Desperate Valley

Chapter Three: Desperate Valley

The bonfire crackled, its dancing flames stretching Chen An's shadow long and warped across the stone wall behind him, making it sway with the fire. The small beast that looked like a rabbit had already been skinned and cleaned, then skewered on a hastily sharpened wooden stick and set beside the fire to roast. Fat dripped into the flames with a sizzling sound, and a strange meaty aroma filled the air, powerfully stimulating Chen An's empty stomach.

He forced down the urge to gorge himself immediately and patiently turned the roasting meat, though his wary gaze kept sweeping toward the courtyard gate. Despite the assurance of the "Absolute Safe Zone," the terrifying howls outside grew denser and closer, still making his heart pound.

At night, this Primordial World was a paradise for predators. All kinds of terrifying existences beyond his imagination prowled and slaughtered in the darkness. At times, a massive shadow would skim low over the courtyard amid a gale, casting down a suffocating pressure. At others, the distant sound of bones cracking and the shrill wails of dying creatures would ring out, only to quickly fall silent, leaving behind nothing but the satisfied growl of a stronger beast.

Every sound made Chen An's hand tremble slightly. He felt like a lone boat amid raging waves, while this small courtyard was his only fragile shelter from the storm. That thin wooden door seemed to have become the barrier separating hell from the human world.

The meat was ready, its skin golden-brown and its aroma irresistible. Chen An paid no heed to the heat, carefully tore off a strip of hind-leg meat, blew on it, and stuffed it into his mouth.

The meat was firm and pleasantly chewy, carrying a faint, herb-like sweetness and none of the gamey odor he had expected. Even stranger, after a few mouthfuls, a gentle current of warmth spread from his stomach through all four limbs and his entire body, dispelling the night's chill. Even the fatigue brought on by being battered around and fleeing throughout the day was noticeably reduced.

"Could this... be the spiritual energy from the legends?" Chen An was both astonished and delighted. Although he was an ordinary man who could not sense so-called spiritual energy, his body's most instinctive reaction could not lie. The creatures of this Primordial World, even the lowest-level predators, contained energy beneficial to living beings within their flesh and blood.

This gave him another sliver of faint hope of surviving in this world.

After filling his stomach, his energy recovered considerably. But drowsiness came with it. The day's experiences had been far too stimulating, keeping his mind on edge the entire time. Now that he relaxed, his eyelids began to droop.

He did not dare sleep inside the stone house. The hole in its roof left him with no sense of security. In the end, he chose to stay in the thatched shed, moving the bonfire near the entrance so it could keep him warm while allowing him to remain vigilant by its light. He gripped the sharpened hatchet tightly, leaned his back against the shed wall, and curled up on the dry grass he had spread out.

The beastly roars outside seemed never-ending, like the background music of a nightmare. At first, Chen An forced himself to stay awake and listen, but physical exhaustion eventually overcame his fear, and he drifted into a hazy sleep.

His sleep was shallow and broken. He dreamed of the explosion in the laboratory, of fleeing for his life, and of the savage Demonic Beasts' gaping jaws... Each time he awoke, he was drenched in cold sweat and had to confirm that he was still in the small courtyard before he could reluctantly fall asleep again.

And so, amid the interweaving of fear and exhaustion, he somehow made it through his first night in this Primordial World without incident.

When the first faint rays of dawn filtered through the gaps in the thatched shed and shone onto Chen An's face, he suddenly awoke. The spine-chilling nocturnal symphony outside had subsided, replaced by a relative—but even deeper—silence, occasionally broken by a few crisp yet unfamiliar bird calls.

A new day had begun.

Chen An stretched his tense, stiff body and walked into the courtyard. In the morning light, the valley was shrouded in mist, resembling a land of immortals. Ancient trees stood lush and verdant, vines hung down, and in the distant cliffs, waterfalls even cascaded like strips of white silk, their muted roar drifting over. If one ignored the deadly dangers hidden behind it, the scenery was breathtakingly beautiful.

But Chen An was in no mood to admire it. The pressure of survival was pressing down on him. His food problem had only been temporarily alleviated; even eaten sparingly, that small beast would not last more than a few days. His water supply had been solved, but remaining trapped in this small courtyard for the long term would be no different from waiting for death. He had to gain a deeper understanding of the surrounding environment, find a stable source of food, and... see whether he could obtain some additional safeguards.

His gaze turned to the courtyard gate once more. Today, he needed to be a little bolder.

First, he used the hatchet to clear the grass more carefully within several meters of the courtyard entrance, opening up a small area with relatively unobstructed visibility. He proceeded extremely cautiously, ready to retreat into the courtyard at any moment.

During the clearing, he discovered some interesting details. Certain stones outside the courtyard wall bore indistinct carvings that seemed to be some kind of writing or pattern, but they had been eroded so severely by time that they were impossible to recognize. The color of the soil at the base of the wall was also slightly different from its surroundings, appearing darker.

"Had someone really lived here before?" Chen An grew even more puzzled. What sort of person would choose to build a courtyard in the depths of such a dangerous Primordial World? Where had they gone afterward? Had they left, or...

He did not dare think about it further.

After clearing the area, he decided to conduct a more dangerous test—throwing stones to scout the way.

He gathered some stones of various sizes and stood inside the courtyard gate, then hurled them one by one in different directions: nearby, farther away, toward the woods on the left, and toward the cliff face on the right.

The stones tore through the air and landed in their target areas, producing either crisp or muffled sounds.

