Since the two of them had been stranded on the deserted island, the weather had been clear every day. But today, the weather finally changed, growing somewhat gloomy.
It was already nine in the morning, yet no trace of the sun appeared in the sky. Thick clouds covered the island overhead, and from the looks of it, rain could fall at any moment.
“Good thing I built the wooden shelter in advance,” Qin Tian muttered to himself as he sat cross-legged on the ground, holding a three-finger-wide bamboo strip.
Without paying much more attention, Qin Tian continued browsing through the items in the Mall.
***
At this time, Ye Lin was not in the camp. After Qin Tian had cut the fully solidified lard soap into blocks that morning, she had eagerly gone off to take a bath.
Because of this, Qin Tian was finally able to summon the System.
Although Ye Lin couldn’t see the System, if Qin Tian kept gesturing at the air in a daze, it would inevitably arouse her suspicion.
“I wonder if refining sea salt or making a bamboo bow would earn points as rewards,” Qin Tian thought to himself while looking at the talents available in the Mall.
Ever since the incident with the Tusks Boar, Qin Tian had come to deeply understand how much the talents from the Mall could aid his life on this deserted island.
Therefore, the points he had earned before were not spent on exchanging for the Wild Plant Encyclopedia as planned. Instead, he intended to save them to redeem talents.
Unfortunately, the points required for talents were simply too many. Glancing at his current 6,000 points, Qin Tian couldn’t help but sigh.
A few days ago, when making ceramic pots and soap, Qin Tian had respectively earned 1,000 and 2,000 points as rewards, but he still lacked a lot to exchange even the cheapest talent.
***
“What are you spacing out for?” Ye Lin’s voice suddenly came from behind Qin Tian.
“Just thinking if you haven’t come back for so long, maybe a snake bit your butt,” Qin Tian said as he turned around after shutting off the System. “So, how’s the lard soap? Does it work well?”
“Pretty good, lots of foam,” Ye Lin said, gripping her wet hair and trying to untangle the knots. “But using it for washing hair makes it a bit dry.”
“Well, it’s already good to have something to use,” she added softly at the end.
Qin Tian smiled and tossed something toward Ye Lin. “Catch.”
Taking it, Ye Lin saw it was a wooden comb. Qin Tian’s craftsmanship wasn’t the best; the teeth were unevenly spaced, some thick, some thin. But to her, it was precious.
“Thanks,” Ye Lin accepted it as a gift, feeling pleased inside.
“Just don’t despise it,” Qin Tian said, lowering his head as he carefully shaved off the bamboo nodes with his Survival Knife. “By the way, you’ll clean the wild boar hide later.”
***
The wild boar hide, wrapped up earlier when making the lard soap, had already been spread out on a rack by Qin Tian. After drying in the sun for so long, the fat membrane had hardened and could be peeled off by hand.
“Okay.” Ye Lin glanced at Qin Tian, then busied herself with shaking out her hair to the side.
If she remembered correctly, Qin Tian had been fiddling with that bamboo strip ever since she left the camp. Although he never said what it was for, she could guess—it was the material for making a bamboo bow.
Bows are divided into hard bows and soft bows. From their names, the difference is somewhat clear: hard bows have a stiffer bow stave and require more force to draw, while soft bows have more flexible staves and need less effort.
Given the available materials, Qin Tian could only make a hard bow. Even if he had materials for a soft bow, he would still choose to make a hard bow.
Soft bows require less effort to use, but they’re weaker and have a shorter range; hard bows are the opposite.
Qin Tian planned to use the bamboo bow to deal with wild boars. If the power was too low, it wouldn’t be effective. So, a hard bow was the only choice.
***
The bamboo strip in Qin Tian’s hand was about a meter long, much shorter than a typical Composite Bow. This wasn’t a mistake in cutting; he simply no longer intended to make a Composite Bow.
The bamboo for his bow came from the pole he had made two days ago. That was when his talent was still active, and he had nervously chopped it down at the edge of the bamboo forest in haste. The quality wasn’t great, unsuitable for a Composite Bow.
As for why he didn’t go into the bamboo forest to pick better bamboo, naturally, Qin Tian was too afraid. Without his talent, he didn’t dare risk entering the bamboo forest again.
Whether you call him cowardly or timid, for Qin Tian, survival was the most important thing. Besides, he had other types of bows to fall back on, so there was no need to take such a risk.
Furthermore, making a Composite Bow was more complicated. For these reasons, Qin Tian gave up on making one.
***
Now, Qin Tian planned to make a Recurve Bow. One characteristic of this bow is that its power isn’t limited by the length of the bow stave. It can maintain a certain level of force even if the bow stave is short, making it perfect for dense forests and bamboo groves.
Making a bamboo bow was purely manual labor—time-consuming and requiring patience. Fortunately, Qin Tian lacked neither.
