Chapter 24: The Wooden Forest

  The other three quickly followed. Then they soon discovered that this thing was not so bitter after all - the fruit in the mountain could be eaten, and the water could be drunk!

  This somehow eased the tense nerves of the crowd. In any case, starving to death is absolutely one of the most unbearable and painful ways to die.

  Just as Du Ying said, he looked like a tree in the Liyun Mountain, with an original height of over 20 meters. Considering it was really inconvenient, he controlled his height to make his line of sight level with the other three people. "I can only do this much," he said helplessly.

  Can't help but say, this feeling is still quite novel. At least Jiang Siqi had circled around Du Ying several times - of course, at this time he was already full and no longer as weak as before. "You're actually blooming!"

  Jing Sheng glanced over coldly. "What a fuss." He said, then turned to Du Ying, "So your hair isn't dyed?"

  This would be incomprehensible to anyone else, but Du Ying understood. "That's right, it's because of the flowering period." He nodded in agreement while being shocked by the other person's meticulous observation skills.

  "I told you, as long as we bring a map, nothing else needs to be considered!" Su You said with a smile. He has always been optimistic, or rather, thick-skinned, so he thinks they will eventually reach their destination, the only thing to consider is how much time it takes.

  Jiang Siqi immediately stopped. He was well-behaved in front of Su You, and the scope included all people who were with him and Su You together; but absolutely did not include the situation where Su You praised Jing Sheng in front of him.

  But at this time, he is not in an advantageous position. If you say that Jiong Sheng is the culprit who led them into trouble, he seems to be unable to escape blame; if you say that Jiong Sheng did not lead them out of the maze, he seems to be the one dragging his feet.

  So Jiang Siqi could only shut his mouth in frustration, and firmly believed that he must show off his own role later to surpass Jing Sheng.

  Even if it's the story of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, the thieves wouldn't be constantly staring at their treasure cave all the time! Look at Jiong Sheng's urgent stare, it's as if he's about to snatch people away directly!

  Yu Ying gazed at the undercurrents between the three people and intelligently chose not to comment. "What now?" he asked, "Do we continue or take a rest?"

  Su You raised his hand to look at the watch. "It's almost ten..." He had just lain down for less than an hour and was woken up, so naturally he was sleep-deprived and extremely sleepy; but on the other hand, he would rather go out after a good rest, now he couldn't fall asleep and didn't dare to sleep either.

  Jiang Sizhi shares the same feeling.

  Although Qin Sheng didn't know if it was true or not, there must be a weird guy who looked exactly like him. This feeling was worse than the one he got from Jing Sheng, as if something in the dark was staring at the person he liked with piercing eyes. Even if he knew later and treated it as a half-believed joke, the seeds of doubt had already been sown.

  "Then let's keep going." Jing Sheng observed his words and expressions, and came to a conclusion. "How much longer do we have to walk?"

  "I don't know." Du Ying replied, subconsciously raising her head to look up at the sky - before they came in, they saw the location of that giant inverted stone bamboo shoot. "According to my personal feeling, probably..."

  "What's going on?" Su You asked again.

  "Probably need to go to the location of Qinggang first." Du Ying finished speaking. "Because I think, the big stone bamboo shoot we saw, wrapped inside is its tree root, one of them."

  Su You suddenly thought of those stone forests he had encountered on the road and felt that it was very likely. "Can you also determine your position underground?"

  "Almost." Du Ying nodded.

  As someone who also saw Shimu Lin, Jiang Sizhi felt that this inference was not a problem. "Shouldn't it be closer to the mountain top?" he asked, "I feel like it's probably around the foot of the mountain?"

  "That's right." Du Ying affirmed again. "If it's not there, we'll climb further up the mountain."

  Time waits for no man, the four people, no, three men and one tree, set off immediately towards the green oak. Although they thought that the black cave left by the green oak was at the foot of the mountain when they looked down from the top, it was actually quite far away. Especially when several people were highly tense in spirit and extremely exhausted physically, it felt even farther.

  At first, Soo-yoo still had the energy to liven up the atmosphere; but later on, even if he still had the physical strength, he kept his mouth shut — because that would consume other people's physical strength.

  He wasn't particularly tired, but that didn't mean others weren't. Jiang Siqi gritted his teeth and steeled himself to keep moving forward; while Jing Sheng, as the apparent elder and secret rival, certainly wouldn't admit defeat either.

  The result was that the two of them, working even harder, rushed ahead and overtook Du Ying, who had been leading the way; Su You fell behind, and even if he was slow-witted, he could sense that something was off.

  Su You thought of saying he didn't know these two guys anymore. But at this point, it was obviously useless, and he could only explain to Du Ying: "Sorry about that, they're always like this, making a fool of you."

  Du Ying shook her head - the leaves rustled with a soft sound as if blown by a gentle breeze. "It's better to arrive early."

  Su nodded. He now sincerely hoped that this was the last hurdle, and there were no more miscellaneous things. "Right," he suddenly remembered, "can you tell me about your legends? All of them?"

  "I thought you didn't want to hear it." Du Ying replied with profound meaning.

  As soon as he heard it, Su knew that his previous attitude had been discovered by the other party. "It's too beyond common sense," he explained with a shrug of his hands, "but if I myself am also beyond common sense, then I think it's better to figure it out."

  Du Ying tilted her head to look at him, nodding after a while. "I probably know what you want to know." The most likely thing was the connection between Jiang Siqi and Qin Sheng. "Wait until we get out of here, I'll tell you everything."

  Su Yu himself didn't plan to know at this time - now he's telling him a story, and he can't even grasp one key point because his spirit is really exhausted, and his eyelids are all propped up. So when he heard the answer, he just nodded.

  "Just then, Jing Sheng's slightly surprised voice rang out. 'Have we arrived?'"

  Su Yu suddenly lifted his head and saw that the originally dense forest had become sparse and open, with a huge tree shadow faintly visible in front. He was shocked, quickly took a few steps forward, and rushed up. But when he saw what it was, he couldn't help but exclaim "Ah" -

  In front of it was a tree with scattered branches and leaves that could be called a forest, probably the giant Qinggang oak.

  But why is it floating in the air with its roots completely exposed? And its root... why is there only one? Finally, the rectangular stone slab facing the tip of the root, could it be... a coffin?