?"

Lin Yue quickly stepped forward, picked up a fist-sized white stone, and examined it closely.

This stone is indeed very special. It's not very hard, and the surface has some fine textures. The color is a pure milky white, and it looks... quite pretty.

He tried scratching it with an iron dagger, easily leaving a white mark.

"System! Quick! Scan! Identify!" Lin Yue silently chanted in his mind.

[Rock scanning... Composition analysis: The main component is calcium carbonate (CaCO3), with a content of approximately 92%-97%, containing small amounts of impurities such as magnesium carbonate, silicon dioxide, and aluminum oxide. Identification result: High-quality limestone! An ideal raw material for the production of quicklime and cement!]

[Value Assessment: Important non-metallic mineral resource. Widely used in construction, chemical industry, metallurgy, and many other fields. Reserves: Extremely abundant!]

Limestone! It really is limestone! And high-quality limestone at that! Extremely abundant reserves!

Lin Yue was so excited that he almost gave Uncle Shi Quan a 360-degree Thomas-style hug on the spot!

"That's wonderful! That's wonderful! Uncle Stone Fist! You're our lucky star!" Lin Yue exclaimed incoherently. "This stuff is another key material for building our big brick house!"

Shi Quan was a little confused by his sudden enthusiasm, but when he heard "You are simply our lucky star", he couldn't help but puff out his chest and put on an arrogant expression that said, "Of course, look who led the way."

Gray and Amu also curiously picked up the limestone and looked at it. Although they didn't understand what the white stone was for, they knew from Lin Yue's ecstatic expression that it must be something good.

Only Xiao Fen showed no interest in the inedible stones, and instead chased after a brightly colored beetle nearby.

Having found the key raw material, the next task is—to mine it!

Although the system says the reserves are extremely rich, they currently lack proper mining tools. They can only dig with pickaxes and hammers, clanging and banging.

Fortunately, limestone is relatively soft and much easier to mine than iron ore.

With everyone working together, clanging and banging for most of the day, they finally collected several large baskets full of limestone. Although they were exhausted, everyone's face was filled with the joy of a bountiful harvest.

On the way back to the restaurant, Lin Yue felt as light as if he were walking on clouds.

He has the red bricks! He has the limestone! As long as he accumulates enough points to exchange for cement technology, his dream of a grand red brick and cement house will be just around the corner!

When the time comes, I'll build him a three-bedroom, two-living room house with a separate kitchen and bathroom, add a living room with a fireplace, plant flowers and plants at the entrance, and dig a moat outside the fence... Tsk tsk, this kind of life is simply too wonderful!

He even started thinking about whether to build a luxury single room for Gray and Stonefist as well, to recognize their outstanding contributions to the construction of the small restaurant.

Of course, before realizing these wonderful visions, he had to solve a most basic problem first—how to turn these limestones into usable glue.

Although he couldn't afford the cement technology in the system store yet, Lin Yue remembered that lime itself was an ancient cementing material!

Limestone is calcined at high temperature to obtain quicklime. Quicklime reacts with water to become slaked lime.

Quicklime, when mixed with sand, volcanic ash, and other materials, can be made into lime mortar. Although it is not as strong as cement, it is still much better than pure mud for building brick walls!

Moreover, the firing temperature for limestone is much lower than that for iron smelting, around 700 or 800 degrees Celsius is sufficient. Their ugly-looking brick kiln should be usable with a few minor modifications!

"Uncle Shi Quan!" Lin Yue made up his mind and immediately found Shi Quan, who was studying iron ore. "Could we modify our brick kiln a little to fire this kind of white stone?"

Shi Quan picked up a piece of limestone, then looked at the simple diagram drawn by Lin Yue about how to burn limestone to obtain quicklime. He stroked his beard and pondered for a moment:

"...Burn this kind of stone? What do you want to do with it? This stuff turns into white powder after burning, and it heats up when you add water. It's useless." Clearly, he didn't understand the cementing properties of lime.

"It's useful! It's extremely useful!" Lin Yue smiled mysteriously. "Uncle, don't worry about what you're going to use it for, just tell me if it can be burned?"

