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Biodata
| Feature | Value |
|---|---|
| Name | Tack Town |
| Original Name | 塔克镇 |
| Type | Border town; later an industrial base and battlefield 12 16 24. |
| Location | Far edge of Fasinuo Province, on the Heaven Dou Empire’s border, in the empire’s southwest 12 22 23. |
| Population | Initially impoverished commoners without Soul Power; Lin Fan’s settlement later includes teenage workers, refugees, and civilian militia 12 15 16. |
| Role | Starting point for Lin Fan’s firearms industry and a site where Firmament-built machinery and defenses manifest in reality 12 24 30. |
| Status | The original real-world town is destroyed by imperial excavation. Its ruins acquire industrial fortifications, and its manifested blast furnace remains operational after the Firmament disappears 24 30 38. |
| First Appearance | 12 |
Geography and Resources
- Original streetscape: Muddy streets lined with ramshackle mud-brick houses and small smithies. The air smells of rust and burning cheap coal throughout the year 12.
- River: A swift current beside the refugee quarter powers waterwheels connected to Lin Fan’s forging machinery 15.
- Surrounding mountains: Barren, rugged terrain provides space for concealed mining and industrial construction. Lin Fan discovers high-purity hematite and nearby coking coal there 20 21 22.
- Gunpowder materials: Lin Fan obtains saltpeter from bat droppings in a limestone cave outside town, sulfur from a swamp near a volcanic crater, and charcoal from willow wood 12.
History
Poverty and Lin Fan’s Arrival
Before Lin Fan’s arrival, Tack Town’s residents survive by forging crude agricultural tools for nobles in larger cities and low-ranking Soul Masters. Their Martial Souls include hoes, sickles, and weeds, but they lack the Soul Power needed to enter the privileged Soul Master class 12.
After leaving Spirit City, Lin Fan arrives disguised in coarse hemp clothing and a bamboo hat. He chooses Tack Town for its coal, iron, available labor, and distance from powerful Soul Masters. Spending nearly all his remaining Gold Soul Coins, he purchases a failing smithy with a half-collapsed furnace 12.
His first recruits are three starving boys: A Mu, Little Nail, and Stone. He offers them food, housing, and instruction in forging, rejecting their assumption that useful metalwork requires Soul Power. Over roughly half a month, the smithy becomes a restricted workshop where they develop gunpowder and a working firearm 12.
Industrial Development
| Development | Chapter | Details |
|---|---|---|
| Experimental smithy | 12 | Lin Fan rebuilds the furnace into a blast-furnace prototype and produces a crude iron-barreled matchlock. Its test shot punches a fist-sized hole through a thick bluestone slab. |
| Water-powered workshop | 15 | Waterwheels, wooden gears, and a hydraulic forging press mechanize metalworking. Dozens of teenagers divide barrel finishing, firing-mechanism assembly, and gunpowder production into separate tasks. |
| Armed militia base | 16 | Two hundred ordinary youths and refugees receive smoothbore flintlocks, cartridge pouches, gunpowder, and lead bullets. |
| Mountain mining camp | 20 | Facing a stronger Spirit Hall force, Lin Fan moves more than a hundred civilians, ammunition, and gunpowder into the mountains. Workers improvise shelters and mining tools. |
| Mountain steelworks | 21 24 | More than a thousand refugees help construct a thirty-meter blast furnace and a crude decarburization furnace. Pressure-resistant steel enables stronger gun barrels. |
| Rifled artillery | 24 25 | Lin Fan converts smoothbore cannons into high-pressure rifled mortars and prepares high-explosive armor-piercing ammunition. |
| Modernization program | 26 | Lin Fan orders full-scale industrial assembly lines, bolt-action rifles, smokeless powder, and breech-loading cannons with recoil mechanisms. |
| Thunderclap Arsenal Base | 28 | The mountain base gains a completed railway network and a steam-powered heavy armored train equipped with rotating turrets and rifled howitzers. |
| Layered defensive system | 30 31 | Reinforced-concrete bunkers, Maxim machine guns, concealed antiaircraft guns, and an anti-materiel rifle supplement the artillery defenses. |
| Deep-mountain supply network | 32 | System-awarded rails and bridges spread through the Ten Thousand Mountains, replacing manual transport of ore and ammunition. |
Battles at Tack Town
| Engagement | Defenders and tactics | Outcome |
|---|---|---|
