Respect Like a Deity

After naming them in a way that felt like using whatever was at hand, Zhou Xu subconsciously looked behind him. At this moment, more than ten simple animal skin tents had already been set up.

It wasn't particularly difficult in the first place.

[Primitive tribes are pretty much like this.]

Putting that aside for now, Zhou Xu's attention remained focused on the task before him.

That was to ignite a fire!

Just then, Fei Que and the others returned, carrying branches.

"Put them all here. Anyone who's free, come help me tear off the bark. Then find any suitable stone, or a weapon, anything will do, and start scraping these branches. I need the shavings."

Including Fei Que and the others who had just returned, the tribe members, though hungry and tired, obediently carried out the orders.

He intended to gather some wood shavings first, which would make igniting the fire easier later.

During this time, Zhou Xu himself was not idle. He took a spear and dismantled it!

Spears in this era, to put it bluntly, were just a piece of wood with a relatively sharp bone tied to it, commonly known as a bone spear.

This one was a bit peculiar; it had a long bone tied to it...

The original owner of this long bone must have been quite large, as the thickness and length of the bone were comparable to his forearm.

Because the broken end was quite sharp, it was used to make the bone spear.

"Go wash this bone. I'll need it later."

After casually handing the bone to a nearby tribe member, Zhou Xu took the animal skin rope used to tie the bone.

Then, he found a branch of suitable length and toughness, tied the two ends together, and a simple tool for daily life was completed.

Needless to say, he planned to use a bow drill for fire starting. Compared to friction fire, Zhou Xu felt this method was more efficient.

He piled up some of the wood shavings everyone had painstakingly scraped off during this period, then wrapped the fire stick he had carefully selected around the bowstring. The preparations were complete.

Taking a deep breath, he wasn't sure if it was because so many people were watching, but Zhou Xu felt a little nervous at that moment.

[I can't mess this up!]

This wasn't just a matter of pride; in this primitive world, if he couldn't start a fire, he would be plunged into complete darkness once night fell.

And no one could guarantee how many terrifying threats lurked in the darkness!

Without any delay, as his hands pulled back and forth with force, the bowstring continuously pulled, and the fire stick wrapped around the middle quickly began to spin at high speed, causing the surrounding tribe members to gasp in surprise.

Although it was a very simple structure, it was completely beyond their common knowledge and gave them a new sense of shock.

Taking a deep breath, Zhou Xu maintained his high rotation speed.

Honestly, this was quite a strenuous task. After a period of high-speed pulling, his entire arm began to ache.

But he didn't dare to relax even a little.

[Please, please. Hurry up and catch fire!]

Compared to the tribe members who looked exhausted and were all skin and bones, Zhou Xu considered his own condition to be better.

Now, to start a fire, he was giving it his all.

He didn't know if heaven had heard his prayer, but as a wisp of blue smoke rose, Zhou Xu's heart rate quickened.

With his nerves taut, after removing the fire stick, Zhou Xu lay directly on the ground, holding his breath, and carefully stirred the surrounding wood shavings.

He looked as if he were cherishing the most fragile treasure in the world.

Gradually, the smoke grew thicker, and the tiny spark generated by friction, upon contact with the tinder, finally turned into a flame and began to burn.

Seeing this, Zhou Xu quickly transferred the flame to the stone stove nearby, which had already been piled with wood and sprinkled with shavings.

Watching the flame rapidly expand and burn brighter, the suppressed excitement within him finally turned into a cheer and was released.

His breathing was rapid, and his chest heaved violently. Before this, Zhou Xu had never imagined that simply starting a fire could bring him such intense excitement and a sense of accomplishment! He felt as if he had accomplished some great feat!

After a cheer, as if remembering something, Zhou Xu subconsciously looked around.

At this moment, the tribe members surrounding him had all knelt down, bowing to him and cheering, their faces filled with fervor!

For primitive people, the only way to obtain fire was to pray for the Sky God to bestow it.

In their understanding, humans were incapable of obtaining fire through their own efforts.

But Zhou Xu had succeeded!

Combined with his status as the 'Chosen One', the tribe members now looked at him as if he were a Deity!

Taking a deep breath and calming his emotions, Zhou Xu was quite satisfied with the outcome.

"Everyone, get up."

As Zhou Xu spoke, he handed the largest gourd pot to Dashan.

"Go fill it with water."

At the same time, Fei Que had already followed Zhou Xu's instructions and gathered all the insects they had caught.

"These insects, everyone, just like this, pinch off their heads, and these are the internal organs..."

Although this was his first time doing this, it really felt like he knew what he was doing.

"Don't throw away the heads and innards you cut off, put them all over by Fei Que. For the rest of the insect bodies, thread them onto these thin branches."

As soon as he finished speaking, Dashan returned with a pot full of water.

By this time, he had already set up a simple rack on the Stone Stove and used Dashan's Beast Tooth Dagger to carve two small holes into the Gourd Pot.

A thinner bone could be passed directly through these two holes, allowing the pot to be placed on the Stone Stove to boil water.

Of course, that wasn't enough. Even if the saltwater lake's water was boiled, it couldn't be drunk. He needed to obtain Freshwater through distillation.

But at the moment, he didn't have any reliable equipment and could only rely on his divergent thinking to come up with a solution.

He found a suitable bone plate to place on top and made sure it was tilted at a certain angle.

This way, as the water vapor rose, it would condense into water droplets on the bone plate. Due to the tilt, the water droplets would slide down to the lower end of the plate.

At this spot, Zhou Xu directly attached the cleaned hollow bone as a water pipe. The distilled water that flowed down would follow the pipe into the Gourd Bowl below.

The overall efficiency was not high, but this was the best method he could think of.

Throughout this entire process, the surrounding tribe members were stunned by the 'Freshwater Extraction Device' Zhou Xu had put together.

Although they didn't understand what this thing was, they were greatly impressed!