Chapter Summaries

After dying in a traffic accident, Wang Yan awoke in the body of a starving child in the prehistoric Fire Tribe, where he learned that his father was the chief, Jianshi. Seeing the tribe’s desperate hunger, Wang Yan resolved to use his modern knowledge to improve their chances of survival, beginning with finding a reliable food supply.

• Wang Yan woke in a primitive shack and drank a bitter slurry offered by a middle-aged tribesman.
• Wang Yan recovered fragments of the child’s memories and realized he was the chief Jianshi’s ten-year-old son in the Fire Tribe.
• Wang Yan went outside and saw the tribe’s malnourished people and learned they relied on unreliable hunting and gathering.
• Wang Yan considered farming and animal raising but recognized they would not solve the immediate food shortage.
• Wang Yan noticed the tribe’s crude stone tools and thought about improving tools and learning to make fire.
• Wang Yan’s hungry younger brother approached him, strengthening Wang Yan’s resolve to solve the tribe’s food problem.

Wang Yan used a piece of fat and a bamboo pole to catch frogs, then showed his tribe how to roast them into a filling meal. After his family and several tribespeople enjoyed the food, he resolved to find more ways to strengthen the tribe.

• Wang Yan asked Jianshi for a small piece of fat, claiming the ancestors had revealed a way to find food, and Jianshi gave it to him.
• Wang Yan made a simple fishing rod and took Shouchai to nearby ponds to catch frogs with the moving fat bait.
• Wang Yan and Shouchai caught a bagful of frogs and returned to the tribe, where Qingye and others questioned whether they were safe to eat.
• Wang Yan told Qingye to roast the cleaned frog meat thoroughly, then ate it first and shared it with Shouchai, his younger brothers, and nearby children and elders.
• Wang Yan saw the tribe enjoy a filling meal and resolved to find more ways to strengthen it.

Wang Yan recruited Shibang, Gubang, Daya, and Shouchai to learn his frog-fishing method and led them to gather food for the tribe. They returned with roughly a hundred jin of frogs, astonishing the tribespeople and giving the children a sense of pride in their contribution.

• Wang Yan persuaded Jianshi and Qingye to let him take three others to catch hopping beasts.
• Wang Yan recruited Shibang, Gubang, Daya, and Shouchai, then taught them fishing methods, safety rules, and how to divide up the ponds.
• Wang Yan and the four children split up to fish at separate pools, and the children quickly learned to catch frogs.
• Wang Yan and the children returned at noon with bags full of frogs, amounting to roughly a hundred jin.
• The tribespeople marveled at the catch, while Shibang, Gubang, Daya, and Shouchai felt proud to have helped the tribe.

Wang Yan won the Fire Tribe’s trust in properly cleaned and roasted frog meat, and the tribespeople shared a large meal. The next day, he made shrimp traps and left them in the stream, hoping to catch shrimp and crabs.

• Wang Yan explained how to clean and cook frogs, and Jianshi, Qingye, and Granny Cao ate the meat to reassure the tribe.
• The tribespeople followed their example and ate roasted frog meat together.
• Wang Yan gathered discarded frog skins and innards for bait and split his companions into teams to catch frogs and make shrimp traps.
• Wang Yan, Daya, and Shouchai wove three simple traps, while Shibang and Gubang returned with another large frog catch.
• Wang Yan and his companions sank the baited traps in a gentle bend of the stream and planned to check them the next morning.

Wang Yan’s shrimp traps yielded a large catch, and he showed the Fire Tribe how to prepare and eat shrimp and crabs. The children eagerly finished the food and wanted to catch more, while Wang Yan eyed the big fish in the stream as another possible food source.

• Wang Yan, Shibang, Gubang, Daya, and Shouchai pulled up a trap packed with shrimp and crabs.
• Wang Yan spotted large fish jumping in the wider stretch of water downstream and hoped the tribe could catch them someday.
• Qingye refused to lend the tribe’s large clay pot, so Wang Yan cooked the catch in his family’s stone pot.
• Wang Yan cleaned and cooked the shrimp and crabs, then ate a shrimp to prove they were safe and tasty.
• Shibang tried a shrimp, followed by Gubang, Daya, and Shouchai, and the children quickly ate the whole catch.
• Shibang and Daya urged Wang Yan to make more traps and catch more shrimp and crabs.

