From Robinson Crusoe

Faced with hard, sharp metal, the woolly rhinoceros's proud defensive capabilities became meaningless.

Its bulky body revealed its shortcomings at this moment.

The slender, tiny, strange, and fearless creature roamed around it, attacking it little by little with claws and teeth of unknown shape.

Pain cannot awaken the woolly rhinoceros's reason.

After all, compared to mammoths, the threat posed by humans is still too small.

In this era, Homo sapiens had not yet truly risen to prominence, but their roars and rain-like spears cast a shadow of fear into the hearts of prehistoric behemoths.

A dulled sense of pain and a savage temperament are powerful weapons against wild beasts.

However, when facing Chen Zhou, this "weapon" became the Grim Reaper's scythe.

The bloodshot in the woolly rhinoceros's eyes only completely disappeared when it lost too much blood, the tendons of its forehooves and two hind legs were severed, and it could no longer stand up and could only collapse to the ground.

The burning anger was extinguished in an instant, replaced by fear, a genuine dread of this tiny creature.

Female woolly rhinoceroses can sense the call of death. On the grasslands, this happens all the time, but it rarely happens to animals that are almost at the top of the food chain.

Knowing it couldn't escape, it widened its little eyes and let out a low, guttural cry.

The sound was not a desperate roar, nor a dying cry, but a warning, a warning to its immature child: run, run as far away as possible.

And today's scene will be forever etched into the little woolly rhinoceros's memory.

If it could have offspring, its offspring might heed the admonitions of its elders and pass on the reverence for humanity from generation to generation.

……

Upon hearing its mother's call, the baby woolly rhinoceros, still standing there in a daze, paused for a moment, then kept looking in the direction of the female woolly rhinoceros.

Baby rhinos reach adulthood at around three years old, and they are born after a gestation period of up to 18 months with the female rhinoceros.

Before reaching adulthood, calves stay with their mothers and only leave when they are able to live independently.

Despite its enormous size, this woolly rhinoceros is still just an infant less than two years old in the 50-year lifespan of a rhinoceros, instinctively dependent on its mother.

Seemingly ignoring the heavy hoofbeats of the baby woolly rhinoceros, the female woolly rhinoceros let out a second roar with all her might.

The little woolly rhinoceros seemed to wake from a dream, and with its still somewhat immature hooves, it ran in the opposite direction, crossed the mound, and gradually disappeared from Chen Zhou's sight.

Watching the little woolly rhinoceros grow smaller and smaller in the distance, Chen Zhou wiped his knife with the hair from the rhinoceros's high front shoulders, then found the right spot and gave the behemoth a quick death.

The stench of blood that permeated the grassland was like a silent call, summoning the three-headed saw-toothed tiger back.

It was the first time the little ones had come into close contact with such a large prey, and they all showed curiosity and fear.

Although the diet of the sawtooth tiger includes mammoths, those were mostly mammoth cubs less than six months old or very old mammoths that would fall down on their own without needing to be attacked.

A woolly rhinoceros in its prime and strong enough is something even a group of sawtooth tigers at their peak wouldn't dare to easily provoke.

To the little ones, this still-warm creature, constantly emitting the smell of blood, was both strange and tempting.

They circled around the woolly rhinoceros that had been bled, and the bravest of them, Tiger Two, would occasionally leap forward and try to scratch the woolly rhinoceros's fur with his claws.

As if worried that the creature might suddenly attack, it tested the waters and then immediately turned around and ran away, repeating the process once more.

Looking at his unusually crazy younger brother, Tiger Big Brother stood there helplessly, awkwardly opened his mouth wide and yawned, revealing his canine teeth that had grown much longer than his other teeth.

This "mature" composure did not last long.

Since they were all still children, it wasn't long before Tiger Big Brother and Tiger Third Brother joined this special game.

Chen Zhou was starting a fire, but had not yet opened the woolly rhinoceros's chest cavity.

The little ones explored for a while and gradually discovered the "safest" spot—

The anus of a female woolly rhinoceros.

It's unclear who was the first to discover it.

In short, the two little tiger cubs, the eldest and the second, had a clear division of labor. The eldest tiger cub was responsible for carrying the woolly rhinoceros's thick tail, while the second tiger cub took on the role of "vanguard," directly attacking the woolly rhinoceros's rear end, grabbing and biting.

Tiger Cub opened his mouth slightly, staring in astonishment at his two older brothers who were busy at work. He quietly circled around and walked to the neck of the woolly rhinoceros, carefully licking the blood that had flowed all over the ground, savoring its salty and fragrant taste.

Not long after, Chen Zhou, who had just started a fire, smelled a slightly sour odor of herbivore feces.

When he turned his head, he found that Tiger Two was covered in fresh woolly rhinoceros dung from head to toe, and his straw-yellow fur had turned completely yellowish-brown.

