New Impact

"Were those the guys who attacked our tribe before?"

This was the first thing Zhou Xu wanted to confirm.

Facing the question, the tribe member shook his head.

"I'm not sure. It was too chaotic at the time, and there were quite a few of them. I'm not sure if it was the same tribe that attacked us before."

Zhou Xu nodded slightly upon receiving this answer.

"I understand. Go call back everyone from the gathering team. As for Fei Que's hunting team, go inform Fei Que about this situation and tell him to continue hunting for now and remain on standby."

"Yes!"

With a single "yes," the tribe member quickly ran off to deliver the orders.

[Unless the primitive people on the other side possess True Word power similar to mine, it's unrealistic for them to discover Dashan and the others, who are hiding at such a distance, in time.]

[Most likely, they discovered the Black Forest and dared not approach rashly, so they went back to report.]

[From this perspective, their actions are quite cautious.]

[Now it all depends on what actions they take next.]

He couldn't possibly order all the people in his tribe to stand by at the Black Forest just because they discovered the existence of other primitive people.

What if the other side took no follow-up action today, or even tomorrow or the day after?

Lingering there would only waste their precious labor force.

Of course, now that they were aware that people from other tribes had discovered this Black Forest, they couldn't afford to be completely unprepared.

Therefore, after a simple weighing of options in his mind, he chose to recall the gathering team.

Unlike the hunting team led by Fei Que, the hunting team was responsible for the tribe's most crucial food supply mission at the moment.

If they stopped their operations, the tribe's food supply would quickly become problematic.

But the gathering team was different. The gathering team was primarily responsible for collecting coal, branches, stones, and insects.

These resources were also needed by their tribe, but with daily collection, they actually had some stock of these resources within the tribe.

Simply put, a pause of two or three days wouldn't cause too much trouble.

Not to mention, Zhou Xu had a backup plan...

"You few, carry these polished stone projectiles to the mine in the center of the Black Forest. On your way back, collect some supplies."

He quickly assigned tasks to the members of the patrol team he had called over.

He had already confirmed the location where the two primitive people had appeared.

Considering the direction from which the enemy was advancing, the combat zone could be roughly delineated.

During this time, as the side holding the home-field advantage, Zhou Xu's first thought was to use the Black Forest as a natural cover and launch long-range attacks on the enemy with slings!

To effectively implement this tactic, the supply of stone projectiles must keep up.

If they were all stockpiled at the tribe camp, it would definitely be too late to transport them in an emergency.

In contrast, considering the location of the battlefield, stockpiling them at the mine first would significantly shorten the distance.

At this moment, with the edge of the Black Forest serving as a natural defensive line, Dashan and his men were keeping watch in shifts of five, ensuring they could spot the enemy the moment they appeared.

At this very moment, Zhou Xu's feelings were quite conflicted.

From a rational standpoint, it would be best if the enemy came in the afternoon, as he had nothing else to prepare.

Because of this, he had to dispatch enough manpower to keep watch in the Black Forest, lest the enemy attack and their reinforcements couldn't arrive in time, causing the front line to collapse.

Under these circumstances, even if he had an extra two or three days, his limited manpower would not be enough to prepare anything new, and it would only add to his troubles.

But setting aside rationality, this was truly the first time he had encountered people from other tribes since his transmigration.

Unlike the giant spider, once the lives of his own kind were involved, Zhou Xu couldn't help but have some thoughts of avoidance.

As for meeting and talking things out with the other party...

He hadn't even had that thought for a single moment.

He wasn't stupid. Even if he wanted to talk things out, how could he guarantee that the other party would want to?

They didn't understand each other at all.

In this environment, the safest approach was to defeat them first and eliminate the threat!

As Zhou Xu waited with some anxiety, the other party did not disappoint him. Just past noon, the main force of the enemy appeared outside the Black Forest.

Under Dashan's command, a tribe member ran back at top speed to deliver the news...

"They're here, they're here! I estimate there are nearly twenty of them!"

Hearing this, Zhou Xu took a deep breath and then stood up abruptly, holding his bone spear.

"Butterfly, you all hide well and don't come out until we return."

After speaking, Zhou Xu's gaze quickly swept over another tribe member who was waiting by his side.

"Go call Fei Que and the others to assemble, head to the mine first, and bring the polished stone projectiles to meet them on the outskirts!"

As the chief of the Salt Lake Tribe, facing this impending tribal conflict, no matter how uneasy Zhou Xu had felt internally before, he forcefully suppressed all those emotions at this moment.

What lay before him now was a hurdle he had to overcome!

The enemy's advance was not fast, and Zhou Xu needed to take position before them.

During this time, Fei Que and the others, who had received his orders, were also rushing over, carrying stone projectiles on their backs.

"What's the situation now?"

"Don't know."

Seeing the enemies appear outside the Black Forest, Dashan frowned.

"They're moving very slowly. Although they've been advancing, they haven't gotten completely close yet."

Hearing this, Zhou Xu's brow also furrowed.

He then immediately used the power of the 'Eye of Insight' to observe the enemy's situation.

Under the insight of his Extraordinary vision, Zhou Xu quickly discovered that the individuals on the other side were all advancing under heavy loads, with a large wooden plank strapped to each of their backs.

In this era, where people ate only one meal a day and were all skin and bones, the difficulty of carrying such things for long distances was self-evident.

It was at this moment that the enemy's main force stopped.

The enemies at the forefront, upon stopping, quickly unstrapped the large wooden planks from their backs and propped them up in front of themselves.

This setup essentially blocked their entire bodies from behind, clearly functioning as a very typical shield.

A row of large wooden shields combined together directly formed a shield wall.

This made Zhou Xu's frown deepen.

[Have these guys already discovered us?]

Before he could ponder further, he saw a gap wide enough for one person to pass through open up between the wooden shields.

And what happened next caused their hearts to stop.

"Are those... skeletons?!"

Within their hollow eye sockets, two green ghost fires flickered. What emerged from behind the shield wall were actually eerie and terrifying skeletons!

This directly brought a new shock to Zhou Xu's recently stabilized worldview!