| Spirit Hall border enforcement attack 16 18 19 | Two hundred civilian fighters occupy trenches outside town. Lin Fan holds fire until the attackers reach thirty meters, then uses coordinated three-rank flintlock volleys and a homemade cannon. | The level-51 Soul King commander and his squad are wiped out in under ten minutes. Ten mortal defenders suffer slight injuries. |
| Soul Saint suppression force 24 25 26 | Lin Fan deploys a newly assembled rifled mortar against a level-71 Soul Saint using the Earth Two-Headed Ape Martial Soul Avatar. | An armor-piercing explosive shell destroys the commander’s upper body. His Soul Emperor and Soul King escorts rout before reaching the barricades. |
| Full-scale assault on the arsenal 29 30 31 | Spirit Hall attacks with six thousand armored knights, twenty Soul Saints, and two Titled Douluo. Lin Fan coordinates artillery, bolt-action rifles, bunker defenses, and specialized weapons. | The Soul Saint formation and knight force are devastated. A charging Power Attack Douluo is killed by an anti-materiel round; an Agility-type Douluo is crippled by antiaircraft fire. |
| Qian Xunji’s attack 32 33 | Lin Fan confronts the pope aboard the armored train with his anti-materiel rifle, Twilight of the Gods. | A tungsten-core explosive round kills Qian Xunji instantly. The system declares Thunderclap Arsenal Base victorious and the first campaign complete. |
Real-World Excavation and Manifestation
Imperial Investigation
The real Tack Town becomes an imperial target after the imprisoned Yu Xiaogang repeatedly mentions its name. Emperor Xue Ye suspects that the Firmament’s geography corresponds to reality and that the town may conceal matching mineral deposits or a connection between worlds 22.
He dispatches three thousand Royal Dragon Soul Guards, each at least Soul King rank, with orders to seal the town and everything within one hundred li. The guards are instructed to confiscate relevant minerals and seal any spatial rift. Lin Fan’s broadcast comments about mountain resources redirect their attention toward the surrounding mining region 22.
Xue Ye also orders Xue Qinghe, secretly Qian Renxue, to retrieve classified terrain surveys, mineral records, and accounts of ancient ruins covering the region within five hundred li of Tack Town 23.
Destruction and the Furnace Dispute
The guards excavate Tack Town and its surrounding mountains into an enormous pit, leaving the original settlement completely destroyed. Beneath it, they discover a glowing image of Lin Fan’s blast furnace becoming solid. The discovery establishes that Firmament creations can manifest at corresponding real-world locations—not merely provide clues to a hidden passage 24.
Xue Ye orders the furnace held at any cost. Yue Guan and Gui Mei arrive to claim it for Spirit Hall, while Chen Xin and Yu Yuanzhen oppose them. Xue Ye secures Yu Yuanzhen’s support by promising to return his imprisoned son, then privately threatens Yu Xiaogang’s life if the sect leader changes sides 24.
Manifested Structures and Defenses
| Manifestation | Effect in Reality |
|---|---|
| Blast furnace and weapon blueprints | The furnace solidifies as Lin Fan’s industrial work and battlefield victory unfold, prompting rival factions to rush for control 24 25. |
| Landmines | A level-55 Spirit Hall Soul King triggers a mine while approaching the blueprints and is killed. Fear of additional mines stops further advances; Xue Ye orders his guards to withdraw ten li 25 26. |
| Bunkers and barbed wire | Reinforced-concrete structures and wire barricades rise across the ruins, transforming them into a fortified industrial position. Machine-gun plans and the concrete formula also appear 30. |
| Automatic bunker guns | Overlapping machine-gun fire kills a level-83 Spirit Hall Soul Douluo and hundreds of charging Soul Masters within seconds 30. |
| Railways | Rails force their way through the terrain near Tack Town and spread outward. Real-world Bibi Dong orders Spirit Hall forces to protect the newly appeared tracks 32. |
Lasting Significance
- Starting point of the firearms revolution: The Firmament broadcasts Tack Town’s gunpowder experiments and weapon demonstrations, allowing blacksmiths elsewhere to copy the knowledge 12 13.
- Proof of civilian military power: Its defenders defeat successive Soul Master forces through manufactured weapons, organized labor, and coordinated tactics 19 25 29 31.
- A persistent industrial legacy: After Lin Fan departs and the Firmament vanishes, the thirty-meter blast furnace near Tack Town continues roaring. Slaves, blacksmiths, and rebels gather around it beneath the empty sky 38.