The scouting team spent more than two hours exploring before discovering a pattern. A zone within a two-hundred-meter radius of the camp was relatively safe, with no fierce beasts spotted, but beyond that boundary lay traces of their activity. Within these two hundred meters were plenty of edible fruits, though they could not name more than half of them, making it impossible to confirm whether they were poisonous.
Team Leader Su Su led the three back to camp and reported the situation to Yu Yuan. Looking over Xiao Liang's notes, Yu Yuan listened attentively to the report, using a twig to draw a circle on the ground and mark resources and beasts.
"Get some rest first," Yu Yuan said. "If you're up for it, you can head over to the Fire Team. They still haven't managed to get a fire going."
After sending them off, Yu Yuan called over the deputy leader of the Gathering Team and instructed him to have his team follow the marked locations on the map to pick fruits for today's meal and tomorrow morning's meal. Rations were strictly limited, harvested based on an allowance of three to four liang per person per meal.
The Gathering Team was the largest group in the tribe; assigning them specific work sectors would effectively boost their foraging efficiency.
Over at the camp, the four members of the Fire Team were wracking their brains to start a fire. All four had some wilderness survival experience, and methods like friction fire or bow drills were not particularly difficult for them, but today they were completely stumped.
The greatest obstacle was their location atop a two-thousand-meter peak, where the morning mist had blanketed the mountain and dampened all their tinder. There was sun in the camp during the morning, but none of its searing heat could be felt. By midday, the sun was blocked by the cliff face. They had intended to venture into the woods to dry out the tinder, but the dense foliage left only a pitiful trickle of sunlight.
Ding Shi took Xiao Liang's yellow paper, brush, and ink, using the excuse of returning them to their original owner to wander over to the Fire Team's camp and watch the show. Coincidentally, a handsome guy from the Weapons and Tools Team whose profession was ninja had answered their call. The ninjutsu he was learning was called Fire Release, which simply meant spitting fire. As to how exactly it related to the Great Fireball Technique, Ding Shi had no idea.
Because he was still in the middle of learning it, his failure rate was extraordinarily high.
The handsome guy formed hand seals with both hands, his fingers popping and snapping in rapid succession—it looked remarkably cool. After flashing through over a dozen hand signs, his eyes snapped wide, and he shouted, "Ninjutsu: Fireball Technique!"
Aiming at the small twigs, he spat out two liang of saliva.
Deeply embarrassed, the guy chuckled awkwardly and formed the hand seals anew. This time, he spat out a tiny spark, a fleeting flash of red flame that vanished in an instant.
A pretty woman passing by could no longer bear to watch. "You didn't do the seventh hand seal right—your index finger has to be straight. On top of that, your timing between seals is uneven."
Unconvinced, the guy retorted, "You do it, then."
The beauty did not hold back. Stepping into his spot, she lowered her head, half-closed her eyes, and fluently executed over a dozen hand seals. Throwing her head back and snapping her eyes open, she shouted at the assortment of tinder before her, "Ninjutsu: Fierce Water Technique!"
"Don't—!" the members of the Fire Team shrieked at the top of their lungs.
A basin of water materialized out of thin air and splashed forward. Though its attack power was virtually nil, the water itself was completely real, thoroughly soaking the twigs, bird nests, dry grass, and all the rest of their kindling.
The woman stared for a moment, realized she had caused a disaster, turned to the handsome guy, said, "That's how it's done," and took off running.
Players capable of choosing Nightmare difficulty generally had some real skill, but that did not prevent a pair of blockheads from cropping up among them—one nicknamed Wolong, the other Fengchu.
Looking at the four despairing members of the Fire Team, Ding Shi offered a well-intentioned tip: "Due west, there's a ditch."
One of them, thinking Ding Shi was mocking them, glared. "What do you mean by that?"
The other three asked in pleasant surprise, "A ditch?"
In a ditch, there would be all kinds of stones. Originally buried within the mountain, they were washed to the surface by landslides and erosion. Anyone with experience could easily find two stones in a ditch capable of striking sparks.
