Build a Wooden Hut Facing the Great Lake

Wu Chu ran back beneath the Heavenly Tree, gnawed on a piece of fruit, then went into the flower field to pick several broad, thick leaves. He returned to the giant shrimp, scraped off the white frost with a wooden chip, and gathered it up.

After working like that for several hours, he had collected roughly three or four pounds of white frost before giving up. He carried the several bundles of sea salt back to his shelter.

The places that were too high up were beyond his reach, so this was all he could do.

When he returned again, he went looking for deadwood and carried it to the shrimp carcass. At the front chest and back shell near the very end of the shrimp's tail, he built long strip-shaped bonfires, each four or five meters long and over a meter high. Then he carefully cleared the surrounding area and made a firebreak, lest lighting the bonfires accidentally start a forest fire.

Once everything was ready, Wu Chu used magic to ignite the dry grass and bark beneath the woodpiles.

As he watched the bonfires gradually catch, a smile finally bloomed across his face.

After waiting for quite a while and seeing the bonfires burning steadily as they roasted the enormous shrimp tail, Wu Chu went back to carrying wood.

He planned to build himself a shelter so he would have somewhere to hide when it rained.

He had already given up on searching for other humans. After all, this was the Primordial World. In a dangerous place like this, it was better to stay holed up here.

Besides, whether humans had even appeared in the Primordial World during this era was still a question.

Not having knives or axes was no great problem. He could slowly smash the wood apart with stones.

He laid sections of logs over ten meters long and as thick as bowls across tree roots more than two meters high. He twisted grass into small bundles and stuffed them where the logs met the roots to keep them from slipping.

After shuttling back and forth for several hours, Wu Chu finally managed to put together a simple roof four or five meters wide and covered it with a layer of flowers and grass.

He ran back to check the bonfires and found that they were still burning. Orange-red patches had appeared on the shrimp carcass's blue-green surface, so the outer layer was probably cooked.

As for whether the meat inside was cooked, Wu Chu had no idea. Still, the shrimp carcass was nearly ten meters tall and five or six meters thick, so it was normal that it would not cook easily.

After watching for a while, Wu Chu returned to his shelter and gathered the purple wood chunks by the lake. He intended to use the jade-like purple wood to make a bed.

The purple wood fragments came in all sizes, and finding one that was fairly square was not easy.

Finding one that was relatively flat, however, was not difficult. He only needed to prop up one side or corner, and it could serve as a bed.

This purple wood was not only hard in texture but extremely heavy. Even its grayish-white bark was two or three meters thick.

The chunks of purple wood he had found could only be considered scraps compared to the larger pieces.

He made the front door and wall of his shelter in the same way. Using purple wood fragments, he easily erected a plank wall in front of his shelter, leaving a doorway over a meter wide in the middle. He then used wood fragments to build a low platform inside and moved the dozen or so purple fruits indoors.

Finally, he used stones to surround a fire pit a meter wide in the middle of the shelter. He chose three flat stones and placed them in the center of the fire pit, forming a tripod.

When he slept, he could light a bonfire in the fire pit to ward off the cold and beasts.

Another hour or two passed like this, and Wu Chu felt both sleepy and hungry again.

Yet the sun in the sky had barely shifted, showing just how long a day in this world was. If the surrounding plants had not been growing so vigorously, he might even have suspected this was a world of eternal daylight with no night at all.

Still, this was not bad. With the daylight lasting so long, at least he would not let his thoughts run wild in the darkness.

After resting briefly, Wu Chu went to the bonfire, used a wooden stick to move away the still-smoldering coals, and struck the shrimp shell on the creature's belly with the stick.

The shrimp shell was exceptionally hard, but after being scorched by fire and then battered with force, the red-and-gold shell finally cracked apart.

Billowing heat rose from the crack in the shell, and the fragrance of shrimp meat spread through the area.

Blowing on the steam, Wu Chu used a clean purple wood chip to pierce the shrimp meat, pried out a small piece, tore it free, and stuffed it into his mouth.

The shrimp meat looked tender, but it was surprisingly chewy.

There were no seasonings at all, yet just as premium ingredients often needed only the simplest cooking methods, this shrimp meat filled him with appetite.

Fresh, sweet, slightly salty...

Wu Chu sat on a broken log and began eating with gusto.

"Wah-woo, wah-woo..."

