Chapter 117: The Temperature Of The Flame
Yun Ce sneaked out of the manor, the red date horse sneaked behind him, then Yun Ce mounted the red date horse and, taking advantage of it being crescent moon night today, they sneaked together toward the volcano.
The volcano is called Dragon Mountain. It is said that Dragon Lake at the foot of the mountain came into being because of Dragon Mountain. Great Han people might not understand, but someone like Yun Ce who has a bit of geographical knowledge still knows it.
After a volcano erupts and enters dormancy, at this time, the blocked water veins will gush out from fractures in the underground layer. Those with conditions become rivers, those without become lakes.
Dragon Mountain has no mountain peak. On the mountain peak is just a huge crater, and the crater is divided into two parts by the mountain body. One part holds water, but the water cannot stay on the mountain peak, so it flows out from a low notch, forming a waterfall that is not so spectacular but has a very large drop.
The other side is terrifying. Smoke pillars often rise from the bottom of the pit. If one can pass those yellow stone-like things, one can see a pool of magma lake about eleven or twelve meters in diameter constantly boiling.
The red date horse was left alone at the foot of Dragon Mountain. Yun Ce quickly went up the mountain along the path between the mountains. The path leads to the hillside on the north side, where one can see the wondrous sight of wind blowing the waterfall into mist. As for the hillside on the east side, basically no one goes there.
Dragon Mountain is not high, especially compared to the surrounding mountains—it is only half as high as others. This should be because the volcano eruption cut the mountain in half at the waist.
At the beginning, there were still some tall reeds here. After Yun Ce continued climbing upward for another hundred meters, looking around, there was not a blade of grass.
A strong sulfur smell came from the crater. Yun Ce put on the gas mask from his equipment and walked forward another hundred or so meters, then saw sulfur everywhere on the mountain.
The purity of the sulfur here is very high. Yun Ce grabbed a handful, and the sulfur lumps crumbled. He rubbed his fingers, and they were slippery between them.
1 Yun Ce had already had people collect quite a bit of glauber’s salt from Chicken Dung Mountain. If the glauber’s salt could be purified, plus the sulfur here, the ingredients for gunpowder would basically be ready.
1 At this time, he naturally could not care about things like sulfur. Under Doggy’s urging, he came to the limit his body could bear, which was less than ten meters from the crater.
1 The rocks here had already begun to soften. Walking further forward, the soles of his shoes would definitely melt.
1 “This place is too close to the ancestral fire enshrined in the Dragon God Hall in Chang’an City. What if the ancestral fire discovers it?” Yun Ce asked cautiously.
1 Doggy said: “I’ve calculated it. From Dragon God Hall to here is two hundred and sixty li. From the ancestral fire discovering Chuyun Prefecture Shehuo, to determining the location, until the warriors ride albatrosses here, it will take at least forty-five minutes, possibly longer. Our test time for Shehuo here will not exceed thirty minutes, so it should be safe.”
1 Yun Ce sighed and said: “The ancestral fire communicates with heaven and also with the earth’s veins. We are only guessing its power. Leave another ten minutes buffer. In twenty minutes, we evacuate immediately.”
1 While Yun Ce was speaking, a silver thread pulled a clump of bright yellow flame and appeared in front of Yun Ce.
1 Looking at the flame jumping at the tip of the silver thread, Yun Ce said: “Shehuo can’t burn your tentacle anymore?”
1 Doggy, who was working hard to move Shehuo toward the crater, said impatiently: “This is a super-strong tentacle woven from sixteen tentacles.”
1 “Be careful, don’t let Shehuo touch the ground. I heard that once this thing touches the ground, it will take root, and then it probably won’t be willing to reside in the dragon pearl.”
2 Watching Shehuo gradually rise to the crater, the magma that was just bubbling began to churn. The originally dark black surface was gradually covered by the churning magma, and large clumps of flames rose upward.
2 In an instant, those scattered flames covered the entire crater.
2 Doggy shouted joyfully in Yun Ce’s mind: “I said Shehuo is actually fire energy. It can absorb spirit energy from myriad homes’ lights, and it can absorb instinctual fire energy from other fire sources.”
2 Seeing the pool full of flames gradually forming a fire dragon that shot toward Shehuo, Yun Ce shouted to Doggy: “Start timing.”
2 The place from which one can overlook the entire Chang’an City is called the Unfinished Palace. The place from which one can overlook the Unfinished Palace is the Divine Dragon Hall.
2 Tonight, as usual, a faint yellow glow emanated outward from the windows of the Dragon God Hall. These glows were unaffected by the crescent moon, condensing the light into nearly real existences—wind could not blow them away, rain could not extinguish them.
2 The elderly high priest leaned against a fire pit about eight feet square and dozed off drowsily. In the fire pit burned a fire, not large, just about two feet square, wandering idly in the fire pit.
2 In the fire pit, there were also hundreds of candle flame-sized fire seedlings jumping around the ancestral fire like children, flickering. Some fire seedlings even playfully jumped into the ancestral fire, going in and out inside, busy and delighted.
2 Suddenly, the ancestral fire stopped wandering and stayed in one place. Moments later, the ancestral fire’s flames suddenly surged up. From two feet thick, it rapidly covered the entire fire pit. Golden yellow flames shot straight up to the high caisson ceiling of the Dragon God Hall.
