Chapter 34: Cutting Wood to Build a Boat, Setting Sail to Sea

Lin Lei’s tools were much sharper compared to those on the Floating Island. He polished the crystallized scapula of an Epic Beast and attached it to a hard wood handle, creating a crude axe.

Although the axe looked poorly made, boosted by Lin Lei’s immense strength, each chop into a Suoluo tree drove the blade deep, embedding more than half of the axe’s face.

Lin Lei could have cut deeper, but doing so would have snapped the hard wood handle. Switching to a more durable crystallized bone for the handle was too difficult to fix securely, leaving Lin Lei quite helpless in this regard.

In the end, it was still a problem of insufficient tools.

It took Lin Lei a full day and night to chop down a single Suoluo tree with a diameter of over five meters.

Hmm, if I cut the root base so thin, I can use it for the bow of the ship, Lin Lei thought as he looked at the tree base, which had been carved down to less than half a meter. There was just one more strike needed for this tree.

“Fuweili, watch out for the falling tree!” Lin Lei shouted to warn Fuweili to move away, then started running and accelerating fifty meters away from the giant tree. When he reached his maximum speed, he leaped into the air and kicked the tree trunk with both feet.

His maximum speed had increased again, reaching nearly 50 meters per second. A body weighing nearly 100 kilograms could generate quite considerable impact force.

The already unstable Suoluo tree, weighed down by this final straw and its own weight, crashed down with a loud rustling sound.

This tree was really huge. Fortunately, its branches and leaves weren’t particularly dense. It took Lin Lei most of the afternoon to clear the main trunk.

Hmm, good. This large tree should be enough for sea travel once I carve out a cabin in the middle and reinforce it. Once the spaceship is activated, everything will be fine.

There were still ten days until the Half-Moon of the Sun. The surroundings were still very dark, so Lin Lei lit a bonfire.

Next to the fire was a simple tent made of piled-up animal skins, the resting place for the two of them.

“Fuweili, help me figure out how to carve the cabin to maximize the internal space while ensuring sturdiness. We have quite a lot of supplies to take with us.” Lin Lei was now full of energy, ready to make the boat in one go.

He worked tirelessly like a human-shaped engineering machine, chopping wood non-stop. Fuweili’s reaction changed from shock to worry. Now that he finally stopped, it seemed that once a plan was decided, he would continue digging holes into the tree trunk. How energetic this man was.

“Lei, do you want to rest? I think you’ve been working continuously for over forty hours.”

Lin Lei checked his body. Hmm, he was indeed a bit tired. To be precise, he was a bit hungry. His stomach was hungry, and so was his “little brother.”

“Alright, I’ll have something to eat. I’m starving, hehe.” Lin Lei walked towards Fuweili with a mischievous grin.

Seeing that wicked smile, Fuweili knew exactly what was going on. Although the two of them were very intimate and had done it many times, her face still turned bright red. She couldn’t help but spit at Lin Lei lightly: “Go wash in the river, and I’ll grill some meat for you.”

“Yes, my wife.” Lin Lei gave a lazy salute and hurried off to the river to wash. He was covered in wood chips and felt quite uncomfortable.

When Lin Lei returned from the river, Fuweili had already reheated the roasted Androlu Beast meat she had prepared earlier for him.

Lin Lei directly took a piece and chewed it vigorously, speaking with his mouth full: “Mmm, Fuweili, your cooking skills are getting better and better. They ’re as delicious as you are, hehe.”

This guy, with his head full of nonsense, was only thinking about that kind of thing. Fuweili felt her earlobes burning hot and slightly trembling, and her lower abdomen also felt warm.

She looked up and saw Lin Lei staring at her with bright, piercing eyes, having forgotten even to eat the food in his hand.

“Hurry up and eat, Lei. Haven’t you eaten after chopping trees for so long?” Fuweili said affectionately and reproachfully. This guy lost his composure as soon as he saw her. However, his attraction to her made her feel secretly pleased.

A rose-like pink appeared on Fuweili’s face, her eyes moist as if they were about to shed tears, and her red lips bloomed like a flower. Combined with her body, which had been well-nourished recently, she exuded an unparalleled charm.

