72 Ghos (1/2)

After they went into the forest, Ren Xiaosu paid close attention to any signs of a struggle, as the mystery of the two missing soldiers from last night remained unsolved. Ren Xiaosu wanted to know what exactly happened to them.

The heavy rain had washed away both of their footprints, which made it very difficult for Ren Xiaosu to locate their tracks.

Without any footprints, he could only examine the leaves and branches in the surroundings.

As the forest was extremely dense, thick bushes could be found everywhere under the huge canopies. If the two of them had passed through the forest, they would definitely break some branches along the way. This was something that would not get washed away by the rain.

Ren Xiaosu followed the path of some slightly broken branches, but the trail only lasted a few dozen meters before vanishing.

When Xu Xianchu realized that Ren Xiaosu was looking for something, he asked, ”Found anything yet?”

”No.” Ren Xiaosu shook his head. ”They didn't go any further than this. Their tracks abruptly stopped over here.”

The two of them must have been terrified, so they shouldn't have ventured too far away from the hollow. However, something here did not make any sense. The two of them were just barely more than ten meters out from the hollow at the time. If an accident had happened here, those of us in the hollow should have heard it.

Even if there the sound of the rain was muffling it at the time!

So the most probable reason was that, when they came here to relieve themselves, they encountered something that caught them so off guard that they didn't even have the chance to make a sound!

When Ren Xiaosu looked at the trees in the surrounding area, he found that not a single tree had bark torn off the tree trunks. There were no traces of fighting or struggle, nothing at all.

What was truly scary here was the fear of the unknown.

”Let's go.” Xu Xianchu said, ”In such circumstances, we need to find an even safer place to set up camp. We have to do that even if we have to end the day's journey earlier than scheduled.”

Ren Xiaosu agreed with Xu Xianchu's point of view. ”It's best if we can find a cave similar to the hollow from last night. Although we don't know what happened, we were safe in the hollow. So I think it's better to find a similar cave to set up camp tonight.”

The sky had not cleared up yet after the rain, so it could still rain again afterwards. As the saying went, ”A cold spell comes after the autumn rain.” The rain had also staved off the sweltering heat caused by the volcanic activity.

The group of people walked through the forest with extreme difficulty. Ren Xiaosu suggested to Xu Xianchu to try his best to take a path where there were no puddles. In the current era where ants could grow to as large as a human finger pad, and face bugs were even a freaking thing, encountering something like leeches now might just get someone killed.

The clothes they were wearing could not protect them from a leech's bite.

”I wonder how the bugs grew to such a large size?” Ren Xiaosu wondered, ”Just what are those face bugs, really?”

Xu Xianchu thought for a moment and said, ”Whatever they are, those face bugs shouldn't be able to surpass the limitations of being an insect, right? Their body structure ensures that they can't grow to a large size like mammals since the supply of oxygen just wouldn't allow for something like that to happen. That's why I suspect the proportion of oxygen in the air here is very high, which has allowed them to grow to the size they are. Have you guys noticed it yet? Even though we're fatigued physically, our minds are in fine shape, and we can still think clearly. This definitely has something to do with the increased amount of oxygen we're breathing.”

As Ren Xiaosu listened to Xu Xianchu's analysis, he found that it sounded quite reasonable. It was not only due to the lifeforms here evolving, there was also some scientific reasoning involved.

”Wait a minute.” Ren Xiaosu was surprised. ”Is it because the plant life here is also mutating and evolving that it increased the oxygen levels? The vegetation near the stronghold has also started thriving a little. In that case, will there also be incidents of insect infestations in the future?”