Wei Jing was so shocked by what he saw that he couldn't help but go outside and look at the volcano in the warm wind. He murmured: "It's a little different from what I imagined..."
The heat of the volcano swept in all directions, and most of the nearby ice and snow melted away at once. Wei Jing watched outside for a long time, only to feel the gusts of hot wind making him dizzy and his mouth was dry. He hurried back to the house and said, "Grandpa, we have to go, it will be hot to death here!"
Yang Qiufei and Wei Jing came out of the hut, only to see white smoke covering most of the sky. They covered themselves with ponchos and hoods, took out cloth towels, moistened them with snow water, covered their mouths and noses, and returned to the mountainside hut.
"You are still just playing, don't I want you to hide in the house?" Wei Jing scolded the disobedient monkeys and threw them into the house one by one, while Yang Qiufei drew out his long sword. , opened the pig cage and stabbed the wild boars to death one by one.
"Grandpa, please be merciful -" Wei Jing shouted, coming to Yang Qiufei to plead for mercy for the two big and small wild boars that were just caught today. "Just let these two go, we can't eat so much."
Yang Qiufei did not comment, so he and Wei Jing worked together to drag the big wild boars onto the cart and to the hut. They bled them, cleaned them, chopped them into pieces, put them into big bags, and brought them into the hut.
There was an underground passage inside the house, and there were several small rooms equipped with drinking water, dry food and monkey feed.
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The volcano erupts from time to time, and smoke and dust cover the nearby mountains and areas. Wei Jing and Yang Qiufei, together with hundreds of monkeys, spend their days hiding in this hut and secret passage. They will go out to explore when there is less smoke and dust. It depends on the situation.
After more than thirty days, the volcano finally stopped erupting, and the smoke and dust in the sky had cleared. Wei Jing then commanded the monkeys to carry water and clean up the white ash outside the house.
"Are you ready? Let's go." Yang Qiufei picked up his bag, put his long sword on his waist, and held an umbrella, urging Wei Jing.
Wei Jing was also carrying a few bags. He shouted a few times and summoned a group of monkeys wearing white vests, about thirty of them. Most of these monkeys were the more agile and physically stronger monkeys in the group. , they squeaked, arrived at the blacksmith's workshop, and worked together to drag two carts, on which were placed digging tools such as hoes and shovels, as well as monkey feed and personal sundries.
The grandfather and grandson, together with a group of monkeys, marched toward the volcano in a mighty manner. When they arrived at the volcano, they saw traces of the mountain fires everywhere. The fire slurry had condensed into strange-shaped stone surfaces, and they were also covered with snowflakes. .
"Sure enough, this work can only be carried out in the cold winter. If it is midsummer, people may be burned to death..." Wei Jing spoke, and Yang Qiufei grabbed an iron hoe each, and each led ten monkeys to walk separately. , leaving ten monkeys to look after the cart.
Wei Jing ran towards a small raised pile, dug the ground with a hoe, and dug out the small pile. There was a deep pit at the bottom of the small pile. The pit was about eight percent full of condensed flame slurry. At the mouth of the pit, There is another small sloping pit on the upper edge, and inside is a long fireproof stone basin with a piece of black steel inside, about the length and thickness of an arm.
Wei Jing excitedly took out the stone basin and felt it was still slightly hot. He smashed the stone basin, took out the steel, looked around and couldn't figure out the reason, so he turned around to find Yang Qiufei.
"Grandpa, do you think this is possible?" Wei Jing handed the arm-sized piece of steel to Yang Qiufei. Yang Qiufei took it, inspected it for a while, shook his head, threw it on the ground, and said, "It's not burned enough."
Several monkeys on the ground struggled to drag the steel to the cart, and worked together to throw it into the basket of the cart.
"Ah..." Wei Jing wiped his sweat, looked at the vast wilderness of the hillside, and murmured: "It's really not easy to refine moon iron..."
Over the past three years, Wei Jing followed Yang Qiufei through the mountains, collecting materials for making moon iron.
Half a year ago, Yang Qiufei heard that the volcano would occasionally emit white smoke, so he led Wei Jing and the monkeys to live on Snake Mountain next to the volcano. They stayed there for several months and dug several holes on the volcano. Ten pits were used to create dozens of natural furnaces. The materials for smelting moon iron were put into the pits, waiting for one day when the volcano erupted, and the pits were used to hold the "fire in the center of the earth". To smelt steel.
But this natural kiln is difficult to control. Some pits do not hold enough fire slurry to allow them to burn for thirty days. Some pits are flooded with fire slurry and burn too much, causing the earth and rocks in nearby pits to become lumped together.
Wei Jing and Yang Qiufei spent two days digging out all the steel from dozens of pits. Two-thirds of them were failed scrap metal, which was worse than ordinary steel, but There was also about one-third of the steel, although it was not as good as Yue'er Iron, but it could still be used to make first-class weapons. Wei Jing bundled the steel tightly and placed it on the cart.
There were also three pieces of steel, which were burned best. After Yang Qiufei dug them out, he laughed loudly for a long time. He called Wei Jing over and said to him: "Boy, you always like to claim that you are also the sword king. What do you say?"
"You all say that I'm the 'bastard sword king', or else I'm the 'bragging king' or the 'monkey king'..." Wei Jing answered casually.
Yang Qiufei chuckled and said, "Yes, but I have decided to give you the title of 'Sword King' soon."
"What!" Wei Jing was a little shocked. He took Yang Qiufei's hand and said, "Grandpa, what do you mean by that?"
"Not long after, there will be no 'Sword King Yang Qiufei' in the world..." Yang Qiufei said with a smile. When he saw Wei Jing looking at him in astonishment, he added: "I am Sword God Yang Qiufei'!"
"Hate!" Wei Jing waved his hand and stopped replying. He directed the monkey to prepare the cart, and he and Yang Qiufei went down the mountain and returned to Snake Mountain. However, they did not stay there for a long time, but bundled and prepared the finished and semi-finished weapons. They got on one cart after another and transferred to other places. After dozens of days, they finally returned to Langshan in Sunmei County.
Wei Jing's expression was quite sad, because Yang Qiufei, who had always been majestic and cheerful, was ill. He was over eighty years old.
Wei Jing hired a carriage and several workers to help them transport a large amount of weapon castings. However, the workers were unwilling to send the goods up the mountain. They only wanted to deliver the goods to the tea shop at the foot of the mountain and left in a hurry.
"Little Sword King, you have grown into a man." The tea shop owner handed over two bowls of tea and glanced sideways at Wei Jing. Wei Jing was still angry and scolding the workers. The owner of the tea shop looked at Yang Qiufei again and noticed the haggard face of the former swordsman. Then he showed a worried look and asked, "Is Mr. Yang feeling a little ill?"
"Yes, when the volcano erupted, the place was hot and cold. My grandpa got cold and felt unwell." Wei Jing drank the tea and said angrily: "That's why I'm so angry. Those guys have stopped." Money, but only doing half the work, it’s really abominable!”
"You can't blame them." The owner of the tea shop said: "After you left two years ago, the wolf came back again. It doesn't matter if the wolf comes back, even the bears are here. Nowadays, let alone the travelers who use fruits as they did in the past. Sending away monkeys, even with swords, may not guarantee safety. Two months ago, a few travelers were eaten by bears. It was only after winter that things became a little quieter."
"Is there such a thing?" Wei Jing was a little shocked and murmured angrily: "Those guys dared to invade my territory and hurt people while I was away."
