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The firelight illuminated Jian Mo's face, highlighting his striking features and making his pensive expression all the more apparent.

Wu Jiong paused, then sat down by the fire pit. "What are you thinking about?"

Jian Mo snapped out of her thoughts, "I was thinking about the charcoal."

Wu Jiong had heard him mention charcoal before, but didn't ask much, "What is charcoal?"

Jian Mo organized her thoughts. "It's probably the black residue left over from burning firewood? After burning away the impurities, the remaining charcoal burns hotter and longer, making it a very useful material."

Jian Mo, drying her hair, added, "If we had charcoal, we wouldn't have to get up in the middle of the night to change the firewood for the Pack-Pack Beast."

Wu Jiong: "It's okay, I can go back to sleep soon after I change."

"That's tiring too." Jian Mo paused. "Do you remember the pottery we made?"

Wu Jiong nodded.

Jian Mo: "It's probably because the temperature wasn't high enough—the fire wasn't hot enough—that our pottery is thin, transparent, and not durable. If we could reach a higher temperature, we might not need to fire pottery every season, and the quality of the pottery would be better; at least it wouldn't leak."

Wu Jiong understood. "You want to make charcoal first and then fire the pottery."

Jian Mo nodded. "Charcoal is very useful. We don't have much to do in winter, so this is a good opportunity to try it. The materials are all readily available; we can just use the trees you just cut down."

Wu Jiong reminded, "The trees I cut down were wet; they need to be dried before burning."

Jian Mo: "Wet wood is used for making charcoal; dry firewood isn't quite right."

Jian Mo wanted to give it a try, so Wu Jiong went to discuss it with Qing Kuo.

Qing Kuo didn't quite understand what charcoal was when he first heard him talk about it, but now that he heard it again, he immediately said he could give it a try.

Qing Kuo: "It sounds like it will be very useful. I'll tell the participants to keep it a secret, and you should tell the rest of the tribe to keep it a secret too."

Wu Jiong nodded. "I know."

Qing Kuo was somewhat excited. "I'll ask Jian Mo how to cook it tomorrow morning, and get this on the agenda as soon as possible."

Jian Mo only had a vague understanding of charcoal making. He knew the key was to simmer the wood in a low-oxygen environment, allowing it to burn incompletely and leaving behind charcoal.

When Qing Kuo asked, he said, "The steps are similar to firing pottery, except leave fewer air vents so it can slowly smolder and not burn completely. Then, extinguish the fire before the wood is completely burned away."

Qing Kuo's eyes gleamed. "How do we extinguish it? Pour water in?"

Jian Mo wasn't sure either. "We should try extinguishing it with water first. If that doesn't work, we'll think of something else."

Qing Kuo then said, "Let's start burning it today."

"No, no, no." Jian Mo didn't expect him to be so decisive and quickly refused. "To make charcoal, you need to use wet wood, preferably hardwood, that way the charcoal will be better. And after we make the charcoal, I want to use it to fire a batch of pottery. How about we make a batch of clay blanks in advance?"

Qing Kuo: "Weren't the pottery you fired last time good?"

Jian Mo said tactfully, "Perhaps we can make even better pottery."

Qing Kuo: "Alright, let's make the pottery blanks first, and then let the beastmen go cut down the trees."

Jian Mo was much more skilled at making pottery the second time than the first time, and it looked quite professional.

Zhou Fu watched the pottery he was making and said, "Jian Mo is so skillful; we don't even need to do any repairs on this pottery."

Jian Mo looked up. "This clay is mixed well."

Zhou Fu: "Yeah, this batch of clay is really good. Hey, what's this you made? It looks a bit strange."

Jian Mo showed it off. "A shallow earthenware pot."

Zhou Fu blinked, confused. "What's that?"

Qing Kuo: "It's called a pot, so it's a cooking utensil, right?"

Jian Mo is known for her delicious cooking, so when she said she wanted to make a pot, no one was surprised. They just thought the pot was a bit shallow and probably couldn't hold much, and that if they put the food in it to cook, the broth and oil might splatter out.

Jian Mo carefully smoothed the outside of the pot. "It's alright, I know what I'm doing."

No one said anything more.

The orcs went and chopped firewood and returned.

This time they discarded even more stone axes, and the results were quite noticeable, with piles of hardwood stacked on the open ground.

Jian Mo led everyone to split the long pieces of firewood into even pieces, and then said they could burn them.

Everyone was a little uneasy, worried that the firewood wouldn't burn properly and all the firewood would end up as ashes, making all their hard work pointless.

Jian Mo was also worried, but she pretended to be calm and reassured everyone that there shouldn't be any problems.

Jian Mo everyone to stack the wood like building a pottery kiln, and then use mud to build the wood into a hemispherical shape.

This time, we don't need to make so many holes. We only made a small hole at the bottom and a small hole at the top, two holes in total, just enough to allow oxygen to circulate slightly so that the firewood in the cave can burn.

The firewood was all wet, and they placed some dry leaves and wood underneath to start a fire.

After being lit, the fire burned smoothly, and black smoke successfully emerged from the small hole at the top of the cave.

Qing Kuo asked, "How long will it burn?"

Jian Mo shook her head. "I'm not too sure either. I'll stay here and watch. Maybe I'll know when it's almost burned out."

Qing Kuo: "I'll go with you."

Jian Mo quickly refused, "No need, I can handle this myself, you go ahead with your work."

Qing Kuo: "There's nothing to be busy with. I'll go get some thread; weaving here is just as good."

Jian Mo thought for a moment and said, "Then I'll bring some cloth and make some clothes too. It's warm here since the kiln is firing up."

The ventilation shaft was at the top of the cave dwelling, so they wouldn't be bothered by the smoke if they sat nearby.

On a day when the wind is howling and the cold is blowing, sitting in a sheltered spot and doing some work by the warmth of the cave dwelling is indeed very comfortable.

Gradually, most of the tribe arrived.

Both orcs and sub-orcs were spinning thread, weaving cloth, or mending clothes.

The firewood in the kiln burned continuously, with blue smoke rising from the top.

Jian Mo's first time burning charcoal, and she couldn't tell when it was done, so she could only keep watching.