Seeing the "leader" looking at him, Tiger Two grinned smugly, revealing his tongue, which was covered with a layer of chopped grass and a few rhinoceros hairs, seemingly quite proud of his bravery.

"Holy crap, why are you eating shit?"

Hey!
Having been hungry for almost a day, Tiger Two was extremely excited to finally have a "hot" meal. Upon hearing Chen Zhou's voice, he jumped and skipped over.

Chen Zhou, who had not felt any fear when facing the woolly rhinoceros with a single sword, changed his expression when he saw Hu Erwa pouncing on him.

"Get the fuck away from me."

Hurriedly getting up from the burning campfire and running elsewhere, Chen Zhou sternly demanded that Hu Erwa stop.

He breathed a sigh of relief when Tiger Two stood bewildered in front of the campfire, then nervously looked at Tiger One and Tiger Three.

Fortunately, these two guys didn't have the same quirks as the second-best African guy.

Tiger Boy hesitated for a long time but still preferred to go hungry rather than think about eating excrement.

Since recovering from its serious injuries, Tiger Cub Three has become much more cunning. During daily hunts, Chen Zhou could clearly sense that it was much smarter than its two older brothers, and its performance this time was no exception, satisfying Chen Zhou.

Not only did he not participate in the anal-cleansing operation, he also secretly licked a lot of rhinoceros blood.

When Chen Zhou looked at Tiger Cub, its face was already covered with a lot of congealed blood, and it smelled foul.

But even the strongest smell of blood is better than the stench of feces.

With a look of disgust, Chen Zhou grabbed a handful of dry grass stalks and pushed Tiger Two to the side. After scanning the surroundings and finding no water source, he could only grab Tiger Two's short, thick tail, which resembled a hairy club, and forcibly drag it to the snowdrift.

"Behave yourself and stay here!"

After giving a reprimand, Chen Zhou hurriedly cut off a small piece of fur from the woolly rhinoceros, then used the fur as a pad, grabbed a clump of snow, and rubbed it all over Tiger Two's face.

Fortunately, the sawtooth tiger has grown thick fur with excellent water-repellent properties to cope with the cold winter. The feces all stick to the surface of the fur and do not penetrate into the roots of the fur. They can be easily rubbed off.

However, snow water is not dish soap, and even after wiping the feces off Tiger Two's fur, the fur on its entire face still appeared a darker color.

As for the strong smell of rhinoceros dung, it won't go away anytime soon.

Even after managing to clean Tiger Two up, my keen sense of smell could still detect the pungent odor emanating from him.

Looking at the little guy sitting on the ground, still unaware of what he had done wrong and looking aggrieved, Chen Zhou didn't know whether to scold him or comfort him.

"Sigh, it's come to this now, let's eat first..." Picking up his long knife, trying not to think about Tiger Two eating excrement, Chen Zhou walked to the woolly rhinoceros corpse.

……

After winter sets in, snowfall is common, and clear weather seems rather unusual.

After a long day of bright sunshine, the cold wind finally swept across the entire grassland again.

Five days later, Chen Zhou returned to the Baihar Mountains with the three sawtooth tigers.

Standing at the foot of the mountain, gazing at the primeval forest covered in snow, and turning to look at the three saw-toothed tigers behind him, a rare smile appeared on his face, which was red and stiff from the wind and snow.

"Finally home."

Calling the little ones to follow him up the mountain, Chen Zhou relaxed as he stepped onto the frozen soil.

Traveling far away in the cold winter can be very stressful.

Especially when the journey was so long that it would take more than ten days to travel back and forth, he was always worried about encountering a blizzard. If he were trapped in the blizzard, even if he could ensure his own safety, the three-headed sawtooth tiger might not survive.

Fortunately, a blizzard as sudden as that day is a very rare phenomenon. Although he encountered snowfall on his return journey, he did not lose his way due to the blizzard, nor did he face the risk of freezing to death again.

Although the return journey was slow, Chen Zhou did not regret not taking the two giant deer from Bi Kai back then.

Firstly, Bi Kai was completely exhausted after teaching him martial arts, and he could not continue teaching him the art of animal taming before he woke up.

Without the method of taming animals, the stags wouldn't listen to him. Even if he forcibly captured one, he would probably have to spend all his energy watching over it, which would be a complete waste of his time.

Secondly, for him, the giant deer could only be used as a pack animal or a means of transportation, not as a mount.

His weight meant that, apart from giant beasts weighing tons like mammoths or woolly rhinoceroses, ordinary animals simply could not serve as his means of transportation.

With over 300 pounds of weight pressing down on its body, even if the giant deer could bear it for a moment, it wouldn't last long, let alone run.

Riding a deer might not be as fast as leading it, so in Chen Zhou's mind, the greatest use of the stag was actually to help Paul keep up with his pace and to carry supplies.

