Shen Lan suddenly felt that the ocean could indeed nurture all things. In just a short while, it had given birth to a person.

He pondered for a moment, feeling that although the cry for help was extremely faint, almost inaudible, it sounded a bit familiar. That half-dead, long-drawn-out and meandering way of calling for help was really quite similar to a certain someone.

Shen Lan stopped his forward swimming motion and raised his hand to gesture to Xia Chuan on the shore, indicating that he had encountered some situation here and needed to change direction for a while. He then flipped into the sea, turned around and swam in the direction the call was coming from.

Standing on the shore, Xia Chuan was also a bit puzzled. He looked ahead in the direction Shen Lan was traveling and saw several broad-winged seabirds circling in the distance. Two of them had already landed on the sea surface, their claws touching the water bit by bit, as if trying to grab something. Their wings flapped, appearing a bit chaotic.

It was actually a reef rock with only a bit of its tip exposed, jagged in shape with a slippery surface. A person was precariously clinging to a small point, maintaining an extremely strenuous posture. If he relaxed even a little, he would slide down the side of the rock into the sea with no support.

The person had several wounds on his body, his clothes torn and tattered. If not for the extremely faint cries for help, he would be no different from a corpse.

The smell of blood on him attracted the circling seabirds above. One by one they glided down, trying to peck off a bit of flesh from his body. The claws of those seabirds were very sharp. Hooking into human flesh would leave bloody gashes. After a few grabs, the person's back was covered in red. But he couldn't spare a hand to drive away the seabirds. To be precise, even if he could spare a hand, he no longer had the strength.

Shen Lan's swimming speed in the sea was astonishingly fast. In just the blink of an eye, he had already arrived in front of that reef rock. He glanced at the tattered human-shaped creature on the rock and without a word, grabbed the seabirds' claws with one hand and fiercely pulled, dragging the two large seabirds into the water.

Who knows how long he had been clinging to this reef rock. He was so dazed that his eyes could barely focus. However, when Shen Lan emerged from the water, he still recognized that familiar brown-black hair.

Instantly, with a face that said "I can finally rest in peace", he couldn't even lift his lips and mumbled, "Oh God, finally met a reliable person. If no one came to lend a hand, I would have died here."

This person was none other than Dennis, who had lost contact with them.

Shen Lan grunted in response. With another exertion of his hand, the two seabirds were submerged under the water. The seabirds flailed wildly after entering the water, splashing countless droplets that all showered onto Dennis on the reef rock.

Dennis exhausted his last bit of strength and let out a pitiful howl, weakly saying, "This is typically rubbing salt into the wound. Overlord, what grudge do you have against me?"

Seeing this situation below, the seabirds circling in the air hurriedly flapped their wings to escape, wishing they could double their speed. They quickly became a few black dots on the horizon.

"Where's that guy?" Shen Lan restrained the two seabirds that couldn't escape while scanning the surroundings. He couldn't help glancing underwater as well.

"You mean..." Dennis was obviously in terrible shape. He had to pant for breath after every one or two words. His mind was still a bit slow to react. After a while, he continued, "Professor Linton? He... he got separated from me and didn't come here."

After confirming there was no second figure resembling Professor Linton around, Shen Lan nodded. He lifted the two motionless seabirds out of the water by their claws and slung them over his shoulder. Then with a big stretch of his hand, he grabbed the barely alive Dennis, flipped over and headed straight for the shore.

As soon as he turned back, Xia Chuan had already uncrossed his arms and was striding across the sand and rocks by the sea. He paid no heed as the seawater submerged his feet, then his calves. Just as the water reached his chest, Shen Lan happened to swim over.

Xia Chuan reached out to pull Shen Lan, giving him leverage to stand up in the water. At the same time, he took the person Shen Lan was half-carrying, half-dragging and hung him on his own back. After all, Shen Lan had been flailing in the sea for quite a while. As refreshing as it was, it still took effort. There was no reason to have him catch food and save people.

The battered person kept his head down, almost drooping to his chest, clearly exhausted to the extreme. After being rescued, he almost passed out.

Xia Chuan's movements were smooth and fluid. During the process of pulling the person onto himself, he didn't even glance at the other party's face.

Shen Lan held the two bald, drenched birds, looking startled. "You're not even going to look at who he is?"

With the person secure on his back, Xia Chuan didn't even lift an eyelid. "Dennis. Who else could suddenly appear on a reef rock with this build besides our group? It certainly wouldn't be Professor Linton."

