He shook out the two loaches and tossed them into another plastic bucket filled with water.
The loaches were lively, swimming constantly after being thrown into the bucket, creating ripples of water waves.
"Loach soup is delicious, Xiao Wu, I want loach soup tonight."
Qin Ziwu readily agreed: "Sure thing!" He suddenly slapped his head in annoyance, "Ah, I forgot to ask someone about those mushrooms we picked yesterday. If they're edible, we could add some to the soup for extra freshness."
"Haha, either way is fine, but don't eat them until their safety is confirmed." Qin Ziwen casually packed up the fish trap.
"This fish trap needs to be moved to a different spot. The feng shui here is bad - the first day the trap got damaged, the second day we got a snake."
He carried the fish trap upstream for several dozen meters. This was a gentle slope with lush aquatic plants along the riverbank, also a good place to set the trap.
After hesitating for a moment, he still didn't set down the fish trap, because starting tomorrow or the day after, he planned to head northeast and try to search for the altar in the northern mountains.
If he still set the trap here, he'd have to come back this way tomorrow, and just the travel time alone wasn't short - going back and forth would waste most of the day.
So he simply packed all the equipment for setting snare traps into his bag. Since he didn't plan to come this way tomorrow, there was no need to set traps.
Taking out the map from his pocket, he compared the river's flow direction and quickly determined the approximate location of the wild kiwifruit based on the map markings.
The three of them walked a distance through the forest.
Qin Ziwen stopped and looked around, "Do you smell that?"
Qin Ziwu frowned, "I smell it, it seems like the stench of a corpse."
The smell of a corpse was very distinct, especially from one's own species.
Once you've smelled it, you never forget that unique odor.
Deng Guang began searching the surroundings: "Since we can smell it, the distance definitely isn't far."
After carefully searching for a while, the three soon saw a corpse lying face down on the ground not far from the base of a tree.
The corpse belonged to a man, his head tilted to the side with a ferocious expression, the clothes on his back pulled up to his waist, his cheeks and hands covered in mud.
The exposed skin surface was covered with purplish-red cadaveric spots.
His hands and feet showed abrasions, with many ants coming and going around the wounds.
The three felt a chill in their hearts.
The presence of a dead person here indicated danger nearby.
Qin Ziwen roughly judged from the corpse's condition: "He probably hasn't been dead for too long, at most since yesterday."
The temperature in the forest wasn't low, and in such conditions, a corpse would decay faster. Plus, there were many insects in the forest - if he'd been dead for too long, the corpse wouldn't look like this.
"He's been stabbed through here." Deng Guang pointed from a distance at the corpse's shoulder area, where something seemed to have pierced through, leaving a bloody mess where even bone was visible.
Qin Ziwen frowned, "It probably wasn't a large carnivore. If it were a carnivorous animal, there would be signs of biting on his body, but so far, we haven't found any tooth marks."
Qin Ziwu guessed: "So it must be some kind of highly aggressive herbivore? And the injury came from the back, so he was probably caught while running away."
Deng Guang speculated: "Could also be an omnivore."
Looking at the "penetrating" injury on the corpse's shoulder, Qin Ziwen grew more and more puzzled the longer he looked. He suddenly thought of a possibility: "Could it be a wild boar? This looks like it was stabbed by a tusk."
"Wild boar? That wild boar we saw yesterday couldn't jump this high even if it tried." Qin Ziwu shook his head, pointing at the wound location, "If it were a wild boar, to stab at this position, how tall would it have to be?"
As soon as he finished speaking, the air fell into brief silence.
Deng Guang chuckled dryly: "Impossible, right? We saw a wild boar yesterday, and that boar wasn't that big."
"The animals here are generally larger than those on Earth. The crocodile was over seven meters long, so it's not impossible for wild boars to be bigger too." Thinking this, Qin Ziwen felt the surroundings weren't safe either.
He looked up toward the treetops, where the crowned eagle perched on a branch, vigilantly observing the surroundings without making any calls.
Good, it seemed there was no immediate danger around.
Qin Ziwu asked: "Then are we still going to pick the kiwifruit today?"
Looking deep into the dense forest, Qin Ziwen remained silent for a long time, "Yes, we've come this far, and the destination is right ahead."
He took out his phone and took a photo of the corpse.
"This person might be Li Yue's companion. We'll ask him when we get back."
Qin Ziwen warned: "We encountered a wild boar on the route we took yesterday, which means this area might be its regular territory. Everyone stay alert."
Fortunately, nothing unexpected happened all the way to their destination. Everyone picked the remaining wild kiwifruits from the trees and put them in their bags, this time only filling one and a half backpacks.
With several experiences of walking through the forest, the three moved increasingly faster through the woods. Qin Ziwen took out his phone - it was only just noon, so there was still plenty of time.
After eating some dried rations.
Qin Ziwen thought it over and decided to continue deeper.
"Wheeeeee-ah!"
A sharp cry echoed through the forest canopy.
The crowned eagle flapped its wings, sounding an alarm.
Everyone looked in the direction it was flapping toward - down the sloped side, a pitch-black behemoth had quietly approached without them noticing.
The three felt a chill - this creature was quite clever, actually knowing to sneak up on them.
Realizing it had been discovered, the large wild boar at the slope's base stopped, making threatening warning sounds in its throat.
Behind the large wild boar, another small wild boar appeared. Next to the large boar, the small one looked as thin as a small figurine.
"Go!"
Qin Ziwen said decisively.
They couldn't go down the slope; they had to change direction.
Fortunately, there were many vines and branches on the slope, and the large wild boar's size prevented it from charging straight up.
The three descended from the back side of the slope top. This side had a steeper incline but was thick with trees. Holding onto tree trunks, the three descended quickly though not without some fright.
"Let's go, we'll circle around another way."
Behind them, the large wild boar stepped onto the slope top.
"Screech!"
The crowned eagle cried out, swooping down from the sky, aiming for its eyes.
The large wild boar raised its head, sweeping with its tusks, but the crowned eagle flapped its wings mid-air, feinting to avoid the attack.
As the large wild boar prepared to continue climbing the slope, the crowned eagle swooped from the side toward the small wild boar, startling the two-hundred-pound small boar into squealing.
Forcing the large wild boar to turn back and protect the small boar.
The crowned eagle didn't attack, just kept harassing them.
It made the wild boar shake its head back and forth, extremely annoyed, letting out angry cries toward the sky above.
Even after the crowned eagle eventually flew away, the large wild boar remained in place, vigilantly watching for a long time, then glanced in the direction Qin Ziwen and the others had left, grunting twice before slowly leaving while protecting the small boar.
After leaving from the back side, Qin Ziwen's group circled around a large distance without stopping.
Compared to other animals, humanity's greatest advantage was exceptional endurance.
Qin Ziwen said gravely: "I suspect the dead person might have been attacked by that wild boar."
That wild boar had sneaked up, clearly with intent to attack - perhaps this wasn't its first time killing humans.
If not for the crowned eagle's warning and delaying tactics, by the time the wild boar got close, they probably wouldn't have had time to escape.
......