Deep into the Swamp (Part 2)

The Tree Tribe group set off eastward in a hurry, without even taking a spark. A Torch in the Black Forest was undoubtedly telling the enemy their location.

Dashu's heart was also a little uncertain. Luo Chong had been gone for several days. Where had he gone now, and was he still alive?

Dashu didn't know any of this, but if they didn't leave now, they would just be waiting for death. He had no choice.

The enemies behind them had already found their tribe. The treehouse that had supported their survival for generations had now turned into a sea of fire. The fire was started by Elder Tree. This was all he could do now, and he didn't know if it could burn to death a few of the enemies who had invaded their tribe.

The Tree Tribe, which originally had only 32 people, was now down to only 30 after this change, and more than half of them were minors.

The adults carried Mutong and rabbits on their backs, and the younger children were held by the older children. When they were hungry, they would gnaw on some dried meat. When they were thirsty, they would drink that strange salty tree sap. When they were tired, they would climb up to the tree canopy to rest. The group was dejected and hurried towards the east side of the Black Forest without stopping.

Originally, Dashu didn't hold out much hope of finding Luo Chong, but he didn't expect to see many branches stuck diagonally in the ground along the way, all pointing eastward, and these branches were all newly cut. This gave Dashu a lot of confidence. He felt that these should be the marks left by Luo Chong.

These marks were indeed left by Luo Chong, but when he made them, it was because he was afraid he couldn't find his way back and prepared them for his return journey, but he didn't expect them to become signposts for Dashu to find him.

When Luo Chong walked this path before, it took him two days, because he had to constantly correct his direction and keep cutting branches to make marks.

But Dashu and the others were different. They were following the marks directly, and they were doing so without knowing when the pursuers would catch up to them. Therefore, it only took them a day and a half to reach the outskirts of the Black Forest.

It was already evening when they first emerged. The sky turned crimson under the setting sun. It was the first time the children of the Tree Tribe had seen the outside world, full of curiosity and questions. Not to mention them, even the adults had never traveled so far.

Dashu also had questions. He wanted to know where Luo Chong had gone. The marks Luo Chong left stopped here. Where should he look for him?

However, after walking not much further, Dashu saw some new signs. There were many branches that had just been cut not long ago on the ground, and small trees that had been felled. These were all things Luo Chong did when he made horse tack and peeled bark to twist into ropes.

And by the small stream below the slope, Dashu also found traces of a fire, a pile of black charcoal extinguished by water. There were also many animal footprints on the soft mud by the stream, including Luo Chong's. This was easy to confirm, after all, there weren't many people wearing those strange boots.

But where Luo Chong went next, Dashu couldn't find. He could only spend the night here with his tribesmen for now. He felt that if Luo Chong was going back, he would definitely come this way again.

On the other hand, while Dashu was leading his tribesmen eastward, escaping the pursuit and searching for Luo Chong, Luo Chong was also advancing into the depths of the Swamp.

In the seemingly endless Swamp wetland, Luo Chong, rowing a simple Kayak, rode the wind and waves - no, he cut through the thorns and broke through the waterweeds floating on the water.

And this was actually the real danger of the Swamp terrain, because you simply didn't know whether there was water or mud under these waterweeds.

Luo Chong, paddling the Kayak, slowly moved forward while carefully examining the plants around him. His careful gaze was as difficult as finding a grain of sand in a pile of millet.

Perhaps some people would say, isn't it just Wild Rice? Who who has been to the countryside hasn't seen it? Even city dwellers can occasionally see beautiful pictures of rice fields online, especially those terraced rice fields with clear layers, which are even more beautiful. BUT that is a rice field planted with countless identical plants.

What Luo Chong was looking for, however, was Wild Rice hidden among billions of reeds.

This is simple to say, but it is indeed a hard job, because Wild Rice is not uncommon. On the contrary, the probability of it appearing is very high.

The success of modern high-yield rice can be said to be due to a kind of destiny. Grandpa Yuan, the father of hybrid rice in China, was that destined person.

Hybrid rice, as the name suggests, is hybridized with what? In fact, it was a peculiar-looking Wild Rice with incredibly strong vitality that was accidentally discovered by the discerning expert, Grandpa Yuan. After being hybridized with domesticated artificially planted rice, our great foodie nation finally had endless high-yield rice.

Moreover, this is not an isolated case. In the mid-1980s, an old farmer named Grandpa Chen in southern China discovered a magical Wild Rice in the reed marshes of the coastal saline-alkali land in GD.

Grandpa Chen, who had been planting rice for half his life, did not ignore it. Instead, he immediately realized the importance of this powerful organism that grew vigorously by the sea and was super tolerant of salt and alkali. So he went up and intensely collected the only 522 grains of rice.

After repeated planting and experiments, those few hundred grains finally developed into vast rice fields, making hundreds of millions of acres of barren saline-alkali land along our coastline and inland useful, directly solving the food problem of hundreds of millions of people. The rice variety "Hai Dao 86" also became famous overseas and became an object of contention for countries all over the world.

What Luo Chong is doing now can even rewrite - no, create the history of this world, a cross-era initiative that will transform humanity from the hunting age to the agricultural age.

So, in this primitive Swamp, the probability of this kind of rice appearing should be high, and it is also a food that waterbirds like to eat. As expected, heaven rewards the diligent.

As Luo Chong used the Long Spear to poke the reed clumps beside him one by one, like combing hair in a careful carpet search, he still found nothing.

But this act of "beating the grass to startle the snake" did fulfill that poem, "Struggling to cross, struggling to cross, startling a flock of gulls and egrets."

Luo Chong swept his pole through the reeds, and suddenly, a flock of waterbirds flew up from the reed clumps not far away, startling Luo Chong. He immediately turned his head to look.

He saw a small patch of "reeds" with ears standing out among the other companions in the reed marsh of a shallow water area not far away. Luo Chong's eyes suddenly burst with light, and he couldn't help but feel a surge of joy in his heart. It's it, it's it, it's it, our good friend, Wild Rice!

Luo Chong, who had found his target, couldn't help but laugh out loud, then sat in the Kayak and paddled vigorously towards that shallow water area.

One stroke, two strokes, just as Luo Chong's small boat was about to reach its destination, a human shout suddenly came from behind.

"Hey, #￥%……&**……%￥#￥@#@"

"@##……&())&……%￥"

What? Who the heck is yelling?

Luo Chong turned his head to look in the direction of the sound and saw several naked primitives floating in the water behind him, holding a few pieces of driftwood, waving at him while shouting non-stop, looking very anxious.

The original draft of this chapter has just been revised, and the update is late. I'm sorry everyone, I'm too embarrassed to ask for recommendation votes, feel free. I will try to update on time in the future and will not affect your following. Sorry.