After a long while, Chen Shouyi finally let go of the Shell Lady, who was flustered as if drunk from the praise.
He stood up and stretched lazily.
Suddenly his body stiffened, and his pupils constricted sharply.
On the distant sea, without anyone noticing, a canoe appeared, with two Barbarians paddling it, seemingly coming this way.
"Barbarians!"
He snapped out of it, his body shivering, and quickly lowered himself.
Since his body was modified once, his eyesight had significantly improved. Although the canoe was more than a kilometer away, he could still discern it clearly.
This canoe was quite large, Chen Shouyi estimated its diameter to be four or five meters, about ten meters long.
One could imagine how massive and towering the tree they felled must have been.
The two Barbarians on the canoe wore beast hide around their waists, with their upper bodies entirely bare. Chen Shouyi didn't see if they carried any weapons, but their bronzed, muscular frames clearly showed their strength.
His heart beat violently, and his breath was rapid; fear in his heart caused him to shiver slightly.
Since the bloody incident in the bookstore, especially hearing about the death of Zhou Shaofeng, a Senior Martial Artist, he developed a phobia of Barbarians. Even though he knew not every Barbarian could be as strong as that one, his mind subconsciously equated them.
"I can't stay here, I must report the passage."
Chen Shouyi quickly stuffed the books and other miscellanea on the ground into his briefcase, grabbed the bewildered Shell Lady, and hurried to the nearby passage entrance.
After a few steps, he returned to the underground parking lot, continuing to run wildly outside.
But gradually, he slowed down, and as he neared the parking lot entrance, he stopped.
There seemed to be a strong urge in his heart, surging straight to his brain, making his entire body surge with blood.
Could he really give up this Spatial Passage just like that?
Abandon the golden sand on the island?
Just because of the sudden appearance of two Barbarians with unknown strength?
His current physical condition had already basically reached the martial artist's standard, not far off from the Barbarians.
Moreover, perhaps their strength wasn't entirely unknown.
Chen Shouyi suddenly had a thought, looked around, quickly leaned his back against the wall, and his mind rapidly entered the Gray Mist Space. He immediately saw the two Barbarians on the canoe in the Memory Leaves.
...
Before long, he opened his eyes.
In his physical intuition, the two Barbarians were slightly stronger than him, but only so much stronger, no more than 1.5 times, far weaker than the mysterious Barbarian from the bookstore back then.
This gave him much more courage, wasn't it possible to fight if he was careful?
His heart beat violently, his face struggling. This was not just sparring; it was a battle for life and death, where if his luck was bad, he might really die, but thinking about abandoning the small island and the gold made him grit his teeth severely, and he ran swiftly towards the passage.
He planned to first see the specific situation and act accordingly.
As soon as he entered the other world, he immediately found a stick lying on the ground.
This stick was no longer the rough one he picked up at the construction site; this one was carved from a small tree here when he was bored, as hard as iron.
Although it wasn't sharpened, as long as it was fast enough, flesh wouldn't be able to block it.
He lay in the grass, looking at the canoe.
By this time, the canoe had slowly approached the small island.
After more than ten minutes, the canoe finally touched the beach and began to ground.
The two Barbarians jumped off, pulled out an arm-thick rope, waded through waist-deep water to the shore rock, and tied it to secure it, lest the canoe be washed away by the rising tide.
The two Barbarians seemed very pleased as they looked at the small island, talking non-stop, occasionally bursting into coarse laughter, and turned to retrieve a leather-like object from the canoe, quickly heading up the hill.
Chen Shouyi noticed they weren't carrying any weapons, which was undoubtedly good news for him.
But it also meant that this small island wasn't their first visit. As Barbarians living in the Barbaric Tribe era, awareness of danger in unfamiliar environments was almost essential.
If they weren't sure there was no danger here, they wouldn't be this careless.
But another doubt arose in Chen Shouyi's mind.
Why had they come here?
Looking at what appeared to be a water-storage leather bag, he thoughtfully glanced towards a small pond over a hundred meters away.
Could it be to fetch fresh water!
The more he thought, the more likely it seemed; the small pond was the only water source on the island, barely ten meters in circumference, yet incredibly deep and invisible to the bottom. For safety, Chen Shouyi usually avoided it, even if thirsty, preferring to bring bottled water.
If there was any place likeliest as their destination, it could only be the pond.
He took a deep breath, set aside the Shell Lady carelessly, then held the stick in his hand, crouching, quietly yet swiftly moving towards the pond amid the grass concealment.
Half a minute later, he crouched again.
Chen Shouyi's judgment was right; they seemed to have just come to fetch water.
The two Barbarians walked familiarly, chatting and heading towards him.
The Barbarians didn't align with human aesthetics, at least these two didn't; rugged faces, unbearably ugly.
One, slightly older, showed forehead wrinkles, with prominent yellow buck teeth, nostrils turned upwards.
The other was in his prime, but cross-eyed with a face seemingly smashed by a brick, entirely flat.
