In a corner of the room, Zhuang Rui also found several shovels, but the wooden handles of the shovels had long since rotted away, and the shovels were covered with thick rust. However, after Zhuang Rui replaced them with some suitable wooden sticks, they could still be used.
Seeing so much stuff energized Zhuang Rui. After reluctantly eating the last piece of compressed biscuit at noon, he spent another two hours cleaning out a wooden hut.
"Damn, could it really be a pirate stronghold?"
Looking at the messy objects laid out in front of him, Zhuang Rui frowned. Although these things would surely make some archaeological experts jump for joy if they were placed in front of them, they were of little use to Zhuang Rui.
A dozen or so gold coins that had oxidized and changed color, a silver bowl engraved in the style of ancient Rome, and a dagger inlaid with gemstones. The dagger's handle was made of gold and silver wire, which was exceptionally gorgeous, but after the erosion of time, the blade was rusted like a block of iron.
There was another piece of knight's armor, but the head guard was missing. There was only a half-body armor, and the cloth had completely rotted away, but the iron breastplate was still intact.
From these things, Zhuang Rui could tell that the people who once lived here were probably not benevolent people; they were most likely pirates who roamed the seas.
What puzzled Zhuang Rui was why these pirates would build such a place on this isolated island. And who was the skeleton on the ground? And why was it killed? Was it a pirate shootout?
Looking at all this, Zhuang Rui couldn't figure out what had happened on the deserted island hundreds of years ago. Perhaps he could only draw a conclusion after all the wooden houses had been cleared away.
Seeing that it was getting late, and knowing that clearing out the other wooden houses would definitely not be a quick task, Zhuang Rui took his javelin and wandered around the area, planning to stay nearby for the night.
"Huh? A cave?"
At the foot of the mountain, about one kilometer from the village, Zhuang Rui discovered a cave. It was unclear whether it was man-made or naturally formed, but the entrance was more than two meters wide and high.
Zhuang Rui did not rush into the cave. Caves are usually occupied by wild beasts. Who knows what big creatures might be inside?
"This is... a cat? No, it should be a badger..."
Zhuang Rui first used his spiritual energy to examine the cave. Sure enough, there was an animal curled up inside, slightly smaller than a wild dog but much larger than a house cat, with black and yellow stripes on its body.
"Dude, sorry, this place is mine now, could you please move over?"
Knowing what was inside, Zhuang Rui was no longer afraid. This kind of badger was one of the most common animals on pirates, feeding on wild birds. As soon as Zhuang Rui saw it, he immediately had the idea of taking over the place.
Normally, badgers live in burrows underground, but this one is probably a bit of an exception.
With a "bang," a stone flew from Zhuang Rui's hand and crashed into the cave. The badger, as if its tail had been stepped on, immediately jumped up and darted towards the cave entrance.
"Waaah..."
The badger let out a low whimper, its yellow, fluorescent eyes fixed on Zhuang Rui, clearly unwilling to hand over its lair.
"Go, go..."
Zhuang Rui made a threatening sound. Although he was not afraid of the little thing, he was naked and it would be very uncomfortable to be scratched by it. It would be best to subdue the enemy without fighting.
However, this badger, which had never seen a human before, was very unappreciative. It bent its body slightly, sprang up, and pounced on Zhuang Rui's face.
"Damn it, you're asking for it. I'll roast you and eat you..."
Although he wasn't a trained fighter, Zhuang Rui felt that if he couldn't even handle something like this, he might as well find a block of tofu and kill himself. So he raised his right hand, took the javelin, and stabbed it into the belly of the badger that was pouncing on him.
Seemingly aware of the javelin's power, the badger twisted its body in mid-air, but Zhuang Rui still managed to pierce its leg with a spear.
"Meow!" The badger let out a sound almost like a baby crying. After landing, it rolled over and disappeared into the bushes on the mountain, no longer daring to call out to Zhuang Rui.
"You're smart..."
Zhuang Rui shook his head when he saw the bloodstains on the ground. Although he hadn't eaten much meat in the past few days, Zhuang Rui wasn't particularly interested in cat-like animals.
"Damn, it smells awful!"
After chasing away the badger, Zhuang Rui couldn't wait to crawl into the cave. But as soon as he entered, he smelled a foul odor that almost made him vomit.
However, Zhuang Rui was unwilling to give up the cave and sleep under the big tree. After thinking for a while, Zhuang Rui's eyes lit up.
Zhuang Rui first gathered a large handful of branches and leaves and threw them into the cave. Then, outside the cave, he took two pieces of volcanic rock and started striking them together. Having mastered this technique, Zhuang Rui quickly lit a fire.
They used javelins to throw burning branches into the cave, igniting the dry leaves inside, and a thick plume of smoke billowed out of the cave.
