Super Righteous Player
Chapter 647 - 188: Saltpeter Ranch and the Demon Breeding Industry_1

Chapter 647: Chapter 188: Saltpeter Ranch and the Demon Breeding Industry_1

With Henry Walden’s perception attribute, he could of course hear what they were saying.

But although he could understand each word, when strung together they became completely incomprehensible to him... There were even many transliterated words that sounded like jargon, which he had never heard before.

For a saint, it was indeed a novel and rare experience to discover knowledge completely unknown to him.

This was undoubtedly quite a novel and rare experience.

Seeing Saint Henry again, the players also became serious and stopped joking around; instead, they respectfully greeted him with a bow.

"As for that..."

Lin Yiyi also felt troubled.

She wasn’t quite sure how to explain this to a saint either.

It felt like trying to explain game jargon to a kind but elderly teacher from the grandparents’ generation...

This probably was what they called a generational gap.

At this moment, Jiu’er was the first to speak to him:

"—Can we touch his corpse?"

"...Touch the corpse? Jacob’s?"

The saint was startled, "But... does he have a corpse?"

Then, Henry Walden also quickly realized, "Oh... you want the battle loot, don’t you?

"That’s no problem. I can confirm there are definitely no other Gold-rank corrupted ones in their homeland. Be a little careful and stay vigilant when searching; with your abilities, you shouldn’t run into any serious trouble."

He wasn’t particularly interested in what the players were discussing before.

Now that the topic had shifted, he couldn’t be bothered to steer it back.

He just patiently explained to the players, "Follow this road until you reach a barber’s shop. Then turn into the alley on the left, and at the end of that alley, turn right. You’ll be at the backyard of the ’Saltpeter Ranch’."

"Speaking of which..."

The Four Dark Mahjong tiles asked curiously, "Why is this place called Saltpeter Ranch?"

Smelling the increasingly strong scent of sulfur, and watching a Destroyer Wizard approach him, Henry subconsciously took a half step back, hesitating a bit as he pursed his lips.

This surprised Four Dark Mahjong tiles.

... So his intimidating presence was effective even against a saint with an immortal body?

True to the Destroyer school, he certainly packed some clout!

"It does have some relation to your Destroyer school."

The saint began speaking slowly: "You might not know, but the gunpowder used in firearms contains a certain proportion of saltpeter."

"...Yes, I know that."

The expression on Four Dark Mahjong’s face was somewhat complex.

He had never imagined that one day he would be seriously taught chemical content by a person from another world.

It was not easy for him to restrain the impulse to grab the saint and start a lecture on potassium nitrate—after all, he was still an active college student and had not yet completely forgotten his high school knowledge.

But after thinking it over, if he had to play the part of the transmigrator, he might as well do it among his own kind.

"One of the main sources of saltpeter is niter. But niter needs to be processed before it can be used for leather tanning, or to make gunpowder, dye, conversion agents, and other such items."

The saint said seriously, "However, the blood of fallen ones—or rather, the completely corrupted and demon-turned fallens, if fresh enough, can be added to fermented urine and mixed; then if introduced to explosives or detonated directly with a spell, it can directly create a high-purity saltpeter powder suitable for making gunpowder. This was an accidental discovery by a Destroyer Wizard, which was optimized over several generations to become a usable formula.

"In other words, if demons can be controlled, they actually have breeding value... As far as I know, there are several underground cities engaged in nitration, primarily using this method.

"After all, compared to refining from niter mines, urine and blood are cheaper and inexhaustible... The so-called Saltpeter Ranch essentially refers to breeding demons."

"...I see."

Four Dark Mahjong nodded.

Because this conversation had so many laughable points, he felt like he couldn’t even begin to express all the mockery bubbling inside him.

"Then I’ll be leaving," said the scarred youth, seeing everyone fall silent for a moment. Without broaching another topic, he simply gave a slight smile and nodded to the group, "Farewell, and may we meet again if fate allows."

Afterward, he walked off in a different direction.

Four-Of-A-Kind and the other three maintained their silence, watching his figure until it disappeared.

