The two sat around the dining table. An Lan looked at Lu Fan and said, "It's not easy to have a hot meal like this in the middle of nowhere."
Lu Fan took a bite of venison, chewed it with satisfaction, and replied indistinctly, "Yeah, the day I grow rice will be the best."
The next day, just as dawn was breaking, Lu Fan jumped out of bed like a wound-up alarm clock.
He dreamt about tinkering with gunpowder last night, and the crackling sounds in his dream almost kept him awake.
"Anlan, get up! Today is the big day that gunpowder was invented!"
As Lu Fan dressed, he shouted at the top of his lungs, his voice echoing throughout the shelter, almost lifting the roof off.
An Lan groggily got up, muttering sleepily, "So early, can't you let people sleep a little longer..."
Before she could finish speaking, Lu Fan's swift movements jolted her awake.
Live broadcast room.
"Lu Fan is so excited!"
"We're about to make gunpowder. I'd be excited too!"
"Gunpowder is a powerful weapon that can change the course of history."
"If the great god Lu Fan were to travel to ancient times and rely on gunpowder, wouldn't he become a king of a different surname?"
"Speaking of time travel, how come you don't know that the great god Lu Fan didn't time travel to save us?"
"This live stream is getting more and more gruesome the more you watch it."
Lu Fan had already moved the sulfur he had collected yesterday, the saltpeter he had stored, and the carefully selected charcoal onto the table.
"Ah Qiu~"
Lu Fan couldn't help but sneeze: "Who's talking about me?"
"An Lan, don't underestimate these three things. When they're put together, they become incredibly powerful gunpowder!"
Lu Fan's eyes gleamed with excitement, like a magician about to perform an amazing magic trick.
He first picked up a piece of saltpeter and tossed it in his hand.
"This saltpeter is the key to gunpowder. It provides oxygen, which makes the gunpowder burn more fiercely."
Just like how we need staple food when we eat, we can't do without it!
As he spoke, he carefully used a small hammer to break the saltpeter into powder, his focused expression as if he were carving a rare treasure.
Next, it was sulfur's turn. Lu Fan picked up a piece of sulfur, held it to his nose, and smelled it, frowning.
"This smell is really strong, but it acts as a combustion aid in gunpowder, like giving the flames a boost and making them burn brighter!"
He ground the sulfur into a fine powder, his technique as skillful as that of a professional pharmacist.
Finally, there was charcoal. Lu Fan picked up a piece of charcoal and gestured in his hand: "This charcoal is like the 'fuel' in gunpowder. Without it, gunpowder wouldn't be powerful!"
He put the charcoal into a stone mortar and pounded it vigorously with a pestle, muttering to himself as he did so: "Pound and pound, pound out the best gunpowder!"
An Lan watched Lu Fan's flustered yet serious demeanor and couldn't help but laugh: "You're acting like you're preparing a super grand feast."
"This is a super feast! For me, gunpowder is more important than any delicious food!"
Lu Fan didn't even look up, continuing to fiddle with his precious device.
With the powders ready, the next crucial step is mixing.
An Lan stared wide-eyed at Lu Fan's actions, and Lu Fan suddenly froze.
"What is the ratio of this gunpowder formula...?"
The mass ratio of potassium nitrate, charcoal, and sulfur is approximately 75:15:10.
Just as Lu Fan was deep in thought, the Heavenly Dao's notification came to his rescue.
Upon hearing this, Lu Fan couldn't help but secretly praise him, saying "Great job!"
Then he took out a large bowl and poured in saltpeter powder, sulfur powder, and charcoal powder in a certain proportion.
As he poured it, he muttered, "The proportions are just right. If there's too much or too little, the gunpowder won't taste like what I want."
An Lan, watching from the side, couldn't help but remind her, "Be careful, don't cause any accidents."
"Don't worry, I know what I'm doing." Lu Fan patted his chest to assure him, but his hands were trembling slightly with excitement.
He picked up a small wooden stick and began to slowly stir the powder in the bowl.
The action was like stirring a cup of rich coffee, except that if this "coffee" went wrong, it would be no laughing matter.
After stirring it well, Lu Fan looked at the dark powder in the bowl and nodded in satisfaction: "Look, this is the prototype of gunpowder! But it still needs to be processed to make it more perfect."
He added some water to the bowl and then began to gently knead the powder with his hands, turning it into small lumps.
As he rubbed the powder, he said proudly, "Look at my skill! The gunpowder pellets I rubbed are even more uniform than those made by machines!"
An Lan, watching from the side, couldn't help but tease, "You're just bragging. But now that you've made this gunpowder, how do you plan to use it?"
"This will be incredibly useful!" Lu Fan's eyes lit up.
"In the future, if we encounter danger, we can set off some gunpowder to scare those wild animals. They'll be so scared they'll run away in terror."
It can also be used for hunting. Just put gunpowder into a bamboo tube, add some stones, throw it next to the prey, and with a 'boom,' the prey is caught!
Or you can use it for mining, no problem at all.
As he spoke, he even imitated a hunting scene, gesturing wildly, almost spilling the gunpowder he had just made.
"Don't just think about hunting. You have to be careful when using gunpowder. It would be bad if you hurt yourself," An Lan said with a worried expression.
"Okay, I'm not a child anymore."
Although Lu Fan said this, he was still a little proud of himself. After all, he had made gunpowder by his own hands, which was a great "secret weapon" in the wilderness.
Once the gunpowder pellets were ready, Lu Fan carefully packed them into a ceramic jar.
He held the pottery jar as if it were a priceless treasure, a proud smile spreading across his face: "Now, all we have to do is let it dry!"
An Lan looked curiously at the black lumps in the earthenware jar, somewhat incredulous: "Gunpowder has been made already?"
Seeing An Lan's doubtful look, Lu Fan couldn't help but burst into laughter: "Do you think it's too simple? There's no earth-shattering process like you imagined."
"Mm." An Lan nodded.
Lu Fan smiled and explained, "Many great discoveries in history have come from the ordinary. Besides, I am just replicating gunpowder according to the formula. Compared to those predecessors, I am nothing. They created gunpowder from scratch through repeated experiments. They are the truly remarkable ones."
Live broadcast room.
"Gunpowder is made already? Lu Fan is awesome."
"Hehe, now I know the recipe too."
"Gunpowder is nothing, I have even more advanced technology."
"Hey upstairs, I'll provide the materials, you provide the technology, let's pull off a big heist."
"Huh? You two, this seems to be a public live stream room, right?"
Lu Fan placed the gunpowder in a well-ventilated place and waited for it to dry.
Then he began to select some bamboo tubes of suitable thickness and started to study them.
Seeing how busy he was, An Lan finally couldn't help but speak up.
"Lu Fan, we need to talk."
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