Chapter 192
A helpful tool for surveying landforms—the map!
Chapter 192 A helpful tool for surveying landforms—the map!
"Xiao Zhu, bring me today's account book from the alchemy shop."
Zhu Zhu followed Zhu Huan'e, not only learning pharmacology but also how to manage the shop. In the past, it was manageable with only one pill shop, but now with the addition of a hot pot restaurant with huge foot traffic, Zhu Huan'e needed a little helper.
She originally wanted Fang Shi to come, since in her eyes, the hot pot restaurant was opened by them and Fang Shi together. However, Fang Shi has not been in the restaurant for the past few days and has been wandering around outside every day, saying that he is doing some kind of research.
Zhu Huan'e knew she still had much to learn about business, so she didn't ask him, but Zhu Zhu was quite skeptical.
She carried a stack of account books taller than her head and, panting, placed them on the coffee table.
"Honestly, Fang Shi is always nowhere to be seen, leaving us to do all the work. Sister Zhu, you don't even say anything to him at night."
"What do you mean I should talk to him tonight? What nonsense are you talking about?"
These words sounded inappropriate, but Zhu Huan'e didn't argue with her. After all, she herself had misunderstood, and the important matter was more important.
"Business at Dan's shop has picked up again recently."
The thick stack of ledgers on the table contained more than a month's worth of pill transactions in previous years, but today it only represented a week's worth.
Zhu Zhu skillfully organized the account books, saying, "I heard that a few days ago a flock of golden sheep appeared fifty miles behind the city, causing great damage to the vegetation along the way. The Ministry of War was busy with manpower, so they handed over the task of suppressing the sheep to outsiders. These transactions were almost all made by independent cultivators and some hunting teams. Sister Zhu, should we increase the production of pills for wounds and injuries in the next few days?"
"Hmm, you learn very quickly. The horns of the Aries are made of gold, which is hard and sharp. Once a wound is created, the metallic energy will adhere to the flesh and blood, making it easy to lose too much blood. Medicine to stop the bleeding is indispensable."
Pills can be taken internally or crushed for external application. They are made by condensing medicinal liquid into pills, and can even be mixed with medicinal liquids of specific ingredients to create medicinal liquids with other effects. It just requires a certain understanding of pharmacology.
Zhu Huan'e now plans to train Zhu Zhu to become the future owner of the hot pot restaurant, so that she can focus more on the business.
Aside from medicinal herbs, which can be sourced through the Dan store, many other ingredients for the hot pot restaurant need to be purchased separately. She doesn't have much experience in this area yet and needs to find a way to do so as soon as possible.
The appearance of the golden sheep herd means that a large amount of mutton will flow into the market after the hunt. Skilled shopkeepers will pay close attention to the surrounding animals every day, so as to be able to keenly sense the goods in the market in the near future and buy fresh ingredients.
In addition, shops that need the goods should issue purchase orders as soon as possible, otherwise the monks and hunters will not go out of their way to collect certain items, and they will miss out if they are late, wasting a wave of business.
The Xuan Realm is not as industrialized as Fang Shi's previous life. The ingredients are not fixed, and the shopkeeper's job is not easy.
"If only Xiao Fang could help out at the shop," Zhu Huan'e thought to herself, though she didn't complain.
So what exactly is Fang Shi doing? He is spending his days searching for mountains and rivers.
Originally, he wanted to survey the terrain and draw a map to prepare for building a village in the future, but this was clearly beyond his skill level as someone who was just an electrician in his previous life. So he put his hopes on the map [item] in the Block Man recipe.
The map can be crafted by combining eight pieces of paper and a compass. The paper is easy to obtain, but the compass is a bit of a problem. In the game, it requires four iron and one redstone to craft.
The key point is this redstone. As the name suggests, redstone is a special kind of red stone. After mining redstone, you can get redstone dust [item]. In the game, it symbolizes the technological path and has the characteristics of carrying and transmitting energy.
In the Xuan Realm, the release and transmission of energy are all carried by Xuan Qi. Therefore, the "red stone" in the Xuan Realm must also be an excellent carrier of Xuan Qi, and the Xuan Qi in it must be relatively active and able to be stimulated.
In this way, the target was narrowed down to fire-elemental stone.
Fang Shi searched the market for crystal cores that could contain fire energy, but unfortunately, he couldn't find any. After inquiring around, he finally discovered something called Red Scale Stone, which was highly suspicious. It was said to be flint formed from the decay of a large number of trees buried underground.
I initially thought this stuff was something like coal or charcoal, but then I heard that it can't be used directly as fuel. However, when mixed with wood and burned, it can produce a higher-temperature, first-order flame, and it's found in many forging workshops.
So Fang Shi went and bought some, which wasn't cheap. He crushed it and dissolved it, getting several piles of powder. That was it!
Then, four iron ingots were used to surround the red scale stone powder to make a compass, and eight sheets of paper were used to surround the compass to create a map, thus completing the task.
In the game, the map's function is to depict the places the player has visited with perfect accuracy, and the map can be upgraded by consuming paper.
Fang Shi had no shortage of paper, so he didn't make a cartographic table. He simply took eight sheets of paper and wrapped them around the map to expand its area significantly. By repeating this process until he reached the highest level, the map's area could reach more than two thousand meters in length, easily encompassing the entire Emerald City. Moreover, the map could be updated in real time. Whenever Fang Shi passed through a certain place, the depiction on the map would be updated to the latest version.
In addition, in games, maps can be marked with flags to add markers, and now in reality, this function is even more open.
Fang Shi only needs to place the map in the left-hand space, then go to the corresponding location, use six wool and a stick to synthesize a flag [item], name it with an anvil, and then transfer it to the left-hand space. The flag will then be integrated into the map and become an icon, unlike in the game where you have to plant the flag on the ground.
With this, Fang Shi has explored all the locations around Emerald City in the past few days. Fortunately, the map drawing in the game is affected by the loading range of the world around the player, but not in the real world. As long as Fang Shi's eyes are on the map, it can be drawn automatically on his left.
In this way, Fang Shi only needs to go to a high place, look into the distance, and he can draw a map of the largest area in no time.
Fang Shi later discovered that books [items] could be used to insert maps, creating an atlas that greatly reduced the space occupied.
He could even store the book in the carved book shelf block, so that one book could hold three maps, and one bookshelf could hold three books, making a total of nine maps that could be pieced together into a giant map, showing the terrain and landforms around Emerald City in one go. It was probably clearer than even the maps held by the official military department, making it a true military marvel.
More importantly, this map allows Fang Shi to clearly see the entirety of the official roads and rural roads, providing a foundation for village location planning.
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