Chapter 77 — A New Furnace

The entire project had been completed beautifully and sensibly. Not only had the magic array been extremely well "encapsulated," but what was even more satisfying were those neatly arranged pillars and slabs—so pleasing to the eye, so rigorously precise. Even knowing full well that they were the product of handwork rather than industry, Gao Yang still felt that, as a man with obsessive-compulsive tendencies, he had been greatly satisfied.

Neatness—neatness was king! Rebecca had truly understood every requirement Gao Yang had given her, and had even anticipated the need to expand production capacity here in the future! The areas not yet paved with slabs had all been left with empty spaces, clearly prepared for the future!

Many people were busy in the courtyard, hauling tools and sweeping up leftover materials, but Rebecca's figure was still easy to spot, for Gao Yang immediately saw the large black furnace in one corner of the courtyard, and beside it the iron-headed fireball girl, dancing about as she gave directions.

"Careful, careful... this structure has to fit the slabs perfectly! Don't you dare cut corners! Accurate, accurate—do you understand... no meat if it's not aligned, now do you understand!! Hey, hey, that iron rod over there, don't put it in yet, wait until the sub-runes are installed... Where's the drainage channel? Bring the drainage channel over... let me have a look at the blueprint!"

Seeing Rebecca so excited and absorbed in her work, Gao Yang could not bear to disturb her. He stopped several serfs who had caught sight of his face and were about to bow in a panic, and then raised his head, gazing with admiration at the newly installed furnace.

It was a... very beautiful furnace. Compared with those old-style furnaces barely a meter tall, it stood over four meters high, and was black throughout—because blackstone powder had been mixed into the building materials to further enhance mana affinity. It had abandoned the traditional "pot-bellied" structure in favor of a rectangular furnace chamber as its main body. At the upper end of that rectangular chamber, three chimneys could be seen arranged in a row, while at the lower right was a protruding rectangular panel, engraved with a not-too-complicated runic array. Part of the array extended all the way to the front of the furnace body, where there was a metal plate that appeared to be movable; beneath the metal plate, a linkage connected something like a pedal—apparently some kind of control mechanism.

Since the control mechanism was at the front, the openings for adding fuel, pouring in ore, removing slag, and drawing off molten metal were all located at the back and left side of the furnace body.

This resembled neither any furnace Gao Yang had known on Earth in his previous life, nor the traditional furnaces of this world; it did not even fully match the blueprint Gao Yang had originally handed to Hamel.

Clearly, the old blacksmith had put his mind to it and improved the blueprint.

In Gao Yang's view, this improvement was excellent—both the result of the improvement and the very act of "improving" were excellent.

It was only then that Rebecca noticed the people around her had fallen quiet at some point, and that everyone wore expressions of awe. She looked around stupidly for a moment, and only then did she see Gao Yang circling the furnace.

The girl started in surprise: "Ah! Ancestor! Why are you here?"

"I came looking for you—but I've also gotten to see your progress along the way," Gao Yang waved a hand, a satisfied smile on his face. "Honestly... it's even better than I imagined."

"Really? Really?!" Rebecca's face lit up with delight. "You really think so?"

"If you weren't good at these things, I would have taken you off the job long ago," Gao Yang could not suppress his smile. "Have some confidence in yourself. I told you—you are the pride of the Cecil family."

Hearing this, Rebecca Island nearly let her face fly right up into the heavens...

(Oh my god, it goes up for sale tomorrow!)