Chapter 56: Boat Building Workshop
Translator: Lordbluefire Editor: Lordbluefire

Chen Shouyi heaved a sigh of relief upon hearing that these were just nature spirits.

He wasn’t as scared of these things as much as he was to the “holy tree” that the barbarian had threatened him with before his death.

Moreover, if they were really so terrifying, the barbarians wouldn’t have been able to survive until today.

It was such a simple logic.

“There’s nothing to be afraid of. The sun is up now, and we’ll head back before nightfall.” Chen Shouyi consoled the shell girl.

The shell girl nodded her head forcefully, saying nervously in a soft voice, “I’m not scared.”

“If you perform well, you’ll get a reward.”

The shell girl nodded strongly once again, forcing out a smile.

Clearly, this time around, even the gemstones she loved the most weren’t able to dilute the uneasiness she was feeling.

Chen Shouyi didn’t pay her anymore heed. Before he set off, he checked his equipment for one final time.

Then, he carefully listened to the motions in the surroundings.

He realized that the surroundings were relatively quiet. Other than the splashing waves coming from the sea, it was hard to even hear the usual cries from insects or birds that should be a normal occurrence.

No, it wasn’t that there were very little of them. There were none of them at all!

The entire island was extremely quiet and still, giving off an ominous aura that made him feel a little apprehensive.

Looking at the forest not far away, he immediately dismissed the thought of entering it.

Chen Shouyi let out an exhale and then immediately lay low, carefully heading forward along the shores.

He wasn’t very scared. Most of the plants on land tended to be fearful of an environment with a high salt level. This could be seen from the fact that there weren’t any plants growing on the shores here. It was apparent that the same logic worked in this world as well.

“As long as I stand on the beach, no matter how powerful the ‘holy tree’ mentioned by that barbarian is, it shouldn’t be able to do anything to me. In the worst-case scenario, I can still run toward the seas.”

He advanced carefully, constantly keeping alert toward his surroundings.

The shell girl remained relatively quiet throughout the journey, not making any sounds at all.

Chen Shouyi could sense her anxiety. She was trembling slightly as she sat on his shoulder.

He secretly thought to himself. (This little creature says that she isn’t afraid, but she’s actually shivering a lot.)

…

After walking slowly for over ten minutes, a meandering river that flowed from the forest and into the sea appeared before him.

The river was about one meter wide and so clear that one could see to the very bottom. Of course, it wasn’t accurate to say that it was a river given its width. It could only be considered to be a stream.

He put his hand into the river and felt that the water was warm.

This stream should have come from a geothermal hot spring. He assessed the surroundings and remembered the location.

Given the size of this island, this was probably the only clear water source on it. If he were to follow along this stream, he’d be able to locate where the barbarians were at.

He continued to advance.

He had only walked on for a few minutes when he suddenly lay down on his stomach.

The shell girl was so scared that she grabbed onto his hair tightly. She had almost fallen off.

However, Chen Shouyi couldn’t be bothered to care at a time like this.

His eyes quickly darted around, and he realized that there was a huge boulder in front. He was struck by an idea and slowly crawled toward it.

After crawling for close to two minutes, he finally arrived next to the boulder. He let out an exhale.

Thereafter, hiding behind the huge boulder, he squatted down and looked into the distance.

A huge work site was not far away from Chen Shouyi’s location. Over ten barbarians were working their asses off there.

This should be a boat building workshop for the barbarians.

Chen Shouyi could see three huge logs that had been cut up, lying there in order to be dried up on the beach.

One of the logs was already being processed.

Clearly, with the barbarians suddenly losing a large number of canoes, they immediately hastened on producing more.

Under the morning sunlight, these barbarians were sweating profusely, and their skin glistened under the sun.

It was as Chen Shouyi had guessed.

The barbarians’ production capabilities were still at the level of the Stone Age. Their cutting tools were just hard stone pieces that had their edges ground into sharp blades. They just held onto the stone pieces and kept on smashing at the logs.

Chen Shouyi noticed that there was a big path near the boat building workshop that led to the depth of the forest.

Clearly, these huge logs were rolled through the path to the beach.

He lowered his gaze and carefully observed the situation over there, not missing out on any detail.

There were a total of 16 barbarians.

They only had long lances that they used to defend themselves, as well as the stone pieces for cutting up the logs. They didn’t bring along short lances.