Shi Quan thought for a moment: "...If the temperature requirement isn't too high, it should be fine. However, firing this kind of stone is different from firing bricks. It needs to be slowly roasted with a low flame, not directly roasted with an open flame, otherwise it's easy to over-fire or under-fire." He started showing off his knowledge again.

"No problem! You're very experienced, you can guide me then!" Lin Yue quickly flattered.

They made simple modifications to the existing brick kiln, reinforcing the kiln walls and adjusting the fire channel to make it more suitable for burning limestone.

Then, the mined limestone is broken into evenly sized blocks and carefully stacked into the kiln chamber.

Ignition! Heat up!

This firing process was much gentler than brick firing. It mainly relied on the smoldering firewood for a long time.

Lin Yue and Gray took turns controlling the fire, while Shi Quan kept a close eye on the situation inside the kiln, occasionally reminding them that "the fire is too big" or "it's time to add firewood."

After a long night of waiting, when the kiln fire gradually died down and the kiln cooled down the next morning, they finally ushered in the moment of opening the kiln!

Upon removing the soil covering the area, a slightly pungent, dry smell of lime wafted out.

Inside the kiln, the originally milky white limestone had turned into chunks of loose, whiter quicklime!

[System notification: The first batch of quicklime has been successfully burned. Quality: Medium (contains a small amount of unburnt cores and overburnt lumps). Main component: Calcium oxide. High activity.]

[Unlock achievement "Turning Stone into Ashes"! Gain 300 experience points and 80 system points! Improved Chemistry/Materials Science skill proficiency!]

"Success! It's quicklime!" Lin Yue excitedly picked up a lump of quicklime that was still warm. Although it looked no different from ordinary white stone, in his eyes, it was simply the concrete of the future!

He couldn't wait to verify its amazing effects!

He had someone fetch some water, and then carefully dropped a piece of quicklime into the water.

"Sizzle—!"

When quicklime comes into contact with water, it reacts violently immediately! It releases a large amount of heat and billows of white smoke! The originally hard rock rapidly disintegrates, turning into a pile of fine, moist white powder—hydrated lime!

[System notification: Quicklime has been successfully converted into hydrated lime (calcium hydroxide). It has good cementing properties. It can be mixed with sand, volcanic ash (if available), and other materials to make lime mortar.]

"Fantastic! This is the effect!" Lin Yue looked excitedly at the pile of steaming quicklime, feeling that he had taken another big step closer to building a red brick and cement house!

To celebrate this major technological breakthrough and to reward everyone for their hard work over the past few days, Lin Yue has decided that we must have an extra meal tonight!

He was going to use the newly fired red bricks to build a makeshift oven! And then, using this new oven, he would bake the first batch of fragrant... potato pancakes!

Let everyone taste the delicious food made with high technology! Consider it a warm-up for the future cement industry!

The aroma of the baked potato pancakes is irresistible; they are crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. Sprinkled with a little salt and spice, they are simply a delicacy.

Everyone ate with gusto, their mouths glistening with oil, praising the food endlessly, their fatigue from the past few days completely gone. Xiao Fen, in particular, ate until her face was covered in gravy, clinging tightly to a potato pancake.

After a hearty meal, Lin Yue looked at the small oven built with red bricks and freshly made lime mortar. Although it was only a temporary structure, it was quite sturdy.

He nodded in satisfaction. Lime mortar was indeed much better than pure mud; it should be no problem to use it to build a single-story hut or a wall.

However, when Lin Yue thought about his magnificent three-bedroom, two-living-room house with a separate kitchen and bathroom, flowers planted at the entrance, and a moat dug outside, he felt that this lime mortar... seemed to be missing something.

Strength, durability, and especially waterproofing are unlikely to meet his long-term plans.

Especially when he thought about the strange and unpredictable weather in the Cursed Land, and the potential dangers, his desire for stronger and more reliable building materials resurfaced like bamboo shoots after a spring rain.

"Sigh, we still have to stick with cement!" Lin Yue sighed inwardly. Lime, after all, is just a transitional measure. The real key is cement!

It seems it's time to think of other solutions; we can't keep letting the system lead us by the nose forever, can we?