What Are You Thinking? Eat the Damn Thing!!

From the very first time he discovered this fissure cave, Zhou Xu had already reached a conclusion: it had probably been formed by movements in the Earth's crust, then occupied by the giant spider and turned into its nest.

Although it was daytime and the weather was excellent, with bright sunlight shining down, the fissure cave remained pitch-black.

Relying on the ability of Eye of Insight, Zhou Xu first stood outside and carefully observed the interior.

After confirming that there were no threats inside, he assigned two more tribe members to stand guard outside, then signaled everyone to light torches and enter the cave.

Thanks to his talent, the tribe members' eyesight had all improved accordingly.

That naturally included their ability to see in relatively dim environments.

With the torches lighting their way, they could now see the interior of the cave clearly.

The place was practically stuffed full of densely packed webs.

For convenience, Zhou Xu had initially planned to clear away all the webs, but after giving it some thought, he changed his mind.

"Find a spot along the edge and open a passage for us. Leave the rest of the webs in place as hunting traps. That'll save us quite a bit of effort."

The tribe members naturally had no objections to Zhou Xu's orders.

By his rough estimate, the spider's nest was only a dozen or so meters deep. After breaking through layer upon layer of the web formation, they soon reached the very depths.

The space inside was fairly spacious, but it was a complete mess. At the same time, a nauseating stench filled the entire chamber, leaving their faces ashen.

"Spread out and search. Pick up the pace."

The tribe members moved at his command. Zhou Xu naturally did not stand idle either, holding up a torch as he carefully searched every inch of the ground.

But it was simply too stinky inside. To improve their efficiency and get out quickly, Zhou Xu directly activated his True Words again.

[Eye of Insight]

In that instant, his vision opened completely. As his gaze swept across the area, a black stone lying on the cave floor caught his eye. At first glance, it looked little different from the other stones around it.

Without giving it much thought, Zhou Xu walked over, bent down, and picked it up.

Under the scrutiny of his Eye of Insight, he could clearly see that the stone possessed a texture unlike that of the others.

In fact, the difference was not limited to its appearance. Rubbing it with his fingers, he could feel the distinction through touch as well, and the pads of his fingers became stained with its color.

[This is...]

As though he had thought of something, Zhou Xu's heart began to race.

"Everyone, pay attention!"

As he shouted, he raised the black stone in his hand.

"Pick up as many black stones like this as you can."

Although they still did not know why their chief wanted them to collect these black stones, they had learned one thing during this period: no matter what their chief asked them to do, they could never go wrong by simply following orders.

After everyone had collected nearly all the black stones, Zhou Xu led the way out of the fissure cave.

After all, he had already examined the fissure cave with his Eye of Insight, and for the time being, there seemed to be nothing else to discover.

With his bark pouch filled with black stones, Zhou Xu hurried back to the tribe, impatient to return.

Who would have thought that even though he was still some distance from the tribal camp, the cheers coming from within the tribe had already completely drowned him out!

The reason was made clear by the giant spider's corpse, which they had dismembered and carried back to the tribe piece by piece.

In this battle against the giant spider, the victorious tribe members led by Zhou Xu had earned the right to enjoy the most thunderous cheers.

This battle had not only ensured the safety of every tribe member, but also meant that they could have a hearty meal!

Before this, Zhou Xu would never have entertained the thought of eating something like this.

But now...

What are you thinking? Eat the damn thing!!

Bathing in the tribe members' most enthusiastic cheers, Zhou Xu was escorted into the tribe.

After setting down the bark pouch filled with stones, he nimbly took one stone out and tossed it into the Fire Pit before him.

After that, he left it alone and walked over to examine the giant spider's corpse being processed.

This was truly the first time he had seen a spider this huge. Unfortunately, there was not much meat in its abdomen, but the eight spider legs had somewhat exceeded Zhou Xu's expectations.

His initial impression was that they resembled king crab legs.

Just thinking about it made Zhou Xu's mouth begin to water.

Whether this thing was actually tasty or not, in this era, being able to enjoy a full meal was already an extravagant luxury.

This made everyone in the tribe start looking forward to the dinner to come.

Fei Que was clearly looking forward to it as well, but he was thinking a little further ahead than everyone else in the tribe.

"Chief, should we set aside some food for storage?"

At a time when everyone was thinking about having a huge feast, Fei Que had managed to withstand the temptation and think of storing food.

This showed that even in such a situation, Fei Que could maintain a calm and rational mind. To some extent, it was also a sign of strong willpower, causing Zhou Xu to look upon him with even greater regard.

"The giant spider's meat probably won't be easy to preserve. We'll have to see how things go and finish it within two or three days. As for storing food, we can preserve the rats we caught today first."

As he spoke, Zhou Xu beckoned to Fei Que.

"Come with me."

Taking Fei Que along, Zhou Xu quickly walked over to the side.

By this point, the rats had already been cleaned. Picking up one of them, he immediately began rubbing salt over it.

"Just like this. Rub the salt on, then thread this fine string through them and string them together. After that, hang them on that raised rack. Remember, they mustn't get wet..."

Discovering salt right away had saved him quite a bit of trouble.

It meant he could preserve food directly by making cured meat.

As long as they could store enough food, they would have much more confidence when handling anything that came later.

Making cured meat itself was not particularly difficult.

After handing all the subsequent work over to Fei Que, Zhou Xu withdrew and returned to the Fire Pit.

After all that activity, the stone he had tossed in at the beginning had already been roasting in the Fire Pit for quite some time.

Zhou Xu picked up the branch used to stir the fire and slowly pushed the stone out. When he saw it, a smile immediately blossomed across his face.

"This stone really is coal ore. There's a coal mine beneath the Black Forest!!"