Wang Yan proposed making pottery to solve the Fire Tribe’s shortage of cooking pots, and Jianshi and Qingye agreed to support him. The next day, Wang Yan assembled a small team to search for suitable clay and gather fuel for firing pottery.

• Wang Yan told Jianshi and Qingye he wanted to try making pottery, and they eagerly agreed to help.
• Wang Yan explained that he needed a few reliable people, suitable clay, charcoal, and a kiln before pottery could be fired.
• Wang Yan split his original team, leaving Shibang and four others to fish for frogs while he led Gubang, Daya, Shouchai, and three aunts on the pottery project.
• Wang Yan examined the creek banks for clay while Gubang and Daya took younger children to gather dry wood for charcoal.

Wang Yan and the Fire Tribe made their first pottery by firing dried clay in a crude kiln. The firing succeeded, leaving the tribe with several usable pottery pieces and a new way to make containers.

• Wang Yan found sticky yellow clay near the riverbank while Gubang and Daya helped search for suitable soil.
• Aunt Baiya, Aunt Niucao, Aunt Luye, Shouchai, and other tribe members built a crude kiln and prepared charcoal.
• Wang Yan and the aunties loaded the dried clay pieces into the kiln, covered them with charcoal, and fired them through the day.
• Wang Yan stopped Gubang from adding charcoal and had everyone wait overnight for the kiln to cool slowly.
• Wang Yan, Gubang, and Daya uncovered the kiln and found that two bowls and a jar had survived firing, while one bowl had cracked.
• Wang Yan lifted out the intact large pot, and Jianshi declared that the Fire Tribe now had pottery of its own.

After the Fire Tribe’s first pottery firing succeeded, Jianshi and Qingye recognized pottery’s potential to improve the tribe’s trade and survival. They made pottery production the tribe’s top priority, and Wang Yan organized a workshop to expand production and improve the pottery before the autumn market.

• Wang Yan, Gubang, and the others proved the pottery could hold water and withstand boiling, prompting the Fire Tribe to celebrate its successful firing.
• Jianshi and Qingye realized pottery could be traded for salt, food, and other goods, and agreed to support Wang Yan’s work.
• Jianshi assigned Baiya, Niucao, and Luye to lead pottery production, while Wang Yan selected additional learners and chose a clearing for a workshop.
• Jianya advised the tribe to meet its own cookware needs first and quietly stockpile well-made pottery for the autumn market.
• Wang Yan established the pottery workshop, where the women practiced shaping clay, he improved the kilns and clay mixtures, and Gubang and Daya organized the firewood supply.

Wang Yan organized pottery production and improved the Fire Tribe’s food gathering while searching for finer fibers to make stronger rope. He found a prickly plant with tough inner bark and successfully made a durable hemp cord.

• Jianshi and Jianya arranged for Wang Yan and his aunts to guard the pottery techniques while trusted women formed three pottery teams.
• Dali and Dazhuang oversaw the construction of two larger kilns as the tribe expanded pottery production.
• Wang Yan assigned Shibang’s group to catch frogs and led Gubang, Daya, and Shouchai in making traps that increased catches of shrimp and crabs.
• Wang Yan searched with Gubang and Shouchai for plants with fibers suitable for better rope, but their first samples proved too short or coarse.
• Wang Yan found a prickly plant with long, tough inner-bark fibers, processed them, and twisted them into a strong hemp cord.

Wang Yan recognized hemp as a versatile material and focused on using it to improve the tribe’s fishing nets so they could catch more food. After teaching Gubang and Shouchai to make hemp rope, he finished a new casting net and led them to test it at the river.

• Wang Yan explained that hemp could be used for strong rope, fishing nets, baskets, and eventually clothing, and said the tribe could cultivate more of it.
• Wang Yan chose to prioritize fishing nets because the tribe needed more food and its old nets were weak and often damaged.
• Wang Yan led Gubang and Shouchai to harvest hemp stalks, process the fibers, and learn to twist them into durable rope.
• Wang Yan prepared stone weights and wooden floats, then wove a casting net from hemp rope over several days.
• Wang Yan finished the new net and set off with Gubang and Shouchai to test it in the river.

