Chapter 60: Unexpected Discovery

They temporarily retreated to the salt lake camp to rest. During the transport, Black Wolf’s face turned pale as he slowly regained consciousness.

As their gazes met, feeling the strange look in Black Wolf’s eyes, Zhou Xu spoke calmly...

"It was Chongshan who spared your life."

Hearing this, Black Wolf’s mouth twitched weakly, and then his distinctly hoarse and feeble voice rang out.

"That Chongshan you speak of, do you mean Dashan?"

"That's right."

Although he was a primitive man, based on Zhou Xu’s several addresses to Zhou Chongshan during the battle, Black Wolf had managed to make a corresponding deduction.

"Chongshan said you are useful to the tribe. As long as you hand over your True Word and submit to me, your life will be spared."

Without wasting any breath, Zhou Xu laid this multiple-choice question directly before Black Wolf.

"Choose. Submit, or die! If you choose to die, we can save ourselves some effort and won't have to carry you back."

"..."

Zhou Xu wore a deadpan, serious expression as he said this, as if he were genuinely agonizing over the physical effort of the trip and wanted to spare himself the trouble. It left Black Wolf momentarily at a loss for words.

However, after calming down slightly, this choice was not actually a difficult one for Black Wolf to make.

"I choose to submit."

The moment he said this, a ball of light slowly surfaced from within Black Wolf’s body, completely detaching itself and floating into the air.

Seeing this, Zhou Xu beckoned with his hand, drawing the True Word sphere of light toward him. Then, closing his palm, the power of the True Word surged into his body through his hand.

System Prompt: Congratulations to 'Zhou Xu' for acquiring the True Word 'Speed Enhancement'.

Zhou Xu had long guessed what Black Wolf’s True Word might be, and his prediction had been pretty much spot-on.

Even so, now that the acquisition was confirmed, a wave of joy still washed over him.

Because to him, this was far more than simply gaining a True Word. Among these True Word characters, the word 'Enhancement' was profoundly useful to him.

Throughout this process, watching Zhou Xu successfully absorb the True Word, Black Wolf didn't harbor any resentful thoughts, nor did he fear that the other party was tricking him out of his True Word.

Because such an action was inherently meaningless.

If they killed him, the other party would still obtain the True Word anyway; there was no need for deception.

"Are there any survivors left from your tribe? Where are you camped?"

"Yes, we are..."

Without hesitation, Black Wolf directly revealed the location of their temporary camp.

Not wasting any more time, Zhou Xu directly instructed Shi Lei to take a few men and incorporate them.

Once Shi Lei and the others departed, Zhou Xu’s gaze fell back upon Black Wolf.

At the moment, he was in no rush to check Black Wolf’s attribute panel because he was simply too exhausted.

During the previous battle, Black Wolf had only been using one True Word at high intensity, but Zhou Xu was different—he had used two! In terms of True Word energy consumption, he undoubtedly far exceeded Black Wolf.

After a grueling fight like that, Zhou Xu felt that he had consumed at least seventy percent of the True Word energy within his body. Because of this massive depletion, his head felt somewhat dizzy and heavy.

Now that Black Wolf and his people had fallen into his hands and their True Word had been secured, Zhou Xu naturally wasn't in a hurry.

Once he rested for a few days and recovered some of his strength, he could examine all of their panels at his leisure.

What interested him more right now was why this tribe, which had attacked Zhou Chongshan and his men previously, had now relocated all the way over here.

According to Zhou Chongshan, after being attacked, they had fled a considerable distance to shake off their pursuers—a location so distant that a normal tribe would never, and practically could not, pursue them.

After all, the risks of long-distance pursuit were simply too high.

That was why they had felt relatively secure settling down and setting up camp in the Black Forest back then.

Yet now, Black Wolf and his people, who had no business being here, had suddenly turned up in the vicinity. This development was quite thought-provoking.

Faced with this question, Black Wolf didn't hold anything back and frankly stated...

"Later on, we were also attacked by another tribe. We couldn't defeat them, so we chose to run."

The rest went without saying.

In this era, migrating with an entire tribe was an extremely perilous endeavor. Primitive people who lacked the means to store food long-term or carry fresh water possessed zero capability for long-distance migration and were highly likely to perish completely along the way.

Conversely, if danger struck and staying meant certain death, quite a few primitive people would still be willing to take a gamble.

Take Zhou Chongshan’s group previously, or Black Wolf’s group right now, for example.

The fate that befell Black Wolf and his people carried a hint of poetic justice, but upon closer reflection, such occurrences were entirely normal in this era.

Once two tribes appeared in the same region, conflicts were bound to erupt, whether for the sake of assimilation or to seize limited survival resources.

There was no concept of right or wrong; this was simply the essence of this era.

After understanding the reason behind Black Wolf’s presence here, Zhou Xu couldn't help but ask the question he had posed earlier.

"Are you really not a time traveler?"

"..."

Black Wolf’s face was filled with utter bewilderment, clearly having no idea what a 'time traveler' was.

In response, Zhou Xu simply changed his phrasing.

"A Chosen of the Gods."

Hearing this term finally elicited a reaction from Black Wolf.

"A Chosen of the Gods? Isn't that just a legend?"

"..."

[It seems not everyone believes that the Chosen of the Gods are real. In fact, Chongshan and the others probably thought the same way at first. It’s just that they were completely out of options and happened to discover the altar, so they tried it out with a nothing-to-lose, dead-horse-as-a-live-horse mindset...]

Having confirmed that Black Wolf was indeed not a time traveler, Zhou Xu didn't dwell on the topic any longer and skipped straight to the next one.

"My subordinates told me earlier that your people seemed to have seen slings before?"

As he spoke, Zhou Xu retrieved a sling and waved it in front of Black Wolf.

Had Black Wolf’s group not known how to counter sling attacks, Shi Lei and his men could have used ranged attacks during the battle to diminish the enemy's forces to some extent, and the fight wouldn't have been nearly as difficult.

"Yes."

Glancing at the sling in Zhou Xu’s hand, Black Wolf nodded weakly.

"That thing... the bastards who attacked our tribe before had it too."

[I see.]

Understanding dawned in Zhou Xu’s mind upon hearing this.

[The possibility that their tribe had a time traveler cannot be ruled out. However... slings are essentially Stone Age tools anyway, so it wouldn't be strange for other primitive people to have invented them. I can't jump to conclusions just yet.]

Amidst their questions and answers, the group successfully arrived at the salt lake camp.