"I feel like you’ve got some criticism stuck in your throat..."

Lin Yiyi whispered in a teasing manner.

Four-Of-A-Kind silently nodded in agreement.

He was still somewhat cautious around this saint figure.

Though he seemed friendly now...

What if their stances differed in the future?

In that case, all the bravado he had boasted before this brother would become increased difficulty in future encounters. If he carelessly enlightened the man, causing him to create some monstrous invention, he would still be the one to face the consequences.

Unlike his sister, Four-Of-A-Kind always maintained a degree of wariness and distance from others.

At this point, an idea suddenly occurred to him.

Although he wasn’t entirely sure if Earth’s knowledge was applicable to this world... for example, this world lacked crude oil entirely. Both the records of this world and their explorations after dispersing to various locations had turned up no trace of crude oil...

Coal and natural gas, however, were both present and neither was alien to their understanding or exploitation.

In fact, the value of coal and gas fields exceeded that of the mines—even though they already possessed clean alternative energy resources like black fire and green fire, strategic reserves of coal were still very important.

Moreover, one of the transformation materials for black fire was the stored natural gas—the base of the Heath Tower of Black had a precious gas well that was highly valued, and players couldn’t even gain access. Green fire was much simpler... It was a safe energy source derived from secondary transformation of black fire, which underwent special treatment that included a stabilizer to prevent explosions.

Despite appearances, players with some knowledge on the matter had tested and confirmed that black fire and green fire were not oil and gas liquids. Their efficiency was beyond what the civilization at this stage could achieve.

It can be said that without these two transformation products, black fire and green fire, the civilization of this steam age had no reason to exist.

Transforming into black and green fire was how wizards of this world utilized natural gas—somehow, they used special formulas and transformation processes to produce relatively stable black fire and green fire with absurd combustion efficiency.

The former contained higher energy and was more intense, while the latter was gentler and more controllable. Since green fire was "absolutely non-explosive," its temperature was also low, posing little risk of burn injuries to children.

Its price was quite affordable—this was a decision by Tower Master Hugo, who chose to disclose the recipe for green fire. A bronze-tier transmutation wizard could consistently produce enough green fire for a whole town, and the daily green fire consumption for cooking was only three to four barrels of black fire.

Later, Master Benjamin further optimized the formula: three apprentice-tier wizards working together could also transform black fire into green fire, reducing the required amount of black fire to one-third. If black fire was unavailable, coal or charcoal could be used as a substitute in the transformation, which was much more efficient than direct use of coal or charcoal.

Even including labor costs, the price spread across households was nearly equivalent to buying firewood directly. Yet the quality of the flame was far superior, and it only required inserting a coin for use, eliminating the need to carry and store firewood and kindling for warmth in winter, actually saving a considerable amount of money.

Benjamin indeed fulfilled the promise he made to Evelyn—ensuring that every household could afford to light lamps and cook meals.

Even the residents of the towns in the Kingdom of Noah gradually developed a habit of drinking hot water... a practice born from the ever-decreasing cost of fuel.

Before this, wanting to drink boiled water was considered a luxury on this world.

We can leave black fire aside for the moment... but the "green fire" technology was even more advanced than that of Earth. Given the absence of crude oil in this world, it cast doubt on whether Earth’s knowledge would be applicable here.

If he carelessly suggested a formula from their world and found it unusable here, or it already existed or was less efficient—that would be a waste of Annan’s time.

But once Annan took the throne, that would no longer be an issue.

They would just need to propose directions and have King Annan dispatch scholars to attempt them.

Don’t ask how they came up with it, if asked, say it was stolen, don’t pry, just get back to work.

At this thought, Four-Of-A-Kind suddenly felt a stirring within him.

He realized that as a destruction wizard, he had prepared too few dangerous items on his person...

"You guys go ahead and take my luggage," he instructed his companions, "I need to purchase some spellcasting materials... I can move faster when traveling light and will catch up with you soon."

"Alright, make it quick then,"

Lin Yiyi readily agreed.