Lin Lei stared at her blankly. The delicious Androlu Beast meat suddenly tasted like wax, and he felt nothing.

No, this woman was too alluring. Fuweili’s genuine reaction, combined with her attempt to act naturally on the surface, made Lin Lei’s blood rush to the top and bottom of his body.

He swallowed the Androlu Beast meat in his hand in big bites, wiped his mouth hastily, and then, to Fuweili’s startled cry, picked her up and walked towards the tent.

“Fuweili, I love you so much.” Lin Lei felt like he was doomed, saying such cheesy words.

Fuweili didn’t answer but offered her fragrant lips. Then, the two lovers fell into infinite passion…

This night passed in harmony without a word.

Eight hours later, Lin Lei came out of the tent feeling refreshed. He stretched, and his bones crackled loudly all over his body.

Lin Lei walked towards the giant tree trunk lying quietly there, preparing to start carving the cabin.

This time, he also had a tool: the claw of an Epic Beast. This was also a Crystallized Material. Lin Lei worked hard to craft it into a short knife, sharpening the edge even more until it could almost shave hair from the air.

However, the knife was less than thirty centimeters long. It was hard to tell how long it would take to dig out a complete cabin.

Lin Lei no longer cared about saving his internal energy: “System, attach a slight amount of energy to the blade to increase cutting efficiency.”

“Received Host’s request. Beginning to infuse free-state pure energy. Energy consumption is 0.001 Energy Level per second.”

With a soft hum, a layer of translucent, slightly glowing pure energy coated the entire blade of the small knife. When Lin Lei sliced into the tree, it felt like cutting through rot. It required no effort at all, and the cut surface was smooth as a mirror. This was really impressive; the energy consumption was worth it!

As for the design plan for the cabin, Fuweili couldn’t be relied upon. She was too tired and was still sleeping soundly.

No choice. Lin Lei decided to do it himself. The difficulty wasn’t high, so he could sacrifice some space if necessary. As long as the sturdiness was guaranteed, it would be fine. He wasn’t someone who hadn’t seen a boat before. Copying an existing design, could he really not do it?

Time was tight. The consumption of 0.001 Energy Level per second wasn’t much, but it wasn’t little either. It was 3.6 Energy Levels per hour. Even if he drained himself completely during his Level 1 Reinforcement, it wouldn’t be enough.

With a plan already formed in his mind, Lin Lei infused the small knife with energy and began his cutting project.

After more than two hours of work, a wooden boat with a beautiful curve and a woody fragrance appeared under Lin Lei’s knife. He was nearly exhausted.

This was a solid output of nearly eight Energy Levels, which was completely different from his instantaneous bursts of strength using his body. Lin Lei felt much more tired than when he chopped the tree earlier.

“Wow! Lei, how did you get this done so quickly? Is this boat made from that big log? It’s unimaginable.” Fuweili, just waking up, saw the milky-white wooden boat lying quietly as soon as she stepped out of the tent. All her sleepiness vanished, leaving only shock. This efficiency was too high.

“Hehe.” Lin Lei just scratched his head and smiled foolishly, offering no explanation, nor could he explain it clearly.

The wood for this boat was freshly cut and had a high moisture content. It couldn’t be launched into the water immediately and had to be placed in a shaded area to dry for a while.

Ideally, the boat should be made after the logs were naturally air-dried, but that was too slow. It would take at least two Earth years. This wasn’t a long-term use boat, so being temporarily usable was sufficient.

However, leaving it to dry like this required preventing the wood from cracking. Small cracks didn’t matter, but large cracks causing leaks would be a tragedy.

So, Lin Lei had prepared a natural coating similar to tung oil, which was boiled from a plant called Bitter-Leaf Pine.

This was a good thing Lin Lei got when eating Epic Beast meat in the cave. The coating was dry, had strong drainage properties, and adhered strongly to the wood. It just needed to be melted over fire before application.

