Chapter Thirty-Four: Preparations Complete

  As he gazed at the rapidly receding scenery around him, Chen Xuan felt an exhilarating sense of speed and freedom, as if he had returned to the thrill of racing through the mountains a million years ago.

  But now the feeling is even more refreshing than speeding, because it's all based on his own strength, with a kind of sudden and exciting excitement that arises in his heart.

  If it weren't for the consideration of the apes under the mountain, if it weren't for the painful lesson of King Kong's counterattack, Chen Xu would definitely shout loudly at this time, venting his passion and declaring his existence to the mountains.

  Having gone through a lot, his combat strength grew stronger and he quickly matured. Now the key to things was finding out the location of the Ape Tribe. This point, even when enjoying the thrill of speed, he didn't forget for a single moment. This is what growing up means.

  These past few days of experience have tempered Chen Xu from a university student who had just started his career into a battle-hardened warrior, and the hardships and bitterness he has endured are not worth mentioning to outsiders, but this is the price of growth.

  The harvest is also extremely great, at least he can survive perfectly in this era, and maybe there are more possibilities.

  Quickly flashing through various obstacles, Chen Xu's advancing speed became faster and faster. In addition, the route he chose was very close to the mountain cliff, so there were no large ferocious beasts inhabiting here. His journey this time was very smooth, and before long, along the trend of the mountain cliff, he arrived at a position above the ape-man tribe.

  Here, the cliff seemed to be shrinking like a pair of scissors, Chen Xu's figure fluttered, his arms spread wide, like a soaring eagle, transforming from rapid movement to gliding and hovering, as if defying the laws of nature, freely stretching out his body in mid-air.

  After a while, he landed steadily beside a fissure that was only one person in size. Walking south for dozens of steps, the cliff suddenly opened up, and not far from the open area, many towering rocks stood upright.

  He knew that there was a powerful tribe of apemen hidden there.

  Looking at the scenery under the mountain, Chen Xu blinked his eyes, took down the longbow on his body, and aimed at the Artemisia bushes in the mountain seam.

  "Not bad, this position should be able to ignite the grass below, just need some oil, otherwise the height of thirty or forty meters is enough to extinguish the flames!"

  "But before that, we must first ignite some sparks, otherwise there will be no fire, and this fire attack will be empty talk."

  He slung the longbow over his back, stroked his chin, and turned a few times at the edge of the cliff before darting into the thicket to search.

  This place is quite far from Xiaoyu Mountain, and it's hard to get fire from there. With the current intelligence of apes, it's really difficult to do so. Therefore, he thought of making fire by himself.

  Although I haven't tried it personally, the idiom "drilling wood to make fire" is something I've known since primary school. It's a great wisdom of the Chinese nation. When I was young, I almost saw it in every extracurricular reading material, so I'm already very familiar with it.

  "The principle of generating heat through friction, but how exactly does it work? Ah, I see! It should be like this!"

  After searching for half a day, Chen Xu found a thick and sturdy wooden stick, and used his dagger to carve out a semi-circular groove on it. Then he took out another smaller but more solid wooden rod from beside him, tried it in the groove twice, and adjusted the width of the groove with his dagger until the two fit together perfectly before stopping.

  After finishing these, what's left is to collect some dry leaves and twigs, which are relatively common in this dry thicket, and there are as many as you want.

  Chen Xu took out some carefully selected dry leaves, cut them into thin strips with a diamond blade, and evenly spread them in the circular groove. Then he found a pile of dry weeds and placed them in front of him, ready to guide the sparks at any time. Thus, a simple drill fire equipment was made.

  "It's almost done, and now it's up to whether it succeeds or not!"

  He took a deep breath, and with a surge of energy, he sharpened one end of the thin wooden stick into a pencil shape to increase the crushing force between the two. Chen Xu grasped the thin wooden stick with both hands and fixed the thick wooden rod in place with his legs. Then, with a burst of arm strength, he pushed the thin wooden stick forward, letting it slide up and down continuously in the groove on the thick wooden rod.

  After a while, as he applied more force to his arm, the small stick moved faster and faster, and the heat accumulated in the groove of the large stick also increased. Before long, the scattered dry threads that had been tossed up from time to time in the vortex began to curl up and bend gradually under the heat.

  A scorched smell wafted out, and a faint flame seemed to have finally broken some sort of seal, instantly bursting forth from the coarse wooden stick's hole.

  At this scene, Chen Xu's eyes lit up and he hastily threw the small wooden stick to one side. He carefully moved the thick wooden stick to a nearby haystack and placed the small flame under it. He carefully tended to the tiny spark.

