Live Streaming: Great Adventure in the Wilderness

Chapter 500: Chapter 497 Forging Iron

“Is this iron?”

“It’s iron!”

“It’s really iron!”

“Holy shit, it worked, it really worked! Bi Fang has smelted iron!”

Cheers erupted from the crowd in the first venue.

Some even set off fireworks on the spot, with ribbons falling from the sky and landing on everyone’s heads.

“It worked!”

“Holy shit, where did these fireworks come from?”

“Thirty-six yuan each, the little shop next door sells them, they call it a physical reward…”

[This is a miracle!]

[Iron!!!!]

[So much charcoal, that’s a lot of lamb skewers, right?]

[The temperature must be ridiculously high!]

Bi Fang used a long wooden stick to clamp the ingot of iron, but it seemed to be firmly stuck at the bottom. Left with no choice, he had to take it out along with the furnace bridge.

The moment the furnace bridge emerged from the land, the camera zoomed in quickly. On top of the furnace bridge, the black lump of iron was uneven. Many parts were still glowing red, flickering like the metal was breathing.

He hit it hard with a stone, and it almost visibly deformed, a sign that it was near melting…

Amazing.

Audiences both domestic and international were left in awe.

Before Bi Fang, no one had been able to venture alone into the jungle and smelt iron from nothing…

It was too extravagant.

Compared with this, those who found “wild ore” and brought it to factories to smelt were undoubtedly crap!

This was no longer about teaching wilderness survival or manual skills; it had reached the point of how to rely on wisdom to rebuild civilization entirely without modern amenities!

The appearance of iron put Bi Fang’s live stream on an entirely different level from the past.

It used to be simple Wilderness Survivalist, but now, it was completely different.

From catching fish to chicken soup, from lean-to shelters to fenced ones with roofs, to having raincoats on rainy days.

All sorts of stone tools, salt, and now iron.

All the essentials of life were there, and even more high-end materials had appeared.

No one doubted that if Bi Fang had brought a packet of wheat seeds instead of just shorts and a grass skirt when he got off the plane…

No!

Maybe just a piece of potato would suffice, or he might not even need that, given more time to search; he could probably find a stable source of carbohydrates to cultivate!

[GOD!]

[Even God couldn’t conjure a piece of iron in the wilderness.]

[This is the birth of civilization]

[Messier presents the host with Spaceships*10—In honor of civilization!]

[Fat Cat Pete presents the host with a Yacht*1—In honor of civilization!]

[Pork Heart and Shrimp presents the host with Meatballs*66—In honor of civilization!]

[I have no money, but! In honor of civilization! A small salute to Master Fang!]

[What I’m watching isn’t a live stream, it’s the evolution and progress of human civilization]

The audience was even more excited, speaking without filter. Anyone who had followed the process for over ten days and witnessed the birth of iron would react the same way.

As many as six million viewers witnessed this scene, what civilization is, what wisdom is.

Do thoughts come first or physical objects? Huaxia didn’t have tables and chairs in the past not because there weren’t the materials or capability, but because the concept of tables and chairs didn’t exist yet.

The most valuable thing in this world isn’t oil or gold mines but human thought.

Thought, more precious than gold or diamonds, is the most precious treasure of human civilization, and any attempt to confine human thought is bound to be backfired upon.

“You guys are too excited, and of course, I am too.”

The violent beating of his heart made Bi Fang start to gasp for air.

He explained, “But my goal isn’t just iron smelting, remember what I said at the beginning? To make an iron tool, at least a dagger.”

“I have somewhat overestimated the yield of iron bacteria.”

Bi Fang placed his hand next to the lump of iron, and only then with a point of reference did the viewers realize how small this red-glowing lump was.

It was only as big as a fingernail!

This piece was clearly not enough; it was far from the requirements for an iron sword.

“I originally thought ten lumps of soil would be enough, but now five are only fingernail-sized. It seems that’s not enough, but there’s no need to worry. Besides the yellow iron bacteria, I also dug up some rusted soil later. The soil cakes made from the rusted soil have a higher iron content, which will be enough to bring us a surprise.”

Bi Fang took deep breaths repeatedly, calming his excited heart.

At this moment, the end was far from near, for after the iron smelting came the iron forging.

“The ooze secreted by these iron bacteria is primarily composed of iron hydroxide. I added charcoal as a reducing agent C and ash from vegetation as a fluxing agent K2CO3. The three were mixed into a clay pellet, which was placed in the furnace and fired at high temperature to successfully produce iron.”

“Under high temperature calcination, the ash decomposes into potassium peroxide and carbon dioxide, which reacts with the carbon dioxide produced by combustion and then with the charcoal to form the gas carbon monoxide. Carbon monoxide ultimately reduces the already oxidized clay to obtain elemental iron.”

“If we smelt all the iron out, it becomes much more difficult to melt it again since it’s already in its elemental form. Although there may still be many impurities inside, it’s incomparable to the earlier powdered iron oxide.”

The original plant ash was powder, and the iron oxide was also powder; their mutual blending made the reaction naturally simple.

