"At first I couldn't find any plants containing nitrates, then I suddenly remembered..."

At the base of the mud-walled houses in my hometown, there grows a lot of saltpeter.

And on the stone path outside our house, quite a few stones also have these things growing on them.

Upon hearing this, Fu Changxiong, being a native of the countryside, immediately remembered it.

"Oh, isn't that just soil salt? It's everywhere along the walls in the countryside. I used to scrape it off and eat it all the time when I was a kid."

"right!"

Ye Feng immediately stood up and went to the window.

"Potassium nitrate, also known as potassium salt, contains nitrates and appears as crystals or white powder. It is exactly what is needed in a tinderbox."

Without further ado, Da Xiong, Xiao Jieba, and Zhan Pengfei, you're in charge of collecting saltpeter. Remember, scrape it with a knife, don't get it wet, I want it dry.

The two girls stayed home to continue working, while David and the monk accompanied me to the taro field.

After giving a brief instruction, Ye Feng began preparations.

Even when going out at night, everyone responded enthusiastically.

Because they knew that Ye Feng was the core of the team; if he survived, the others could live longer.

Sometimes, a leader's decisions are more important than their own abilities.

Ye Feng mixed a little of the pine cones and resin he had picked with some lard and made a few torches.

Flashlights are a limited resource; once the electricity runs out, they're useless.

Anyway, the distance isn't far, and torches are more than enough.

Moreover, it can provide illumination while also scare away wild animals and poisonous insects, making it more suitable than a flashlight.

After tidying up, the two teams each took a torch and began to prepare their gear separately.

As expected, with torches, many mosquitoes dared not approach Ye Feng and his companions.

The journey was uneventful, and after about ten minutes, they arrived at the taro field.

More than ten days have passed, and the small taro plants that Ye Feng and the others had transplanted earlier have clearly grown a little taller and are growing very well.

At night, the taro field is filled with the croaking of frogs.

This is a favorite habitat for mosquitoes, which naturally attracts other insect-eating animals.

"Oh dear~"

Zhan Pengwu grinned and swallowed hard.

"Why are there so many taro? Young man, you have so many good things here! My favorite things are hot and sour soup and taro."

Tang Weiwei couldn't help but lick her lips. Taro... what a modern food! She never expected to find such a treat in the middle of nowhere.

"No wonder when I first met you all, you all had rosy complexions and showed no signs of extreme weight loss."

Wow, having so much taro every day, I've really had my fill of carbs! My energy levels are definitely different now!

Seeing their naive and unsophisticated appearance, Ye Feng smiled and shook his head.

"Anyway, I only want the rhizomes. Pick a few to take back later, and I'll treat you to taro dumplings for breakfast tomorrow."

"Eh~ OK! OK! OK!"

Zhan Pengwu lifted the sleeves on his hands, looking rather impatient.

"You just watch, let me pull it out."

As he was about to step forward, a snake slithered past his feet after he had only taken two steps.

He quickly stepped forward and stomped on it, then stomped down with his spiked club, smashing the snake's head flat.

Zhan Pengwu lifted the snake's tail, overjoyed.

"Hey buddy, I've got the dumpling filling. This should be edible, right?"

Ye Feng went forward and saw that it was a spearhead viper, and the snake had been holding a frog in its mouth.

That's the giant monkey tree frog, a non-toxic, edible frog.

"Yes, snakes are edible, but frogs bitten by them are not."

“Great, I’ll help too.”

Tang Weiwei handed the torch to Ye Feng and then walked into the taro field.

As a native of Guangdong, he is also a foodie, and his passion for food is no less than that of Zhan Pengwu.

However, his proud and aloof personality prevents him from expressing himself in such an exaggerated way.

In fact, he couldn't help but drool when he first heard about taro dumplings.

Ye Feng reminded him from the side:

"You two be careful, there are a lot of snakes here, one bite and you're done for. Let's get down to business first."

"Don't worry, our experience in catching snakes is no less than yours."

"Yes, buddy, you just need to give the instructions."

Hearing that they could eat dumplings, the two were full of enthusiasm.

There's no way around it; poor people who are used to hardship always cherish the life of the rich when they suddenly experience it.

Before, the food they ate was so bad that they would be happy for a long time if they could eat anything with a little salt, let alone taro dumplings.

Following Ye Feng meant encountering many dangers, but the quality of their meals had indeed improved to a level they couldn't comprehend.

Even the food they ate while traveling was better than what they ate at the camp.

Ye Feng didn't really feel anything about this... and couldn't understand whether they were just foodies or simply inexperienced.

With such a formidable enemy at hand, he wasn't worried at all and was even thinking about eating.

And so, Ye Feng stood guard, gave directions, and provided illumination from the sidelines.

One of them pulled up taro, while the other caught frogs to use as dumpling filling.

More than half an hour later, the three returned to the treehouse with ten taro roots and five frogs.

Fu Changxiong and his two companions successfully completed their mission.

"Brother, do you think this is enough?"

Fu Changxiong handed the wooden jar to Ye Feng.

“We searched the entire stone road, and this is all the stones we found.”

By the light of the fire, Ye Feng saw that the wooden jar, about the size of a pulsating bottle, was filled with about one-tenth of its contents.

He weighed it briefly and estimated it to be around 300 grams.

In fact, according to his idea, this was enough to make two tinderboxes.

"Good, well done, more than enough. You all get back to work, everyone work hard tonight."

After saying that, Ye Feng began making a tinderbox.

He first washed the taro roots and stems clean and then soaked them in a wooden bucket.

Then crush the cotton-like plants picked along the way, along with some dead, powdery wood.

Then crush the leftover charcoal, which is an important fuel for the tinderbox to continue burning.

They also took out all the other preparation tools, such as sodium nitrate and pine resin.

These things can make the flame of a tinderbox bigger and longer-lasting.

Although Ye Feng's idea was that having a flame would be enough, he was definitely right to make things as perfect as possible.

He doesn't plan to integrate everything yet, because there's still one crucial thing he hasn't done.

That's a bamboo tube used for holding tinder...

Unfortunately, bamboo is a product of subtropical regions and is extremely rare in the Amazon region of South America.

Its rarity is comparable to a football match where someone is defeated 0-7…

It's something you can only encounter by chance, not something you can seek out.

Unfortunately, Ye Feng had no choice but to use a leg bone as a substitute.

He took out a saw, intending to fix the length at 40 centimeters.

He spent about a minute or two sawing off one end of the leg bone, then plugged the nostrils and emptied out all the already rotten bone marrow, forming a cylindrical hollow tube.

After he finished washing, he reached out to look at Tang Weiwei.

“David, give me your multi-tool.”