Moreover, it had a light, refreshing fragrance, not cloying and very pleasant. It was the System that discovered it and proactively suggested it, just like the Azure Crystal Extract on the Floating Island before. Both belonged to top-tier plants.

He would let it stay in the shaded area for a while. At least, he had to wait until the surface stopped seeping tree sap before loading people.

Although Lin Lei was a bit anxious in his heart, since the hardware wasn’t completed, he could only wait.

“Lei, what shall we do next?” Fuweili asked only after Lin Lei covered the wooden boat with a large number of leaves.

“Reserve supplies for the sea voyage. Don’t let us end up eating only fish on the sea. You can’t start a fire on the water, and you definitely can’t eat raw fish. Also, bring more animal skins to block the sun on the boat.” Lin Lei turned and said to Fuweili, who stood gracefully.

“And fruits. Otherwise, what if we get scurvy?” Fuweili added.

Lin Lei sweated a bit. With his rowing speed, the water distance of over a thousand kilometers would only take a few days. Where was there time for her to get scurvy?

However, since Fuweili liked to eat fruits, Lin Lei naturally wanted to meet this requirement.

On the Hebrew Continent, there was a type of thorny fruit, about the size of a fist, covered in sharp thorns with slight toxicity. Being pricked would cause the skin to swell and turn red for a long time.

But after peeling back these sharp thorns, the fruit meat inside was exceptionally fresh and sweet.

Even more strangely, thorny fruits of different maturity levels had different tastes, and each variety left people with an endless aftertaste.

Well, since Fuweili had tasted it once, picking thorny fruits had become one of Lin Lei’s main activities in his spare time. Who could blame him? His skin was thick and he wasn’t afraid of thorns.

So, when Fuweili mentioned fruits, Lin Lei knew her appetite was craving again.

Haha, whether preparing one thing or two, it was all preparation. It seemed he also needed to bring enough roasted Androlu Beast meat.

Lin Lei could actually swim across, but he didn’t want Fuweili to see his weird ability. He knew himself that among intelligent beings, very few people could freely control their body changes.

It wasn’t that it couldn’t be done, but rather that he chose not to do it. Every person’s body corresponded most harmoniously and perfectly with their genes. Arbitrary changes would cause unpredictable consequences.

Of course, “change” here didn’t refer to superficial changes like plastic surgery, but deep changes involving organ functions and DNA, similar to the System’s initial modification.

Life, the most complex collection of matter in the Universe, was not even fully understood by the Watcher Race of the Galaxy.

More than two months passed in the blink of an eye. The wooden boat was roughly air-dried, at least on the surface.

Lin Lei dragged the wooden boat to the riverbank and began applying oil to the outside of the air-dried boat.

He poured a thick layer of Bitter-Leaf Pine oil on both the inside and outside of the boat, ensuring that no matter how strong the wind and waves, the wooden boat would not leak.

The boat was five meters wide and over nine meters long. Its power source was the pairs of oars prepared by Lin Lei.

Lin Lei was used to solving problems with brute force. As for the animal skin sails prepared by Fuweili, he had also made one, which could save a lot of effort when sailing with the wind.

Lin Lei pushed the wooden boat into the river with one hand, then threw on more than ten roasted beast legs of peeled thorny fruits in several large animal skin bags.

“Fuweili, get on the boat. Let’s set off!” Lin Lei picked up Fuweili and jumped onto the wooden boat. Then, he picked up the prepared double oars and began to row quickly.

As for Wild Beast Meng, he would leave it on the Hebrew Continent. If possible, he would bring it away when the spaceship arrived.

Lin Lei had never rowed a boat before, but his control over his strength was very precise. After adjusting a few times during the process, he exerted even force with both hands, controlling the boat to move forward in a straight line.

“This man’s brain is really too smart.” Fuweili sighed, watching Lin Lei focusing on rowing.

He learned everything especially fast and well. Compared to that, her only advantage seemed to be knowing a bit more than him. But this was just the result of education on Apocalypse Star and was nothing to be proud of.

Fuweili believed that if Lin Lei could receive the same education, his achievements would definitely be much higher than hers.