Chapter 26: The truth hidden in the weeds

With the map, Xu Xin would not lose his way or go in circles like most people do in the jungle, so there was no need to leave any markers. He walked straight in one direction.

After walking for an unknown amount of time, that mysterious voice sounded in his mind again.

[Warning: Do not go more than three kilometers away from the treehouse, or something you don't want to see will happen.]

It seemed he had reached the edge of the three-kilometer radius. Xu Xin stopped and observed his surroundings. By now, he had left the resource area. From his perspective, most of the surrounding plants were emitting white light, with only a few scattered green lights.

Xu Xin checked those green lights, but unfortunately, they were just ordinary green-level resources, which were abundant in his resource area.

"Ying!" The little panda Coco, perched on his shoulder, suddenly called out and jumped down.

"What's wrong, Coco? Did you discover something?" Xu Xin hurriedly asked.

Coco tugged at Xu Xin's pants, indicating for him to follow.

The treehouse was at the very center of the circular area, and Xu Xin was currently at the easternmost edge of this circle. Coco was now leading him towards the southwest.

The little one must have discovered something. Xu Xin was delighted; this little fellow was truly his lucky star.

That direction was one Xu Xin had never been to before.

The small stream flowed from west to east. He had walked along the stream towards the east, reached the western edge of the entire resource area, planted the treehouse there, and then traversed the entire resource area eastward to his current position.

The direction Coco was leading him was to the southern part of the resource area, a place he had never been before. Even on the map, it was black. Fortunately, there were no red dots in that darkness, which put Xu Xin at ease.

Following behind Coco, Xu Xin gradually noticed differences.

The surroundings were very similar to the areas Xu Xin had passed through before, all white poplar forests. Since it was summer, the ground was covered with grass and shrubs, but Xu Xin vaguely sensed that the grass and shrubs on the ground seemed slightly different from what he had seen before.

Something felt off, but he couldn't immediately pinpoint what it was, which left Xu Xin deep in thought.

Coco, walking ahead, kept looking back to make sure Xu Xin was following and hadn't gotten lost. Seeing that he had slowed down due to his contemplation, Coco immediately came back to tug at his pants.

"Coco, why are you going in this direction?" Xu Xin felt he was on the verge of realizing something.

"Ying?" Coco tilted its head.

It seemed pointless to ask; this little one was probably just following its instincts. Xu Xin shook his head helplessly and continued to examine the shrubs and weeds.

"Eh?" Xu Xin seemed to notice something. Looking at the weeds and shrubs before him, he tilted his head to the left, then to the right, and suddenly had an expression of enlightenment. He clapped his hands together, "I've got it!"

"Ying!" Coco was startled and jumped up, doing a somersault in the air.

Xu Xin finally understood why he felt the weeds and shrubs here were subtly different from what he had seen before.

Naturally growing weeds and shrubs in any place are usually disorderly and grow freely. All the places he had passed through before were like this, like untended fields, overgrown with weeds, very chaotic.

But the weeds and shrubs here were different. Upon careful observation, one would notice that they were all slightly tilted in one direction. Although the degree was very small, Xu Xin could still distinguish between disorder and order.

There was no wind in the jungle at this time, so this wasn't caused by wind. Besides, if it were wind, these weeds and shrubs should be swaying, but they weren't.

Xu Xin looked up at the surrounding white poplars and was amazed to find that although the trunks and branches of the white poplars had no sense of direction, every leaf seemed to be slightly oriented in one direction,

the same direction as the weeds and shrubs on the ground.

That direction must have something attracting these plants.

Confirming his inner thoughts, Xu Xin's mood became cheerful. He took out a large red berry from his backpack and said with a smile, "Here, Coco, this is your reward! Without you, I wouldn't have discovered this pattern so quickly."

Seeing the red berry in Xu Xin's hand, Coco immediately made a sound and stood on its hind legs, grabbing Xu Xin's pants again.

After Xu Xin fed this red berry to Coco, its steps became light, jumping back and forth in front while making "ying ying ying" sounds.

Looking at the little one in front of him, Xu Xin's whole demeanor relaxed, and he shook his head with a smile.

The further they went, the more Xu Xin could feel the tilt of the weeds and shrubs on the ground. By now, he could sense that the surrounding weeds and shrubs were no longer pointing in one direction, but towards a single point.

He knew they were getting close. But there were no red dots on his map, and he couldn't see any high-level colors in his vision, only large patches of white with scattered green dots.

Coco, walking in front, had now slowed its pace. It seemed to be hesitating whether to continue forward, as if there might be danger ahead.

"Coco, come back." Xu Xin didn't let Coco lead the way anymore. He didn't know what they might encounter ahead, and he didn't want anything to happen to his precious little panda.

Hearing this, Coco jumped back onto Xu Xin's shoulder, obediently lying there, its big tail wrapped around the back of its neck and resting on his other shoulder, both eyes fixed intently on what was ahead.

The direction indicated by the ground weeds and shrubs became more and more obvious, and Xu Xin's heart gradually became excited.

This must be a treasure chest! Who could resist a treasure chest?

Xu Xin was walking quickly forward when suddenly, a sense of crisis arose in his heart, making the corner of his eye twitch.

In his consciousness, on the map, a red dot was slowly lighting up at his position.

"Not good!" Xu Xin immediately pushed against a nearby tree with both hands, forcibly changing his direction, and quickly dove to one side.

Just as Xu Xin dove to the side, the ground beneath his feet and in front of his previous direction of travel suddenly split open. Countless sharp vines shot up from below!

Each vine was as thick as an arm, with dark green vines that had faint red threads flowing through them, looking incredibly eerie.

"Ying ying ying!… Ying?" Coco fell to the ground due to Xu Xin's sudden movement and was about to complain when it saw the vines that had suddenly emerged. It stared wide-eyed at the scene before it.

Those eerie vines burst from the ground, tangling together in the air, seemingly transforming into a giant drill bit. They then turned and rushed towards Xu Xin's position.

"Damn it!" Xu Xin couldn't help but curse, rolling once again, narrowly avoiding the second attack from these ground-erupting vines.

With a "bang," the intertwined vines that had become a drill bit violently pierced the ground right next to him. Countless pebbles flew out, hitting Xu Xin's arms and cheeks, causing sharp pain.

Fortunately, after the vines pierced the ground, they seemed to have exhausted all their energy and stopped moving.