Starting with choosing a wife, creating the most powerful Xia

After staying in the woodshed for more than an hour, Chu Xuan finally came out, his face inevitably showing some disappointment.

Yes, it was disappointment.

He had just reconstituted the gunpowder, but unfortunately, due to the lack of saltpeter, the amount of gunpowder that could be produced under the given ratio was pitifully small.

"No, we need to find a way to get some more saltpeter."

But saltpeter is indeed rare. After thinking for a moment, Chu Xuan came up with a simple method. He originally wanted to ask A Leng to do it for him, but when he thought about how exhausted A Leng had been these past few days, running back and forth all day, he decided to do it himself.

Chu Xuan acted immediately, leaving the courtyard and heading straight for the village chief's house.

Compared to the Lu family, the village chief's house was much simpler, just a small thatched hut.

At this moment, a few wisps of smoke rose from the rooftop, indicating that someone was cooking. As Chu Xuan approached, he saw the village chief come out and take an egg from the hen outside.

"Lord Chu, what brings you here?"

The village chief looked up and saw Chu Xuan, and was startled. Then he smiled in confusion.

But he quickly added warmly, "Lord Chu, you've come at the perfect time. The old man is just making lunch. Why don't you join us for some? It's not anything fancy, but the old man's cooking is quite good."

Chu Xuan smiled and followed the village chief into the house, where he was the only one.

According to the villagers, he lost his wife a long time ago, and his son died a few years ago when he went to Wuming Mountain. So he has been living alone ever since.

The house was cleaned thoroughly; although simple, it was not unpleasant to look at.

After the two entered the house, Chu Xuan got straight to the point.

"Village chief, I won't eat this meal. I've come today to ask you for a favor."

"Ahem, what are you saying, Lord Chu? Did we need to use the word 'please' before? Just give the order, Lord Chu."

The village chief's expression immediately turned serious as he listened quietly to Chu Xuan's arrangements.

But Chu Xuan remained silent for a moment, which was unexpected.

It wasn't that he didn't want to say it, it was just that saying what he wanted was too embarrassing.

The village chief, unaware of this, tilted his head and looked at him: "Lord Chu? Is there some difficulty?"

After a moment of silence, Chu Xuan said somewhat awkwardly, "Then I'll get straight to the point, could you... perhaps find me some excrement?"

"Of course, no problem. How much do you want, sir... wait, what do you want?"

The village chief agreed readily at first, but then realized what he had heard and looked bewildered, wondering if he had misheard.

"I need feces."

"Is it the excrement I'm thinking of?"

"Yes……"

Chu Xuan's voice grew softer and softer until it was almost inaudible.

The village chief looked at him with an increasingly strange expression.

What do you need this for?

"Don't worry about that, I'll use it anyway. You know a lot of people, could you help me get some? Not much, just a bucket will do."

Hearing Chu Xuan say this, the village chief was very curious, but he didn't say anything more and nodded in agreement.

"Although Wuming Village may not have anything else to offer, it can still find excrement."

After exchanging a few more pleasantries, Chu Xuan, looking quite embarrassed, first went to the Lu family's house. Lu Yongyuan was dead, and the house was practically abandoned. He found some firewood inside and then returned to his courtyard.

A short while later, two young men, following the village chief's instructions, carried a bucket of manure to his house.

Noticing the strange looks in their eyes, Chu Xuan rubbed his nose, told them to leave it in the backyard, and then sent it away.

"Husband, what are you doing?"

Even Chu Ling'er, who rarely showed any disdain, watched from afar.

Chu Xuan smiled without explaining, simply telling her to leave first, and then began to operate the equipment himself.

First, they dug a large pit in the yard, put all the firewood in it, and started burning it.

Then they set up a pot, poured all the excrement into it to cook, and stirred it back and forth with a stick.

The smell of feces was already extremely strong, and now, with the heating, the odor spread even further, reaching far and wide. The three women waiting outside couldn't help but cover their noses.

In the end, the smell even spread throughout the nameless village.

Many people at home were stunned when they smelled the odor and rushed out to ask if someone's chamber pot had exploded.

Later, someone explained it.

"You don't know yet, do you? Lord Chu just went to the village chief to ask for manure. I heard he asked for quite a lot, so the village chief had Erniu deliver it to them."

"Huh? What does Lord Chu need this for?"

"Who knows? But judging from this smell, could Lord Chu be cooking excrement?"

"Ugh~ That's disgusting. Is Lord Chu sick?"

The villagers chattered amongst themselves.

Fortunately, there were some folk remedies in the village, such as using boiled feces to treat illnesses, so Chu Xuan's approach wasn't too abrupt, although the smell was a bit pungent.

Inside the courtyard, Chu Xuan covered his mouth and nose with a white cloth and looked into the pot. The contents inside had been boiled until foam appeared, with a layer of white foam floating on top.

"It's done!"

Chu Xuan said with delight.

This layer of foam is the nitrate that Chu Xuan needs.

The next step is to wait for the white foam to dry out. Once it loses moisture, it will settle and solidify into crystals, which is the saltpeter produced using traditional methods.

All that was left was to wait for the excrement. Chu Xuan walked over to the charcoal and, seeing that it was almost burned, covered the charcoal with the soil he had just dug out, leaving only two holes for air circulation.

After doing all that, Chu Xuan waited in the courtyard for three whole hours.

These three hours were truly torture. Chu Xuan didn't know how he managed to endure it. By the end, he was walking unsteadily.

Chu Xuan carefully scraped the saltpeter produced after the bottom of the pot had dried out into the prepared earthenware pot. At this time, the charcoal had also been burned.

He found another earthenware pot, filled it with a certain proportion of sulfur and charcoal, ground it into powder, added a little saltpeter, compacted it, and used a dry branch as a fuse.

That completes the mission.

Chu Xuan dashed out of the courtyard as if fleeing for his life, leaning against the wall with lifeless eyes, as if he had lost all hope for life.

"Out?"

Chen Xuening and the others were waiting for him outside the door.

Everyone was curious about what he was doing all afternoon, burning excrement and locking himself up.

Chu Ling'er was worried that Chu Xuan might overwork himself, Chen Xuening was curious, and as for A Leng, she was simply watching the show.

After regaining his senses, a strange smile appeared on Chu Xuan's lips.

"I'm done!"

"What's done?"

Upon hearing this, Chen Xuening became excited. She knew that Chu Xuan's actions of locking himself in and doing so many strange things couldn't have been without reason.

Now it seems that there was indeed something to it.

My curiosity was piqued.

Chu Xuan looked at her and smiled.

"Do you know what I used to defeat those bandits?"