Deng Guang looked around at the repeating scenery and the dense canopy overhead, feeling a bit panicked in his heart. "Where are we now? Can we find our way back?"
"We can. The direction back to the residential complex is right ahead."
Qin Ziwen pointed forward.
Above them, the Crowned Eagle was leading the way.
It could fly above the forest and determine the residential complex's location from a high-altitude view.
This was the Crowned Eagle's greatest use—serving as a "GPS satellite" navigation system in the forest, ensuring they never had to worry about getting lost.
Hearing they could find their way back, Deng Guang secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
His biggest fear was getting lost in this forest.
"Wait." Qin Ziwen pulled back Deng Guang, who was about to walk forward.
From the dense forest ahead, accompanied by the rustling of vines and bushes, a tall, heavy shadow pressed toward them.
A beast nearly two meters tall emerged, and with its thick trident-shaped antlers, its total height approached two and a half meters.
Dark brown mane flowed down from its neck, and its intelligent black eyes looked at the three people.
After watching them for a moment, it chose to ignore them and leisurely strolled away.
"What a huge deer."
Its body length approached three meters, and beneath its rough fur were powerful muscles. Qin Ziwen didn't dare imagine how "pleasant" it would feel to be kicked by it.
As it walked out, five more deer emerged from behind it—two large and three small ones.
The smaller deer seemed somewhat afraid of people. Upon seeing humans, they quickened their pace and quickly hid in the bushes ahead.
Qin Ziwen felt excitement growing in his heart. The resources here were too abundant.
Aside from those six deer, they didn't encounter any other wildlife up close for the next hour or so.
Most animals would stay far away after detecting their movements.
Deng Guang casually asked, "By the way, Brother Qin, were you planning to take those Gray Sweet Potatoes back to eat directly?"
Qin Ziwen shook his head. "No, I prepared some boxes filled with soil, cut them into pieces, and threw them in to plant."
Deng Guang was taken aback. "Have they sprouted?"
Qin Ziwen answered truthfully, "No, they haven't."
Deng Guang nodded slowly, deep in thought. He said quietly, "You've never grown sweet potatoes before, have you?"
"Never grown them."
Deng Guang understood and instructed, "To grow sweet potatoes, you need to sprout them first. After you go back, you can dig out the sweet potatoes buried in the soil, wash them, then apply quicklime or plant ash to the cut surfaces. This prevents rot and increases survival rate."
"The temperature for growing sweet potatoes shouldn't be too low or too high—around twenty degrees Celsius is best. Also, don't bury them too deep, about five centimeters of soil is enough. The soil needs to stay moist. They can sprout in as little as two to three days, or up to about a week at most."
Qin Ziwen asked for advice, "Brother Deng, have you grown sweet potatoes before?"
Deng Guang said with a smile, "My family grew them when I was a child. I'm basically from the countryside. By the way, when you cut them, it's best if each small piece has an eye. The new sprouts grow from those eyes."
As he spoke, Deng Guang had Qin Ziwen take out a Gray Sweet Potato from his bag and taught him how to identify the eyes.
The eyes weren't difficult to recognize, and Qin Ziwen quickly mastered the technique.
"Thank you, Brother Deng."
"No need to be so polite."
While the two were chatting, Qin Ziwu, walking ahead, heard the gurgling sound of flowing water from in front. He quickly stepped forward. "There's a stream here."
The stream wasn't wide, less than three meters across.
The stream had abundant water plants and was filled with scattered rocks.
To the right front was a hillside, and the stream water flowed from above them.
"Wild rice stem?" Deng Guang recognized a plant in the stream.
Following Deng Guang's gaze, Qin Ziwen saw a plant with broad, "sword-shaped" leaves that stood about one meter tall.
Deng Guang stepped forward, observed the surroundings to make sure there were no snakes, then used his small knife to cut open the base of the leaf sheath. He took out a section of the stem and, like peeling corn, removed the outer layers to reveal the fleshy stem inside.
After identifying it clearly, Deng Guang was delighted—it was indeed what he had imagined.
"Brother Qin, this thing is edible! Have you eaten it before?"
Qin Ziwen walked over and shook his head.
He didn't recognize it.
Deng Guang said, "This stuff tastes great stir-fried with meat. It's edible. There used to be lots of wild ones by streams and rivers, but they became less common later."
(Wild rice stem, water bamboo, Zizania)
The three gathered wild rice stems by the stream for quite a while, filling nearly half their backpack.
Standing up and punching his lower back with his fist, Qin Ziwen let out a long sigh.
Besides the wild rice stems, they also casually caught over a dozen large crabs and threw them into their bucket.
The stream had many crabs, perhaps because they had never been caught before. The stream was rich in resources, with some small black fish about finger-length, but they were very fast and difficult to catch.
Qin Ziwen looked upward. "If we go further up from here, we'll be climbing the mountain. We should be at the foot of the mountain."
This was a descending hillside, and the stream flowed out from above.
However, he couldn't determine the exact location, but this stream could be specially marked. The resources in the stream were quite abundant, and many animals would come to drink by the streamside. So he set up the Fish Trap here, crushed a crab, and threw the fishy-smelling fragments into the trap.
Then he placed his phone in the small bag on the Crowned Eagle's chest and had it fly up to observe the surroundings, hoping to find a noticeable landmark to determine their current precise location.
When the Crowned Eagle came down, Qin Ziwen retrieved the phone.
By comparing the residential complex's position in the video with the tributary stream behind them, they roughly determined their current location.
They were about two to three li in straight-line distance from the residential complex, near the mountain foot, located northeast of the complex.
While browsing through the video, one scene caught his attention.
Qin Ziwen quickly pressed pause and dragged the progress bar back and forth to confirm.
Right above their current position, there was actually a cave.
Qin Ziwen gently rubbed the phone case with his fingers, pondering uncertainly.
The two known Altars so far had both been discovered in mountain caves. Now he had spotted another new cave—could there be an Altar inside?
It was as if a little devil was whispering and tempting in his ear.
"There's a cave here." Qin Ziwen looked at the other two.
Qin Ziwu said without hesitation, "Let's go!"
Deng Guang hesitated for a moment but still nodded. "Let's go check it out."
Climbing along the upper stream, about half an hour later, a cave appeared before the three of them.
The cave wasn't very tall, just over two meters high, but nearly three meters wide. The interior was pitch black with dim light.
The stream originated from within the cave.
The cave entrance was an area of scattered rocks, and the water grew deeper the further in they went.
Qin Ziwen observed the surroundings and noticed that many plants at the edge of the cave showed signs of being trampled.
"Be careful."
Qin Ziwu discovered several scratch marks on a nearby tree. "There are scratches here."
Deng Guang even found a cigarette butt in the grass. "Someone has been here before."
Qin Ziwen became alert. Had someone been here?
He looked at the cave before him. Since someone had been here, this cave had likely already been explored by others.
He took out a flashlight from his bag and turned it to the fourth setting.
A strong beam of light instantly illuminated the pitch-black cave thoroughly.
The cave had a "gourd mouth" shape—narrow at the entrance but spacious inside. A pond had formed inside, and beyond the pond was a deep tunnel.
Above them, several basketball-sized bats flew toward the depths of the tunnel.
In the pond, water splashed as something swam to hide in deeper areas the moment the light beam shone on it.
And on the stone platform beside the pond, a square stone altar stood there, about one meter tall and two meters in diameter.
......