Wang Yan used a new hemp-rope fishing net to bring in more than a hundred jin of fish, astonishing the Fire Tribe. Jianshi and Qingye decided to organize twenty people to learn rope-making and net-weaving so the tribe could stockpile dried fish before winter.

• Wang Yan cast the new hemp-rope net into the river, and he, Gubang, and Shouchai hauled in a large catch.
• The three cast again, filled their baskets with over a hundred jin of fish, and carried them back to the tribe.
• The Fire Tribe gathered around the catch, and Qingye learned that Wang Yan had caught the fish with his new net.
• Wang Yan explained how to make hemp rope and weave the net to Jianshi and Qingye.
• Jianshi announced that twenty people would learn the skills and help stockpile dried fish before winter.

Wang Yan organized the tribe to make fishing nets, increasing their daily fish catch and prompting him to propose fishponds as a way to keep surplus fish fresh amid a shortage of salt. The tribe began digging two ponds near the stream, but Wang Yan remained concerned about finding a reliable source of salt.

• Wang Yan divided the selected tribespeople into groups to process hemp, spin thread, and weave fishing nets.
• Shibang's frog-fishing squad, Gubang's shrimp traps, and the new net provided the tribe with abundant food.
• Wang Yan raised the problems of preserving surplus fish and the tribe's dwindling salt stores with Jianshi and Qingye.
• Wang Yan proposed digging ponds to keep fish alive, and Jianshi ordered two ponds built.
• Dazhuang led workers to dig the ponds while Wang Yan directed the work and wondered whether salt could be found near the Fire Tribe.

Wang Yan investigated reports of animals licking stones and persuaded Jianshi to let him search a rocky slope near the Black Forest. He found impure rock salt and returned safely with samples, leaving the tribe with a source of salt to refine.

• Wang Yan questioned hunters and Granny Cao, who described a northern rocky slope where wild animals licked stones.
• Wang Yan asked Jianshi to send hunters with him to search for salt, and Jianshi agreed to have Dabang lead four men.
• Wang Yan and Dabang's group traveled north through the jungle and reached the rocky slope near the Black Forest.
• Wang Yan scraped a dark rock and tasted the powder, confirming that it contained salt despite its impurities.
• Wang Yan directed the hunters to collect salt-rich rock samples, and the group returned safely to the tribe by evening.

Wang Yan successfully refined salt rock into edible coarse salt, proving the Fire Tribe could produce its own salt. Jianshi made mining salt rock and building a salt-making workshop top priorities, though large-scale production still required more labor and firewood.

• Jianshi tasted the salt rock and trusted Wang Yan’s plan to refine it.
• Wang Yan dissolved the crushed salt rock in water, filtered the brine through hemp cloth and charcoal, and boiled it until crystals formed.
• Aunt Luye tasted the crystals and confirmed they were salty and far less bitter, and Wang Yan verified that they were edible coarse salt.
• Jianshi and Qingye arrived, tasted the salt, and celebrated the Fire Tribe’s new source of salt.
• Jianya recognized that producing salt as well as pottery could help the Fire Tribe challenge the Fish Tribe’s regional influence.
• Wang Yan warned that supplying the tribe required more salt rock, a dedicated workshop, labor, and firewood, and Jianshi made salt production a top priority.

After learning that the Fire Tribe could make salt, Jianshi and Jianya realized that revealing its salt and pottery skills could provoke stronger tribes to attack. Jianshi ordered the tribe to conceal both crafts and limit who knew about them, leaving the Fire Tribe to hide its growing capabilities until it could defend itself.

• Jianya warned Jianshi that outsiders learning of the Fire Tribe's salt-making could bring about the tribe's destruction.
• Jianshi recognized that the Fire Tribe was too weak to defend its salt and pottery techniques from larger tribes and summoned its leaders to meet in secret.
• Dabang proposed warning everyone who knew the salt-making process, concealing the workshop, limiting workers, and hiding signs of salt-rock transport.
• Jianya advised the tribe to reduce pottery production and disguise its reliable craft as rare, accidental success.
• Jianshi decided to relocate the salt workshop under Jianya's supervision, hide most pottery, and present the Fire Tribe as poor and struggling.

