Watching the back of their leader charging forward with a "Fire Spear," Fei Que, panting heavily, finally collapsed onto the ground.
Earlier, a tribesman had suddenly arrived at the outskirts with the leader's orders. After confirming the situation and learning that the giant spider had emerged, he immediately followed orders and ran back to the tribe to fetch fire.
Carrying two torches and hurrying as fast as he could, he had just barely made it in time.
The tribesman caught in the spider silk was clearly already at the end of his strength. With no time to think, Zhou Xu simply hurled one of the torches over.
As a long-handled weapon, the Bone Spear already had the advantage of attack range. With a torch tied to its tip, its reach became even longer, giving Zhou Xu considerably more confidence.
After charging forward, he immediately began swinging the Fire Spear in his hand.
The giant spider truly was afraid of fire. Just sensing the heat made it panic and retreat.
Seizing the opportunity, Zhou Xu used the Fire Spear to burn through the strand of spider silk holding his tribesman. Then he thrust the flaming weapon at the giant spider in a fierce barrage.
The giant spider was afraid of fire and simply did not dare to meet his attacks. At that moment, it completely obeyed its animal instincts. Its enormous body turned around, and it fled down the only escape route.
It was so fast that it instantly opened up a gap between them. Even if Zhou Xu wanted to chase it, he could not catch up.
During this time, Dashan was clearly unwilling to let the giant spider escape just like that. After charging forward for two steps, he suddenly hurled the stone axe in his hand.
The power behind that flying stone axe was clearly on a completely different level from a stone pellet.
At the instant it struck the giant spider's main body, Zhou Xu clearly saw a spray of blue-green liquid burst out!
The sight immediately lifted his spirits.
This proved that the giant spider's defenses were not as strong as he had expected.
"All right, stop chasing it."
Seeing that Dashan still wanted to pursue it, Zhou Xu hurriedly called him back. The giant spider was faster than them. Once it started running, there was no way they could catch up.
Moreover, although the giant spider feared fire, it did not fear them.
He could hold up a torch and drive it back, but killing it would be extremely difficult. The reason was still the same: the creature was too fast and too agile.
Just as Zhou Xu was thinking this, the tribesman who had narrowly escaped death rushed in front of him and directly knelt down in worship.
Other than this, he could not think of any other way to express his gratitude.
The situation left Zhou Xu, who had just come to his senses, wearing a blank expression. He then instinctively glanced at the others around him.
At that moment, he clearly noticed that the gazes of the surrounding tribesmen—including Dashan—had changed noticeably as they looked at him.
If the tribesmen had initially worshiped him as though he were a "deity," then their eyes now held something else as well: "respect."
The sight of Zhou Xu charging at the spider monster with the Fire Spear and forcing it back had already been deeply branded into their hearts.
To be honest, when faced with a monster like that, not one of them had dared to charge forward.
Even Dashan had only acted afterward because Zhou Xu's courage had inspired him.
"All right. Send someone to keep watch on that giant spider. We'll probably need to change our plans."
As he spoke, Zhou Xu helped the tribesman kneeling on the ground to his feet.
"Let's return to camp first."
In his original plan, the sling, as a ranged weapon, undoubtedly held a pivotal position. But now the situation was clear: the stone pellets did not have enough power.
This time, they returned earlier than ever before. Butterfly and the others who had remained in the tribe inevitably found it rather strange.
Because of what they had just experienced, the squad members, who were still shaken, seized the chance to start talking. Every one of them described the events with such vividness that they almost seemed to be telling a dramatic tale.
Before long, everyone who had stayed in the tribe had gathered around, which only made them speak with even greater enthusiasm.
Whenever they reached an exciting part, they began wildly praising the bravery and might of their leader, making the tribesmen's gazes toward Zhou Xu change again and again.
As the central figure in all this, Zhou Xu was sitting beside the Fire Pit at that moment, but he had no time to care what they were saying. His entire mind was sunk in thought.
The first question in his mind was...
[Why did that giant spider come out?]
Just as he had analyzed earlier, spiders mainly hunted by waiting for prey to come to them. So why had that giant spider suddenly charged out?
Carrying this question with him, Zhou Xu arrived at a possible explanation after deep thought.
It was because of food!
To put it bluntly, the Black Forest was a godforsaken wasteland where even birds did not shit. Its food resources were pitifully scarce.
As far as he knew, aside from the rats—which ate anything and possessed astonishingly strong survival abilities—and some insects, the only animal inhabiting this place was the giant spider that fed on rats and insects!
Under these circumstances, after settling here as outsiders, they too began feeding on insects and rats, while displaying rather impressive hunting efficiency.
Simply put, within this limited space, they were competing with one another for food resources and had directly become rivals on this stretch of the food chain.
The dwindling food supply and increasing difficulty of hunting had forced the giant spider, which had originally stayed deep in the Black Forest, laid out a vast web to wait for prey, and disliked wandering around, to begin taking the initiative and attacking.
Regardless, around this stretch of Black Forest, they and the giant spider had already formed an extreme situation of "either you or me."
[To deal with that giant spider, the first thing they needed to do was find a way to restrain its speed. Dig a pit?]
That was the first thought to flash through Zhou Xu's mind.
[No, no. That giant spider is so huge—how large and deep would they have to make a pit to trap it? Where would they get the strength for that right now? Besides, with those eight spider legs, it could climb right out of a pit trap without the slightest difficulty.]
As a modern man, Zhou Xu's thinking was still quite broad. He could actually come up with many different methods.
However, after combining the current situation with the conditions at hand, there truly were not many methods they could successfully put into practice. This forced him into a period of bitter contemplation.
During this process, their hunting operations naturally had to continue. After all, if they stopped hunting, they would have no food.
With that in mind, to ensure the tribesmen's safety, every squad now sent one member to carry a source of fire, and every member carried a torch.
Their weapons were also changed back from stone axes to Bone Spears.
If they encountered the giant spider, they would immediately bind a torch to one and turn it into a Fire Spear to drive the creature back!
But during this period, the giant spider's attacks became increasingly frequent. Even with a Fire Spear at their side, they still could not guarantee their safety one hundred percent.
The invisible pressure forced Zhou Xu to launch his plan ahead of schedule, one week later!
Before you continue