Zhuang Rui kept throwing flammable things inside, and even ran back to the village to throw in a half-rotten wooden door.
Zhuang Rui also picked up the dead branches from the bushes on the mountain. While picking up the dead branches, Zhuang Rui also found a nest of seven or eight seabird eggs, each about the size of a quail egg and covered with white spots.
This greatly excited Zhuang Rui, who immediately expanded his search area and found three or four more seabird nests with more than twenty eggs in a bush above the cave.
Zhuang Rui had no intention of incubating the bird eggs like a mother hen. He found a large leaf, wrapped the eggs in it, and then used a javelin to shove them into the cave. Thinking about the eggs he would be able to eat soon, Zhuang Rui couldn't help but drool.
The cave had only one side for ventilation, and the burning flames quickly drained the oxygen from the cave. The fire gradually died down, but the thick smoke increased and kept pouring out of the cave.
After more than ten minutes, Zhuang Rui used a javelin to pry open the bird eggs that were nestled in the leaves. He peeled off the thin shells, and the roasted eggs tasted incredibly delicious. After eating more than twenty eggs, Zhuang Rui was so comfortable that he almost groaned.
It's only because Zhuang Rui had some experience living alone on a snowy mountain for a few days that he could have been driven crazy by the loneliness he felt in just over a week.
However, if it weren't for the creatures on the island, Zhuang Rui probably wouldn't have been able to hold on. These past few days, he's started muttering to himself while looking at the fish in the pond. If this goes on for too long, all sorts of problems might start to appear.
"Looks like I won't be able to stay tonight..."
Looking at Shandong, which was still billowing thick smoke, Zhuang Rui felt a little regretful, but thinking about the foul smell of the badger, he was willing to wait another day.
It seems there's still a lot of work to be done before I can live here.
Zhuang Rui completely forgot about the important matter of drinking fish soup. He grabbed a shovel and started digging a trap outside the cave. Otherwise, with no door in sight, how could he feel at ease staying there at night?
Zhuang Rui may not have much else, but he is physically strong. It took him three or four hours to dig a deep pit, three meters deep and two meters wide, in a semi-circular shape, surrounding the cave entrance, half a meter away from it.
On the right side of the cave entrance, Zhuang Rui left a solid path only thirty centimeters wide, which he used to enter and exit.
After finishing these tasks, it was getting dark. The birds that had returned to their nests seemed to sense that their eggs were gone, and they kept circling in the sky, emitting mournful cries.
Zhuang Rui, the bird thief, naturally kept his neck hunched and remained silent. He planned to go to the stream early the next morning to see if he could catch a goat to roast and eat.
On this deserted island, Zhuang Rui seemed to have nothing else to pursue besides figuring out what to eat every day.
Well, that wooden village can be further excavated, but even if some world-shaking archaeological discovery is made, Zhuang Rui has no way to make it public.
That night, Zhuang Rui did not return to the beach, but instead curled up and slept at the entrance of the cave.
That night, Zhuang Rui had a dream in which he seemed to dream of his twins, a boy and a girl. His son was very naughty and grabbed Zhuang Rui's hair tightly when Zhuang Rui held him.
"Don't cause trouble, be good..."
Zhuang Rui, still half asleep, felt someone stroking his hair and reached out to touch it.
But after Zhuang Rui reached out his hand, he subconsciously felt something was wrong. He immediately opened his eyes and found that there was a figure standing in front of him.
Chapter 832 Vajra (Part 1)
"Who? Who are you?"
Zhuang Rui had just woken up from his sleep when he saw a figure in front of him. His scalp tingled, and his heart pounded so hard it almost jumped out of his throat.
However, Zhuang Rui had experienced a lot in the past few years. As he uttered the question, he grabbed the javelin beside him with his right hand and used it to support his body as he stood up against the rock wall.
To be honest, Zhuang Rui was terrified. His legs were so weak that he probably wouldn't have been able to stand up if he hadn't been leaning against the rock wall next to the cave.
Zhuang Rui's overreaction startled the dark figure in front of him. In this world, people can be frightened to death by being frightened by others. Zhuang Rui was surprised to see the dark figure, and the dark figure was probably afraid to see Zhuang Rui.
Upon seeing the sleeping Zhuang Rui stand up, the dark figure immediately retreated in panic, forgetting that behind it lay a pit three meters deep.
"Agh... Agh!" The figure that fell into the deep pit let out a miserable howl.
"Sir, who are you?"
Zhuang Rui had seen it clearly just now. The figure was more than two meters tall when it retreated. Although he couldn't see the face clearly, the figure was extremely burly. He was probably no match for the figure.
To avoid any misunderstandings caused by language barriers, Zhuang Rui quickly greeted the mysterious person who had fallen into the pit in English again.