After Jianya warned that the Fire Tribe’s pottery and salt could make it a target, Wang Yan proposed a long-term plan to strengthen the tribe while keeping its new technologies secret. Jianshi approved the proposals, including training boys aged eight to fifteen, and left Wang Yan responsible for planning their drills.

• Jianya explained the danger the Fire Tribe faced from possessing valuable secrets, and Wang Yan realized the tribe needed strength to protect itself.
• Wang Yan proposed growing the population, absorbing smaller tribes and wanderers, expanding food supplies through animal husbandry and planting, and building sturdier homes and an earthen wall.
• Wang Yan urged the tribe to form an alliance with the Green Sheep, Bison, White Pig, and Deer Tribes and suggested that everyone learn to fight.
• After Dali and Dazhuang objected to training women and children, Wang Yan proposed training boys over eight and under fifteen instead.
• Jianya supported the compromise, and Jianshi approved the boys’ drills along with the broader plans, asking Wang Yan to discuss training details with the hunting team.

Wang Yan organized the Fire Tribe’s twenty boys aged eight to fifteen into an afternoon training squad, starting with gradual, basic exercises. After they completed their first session, he secured them extra meat on training days, leaving them eager to continue.

• Wang Yan planned gradual afternoon training for the tribe’s boys so they could grow stronger without neglecting their work or risking injury.
• Wang Yan sent Gubang and Shouchai to gather the boys, whose families had already been told to support the training.
• Wang Yan explained the training’s purpose and warned the boys that it would be hard, and all twenty agreed to continue.
• Wang Yan led the boys on three laps around the settlement and encouraged Shouchai when he began falling behind.
• Wang Yan taught the boys basic strength exercises and announced that each would receive extra meat on training days, prompting them to cheer.

With the Fire Tribe’s food supply improving, Wang Yan’s younger brothers and the other youths grew stronger, while his own body and secret breathing practice advanced. As captain and instructor of the youth squad, he trained the boys and identified several promising talents who could strengthen the tribe in the future.

• Ample food improved the health and strength of the Fire Tribe’s youngsters, including Wang Yan’s brothers Shouchai, Shibang, and Gubang.
• Wang Yan practiced his former-life fighting techniques and breathing method in private, discovering that the method sharpened his senses and greatly increased his strength.
• Dabang’s recommendation and Chief Jianshi’s support led Wang Yan to become captain and instructor of the twenty-member youth squad.
• Wang Yan led the youths through running and strength exercises, then arranged for hunters to teach them tracking, concealment, wrestling, and grappling.
• Wang Yan organized sparring and recognized promising talents, including the strong Yingmu, swift Kuaitui, accurate Shimao, nimble Niaodan, and trap-maker Changteng.

Wang Yan turned the youth squad’s sparring into structured team training, appointing nine leaders to build cooperation and discipline. As the youths trained in organized groups, Chief Jianshi watched with pride and growing confidence in Wang Yan’s leadership.

• Gubang and Yingmu fought to a draw, and Wang Yan praised both for their strengths.
• Wang Yan named nine capable youths as team leaders and organized the squad into nine small teams.
• The teams began competing and training together, learning to coordinate and understand each other’s abilities.
• Chief Jianshi saw the youths training in orderly formations and felt proud of Wang Yan’s progress.

Wang Yan and Jianshi discussed raising captured young animals to give the Fire Tribe a more reliable food supply. After seeing the fawns and hearing about the surviving wild piglets, Jianshi agreed to build a divided animal pen near the creek.

• Jianshi praised Wang Yan for training the youths and told him that attempts to capture adult wild animals had failed.
• Jianshi explained that the tribe had instead captured young animals, including two fawns and three surviving wild piglets.
• Wang Yan advised building a sturdy animal pen near water and keeping different kinds of animals in separate sections.
• Jianshi decided that Dali and Dazhuang would lead a team to choose a site and begin building the pen the next day.