Favorite of the Beast-world: I Got Rich Through Farming-Chapter 270 - 182: Water Pump and It Ran Over by Itself?

The iron pipes clanged together, emitting a sharp, piercing HUMMM~ that raised goosebumps on everyone’s arms.

The moment before Ling Hong set down the iron pipes, An Jin hopped out of his arms, her feet landing on the sparse, yellowed grass.

She casually picked up a tree branch, released her spiritual power to scan the area, and then used the sturdy, long branch to draw a straight line on the ground.

"Let’s start digging here. This project is huge, so there’s no way we’ll finish today. For now, let’s dig to—"

An Jin dragged the branch over a hundred meters away, finally choosing a point closest to the center of the city. "Let’s dig to here for now! Then we’ll lay the water pipes inside the long trench we’ve dug."

"Try to dig it fairly deep, but make sure to keep the depth consistent."

She rubbed her chin in thought before continuing, "If we run into a huge boulder we can’t move, use the curved pipes to go around it. Then, use another curved pipe to get back on the original path."

"AWOO!" The Beastmen with the sharpest claws transformed into their beast forms and started pawing at the dirt. Before long, they were buried halfway in the trench.

The Beastmen whose beast forms were less suited for digging went home to fetch iron shovels to help.

An Jin didn’t stand idly by. She took an iron shovel from a Beastman and began to dig alongside them.

’Though her strength was no match for the brawny Beastmen, every extra bit of help meant they could finish that much sooner.’

The sun gradually sank in the west, hiding behind the distant, purple-hued mountains at dusk. It was like a shy maiden, using the mountain range like a fan to slowly cover her blushing face.

Once the Beastmen’s combined efforts had carved a trench through the earth, they carefully laid the water pipes inside, arranging them snugly together to leave no gaps.

"Get back! This molten iron is as hot as lava; it’ll burn the skin right off you!" A few Beastmen from the foundry approached slowly, carrying the searing-hot liquid straight from the furnace and shouting a warning.

The Beastmen who had been digging the trench quickly backed away, terrified of being splashed by the bubbling liquid metal.

Molten iron absorbs heat quickly and dissipates it slowly. Even after being carried all the way from the foundry to the riverside, its scalding temperature and bright, red-hot appearance hadn’t diminished in the slightest.

The molten iron was carefully poured over the joint where two pipes met end to end. Cold river water was immediately splashed over it, and with a series of HISSES and a puff of white steam, the glowing-red liquid instantly cooled and solidified.

The once-invisible gap between the two pipes was now completely sealed.

They repeated this process, and with this method, the Beastmen fused dozens of individual pipes into a single, massive pipe stretching for tens of meters.

Whenever they reached a bend, they used the same method to attach a curved pipe. Once they had bypassed the obstacle, they reconnected to the original pipeline.

Accompanied by the grunts and pants of strenuous labor by the riverside, everything proceeded in an orderly fashion.

The sky, once stained orange-red, began to dim, looking as if a basin of ink had been splashed across it.

Two massive crescent moons, spanning a quarter of the heavens, peeked from behind the branches. The stars gradually brightened, and the magnificent ribbon of the Milky Way stretched across the deep navy sky.

The night sky seemed especially bright and beautiful tonight. Not a single cloud marred its expanse, as if countless lamps had been lit to give light and warmth to the hard-working Beastmen.

Beastly roars echoed from the distant jungle, but intimidated by the scent of so many Beastmen gathered in one place, the creatures kept their distance.

Finally, the work on their section of the project drew to a close.

"Everyone, go home and rest. We’ll continue tomorrow. The Great Cold Season is still about ten days away, so we just need to finish the project before it arrives." ’At this pace,’ she thought, ’forget ten days. Five will probably be enough.’

The Beastmen wiped the sweat from their faces, jumped into the river for a quick wash, and after tidying themselves up, headed for home.

「The next day」 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

The Beastmen returned to the riverside to continue digging the trench along the path they had started. With the experience from the first day, the project proceeded smoothly even without An Jin on site.

After drawing out the rest of the pipeline route for the Beastmen, An Jin left them to it and turned her attention to another project.

—Building the water pump.

’Pipes alone definitely weren’t enough. They were just a conduit. To actually get the river water through them and into every home, they would absolutely need the help of a water pump.’

’The Beast World has no electricity, so it’ll have to be a hand-cranked pump.’