Lord: Starting with Summoning the Regular Army of Earth

As night fell, the firelight illuminated the surrounding low-lying area on the edge of the town, casting shadowy patterns.

This area has been designated as a temporary "chemical zone" and is kept at a safe distance from residential areas.

Several iron pots, newly forged by blacksmith Eric, were placed on a stone stove.

"Pack the wood ash into bags, make sure they're packed tightly, pour hot water slowly, yes, just like that, soak it thoroughly..." Professor Zhang Hongjian directed two assisting soldiers to pack the collected high-quality wood ash into coarse linen bags, repeatedly rinsing and filtering them with boiling water in an attempt to obtain the key ingredient for making soap—alkaline water.

But on the first attempt, the resulting liquid was too light in color.

Professor Zhang dipped his finger in the ash and shook his head: "The concentration is not enough, it's too thin. Go get some thicker ash."

On the other side, four young men, led by Carl and Bob, reluctantly unloaded the wooden barrels containing animal offal from the truck under Conrad's orders.

The moment Conrad opened the lid, an indescribable stench, a mixture of blood, fishy smell, and a slightly putrid odor, instantly filled the air, almost forming a shockwave.

Carl, Bob, and the other young men gagged, took a few steps back, and covered their noses.

"Damn it, is that filled with shit? It stinks."

"They're all disgusting animal entrails, what are they going to do with them?" a few young people complained, frowning.

Professor Zhang Hongjian also came over and personally took charge, leading several other soldiers to pick out the large chunks of fat and lard, cut them into small pieces, and pour them into a large iron pot, adding water to slowly simmer them.

The pungent smell of burning fat, accompanied by the sizzling sound of melting grease, tested everyone's limits of patience.

"Damn it, are they going to use this filthy sewage to cook their own dinner?"

"Judging from how excited that goblin is, it probably is."

"Goblins are goblins, how could they like to eat such disgusting food?"

Bang—bang—bang—bang—

As they were talking, the four young men were each kicked in the buttocks, staggered, and turned around angrily to see Conrad's burly figure standing behind them.

Those sharp eyes, honed by years of battle, were like a cold knife pressed against their necks, instantly extinguishing their rising anger.

"Hurry up and go help," Conrad snapped.

Although he didn't understand what the lord was doing, he would not allow anyone to disrespect Matthew, not even the goblins he had summoned.

The young men looked reluctant, but under Conrad's tyranny, they had no choice but to endure the disgusting smell and help Professor Zhang Hongjian and the others pick out the offal and boil it to extract oil.

……

Meanwhile, Matthew gathered the people from each group who needed to return and then dispelled their summoning spells.

About twenty minutes later, he manipulated the magic pendant again to begin the summoning. Accompanied by the dazzling light of the magic circle, thirty goblin figures appeared in rotation, and Guo Shoulin was among them.

Upon arriving in this strange world, the goblins also showed expressions of surprise and excitement.

However, as Matthew's voice rang out, they quickly regained their composure, and the soldiers swiftly lined up and assembled under Sun Zhengwu's command.

The rest of the team members, under Matthew's guidance, went to their respective work locations to report for duty.

When Guo Shulin arrived at the woodworking workshop, he still felt like he was in a dream. Having lived most of his life, all his preconceived notions had undergone a complete transformation in just one day.

The enormous moon in the night sky, along with the entirely new physical senses, clearly told him that he was now in a new world outside of Earth, transformed into a strange-looking little green-skinned man.

Before he could even reflect on it, he was swept up in the bustling atmosphere of the woodworking workshop and immediately threw himself into his favorite work.

But it wasn't long before he discovered a very troublesome problem.

"This... why does my body feel so clumsy?" Guo Shulin complained. This new body not only lacked strength, but also seemed to have much less dexterity and feel in his hands.

Making rough blanks is fine, but when it comes to fine processing, it's completely incomparable to his original body, which troubles him: "How am I supposed to work like this?"

"It's alright, Lao Guo. You've just arrived, you'll get used to it after a while. These goblins have very nimble fingers." The speaker was Zhou Shuqiang, one of the first carpenters to arrive.

His words put Guo Shulin at ease. Thinking about it, it made sense. He was essentially in a completely new body, and it would take him a while to adapt and rebuild his muscle memory.

Matthew led Will on a tour of the blacksmith's workshop and the carpentry workshop, and finally they arrived at the stinking "chemical zone".

At this moment, Professor Zhang Hongjian and several assistants were busy at work.

Carl, Bob, and others helped add firewood to the oil press and sort out the internal organs and offal; their faces were all etched with hardship.

"My lord!" Conrad bowed as he saw Matthew approaching, and Carl, Bob, and the others immediately followed suit.

"Sir Conrad, let them go back and rest," Matthew said to Karl and the others.

He did this mainly because soap making is a confidential matter, and he wanted to avoid involving non-core, reliable personnel in the entire process as much as possible.

"Yes, sir." Conrad looked at the four young men and said, "Go back."

Upon receiving the order, the four young men vanished into the distant night like ducks taking flight.

Soon after, Professor Zhang Hongjian, through repeated adjustments, finally produced alkaline water of the appropriate concentration.

After settling and filtering through multiple layers of coarse cloth, the oil in the pot is boiled and refined, presenting a relatively pure liquid state.

Next comes the crucial saponification reaction.

Zhang Hongjian personally took charge of the ladle, using a wooden spoon to scoop up the filtered alkaline water and drip it extremely slowly, bit by bit, into the slightly warm, pure oil.

Another soldier, holding a long wooden stick, stirred the mixture continuously and at a constant speed in one direction, as instructed by Professor Zhang.

This is an extremely tedious and patient process. You can't rush it or stop it. You have to make sure that the alkali and oil come into full and even contact and react.

In the firelight, only the hissing sound of the wooden stick scraping the bottom of the pot and the crackling of the firewood could be heard, making time seem thick and long.

Conrad and Will watched from the sidelines, both filled with confusion, feeling as if it were some kind of unknown alchemy.

Will couldn't help but ask about it during the conversation, but Matthew didn't give a direct answer, only saying that it was a treasure.

This made Will even more curious, and he was really intrigued.

The stirring continued for nearly two hours until the mixture in the pot became thick and smooth, leaving clear marks on a wooden stick, like a thick milk paste.

Zhang Hongjian dipped his finger in the mixture, rubbed it between his two fingers, and a clear white paste-like texture appeared, no longer feeling oily.

"Alright, it's ready to be poured into the mold!" he announced with a sigh of relief.

Everyone was invigorated. They carefully scooped the soap liquid into the meticulously crafted wooden molds in the woodworking shop with wooden spoons, gently shook them to remove air bubbles, and then placed them in a cool, ventilated place to wait for them to solidify.

"Mission accomplished! Now we just need to wait for it to solidify completely. Let's come back tomorrow to witness the results," Professor Zhang Hongjian said with a smile.

Looking at the soap liquid in the mold, Matthew was filled with anticipation and joy. To him at this moment, what was inside was not just bars of soap, but bars of silver.

This will be the main source of funding for Emberstone Ridge for a long time to come.

Upon returning to the lord's manor, Matthew carried out a second staff rotation, allowing Professor Zhang Hongjian and many of the artisans who had worked hard all day to temporarily return, and then summoning a new batch of artisans to work through the night.

……