Dawn Over the Barren Sea

When Lu Yan woke, the sky was gray, the sea was black, and his only covering was a damp animal hide. This was a nameless tribe. Dozens of people huddled in a seaside cave, guarding a little fire that was on the verge of going out. They had no writing, no pottery, and even a wooden fishing raft was beyond their reach. The old gathered seafood left behind by the tide, the women scraped scales off fish with stone flakes, and the children were so hungry they could no longer cry. Lu Yan had no System and no golden finger. His only advantage was the common knowledge he had brought back from ten thousand years in the future: salt could be traded, fire could be kept alive, tubers could sprout, and wood could float. He persuaded the silent chief, taught the old women which herbs could stop bleeding, learned from A Shi how to skin an animal without tearing its hide, and began sharing cooked meat with everyone who returned from fishing. Starting with the discovery of a single seashell, this nameless tribe began to look like a home for the very first time. Building rafts, hunting in groups, planting tubers, boiling salt, making pottery... Each of these little tasks, so insignificant by today's standards, marked the hardest and most moving beginning of civilization on an ancient shore. The sea never receded, and the tides never stopped. Lu Yan didn't know how long this road would be, but he knew that more and more people were following behind him. This was no heroic saga of one man, but the story of a people in a wild sea, carrying a spark all the way to dawn.