Surviving the Aftermath

At that moment, a dramatic scene unfolded.

The tribal chief's death sent the Barbarians' morale plunging to rock bottom, and panic began to spread.

This was a primitive tribe of only several hundred people. Their society had yet to develop agriculture; they still relied on fishing, hunting, and gathering for food.

Whoever could obtain more prey, whoever could fill the tribespeople's bellies, whoever could protect the tribe—that person was the chief.

Like a monkey king among a troop of monkeys, competition for the position of chief had always been fierce and cruel. At any moment, they could face countless challenges. When they grew old and weak, the wiser ones would abdicate voluntarily through "passing on the throne"; otherwise, they would be killed by newer, stronger challengers.

Thus, every serving chief was the strongest and most terrifying warrior in the tribe.

One could well imagine the blow that the death of such a figure dealt to these Barbarians, whose organization was loose and discipline lax.

Just as Chen Shouyi was preparing to seize the chance to flee toward the passageway, the Barbarians in the two Dugout Canoes also hurriedly grabbed their punting poles. Several Barbarians pushed together with all their strength, and the two Dugout Canoes gradually pulled free of the stranded beach, one after the other, slowly heading toward the Great Sea.

Chen Shouyi ran a few steps, then, seeing no movement behind him, could not help turning around for a look.

They were actually running away?

Seeing this scene, his mind still could not quite process it. He turned back and instinctively ran a few more steps.

Wait, if that was the case, why was I still running?

Wouldn't that make me look guilty? Like I lacked confidence!

Coming back to his senses, he immediately turned around and headed back the way he had come.

He stopped only when his feet touched the seawater.

He drew his bow and shot several arrows into the sky from afar, shouting threateningly as if venting his frustration:

"Come back and let me kill you!"

"I'll cut off your... uh!"

He suddenly got stuck. He did not know how to say "heads"; he had not learned that word yet.

But that did not affect the actual result. Watching this mysterious figure wielding a terrifying weapon launch attack after attack, the Barbarians' expressions grew ever more horrified, and they rowed away even more desperately.

To begin with, the Tree God's Oracle had been rather vague.

As a Divine Creature that had yet to ignite Divine Fire, its abilities were quite limited. Its foresight of danger extended only to vague sensations; it merely knew that danger lay to the north.

But it could not say how great that danger was. The sensation was hazy—it might have been a minor danger that would kill only a few believers, or it might have been a crisis that could bring about even its own downfall.

Yet once the Oracle was issued, the Barbarians inevitably overinterpreted it.

This operation had gathered most of the tribe's young and able-bodied members. Clearly, they had treated it as a threat capable of wiping out the entire tribe.

Yet before they had even fully landed on Small Island, nearly half their people had been killed or wounded, and even their strongest chief had died at the enemy's hands.

This not only proved the correctness of the Oracle; in the Barbarians' eyes, it also made Chen Shouyi seem like a man-eating demon.

After venting for a while, Chen Shouyi watched the two Dugout Canoes row farther and farther away before finally dropping onto the ground on his backside.

He seemed utterly drained, unable to summon even a trace of strength throughout his body.

I actually survived?

I survived the pursuit of twenty-three Barbarians!

He leaned back and lay on the beach, closing his eyes and letting the rain pour over him. A smile involuntarily appeared at the corner of his mouth, then gradually widened.

Being alive felt fucking good!

The rain grew lighter and lighter, and before long, it stopped.

As the dark clouds dispersed, sunlight spilled across the earth.

After lying there for a full half hour, he finally got to his feet and walked toward the corpses.

His drenched clothes clung crookedly to his body, while his shoes were filled with water. Every step made a squelching sound, leaving him extremely uncomfortable.

He simply took off his shirt.

He did not take off his shoes, though. This beach was not some artificially sifted beach; it was covered in sharp gravel and fragments of shell. With soles as unseasoned as his, his feet would probably soon be torn open and bloody.

Only two Barbarian corpses lay on the beach. One was the Barbarian he had shot dead first, while the other was the Barbarian chief.

He did not need to deal with those floating in the sea.

The abundant small marine creatures in the shallows were the best scavengers. Before long, those corpses would be reduced to nothing but piles of white bones.

He first checked the ordinary Barbarian's corpse and found that, aside from the animal hide on his body, the Barbarian was utterly destitute. As for that stinking, tattered animal hide, Chen Shouyi could not even be bothered to glance at it.

Chen Shouyi hoisted the corpse onto his shoulder, waded through the seawater, and casually tossed it away, settling the matter.

He then walked over to the tall, brawny Barbarian chief.

Compared with that ordinary Barbarian, this Barbarian chief was far more well-off. The smooth, oily animal hide around his waist alone, which would not get wet even when immersed in water, seemed quite extraordinary. It even appeared to emit a faint glow.

He could not help touching it. It felt warm and smooth beneath his fingers, and even carried a slight repelling force.

Clearly, this animal hide had not come from an ordinary beast.

Unfortunately, after thinking it over, it did not seem all that useful. It was merely a rare curiosity to look at. Was he supposed to wrap himself in animal hide, or make a leather coat from it?

Even so, he fought down his nausea and tore the beast hide from the corpse.

After all, it was a trophy. Even if he kept it as a collectible, it would still be worthwhile.

"Huh! What's this?"

The moment he tore the beast hide from the corpse, something the size of a longan, pointed at both ends like a fruit pit, rolled out.

Chen Shouyi's gaze was immediately drawn to it.

Mysterious patterns covered its surface, yet it possessed the translucent quality of crystal. Under the sunlight, it gave off a captivating halo, misty and radiant, looking exceptionally beautiful.

Such an exquisitely crafted object was utterly out of place among these primitive Barbarians.

If it had not been obtained elsewhere, then it had to be entirely naturally formed.

It seemed to possess some kind of magic. The longer Chen Shouyi looked at it, the more delighted he became, his heart fluttering. He reached out and picked it up.

But the instant the skin of his fingers touched that mysterious "fruit pit," before he could examine it closely, an abrupt change occurred.

Faintly, a weak and gentle voice seemed to sound in his mind. Like a whisper, like a murmur, it was filled with temptation, making him unable to resist listening more closely.

His thoughts began to grow hazy, as though he had sunk into a dream.

Yet though his mind was muddled, his subconscious instinctively rejected it all.

Gradually, the voice changed from temptation to threat, from intimacy to intimidation. It was as if countless tiny voices were interrogating and berating him from the depths of his heart.

Then, that mysterious whisper suddenly became terrified, as though it had suffered some immense fright. It let out a shriek and quickly fled into the distance.

He gave a violent shudder and came back to himself.

He only felt that his mind had gone blank for a moment just now; he had not the slightest memory of the earlier voice.

Lowering his head to look at the mysterious "fruit pit,"

he discovered in astonishment that it was already covered in cracks, as though weathered away. The mysterious, captivating halo it once had had completely vanished as well. It no longer possessed that same seductive allure.

"Huh, why does my body feel so hot?"