Upon waking up, Ling Shuying began tinkering in the kitchen.
The seaweed had been dried.
The sand was collected.
The kiln was built.
And the molds…
Ling Shuying touched the bumpy, cracking mud molds mixed with coarse straw, feeling a bit disappointed.
It was simply too rough.
She let out a soft sigh and gently plucked off a few stray stalks of straw.
At least it had the right shape—a neat rectangular frame.
If worse came to worst, she could just polish the glass later.
Glass was relatively easy to make.
Its main component was silicon dioxide, which needed to be melted into a liquid at high temperatures and then fixed into a solid shape using a mold.
The required materials were already prepared: quartz sand, sodium carbonate from seaweed ash, and limestone powder.
Ling Shuying had been grinding the limestone powder since early that morning.
The island had natural limestone, and she had collected quite a bit over the past two days.
She would smash the stones on the ground until they cracked into pieces, then slowly grind them down using a diamond pillar she had found in the mountains, reducing them to a fine limestone powder.
As for the sodium carbonate, it was also easy to process.
The seaweed had already been dried.
She gathered it together, burned it all, and kept the ash.
Then, she boiled the ash in water, filtered the liquid, and dried it once more to obtain a white powder containing sodium carbonate.
Ling Shuying methodically processed each step.
Before long, everything was ready.
With the initial processing complete, the second step was to adjust the proportions and mix the finely ground limestone, sodium carbonate, and quartz sand.
Ling Shuying wasn’t actually very skilled at crafting things by hand, but with the assistance of Qing Ling, things became much easier.
The model generation and computational support provided by Qing Ling gave her a meticulous sense of observation and perception for each material.
Unhurriedly, she adjusted the proportions to a near-perfect state.
The third step was to melt the materials.
During her free time over the past couple of days, Ling Shuying had already built a kiln.
It was a primitive kiln made of slapped-on mud mixed with straw, its surface full of bumpy imperfections.
Well, it was a bit shabby, but it should work, she speculated inwardly while sensing the structural model generated by Qing Ling.
It should work…
probably.
The best parts about this house were, firstly, the building was intact; secondly, the scenery was beautiful; and thirdly, it had an abundance of basic supplies.
Not only did it have sugar and salt, but it also had a fair amount of perfectly sealed matches.
Though not a lot, they were basically enough for the short term.
Ling Shuying gathered an armful of firewood and dry leaves, mixed in some pine branches and straw, and tossed them all into the kiln. This chapter is updated first at g.com.
She struck a match and ignited the straw first, adding kindling bit by bit.
Only when the fire grew larger did she slowly add the stacked firewood.
The temperature of the fire flickered before Ling Shuying’s eyes in the form of a visualized data model.
It heated up, heated up, and continued to rise.
When the temperature reached 1,100 degrees Celsius, Ling Shuying hurriedly used a long wooden stick to push a thick coconut shell filled with raw materials into the flames.
Seeing that the coconut shell didn’t immediately react in the fire, Ling Shuying sighed in relief and wiped the sweat from her forehead.
“Qing Ling, thank goodness for you.
Otherwise, I really wouldn’t have been able to pull this off,” Ling Shuying said, her chest heaving.
Although it didn’t consume much physical energy, doing this kind of work was mentally draining.
The slightest mistake could ruin everything.
Even though Ling Shuying had infinite time, she didn’t want to endlessly repeat the same task.
After all, wasting time on repetitive things was a bit boring.
It was like being cooped up in a lab running experiments all day long.
It would take several hours for the glass to melt, and squatting by the kiln the whole time would be quite dull.
Ling Shuying checked the temperature—a little over 1,100 degrees—added two logs of wood, and left with peace of mind.
Complete melting would take roughly six to twelve hours.
The temperature might drop during this period, so coming back to check on it once an hour would suffice.
She decided to do something else in the meantime.
Like…
going into the sea to catch some fish!
Lobsters, sea crabs, saltwater fish, oysters…
She hadn’t eaten meat in days.
The forest was so beautiful that she wanted to dive into it the moment she woke up every day, but she only ever returned with mountain delicacies.
Today, she was getting some wild game!
The sun was directly overhead, and she wondered what she would be able to catch.
Ling Shuying pondered as she walked toward the coast.
Fish and shrimp were usually easiest to catch during the high and low tides in the morning and evening, while sea crabs, oysters, and clams were also best collected during low tide.
At noon, though…
Ling Shuying saw flying fish leaping from the ocean surface in the distance, and an idea formed in her mind.
Over the azure sea, several seabirds were hunting a certain type of fish.
Seabirds were masterful hunters—selecting their targets, timing it perfectly, and diving down for the catch!
Back and forth they went, and inevitably, some flying fish ended up in their beaks.
But the flying fish were no pushovers either.
They would choose their moments to leap out of the water, dodging the captures and even occasionally slapping a bird in the face.
Watching the energetic flying fish, Ling Shuying’s mouth wouldn’t stop watering.
They were the perfect targets!
Wave-leaping flying fish: capable of gliding, displaying schooling behavior, and possessing firm meat. You are reading on novelping.com, the official source.
Ling Shuying slowly entered the water, though she didn’t go too far out.
Instead, she plunged into the sea and searched around.
GURGLE, GURGLE.
In the time it took to exhale a few bubbles, Ling Shuying found her target.
Sword Algae.
Strong, highly resilient, and long in size—perfect for fishing.
With a stalk of Sword Algae in hand, Ling Shuying returned to the shore.
She used it to craft a highly elastic Sword Algae Throwing Belt and gathered a pile of Shi Tou from the beach.
Placing a Shi Tou in the Sword Algae Throwing Belt, Ling Shuying narrowed her eyes slightly, observing the school of flying fish in detail.
The enhanced vision and observation skills granted by Qing Ling kicked in once again, slowing down the movements of both the flying fish and the seabirds.
Trajectory prediction.
Dynamic vision.
Right when the school of fish flew low to dodge a seabird’s dive, Ling Shuying seized the opportunity.
SWOOSH!
The Shi Tou accurately struck one of them, and it floated to the surface belly-up.
Following the same method, she took down a few more.
Afraid the seabirds might swoop in to steal them, Ling Shuying loaded a handful of volcanic stones into her throwing belt and fired them off—SWOOSH, SWOOSH, SWOOSH—while hurriedly wading into the sea to scoop up her fish.
The Shi Tou scared away quite a few birds, but a stubborn few refused to leave, swiftly snatching away three fish.
A few others drifted away with the ocean currents, leaving Ling Shuying with only two fish retrieved in the end.
Ling Shuying held one in each hand, feeling a bit helpless.
Two would have to do.
One for wind-drying, and the other for soup.
She didn’t actually mind the seabirds snatching a few.
These flying fish were the natural food of the seabirds, part of the ecological cycle.
Birds ate fish, fish ate shrimp; there could be no ecology without this cycle.
If she caught the entire school, the birds would have nothing to eat, leading to environmental deterioration.
Since she only caught two, the impact was negligible.
Ling Shuying was a true ecologist, completely unbothered by trivial matters.
Her main concern right now was how to eat the fish.
Wave-leaping flying fish…
“Ah, right.
The Alliance held some sort of academy culinary exhibition competition in the past, and they showed how to prepare this kind of fish there.
“I think it was…
wind-dried fish fillets, frozen fish maw soup, and crispy bone wings?” Ling Shuying muttered.
She was a scholar who loved secretly cooking in her laboratory.
She was simply craving a good meal.