Chapter 25: Soda Ash Failure and Foreign Merchants

T/N:

Heikou (Black Dragon Mouth)

Heicheng (Black Dragon City)

...

When the messenger left, he carried a large bundle and a letter from the palace.

Fortunately, they had eaten and drunk their fill in Black Dragon City, so walking back to Black Dragon Mouth was no problem.

At that time, he had no idea that the letter he carried would bring earth-shattering changes to their Black Dragon Mouth.

Yin Jixue sniffled slightly; she had a mild cold.

The bedroom was equipped with a stove, but installing underfloor heating in the palace was a massive project. It would require tearing up the floors, and since this wasn't her residence, she would have to wait for the Demon King to return before making such changes.

Additionally, the palace was protected by a barrier, and she wasn't sure if renovations would damage it.

Even the windows of the demon palace were only slightly better than paper windows in the human world. Though they weren't made of paper, they still let in drafts.

During the day, wearing thick clothes and having the stove for warmth made it bearable, but at night, the cold wind seeped through the cracks in the windows, making it unbearable. This left Yin Jixue with a dry and sore throat when she woke up.

She secretly vowed that she must invent glass.

She already had the blueprints, but the glass required high-temperature firing. She could borrow a high-temperature furnace from the blacksmith, but the main issue was the materials.

As everyone knows, the main components of glass are quartz sand, soda ash, calcite, and limestone.

Most of these materials could be found among the leftover construction materials, but soda ash, or sodium carbonate, needed to be extracted.

The simplest method was to make soda ash from plant ash, but obtaining and drying plants in this season was a challenge. Moreover, this method only allowed for small-scale production, and she couldn't possibly strip the entire forest bare.

So, she ruled that out.

Another method involved using salt, sulfuric acid, charcoal, and limestone to produce soda ash.

Hmm, maybe she should give it a try.

Yin Jixue was bored anyway. If she succeeded, great; if not, she would just pretend nothing happened.

She wrapped herself in a heavy cloak.

"Fengxiu, come with me to the laboratory. Ruoshui, bring me some things." She wrote down a list of materials needed for extracting soda ash.

Although the palace couldn't undergo major renovations, there were plenty of empty rooms. Yin Jixue chose a few secluded rooms to serve as her laboratory. No one else knew what these rooms were for.

Fengxiu didn't understand why the queen had given such a strange name to the room. This was a room the queen had personally ordered to be renovated, and it was Fengxiu's first time entering it.

The room was similar to the houses built outside the palace, with snow-white walls and a full circle of cabinets lining the walls. The countertops were flat and could be used as work surfaces.

Yin Jixue had the maids open all the windows. The cold wind hit her face, making her shiver. She pulled her cloak tighter, grateful that she had dressed warmly before leaving.

Ruoshui arrived with a large bundle of items. Why would the queen need such strange things?

Both she and Fengxiu were full of questions, standing by and waiting for Yin Jixue's instructions.

The first step was to use sulfuric acid to convert salt into sodium sulfate...

She spent most of the afternoon trying, only to learn that she was way out of her depth.

She decided to give up.

After spending the afternoon in the cold wind, she realized that this kind of work was not for amateurs.

"Your Majesty, the messenger has delivered the letter."

It seemed a bit inhumane to make the messenger walk back in such cold weather, so Yin Jixue had Tengshe fly him back using the aircraft. The round trip took less than a day.

When Black Dragon City became prosperous, they would have all kinds of transportation—buses, trains, planes, you name it.

Wake up, Yin Jixue pinched herself, shattering her daydream. She was getting ahead of herself; they needed to focus on lifting themselves out of poverty first.

"Ah, you're back just in time. I thought of something good, but we're missing some materials."

Even if she couldn't make it herself, she had so many people under her command. With the method in hand, surely someone could figure it out, right?

Yin Jixue explained her idea for making glass to Tengshe and eagerly awaited his response.

"Your Majesty, are you referring to colored glaze?"

Colored glaze? Well, sort of.

"Similar, but I want glass." You know what I mean, right?

Tengshe agreed without hesitation: "I will find someone to try it out."

Ah, what a good subordinate. Aside from not being entirely loyal to her, he was practically flawless.

But she hadn't come to the demon realm to scheme. As long as her subordinates were obedient and loyal, it didn't matter whose side they were on.

Tengshe hesitated before speaking again: "Your Majesty, there's one more thing..."

"Hmm? What is it?" Why the hesitation? Did something go wrong?

"On our way back, we rescued a group of people. They are merchants from the Black Tortoise Clan. They were forced to hibernate in a cave due to a blizzard."

Merchants? Maybe they have something valuable?

Yin Jixue's mind raced.

"Do we have any enmity with the Black Tortoise Clan?" She needed to clarify first.

"No, although the Demon King is warlike, there is no hatred between the four Demon Kings."

What a pity. She had hoped to pull off a heist. She sighed softly.

"Handle it as you see fit. If they have anything good, ask if they're willing to trade."

Tengshe nodded and left, wondering why the queen had sighed.

But first, he went to find an elderly demon in the city with graying hair and presented him with the queen's request.

"You are a resident of Black Dragon City, so you should contribute to the palace as well." With that, he turned and left.

The old demon glared, shouting at Tengshe's retreating: "Hey, is that any way to ask for a favor?"

Still, he carefully examined the list Tengshe had given him.

"Hmm, this is good stuff. The little girl in the palace is quite something."

The old demon turned and entered his house. He lived alone in a small flat in the western part of the city.

Across from Gousheng's house, there used to be a middle-aged demoness living with her child, but after renovations, her home had been turned into an inn.

At first, the neighbors thought she was being unrealistic. Who would stay at an inn in Black Dragon City?

But today, a group of about a dozen people were brought to the QiuJu Inn.

"Wow, they're merchants from the Black Tortoise Clan! And there are even some from the Azure Phoenix Clan!" Gousheng tugged at his mother's clothes, eager to join the excitement.

His mother grabbed him: "Don't go! That's an inn. What are you going to do there, cause trouble?"

The child across the street from Qiu Ju's house had just learned to walk and would have to wait another year before starting school. If the queen had arrived half a year earlier, Qiu Ju's husband might not have succumbed to hunger and the cold last winter.

Fortunately, Qiu Ju was a strong woman. She had managed to support herself and her child through the hardships, and now life was getting better.

She had many rooms in her house and had hesitated for a long time before deciding to turn it into an inn. She had even consulted the queen, who encouraged her to follow her instincts.

She had thought the inn would remain empty for at least a year, but to her surprise, the first guests arrived just a month later.

The guests were all in a state of hibernation. Qiu Ju placed them in rooms with heated brick beds, and the chimney in her house never stopped smoking.

Soon, the first demon woke up. He was a merchant from the Winged Tiger Clan, which was known for its fur products. Thanks to his thick clothing, he hadn't frozen to death.

Hibernating outside was a last resort. If not for the inability to travel and the blizzard, they would have sought shelter in a town or village.

But they had bad luck. Their flying artifact had broken down in Black Dragon territory.

The entire Black Dragon territory was a backwater, and winter was the coldest season. The most terrifying part was the endless mountain ranges with no sense of direction. They could walk for days without encountering a village.