"Leader Wei Xian, from now on, please designate this area as a restricted zone."
"No one is allowed to approach except for those involved in the construction."
Wu Liang pointed at the earthen slope; this would become the starting point for the Black Rock Tribe's rise.
"Alright, I'll make the arrangements."
Wei Xian immediately assigned her most trusted guards to place the area under complete martial law.
"Great Priestess."
Wu Liang looked toward Eliza.
"Is there something you need me to do?"
Eliza blinked. Seeing that even Wei Xian, the tribal leader, followed Wu Liang's every word, she naturally had no reason to refuse.
They needed things like iron tools far too badly.
No one wanted to use weapons and tools made of stone and bone forever; having witnessed Roland's powerful iron-clad cavalry, she understood this very well.
"I need a large amount of charcoal, the more the better."
Wu Liang said, "I'll need the Great Priestess to arrange for some manpower to go out and fell a large amount of timber."
"Timber? That's simple enough. I understand."
Eliza nodded and quickly delegated the tasks.
Soon, the entire Black Rock Tribe was mobilized.
While one group went to fell trees, Wu Liang taught Eliza how to construct a Charcoal Kiln.
Eliza was very intelligent; she grasped Wu Liang's instructions almost instantly, requiring very little effort.
Over the course of three days, under Eliza's guidance, the timber brought back was stuffed into the constructed kilns, and they began producing charcoal using the primitive pit-burning method.
Meanwhile, under Wu Liang's supervision, Wei Xian led another group to build an earthen kiln for firing Refractory Bricks.
When the piles of pitch-black charcoal and glowing red, hard firebricks emerged from the kilns, the women of the Black Rock Tribe were excited to the extreme.
They had never seen such things before. The processed charcoal was not only long-burning but also lacked large open flames, making it extremely easy to store.
As for the cooled firebricks, they were incredibly hard—perfect for building watchtowers, perimeter walls, or even houses.
Seeing the changes Wu Liang had brought them, both Wei Xian and Eliza couldn't help but feel their internal perceptions of this man shifting.
They no longer viewed Wu Liang as merely a'seed' for tribal breeding.
"Great Priestess, what do you think of Wu Liang?"
Wei Xian stood on high ground, her gaze overlooking the busy scene in the Tribe as she suddenly spoke.
"Him? He's quite decent."
Eliza's eyes fell on Wu Liang in the distance. He was strolling leisurely through the crowd with a blade of grass in his mouth and his hands behind his back, acting as a supervisor.
Wei Xian glanced at her and smiled.
"I have a strange premonition that this man might truly be a gift specially bestowed upon us by the heavens."
"Perhaps he really can lead us out of these Great Desolate Mountains."
Eliza was slightly taken aback and looked at Wei Xian... After half a month of hard work, the first batch of Refractory Bricks and charcoal was essentially ready.
Thus, Wu Liang officially brought out the blueprints for an Earthen Blast Furnace for smelting iron ore.
The Refractory Bricks fired earlier were all in preparation for this. Under Leader Wei Xian's lead, the women began constructing the Black Rock Tribe's first Earthen Blast Furnace.
A group of people dug a circular pit about one meter in diameter and one and a half meters deep, leaving a vent and a taphole at the bottom.
The inner walls of the pit needed to be repeatedly coated and rammed with a mixture of clay and wood ash.
Finally, it would be dried with fire to increase the blast furnace's high-temperature resistance for melting iron ore.
To Wu Liang, this kind of blast furnace was crude, but it was practical.
However, for these women of the Black Rock Tribe who were still stuck in the Stone Age—especially the ordinary tribespeople—it was still a challenge.
During the construction process, they all turned into curious children, chattering incessantly about everything Wu Liang had them do.
"Why is this man digging such a deep hole?"
"Isn't he just a seed we captured? Why are the Leader and the Great Priestess listening to him?"
"Hey, Wu Liang, why are we plastering the walls with mud? Won't it collapse if it rains?"
"What is this little hole for?"
The Female Warriors responsible for the construction kept asking questions while they worked.
Wu Liang was sometimes left utterly speechless by the questioning.
Knowledge.
The old saying was right: knowledge is always the primary productive force.
He wondered if he should plan a literacy class for them at some point.
Yes, pass on the civilization of Blue Star to them and give these natives a little shock.
Of course, this would require unlocking various key branches of the civilization technology tree first.
It was a long and difficult road, but with Wu Liang's personal knowledge reserves, a simple basic literacy course wouldn't be much of a problem.
Over the next few days, while Wu Liang directed the women in mixing mud and plastering walls, he used the simplest and most direct language to explain the principles of the blast furnace to them.
"This pit is a crucible bestowed with power by the gods."
"Applying the mud is to make the crucible stronger, so it can better withstand the flames that melt stone."
"This little hole is where the God of Wind blows in divine winds to bolster the flames."
He cleverly packaged the physics and chemistry of Blue Star into mythological stories they could understand.
The effect was surprisingly good.
The Female Warriors listened in a daze, and their work became even more diligent.
They even felt as if they weren't just digging a hole and mixing mud, but were instead building a sacred altar.
After Eliza arranged the day's charcoal-burning tasks, she also came to the construction site of the Earthen Blast Furnace.
She stood at a distance, watching Wu Liang methodically direct the Female Warriors.
He would occasionally bend over to check the depth of the pit, test the viscosity of the mud with his hands, or explain something to the warriors.
Those elite warriors, who were usually wild and untamed, were now as docile as a flock of little lambs before Wu Liang.
They did exactly what Wu Liang told them to do without the slightest hesitation.
Eliza's mood grew increasingly complex.
She found that she seemed less and less able to see through this man.
He was like a riddle, a riddle filled with a fatal attraction.
She wanted to solve him, yet she was afraid of being consumed by him.
[Ding! Detected a significant shaking of high-potential target 'Eliza's' mental defenses. Submission +0.2%!]
The system's prompt suddenly echoed in his mind.
"?"
Wu Liang paused, confused, then turned around to see Eliza peeking at him.
Upon seeing that Wu Liang had noticed her, Eliza quickly turned and left with hurried steps.
Wu Liang frowned.
"Man, what's wrong with this woman today?"
Lately, Wu Liang had often noticed this woman stealing glances at him, popping up from nearby at random times.
And she would conveniently grind out a little bit of submission for him.
Every time it only increased by 0.2%, like squeezing toothpaste out of a tube.
Wu Liang shook his head. There was still some time left on the deadline for the mission to conquer Eliza.
Once he was done with the iron smelting, dealing with this little lady would be a simple matter of course.
The construction work continued for several days.
With everyone's efforts, a crude but structurally complete Earthen Blast Furnace finally rose from the earthen slope in the center of the camp.
Now everything was ready; all that was needed was the final push.
According to Great Priestess Eliza's calculations, the auspicious time for lighting the furnace to smelt iron was set for the morning of the third day.
On that day, the entire Black Rock Tribe stopped their work. Everyone gathered around the blast furnace in a dense, dark mass.
Their faces were filled with expressions of tension, anticipation, and reverence.
They were all waiting to witness the descent of a miracle.