Nature Spirits

Shell Girl was already numb to this kind of binding and confinement.

The briefcase had become a place for her to sleep, and it was safer than sleeping inside a shell like before.

Awakened by Chen Shouyi's movements, she lazily opened her eyes and yawned.

As soon as she saw her surroundings, her sleepiness vanished. Her eyes darted around, and as soon as the giant left to pack his things, she immediately rolled over, stood up, and jumped off the bed. She ran with her small legs to a corner under the bed, fumbled around, and quickly produced a glass bead.

She gently wiped the dust off its surface, gazing at its crystal-clear, round, and hazy luster. Her heart was filled with an uncontrollable excitement.

She had thought she would never get back the lost gem.

She had even secretly felt sad about it more than once.

She never expected that a surprise would come the moment she opened her eyes.

However, she couldn't let the giant discover it this time.

She suppressed her excitement and quickly scrambled out from under the bed.

She looked up at the corner of the hanging quilt, jumped with all her might, rising thirty to forty centimeters, grabbed the hanging quilt, and quickly climbed back onto the bed.

Her small face was flushed. She glanced at Chen Shouyi nonchalantly, and seeing that he wasn't paying attention, she quickly hid the glass bead inside her princess dress.

Chen Shouyi was completely unaware of Shell Girl's little actions. He packed all his luggage into the newly bought backpack.

There were still four to five hours until six in the evening.

He took out a Universal Language dictionary, leaned against the bed, and recited words while conserving his energy.

His Intelligence had already reached 126, making learning quite easy for him. He could even find enjoyment in memorizing words.

A language often reflects the level of material civilization behind its culture.

The more precise and detailed a language is, with fewer ambiguities, the more developed and advanced its material civilization is, and vice versa.

This Universal Language was clearly quite crude.

Each of its vocabulary words had multiple interpretations.

For example, the word for "sun" could also mean "sunlight," "daytime," "light," or "male," and each meaning required the appropriate context to understand.

The entire Universal Language dictionary had only a little over a thousand words, but their meanings were all-encompassing.

However, a backward civilization did not necessarily mean weakness.

In fact, in an Otherworld where chemical reactions were relatively suppressed, it was difficult to develop productivity. Even after ten thousand years, it would likely remain the same.

If Earth was a material world composed of the four fundamental forces of electromagnetism, gravity, the weak nuclear force, and the strong nuclear force, then the Otherworld was a supernatural world composed of five fundamental forces.

Under these unique environmental conditions, the upper limit of biological Strength could be increased to a greater extent, giving rise to various supernatural abilities, and even Deities.

Chen Shouyi studied the dictionary for an hour and finally felt a bit sleepy, so he lay down for a nap.

When he woke up naturally, it was already half past five.

Chen Shouyi ate five compressed biscuits and three canned meats to make do for dinner.

He then unhesitatingly put on the backpack containing arrows and the jungle suit and prepared to tie up Shell Girl again.

At this moment, he keenly noticed Shell Girl's abnormality. Her legs seemed unable to close properly.

"What are you hiding inside?"

Shell Girl clutched her skirt tightly, her innocent face desperately shaking her head, "Nothing, I'm not hiding any gems."

She couldn't even lie.

Chen Shouyi was speechless but didn't want to lift her skirt, so he pretended not to see.

After all, he would need her to guide him on the sea later. If he angered her, she might just give up, which would be bad.

He placed Shell Girl, who had a smug look on her face, into the briefcase and zipped it up.

He walked out of the hotel. It was already dark outside, and the streets were sparsely populated. He walked quickly, pretending to be in a hurry.

When he reached the unfinished building, he quickly turned and headed towards it while the patrolling officer wasn't looking.

It was just dawn in the Otherworld, and the sun had not yet risen, but the light had already appeared.

The sky was clear and cloudless, which was undoubtedly a good omen for Chen Shouyi.

Without wasting any time, he retrieved his weapons from the cave and immediately boarded the boat.

The sun was already rising gradually from the sea, like a giant fireball bathing in the ocean, a spectacular sight.

Breathing in the damp, cold, salty air, Chen Shouyi felt a slight surge of energy.

He picked up the oars and rowed towards the sea.

With the experience from last time, he was faster this time. After rowing for about two hours, the island was already visible in the distance.

However, he didn't find any dugout canoes this time.

Perhaps the disappearance of a dugout canoe yesterday had made the Barbarians more vigilant, or perhaps it was on the other side of the island.

Chen Shouyi wasn't in a hurry; he would find them eventually.

This mission was quite dangerous, and he had already formulated a plan before coming.

First, never venture deep into the island until safety is confirmed.

Ever since hearing about the "sacred tree" from the dying Barbarian yesterday, he had felt uneasy. This world held too many mysteries and countless creatures that could easily end his life.

Second, destroy all the Barbarians' Dugout Canoes.

He planned to circle the island; he was sure to find them.

In fact, this was his main objective for today. Once this step was completed, the passage would be essentially safe, with no problems likely for the next six months or even years.

Just as they say, "seeing a mountain from afar is like riding a horse," the island was the same. By the time he truly got close to the shore, another hour had passed.

He tied the beached Dugout Canoe to a rock on the beach.

Then, he took off his clothes, changed into jungle gear, and painted camouflage colors on his face.

As soon as she stepped onto the island, Shell Girl became uneasy. Standing on Chen Shouyi's shoulder, she nervously gripped his hair and whispered in his ear:

"Giant, it's dangerous here, let's go back."

Hearing Shell Girl's warning, Chen Shouyi's heart tightened.

In fact, he also felt a sense of oppression since landing on the island, similar to the low-pressure before a thunderstorm, making it hard to breathe.

"Where is it dangerous? Did you see anything?" Chen Shouyi asked with a grave expression.

Shell Girl had some mysterious abilities; perhaps she could really discover something?

Shell Girl whispered nervously, "Yes, many, many!"

"Where?"

"Everywhere!" Shell Girl pointed with her little finger at a large tree in front of them, then at a rock not far away:

"They're hiding. They come out after sunset."

Chen Shouyi was confused. If she said trees, he could understand, but pointing at an ordinary-looking rock and calling it dangerous was beyond his comprehension.

"What are they?"

"Spirits. There are very powerful Nature Spirits here."

Chen Shouyi suddenly understood. He had indeed heard of Nature Spirits; many popular science programs back home had introduced these mysterious entities.

In fact, this was a direct translation from the common tongue, also known as Ghosts on Earth.

These things were almost ubiquitous in this world. Wherever there were living beings, there were Nature Spirits, mostly the souls of deceased animals, with little intelligence and only instinct.

They hid in trees, rocks, and underground during the day.

The weak ones fed by stealthily absorbing the vital energy of dead creatures, unable to even approach living beings. These Nature Spirits were utterly worthless.

However, some Nature Spirits were naturally powerful, possessing mountains and rivers, leeching the life within their territory, devouring souls, and even being worshipped as mountain gods or river gods.

These could be considered terrifying.

Often, when people referred to Nature Spirits, they meant the latter; the former were of no concern.

The small island near the passage had very little life, so there weren't many of these.

But here, with lush vegetation and vibrant life, there were clearly many.

Fortunately, it was daytime. Except for some extremely powerful Nature Spirits that had already developed divinity, no Nature Spirit could be active during the day.

He boldly walked up to the rock Shell Girl had pointed at.

He did indeed feel a sense of eeriness.

He looked towards the distant forest. No wonder the environment always felt somewhat gloomy, as if the sunlight passing through here had been filtered, leaving no warmth.