Chapter 12: Jungle Life
The vegetation in the endless forest is very dense, how dense? As soon as everyone entered the jungle from the alluvial plain, they almost disappeared after walking for a few minutes. The dense branches and leaves of trees there almost completely blocked the sky. They could only see sporadic spots of light shining down from the top of their heads, so they couldn't even see the road clearly when walking below.
According to Lan Ling'er, it was recorded in ancient books that this place was once the same plain as the eastern part of the Blue Ocean. There were not so many forests, and it could not be so dense. After the technological advancement of the outside world, the demand for trees became increasingly greater. Paper, chopsticks, furniture, etc. required trees. The most famous exported items in the southern part of the Blue Ocean are various high-quality trees. After so many years of cutting and so many demands, the endless forest has not reduced the slightest. The strange thing is that plants in the alluvial plains grow at a normal speed, but once they enter the endless forest, the plants there are more than ten times faster than the outside world, and it is an anti-seasonal growth rate.
Lan Ling'er said that in the ancient sect era, the southern part of the Blue Ocean was attacked by destructive weapons. It was said that it was a destructive weapon of plants, which led to the plant riot in this place. After that, there were endless forests. Until now, tens of millions of years later, this place was still affected by the destructive weapons at the time. There were a lot of forests, but there were more and more.
Hao Qi, Zhang Heng, Su Shiyan, Lan Ling'er, and the four of them entered the forest. From the novelty when they entered, to the three of them’s moods after three days, such as the problem of mud and water swamps, the problem of humid temperatures, insects, campgrounds, etc., the mood of the three people began to become worse. Well, there were only three people, and only Hao Qi was still very excited.
Every day, the four of them kept moving forward, combining the pathfinding instrument every two hours, and then let Hao Qi come to the tree canopy to position it. After that, most of the time, Lan Ling'er was on the way, and Lan Ling'er was the most physically weak, so after lunch, Hao Qi and Su Shiyan took turns carrying her forward in the afternoon. But even so, a few days later, Lan Ling'er still had several blisters on her feet, and Lan Ling'er was also strong. She secretly pierced the blisters and then applied medicine. The next day, she started rushing again until she was discovered by Su Shiyan, and her feet had already started to red and swollen.
Su Shiyan felt very distressed. Hao Qi and Zhang Heng knew it, so they immediately decided to find a place nearby for two days to rest. They should not be so anxious about the road afterwards. Anyway, they were going out for adventures, and they didn’t take on any tasks. To be honest, there was no need to hurry up. Hao Qi and the others had a year's free time, and although Su Shiyan said they had to go back in half a year, this was actually a saying. Hao Qi and the others had really encountered some difficulties. With Su Shiyan's personality, they would definitely be saved by their lives. There is no doubt about this, let alone even half a year, according to the location of the treasure map.
In this way, the four of them no longer rushed to rush in the following days, but moved forward regularly every day. This was planned and designed by Su Shiyan and Lan Ling'er according to the current speed of travel, the forest environment, and everyone, especially Lan Ling'er's physical strength.
It has been about ten days since I entered the Endless Forest, and the situation in the Endless Forest is basically known to everyone. First of all, the forest coverage and density of Endless Forest is unprecedented. The trees here are tall and large. The same tree species are at least about half larger than other places. Usually, there are trees with a height of twenty to thirty meters. In some places, there are even hundreds of meters growing in groups. Moreover, the crowns and branches of these trees are scary, causing the darkness of the forest floor. Whether day and night, the forest floor is gloomy and dark.
At the same time, the ground of most forests is swamped areas, with a large number of fallen leaves and swamps formed by rotten plants. Moreover, the swamps, miasma, poisons, insects, etc. that have accumulated for many years exist in these places. If you cannot see them carefully, you may not be able to see them if you step on them.
Of course, there are also some dry grounds. After all, the ground is high and low, and the different types of plants exist, which leads to the wet and dryness of the ground where it is located. Such ground is also the most suitable ground for walking, and the entire endless forest is occupied by three types of grounds, dry ground, wet ground, and swamp ground. After entering the endless forest, the three of them didn't understand at first, and they went straight forward. No matter what the ground was, they stepped into it without fear. After suffering, ten days after entering, they finally began to understand that it was almost impossible to move forward in this endless forest, but to follow the general direction and move around the road. The key point is to stay on the dry ground as much as possible, and then occasionally enter the wetland zone, and try not to touch the swamp zone. It is that simple.
The plan formulated by Su Shiyan and Lan Ling'er increased the two-month trip to three months, which is half a year back and forth. The plan sets the daily itinerary time, starting every morning when you wake up, to starting walking at 11 o'clock every morning, only walking on dry and wet ground. If you want to cross the swamp, let Hao Qi carry Zhang Heng on his back, while Su Shiyan carries Lan Ling'er on his back, and they cross from the canopy.
