Chương 63: Mass-Producing Black Powder

After Li Qinwu preliminarily confirmed that the soil around the Nether Tree was nitre soil, he immediately conducted more meticulous testing. He ordered a bonfire to be lit to obtain high-temperature red charcoal, then threw the nitre soil onto the charcoal to burn. High-quality nitre soil, when contacting high-temperature charcoal, emits a crackling popping sound, representing a high potassium nitrate content.

The test was gratifying; a handful of nitre soil thrown into the fire popped incessantly—the potassium nitrate content was very high! This also explained why nothing grew around the Nether Tree. Nitre soil can actually be used as fertilizer, and high-quality fertilizer at that, but once the concentration of potassium nitrate reaches a certain level, it becomes highly toxic to plants. Thus, nothing grew nearby; it was a case of "burning the ground with too much fertilizer."

After the test, Li Qinwu's eyes were filled with affection as he looked at the Nether Tree. Perhaps to others, this tree was the incarnation of death, but to him, "Ashu" (the tree) was an industrial treasure bestowed by nature! He had even thought about how many children he'd like to have with Ashu. Li Qinwu had already decided: once the Hero Party was dealt with, he would expend massive manpower to build a ring of city walls around the Nether Tree to protect it!

Additionally, he had to research how to increase the probability of the Nether Tree spawning Skeleton Soldiers. This thing was a mob spawner; if utilized well, he wouldn't have to work so hard running around grinding in the wild. While thinking, Li Qinwu saw the skeletons on the ground and had an idea. He commanded the Goblins: "Throw the skeletons around the Nether Tree. From now on, don't throw away the bones from your hunts; collect and pile them all here!"

The Goblins acted according to orders, picking up the skeletal frames and tossing them around the tree. Although Li Qinwu hadn't figured out the exact spawning mechanism, "Skeleton Soldiers" must involve skeletons, right? He felt that piling a large amount of bones would likely increase the spawn rate. Once the Goblins finished piling the skeletons, Li Qinwu opened the Mount & Blade system and scattered all the bone meal he had gathered from previous loot onto the bone pile.

After finishing this, he relocated 200 Goblins to the site to facilitate the mining of nitre soil. Furthermore, he ordered the Ogre family to use large wooden stakes to encircle the Nether Tree, building a simple prison so that spawned skeletons would be trapped, waiting for Li Qinwu to bring his troops for grinding. With matters at the Nether Tree temporarily concluded, Li Qinwu brought dozens of tons of mined nitre soil back to the Goblin tribe. He immediately began the preparation of black powder.

First, he established three small factories far from the tribe, mainly used for processing and purifying the three raw materials. Then, a synthesis workshop was built for the final mixing of the powder. Because this stuff was too dangerous and could easily explode if handled carelessly, the gunpowder factory was built with the sturdiest concrete. At the same time, each workstation could only synthesize a maximum of 500 grams of powder, and each station was separated by thick concrete walls.

This way, even if an explosion occurred, it would only kill the operator themselves, reducing the chance of a chain reaction! For the synthesis workers, Li Qinwu selected Hobgoblins. These fellows, with IQs comparable to normal humans, were more reliable than ordinary Goblins—but only slightly.

To improve the yield rate and avoid seeing "Patrick Star" (the explosion mushroom cloud) in this alternate world, Li Qinwu conducted strict teaching, making sure they must, must, must follow the procedures, or they would be beheaded in public! If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it. To this end, he lived and ate in the gunpowder factory for over a month, staring at the workers every day like a disciplinary dean.

He trained the workers to the point where they developed a sixth sense; as soon as Li Qinwu appeared behind them, they would break into a cold sweat and execute the process 100% according to the rules. Nearly a month of safety production teaching was carried out in the workshop, turning safety into muscle memory implanted into the Hobgoblins' brains. Only then did Li Qinwu feel slightly relieved. The factory began steadily outputting black powder, but to increase its power, Li Qinwu wanted to granulate it.

The Transmigrator's Encyclopedia mentioned a method: adding starch. Li Qinwu had a stone mill made to de-husk the wheat obtained from loot and grind it into flour, grinding it repeatedly—the finer, the better. The flour was mixed with water and kneaded into a dough, roughly the consistency of dumpling wrappers, then placed in water and kneaded continuously until the water was full of white pulp. The dough was set aside, and the pulp was allowed to settle for a day.

After pouring off the water, the sediment was starch. The starch was naturally dried and could be sieved or ground to remove large particles. Li Qinwu did both: grinding to remove large bits and sieving to obtain fine powder. The starch was mixed with water to form a white pulp, into which black powder was added while stirring until it became a dough-like consistency. A mold was used to press the dough into cakes to increase density.

The cakes were naturally air-dried, crushed, and sieved, resulting in granulated black powder with relatively uniform particles. This increased power while providing a certain degree of moisture resistance. After another half-month of struggle, Li Qinwu finally obtained a stable and large-scale source of gunpowder. He had completely mastered a weapon of immense destructive power! How to exert that power became his new research direction.

The first was naturally the explosive pack—the simplest and most direct method of destruction. To unleash the powder's potential, it needed to be compressed in a confined space, and binding it into packs was one way. However, the Monster Forest was a tropical rainforest with high humidity; explosive packs could easily fail due to dampness, which would be a fatal joke if the Hero arrived. Li Qinwu chose the Demolition Tube (爆破筒).

He had Iron-Orc create a cylindrical iron mold, similar to the structure of a water bottle—this was the main body of the tube. It weighed 3 kg empty and could be filled with 10 kg of black powder. After production, Li Qinwu ordered workers to paint the inside and outside of the tubes with a black paint to eliminate static electricity and improve safety. The black paint came from a tree Li Qinwu found while hunting.

The bark was stripped and boiled, then filtered to obtain a liquid from a tree similar to a lacquer tree. However, this boiled black juice was very smelly and the finish was matte—basically, it was ugly. No one would actually use it for furniture, but fortunately, beauty didn't matter for demolition tubes. The tubes were filled with powder and compacted.

A cotton string soaked in potassium nitrate was inserted as a fuse, and the mouth was sealed with concrete, followed by another layer of black paint for moisture proofing. A demolition tube, looking like an enlarged water bottle, was complete. Li Qinwu took his system troops into the deep mountains, placed a tube among a stand of large trees, and lit the cotton string. Minutes later, the fuse reached the powder. A world-shaking explosion roared through the forest, startling birds within a 3-mile radius.

The Goblins Li Qinwu brought were terrified, screeching and frantically looking for a hole to crawl into. Had they not been system troops, they would have likely fled in terror.

"QUIET!!!" Li Qinwu bellowed, and only then did the Goblins stop. Li Qinwu went up to inspect the blast site. A thick smell of gunpowder smoke hung in the air. There was a half-meter deep crater in the ground. The nearest tree had been snapped, and trees within 10 meters were all affected. If this were used on Goblins, the lethal radius would be at least 20 meters. But against the Hero... it was hard to say.

Li Qinwu felt that for a Hero, it would require a "face-to-face" blast, with a lethal range perhaps within 5 meters. The Hero had appeared too strong in the vision; any further away, and the blast might only blow some dust in his face. Li Qinwu breathed a sigh of relief. Regardless, he now had the capital to face the Hero. But a new question arose: How could he deliver the demolition tube within 5 meters of the Hero?