Chapter 5: Revered Like a Deity

After quickly gathering names as if scavenging on the spot, Zhou Xu instinctively glanced behind him. At this moment, a dozen or so simple animal-hide tents had already been set up.

It was not particularly difficult in itself.

“A primitive tribe would be roughly like this,” he thought.

Putting that aside for now, Zhou Xu’s attention remained focused on the task before him: making fire.

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

“Put them here. Anyone free, come help peel off the bark. Then find some suitable stones or weapons, anything sharp, and start scraping these branches. I need the shavings.”

Despite hunger and exhaustion, the tribe members, including Fei Que and his group, obediently followed the orders.

Zhou Xu planned to gather some wood shavings first to make lighting the fire easier later.

He himself was not idle. He took a spear and... dismantled it.

In this era, a spear was basically a wooden shaft bound with a sharp bone tip, commonly known as a bone spear.

This one was peculiar; the bone tied to it was a hollow bone.

The original owner must have been quite large, as the thickness and length of the hollow bone roughly matched Zhou Xu’s forearm.

Because one end was jagged and sharp, it had been used as the spearhead.

“Take this bone and clean it. I’ll need it soon.”

After handing the bone to a nearby tribe member, Zhou Xu took the animal hide cord used to bind the bone.

Then he found a branch of suitable length and flexibility, tied the ends, and thus fashioned a simple tool.

No need to say, he intended to use a bow drill for fire-making. Compared to the traditional hand drill, Zhou Xu felt this method was more efficient.

He piled some of the shavings everyone had scraped together, then carefully wrapped his chosen fireboard around the bowstring. All preparations were complete.

Taking a deep breath—perhaps because so many eyes were watching him—Zhou Xu felt a flicker of nervousness.

“I can’t mess this up!”

This was not just about pride. In this primitive world, if he failed to start a fire, once darkness fell, he would be plunged into utter blackness.

And no one could guarantee what terrifying dangers lurked in that night.

Without hesitation, Zhou Xu began the rhythmic pulling motion. The fire drill, wrapped in the bowstring, spun rapidly, drawing gasps from the tribe members.

Though a simple device, it was beyond their knowledge and struck them with a fresh shock.

Steeling himself, Zhou Xu maintained the high speed.

To be honest, this was quite exhausting. After several intense pulls, his entire arm began to ache.

Yet he dared not relax even for a moment.

“Please, please... light up already!”

Compared to the tribe members around him, who were all exhausted and emaciated, Zhou Xu felt he was still in better shape.

He threw every ounce of effort into this task.

Whether by fortune or fate, a wisp of blue smoke soon rose, and Zhou Xu’s heart raced.

Tensing every nerve, after removing the drill, he immediately crouched low, holding his breath, carefully stirring the wood shavings.

He handled them like the most fragile treasure in the world.

Gradually, the smoke thickened. The tiny ember formed by friction finally caught flame upon meeting the tinder.

Seeing this, Zhou Xu quickly transferred the flame to the stone hearth, where wood and shavings were piled.

As the fire spread, growing stronger, his long-suppressed excitement burst forth in a shout of joy.

His rapid breathing caused his chest to heave violently. Before this, he had never imagined that simply starting a fire could bring such intense exhilaration and a sense of accomplishment—it felt as if he had achieved a great feat.

After his cheer, Zhou Xu seemed to recall something and instinctively looked around.

At that moment, the surrounding tribe members were all kneeling, bowing and cheering fervently, their faces filled with wild adoration.

For these primitive people, fire was a divine gift granted only by the gods.

In their understanding, humans could never produce fire by their own means.

Yet Zhou Xu had done it.

Given his identity as the ‘Chosen One,’ the tribe members now gazed at him as if he were a living deity.

Drawing a deep breath to calm his emotions, Zhou Xu was very satisfied with the outcome before him.

“Everyone, stand up.”

He spoke as he handed the largest gourd shell pot to Da Shan.

“Go fill it with water.”

At the same time, Fei Que and his group had gathered all the insects they had caught together, following Zhou Xu’s instructions.

“These insects—pinch off their heads. These here are the guts...”

Although this was his first time doing such a thing, it actually looked quite convincing.

“Don’t discard the heads and guts; bring them all to Fei Que. The remaining insect bodies, thread them onto these thin twigs like this.”

Before he finished, Da Shan returned with a pot full of water.

By now, he had set up a simple rack over the stone hearth and, using Da Shan’s bone dagger, drilled two small holes in the gourd pot.

A slender bone could be passed through these holes, allowing the pot to be suspended over the fire to boil water.

Of course, this was not enough. The water from the salt lake was undrinkable even when boiled. He needed to distill fresh water.

But without any proper equipment, he had to rely on his own ingenuity.

He placed a fairly suitable bone plate on top, angled slightly.

This way, steam would condense on the bone plate, and due to its slope, droplets would slide to the lower edge.

At that point, Zhou Xu connected the cleaned hollow bone as a spout, channeling the distilled water into a gourd bowl below.

The whole setup was inefficient but the best solution he could devise.

Throughout the process, the tribe members watched in stunned silence, amazed by Zhou Xu’s ‘freshwater extraction device.’

Though they could not understand what it was, they were deeply impressed.