A fierce yet babyish growl came from behind him.

The little wolf cub had returned. Perhaps it had been drawn by the scent, or perhaps it was upset to see this two-legged creature stealing its food.

The fluffy little wolf cub crouched low and bared its teeth at Wu Chu, but Wu Chu could see a trace of hesitation in its wolfish eyes.

So he lowered his hand and picked up the wooden stick beside him.

The little wolf cub let out a low whimper, turned, and fled.

Wu Chu chuckled, got up, tore off more shrimp meat, and continued feasting in huge bites.

Before long, those "wah-woo, wah-woo" cries sounded again not far behind him.

It was rather persistent.

Wu Chu frowned slightly and looked behind the little wolf cub. There was no other unusual movement in the bushes behind it.

After thinking for a moment, he tore off a piece of shrimp meat and tossed it toward the little wolf cub.

There was a great deal of shrimp meat, and he could not eat much of it anyway, so he did not mind sharing it with the cub. He was only worried that a terrifying wolf pack might be lurking behind it.

If he encountered a wolf pack here, he truly had no way to deal with them.

Still, he could clearly feel that his appetite had increased greatly, probably several times what it had once been. He guessed this change came from his improved body.

After eating his fill, Wu Chu tore off several more pieces of shrimp meat and tossed them toward the little wolf cub.

After testing things a few times, the cub had begun eating the piece of shrimp meat he had thrown earlier. Though the sudden new pieces startled it, it did not run away.

Wu Chu watched it for a while, then turned and piled the remaining coals back beneath the gap in the shrimp shell, hoping the lingering heat would drive away any mosquitoes and flies that might come over.

He then returned to the pool, drank a few mouthfuls of spring water, went back to his shelter, lit a bonfire in the fire pit, and lay down to rest on the purple wood bed covered with dry leaves.

Those dry leaves came from the giant tree. Their blades were thick and enormous; two or three of them could cover his large bed, and they could even be used as a short blanket.

Though the sun still shone brightly outside, he was already too sleepy to endure any longer.

The shelter was fairly cool, but to keep beasts away, he could only light a bonfire. At the same time, he called out Yibao. "Xiao Yi, stand guard here. If there's any danger, wake me immediately."

"Rest assured, Master. Yibao guarantees the mission will be completed!" The little figure answered obediently, putting on an adorable pose above the phone screen before puckering her little lips and blowing him a kiss.

Wu Chu could not help rolling his eyes at her, making Yibao giggle.

It made Wu Chu feel once more as though his phone had become a spirit.

He did not think about what he should do in the future, because whenever he thought about it, he could not help wanting to cry. He could only keep himself busy, then collapse into sleep whenever exhaustion overtook him.

He used this method to keep himself from thinking about that future that perhaps had no future at all.

He did not know how long he slept, but he had another dream much like the previous ones.

However, this time, besides the young Daoist and the Azure Dragon, there was also a towering giant tree in the dream. It was the enormous sacred tree beside him, stretching straight into the heavens.

Though he did not know what kind of sacred tree it was, he knew that the purple fruits had grown from this giant tree.

The scenes in his dream were fragmented, but he still sensed something different from it. This place was protected by an array.

The array was controlled by the sacred tree, and the runes that formed this Mountain Protection Array actually resembled Yibao's golden rune chains.

This gave Wu Chu an absurd feeling, yet he could not help secretly feeling delighted.

Perhaps Yibao was already a rare treasure!

For some reason, though, whenever these images finally appeared in his mind, there would always be scenes from those breathtaking educational films he had once watched.

After those educational-film scenes appeared, the dream fragments scattered once more.

Then he woke again from that awkward state. He subconsciously reached beneath himself to feel around, then let out a long sigh of relief.

"Master, you're awake!" Seeing Wu Chu wake up, the little figure called out happily. After noticing his movement, she said seductively, "Don't worry, Master, you don't have that!"

"..."

When Wu Chu's lips twitched and he rolled over to get out of bed, he discovered a small figure squatting at his doorway.

"Wah-woo..."

In front of the little fellow was another little fellow, but this unfamiliar one was not a small animal. It was a little Daoist boy.

At that moment, the little Daoist boy was teasing the little wolf cub with a foxtail grass stalk. The cub waved its tiny paws, trying to catch the mischievous blade of grass.