Besides these two points, there is actually a third point—

Chen Zhou has made a promise at Gao Yao's grave that he will take his family heirloom bow back to be buried with Gao Yao.

A true man's word is his bond.

Let alone that this was not a big deal for Chen Zhou, even if it was a difficult task, once the words were spoken, Chen Zhou would have to complete it even if it meant risking his life.

Just like the promise he had made to the natives on the deserted island—

"Anyone who puts in the effort should receive the reward they deserve."
Any brave warrior will be rewarded and promised…

Chen Zhou never easily agrees to anything or makes a promise. He also doesn't easily cross his own bottom line or break his promises unless the other party proves that he doesn't deserve all of this.

As the weather grew colder, Chen Zhou planned to go home for a short rest, hand over the salt stone to Paul, and have him perform simple refining and filtration to remove impurities. He would then set off immediately to take the bow with him.

In addition, he also planned to bring Bi Kai an antidote.

Regenerative agents can heal injured organs in organisms and even regenerate severed limbs, which has been proven.

However, whether it can eradicate toxins accumulated in the body remains to be seen.

Since the precious regeneration medicine had already been used on Bi Kai, Chen Zhou decided to go all the way and give him the antidote as well.

Moreover, when he returned to the rock salt mining site, he had another question for Bi Kai—

Herbs.

For many years, Chen Zhou has been frustrated by the lack of opportunity to study practical medicine in detail, especially the more primitive aspects, which are closely related to traditional Chinese medicine.

Modern medicine relies on various advanced instruments, hormones, and extracts to treat diseases, which are fast-acting and have significant effects.

However, in most of the environments he was in, there were no medical devices, no finished drugs, and he didn't even recognize many plants.

Under these circumstances, it was very helpful for Chen Zhou to fundamentally understand the "pharmacology" and treatment methods mentioned in traditional medicine.

However, it is difficult to learn modern Chinese medicine, and veteran Chinese medicine practitioners with a lineage are often unwilling to easily teach their medical skills to outsiders.

Not to mention that before learning, one has to spend a lot of time distinguishing which old doctor has real skills and which is a fraud.

Meeting Bi Kai, a person from ancient times, perhaps even from the world of martial arts, is undoubtedly a pleasant surprise for Chen Zhou.

Although Bi Kai lamented his lack of medical skills when recounting the incident, he was frustrated that he couldn't save Gao Yao.

However, just from the fact that he tasted hundreds of herbs for dozens of days without poisoning himself, Chen Zhou could tell that Bi Kai did indeed have some real talent and learning.

Prehistoric plants are very different from modern plants. Daring to try them is not a skill; the real skill is surviving them.

Although Bi Kai modestly said that his medical skills were not high, Chen Zhou thought they were practical enough.

His physical condition was much better than Bi Kai's, and his resistance to poison was also much stronger than that of ordinary people. Chen Zhou thought that if he learned this medical skill, he might be able to save his life by tasting herbs to identify their medicinal properties if he encountered a similar unfamiliar environment in the future.

At the same time, Chen Zhou felt that Bi Kai's tasting of herbs must have some underlying logic, such as "mutual generation and mutual restraint".

Otherwise, if you try it blindly, even the toughest person would have been poisoned long ago.

Besides learning medical skills, Chen Zhou can also gain another benefit from returning to Bi Kai's place, namely the pharmacology that Bi Kai has already verified through his own experiments.

Based on Bi Kai's accumulated knowledge, Chen Zhou was able to save a lot of time and directly learn about and recognize many herbs.

Whether these plants are toxic, cold or warm in nature, and which diseases they can be used to treat, were all personally tested by Bi Kai and are very reliable.

I've already learned spear and knife skills from Bi Kai, and I still have a lot to learn when I go back this time.

Although Bi Kai called him his benefactor, Chen Zhou could not comfortably place himself in a superior position.

The antidote that was to be brought to Bi Kai was, in another sense, also a form of tuition fee or gift money for his "mentor".

……

With his mind set on getting back to Bi Kai's place as soon as possible, Chen Zhou kept looking in the direction of the shelter as he walked up the mountain, hoping to see smoke rising from the chimneys.

However, it didn't seem to be mealtime yet, so Paul didn't start cooking.

The campfire at the entrance of the shelter was designed to be smokeless, so that no smoke could be seen from a distance.

The three-headed sawtooth tiger followed behind Chen Zhou.

The little ones were very excited to be back home, especially Tiger Two, who kept trying to get close to Chen Zhou unintentionally, forcing Chen Zhou to repeatedly push him away with his scabbard.

The smell of woolly rhinoceros dung doesn't dissipate easily and still lingers on Tiger Two.

Chen Zhou knew that Paul had always liked the lively Tiger Two.

Now he was actually looking forward to seeing Paul's reaction when he saw "Good Second Brother" return, hug Tiger Second Brother, and smell its stench. (End of Chapter)