Ding Shi nodded. "Before you go, you'd better check with the Chieftain. There's some danger near the ditch."
The Fire Team leader stood up. "If danger is that close, and we don't have fire tonight, we'll all be in danger."
Passing by the Fire Team, Ding Shi slipped quietly into the woods. Glancing around to make sure no one was near, he took out the brush and paper and began drawing Metal Thunder Talismans. His method for drawing them was in midair: holding the talisman paper in his left hand and the brush in his right, swoosh, swoosh, swoosh. At a success rate of one in five, once he had finished four talismans, he rolled the paper up.
The men wore only a large pair of shorts, making it difficult to conceal anything. But that was fine; while scouting, Ding Shi had cut a hollow vine and tied it around his waist like a decorative belt. Now, all he had to do was slip the rolled paper into the hollow vine. This was meant for Wang Meng—once the quest was nearly over, he would use his right to declare war and send him to Sixiang City to retire.
Ding Shi returned the paper, brush, and ink to their original owner and asked, "Brother, would you sell it? Would you sell the container for the paper, brush, and ink?" Ding Shi did not know what it was called, but he was certain the owner possessed a container that bundled them together; otherwise, the talisman paper, ink, and writing brush would take up three separate item slots.
"It's a bound item," the owner replied. "Can't be traded."
Ding Shi was disappointed, but he still asked questions to learn more about such items.
Suddenly, a commotion arose from the northwest. A group of people emerged from the woods carrying someone and rushed toward the camp as their leader shouted, "Can anyone neutralize snake venom?"
Ding Shi had treated snake venom for Chu Yu before, but the flesh-gouging method required specific prerequisites. First, no major blood vessels near the bite. Second, the gouging had to be completed within fifteen to twenty seconds. Third, one had to cut deep and ruthlessly. Only under these three conditions could most of the venom be purged.
The other options were: first, tough it out; second, antivenom; third, Yita World might have some kind of skill for it.
Ding Shi went over to see what was happening and ask around. It turned out a member of the Gathering Team had been attacked by a venomous snake while picking bayberries.
Yu Yuan squatted down, inspected the bite marks on her forearm, and asked the injured woman, "What kind of snake was it?"
The young woman shook her head. "I don't know."
Yu Yuan said, "Ask everyone. Find out if anyone has a detoxification skill."
Clutching Yu Yuan's shoulder, the woman asked, "Am I going to die?"
The Fire Team leader, a wilderness survival expert, answered from the side, "Bamboo pit vipers are fairly common in bayberry trees, and the bite marks on your arm match a bamboo pit viper's bite. So my guess is a bamboo pit viper. If it was a Fujian bamboo pit viper, the mortality rate is very low, so it wouldn't be a huge problem. Even if you encountered a white-lipped bamboo pit viper, the mortality rate is only around twenty percent. Whichever it is, your odds of winning the gamble aren't bad."
After a few more questions, members of the Gathering Team carried the woman to Cave No. 1, the women's quarters, to rest. The Logistics Team had already cleaned out both caves and confirmed there were no venomous insects or snakes; currently, they were gathering fallen leaves at the forest's edge to layer grass and leaves over sleeping spots.
What surprised both Yu Yuan and Ding Shi was that, up to this point, they had not heard a single person complain about the environment here.
Yu Yuan said to the Fire Team leader, "We must get a fire going today."
The Fire Team leader pulled open his shorts, revealing two bird nests tucked inside. "We're trying hard—we've even been using body heat to dry out the tinder. Chieftain, can't we find a lighter?"
Yu Yuan shook his head. "I've asked around. Nobody brought a lighter."
The core issue was that lighters were not cheap; even the shoddiest one cost five dao, while matches were three dao. The cheapest fire-starting tools were fire strikers and flint. System coal stoves, kitchens, and other facilities that required fire all came equipped with one-touch ignition, meaning that theoretically, lighters had no purpose other than lighting cigarettes.
Chapter 68