Starting from Robinson Crusoe-Chapter 73 - 26: Cave_3

Completely baffled, Chen Zhou could only attribute the cause of this failure to his poor marksmanship, thinking that if he were a sharpshooter, he could have easily blown off their furry heads with one shot and enjoyed some mutton by now.

"I’ll practice shooting and crossbow tonight!"

Annoyed, he slapped the tree beside him, as if blaming it for not being thick enough, exposing him. Suddenly, Chen Zhou noticed that this kind of tree seemed to be a species he had never seen before.

Its bark was dark brown, straight and tall, its appearance unremarkable, with no branches at the base. The canopy was dense, looking like a stout American man.

Taking down the Hand Axe, Chen Zhou tried to chop it,

Only to find this tree incredibly hard; the roughly made axe barely broke through the bark and then couldn’t go any further.

Peeling off the dark brown bark, Chen Zhou discovered that the wood of this tree was actually black, with a dense structure almost impenetrable to the eye, like a piece of cast iron.

"Could this be the real ironwood?"

Silently comparing this tree’s hardness to that of a pineapple tree, Chen Zhou became increasingly convinced that his guess was correct. He then raised the axe, determined to chop down this tree about the size of his waist.

Clang clang clang, the sound of the axe blade striking the tree was crisp, like metal hitting iron.

After dozens of forceful chops, Chen Zhou found the axe becoming increasingly blunt, and in the final attempts, it had no effect.

Upon examining the axe blade, he found it completely flattened, not even the sharp angle could be found.

Spit!

Spitting on the ground, Chen Zhou took out a second axe from his waist and continued chopping.

The sun moved from east to west, a dark cloud drifted over the distant sea, and the weather turned gloomy, as if it was about to rain.

The tree was barely one-third chopped through, and the second Hand Axe was also dulled. Without other tools on hand, Chen Zhou had no hope of cutting down this tree.

Looking at the sky, he planned to continue exploring while the rain hadn’t started, to get a better understanding of the terrain around the mountainside and come back tomorrow with a good axe and a small saw to cut down the remaining part.

There was a flat piece of land further east on the sunny side where a flock of sheep had once stayed.

Since there were no trees, everything in view was clear. A slightly higher walk towards the mountaintop, over the ridge, could allow a peek at another beach facing the sea.

If the landing position on the island wasn’t much different, that beach might be where the natives held their cannibal feasts.

Knowing he would return here tomorrow, Chen Zhou didn’t head east but turned towards the shaded area.

Just crossing the line divided by sunlight felt like passing through a world’s barrier; everything was starkly different.

The shaded slope’s land was covered with many low-growing plants that thrived in cool, damp conditions, while a thin mist hung over the mountaintop. Although the trees were shorter, they were much denser.

Looking upwards, the mountain was steep, with smooth rock faces of three to five meters high everywhere.

The lower part of the mountain was formed of yellow soil mixed with gravel. Chen Zhou tried grabbing it and felt it was very sturdy, difficult to move.

Moving forward, he saw, from a distance, an opening on a vertical rock face just over a person’s height, dark like the eye of some wild beast.

Afraid the cave was a predator’s den, Chen Zhou prepared his crossbow and Lead Bullet in advance, carefully observing the surrounding area of the cave entrance.

There was no animal feces on the ground, no unusual footprints, and no traces that indicated snake crawling.

Slightly reassured, Chen Zhou squinted into the cave, finding the interior narrow and empty, with no hidden corners to avoid, so he ventured inside.

The cave’s entrance was large, the cave itself was small.

There were no stalactite columns or passageways leading elsewhere; it was a simple round space, roughly estimated to be about a few dozen square meters.

Circumventing the area, Chen Zhou discovered that most of the cave walls were solid rock, with only a small section around the entrance being gravel.

The temperature inside the cave was slightly cooler than outside but not damp. The ground was dry, with no moisture in the soil at all.

If he could install a door at the cave entrance, it could serve as a temporary shelter, also storing food that is sensitive to heat and supplies that are afraid of moisture—at least it wouldn’t rain in here.

However, in Chen Zhou’s mind, the biggest advantage of this cave was expanding it into a permanent residence.

Yet, lacking suitable digging tools, even if he made wooden picks and shovels, he couldn’t cut through the rock walls of the cave to fully utilize this place.

Having finally found such a geomantic treasure land, Chen Zhou was truly unwilling to just use it as a temporary Shelter. He inspected the cave walls thoroughly, focusing on the small gravel structure, trying to find a flaw that could be exploited for digging.

Outside, rain started quietly pouring down.

The slanting wind blew, the rain striking the protruding rocks at the cave entrance, converging into streams that only flowed downhill, not wetting an inch of the cave’s inner land.

Squatting, holding a Hand Axe, Chen Zhou tapped here and pried there.

Ultimately, he reluctantly discovered that to expand this cave, either he would need to slowly grind away with iron tools or directly use black gunpowder for blasting.

Relying on wooden picks, unless he could live to be two hundred and eighty years old.

"What a pity, what a pity."

Sitting on the ground, looking at the bead curtain-like fine rain, Chen Zhou sighed.

In nature, there’s rarely something perfect; he had long been mentally prepared for this.

It’s just that falling from hope inevitably brought a bit of disappointment.

Woo woo~

Sensing his master’s low spirits, Lai Fu gently licked Chen Zhou’s hand supporting the ground, obediently sitting beside him, wagging its tail.

Staying honestly in the cave to shelter from the rain, Chen Zhou unknowingly fell asleep.

When he woke up, the rain had stopped and the clouds dispersed. Standing on the mountainside looking into the distance, the sky was filled with a red glow, as if he was at the Eight Hundred-Mile Flame Mountain.