"Aww, aww..."
However, the only response Zhuang Rui received from the pit was a shout, followed by a large hand covered in black hair clinging to the edge of the pit, and a large head also emerged.
"This... damn it, it's a ghost!"
By the sparse starlight, Zhuang Rui could vaguely make out the shape of the head. He was immediately terrified, and his screams were even louder than those of the guy in the pit.
To be honest, its head was rather shabby, with two bulging eyes, as big as a newborn baby's fist, an upturned nose revealing two dark nostrils, and a tuft of fine hair on its head.
Calling it a person is a bit of a stretch. At least Zhuang Rui had never seen a person with such big eyes and a head. Seeing such a thing in the middle of the night, it would be abnormal for Zhuang Rui not to call it a ghost.
Seemingly startled by Zhuang Rui's voice, the hairy hand on the edge of the pit immediately withdrew. It seems that the creature in the pit was also wary and afraid of Zhuang Rui.
"Hey... I'm telling you, don't come up here..."
Zhuang Rui wanted to take advantage of the moment the creature fell into the pit and kill it with a javelin, but he was unsure of himself. What if he failed to kill it and angered it? With his small frame, he seemed a bit out of his depth to fight it in a free-fighting match.
After thinking it over, Zhuang Rui decided to win people over with virtue. In his haste, he suddenly remembered the spiritual energy in his eyes and quickly released it out of his body, letting it travel over the big guy in the pit.
This trick worked perfectly. The creature that had been growling incessantly in the pit immediately stopped, with only some nasal sounds coming out, indicating that it was enjoying Zhuang Rui's spiritual energy.
"Damn it, I'm so stupid. Why didn't I use my spiritual energy to lure that shark back then? Otherwise, I might be riding a shark away from this godforsaken place right now..."
Seeing that the spiritual energy was effective, Zhuang Rui had such a thought, but when he thought about it, it felt a bit absurd. The ocean is so big, what if the shark doesn't cooperate and gets lost halfway through? Wouldn't he be devastated?
With spiritual energy as a powerful weapon, Zhuang Rui felt much more at ease. However, he still couldn't feel at ease until he figured out exactly what the other party was.
After calming the creature in the pit, Zhuang Rui scrambled into the cave, used a javelin to pry up the still-burnt branches, and blew on them.
With caves, one can shelter from the wind and rain, and also store fire.
Preserving a fire is actually quite simple. Just cover the burning firewood with a layer of damp leaves and firewood, and the fire will keep smoking. The smoke contains heat, which will dry the semi-damp combustibles at the bottom, and then use the residual heat to bake the top layer.
Repeat this process, and the flame will remain lit. Of course, if you don't want the flame to go out, you need to add some semi-wet combustible material every seven or eight hours.
When you need to use it, simply lift up the semi-damp flammable material, cover it with some dry, withered leaves, and blow on the fire.
Zhuang Rui had already learned this trick when he was around ten years old. Back then, he and Liu Chuan skipped school to catch sparrows. They didn't dare take them home, so they roasted and ate them in the harvested fields. After eating them, they would throw some random wet leaves on top of them.
The next day, Zhuang Rui and Liu Chuan found that the fire was still burning. Zhuang Rui, who was a good kid at the time, looked up the principle behind it and naturally mastered the technique of preserving the fire.
"Hey, you, what guy?"
After skillfully lighting the fire, Zhuang Rui, emboldened, tried shouting at the guy in the pit. However, it was clear that the guy didn't understand Zhuang Rui's words and didn't react after Zhuang Rui shouted.
Zhuang Rui scratched his head, picked up a handful of dry grass that he had placed under his buttocks, lit it, and piled it at the entrance of the cave. Then, he mustered up his courage and looked into the cave. Perhaps due to the angle, Zhuang Rui still only saw a dark shadow.
This troubled Zhuang Rui a bit. Although spiritual energy can see through things, it is ineffective against living beings because once it comes into contact with a living being, it will enter the body. So, if he wants to see this guy clearly, he has to bring him up.
The guy in the pit seemed a little afraid of firelight. When he saw the light above, he covered his head with his two hairy arms. He looked exactly like a habitual offender who was frequently in and out of jail.
Even Zhuang Rui, who was under immense mental stress, couldn't help but laugh. The danger level of the creatures in the pit immediately dropped in his mind.
After thinking it over, Zhuang Rui decided to take a conciliatory approach. Several streams of spiritual energy overflowed from his eyes and seeped into the dark, large creature in the pit.
Seemingly sensing the spiritual energy entering its body, the creature in the pit stirred, removed its hands from its head, and looked around as if searching for the source of the spiritual energy. When it raised its head, its eyes met Zhuang Rui's.