“No, I’m still too weak!”
This thought was like a thorn buried deep in Lin Xi’s heart. The feeling of powerlessness during her confrontation with the wolf pack—that life-on-the-line terror of having to rely entirely on outside help for rescue—had kept her awake all night.
At dawn, the torrential rain finally ceased. Sunlight pierced through the clouds, draping a golden radiance over the freshly washed mountain forest. The waterfall at the cave entrance had dwindled into a trickling stream, its gurgling sound crisp and pleasant.
But Lin Xi was in no mood to admire the scenery.
She sat by the embers of the fire, holding that sharp-edged piece of flint in her hand, her expression incredibly solemn.
This stone could strike sparks and cut through vines, but it was too small and too thin. It was impossible to grip firmly, let alone use for precision cutting or forceful chopping. She had been helpless even against the death throes of a single rabbit, let alone using it to fight off a wolf.
She needed a knife! A real, sharp knife that belonged to her and could be held firmly in her hand.
She also needed a container—a basket she could use to gather fruit and hold her belongings. She couldn’t keep carrying things in her cupped hands or bundling them in her tattered clothes forever.
To do a good job, one must first sharpen one’s tools. Having spent over a decade in her past life tightening screws in a factory, she understood this truth better than anyone.
No sooner said than done!
First, she took a few sips of the Spiritual Spring water to restore her spirit and physical strength to their peak state. Then, she scoured the entire cave and the surrounding area to begin searching for suitable materials.
Her goal was clear: she needed a stone with a hard texture and moderate size—ideally with one naturally flat side—to serve as an “anvil.” She also needed another piece of stone that was just as hard but shaped more suitably to be ground into a blade.
This was no easy task. There were countless stones in the mountains, but most were ordinary sandstone or granite—either too soft or too coarse-grained.
She tapped into her enhanced “Beast-Taming“ ability, broadcasting her needs to the surrounding animals.
『I need stones. Very, very hard stones. Hard like flint!』
Soon, a pangolin that spent its years burrowing underground (a rare sight in the northern forests of this era, but Lin Xi’s ability allowed her to sense this unique presence) emerged from a hidden inside the cave, a faint thought was transmitted to her.
『…Underground… riverbed… black… smooth…』
An underground riverbed!
Lin Xi’s eyes lit up. She immediately followed the direction pointed out by the pangolin. In an area where the rain had caused a landslide, she indeed discovered the traces of an underground watercourse that had long since dried up. In the silt at the bottom of the channel, she found several black pebbles that had been washed by currents for thousands of years, becoming exceptionally rounded and smooth.
She picked up two of them and struck them together forcefully.
Clang!
A crisp sound of stone hitting metal rang out, even sparking a tiny flame!
This is it! Obsidian! Although the purity wasn’t high, the hardness was definitely sufficient!
Excitedly, she selected a flat, palm-sized piece to serve as her “blade blank” and found a larger, flatter stone to act as a “whetstone.” Clutching these heavy treasures, she returned to the cave.
Next came the most difficult and patience-testing part: the grinding process.
Recalling what she had seen on the Discovery Channel in her previous life, she first used a sharp stone to carefully tap the “blade blank.” She utilized the natural cleavage of the rock to flake off pieces and chip out a rough shape.
“Bang! Bang! Crack!”
Too little force, and nothing happened. Too much force, and the stone snapped right down the middle, rendering her efforts useless.
After ruining three stone blanks in a row, Lin Xi finally began to master the trick. Her arms were numb from the vibrations, and bloody blisters had rubbed raw on the crooks of her thumbs, but she simply gritted her teeth, popped the blisters, and continued.
Finally, a crude stone knife prototype with a rough edge and a simple handle appeared in her hand.
This was only the first step.
She placed the large, flat whetstone on the ground, scooped some fresh water from the spiritual spring, and poured it over the surface. Then, gripping the prototype knife with both hands, she pressed the edge against the whetstone at a fixed angle and began to push and pull, stroke after stroke.
“Shhh… shhh… shhh…”
the monotonous, dry sound of friction echoed through the quiet cave.
This was an incredibly grueling process. Without modern tools, she had to rely entirely on her two hands and endless patience.
