Hasty Flight

A batch of pottery bowls had been fired, and quite a few had cracked. But as long as they didn't leak water, Zhou Xu no longer cared about a few cracks.

After the temperature dropped, Zhou Xu called Butterfly over to help move the pottery bowls to the lakeside. He didn't fuss over them afterward, simply washing them with lake water.

During the process, he was able to confirm that these pottery bowls could indeed hold water!

For Zhou Xu, who had been prepared for failure on his first attempt, this was undoubtedly a tremendous surprise.

But thinking about it carefully, leaving everything else aside, his ideas about building a furnace were definitely ahead of their time compared with the primitive people of the Stone Age.

If even Stone Age primitive people could fire pottery, how could he possibly fail?

In truth, as long as he set the bar low enough and took "usable" as the most basic requirement, then regardless of whether the pottery was cracked, symmetrical, or ugly, the yield from this batch was still quite impressive.

After setting all the washed pottery bowls aside, it was already nearing dusk. Yet Zhou Xu was itching to start making pottery jars.

"Butterfly, come over here. For the next while, you'll be mainly responsible for making these."

At this point, Zhou Xu completely believed that with Butterfly's deft hands, the pottery jars she made would certainly be better than his.

Still, he first made a sample for Butterfly and, drawing on his limited knowledge of pottery-making, explained a few points she needed to keep in mind.

For now, it was enough for Butterfly alone to make the pottery. They didn't need too many hands, or his furnace wouldn't be able to fire everything anyway.

As for the other handicrafts in the tribe, the baskets and bark bags used for hunting didn't need to be woven for the time being.

The items themselves were still very sturdy. In addition, they had already woven a batch of spares, so there was no further demand for now.

The other people besides Butterfly had also been given new assignments.

They were to polish stone axes, make stone pellets, and weave large carrying baskets at the same time.

There was nothing much to say about the stone axes and stone pellets. The large carrying baskets were mainly meant for the stone throwers, so they could carry their stone pellets.

That day, the sky began drizzling. This was not good news for Zhou Xu and the others.

The rats had all hidden themselves away, making it nearly impossible for the hunting team to catch any prey.

At the same time, the food supply of their tribe suddenly became critical, forcing them to gnaw on bark and roots as reserve rations once again.

Dashan and the others had long since grown accustomed to days like these. There was nothing strange about them.

In fact, if they were to be honest, having one meal every day over the past few days, with meat at every meal, was something they had never experienced before. That was what seemed strange to them.

But Zhou Xu was different. As someone who had once eaten three meals a day, he truly hadn't had a single filling meal since crossing over.

Now things were even worse—not only was he not full, he didn't even have a meal to eat. He was so hungry that his head spun and his vision blurred.

With no other choice, he made do with chewing bark and roots as well. A person couldn't let himself starve to death, after all. But to him, they truly tasted like chewing wax.

He had originally hoped the rain would stop after half a day, leaving them the other half of the day to try hunting.

But the facts proved that this kind of drizzle was the most irritating. Once it began, it simply went on without end, showing no sign of stopping.

Still, after adjusting their mindsets, perhaps it was a good thing for everyone to be forced to take a day off and get some proper rest once in a while. They were exhausted every day, after all.

The rainwater from the sky was also undoubtedly fresh water provided by nature.

They put all the pottery bowls they had fired earlier outside to collect water. At least today, they could drink a few more bowls of water.

The rain did not stop until well into the latter half of the night. After a full day of rest, everyone gathered their strength and threw themselves into a new day of hunting, hearts filled with yearning for food.

Zhou Xu also led Dashan and the others into the Black Forest, preparing to hunt down the giant spider.

Clearly, after some serious thought and weighing the pros and cons, he had ultimately decided to set the hunting ground in this Black Forest.

The barren Desolate Land was too dangerous for them. Their fragile bodies needed sufficient cover to ensure their safety.

"See this tree? At a time like this, you can move sideways and hide directly behind the trunk..."

In the Black Forest, Zhou Xu gestured as he explained some of his tactical arrangements and plans to Dashan and the others.

If he merely explained everything to them at the camp, it would be difficult for them to understand.

But once they reached the location and he demonstrated it directly for them, they understood what he wanted them to do.

Of course, even so, Dashan and the others still had a great deal to remember. After all, he had to take every possible situation into account.

Thinking of what that monster looked like, this would certainly be a battle that concerned their very lives. He didn't dare relax or grow careless in the slightest.

While they were busy with this, deep in the Black Forest, a tribe member suddenly came charging toward them in blind panic.

The instant he saw that figure, an ominous premonition rose in Zhou Xu's heart.

That tribe member was the one Zhou Xu had stationed outside the cave to keep watch over the giant spider.

"N-no, this is bad! That giant spider escaped from the cave!"

The terror in the other man's voice at that moment was impossible to conceal.

In fact, the tribe member didn't need to tell them, because they had already seen it!

At that very moment, the enormous figure of the spider monster had burst directly into their field of vision.

Having seen the monster before, Zhou Xu was still able to keep his composure.

But Dashan and the others had clearly been frightened. Their entire bodies stiffened.

No matter how vividly Zhou Xu had described the giant spider's terror beforehand, it was nothing compared with the impact of seeing it with their own eyes!

"Th-this is the spider monster the chief told us about before?!"

The giant spider's sudden appearance completely disrupted all of Zhou Xu's original plans.

At this point, he hadn't prepared at all!

"Spread out! Hurry, spread out!!"

There was no time to think. The giant spider had already charged right up to them.

Its enormous body, as large as an off-road vehicle, moved with a nimbleness far beyond what he had expected.

At the brink of life and death, everyone fled in disarray.

Damn it, things have come this far. We'll have to fight even if we don't want to!

Driven into a corner, Zhou Xu's evil instincts flared. Seizing the opportunity when the giant spider charged toward the other side, he hurriedly organized Dashan and the others, had them whirl their slings, and launched an attack at the giant spider.

At the brink of life and death, with the threat of death from the giant spider hanging over them at every moment, many people performed poorly. Only Dashan forcibly steadied the formation at the critical moment. After spinning his sling rapidly, he hurled it out with all his strength.

"Hit it!!!"

Another update for everyone. At the same time, thanks for the rewards from the readers "Brilliant Mortal World," "Lazily Smiling," and "Qin Zhi QZ"!