25: Chapter 25: Harvest and New Goals

After everyone finished eating, they continued on their way.

Keeping their original formation, the Exploration Team walked to the mountaintop beside the sinkhole and looked down into the cliff. The Earth Vein energy of the sinkhole mixed with the underground water vapor, and the water vapor drove the Earth Vein energy to gush and flow towards both the north and south.

The mountain body on the cliffs of the sinkhole mostly appeared black, hard, and damp.

Incarnation specifically reminded Liu Tingquan, "Take a few more photos. The information about this place needs to be recorded in detail; the height of the forest and the slope of the mountain must also be recorded."

The others were also captivated by the wonder of the sinkhole, gazing at it quietly and feeling the wind mixed with water vapor gushing out from the bottom of the sinkhole. The cliffs surrounding the sinkhole were black, connected to tall and dense forests; the cliff-side sinkhole resembled a giant mouth that had burst from the depths of the earth, an Earth Devouring maw.

The Exploration Team paused here for half an hour. Once Liu Tingquan had finished recording everything, the group set off on their journey again.

In the following stretch of the journey, the forest became increasingly dense, with almost no passable paths. Incarnation and Chen Yanshan had to take turns clearing the way, causing the Exploration Team's speed to slow down.

At 3 PM, while everyone was resting, Mo Yuemei looked up at the azure sky, seemingly lost in thought.

"Look! What a huge eagle!"

The others all looked up, only to see a giant eagle with a wingspan of two or three meters soaring through the sky.

Incarnation took out his binoculars and looked over, discovering it was a serpent eagle. It had white spots, a large and prominent black crest on the back of its head, and was much larger than a normal serpent eagle, with claws and a beak that glinted with a metallic sheen.

It seemed to have spotted something, tucked its wings, and dove onto a flat patch of grass in front of them. When it took off again, a two-meter-long venomous snake was already struggling in its talons.

The serpent eagle let out a long cry high in the sky, a shrill and high-pitched sound that pierced the clouds and the forest, as if declaring its power. The chirping of birds that had been filling the forest suddenly fell silent.

Only when it gradually disappeared from view did everyone reluctantly look away from this mighty and majestic serpent eagle.

Looking at the flat patch of grass where the serpent eagle had just hunted, Incarnation decided that everyone would spend the night there; with an apex predator active here, they would be safer. Today was the second night since entering Huaiyu Mountain, and they still arranged for night watch duties, with everyone taking turns to rest.

On the third day, a somewhat angry voice woke everyone from their sleep.

"What the hell! What thing stole my food?"

Liu Tingquan's face was flushed red with anger as he held his machete, hacking through the grass, searching for something.

Incarnation immediately exited his tent and walked over to him, only to see that Liu Tingquan's tent had been bitten open, with debris from compressed biscuit packaging and other food scraps scattered everywhere.

Two meals' worth of Liu Tingquan's food had been stolen. Although two meals' worth wasn't much, and everyone could spare a little of their own rations to make up for it, this kind of loss was always unpleasant.

After carefully inspecting the bite marks and some traces, they judged that it was likely the bite of a rodent. However, such creatures were most common in the forest, and even if they wanted to look for it, they wouldn't be able to find it.

He took a five-abundance nourishing pill from his space inside his backpack and gave one to Liu Tingquan. "This is my special, super nutrient pill. This one pill is enough for you to eat for a day. Remember to boil it in water before eating, otherwise, you won't be able to digest it."

Seeing that he was still hesitant, as this item clearly looked valuable.

Incarnation said, "This is emergency food I made, and we have enough for our use."

Liu Tingquan then accepted the five-abundance nourishing pill wrapped in tin foil and carefully put it away.

Chen Yanshan leaned over, interested. This kind of thing was very convenient for someone like him who frequently went into the mountains, and he wore a fawning expression, rubbing his hands like a fly. "Captain, do you have any more? I want to buy one to try."

"I can sell you one for 1,000. But I warn you in advance, this thing puts a heavy burden on your stomachs; unless it's an emergency, try not to eat it. If you don't open the packaging, it can be stored for about two months."

The others had little interest in this kind of thing; after all, for Chinese people who have so much delicious food, this kind of food purely for supplementing energy was soulless.

"Everyone should take this as a warning. Fortunately, not much was eaten this time. When sleeping, try to put your food in your backpack and sleep while hugging your backpack."

Everyone tidied up their gear, packed their things, and continued on their way.

Because they had only arrived here yesterday, they hadn't explored the mountain hollows on either side yet.

At the bottom of the mountain on the left side, they discovered a meteorite crater, but unfortunately, it was one that had already been used. Incarnation collected this meteorite. The group continued to search, and in the afternoon, they found another job-change stone on the other side near the top of the Four Corners Plateau that hadn't been used yet.

Every time someone found a job-change stone, they would call Incarnation over to collect it, so there were no incidents of anyone using them or successfully changing jobs.

Because Incarnation said that these meteorites basically all contained trace amounts of radiation, and although the damage to the human body could recover in a few days, no one was willing to touch them.

Calculating it this way, they had found a total of 4 job-change stones and 3 that had already been used over these past few days.

Standing on the mountaintop, everyone could already look out toward the Four Corners Plateau in the southeast. They saw that there were no more relatively tall mountain ranges appearing there, but rather some hills a few dozen meters high, rising and falling, along with some plains and forests that stretched as far as the eye could see.

On the third night, around eight or nine o'clock, all sorts of sounds rang out outside, and everyone hadn't truly entered deep sleep yet. Just then, bursts of wild boar howling came over, startling several people awake, and they went back to sleep with expressions of both anticipation and worry.

On the fourth morning, Incarnation gathered everyone to issue a warning.

"Yesterday you should have all heard the wild boar calls; there were quite a few of them. So, we must be careful from now on. After we finish exploring the vicinity of the Four Corners Plateau, we will prepare to return via a different mountain range."

However, who knew if the Exploration Team's luck was good or bad?

At 9 AM, they didn't encounter a pack of wild boars, but instead stumbled upon a solitary male wild boar, whose size had already reached over 1,000 jin.

It was fat and strong, with tusks turned outward. When it rooted up the soil, it was like a shovel; it would insert itself into the mud, turn its head, and a large patch of soil would fly up, just like a small bulldozer, clearing away weeds to reveal succulent roots. Its body was covered with congealed pine resin and mud, looking like thick armor worn on its body, and the bristles on its back stood up like steel needles.

Even though the Exploration Team had added four firepower points this time, they still had to be careful and cautious. Incarnation gathered the four archery coaches together to discuss a plan.