Minutes and seconds ticked by.
When the firewood in the hearth burned out, she added more. When her stomach growled, she took a few sips of the spirit spring water and gnawed on a piece of half-cooked roasted rabbit meat. When her hands became blistered and raw, she plucked a few violet leaves, chewed them into a pulp, and applied them as a poultice. Once the pain subsided slightly, she continued grinding.
Huzi lay quietly to the side, watching his little master. He didn’t understand what she was doing, but he could sense the focused and tenacious aura radiating from her, which made him feel incredibly at ease.
It was hard to say how much time had passed—perhaps a day, perhaps two.
When Lin Xi finally straightened her stiff, aching back, a brand-new “weapon” had been born before her.
It was a stone knife, about fifteen centimeters long. The blade body was an irregular black, but under the reflection of the firelight, the edge—which she had tempered with spirit spring water and countless rounds of grinding—shimmered with a cold, sharp luster. She found some tough vines and wrapped them tightly around the handle; this not only provided a non-slip grip but also prevented the rough stone from chafing her hands.
Gripping this stone knife—a tool that belonged entirely to her and embodied her blood, sweat, and tears—she felt an unprecedented surge of satisfaction and security.
She picked up a branch as thick as a finger, aimed the blade, and swung with force!
“Swish!”
The branch snapped instantly, the cut as smooth as a mirror!
Success!
Lin Xi was so excited she nearly jumped for joy. With this knife, she had the basic guarantee for processing prey, crafting tools, and even defending herself in a crisis!
Without pausing to rest, she struck while the iron was hot and began her second invention: basket weaving.
With the stone knife, cutting vines became effortless. She gathered a large amount of “ox-tendon vines,” used the knife to split them into uniform strips, and soaked them in the spirit spring water. The soaked vines not only became more flexible and resilient but also carried a faint, refreshing fragrance.
Recalling the way the village elders wove baskets in her past life, she began to experiment.
Starting the base, weaving the body, and finishing the rim.
This process was also fraught with failure. At first, the things she wove were crooked—either too loose or bizarrely shaped. But Lin Xi did not lose heart. she unraveled and re-wove, weaving and unravelling again. Her small hands were covered in tiny nicks from the burrs on the vines, but her eyes grew brighter and brighter.
This wasn’t just weaving a basket; she was weaving her hope of survival in this world.
After another full day of labor, a vine basket—somewhat crude in appearance but sturdy and durable—finally took shape in her hands. The basket wasn’t large, just the right size for her, and she had fashioned a strap out of thin vines so she could carry it across her body.
As Lin Xi stood at the cave entrance with her handmade basket slung over her shoulder and that dark stone knife tucked into her waist, her entire aura underwent a earth-shattering transformation.
She was still that frail three-year-old girl, but there was now a sense of composure and confidence in her eyes. It was a confidence born from the internal mantra of “I can do this”—a powerful belief that she could create everything with her own two hands.
She was no longer a fugitive who could only passively accept the “charity” of the forest. Step by step, she was becoming a true “survival expert” in these woods, a tiny master of her domain.
“Huzi, let’s go! Let’s check out our new territory and… gather some food while we’re at it!”
She patted Huzi’s head and spoke with high spirits. The threat of the wolf pack had made her realize that relying solely on traps for hunting was too passive. She needed to take the initiative and find more food sources—things like nuts that could be stored long-term, edible tubers, and… more medicinal herbs.
She was going to turn this cave into a true, impregnable home!
With her new basket slung over her shoulder and Huzi by her side, she walked out of the cave full of confidence. The sunlight was perfect, and the breeze was mild.
However, before she had even traveled half a mile—after passing through an unfamiliar stretch of woods—she came to a sudden halt.
She looked at the towering trees and dense thickets before her, which all looked virtually identical. She turned back to look at the path she had come from, and her brain went vroom—a total blank.
She… seemed to be lost.
During her previous outings, she had either been guided by animals or hadn’t dared to stray too far from the cave. This time, she had gone too far and been too overconfident, to the point that she had completely forgotten to leave markers.
For the first time, this vast and boundless mountain forest revealed its other face to her—the cold and ruthless one hidden beneath its gentle veil.