At first, there was no reaction. But when he forcefully threw a stone toward a patch of shrubs farther away, an abrupt change occurred!

"Hiss—!"

A sharp, piercing hiss rang out from the shrubs. Immediately afterward, a massive python with a body as thick as a barrel, a single horn on its head, and dark-green scales covering its entire body suddenly thrust out its head! Its cold, vertical pupils instantly locked onto the courtyard gate, clearly enraged.

Chen An was scared out of his wits and nearly slammed the gate shut. The vicious aura radiating from the python far surpassed that of the wolf-shaped Demonic Beast he had encountered the previous day!

The python surged forward, moving with astonishing speed toward the courtyard gate. Grass and plants flattened wherever it passed!

Just as Chen An thought it was about to crash into the gate, the python suddenly stopped about ten meters away! It twisted restlessly in place, its long forked tongue flicking in and out as it emitted threatening hisses. A trace of... wariness even flashed in its cold eyes.

It stopped advancing and merely stared fixedly at the gate—or rather, at Chen An behind it. That gaze did not resemble the way it would look at prey. It was more like the caution it showed toward something that made it uneasy.

Chen An gripped the hatchet tightly, his palms slick with sweat and his heart pounding wildly. He and the python faced each other across ten meters. Seconds ticked by, yet the python never took a single step beyond that boundary.

In the end, the python seemed to confirm that it could not approach its target. It hissed a few more times unwillingly, then slowly retreated into the shrubs and vanished.

Chen An let out a long breath, his back already soaked through with cold sweat.

This risky test had yielded tremendous gains!

First, it confirmed that the Safe Zone's deterrent range might be larger than the courtyard wall itself, forming an invisible "forbidden zone." Even a Demonic Beast that looked extremely formidable did not dare enter it lightly. This was undoubtedly fantastic news.

Second, he had gained a clearer understanding of the area directly in front of the courtyard gate. There were grass and scattered rocks nearby, woods and cliffs in the distance, and the shrubs where the python lurked were an obvious danger point that he needed to remember.

But he still knew nothing about the left and right sides. He needed more information.

After resting briefly and calming himself, Chen An picked up more stones. This time, he aimed at the relatively sparse woods to the left of the courtyard gate.

The stone flew out and landed in the woods.

After waiting for a moment, there was no obvious reaction. Only a few strangely colored birds with exceptionally sharp beaks were startled into flight. They perched in the branches, looked over curiously a few times, and then ignored him.

"Relatively safe on the left?" Chen An guessed. At least no terrifying monster had immediately rushed out.

Next, he turned toward the right. That side held a steep cliff, and there seemed to be a narrow gap below, resembling the entrance to a small cave. He threw a stone toward the opening.

The stone struck the rock at the cave entrance, producing a crisp echo.

One second, two seconds... Just as Chen An thought nothing would happen there either, a dense, nauseating stench suddenly spread from the cave! Immediately afterward, a mass of densely packed black shadows the size of fists surged out of the cave like a tide!

They were a bizarre swarm of insects resembling spiders, but with wings and poisonous stingers! They emitted a buzzing sound that made his scalp crawl, gathering in the air into a black cloud as though searching for whoever had provoked them.

Chen An did not dare even breathe loudly and hurriedly shrank back behind the gate.

The swarm circled several times, seemingly unable to determine the stone's exact source. Combined with their instinctive wariness of the courtyard gate, they eventually flew back into the cave in frustration, leaving behind only that stench, which lingered for a long time.

Chen An's face went pale. There was an insect nest on the right—extremely dangerous!

After this round of "throwing stones to scout the way," he gained a preliminary understanding of the immediate threats around the small courtyard. There was a giant python directly ahead, a terrifying insect nest on the right, and only the woods on the left appeared to pose less of a threat.

This valley looked peaceful and beautiful, but in reality, danger lurked everywhere! The small courtyard where he was staying was like the only safe island in this desperate land.

"I have to improve my survival abilities as quickly as possible." Chen An felt a sense of urgency unlike anything before. Hiding alone would not be enough. He needed weapons, traps, and more effective ways to obtain food.

He returned to the courtyard and began making more systematic plans. Using the hatchet, he split the rotten timber into thinner strips and planks, attempting to make some simple tools: a wooden bowl for holding water and several wooden racks that might be used to store things.

He also tried weaving ropes from flexible vines. Although his technique was clumsy and the finished product crude, it represented a small step away from passively hiding and toward actively changing his environment.

He spent the entire day busy. Sweat soaked through his clothes again and again before the wind dried them. His palms blistered, the blisters burst, and new calluses formed. Yet he took great pleasure in it, because every successful creation gave him a solid sense that he was gaining some control over his fate.

Toward evening, he looked over the fruits of his day's labor. Though crude, they had at least given the small courtyard the beginnings of a "home," making it look less like a pure prison.

He lit the bonfire again and roasted the remaining beast meat, considering his plans for the next day: cultivating the abandoned plot of land and planting the seeds. That was his hope for the long term.

Just as he was preparing to enjoy dinner, a completely different sound suddenly came from the distance outside the courtyard. It was neither a beast's roar nor an insect's cry, but a dull rumble like enormous boulders colliding, mixed with some kind of sharp sound resembling metal striking metal!

Chen An abruptly raised his head and looked toward the source of the sound. It was coming from the entrance to the valley.

"Is that... the sound of a fight?" His heart suddenly began racing. Could it be that in this Primordial World, besides Demonic Beasts, there were other... intelligent life-forms?

(End of Chapter Three)