13: Chapter 13 I'm not afraid, I'm just making a strategic retreat.

Deep in the jungle.

Lin Ye carried a thick wooden stick on his shoulder, with three Silver Shuttle Fish—one large and two small—strung upon it.

In his left hand, he carried a small iron pot filled with clean water.

His goal was clear: he was heading toward the hilly region rising in the center of the Floating Island.

In areas with higher elevation, the probability of finding a dry cave is much greater.

Yet, his route became extremely bizarre.

After walking for twenty meters, Lin Ye suddenly paused.

He made a sharp 90-degree turn and squeezed into the waist-high thorn bushes on his right.

After moving forward for a dozen meters, he paused again, tracing an irregular S-shape to avoid a small, extremely flat and dry patch of fallen leaves ahead.

In the Great Xia Live Stream, comments flooded the screen.

"Here we go again! Brother Eye's weird movement patterns are back!"

"Is he doing some kind of secret footwork? All this zig-zagging is making me dizzy."

"My OCD makes me want to smash the screen. Wouldn't it be better to just walk straight across that flat ground!"

"You'd need ten years of brain damage to walk like this."

"Not gonna lie, after my grandpa drinks half a catty of liquor, he walks exactly like Brother Eye."

At the commentary booth, Xu Mingyuan shook his head repeatedly.

"When moving through the jungle with a load, the worst thing you can do is take these aimless, ineffective detours."

He pointed at the screen.

"Look everyone, he walked at least 50 meters extra just to avoid a patch of flat ground."

"This kind of wasted physical exertion is extremely fatal in the wild!"

Commentator Chen Guofeng stroked his chin, not refuting him immediately.

He understood special operations, but in this strange, primeval jungle, such behavior truly made no sense.

Lin Ye had no way of knowing the outside world's assessment.

After walking another few dozen meters, his footsteps came to an abrupt halt.

The moment he activated the Eye of Destiny, a massive red aura appeared in his left eye's vision, more than a hundred meters ahead.

A slight stinging sensation came from deep within his eyeball, and he immediately closed it.

The trees blocked his line of sight, and the light screen in his right eye did not display any biological identification information.

The volume of that red aura was even larger than a brown bear.

Threat.

Fatal threat.

Lin Ye held his breath, supported the iron pot with his left hand, and gripped the wooden stick on his shoulder with his right.

Without a moment's hesitation, he immediately pressed himself behind the trunk of a nearby tree.

After waiting a few seconds, he used his left eye to steal a quick, fatal glance.

The creature was still remaining in the same spot, showing no signs of moving.

"If you're not leaving, I will."

"I'm not scared; I'm just making a strategic retreat!"

Lin Ye stepped lightly on the ground, tiptoeing backward.

After retreating to a safe distance of a dozen steps, he immediately turned around and quietly retreated at an accelerated pace in the opposite direction.

This series of reactions, like a frightened bird, left the audience in the livestream bewildered.

"What's wrong? Did he see a ghost?"

"Why did he suddenly hide? And then turn around and run?"

"There's nothing in front of him; not even a leaf is moving."

Seeing this, IDs from the overseas livestreams immediately began trash-talking on the public screen.

"USA: Hahaha! Are the Great Xia people scared witless by the sound of the wind?"

"Japan: What a loser! Running away without even seeing a shadow!"

"South Korea: The Great Xia people have pitifully small guts, simida."

"India: Once his stamina is exhausted, even those two fish will become someone else's spoils of war!"

Seeing the screen full of mockery, the Great Xia audience felt only stifled and angry.

They wanted to fight back, but they didn't know what Lin Ye was hiding from.

Just as the overseas trolls were frantically spamming and clamoring.

On the screen, a terrifying roar erupted from the direction of the hills behind Lin Ye!

"Roar——!!!"

The sound wave pierced through the dense forest, startling a flock of birds in the distance into taking flight.

The entire livestream feed seemed to vibrate with the sound!

The comments exploded instantly!

"Holy crap!!!"

"Judging by that sound, that has to be a giant beast at the very least!"

"Where are the foreign dogs? Come out and keep barking! Why are you mute now?"

"You call this cowardly? This is called foresight! Top-tier reconnaissance!"

"I'm sorry, Brother Eye. I take back what I said earlier about your movement looking like my grandpa's!"

