Chapitre 13: Chapter 13: Imparting Combat Skills

"At any time, one must remain calm. This is the most important point for wilderness survival. It's okay if you can't remember the way because there's a method. Analyze the terrain and the geography to determine the paths that wild animals are likely to take. Sometimes, animals think like humans and instinctively search for a path in the deep forests. Once you find an 'animal trail,' you will have found the path you took. You can look for traces left by animals, right?" Lan Hai said coldly.

Luo Zheng thought it made sense. Animals, after entering dense forests, don't run about randomly, but rather move instinctively towards a safe direction. Humans are the same in this regard. On this instinct, people and wild animals are not much different. Finding the paths traveled by animals can indicate the routes taken by people. It may not be 100% accurate, but there's some logic to it.

Finding the routes taken by animals was not too difficult for Luo Zheng. Crushed grass, broken branches, and feces were all clues. He then heard Lan Xue's cold voice again, "Whether in the forests shrouded by trees or on grass-covered slopes, one cannot find any trails by looking only at close range. You must look into the distance, a few dozen meters away, to discern a faint trace where the grass is slightly bent, the leaves slightly tilted, or the backs of the leaves turned. Then, by comparing from far and near, and vice versa, you can distinguish the path."

Luo Zheng got the hint. Lan Xue was teaching him skills and he took careful note.

As they walked and taught, noon arrived unnoticed. They reached the place where they had fought last time. Along the way, Lan Xue had picked some herbs to apply to the wounds. The bleeding had stopped, and the inflammation was contained, which eased Luo Zheng's mind. He was glad to have found his way back seamlessly. It proved that Lan Xue's methods were effective. He quickly searched the area and didn't find the march pack, presuming it had been taken by the enemy, but the machete was still there. Luo Zheng told Lan Xue to find a place to rest, while he busied himself with a wild chicken he had hunted along the way.

There was no water nearby to clean the chicken properly, and they couldn't make fire, which made him anxious. When hunting in the past, he always carried means to start a fire and never had to worry about it. Lan Xue, who was not far away, seemed to see right through Luo Zheng's troubled mind and spoke indifferently, "Now I will teach you the second skill for wilderness survival: Fire from nothing."

"Oh, great," Luo Zheng said joyfully. He had been curious about the fire Lan Xue had made last time but didn't ask due to privacy concerns. He hadn't expected Lan Xue to offer the knowledge voluntarily, so he listened attentively.

"First, you need to find easily combustible tinder such as dry grass, dead leaves, birch bark, pine needles, pine resin, fine twigs, paper, and cotton." Lan Xue spoke calmly, her gaze lost in the unknown distance, her thoughts a mystery, and her cracked lips continued, "Next is to gather firewood. For dry firewood, choose dry, un-rotted logs or branches. It's best to opt for hardwoods like pine, oak, elm, birch, acacia, wild cherry, or wild apricot, which have long burning times, high fire intensity, and produce much charcoal. Don't pick up wood close to the ground; it's damp and does not burn easily, and gives off a lot of smoke which is suffocating."

Luo Zheng saw that Lan Xue wasn't just teaching a skill to solve the immediate problem but a more comprehensive set of wilderness survival skills, which were also applicable in the current situation, so he quickly committed them to memory.

"Next is making fire by friction. Find a dry tree stump and carve a small pit with a knife. Place the tinder inside the pit, but not too much; pine needles and tree fluff are best. Then find a piece of hardwood, and twirl it between the palms," Lan Xue said indifferently, glancing at Luo Zheng, who had sat down to listen carefully without showing the slightest impatience. She gained a deeper understanding of him, then changed the subject and asked, "Have you memorized it all?"

"Hmm." Luo Zheng nodded confidently in agreement.

Lan Xue didn't doubt him. From what she had observed of Luo Zheng so far, she was very curious, especially since Luo Zheng had managed to conceal himself and take out a Wild Wolf mercenary sniper. Lan Xue didn't know how he had done it and hadn't asked, but she was clear in her mind that Luo Zheng was very familiar with wilderness survival and had great potential. After thinking for a moment, she suddenly said, "You're very suited to becoming a sniper."

"Eh?" Luo Zheng looked at Lan Xue in surprise. He was just a frontier warrior, not even a scout, and the gap between him and the mysterious position of sniper in the Special Forces was more than eigh thousand miles wide. He smiled wryly and said, "I wish, hard wood rapidly spinning generates heat energy, and when the heat reaches boiling point, the kindling will ignite. But the kindling is too small after all, if the wind is strong, it can easily be blown out. What do we do next?"

"You're correct," Lan Xue said, seeing that Luo Zheng understood the problem well, and continued, "Next, you need to clear out a wind-sheltered, flat area away from dry grass and kindling. Place fine pine twigs, dry kindling, etc., on it lightly, then set up larger and longer logs. After that, put the lit kindling in the center and blow on it gently."

Luo Zheng nodded, and Lan Xue continued, "The setup of the campfire should be adapted to the local conditions. It can be designed in cone-shaped, star-shaped, parallel, roof-shaped, ranch-shaped, and so on. You can also use rocks to support the kindling or lean the kindling against a cliff wall below a rocky overhang and light it from underneath. Generally, in a wind-sheltered place, dig a pit about 1 meter in diameter and about 30 cm deep. If the ground is too hard to dig a pit, you can also use some rocks to build a circle, and the size of the circle depends on the size of the campfire. Then, put the kindling in the middle of the circle, and once the kindling is placed on top and lit, it will ignite the logs to make a bonfire. If the kindling is about to burn out and the logs haven't caught fire, you should continue to add kindling through the gaps in the logs until the logs are burning, rather than starting over with new kindling."

"Let me try, you rest for a bit," Luo Zheng said, seeing Lan Xue cough as she spoke. She had just recovered from a fever, was still weak, and had been walking for half a day. It was not easy for her to keep going. So, following Lan Xue's method, he gathered some stones and earth to form a circle, then collected kindling and dry logs, and finally managed to make fire by friction, lighting the kindling and gently blowing the flames into the logs. The fire quickly grew stronger.

Looking at the burning bonfire, Luo Zheng laughed happily, realizing he could also "make fire from nothing" and that wilderness survival wouldn't be a problem for him anymore. Gratefully, he said to Lan Xue, "Thank you."

Lan Xue nodded indifferently and went to rest with her eyes closed. Luo Zheng found some clay to wrap around the outside of a wild chicken, then dug a pit in the ground, placed the chicken inside, covered it with a thin layer of mud, and then brought the bonfire over to burn above the chicken.

After finishing all this, Luo Zheng sat down to rest and heard Lan Xue suddenly say, "Next, I'll teach you the third move, silent communication, also known as military hand signals."

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