Chapter Sixty: Assimilation and the Crimson Copper Knife

  Chen Xu waited until dawn to get up, and while feeling the surge in his physical strength, he also noticed the harmonious atmosphere between the two tribes. Unaware of the details, he thought this was a characteristic of the primitive tribal apemen.

  Clasping his fists tightly, Chen Xuan felt the wonderful sensation of the pores all over his body continuously inhaling and exhaling the surrounding air. As he faced the morning light, his eyes narrowed slightly, thinking "Is this what it feels like to be in the Three Heavens? It's indeed very strange and wonderful, my inner energy is bursting forth, everything is going smoothly as I wish, I can use my strength at will, and it seems like there's a faint feeling of transcending my physical body."

  He waved the silver horn in his hand, Chen Xu tried hard to spread the true energy on the silver horn, but it seemed that he was always short of a little bit, and couldn't help but sigh, "Still can't reach the level of internal energy external release, looks like I'll have to wait until the next realm to achieve this."

  "But this time, I've managed to unblock all the meridians in my body and reached a state of internal energy surging, which is a huge progress. My physical strength has also increased, at least by 30% more than before. With my current physical strength, I reckon I can withstand a slap from a Golden Warrior without dying. However, if I were to face the likes of Lion Tiger and Tyrant Sword Toothed Tiger, I'd still be far from being their match!"

  "It seems that the road to strengthening is still long and arduous, I need to continue working hard! However, for now it's better to return to the Fire God Tribe first, as for the remaining Black Rock Tribe, it will have to wait for a few more days."

  The leftover meat from last night was still there, and the apes who woke up early ate a few mouthfuls hastily. Now they were all active in the forest at dawn, but they didn't dare to go far.

  The aura of the overlord of the forest that is emitted here is not just for show, even with the cover of last night's flames, some are dim, but still can bring great intimidation to the apes.

  Chen Xu calmed himself, took some wild fruits and meat food from the hands of the first ape man, ate them hastily, and then gathered all the apes together. Taking advantage of the early dawn, they set out towards the Fire God tribe.

  This time, more than 200 elite ape warriors from the Black Rock tribe were captured. The number of people in the Fire God tribe suddenly increased to over 400. Although their power has greatly increased, all the apes have lost their will to resist. However, it will still take some time for them to be as obedient and useful as before.

  This is what Chen Xu will do next. This kind of grinding can be done to the greatest extent in the midst of tremendous physical labor and creative joy.

  It wasn't until all of the surrendered apes had returned to their senses that it would be time to go collect the remaining three hundred or so apes from the Blackrock clan.

  Several hours later, Chen Xu led more than 400 apes, swaggering out of the forest and arriving at their familiar territory, finally entering the domain under the small hill.

  After arranging for the apes to do their respective chores, he hastily came to the riverbank, personally catching a few large fish and several impressive crabs, making a pot of fresh fish soup.

  Paired with the wild fruits collected by the apes, the sweet and fragrant aroma was mixed with a strong refreshing scent, which felt incredibly wonderful.

  In short, Chen Xu, who had been drifting in the dense forest for seven or eight days, hadn't even waited for the pot to boil before scooping out the contents and starting to devour them in big mouthfuls.

  After a hearty meal, all the fatigue seemed to have been swept away. Chen Xuan felt refreshed as if every pore on his body was breathing in unison. With his mind and body relaxed, he began directing the apes to participate in the construction of the tribe, handling tribal affairs.

  Because of the preparations for the hunt in the Blackrock tribe seven or eight days ago, the fences in the tribe had not continued to be strengthened during this period. Chen Xu, who discovered this, did the first thing and let the apes continue to increase the height and thickness of the fence.

  In this jungle, it's never too careful, Chen Xu doesn't think that they withstood a wave of wolf attacks and truly got this piece of land.

  What awaits them in the future may be even more cruel.

  At this time, there were more than 400 people in the tribe, which was quite sufficient in number. At least in the current stage of tribal production, it was enough for Chen Xu to implement various ideas.

  He first dispatched more than a hundred sturdy apemen, led by the Super Ape and the Ape General, to join forces with several strong hunting team leaders who had defected from the Black Rock tribe. They continued to chop down trees in the surrounding area, expanding their living space while also adding to the wood supply within their territory.

  Over a hundred more apes were gathering dry firewood, piling it up at the foot of a small hill, in preparation for any unexpected need. Over a hundred apes were dispatched to pick wild fruits and hunt small prey in the nearby thicket.

  The last hundred or so apes were strengthening the fences in the tribe, of course, these four groups were alternating and working in shifts.

  What surprised Chen Xu was that although the leader of Hei Yan died an unjust death, the shaman of Hei Yan survived, except for spraining one foot, and did not suffer any other major injuries, which could be considered a great blessing in misfortune.

  With the addition of Hei Yan's witch doctor, combined with the original old ape man's knowledge of herbs, the entire Huo Shen tribe was able to utilize even more herbs, and the treatment of some apes' injuries and illnesses also reached a new level.