2 The high priest, who had been resting with eyes closed, suddenly opened his eyes. His eyes were no longer old and cloudy, but sharp like a hawk or falcon. He stretched out his hand, thrusting his entire arm into the fire pit, letting the golden yellow flames scorch it without moving.
3 Also in mere moments, the high priest slowly withdrew his arm, carefully placing a candle flame burning on his finger back into the fire pit, and rolled up his wide dark gold sleeve.
3 He muttered to himself: “Chuyun Prefecture Shehuo, has it not been extinguished yet?”
3 He looked fondly at the candle flames still bouncing around in the ancestral fire’s body. After a long time, he sighed deeply, picked up the golden striker, and struck the green chime beside him once.
3 “Ding”—a chime sound with a vibrato echoed in the huge Dragon God Hall. Immediately after, a small Taoist boy walked in from outside the door.
3 “Tell Xiang Zhongyuan that Chuyun Prefecture Shehuo is now in the range within three hundred li of Chang’an… no, east… if he can retrieve Chuyun Prefecture Shehuo, remember to bring it back.”
3 The Taoist boy bowed and left the Dragon God Hall.
3 The high priest looked indulgently at the ancestral fire that had returned to its original state, and gently flicked a candle flame that had floated out of the fire pit, sending it back to the ancestral fire’s side.
3 “Ancestral fire, Shehuo was originally one body. What talk of rebellion? It’s just some naughty children wanting to wander outside for a while. It will come back sooner or later.”
3 Yun Ce watched as a fire pillar like a fire dragon shot into the sky, almost reddening half the sky. Sweat poured down, and he knew they were done for this time—as long as one was not blind, they would know something was happening here.
3 At this time, Chuyun Prefecture Shehuo was like a naughty child, darting around in the huge fire pillar, appearing extremely lively.
4 Under Yun Ce’s stern shout, Doggy finally reluctantly retrieved Shehuo and immediately burrowed into the dragon pearl.
4 Yun Ce also, in the first moment, jumped away from the crater like a projectile.
4 With Shehuo gone, the sky-high fire pillar immediately collapsed. By the time Yun Ce sped all the way to the foot of the mountain, twenty albatrosses had already risen into the sky over distant Chang’an City, circling in the sky.
4 Yun Ce whistled. The red date horse grazing not far away immediately spat out the grass in its mouth and came over following the sound. Without further ado, Yun Ce mounted the red date horse and sped toward home.
4 Half an hour later, Yun Ce returned to Yun Family Manor. He patted the red date horse’s buttocks, letting it go to the stable by itself, while he tiptoed toward his bedroom.
4 Just as he was about to reach the bedroom, a window opened, revealing Zhang Min’s cold face.
4 “Not sleeping at night, went thieving?”
4 Yun Ce curled his lips and said: “Went to be a flower-picking thief.”
4 Zhang Min was about to ask more when E Ji’s voice came.
4 “Young Master, come back soon.”
5 Yun Ce raised his eyebrows at Zhang Min and quickly returned to the room.
5 Zhang Min sniffed her nose. She smelled a strong unknown odor. Although she didn’t know what it was, at least it proved Yun Ce had gone out to do something bad.
5 As soon as E Ji came up, she clung to Yun Ce’s neck, sniffing around his clothes. After smelling a faint stench, she stripped off all of Yun Ce’s clothes, stuffed him into the bathtub, and sat by the bathtub herself, huffing and puffing as she washed his clothes.
5 It was also when Yun Ce returned to the manor that four albatrosses flew over from the direction of Chang’an City. After circling the smoky crater once, because albatrosses extremely dislike the smell at the crater, they did not stay long and flew back to Chang’an.
5 Earlier, although a fire pillar rose from Dragon Mountain’s crater, the time it rose was too short, and it was thought to be just a brief volcanic eruption.
5 Lying in the bathtub, Yun Ce relaxed his body and asked Doggy.
5 “How was the effect?”
5 “Not much effect. Shehuo was playing with fire; it likes playing with fire. It seems you still need to quickly conquer a territory, let Shehuo touch the ground and take root, so it can continue to receive nourishment from myriad homes’ lights.”
5 “You think too highly of me? Conquer the land now?”
5 “You’d better hurry. You keep saying you’re a descendant of bandits. Back then, you trampled the heads of who knows how many reactionaries. Now, you don’t even have a bit of territory. Hurry up and rebel.”
6 Yun Ce did not continue discussing rebellion with Doggy. Even now, his cognition of this world was still very vague. Rebelling now was no different from suicide.
6 Doggy was like a boss who only knew to make demands, completely ignoring whether Yun Ce could accomplish them.
6 When sleeping, E Ji hugged Yun Ce’s head, her breasts that had just developed pressing tightly against his face. Although she didn’t know what Yun Ce had been doing, from the terrifying smell emanating from his clothes, E Ji knew that what he had done earlier was not entirely safe.
6 That night, the guards of the Great Han Dragon Terrace Guard did not sleep. They really wanted to catch the guy who took Chuyun Prefecture Shehuo and run away, and then tear him to pieces.
6 Since the Yellow Emperor pointed out the operating rules of heaven to the world, established the four directions for the ground, and divided the vast ground into thirty-six prefectures, all the ground belongs to the Great Han.
6 Under the whole sky, is it not the king’s land? Within the four seas, are they not the king’s subjects.
6 A mere bean-sized Shehuo, where can you run to?
