The team soon crossed the threshold of the forest and immediately went North. Since they were going to spend the next seven days -if no mishap occurs- in this place, Wen Yu picked out a fairly suitable location for them to make camp.
It was a large tree with thick branches and broad leaves. Although the tree was quite tall, getting up the tree was no problem for the kids with their level of assimilation.
Even Wen Yu barely had an issue because, although he was a weakling, his body was still ten times fit and better than the humans of his former world so he had no problem sprinting up the tree.
He sent out the others to scout whilst he arranged the camp properly for their stay. Even though the challenge had already begun, he wasn't in a hurry.
It was true that they had a map of the environment, but it was also true that the needed to check out the situation of things for themselves to be sure.
He grouped them into two groups. His plan was to let Qi San accompany Duyi but the kid acted like his soul was whipped out of him and clung on to Huo Lan with all his might.
So Wen Yu changed his mind and placed his sister with Duyi. He wasn't worried about his sister as she had a good assimilation and her phase was quite good too.
When the others left, Wen Yu got to work. He broke several sturdy branches from a bunch of trees and set up a form of wall skeleton in their tree camp and then subtly rearranged the spreading pattern of the broad leaves to cover up his creation nicely.
He was quite proud of himself. Because he used to be locked up at home all the time, he read a bunch of books when he was bored and gathered a fairly good amount of knowledge he'd deemed unnecessary at that time.
At times when they were all pumped up with adrenaline and humongous prides, they would make outrageous bets such as living in the wild with no aid and technology for days to see who would bend first.
He might have been lazy and willful but one thing he had in abundance was pride and he would rather bend over backwards than lose to the other young masters!
So he would go out of his way to bug his family to invite famous masters to coach him and of course his family, who pampered him to the high heavens, would always give in.
He smiled wryly as he thought of his parents and siblings. He occasionally drifted off and wondered what was going on with their lives.
Did they ever find his body? How did they take it? His death must have broken them, they did love him the most after all. He really used to be a fool, he thought as he snapped himself out of it and went on to check the surroundings to see if there were plants he could recognize.
All the Academy gave them were nutrient solution and hex stones. If they wanted any other form of comfort then they had to either get it, or create it for themselves.
The fact that spirit beasts did not feast on humans did not mean that they wouldn't attack them. They were also bound to be poisonous flowers and insects that they had to set precautions against just in case they unwittingly fell into traps.
He grabbed a purple hex stone to guard against the energy drain and went out to look around and when he couldn't find any familiar plants around, he walked further.
Whenever he spotted a plant that was vaguely similar to the ones in his head, he picked it without direct contact. He still wasn't sure if the plants around here were safe or not.
This continued on for a while until he went deeper into the forest. He soon realized himself and paused.
He had no idea he'd come this far! He was really absentminded, how could he be so foolish as to let his thoughts go astray in the situation he was in?!
He took a break next to some plants that resembled bamboo shoots, but with purple colour, after making sure his surroundings were clear and safe. A quick check to his bracelet had him sighing in relief. Luckily he hadn't wondered too far.
After crosschecking his stash of plants, he nodded. If they turned out to be the plants he thought they were after testing, then his efforts wouldn't have been in vain!
He encased his palm in his spirit energy and cut down a bunch of the purple bamboo shoots. After wrapping them up with broad leaves, he turned around to leave.
Wen Yu had barely taken ten steps when a loud scream came from the west of him. He hesitated a bit before he kept on walking. Even if he went over there he might not be able to help anyways, he couldn't even send out spirit energy!
Just after he took three more steps, the scream came again. He paused. He couldn't leave, the screams could only come from one of the cadets, there were only kids and the scream sounded like a little girl too. How could he turn a blind eye?
He grit his teeth and ran in the direction of the noise. When he arrived, the sight before him made him shudder as a million goosebumps appeared on his skin.
Snakes.
Lots of them. The slimy creatures were entwined like maggots as they surrounded a large tree stump that had a little girl nestled on top.
The girl held on to a blue hex stone as she kept on sending out waves of her spirit energy but it did very little to stop the numerous, vomit inducing, creatures.
Wen Yu gulped as he quickly hid behind a shrub, making sure not to make contact with the leaves. He couldn't detect the little girl's spirit phase so it meant that she was naturally stronger. If her spirit energy seemed like cotton on the snakes then there was really nothing he could do.
If he jumped out, he'd only be calling trouble upon himself, he was sure he wouldn't even be able to outrun the creatures and they were so many too!
He bit his lips as he stared at the trembling child. His moral quality hadn't fallen to the lowest yet that he would watch a child die, he really didn't have the heart!
He looked to the numerous snakes trying to support themselves up the high tree stump to get to the child, there was really no time.