  Under the efforts of all the apes, within a day's time, the entire Fire God tribe underwent tremendous changes. After arduous joint labor, the captured Black Rock Apes also thoroughly integrated into the Fire God Tribe.

  As the bonfire lit up at night, a pot of thick soup was cooked, and the apemen put some newly dug tubers into their mouths to chew loudly. At this moment, the whole tribe had completed its unification, and all previous things had dissipated with the wind.

  Chen Xu was gnawing on a tuber that could be called Huang Jing, savoring the warm atmosphere of the tribe and thinking to himself, "Indeed, labor is the most fundamental catalyst for integration. I believe that if we continue like this, it won't take long for the estrangement between the two tribes to completely disappear. By then, it will be time to fully annex the Black Rock Tribe."

  "It's just unexpected that such a large area of wild yellow ginger can be found here. Perhaps when autumn arrives, I can try planting some yellow ginger. This is somewhat similar to the sweet potatoes of later generations, but I don't know if it will work."

  Chen Xu's mind was preoccupied with thoughts about the yellow essence in his hand, which had been unearthed unintentionally by the crowd of apes when they were cutting down trees today.

  The ape men of the Stone Age seemed to have a lot of experience, knowing that this thing was hard to come by, so they treated the yellow essence as a treasure and presented it to Chen Xu.

  When he saw the yellow essence, he thought of the relevant information about this tuber in later generations. Chen Xu was sure that there must be more than one nearby, so he went to search for it himself. Sure enough, he found a place where yellow essence was produced.

  Perhaps because it had not been discovered for many years, the yield of Coptis chinensis in that forest was extremely rich. At a glance, the rhizomes of Coptis chinensis, which resembled vines on the ground, seemed to be everywhere.

  Chen Xu, who was tired of eating wild fruits and meat, suddenly saw this thing that contained almost 90% flour, and his excitement is needless to say.

  With a group of apes digging and excavating, they harvested enough yellow essence, so tonight's dinner is a big meal of braised meat with yellow essence.

  Chen Xuzheng was deep in thought when he suddenly heard some noise coming from a not-too-distant place. At first, he didn't pay attention to it, but before long, the noise gradually grew louder and he couldn't help but get up to take a look.

  A group of apemen were gathered around, shouting loudly about something. Among them was a tall and large ape-man with a smile all over his face. At this time, the tall ape-man was waving something in his hand with great pride, under the dim firelight, bringing out a faint red glow.

  "What's weird? What is Ape No. 1 holding?"

  As he turned his head, Chen Xu recognized the ape in the crowd, and it was indeed Ape No. 1. He had nothing to do with boredom at that time, so he got up and came to the gathering place of the apes. Upon closer inspection, it turned out that these apes were all from the team that cut down trees today.

  Like the Super Ape, Ape General, Ape Captain and several hunting captains of the Black Rock tribe, these powerful apes were surrounded by the crowd, constantly shouting and yelling!

  "What's going on?"

  Shouting loudly, Chen Xu stepped forward.

  The apemen were startled, and by the light of the fire they made out the identity of the newcomer. Instantly they stopped cheering and quieted down, quickly parting to reveal a path, and in the midst of the crowd, the excitedly dancing Ape No. 1 was exposed.

  Ape No. 1 was shocked at first, and then saw Chen Xu coming out of the crowd. He immediately stopped his movements, seemingly a bit embarrassed, rubbing his head with his right hand holding something up.

  "What? A red copper knife?"

  Looking at the reddish-brown unknown metal held by Ape-man No. 1, which was very similar to the long knife of later generations, Chen Xu's eyes trembled involuntarily, and his heart was shocked.

  With a wave of his hand, Chen Xu signaled the other apes to leave. He took the Ghost Axe from Ape No. 1's hand, and after weighing it slightly, he felt that it was about twenty or thirty kilograms heavy. Unable to resist, he grasped the handle and applied some force, trying to bend it, but instead, he felt a flexible texture.

  "Sure enough it's not a rock, where did this come from?"

  A flash of brightness flickered in his eyes, Chen Xu relaxed his hand and didn't use much force to bend it. Although with his current strength, bending the red unknown metal knife wasn't a very difficult task, but he didn't see any need to do so.

  His actions this time were just to confirm the identity of this thing. If it's a rock, it will definitely be broken with one punch. If it's metal, then it has very good ductility.

  Gently stroking the bright red, thick and long knife handle with those greenish-green spots, Chen Xuan's mind involuntarily flashed the two words "copper green", if there was no big mistake in the direction, this should be one of the rare high-purity copper ores in nature!

  Thinking of the application of copperware, Chen Xu's eyes lit up and his gaze locked onto Ape No. 1. Having lived in the Stone Age for a long time, he understood how inconvenient it was to use stone tools. If they could possess copperware, it would undoubtedly bring about a qualitative change in their development.

  Now, the only problem is where this place with open-pit copper mine is located. It's likely that a place with such high-purity red copper should have an extremely rich copper reserve, which would be like finding an oasis in the desert for Chen Xiang who had been struggling in the Stone Age.