...

In the laboratory of the Third Research Group at the Disaster Prevention Administration.

Lu Chen sat in front of the computer, his eyes fixed motionless on the screen.

He replayed the footage of Lin Ye stopping, hiding behind the tree, retreating, and the final beast roar at a low speed over and over.

"The distance to the point where the roar erupted is over a hundred meters."

"The wind is blowing south; Lin Ye is downwind, so the scent could not have been carried."

"The dense forest acts as a barrier, obstructing his line of sight."

"Hearing? No, the beast roar only erupted after he had already retreated; there were no sounds of movement before that."

Lu Chen's breathing became heavy.

"It wasn't intuition! His body clearly made a pausing reaction only after 'confirming the target'."

"Combined with his previously baffling way of moving..."

"He didn't sense the danger; he 'saw' the danger!"

Lu Chen recorded in the [Challenger Lin Ye · Left Eye Hypothesis]:

"The subject's left eye is suspected to possess some kind of energy vision that can penetrate physical obstacles."

He pushed up his glasses, his gaze becoming burning hot.

"Lin Ye, how many more surprises are you hiding?"

...

In the jungle.

Lin Ye inexplicably shivered.

"Damn! Who the hell is thinking about me?"

He greased his feet and continued to walk briskly without looking back.

After walking a full two hundred meters and confirming he was completely away from that area, he relaxed slightly.

He couldn't go in the direction of the hills.

The plan to find a cave was scrapped; he had to find a new spot to spend the night.

After continuing for another ten minutes, Lin Ye's pace finally slowed.

In the jungle ahead, two towering giant trees stood.

The trunks were thick, and by the looks of it, it would take five or six adults to barely wrap their arms around them.

The crowns soared into the clouds, estimated to be over 50 meters high, blotting out the sky.

The distance between the two giant trees was about 30 meters.

And the roots of one of the giant trees were intertwined, forming a spacious, natural hollow.

It was over two meters deep, high enough for him to crouch into, and the ground inside was a relatively dry layer of soil.

Lin Ye habitually scanned it with his left eye.

There were some gray spots, but it wasn't a major problem.

Here, he couldn't completely avoid such things.

He carefully examined the surrounding environment again, his gaze lingering between the two trees for a few seconds, already having a clear plan in mind.

He walked to the front of the hollow, put down the stick with the fish, and placed the pot of clean water on a flat stone.

Shaking his sore and aching right shoulder, Lin Ye didn't rush to rest.

He drew his dagger and collected dead branches of varying thickness from the surrounding area.

He needed to start a fire and fill his stomach first.

The Great Xia audience in the livestream let out a sigh of relief upon seeing this scene.

"He finally found a place to stay; this tree hollow looks secure."

"With fish, water, and a house, this life is much better than yesterday!"

"Compared to Ji Kun next door, who is still playing wits with bugs, Brother Eye is already on vacation level."

"He should just build a long-term shelter so he doesn't have to keep running every day."

"I can't wait to see Brother Eye grill that cocky big fish!"

At the livestream's commentary booth.

Seeing the busy figure on the screen, a look of admiration appeared on Su Qinglan's face.

"Lin Ye's adaptability is astonishing. After his plan changed, he quickly found an alternative solution."

However, Xu Mingyuan did not follow her lead.

"Using the tree hollow is indeed effortless, and the giant tree itself can serve as a natural barrier for defense and reflecting the heat of the campfire."

"But the drawbacks are also fatal!"

Commentator Chen Guofeng turned his head: "Teacher Xu, what do you mean by that?"

"The forest floor is damp; this kind of tree hollow easily breeds poisonous insects and snakes. When the temperature drops at night, those creatures love to crawl into warm places."

Xu Mingyuan paused, a look of worry appearing on his face.

"What's more dangerous is that this tree hollow has a semi-open structure."

"If he gets blocked at the entrance by a slightly larger beast in the middle of the night, he won't even have anywhere to run!"

...

At the same time.

Hearing Xu Mingyuan's analysis, Lu Chen of the Disaster Prevention Administration's Third Research Group sneered disdainfully.

"Expert Xu, don't speak too soon."

"This kid doesn't play by common sense!"

"When your face gets swollen from being slapped later, I hope your glasses can still stay on."