Chapter 34: A New Understanding

That lethal strike seemed to drain him of all his strength. Yet, Zhou Xu knew he absolutely could not collapse here.

In the midst of this, as if struck by a sudden thought, he suppressed the wave of nausea that followed the killing and activated his "Eye of Insight" once more.

[It is just as I thought.]

Under the observation of his Eye of Insight, a faint, blackish-gray glow emanated from the chest of the enemy leader’s corpse.

[This is his True Word!]

Having gained experience from before, Zhou Xu reached out directly toward that glimmer. In that moment, the blackish-gray light seemed to be drawn by some force; it transformed into a stream of energy and surged into his body.

As the energy flooded in, Zhou Xu felt a string of strange characters begin to surface in his mind. The sensation was identical to the previous time, and it made it clear to him exactly what he had obtained.

Listening to the system prompt in his mind, he did not hesitate. The next second, his lips parted slightly...

[Skeleton Control!]

Instantly, the invisible power of the True Word spread rapidly from Zhou Xu as the center. The skeletons that had fallen all over the battlefield following the enemy leader's death rose up one after another with a rhythmic "clatter, clatter."

The reanimated skeleton soldiers did not hesitate; following Zhou Xu's will, they lunged straight at the members of the enemy tribe.

"W-what is going on? Why are the skeletons attacking us?!"

The situation on the battlefield was chaotic, and some members of the enemy tribe had not even realized their leader was dead. Being suddenly attacked by the skeletons left them in a state of panic.

With the enemy ranks in total disarray, Dashan seized the opportunity to unleash his prowess once more. At the same time, freed from the entanglement of the enemy skeletons, Feique immediately led the rear forces to provide support.

A single wave of counterattacks crushed the opposition.

Spotting an opening, Zhou Xu shouted at the top of his lungs...

"Your leader is dead! If you don't want to die, drop your weapons and kneel in surrender immediately!!!"

There was no need for more words. Following Zhou Xu’s shout, Feique and the others added their own voices to the counterattack...

"Drop your weapons! Kneel and surrender!!"
"Drop your weapons! Kneel and surrender!!"
"..."

With their leader dead and the skeletons turning against them, the enemy’s ranks were already in chaos, their morale shattered. Now, the deafening, unified roar of the Salt Lake Tribe members completely destroyed their already precarious resolve.

It is unclear who started it, but they began to drop their weapons, falling to their knees and begging for their lives.

***

From that moment on, the battle rapidly drew to a close.

Without needing further instruction from Zhou Xu, Feique and the others skillfully used tree-bark ropes to bind the captured enemy tribesmen, preparing to move them to the mine cave in the center of the Black Forest for confinement.

Clearly, Zhou Xu did not dare to bring these prisoners directly into their tribe’s camp; if something were to go wrong, it would be dangerous. Therefore, he decided to use the mine cave as a temporary stronghold for now.

"Leader, how should we handle these guys?"

On the way to the mine cave, Feique lagged behind and asked Zhou Xu in a low voice. In this primitive world, tribes annexing one another was not unheard of—in fact, it was quite common. However, considering the extreme scarcity of resources in this region, and the fact that their own food supply was not abundant, rashly absorbing a new population would likely be a burden.

Everything Feique could think of, Zhou Xu had already considered.

For their Salt Lake Tribe, the problems of "lack of food resources" and "lack of manpower" were currently threatening to form a vicious cycle. To break this cycle, this group of captives might just be the breakthrough they needed.

"Let’s get to the mine cave first. We’ll interrogate these guys before deciding."

Although Feique did not know what "interrogate" meant, he could generally understand what his leader intended to express.

The distance was not far, and after escorting the captives, the group soon arrived at the mine cave.

Once there, Zhou Xu found a stone and sat down, looking at the group of captives with their heads hanging low.

"Who is in charge here? Someone speak up."

Facing this question, the captives glanced at each other, and their gazes fell upon one particular man. Following their lead, Zhou Xu’s gaze naturally fell upon him as well.

He was a man with a square face and a full, bushy beard.

Seeing the situation, the man did not dally and stepped forward.

"What is your name?"
"Dashi."

Upon receiving this answer, Zhou Xu did not hesitate and cast his "Eye of Insight" on him. The next second, the man's panel unfolded before his eyes.

Name: Dashi
Gender: Male
Age: 20
Race: Human
Status: Hungry, Exhausted, Lightly Injured
True Word: None
Talent: Steady Advance: Moving step by step, never being rash—this is the absolute rule for survival in chaotic warfare!
Valor: ★★☆
Intelligence: ★★☆
Spirit: ★★☆☆
Stamina: ★★☆
Leadership: ★★☆☆

Dashi’s panel made Zhou Xu’s eyes light up.

With four stars split between Spirit and Leadership, this was undoubtedly another "Purple Epic" quality find. Of course, looking at the five dimensions alone, Dashi was actually inferior to Feique; Feique’s potential had one more star in Stamina.

But the key point of this catch was undoubtedly the talent.

A good panel must be complemented by a good talent. By Zhou Xu's own understanding, Feique’s "Master of Execution" was a typical general-purpose talent, useful in many fields but lacking a sense of "specialization."

Dashi’s "Steady Advance," however, was different; it was a very clear-cut leadership talent. Considering long-term development, he undoubtedly needed such a talent for commanding troops.

The appearance of Dashi brought Zhou Xu a pleasant surprise, as he hadn't even noticed the man’s existence before.

This also gave him a new realization regarding his "Eye of Insight": to view someone's panel, he had to see the person as a whole. Only by successfully "observing" the individual in their entirety could he potentially access their panel.

That’s right—only *potentially*!

During the previous battle, even though he had successfully observed the enemy leader, he had been unable to open the leader's panel.

Zhou Xu guessed that there might be some kind of "level" restriction. Perhaps his "Eye of Insight" could only open panels of those with a lower "level" than himself. Since he and the enemy leader had both mastered a True Word, their overall strength might have been at the same level, preventing his "Eye of Insight" from analyzing him.

At the same time, it was precisely through this that he had accidentally locked onto the leader's identity!