Holding Fast in a Do-or-Die Gamble

Though it was only three arrows, they had a tremendous impact on the outcome of the battle.

One side suffered no losses and attacked entirely from range, while the other was steadily losing men.

On the battlefield, one-on-one and two-on-one were entirely different situations.

The essence of military strategy was to employ every possible method to create situations where many fought few, thereby gaining an advantage in the war of attrition.

Moreover, flying squirrels were not undead. Any natural lifeform had such a thing as morale. Just as before, when Zhen Jin had directly dealt with the Flying Squirrel Leader, the remaining flying squirrels had broken down and scattered in all directions.

In truth, they could not fire too many arrows.

Firing too many arrows would greatly drain their stamina. They were only temporary archers; more of their strength needed to be reserved for close combat, or the losses would outweigh the gains.

Zhen Jin still entrusted the task of adjusting the bows to Bai Ya.

Huang Zao and Lan Zao possessed only a small amount of leadership ability. At most, they could lead a small team in a charge across a seagoing vessel's deck.

As for Zhen Jin himself, he did not know how to adjust bows. Cang Xu and Zi Di were even less capable of it.

This hunter's son, Bai Ya, was of average ability. Had he not been stranded on this island, he would surely have vanished into the crowd, utterly unremarkable. Yet under these circumstances, he could let his own talents bloom with a faint, shining light.

To him, this island held immense danger, but also immense opportunity.

In the end, there are still too few talented people under my command. Anyone with even a little talent, like Bai Ya, can rise above the rest. Zhen Jin sighed inwardly.

Bai Ya led several people in adjusting the bows, and naturally, the rest did not remain idle.

Huang Zao continued hunting. His primary target was not food, but wild birds, to harvest their feathers.

Lan Zao, meanwhile, continued scouting around the flying squirrel colony.

Wooden arrow shields and hunter traps were gradually made as well.

There were also hemp ropes woven from bark fibers. The short ones were used as bowstrings, while the long ones were used for binding, such as in the construction of arrow shields. Their stores of hemp rope continued to grow. These things were inconspicuous, but highly practical.

No one could estimate how long they would remain on this island, so they had to stockpile as much hemp rope as possible.

According to Cang Xu, hemp rope actually had an extremely broad range of applications.

Aside from its direct uses, hemp ropes could be combined and woven into nets. Net bags could carry items, nets could be made into cloth to cover the body, and they could even be woven into straw sandals.

Cang Xu also took part, providing an exceedingly crude loom.

This loom consisted of more than a dozen small wooden stakes driven into the earth in two rows. Every other stake in one row was secured by a horizontal wooden rod.

Once all the stakes were wound with thread, they formed dozens of parallel vertical lines. Raising the rod would lift half the stakes, causing half the vertical threads to rise with them.

At that point, the sole horizontal thread was inserted along the angle of the raised threads. Then the vertical threads were lowered. Once one horizontal thread pressed tightly against more than a dozen vertical threads, the basic motion of weaving cloth was complete.

Repeat this motion dozens or hundreds of times, and a piece of cloth would be successfully born.

This loom was extraordinarily primitive. Its efficiency could not compare at all with the looms of the Empire—one was on the ground, the other in the heavens. A person working for most of a day could produce only a tiny piece the size of a buttock.

Yet it truly saved enormous amounts of manpower and materials, and its efficiency was far higher than weaving entirely by hand.

The Exploration Team members who worked these looms all marveled at Cang Xu's vast knowledge. But Cang Xu told them that he had instead learned of this loom while researching materials on the orc race.

Compared to the human Empire, although the orcs occupied the Wilderness Continent, they generally existed in tribal form, with low standards of living and low productivity. Such looms were widespread among the orcs.

As for Zi Di, she was mainly responsible for making poison. Zhen Jin explicitly told her that they needed a poison that could dissipate naturally, or vanish through boiling, roasting, and similar methods. Or better yet, even if the poison remained, it would affect only flying squirrels and cause no serious harm to humans.

After all, Zhen Jin hunted flying squirrels for food. If the poison was too potent, then even if it killed the flying squirrels, their meat could not be eaten. For the entire Exploration Team, the loss would far outweigh the gain.

The current conditions were exceedingly crude, so Zi Di could only make a reluctant attempt. She also made a request—she needed live flying squirrels for experiments.