Shen Lan: "..." He suddenly felt that the moment he opened his mouth to ask this question, his brain had probably been pecked by a bird.

The chief and the others on shore never imagined that after catching a bunch of fish, Shen Lan could also bare-handedly catch two seabirds. Most importantly, he even brought back another person. Judging from their expressions and attire, they were probably acquainted.

However, he didn't waste any more energy or time standing there pondering Xia Chuan and the others' true identities. Seeing the clothes and flesh on Dennis' body clawed by the birds, he quickly waved to the few men following behind him. He turned to the leanest and most agile one among them with a solemn expression and spoke a string of words, gesturing at the unconscious Dennis while talking, then pointed at the fish on the ground, seeming to be giving instructions.

As soon as Xia Chuan and the others walked ashore, the chief hurriedly gesticulated at them, indicating for them to follow the lean man, probably wanting them to quickly take Dennis back to the earthen slope to treat his wounds. The remaining few men weren't idle either. They all ran into the woods, who knows what they were going to find. Two men were left at the original spot to watch over the pile of fish.

Seeing the chief had already made appropriate arrangements, Xia Chuan and Shen Lan naturally wouldn't interfere. Without a word, they followed the lean fellow back.

In terms of physical strength, Xia Chuan and Shen Lan were both much better than ordinary people. Of course, Shen Lan was already at a non-human level. So even carrying a sleeping big guy, there was not the slightest feeling of being dragged down. The skinny man was obviously also quick on his feet, so the three of them only took a little more than half the time they came to hurry back to the earthen slope.

As soon as they reached halfway up the slope, the skinny man had already started whistling to the people on the watchtower. The whistling was very particular, two long and one short, and then he shouted a very simple sentence.

As soon as he finished speaking, two women had already come up the slope to open the door, looking at the injured Dennis with concern, and hurriedly led them around seven or eight bends to a mud house.

The location of this mud house was also in the middle of the walled city, separated from the house where Laura lived by only one room. This house was slightly different from the other houses, with a larger diameter and naturally a much larger area. A long stick was inserted on the simple roof, obviously a mark that distinguished it from other houses.

The skinny man handed them over to the two women, gave a few simple instructions and hurried away, shouting all the way, spitting out one string of gibberish after another, with a hint of excitement in his tone. Hearing his shouts, people from the surrounding houses all ran out, holding various earthenware containers of all sizes and gathered around the skinny man.

"What's going on?" Shen Lan scratched his chin, obviously seeing this kind of scene for the first time.

Remembering the leader's actions on the beach earlier, Xia Chuan said, "Probably the sea fish can't be taken, so while having him bring us back, he found someone to bring some containers over to get the fish."

With the injured, they naturally didn't have the leisure to slowly appreciate the excitement of this group of primitive people. They only glanced at it for a moment, and then followed the two women down into the large house.

The layout of this house was very similar to the other small houses, with the same two levels of rough steps and a round fire pit in the center of the house. Only the beds here were somewhat different from the other houses. Instead of just building a square high platform, high platforms surrounded the entire house. The remaining space was filled with jars of various sizes, and a pile of dark green plants was piled up in a corner of the house, looking not very fresh, a bit dry, as if it had been there for quite a while.

When Xia Chuan and the others entered, two people were already lying on the high platform in the house. Under the guidance of the two women, Xia Chuan put Dennis in a position close to the edge, also letting him lie on the high platform.

The light in the house was a bit dim, but it was still possible to see that Dennis' face was slightly flushed with an abnormal red, as if he had a fever. He was not sleeping very soundly, and when he was laid down on the bed, he still moved once or twice, only weakly, and his eyes never opened.

The two women stood by the bed and looked him up and down, exchanged a few words, then reached out and nimbly stripped off Dennis' tattered top, and turned him over to let his back face up.

Those deep and shallow claw marks were then exposed to their eyes, bloody, but they seemed to be used to it, their expressions unchanged. They even patted Xia Chuan and Shen Lan's arms reassuringly, then walked to the pile of earthen jars of various sizes, rummaged through them for a while, and collected a small handful of palm-sized leaves.

The leaves looked broad and thick. They kneaded them in their hands for a long time, mashing the leaves and squeezing out a handful of dripping juice.

They walked back to the bedside while kneading, and then threw the mashed leaf bits on Dennis' back, spreading the pile of bits with their hands full of green juice.

Although the juice didn't have any special smell, it must have been very irritating when applied to the wounds, because as soon as they covered Dennis' back with the bits, Dennis let out a howl and opened his eyes in pain.