He first used his Survival Knife to shave the bamboo strip flat, then carved it into a shape wider in the middle and pointed at both ends. Next, he shaved the middle part to about two fingers wide for easier grip.
Afterward, Qin Tian cut small notches at both ends of the bow arms to tie the bowstring. Finally, he further refined the bow arms based on the size of the handle.
This refining step was just an adjustment and didn’t affect the bow much. It could be skipped entirely.
Qin Tian knew this well; he just wanted the Recurve Bow to look better.
At his age, the Wuxia Dramas he watched most in childhood had left a deep impression. Influenced by Master Jin, he once dreamed of being a martial artist. He had a strong interest in weapons like swords, spears, bows, and crossbows.
Now, making a Recurve Bow to fight wild boars made him feel like a rookie choosing his first weapon on the martial path, naturally wanting to pick the best one.
***
After refining the bow arms, Qin Tian found a relatively rough stone and polished the bow limbs to avoid bamboo splinters cutting his hands.
Focused on shaping the bow limbs, Qin Tian suddenly realized he was hungry and wanted to eat something.
Looking up, he saw it was already past noon without noticing.
Planning to call Ye Lin to eat with him, Qin Tian said, “Ye Lin, want something to eat?”
After a while with no response, puzzled, Qin Tian turned around.
Ye Lin was still concentrating on cleaning the wild boar hide.
This piece of hide was peeled from the boar’s torso, much larger than the one from its leg earlier. After all this time, Ye Lin had only processed half of it.
However, the part she had cleaned was exceptionally tidy. That made sense—they were going to sleep on it. If it wasn’t clean, how could they sleep comfortably?
Seeing Ye Lin so focused, Qin Tian didn’t disturb her. He ate a few pieces of jerky and returned to his work.
***
Qin Tian took three wooden stakes, stuck them into the ground with their tops touching each other, then clamped the bow limb onto one of the stakes.
He used hemp rope to tie the ends of the bow arms to the other two stakes, bending the bow limb into a curved shape.
In bow-making, this step is called bow tempering, usually done with a special bow tempering stand to shape the bow. But Qin Tian had no such luxury and had to make do.
After finishing this, Qin Tian rested briefly, but soon cut another bamboo strip.
This second strip was two inches shorter than the first. Qin Tian followed the same steps to process it.
However, it was very time-consuming. By the time night fell, Qin Tian still hadn’t finished making the second bow limb.
***
Ye Lin, however, had finished cleaning the wild boar hide.
Because of the hide’s smell, they didn’t use it immediately but brought it to the creek to wash thoroughly.
If the sun shone tomorrow, they wouldn’t have to sleep on the hard ground by the next night.
Unfortunately, things didn’t go as hoped. The next day, the sky above the island remained dark and overcast, with no clearing.
Given such weather, it was impossible to dry the wild boar hide under the sun. They could only air-dry it, which would take at least two days.
So, Qin Tian and Ye Lin made a simple rack beside the campfire and draped the hide over it, hoping to dry it by warming.
***
“This really makes one feel oppressed,” Qin Tian muttered during a rare moment of rest, looking up at the dense clouds covering the island.
“It’s probably going to pour,” Ye Lin frowned deeply. Compared to yesterday, the clouds were thicker, as if storing up something.
She hated the dampness that came with rain, especially in this forest. Once it rained, the whole ground would become muddy and soggy, making it hard to find footing.
Thinking quickly, Qin Tian fashioned a small shovel from bamboo and asked Ye Lin to dig a ditch around the wooden shelter to prevent rainwater from flowing inside.
He himself continued working on yesterday’s task.
***
The second bow limb was smaller than the first, so the workload was lighter. Having completed half yesterday, Qin Tian finished it before noon.
Addicted to bow-making, Qin Tian cut a half-meter-long bamboo strip again.
This time, he didn’t follow the previous steps. He only shaped the handle and the bamboo strip itself, without carving bow arms or tempering it.
With fewer steps, he finished quickly.
Qin Tian stretched hard. “Finally ready!”
After two days, he had prepared the bow limbs for the Recurve Bow.
Next, he only needed to wait for the limbs to set before assembling the bow.
With the limbs ready, only the bowstring remained.
Qin Tian went to the rack drying the jerky and took down the pig’s leg sinews.
After nearly three days of drying, the sinews had become hard and lost their original elasticity, exactly what Qin Tian wanted.
Finding a stone, Qin Tian placed the sinews on it and lightly hammered them with the Stone Axe to break them into strands.
This was relatively easier. Not long after, Qin Tian called Ye Lin over.
The two switched tasks—Qin Tian took over digging, while Ye Lin worked elsewhere.
Though the bamboo shovel saved effort compared to using a stone, it was still exhausting for Ye Lin.
By afternoon, she had only dug two-thirds of the drainage ditch.
But after Qin Tian took over, he finished the ditch before sunset.