Zhen Jin thus secretly set out with Lan Zao to scout the flying squirrel colony.

Cang Xu remained in the camp to direct and coordinate things.

After the bows had been adjusted, Bai Ya led everyone in test-firing them.

By evening, the leaders gathered once more and exchanged what each had gained.

Zhen Jin and Lan Zao caught three live flying squirrels and handed them all over to Zi Di.

Huang Zao's side had not caught a single piece of prey. Hunting did not rely on combat strength, and he had also lost several iron arrowheads. These iron arrowheads were extremely precious; every one used was one less remaining.

But they had not come away empty-handed—after Huang Zao's group failed in their hunt, they could only venture farther out to try their luck. As a result, they unexpectedly discovered a small bamboo forest.

Bamboo was an excellent resource. Bamboo with nodes was a natural water container. Bamboo could be made into rafts, and sharpened bamboo could be used to make traps.

Chapter 3

"Fire!" At Huang Zao's command, several arrows shot out with whooshes.

More than a dozen crude targets stood one hundred and twenty paces away.

Concentric circles had been drawn on the targets with charcoal, but never mind scoring rings—few of the arrows they fired even struck the targets.

The circles on the targets were rather small, about the size of flying squirrels. But in an actual battle, they needed to shoot flying squirrels—and those flying squirrels would be moving.

Thus, the results of this archery practice were utterly unacceptable.

"Your posture is wrong."

"Straighten your waist. Straighten your arm."

"Steady, steady. What are you shaking for?!"

Huang Zao served as instructor.

His brows were tightly furrowed, enormous pressure weighing on his heart.

Compared to everyone else in the team, the finest archer was naturally Sir Zhen Jin.

Next came Bai Ya. This young man's archery was even superior to Huang Zao's and the others'. After all, this was the craft he had relied on year-round to put food on the table and make a living.

Hunters did not fight head-on when hunting; it was merely a means of earning their livelihood. Aside from hunting dogs, traps were what hunters used most often. Bows were also widely used. When outstanding hunters encountered large beasts they could not hunt, they would choose to back away or give up.

Huang Zao and Lan Zao excelled at close combat. When shooting at range, they used crossbows more often than bows. Since they had survived aboard ships, they had specifically practiced archery.

Huang Zao's hunting results yesterday had been a complete mess, yet today Sir Zhen Jin had assigned him as temporary instructor.

To salvage his dignity, Huang Zao worked exceptionally hard.

When it came to training the others, Huang Zao was still more dependable, even if his archery was a little worse than Bai Ya's.

Bai Ya relied more on instinct when shooting arrows, following a wholly unorthodox path.

Huang Zao had at least received formal training and knew the essential tricks of archery.

"First, everyone needs to undergo intensive individual training. After that, we'll form an arrow curtain and fire together. With your current skill, you can't even put together the most basic arrow curtain." Sir Zhen Jin inspected the training. Seeing this, he felt quite agitated inside, but not a trace of it showed on his face.

Today, Bai Ya took Huang Zao's place and was responsible for hunting. His main targets were still wild birds; the Exploration Team needed more feathers to make arrow fletching.

No one expected him to hunt enough food.

Hunting alone was highly dangerous and actually very inefficient. More often than not, one had to eat by the weather and rely on luck.

Throughout the Empire, hunters actually lived very hard lives.

Thus went the saying: hunters fare worse than herders, and herders fare worse than farmers.

Under normal circumstances, hunters could not fill their bellies. Farmers who tilled the land lived the most secure lives compared to hunters and herders, with the greatest guarantee of quality of life.

Hunters seemed to have a source of meat, but in truth, the vast majority of forests and mountains were noble territories. Any hunter who poached without permission and was caught would face severe punishment.

In the Exploration Team's situation, they could only rely on large-scale hunting to meet their food consumption.

That day's training continued from morning until night. After dinner, the Exploration Team members had no mood for chatter or laughter. One after another, they collapsed into their tents and fell into deep sleep.

Inside Sir Zhen Jin's tent, Cang Xu wore a grave expression as he reported the dire situation at hand.

"Sir Zhen Jin, we do not have much food left. It is being consumed at a terrible rate. At this pace, it will not last more than a few days."

Sir Zhen Jin's expression was calm, as was his state of mind.

Even he found it strange. Over the past two days, the anxiety that had once plagued him had gradually settled down.