Bi Fang smashed the black lumps in front of him with a rock, extracting all the iron bits, a process which to his surprise yielded some bonus finds.

The rough iron pieces weren’t just the one on the surface; there were two smaller ones inside, adding up to the size of a knuckle. Aside from these three pieces, there was a myriad of tiny iron grains, but altogether, they weren’t much.

Bi Fang immediately took advantage of the heat, placing another five clay pellets inside the furnace, continuing the smelting process.

“Don’t put too many clay pellets at once; too many might be counterproductive and fail to burn and react fully.”

By evening, Bi Fang had smelted twenty clay pellets, obtaining an iron ingot slightly larger than his index finger.

He weighed it in his hand, and it felt heavy.

“Is it enough? I feel like…”

“Should it be about flat now?”

Bi Fang shook his head, “It’s not enough. What I can make with this is only a blade. What use do I have for a blade, to shave?”

Touching the stubble on his face, Bi Fang laughed at his own words.

“What I want is a practical knife, at the very least a dagger. Not to mention there are many impurities inside, so the volume will reduce even further during the forging process.”

In the following two days, Bi Fang continued to smelt iron, and went out hunting with a bow and arrows in the meantime, catching a snake and a wild rabbit, while also netting fish from the fish farm.@@novelbin@@

Day sixteen of surviving in the Banna Rainforest; five days remained until the mission’s end.

“Hey!”

Just as he dumped the fish into the water hole, the water monitors, now accustomed, started to run over, but Bi Fang scared them away with a spear thrust.

Having lived together for so long, the water monitors had grown increasingly bold and dared to come over for feeding even when Bi Fang was nearby—he didn’t mind, he wasn’t blind.

After being hit hard last night, grumbling and cursing under their breath, they had been a bit more cautious today.

“Sounds good, huh? If it sounds good, it’s a good start.”

“Hahaha!”

Coming inside the shelter, there were already dozens of iron ingots of various sizes on the ground. Often, a single clay pellet could yield several fragmented ingots, the largest being the size of a knuckle, the second-largest the size of a fingernail, and smaller yet, bits and pieces the size of beans.

Bi Fang gathered all the iron in his hands, barely able to hold it all.

It was heavy, to speak of weight alone, almost one kilogram!

Even accounting for wastage, if reduced by half, it would still weigh half a kilogram, 500 grams.

The weight of a tactical knife generally hovers around 400 grams, and that’s the total weight including the handle. The iron at hand, weighing a pound, was more than enough for Bi Fang to forge a dagger.

The only issue was forging it; he had no hammer, only a stone one…

There are indeed stones harder than iron, quartz, diabase, and such, but they’re only hard, not tough, and can easily break when struck.

If he relied on that to hammer, his arm might break, wouldn’t it?

He’d try it later; Bi Fang shook his head, wondering if he could first melt these iron chunks and directly cast and forge them; that would be much simpler, at least simpler than forging directly.

With just five days remaining, Bi Fang felt an urgency. He had originally thought he had plenty of time after finding the iron bacteria but hadn’t expected that the true challenge lay in crafting the knife!

Gathering all the iron, Bi Fang returned to the side of the blast furnace, placing the iron chunks into a ceramic bowl, sprinkling plant ash over them, and surrounding them with kindling wood to ignite. He continued to add charcoal throughout the process without deviation.

By now, the audience no longer cared whether an iron knife could be made or not. Without the System’s task assignment or Bi Fang’s sense of urgency, they felt content the moment Master Fang produced iron.

The white smoke ceased.

Bi Fang lifted the furnace lid and took out the ceramic bowl.

Fortunately, the crimson iron showed signs of melting, but just signs. The actual melting began only with the iron grains at the bottom of the bowl.

Thousands of grains, each less than a third the size of a rice grain, melted together, clinging to the bottom of the bowl.

“To fully melt the large lumps of iron, the conditions are still not quite enough,” Bi Fang said, looking up at the over two meters long chimney.

The current conditions weren’t sufficient; it needed to be further improved!

“The chimney needs to be further lengthened to three meters. We also need to make a bellows so that afterwards, it will be almost enough.”

Tossing the iron lumps back into the bowl, Bi Fang went straight to work.

He went back to the riverside, dug the clay, cleaned it, extended the chimney, and then began to make the bellows.

The construction of the bellows was very simple.

“The main components are the inner fan and the external housing that restricts the airflow.”

Bi Fang took two pieces of stiff bark, each twenty centimeters long and five to six centimeters wide. He carved a groove in the middle of each, then fit them together, forming a cross-shaped fan blade.

He then took a fine wooden twig, peeled it clean, scored a cross on one end with the Stone Dagger, split it into four flaps, and inserted it into the center of the fan.

Both ends of the fan were bound securely with fiber rope to ensure it wouldn’t disintegrate due to material issues. Holding the long stick, Bi Fang rotated it, testing it beside the campfire. The airflow was substantial.

Then, using clay, he crafted an external housing around the fan to concentrate the pumped air through a single outlet.