LGHTNOVELBOOK Chapter 461 - 458: You're a Bloody Genius
Chapter 461: Chapter 458: You’re a Bloody Genius
Leonardo stripped all the twigs and leaves off the vine, wrapped both ends around his hands, and secured the center segment into the groove of the sawing board.
He took a deep breath and began to rub forcefully—
But right from the start, Leonardo realized it was far from as simple as he had imagined, for some reason the rubbing was jerky and uneven, without any feeling of smoothness.
At this rate, let alone starting a fire, it was very difficult even to accumulate a bit of heat.
“My goodness, this is completely different from what I thought.” Leonardo increased the force in his hands, but the situation not only failed to improve, it became even more snagged.
Bi Fang reminded from the side, “Don’t tense up completely, you need to pull the vine straight, the force should be applied longitudinally, don’t apply too much pressure at once, the pressure should gradually increase as the heat builds up, imagine it as the blade of a saw, it’s very strong and won’t break.”
Leonardo wiped the sweat from his forehead, adjusted his posture, and started pulling again, this time it was a lot better, but still snagged occasionally.
“Every snag means dissipation of heat.” Bi Fang shook his head, acquiring fire wasn’t something one could learn just by watching once or being taught once; it required a large accumulation of experience.
Experience had to be built up personally, it couldn’t be learned by studying alone.
Regrettably, it seemed that Leonardo didn’t have much talent in wilderness survival skills, after rubbing for over ten minutes, he had only managed to minimize the snags, still far from accumulating the heat necessary to start a fire.
People inside the first pavilion were discussing fervently.
“Is it really that hard?”
“Duh, do you think making fire in the wild is easy?”
“I want to try it too.”
Some in the crowd were eager to try, after all, fire-making by wood-drilling and the pump method were too cumbersome, but the Fire Saw Method seemed very simple.
And the raw materials were easy to find, weren’t bamboos everywhere?
Just about any hilltop would have them, right?
“Bamboo slices and vines, anyone want to buy them? Fifty Yuan for a set, experience the Fire Saw Method onsite!”
Just as everyone was thinking about going home to try it out, an untimely shout came from outside the entrance.
A staff member, pulling a cart full of bamboo, hollered, “Experience the Fire Saw Method onsite, fifty Yuan for one set of materials!”
People: “…”
“Give me a set!”
“I want one too!”
“That was fast, I’m buying!”
Until his arms ached unbearably, Leonardo hadn’t achieved effective heat accumulation, and had to stop temporarily to rest: “I can’t do it, it’s too difficult.”
“That’s normal, the first time is always like this, you’ll gain experience after a few successes.” Bi Fang flipped the red clay on the stone slab with a bamboo board, more than ten minutes had passed, and the moist red clay had dried and cracked, presumably it wouldn’t take long to turn into red powder.
But Leonardo didn’t give up, he shook his hands to loosen the muscles, grasped the vine, and continued to saw!
Another ten minutes passed, and finally, white smoke emerged from the bamboo board!
Leonardo got instantly excited, “Hey, do you see that? Do you see it? It’s smoking, the sawing board is smoking!”
“Yes, I see it,” Bi Fang nodded encouragingly, “But the hardest step comes after the smoke, what you want to acquire is charcoal, not smoke.”
After another quarter of an hour passed, the amount of smoke coming from Leonardo’s hands was still pitifully little, barely visible, as if silently telling him to push a bit harder, just one more effort, and the charcoal would soon be there.
But reality was always cruel, after spending a full hour, Leonardo still hadn’t started the fire. Thinking about how Bi Fang managed to get a flame going in just two or three minutes, he couldn’t help but feel a sense of defeat.
Now, Leonardo’s forearms were sore, swollen, and even slightly trembling.
Beside him, Bi Fang had obtained dry, powdered red mud. After moving the slate aside, he waited for the powder to cool. Meanwhile, Bi Fang removed the old palm leaves from the funnel, replaced them with new ones, then poured the red powder into it.
“We have the red powder now, after we find a clean water source to mix it with, we can start applying it. Moreover, for better effectiveness, we can also add some strongly scented herbs, which can mask our scent very well and avoid attracting predators.”
At this moment, a slew of complaining bullet comments caught Bi Fang’s attention.
“I failed too, boo-hoo-hoo.”
“I sawed for more than ten minutes and didn’t even see smoke.”
“I’ve spent three hundred yuan… and haven’t even seen a spark… ”
“Apparently someone next door has succeeded… the club’s coach is demonstrating the Fire Saw Method.”
“Just faint white smoke… I feel like a loser, sawing away with the girl barely acknowledging me…”
“The head of this club is a damn genius, making money off a bunch of bamboo sticks.”
“Damn, I really want to try it too, regretting not snapping up a ticket.”
What’s going on?
Bi Fang was stunned, scrolling through the comments with an incredulous look.
This was too showy, wasn’t it? Could it really work like this?
He had never imagined the club could also come up with such a setup.
There was no doubt in his mind that this scheme was concocted by Yao Jun. The moment Bi Fang got his hands on the bamboo, Jun had thought of this method to increase visitor engagement.
“You’re a damn genius, indeed,” Bi Fang thought to himself.
“The red mud is ready, do you want to keep trying?” Bi Fang, with the funnel strapped to his back, asked Leonardo, who was still struggling with the saw, with a smile.
Leonardo let out a long sigh and tossed the vine and bamboo board onto the ground, “I might just not have the talent for this.”
After restoring the fire pit on the ground to its original state, Bi Fang picked up two pieces of charcoal for next time he needed to light a fire, then gestured, “Let’s go. We need to continue looking for a water source.”
On their way, Bi Fang was more observant than before, trying to find some mosquito-repellent herbs to mix into the red mud.
“There are many common mosquito repellent herbs, such as mugwort, which can be found almost everywhere in Huaxia except for extremely arid and cold regions.” Bi Fang prodded a bush with a stick. After a huge centipede awoke and scurried away from the bush, he bent down, plucked a plant, and sniffed it near his nose.
The scent was very strong.
“In addition to that, there’s honeysuckle and perilla leaves, very common mosquito repellent herbs. Not much is needed, about ten grams would suffice.” Bi Fang placed the mugwort into the funnel bag at his waist as he explained.
Now, he carried three funnel bags on him – two at the waist and one large one on his back – filled with red mud powder.
His overall appearance was blending in more and more with the rainforest.
It was around twelve noon when the sound of trickling water began echoing through the forest.
Leonardo, whose water bottle was nearly empty, brightened up. Had they found a water source?
Just as he was about to step forward to check, Bi Fang suddenly pulled him back, “Wait!”