When Beauty Meets Beasts

Murphy and Mark were both convinced by Huanhuan's cooking. After that, Huanhuan cooked almost all three meals a day. Murphy, who should have left to continue traveling, couldn't bear to leave.

If he left, he wouldn't be able to eat such delicious food!

In order to get Mark to make the cannons quickly, Huanhuan worked hard to make all kinds of delicacies every day.

Every day at mealtime, Murphy and Mark would appear at the dining table on time and wait to be fed.

Four days later, Mark was finally done with the first cannon.

He and Murphy carried the cannon out of the basement and placed it in the open space at the back of the house.

Mark took out a lit branch from the kitchen. He stuffed the entire branch into the round hole behind the cannon. His eyes slowly widened as he stared at the cannon expectantly.

A moment later, a red flame rushed out of the muzzle and flew into the sky with a whoosh. It suddenly exploded into a brilliant firework.

Mark jumped up excitedly. "It works!"

Murphy saw fireworks for the first time and thought they were very beautiful and magical. He said congratulatory words. "Congratulations."

Huanhuan looked at the gradually disappearing fireworks in the sky and blinked. They were gone just like that?

Was this a cannon or a military salute?!

She quickly pulled Mark back and said, "The effect of your cannon isn't right."

Mark calmed down a little. "What's wrong with it?"

"Even if a normal cannon can't blow up a mountain, it should at least be able to blow up a tree, right? But your cannon can only explode fireworks in the sky. It's useless on the battlefield."

Were they going to set off fireworks as soon as the enemy attacked? That wouldn't do!

Mark was confused. "My original idea for designing cannons was to make fireworks. I didn't plan to use it at war."

Huanhuan was heartbroken. "How lavish are you to use such a good weapon just to make fireworks?"

Mark didn't think it was extravagant at all. "The fireworks are so beautiful!"

"It doesn't matter how beautiful they are. I was prepared to use the cannons as weapons!"

As the 'big shot' who provided energy crystals, Huanhuan's opinion could not be ignored by Mark.

He hesitated. "Why don't we change it, then?"

Huanhuan said firmly, "Yes!"

Hence, Mark and Murphy carried the cannon back to the basement.

Mark followed Huanhuan's request and completely upgraded the cannon from the inside out. They spent a few more days before the cannon finally achieved the effect Huanhuan wanted. In the end, they were only short of gunpowder.

The gunpowder made by Mark could only be used to make fireworks. No matter how he improved it, it would only change the color and shape of the fireworks in the end. Its lethality did not increase at all.

In the end, Huanhuan was desperate.

She had to make the gunpowder herself.

There was a formula for gunpowder in the alchemy manual. Huanhuan chose the simplest formula and buried herself in research and experimentation. She failed nearly a hundred times before successfully making a small bag of gunpowder.

What should she use to store gunpowder?

Just as Huanhuan was vexed, Murphy gave her a piece of paper. "Use this."

Huanhuan's eyes widened.

'Oh my God, what am I seeing here?'

It was paper!

White paper!

She turned the paper over and over several times, then stared at Murphy with glowing eyes. "Where did you get the paper?"

The woman was beautiful to begin with. Murphy felt an itch in his heart when she stared at him like this.

He resisted the urge to pinch her cheek and said, "Paper? We call it leaf bark. It was created by the elves. It's made of many leaves and flowers through several processes. Usually, we use it to write and pack small things. When I left Elven God Mountain, I brought a lot of leaf bark with me, but I used some on the way. I only have a few left."

Murphy took out all three pieces of paper he had left.

Huanhuan quickly asked, "Can the paper made by you elves be sold to others? I want to buy it."

"If you don't want a lot of it, I'll give you some when I get back..."

"No, I want a lot," Huanhuan asked expectantly. "It would be better if you could sell me the formula for making paper."

"We can't sell the formula. This is a secret formula unique to our elves. If you want a lot of leaf bark, I'll help you talk to the leader of the elves later. He should agree."

Huanhuan was not disappointed over not being able to buy the formula. She quickly nodded and agreed. "Yes, yes. As long as you can sell me the paper, the price is negotiable!"

In any case, she had a lot of crystals. If those crystals were exchanged for gold coins, she would become a rich woman.

Murphy said, "When you're done with the dwarfs, we'll go to Elven God Mountain to buy the leaf bark."

"Okay!"

Huanhuan was extremely excited. As long as she had paper, the children of the rock mountain would no longer need to use stone slabs in class. In the future, she could customize books to help the children learn better.

It felt great just thinking about it!

Huanhuan carefully wrapped the gunpowder in paper and stuffed it into the cannon. After lighting the fuse, a ball of fire rushed out and blew up a large rock 10 meters away. At the same time, it made a loud bang!

Even the ground trembled.

Mark, who was standing beside the cannon, was dumbfounded. He couldn't believe that the cannon could be so powerful!

After a moment of surprise, Murphy hurried over to the rock to check the marks left by the explosion.

In the end, they concluded that this thing was indeed very powerful. If they really used it on the battlefield as Huanhuan had said, the effects would be terrifying.

The explosion of the cannon was so loud that all the dwarfs in Swan Valley were alarmed. The ones who liked to watch commotions happen followed the sound to Mark's door.

That included the leader of the dwarves, Arso.

Arso knocked hard on Mark's door, his voice loud. "Mark, what are you doing at home? Come out!"

It didn't take long for Mark to rush out the door. He asked what was wrong.

Arso was old, and his long beard almost reached the ground, but he was still in good spirits. When he spoke, he could be heard from ten miles away.

"You're asking me what's wrong? I'm the one who should be asking you that. What the hell are you doing at home? The entire Swan Valley heard the noise here!"

Mark's research on cannons was no secret among the dwarfs. Faced with the old tribe leader's question, Mark scratched his messy hair in embarrassment. "I'm trying out the new cannon."

"You really made your cannon? Show me."

As the leader, Arso had high prestige in the tribe. Mark didn't dare to be negligent and immediately led him through the house to the backyard.

As for the other dwarfs, a few of them who were on good terms with Mark followed. The others went home.

The dwarfs who had gathered at the door quickly dispersed.