"Let's go, we're heading out!"

The cave was vast, and there was no need to venture further in.

The space here was more than sufficient.

With wind and water, it was the perfect spot for iron smelting.

Li Meng then led the goblin underlings out of the cave.

Outside the cave, Li Meng began assigning tasks to the goblin underlings.

"You, you, and you, go into the forest and gather stones like this."

Li Meng showed the goblin underlings the stone in his hand.

The stone was one Li Meng had picked up by the river in the cave.

It was a dull gray, an iron ore.

This indicated that the cave was a natural iron mine.

The three goblins he pointed at hurriedly ran towards the forest.

"Gobu Ge, you guys go find some deadwood!"

Gobu Ge nodded and led the remaining goblins into the forest.

"Benben, let's go find some clay!"

Benben obediently followed behind Li Meng.

In the forest, Benben, who was following Li Meng, reached out and poked Li Meng's back.

"What's up?"

Li Meng turned to look at Benben.

Benben pointed at himself and made a deep sound from his throat.

"Boom boom?"

Li Meng chuckled and pointed at Benben with his right hand.

"Benben!"

Then Li Meng pointed at himself.

"Boss!"

Benben looked at the boss, then lowered his head to look at himself.

He pointed at himself with his right hand.

"Benben?"

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Li Meng nodded.

Benben then pointed at Li Meng.

"Boss!"

Li Meng nodded again.

And so, under Li Meng's guidance, Benben learned his new name.

In the following days, Li Meng focused on one thing.

Preparing for the iron smelting experiment.

On the fourth day, by the underground riverbank in the cave.

"Boss, what are you doing?"

Seeing the boss neatly stacking split wood, Gobu Ge curiously asked.

"Watch carefully, you'll be doing the same thing in the future!"

After laying the firewood flat, Li Meng placed a piece of iron ore on top.

"Put all these iron ores on top!"

The boss's command prompted the goblin underlings to quickly start placing the iron ore onto the firewood pile.

"Just one layer, don't stack them!"

After giving the instruction, Li Meng knelt on the ground.

This startled the goblin underlings.

Li Meng ignored their surprise.

He took the dry wood and fluff he had prepared and began to drill wood to make fire.

The wooden stick made a "swish swish" sound as Li Meng rubbed it.

Benben sat nearby, curiously watching the busy goblins.

In less than ten minutes, Li Meng smelled smoke.

Soon, thick white smoke emerged from the fluff.

Li Meng quickly set down the stick and carefully blew on the fluff with both hands.

Before long, a flame appeared in the darkness.

"It's fire, human fire!"

The appearance of the flame made Gobu Ge let out a strange cry.

"Shut up!"

Li Meng glared at Gobu Ge and quickly used the flame to ignite the dry grass in the firewood pile.

As the dry grass caught fire, the flames roared to life.

Benben was also startled by the fire, his massive body trembling.

In a moment, the firewood pile was blazing fiercely.

The rolling heat waves spread around, making the goblins look on with amazement.

They never expected the boss to create human fire just by rubbing for a while.

"Benben, fetch water!"

Clapping his hands, Li Meng pointed to the bamboo buckets beside Benben.

Li Meng had found some bamboo while searching for clay in the forest.

These bamboos were enormous, requiring several people to encircle them hand in hand.

Li Meng used these bamboos to make some bamboo buckets.

Benben stood up, grabbed a bamboo bucket in each hand, and fetched two buckets of water from the river.

Not far away, there was a pile of yellow clay.

"Pour it in and mix it by hand!"

Under Li Meng's hands-on guidance, Benben used his massive hands to mix the yellow clay.

Soon, the yellow clay gradually turned into clay.

Seeing that the consistency was about right, Li Meng began using the clay to construct a blast furnace.

"Gobu Ge, keep stacking the split wood, just like I did earlier."

Seeing that the first pile of firewood was almost burned out, Li Meng instructed Gobu Ge.

Gobu Ge nodded, somewhat understanding.

A group of goblin underlings began clumsily stacking the firewood.

In no time, a pile of firewood was haphazardly assembled.

The goblins placed some iron ore on top.

"Don't use your hands, use sticks!"

Seeing Gobu Ge about to pick up the charcoal from the bonfire with his hands, Li Meng reprimanded him.

Gobu Ge flinched and quickly withdrew his hand.

He carefully used two wooden sticks to pick up a piece of charcoal and placed it into the firewood pile.

As the dry grass caught fire, the second pile of firewood began to burn.

By this time, the first pile of firewood had already burned out.

Only a ground full of charcoal and brittle iron ore remained.

"Take those brittle iron ores and smash them into powder on the stone over there. Remember, don't use your hands."

The goblins imitated, using sticks to remove the scorching iron ore.

The goblins placed the brittle iron ore on a smooth stone nearby and began smashing it with another stone.

Since the iron ore had been made brittle by high heat, it shattered easily with a light tap.

The small fragments were also easily crushed into powder.

Once the iron ore was crushed into powder, it became iron ore powder.

Since it was an experiment, the first blast furnace wasn't large.

Li Meng spent five hours constructing a 1.5-meter-high blast furnace.

He then spent two more hours drying the blast furnace.

"It should be ready!"

Looking at the well-formed blast furnace before him, Li Meng nodded repeatedly.

Although the surface wasn't very smooth, it was his first time making a blast furnace, so some imperfections were acceptable.

The blast furnace was narrow at the top and wide at the bottom.

There was only a small smoke outlet and a feed inlet at the top.

To supply oxygen and increase the temperature inside the furnace, there were three ventilation holes at the bottom of the blast furnace.

Each ventilation hole was connected to a bamboo tube.

The other end of the bamboo tube was attached to a simple bellows made from animal skin and bamboo.

The bellows had a simple structure and didn't take much effort from Li Meng.

"Let's start then, Benben, load the materials!"

Benben, who had been waiting for a long time, used a bamboo bucket to pour charcoal into the blast furnace through the opening at the top.

Then came the iron ore powder, followed by more charcoal on top of the iron ore powder.

Finally, the feed inlet was sealed, leaving only a chimney made of bamboo.

Li Meng then opened the iron outlet and used a burning piece of charcoal to ignite the dry grass at the bottom.

As the dry grass caught fire, the inside of the blast furnace gradually began to burn.

"What are you waiting for, start the bellows!"

Li Meng quickly called the goblin underlings to operate the bellows.

The goblin underlings worked in pairs, panting as they pulled the bellows.

As the bellows were operated, thick smoke billowed from the chimney.

Soon, the blast furnace became scorching hot.

"Keep pulling, don't stop!"

To smelt iron, temperature was crucial.

The temperature needed to reach at least 1300 degrees to melt the iron ore powder into molten iron.