  Before long, a thick smoke spread out, and the world's first artificially produced flame was born. From then on, Chen Xu created another world record, making his reputation as the Fire God somewhat deserved!

  Carefully move the spark to the edge of the cliff, and then use some wood chips to pile it up, so that a simple bonfire is built.

  As long as it wasn't destroyed by someone, this bonfire was enough to keep burning for four or five hours, enough time for him to return from the valley entrance.

  Then pick up the dry branches and withered leaves around the bonfire, make a man-made isolation zone, so as not to be ignited by the bonfire and set on fire. If a forest fire is triggered, it's not fun at all.

  At least now Chen Xu, who urgently needs population, does not want to see this scene.

  Everything was ready, and Chen Xu swung down the hanging vines and quickly returned to the dense forest in front of the mountain valley. This time, because it was a familiar road, he spent less than half the time on the way, and soon came out of the high mountains.

  In the depths of the forest, near a clearing, a group of apemen were stealthily lurking. They carried long bamboo spears on their backs and held sharp stone tools in their hands. Each one exuded an air of strong confidence, even in the midst of this dense forest, not a single sound was made.

  One by one, like stone statues, quietly crouching in their respective positions.

  At the forefront were two sturdy apemen, who were now cautiously scouting out the situation outside the thicket, vigilantly on guard, while behind them were two apemen with rather flustered expressions.

  This group, naturally, was the people from Chen Xu's tribe. Not long ago, the leader of the Ape Men successfully completed his assigned task and brought all the personnel from the tribe to this area, where they merged with Ape No. 1, who had been waiting for a long time, thoroughly completing the condensation of their forces.

  Not counting the two captured apes, they had a formidable force of forty-six men in this jungle, enough to dominate an ordinary jungle if they didn't encounter the Jungle Overlord.

  A soft rustling sound was heard, and the leader of the ape-men immediately became alert. However, he soon lowered the bamboo spear in his hand, for Chen Xu's figure had appeared before him.

  Seeing that the tribespeople had all gathered and were all in high spirits, Chen Xu nodded in satisfaction. He then called over the Ape Man No. 1 and asked aloud, "During this period of time, has any hunting party from that tribe entered the valley?"

  Ape Man No. 1 nodded affirmatively, confirming Chen Xu's guess that during this period of time, the hunting team had not shown any signs of returning at all.

  "It seems that no matter which hunting team, they all follow the rule of resting at sunset!"

  Chen Xu looked up at the sky and thought for a moment before giving orders for what was to come next.

  Ape-man No. 1 led half of the elite hunting team and half of the population of the tribe, ambushing in the dense forest beside the mountain valley mouth. Wait for a while, when an ape-man comes out from the valley, catch one, tie it up with vines in the thicket, and throw it to the open space between the thicket and the mountain valley mouth.

  The Ape leader led the other half of the elite and the other half of the population in the tribe, pressing two captives, ambushing on the side of their usual route. If there is any discovery, do not act rashly, report to him at the mountain pass immediately, and then decide on an action plan.

  After arranging everything, Chen Xu looked up at the sky and ordered the people in the tribe to bring out several of the familiar aurochs they had brought with them, and distribute them among the crowd to eat.

  Even so, the two captives had some bones to gnaw on, and for a time, they made the two apemen, who had almost never eaten cooked food before, swallow their own tongues.

  After everyone finished eating, Chen Xu took a single sheep leg that had been cut off and rushed out of the dense forest in the direction of the cliff, while the other apemen quickly acted according to their orders.

  The sun is gradually westward, dusk is approaching, there is not much time left before sunset, action must be taken as soon as possible.

  Following the previous route, Chen Xu arrived at the place where he had lit the bonfire without any trouble. When he rushed over and opened up the fire heap, he found that the hidden fire inside was still burning steadily, and he couldn't help but secretly breathe a sigh of relief in his heart.

  The rest of the things were much simpler, he directly swept some dry firewood, made the flames bigger, then cut off the fatty layer on the sheep's leg with a dagger, applied it to a piece of animal skin that had been prepared long ago, and then cut off some shredded meat, put them together into the skin.

  He rolled up the fur into a strip, wrapped the contents inside, then picked out an exquisitely crafted long arrow from his waist, wrapped the arrowhead with the rolled-up fur, tied a knot and fixed it in place.

  Then, Chen Xu ignited the tip of the long arrow with flames, waiting for the fatty layer and shredded meat inside to burn completely, along with the outer fur, emitting a scorched aroma before stopping his actions.

  He knew that this burning arrow was now done, and whether it succeeded or not depended on the effect of this arrow.