On top of it, he didn’t notice any barbarians who appeared especially strong. Most of them had lean and small figures and couldn’t even be compared to those ordinary barbarians who had gone to assault the small island previously.

However, thinking about it, it made sense. In such primitive tribes, the strong warriors enjoyed extremely high statuses. They clearly wouldn’t be here to cut logs and make canoes.

These people should be ordinary barbarians.

However, Chen Shouyi didn’t act recklessly.

The barbarians were over 200 meters away from where he was. This distance far surpassed his optimal attacking distance. Moreover, the area before him was completely flat, and there wasn’t even a single boulder he could use to hide.

It was totally impossible to be wanting to launch a sneak attack in this kind of terrain. He could only face them head-on.

He had to say that barbarians were intelligent lifeforms after all. Other than the fact that their production capabilities were lagging, they themselves weren’t lacking in intelligence. Moreover, given that their way of survival was primarily dependent on hunting, they were more sensitive toward dangers compared to humans who lived in peace.

The boat building workshop’s safety must have been taken into consideration for it to be set up here.

Chen Shouyi drew out an arrow from his quiver, gently stroking the sharp arrowhead, unable to come to a decision.

It was far too risky to face up against 16 barbarians in one go.

It’d be good if there were fewer of them.

Thankfully, a turning point came very quickly.

After waiting for about ten or more minutes, one of the barbarians seemed like he was going to take a slack. He said something to his companion then put down the stone piece. Very soon, another three barbarians followed after him, smiling.

The four of them chatted and smiled, headed toward Chen Shouyi.

Chen Shouyi turned and leaned his back against the boulder, calming his breathing down. He slowly put the arrow onto the bow and threw a glance toward the shell girl, only to discover that she had covered up her eyes like an ostrich.

Gradually, the barbarians’ voices got increasingly louder.

“The sun is too hot. Let’s have a good soak in the water later.”

“Alright. I know where there are a few ripened fruit trees. We can go pick some later.”

…

When Chen Shouyi saw the barbarians from the corner of his eyes, he instantly stood up, shooting out an arrow.

The sharp arrow let out a sharp shrill, instantly piercing through one of the barbarians in the head.

Before the other barbarians could react, he quickly shot out another arrow. Another barbarian’s head exploded.

At this moment, the other two barbarians finally took action. They held onto their long lances and pounced over.

These barbarians were heading toward the boulder in the first place, and they were very close to it.

They were only seven to eight meters away.

No matter if it was to Chen Shouyi or the barbarians, this short distance could be crossed in almost the blink of an eye.

There wasn’t enough time to shoot another arrow, so Chen Shouyi threw away his battle bow and drew out his longsword. As sparks splattered, his body moved a little, and he easily dodged the black lance tip from one of the barbarians that was soaked in blood. At the same time, he took a step forward and his longsword flicked at lightning speed.

A cold light flashed past!

The sharp blade rapidly sliced open this barbarian’s neck, and blood spurted out.

Sensing the feeling of the longsword entering into the flesh, Chen Shouyi remained calm. After this sword attack was successful, he didn’t stop in his actions. Using the corpse that hadn’t fallen as a shield, he moved elusively and arrived behind the last person.

By this time, that barbarian was still feeling anxious and sweating profusely over the enemy that had suddenly disappeared.

At the next instant, he felt a coldness in his neck. All his strength dissipated rapidly like a popped balloon.

Chen Shouyi drew out his longsword and shook it gently to get rid of the blood on the sword’s tip.

It was only then did the two corpses drop down in succession.

“It’s… that evil existence [1]!”

The barbarians in the distance finally noticed the huge commotion here. All of them broke into horror immediately, and some of the cowardly ones even started to escape.

Chen Shouyi picked up his battle bow once again, looking toward the group of barbarians. His young-looking face had a coldness that didn’t match his age.

Having used a close combat weapon and fought against two opponents at one go boosted his confidence greatly.

At the same time, the barbarians’ low morale also caused his initial anxiety to rapidly dissipate.

He instantly made a move!

He stamped down hard on the tip of his foot, sending up a stretch of sand flying up. Then, he shot out like an arrow that had been launched from a bow, rapidly running toward the group of barbarians.

[1] They should be calling him ‘Siklo’ in the common language, but this is now translated to ‘evil existence’ since Chen Shouyi could understand what they are saying.