He had adapted to the pressure. Instead, he consoled Cang Xu. "We must train our archery. This cannot be rushed; we can only grit our teeth and persevere! Without a foundation in archery, rashly going into battle will bring no benefit. Such grueling training does consume physical strength and thus increase our food consumption. But by consuming food now to improve our archery, we will reduce the number of casualties in future battles. It is well worth it."

"I understand, sir." Cang Xu nodded. "It is just that with our food being consumed so rapidly, everyone knows about it. The team members are all deeply worried."

Sir Zhen Jin smiled. "Then tell them exactly how many rations we have left. If necessary, let every one of them see our food stores with their own eyes."

Cang Xu's expression shifted slightly. He said in a low voice, "I understand, sir."

Fourth Day

The archery range.

Though their arms ached and had even visibly swollen, the Exploration Team members wore solemn expressions, gritted their teeth, and trained without pause.

They all knew the team's food reserves and had an exceptionally clear understanding of their own predicament—this was their last throw of the dice. If the hunt failed, destruction awaited them!

Under such pressure, everyone strove forward and trained their archery with all their strength.

Though the initial results of their training had been too dreadful to look at, once everyone adapted, the number of arrows hitting the targets improved greatly.

Arrows striking the bullseye remained rare, but most arrows could now at least hit the targets.

Once he saw that their shooting results had stabilized, Huang Zao immediately removed the fixed targets and replaced them with moving ones.

These moving targets were short wooden stakes, each tied with a hemp rope, the other end of which was suspended from a high tree branch. After the stakes were pulled up, they were released and swung beneath the trees.

Huang Zao required the team members to shoot their arrows into the wooden stakes.

Their results immediately plummeted, becoming even worse than before!

No one complained. Everyone knew that in actual combat, Flying Squirrels moved faster than wooden stakes and changed direction far more unpredictably.

Practice, endless practice.

Every breath of time was treasured.

At lunchtime, the team members ate in silence, and the atmosphere was heavy.

Many unconsciously kept their brows tightly furrowed, constantly pondering and reflecting—what could they do to improve their archery?

Even while resting in their tents, they tried drawing an imaginary bow, though they held no bow in their hands.

After training, the team members massaged one another's arms.

Many could no longer lift their arms. Swollen arms had become common among everyone.

Fortunately, Zi Di provided potions.

These potions had been mixed on the spot. They had originally been intended for extraordinary individuals, but after being diluted and used on these ordinary team members, they still had powerful restorative effects.

Applied externally and taken internally in tandem, these potions would allow his arm to basically recover after a night's rest.

At dinner, what greeted everyone was nothing but thin soup and watery fare.

A few scattered wild vegetables seemed like mere garnish.

The team members' expressions changed, but none of them said anything.

Everyone understood how dire the situation was.

"Cang Xu, come out for a moment." Zhen Jin's voice carried from afar.

"Why is dinner only this?" Zhen Jin seemed to be questioning Cang Xu.

"My lord, food is running short. We can only make do like this!" Cang Xu answered.

Zhen Jin countered, "But I remember there are still some supplies in reserve. It shouldn't have come to this!"

"My lord, those are the last remaining rations. They were saved for you and Lady Zi Di."

"Bring them all out."

"My lord?"

"Bring them all out! How can we have the strength to train and fight if we don't eat our fill?"

This exchange stirred the hearts of all who heard it, and many showed moved expressions.

"My lord, please let us go out and strike." That very night, team members took the initiative to seek out Zhen Jin and request permission to sortie.

But Zhen Jin refused. "Train. You still need more training!"

Day Five

Training, training, and more training!

At dusk, Zhen Jin inspected the results and was pleased to find that five out of ten arrows could hit the target.

The moving target was relatively large—far larger than a real Flying Squirrel. But these results had already met Zhen Jin's standards.

He had never expected to turn every team member into a master archer. That was simply impossible in such a short time. Each person's aptitude also determined the upper limit of their archery.

But a curtain of arrows could make up for a lack of accuracy.

With this level of archery, they could form a qualified curtain of arrows.

That afternoon, Cang Xu also came to urge Zhen Jin. "It's time to strike, my lord."

"Wait a little longer." Zhen Jin grew even more resolute.

Even he himself was somewhat surprised by such steadfastness.