The second is the problem of the campground. At first, the four of them didn't understand it. Although they searched for a lot of information about the Endless Forest, the books were still shallow. Although they looked for dry ground as much as possible, they also sprinkled a lot of deworming drugs as recorded in the information, and then bonfires all night, but this was useless because there were many poisons in this Endless Forest and were not afraid of deworming drugs at all, because they were not insects at all. Moreover, because of their toxicity, ordinary drugs were useless at all. Instead, they could be said to have been gathered by these drugs.
So in the first few days, the four of them were really worried. When they went to bed at night, they all turned into Hao Qi and Su Shiyan to take turns sleeping. There was always one person awakening to drive away these poisons. It was not until a few days later that they finally found the trick to camping in the forest...Crown Camping Method!
Yes, camping on the canopy of these big trees, maybe the trees and forests in other places cannot be like this, but the trees in this endless forest seem to be as huge as they are, and the canopy is extremely dense. As long as you choose the largest and most sturdy tree, the canopy can fully carry the weight of four people. The advantages of camping on the canopy are simply incomparable to the ground. The air is good, not damp, there are no insect poisons, and it is also very interesting. In the night sky of this forest, it looks as clean as if it has been washed, and it looks really refreshing at night.
Another thing is the food problem. Before making a plan, the four people rushed to catch prey every day. Although Hao Qi or Su Shiyan hunted and caught prey every day, they carefully selected every day. Sometimes they hunted poisons that could hardly be eaten, and sometimes the meat of prey they hunted was very unpalatable, and all of these were there.
It was not until now ten days later that the four people decided to slow down that the fun in the forest really appeared...
"...No! That color must be poisonous!"
Hao Qi looked at Zhang Heng's big mushroom with several colors on his hand, and he immediately shouted, but Su Shiyan next to him said interestedly: "You don't understand, don't talk, this is a rainbow mushroom, a rare treasure, it tastes very delicious, and can slightly strengthen the human body. It is a very rare and delicious food that is hard to find in the outside world. It is said that if there are two colors mixed, it is called rainbow mushroom. If the mixed colors of rainbow mushrooms reach seven, it is a treasure. The mushroom found by Zhang Heng has four colors. This is already a treasure among the treasures. I really look forward to its taste."
"Is that true?" Hao Qi looked at this mushroom, which was at least as big as Zhang Heng's chest, with four colors mixed on it. No matter how you look at it, it was a highly poisonous mushroom.
Zhang Heng also said affirmatively: "That's right, Hao Qi, this is the rainbow mushroom. Do you remember the swamp we passed by before? The miasma that can be seen by the naked eye alone, and it is in color distribution. It is a very terrible pink miasma, also known as peach blossom miasma. Ordinary organisms will almost die when entering, but this miasma has a characteristic, that is, it will dissipate briefly during dusk. And some records I have seen show that this miasma is suitable for growing several kinds of natural treasures, and among them are rainbow mushrooms. Unfortunately, the range of this miasma is not large, so it is unlikely that there will be a natural treasure. The record says that in a peach blossom miasma that has hundreds of miles, there will inevitably be a kind of natural treasures such as rainbow mushrooms. However, we are lucky. After finding this rainbow mushroom, we will have a good taste today!"
It is dusk now. In the plan, I only rush to three o'clock every day, and then I start looking for suitable campsites. Generally, I am on the canopy of the largest tree. After building it, Lan Ling'er recorded the itinerary of the day in the campsite, while Hao Qi, Su Shiyan and Zhang Heng began to look for the ingredients for the day. After all, eating is too important for the entire journey. The four of them were very dissatisfied with the food for the previous ten days, so now they give two or three of them to slowly find the delicious food. Today, they have indeed gained something.
When Hao Qi confirmed that the mushroom was not poisonous and was super delicious, his saliva was almost gone. At the same time, he proudly raised the prey in his hand. It was nine birds that were bigger than quails but slightly smaller than pheasants. Hao Qi said proudly: "You don't know this thing, hahaha, this one looks very much like me before... Hmm, this one looks very similar to some kind of bird I know, its name is the flying dragon bird, its body shape and appearance are very similar, but I don't know if it is. If so, please eat your tongue today. The taste of this thing is known as the dragon meat in the sky and the flying dragon meat in the ground!"
Speaking of this, the two of them looked at Su Shiyan at the same time. Su Shiyan looked back calmly, but she pulled her pockets faintly. This was to tell the two that she had gained something.
At this moment, Hao Qi and Su Shiyan browed at the same time. They grabbed Zhang Heng's arm from left to right, and then the three of them jumped up to seven or eight meters and landed on the tree trunk. Zhang Heng seemed to understand something and looked nervously at the ground. Sure enough, a moment later, a spider appeared on the ground...
Chapter completed!