The two of them had no vigilance at all, probably not expecting that on this desolate island, someone was lurking in the bushes, ready to take their lives.
Within a few minutes, they arrived at the edge of the pond.
They immediately squatted down and began to fill their bottles with water.
At this moment, Chen Shouyi, with murder in his heart, didn't even consider letting them take water and leave. The island wasn't big; not even one square kilometer. From the top of the hill, he could see the entire island at a glance.
They might come today for water and again in a few days, possibly bringing more people. At that time, if he wasn't careful, they might spot him or sneak closer. That would be dangerous.
Either abandon this island or take out these two Barbarians to eliminate the hidden threat. He had only two choices.
"Now's the time!"
His heart pounded violently, adrenaline surged, his eyes a bit bloodshot. Suddenly his expression turned fierce, he pushed off with his feet, darting out of the hidden bushes like an arrow leaving the bowstring.
In just a few steps, he traversed more than ten meters.
The older Barbarian seemed to sense something, instinctively turning his head.
He saw a stick rapidly approaching his eyes, and the next moment, it pierced his throat swiftly. The momentum didn't stop, breaking through the neck bone and exiting from the back of his neck.
At this moment, Chen Shouyi felt no fear. The entire process was like lightning, so fast that it couldn't be covered by thunder. Only then did the other strong Barbarian react, letting out an angry roar and lunging ferociously at Chen Shouyi.
Yet Chen Shouyi felt oddly calm, not a trace of panic from his first combat experience. He swiftly withdrew the stick from the Barbarian's throat, agilely stepping back.
The Barbarian lunged into thin air, his body inevitably paused for a brief moment, not yet ready to make another move.
A standard lunge and thrust, the stick pierced through his chest like a bolt of lightning.
Without lingering at the spot, after one successful strike, he quickly withdrew and retreated.
The ample wound on his chest, as thick as a child's arm, spurted out a large amount of blood.
However, this injury wasn't enough to kill him immediately.
He roared, his voice thundering, face fierce, without even glancing at the wound, striding towards him with large steps.
But after just a few steps, his pace grew slower, finally unable to support himself, and he slowly knelt on the ground.
The entire fight was over in just a few seconds.
Of course, if it were a real battle, the two Barbarians wouldn't have been so vulnerable. On the one hand, they were unarmed; on the other, the situation occurred too suddenly, catching them completely off guard.
...
When the two Barbarians were completely dead, Chen Shouyi breathed a sigh of relief, sitting on the grass.
His hands were trembling slightly, beyond his control.
During the fight, he was entirely focused, with no distractions, only the thought of killing in his mind. But now, as he sobered up, he felt a sense of fear.
He felt as if he had been a different person just now, without a hint of hesitation, struggle, or fear. He found it hard to believe that such a violent instinct was hidden deep within him.
After all, he had no personal vendetta with these two Barbarians, only a conflict of interest.
Their presence was obstructing his path!
Perhaps it was also influenced by the propaganda. On Earth, the image of Barbarians was almost akin to demons, always associated with slaughter and bloodshed. Upon seeing them, besides the urge to flee, he only had the desire to kill them.
Slowly, he calmed down. Just two Barbarians, killed and that's that, he decided not to think too much about it.
He stood up, quickly regaining his composure.
Sometimes the panic after killing isn't from the act itself but from the consequences it brings. On this alien world island, the death of two Barbarians, or even two humans, wouldn't be noticed by anyone.
But these two corpses needed to be dealt with. Not only would they start to smell, but in case more Barbarians came, it would confuse them somewhat.
He stepped forward, lifted the bodies, and proceeded towards the mountain with heavy steps.
The stranded canoe was still tied up in its original place.
He waded through the seawater, placing the bodies onto the canoe.
The canoe was quite spacious, and if squeezed, it could comfortably seat over ten people.
On it, he found dozens of large and small sea fish, a rough fishing net, two paddles, several pieces of blackened food that looked like yams, and two long spears.
Looking at the over three meters long, sharp-ended and peculiar long spears, Chen Shouyi felt a burst of gratitude. If these two Barbarians had been armed, the fight might not have been this easy.
He made two trips, carrying all the bodies onto the canoe.
Then he untied the rope, and as the tide rose, he mustered all his strength to push the canoe forcefully into the sea.
He was aware that the canoe and the bodies on it still posed a risk.
But the canoe was too large and too heavy to completely dispose of the bodies, and leaving it would be even more dangerous.
Watching the canoe gradually drift further away.
He silently prayed, hoping this event had come to an end, and that both sides would remain undisturbed.
...
After watching for a long time, he exhaled deeply, carrying the two long spears in his hand, and turned to walk back.
When he reached the vicinity of his passage, the place where he had been staying, he discovered that the Shell Lady was gone.
He broke into a cold sweat.
Earlier, filled with excitement and focused, as he rushed to the pond to ambush, he hadn't bothered to retie the Shell Lady, leaving her casually tossed aside.
Now she had obviously taken the opportunity to escape.
ps: Asking for recommendations!