I've been transported to the orc continent.

The bellows wasn't actually that difficult to make. Bai Ling took the animal hide to Cai. At this moment, there were only elderly orcs in the tribe. They were all gathered in the tribe's square, busy cooking.

Seeing Bai Ling carrying a stack of animal hides as she approached, Cai asked, "Ling, do you need our help?"

Bai Ling nodded, put down the animal hides, and said, "I want Grandpa Qing to help me weave a square basket. After the basket is finished, sew the animal hides on. I need them."

Qing limped over and said, "Okay, Ling, when do you need it?"

"Grandpa Qing, can you help me weave this now? It's very useful to me, and I need it tomorrow."

Qing put down the cassava she was holding and nodded, saying, "Okay, this isn't difficult. I'll make it for you first."

He asked his people to help him retrieve the branches that were stored in the cave, and then sat down in the square to start weaving a basket.

Making the fan blades for the bellows wasn't difficult either. Bai Ling found a few twigs about the thickness of a thumb, drilled holes in them with a stone knife, then shaped the twigs into fan blades, tied them with rope to keep them from moving, and finally tied the animal hide to the twigs.

While Bai Ling and Qing were doing this, the other tribesmen watched from the side. When they saw Bai Ling tying animal skins to tree branches to make a strange-looking thing, the tribesmen were puzzled and asked Bai Ling what it was.

Bai Ling explained, "These are fan blades, used to blow air onto the stove."

The tribesman then asked, "What is a stove?"

"It's for burning firewood, similar to an earthen stove."

After tying the fan blades together, Bai Ling started making the bellows handle. This was relatively simple. She used a stone knife to drill a hole in the branch, threaded a slightly thinner branch through the hole, and then attached a small, even thinner branch to the end of the branch that had passed through. The main body of the fan blade and the handle formed a "Z" shape.

Once the bellows is finished, simply attach the fan blades to it.

After Bai Ling finished making the fan blades, Qing hadn't finished weaving the basket yet. Bai Ling put the fan blades into her own basket beside her, then carried the basket to go see the pottery kiln.

*

As the sun set, the tribe members who had gone out to gather resources gradually returned, as did those who had gone out to cut down trees. They cut the trunks of the felled trees into sections and rolled them back to the pottery kiln, while the branches were bundled together and carried back on their backs.

When Chief Zhan returned from hunting and heard that Bai Ling and his group had returned, he came to see Bai Ling without even having time to divide the meat among himself.

Yue also came with him. The two of them were very curious about why the wood was put into the kiln to be fired. Bai Ling explained it to them again.

Zhan didn't ask any more questions, but instead asked about something else: "Ling, when are you going to start smelting iron? Winter is coming soon, and then we'll have a lot more manpower."

“I will start smelting iron once everything is ready,” Bai Ling replied. “Smelting iron doesn’t require too many people from the tribe. I hope they can go and collect stones or cut down trees.”

Zhan nodded: "You can arrange that when the time comes. Oh, right, there's one more thing. We can't let the tribesmen go out to collect stones and cut wood every day. Do you have any other plans?"

Bai Ling thought for a moment and said, "Chieftain, I think we can exchange some things with other tribes. We can exchange more ginger from the Great River Tribe. Ginger is very useful in winter. Eating some ginger in winter will keep you warm and prevent you from getting sick. We can also ask for more hawthorns. We can make persimmon cakes, which are very delicious. Bamboo from the Longhorn Tribe is very useful. We can also exchange for sweet grass from the Snow Mountain Tribe. And the mung beans and sesame seeds from the Rock Turtle Tribe are also good things."

Zhan kept all of this in mind. He decided that once winter officially arrived, he would divide his people into several small teams and go to other tribes to exchange for everything Ling had mentioned.

As for what to exchange it for, he naturally had an idea in mind.

After Zhan left, Bai Ling pulled Yue aside and asked, "Yue, when are you free? You must be there when we forge the first batch of iron. Let's create the world's first piece of ironware together."

In fact, Bai Ling knew that when winter came, the moon would be free.

There is an unwritten rule in the orc world that if there is plenty of food in winter, you should not go hunting.

Winter is not only difficult for orcs, but also for animals. If there is rampant hunting in winter, there will definitely be fewer animals in the following spring, which will have an impact on the whole year.

This year, the tribe has plenty of food, and the people no longer have to worry about food. Chief Zhan will definitely not let the people hunt as often as before, and Yue, as the tribe's best hunter, will definitely have more free time.

Bai Ling asked this question knowingly in order to formally invite Yue to join him in forging the first ironware in the beastman world.

Without a second thought, Yue agreed: "I'll definitely come whenever I'm free." He glanced at Bai Ling with his beautiful, icy blue eyes, then turned his head back to look at the distant sky.

The sun had completely set, and the clouds on the horizon had lost their color, becoming gray and gloomy.

The moon and stars had not yet risen; it was the time of transition between day and night. The sky turned from bright to dark, and everything on earth became quiet, even the chirping of insects, which was usually the most common sound, was gone.

Winter is almost here, and the grass and trees are slowly turning from green to yellow. This should be a bleak season, but Yue's mood is different from all of this. It is one of anticipation, joy, hope, and longing.

Yes, he longed to have an iron knife, and even if it wasn't as good as Ling had described, he still looked forward to it with great excitement.

"Ling, can you make me a special iron knife?" Yue turned her head again, her icy blue eyes looking at Bai Ling with expectation in them: "Design a knife for me, an iron knife that is different from all the stone knives in the tribe."

Under Yue's focused gaze, Bai Ling's Adam's apple bobbed nervously. He took a deep breath to calm himself down, and after thinking for a moment, asked, "Yue, what kind of knife do you want? Is it a hunting knife, or a knife for everyday use? Is it a knife with wide, sweeping strokes, or a light and agile knife?"

Moon: "I don't want a light and nimble knife, I want a knife that can kill prey."

Bai Ling: "Yue, I understand."

Bai Ling already had a rough idea in mind. When the time came, he would draw out the design of the knife, and Yue would choose it.

*

The charcoal would burn for a day and a night. Bai Ling sealed off all the smoke vents around the kiln, leaving only the top one open. There was no need to watch over the kiln at night; the next afternoon, he could simply seal off the top smoke vent as well.

Wait another three days, and we'll be able to tell if the charcoal is ready.