Chapter 52: Nezha's escape (4)
When people saw something, there would be many possibilities with the object they saw.
The object they saw was the same, it did not change itself because of some people gaze. The possibilities were from human as a human was a creature with different perspective, vision, ambition, experience, greed, and goal.
For Nezha, this formula for blackpowder was nothing much as he saw something better in his past life. But what about the other two, they were shocked by what they heard and thought of the things they could do with it.
Nezha was too naïve, with his mental age he should be more cautious but that was not true. He was a boy, a past life was only mean that he had more experience but his mind still affected by his physical age.
"Nezha, you just tell the big sister that this blackpowder was capable of releasing that strong power. Do you think we could stop the battle if we give the emperor the method?"
"Hm…" Nezha did not think of this before, he did not care much for the sect from the start and it was not like he wanted to save the sect at all. However, he was not the type who would abandon those in need of help. But it was not like the patriarch would want help if he would accept the shame of kneeling toward the one who killed his father he would do a long time ago.
Pondering about this Nezha looked at scumbag of a man that was his father if it was him even though he could not bring himself to kill the man he would surely gladfully kneeled to someone killing his father.
"Nezha! Don't do that. I mean, don't give it to the empire. Father would kill himself if you just give the secret treasures to the enemy that easily."
"Ah! what the third uncle say is right. Grandfather and father would choose death rather than begging from the enemy." The girl said with a saddened face, she knew it but at least she wanted to keep her hope that she could live peacefully with everyone again.
"We must keep this as a secret as our ancestor want. Also, the formula must be shared between the two of you and someone you can trust. After all, it was the treasure that we protected for generations. I will move to the other site, and Nezha you tell her now. We did not know what will happen the empire may attack at any moment and when we get outside we may not have time." The man said, he then moved to a place far enough to not hear any of the conversations between Nezha and the girl.
Nezha did not want to tell the formula for blackpowder, he was fine telling them about what blackpowder can do and how much destruction it can show, but telling them the formula was another matter. Nezha did not plan to die, with that viewpoint there was no need for him to tell anyone about the method of producing blackpowder.
However, Nezha did not want to involve much with Akkee sect anymore. He would relieve his post and gave the position of patriarch back to someone after they reached the safe place somewhere. Since he needed to teach anyway why did not do it now.
One of the good thing about black powder was its own ingredients, you could say it like some organic food which always claimed that they were 100% natural. Unlike those self-proclaimed organic foods and modern-day chemical gunpowder, the old black powder was doable with all natural ingredients.
Well, that should be the case.
However, there were problems with it too. First, it was not a simple quick process and require a recipe for the right formula, this problem was solved as Nezha knew the rough recipe of simple 75/15/10.
But the other problem was not easy to solve and require pure luck.
Charcoal was easy to find but the other two were not, saltpeter while took a lot of time was doable with excrement, but sulfur was hard to find without knowledge in geography and minerals.
For example, the Chinese discovered that sulfur could be extracted from pyrite but it seemed that Nezha's ancestor did not know and instead relied on the inactive volcano as a source for sulfur.
There was a method to make sulfur-free gunpowder in the later date but that was not known by the ancestors of Akkee sect, even Nezha with his modern knowledge knew nothing about those methods.
"Then we need to go to the south. I heard about what you said before from my mother relative who travels to trade, he told about the sulfur mine in the archipelago. Also, you told me that our ancestor knew that there were the Wa people who moved to the south, right? We may meet them there."
There also another problem with just blackpowder, being alone blackpowder could show a tremendous explosion but that was it. It was powerful enough to place as a trap or causing destruction but that was not enough in war. Blackpowder true power would show when accompanied by its best friend, a gun.
However, the gun was not just a pipe shape iron. By it look, an old medieval gun was easy with just a few parts. It was true that even modern home equipment was superior to the old flintlock, but with the current technology in Noseth a simple flintlock still hard to mass produced.
At the place where Nezha's father was, the man slept there alone on the floor like any other near him. He did not look different and everyone who saw him would assume that he was already asleep.
In fact, the man was concentrating on eavesdropping Nezha's conversation with the girl. He now regretted that he did not practice as much as he could, he still grasped the rough method for producing the blackpowder.
The time passed by a bit after they arrived at the base of the cave, but suddenly people heard a strange sound from the top and the slight trembling of some rocks. It should be fine if it was just that.
The mountain would not collapse that easily, and nature was such a good architecture that sometime could make an awe scene.
Have you ever saw the picture of big rock stood on a cliff without moving an inch for a thousand years?
There was one at this cave since the time of Nezha's ancestor, the big rock that should weight over a ton hanging on the edge of the slope, stood there as a landmark in the map. But this landmark gonna move for a first time.
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