A New Shock

"Were they the ones who attacked our tribe before?"

That was the first thing Zhou Xu wanted to confirm.

Faced with the question, the tribal member shook his head.

"I'm not sure. Things were too chaotic at the time, and there were quite a few of them. I can't tell whether they were the same tribe that attacked us before."

After receiving that answer, Zhou Xu nodded slightly.

"I understand. Go call back everyone from the gathering team. As for Fei Que's hunting team, go notify Fei Que and tell him what happened. Have him continue hunting for now and stand by at any moment."

"Yes!"

With that answer, the tribal member hurried off to deliver the orders.

Unless all the primitive people on the other side possess Truth Power comparable to mine, it would be unrealistic for them to discover Dashan and the others after they hid in time from such a distance.

They most likely spotted the Black Forest but didn't dare approach recklessly, so they went back to report.

From that point of view, the people on the other side were indeed cautious enough.

Now it depends on what action they take next.

He couldn't send everyone in his tribe to the Black Forest to stand by merely because they had discovered the existence of other primitive people.

What if the other side didn't take any further action today—or even tomorrow or the day after?

Keeping everyone there would only waste their precious labor.

Of course, now that he realized people from another tribe had discovered this Black Forest, they couldn't remain completely unprepared, either.

So after making a simple assessment in his mind, he chose to pull back the gathering team.

Unlike the hunting team led by Fei Que, the hunting team shouldered their tribe's most important food-supply task at present.

If they stopped operating, the tribe's food supply would soon run into trouble.

But the gathering team was different. Its main responsibilities at present were gathering coal, branches, stones, and insects.

Their tribe naturally needed those resources as well, but since they gathered them every day, they actually had some stockpiles of each inside the tribe.

Put simply, stopping for two or three days wouldn't cause too much trouble.

Besides, Zhou Xu still had a way to make up for it...

"You few, carry these finished stone pellets to the mine shaft in the center of the Black Forest. On the way back, gather some supplies as well."

After calling over several members of the patrol team, he quickly assigned them their task.

He had already confirmed the direction from which the two primitive people had appeared.

Considering the direction the other side was advancing from, he could roughly determine the battlefield.

As the side holding the home-field advantage, Zhou Xu's first thought was to use the Black Forest's natural cover and launch ranged attacks on the enemy with sling staffs!

To put this tactic into effective practice, the supply of stone pellets had to keep up.

If they were all stockpiled at the tribal camp, it would certainly be too late to move them in an emergency.

By comparison, considering the battlefield's location, stockpiling them at the mine shaft first would put them much closer.

At that moment, using the outskirts of the Black Forest as a natural defensive line, Dashan and the others took turns keeping watch in groups of five, ensuring that they would spot the enemy the instant they appeared.

At that moment, Zhou Xu's mood could only be described as extremely conflicted.

From a rational standpoint, he would prefer the enemy to come that afternoon. After all, there was nothing else he could prepare.

Because of this matter, he had to send enough people to keep watch at the Black Forest. Otherwise, if the enemy attacked and their reinforcements failed to arrive in time, their front line could collapse.

Under these circumstances, even if he were given another two or three days, his limited manpower still wouldn't be enough to prepare anything new. It would only create more trouble for him.

But setting reason aside, this was truly the first time since transmigrating that Zhou Xu had faced people from another tribe.

They were different from that giant spider. Once the lives of his fellow humans were involved, Zhou Xu couldn't help developing the urge to avoid it.

As for meeting the other side and having a proper talk...

He hadn't even entertained that thought for a moment.

He wasn't stupid. Even if he wanted to talk things out, how could he ensure that the other side wanted the same?

They knew nothing about each other.

In such an environment, the safest method was to crush the other side first and make them lose their ability to pose a threat!

As Zhou Xu waited with mounting anxiety, the other side didn't disappoint him. Just after noon, the figures of their main force appeared outside the Black Forest.

Under Dashan's orders, a tribal member ran back as fast as he could to deliver the news...

"They're here! They're here! There seem to be nearly twenty of them!"

Hearing this, Zhou Xu took a deep breath, then suddenly rose to his feet with the Bone Spear in hand.

"Butterfly, you all hide well. Don't come out before we return."

After speaking, Zhou Xu's eyes swiftly swept toward another tribal member standing by nearby.

"Go call Fei Que and the others together. Head to the mine shaft first, bring the finished stone pellets, and intercept them at the outskirts!"

As the leader of the Salt Lake Tribe, faced with this imminent tribal clash, no matter how uneasy and anxious Zhou Xu had felt before, he forcibly suppressed all those emotions at this moment.

The difficult hurdle before him now was one he had to clear!

The enemy was advancing slowly, so Zhou Xu had to take up position before them.

Meanwhile, Fei Que and the others, having received his orders, were also carrying stone pellets and hurrying this way.

"What's the situation?"

"I don't know."

Looking at the enemies who had appeared outside the Black Forest, Dashan furrowed his brow.

"They're moving very slowly. They've been advancing the whole time, but they still haven't fully approached."

Hearing this, Zhou Xu furrowed his brow as well.

He immediately used the power of the Eye of Insight to observe the other side's situation.

Under his transcendent vision, Zhou Xu soon discovered that every single person on the other side was advancing under a load. Each person had a large plank of wood strapped to his back.

In this age, when people basically had only one meal a day and were all skin and bones, there was no need to explain how exhausting it was to carry such a thing over a long distance.

Just then, the enemy's main force stopped.

The enemy at the very front swiftly removed the large plank strapped to his back as he stopped, then propped it up in front of himself.

Once raised, it blocked almost his entire body from view behind it. It was clearly a typical door-panel great shield.

A row of large wooden shields joined together, directly forming a Shield Wall.

This made Zhou Xu's brow furrow even more deeply.

Could these guys have already discovered us?

Before he could think any further, gaps wide enough for one person to pass through opened between the door-panel great shields.

What happened next nearly made their hearts stop.

"What is that... a skeleton?!"

Two ghastly green flames flickered within its hollow eye sockets. What walked out from behind the Shield Wall at that moment was actually a series of eerie, terrifying skeletons!

It directly delivered a new shock to the worldview Zhou Xu had only just managed to steady!

The latest update is here. Thanks to reader "Gentle Breeze" for the reward!