Charles Black thought carefully for a moment and said.

　　“How exactly should we do it?”

　　James Carter nodded, saying nothing more, quietly waiting for Charles Black to continue. When it came to dealing with sea demon beasts, Charles Black definitely knew more than he did and had better solutions.

　　Charles Black had expected James Carter to act on his own impulse, but to her surprise, he was quite self-aware and actually asked for her opinion.

　　“The tides of the East Sea will gradually bring small numbers of sea demon beasts ashore. As time goes on, the closer it gets to the end of the month, the more violent the tides become, and the final surge at the end of the month is the most ferocious.”

　　Charles Black looked around the cave and said, “This cave is very sturdy. We should use it as our camp base and build a defensive barrier—this is the only way. The problem is, there are only two of us, and I’m still injured. I’m not very confident that the defenses we build will be able to withstand the impact of the sea demon beasts!”

　　She glanced at James Carter across from her, feeling a bit uncomfortable inside.

　　She rather looked down on James Carter, this commoner martial artist, thinking he wasn’t worthy to share the same cave with her.

　　As the Princess of Donglai, beautiful and of royal blood, her status was noble.

　　Although she didn’t practice martial arts diligently and had only reached the mid-stage of body refinement, she had mastered the advanced “Feather Spirit Sword Technique” most suitable for women in the Donglai royal family to a remarkable degree—those ordinary mid-level martial artists were no match for her at all.

　　And the noble sons of Donglai, upon seeing her, acted as if they’d lost their souls, constantly trying to curry favor with her, but she couldn’t even be bothered to respond.

　　With everyone fawning over her, she naturally had every reason to be proud.

　　Moreover, she had admired her grandfather, a cultivator, since childhood, and longed to embark on the path of cultivation herself. She had no fondness at all for those noble sons of Donglai who only knew how to indulge themselves and had no ambition.

　　James Carter, a mere commoner, in terms of looks, status, and position, was naturally inferior even to those noble sons, and his martial skills were probably quite rough. If they were back in Donglai, she wouldn’t even be interested in giving him a second glance.

　　Of course, James Carter did have a rare merit—he hadn’t taken advantage of her or tried to rob her, and though he had a bit of a petty merchant’s air, he wasn’t a bad person.

　　Other than that, in her eyes, he was almost entirely useless.

　　But she was injured and needed a reliable martial artist to protect her. The young man before her seemed honest—apart from being a bit stingy, he didn’t seem to have any ulterior motives. For that reason, even though James Carter had taken as much as four inches of red-blood vine from her, she had to put up with it.

　　This left her with mixed feelings.

　　Whenever she thought of the process of him treating her wounds, Charles Black couldn’t help but feel a wave of frustration, unsure whether to hate him or… In any case, she was injured and needed someone she could trust to protect her.

　　She needed James Carter to help her build a sturdy camp.

　　She could only pretend to know nothing about the earlier treatment process, to avoid unnecessary awkwardness.

　　The most important thing now was figuring out how to repel the sea demon beasts during the end-of-month tidal surge—only then would there be time to think about anything else.

　　Across the campfire.

　　James Carter was surprisingly calm, thinking quickly. He didn’t notice the subtle and complex changes in Charles Black’s expression.

　　“No matter what, we have to give it our all to deal with the sea demon beasts that make it onto the island!”

　　James Carter gritted his teeth, feeling a terrifying sense of threat and immense pressure. If they couldn’t survive the end-of-month tidal surge, it would be a dead end—everything would be over.

　　No matter what, he had to fight with all his might.

　　“We’ll use this cave as a temporary camp. The most important thing for the camp is a defensive wall. We can’t build a high-level, sturdy stone wall, so we’ll have to settle for the most basic wooden wall—a spiritwood fence. Ordinary wood can’t withstand a single blow from a sea demon beast; at the very least, it has to be first-grade spiritwood. When I was searching the island for body-tempering herbs during the day, I saw a small amount of low-grade spiritwood. Low-grade spiritwood is extremely tough, comparable to iron. We’ll go cut down the tough spiritwood and use it to build a spiritwood fence around the cave. Then we’ll rely on the spiritwood fence for defense and resist the sea demon beasts. The weaker sea demon beasts won’t be able to destroy such a tough spiritwood fence right away. When the sea demon beasts attack the fence, we’ll strike back and drive them off.”

　　Charles Black explained in detail.

　　Although she had no actual experience fighting sea demon beasts, she had heard her grandfather tell stories about battles with them in the East Sea Immortal Village, so she knew a few countermeasures.

　　“All right, let’s do that! There’s no time to lose—I’ll go cut the spiritwood and build the fence! You rest in the cave, I’ll be back soon.”

　　James Carter nodded.

　　“I’ll go too!”

　　Charles Black struggled to her feet.

　　“But you’re still injured!”

　　James Carter hesitated.

　　“Mm, I’ve recovered a bit, it’s not a problem. You don’t know where the spiritwood is, and wandering alone in the forest at night is very dangerous. If I go with you to cut the spiritwood, we’ll be faster too.”

　　Charles Black shook her head.

　　She wasn’t too confident in James Carter’s abilities.

Chapter 9: Turning Decay into Wonder

　　“All right then!”

　　James Carter thought for a moment and agreed with a nod.