Exploring, First Entry into Orchard Island

A black vortex materialized before Ji Xinghe. Drawing on her past life's experience, she wasted no time and stepped straight into it.

Everything went pitch black.

Ji Xinghe felt a slight jolt and patted Xiao Xi reassuringly.

The next second, the darkness vanished, and light flashed before her eyes.

What greeted her were vast stretches of deep brown trees, with faint gray smoke seeping from the gaps in their trunks.

Only a few clusters of green leaves clung to the trees, while withered branches bore blue-gray fruits resembling walnuts.

The fruits were a grayish blue, looking even more poisonous than a witch's apples...

Ji Xinghe lifted her gaze to survey her surroundings. The sky was a hazy gray, as if wrapped in a layer of fog.

Dim and silent...

From deeper within came a sharp bird call or two, making the entire island feel even more desolate.

A faint, elusive scent of blood hung in the air, mingled with the smell of damp earth.

After staying here a while, Ji Xinghe felt her breathing grow labored.

"Thud!"

A blue-gray fruit from the tree in front of her suddenly fell, landing on the pile of rotting brown dry leaves beneath.

Ji Xinghe looked over, crouched down, and used the Bloodthirsty Knife to scoop it into her backpack.

[Ding, found Mist Heart Fruit, exploration progress +5%]

Just as she was about to check its info panel, Xiao Xi's voice echoed in her mind.

"Master, Xiao Xi... doesn't like... this place." The vine on her shoulder poked uneasily at her clothes.

The two tender new leaves on the vine, which had been standing upright this morning, now drooped limply on either side.

Ji Xinghe gently rubbed the vine to soothe it: "What's wrong? Feeling unwell? I have to either reach full exploration progress or wait twelve hours before I can go back."

Xiao Xi shook, its vine pointing toward the gray fog's depths: "Inside... there's a bad thing... Master can't go."

Her tone was gentle: "Does Xiao Xi mean there's a powerful monster in there?"

"Not just that! There's also... change... go in, and you'll become a monster."

After saying that, it paused, then muttered softly as the vine swayed: "But... from over there... something fragrant drifts..."

Ji Xinghe didn't catch its muttering, instead pondering Xiao Xi's earlier words.

Go in and become a monster?

Xiao Xi wouldn't harm her. If she said something lurked in the gray fog's depths, it was probably true.

But if she didn't explore further, the progress would never fill up.

Forget it, take it one step at a time. First priority: keep herself alive!

She tucked Xiao Xi into her cloak pocket, pulled it snug, then opened the exploration map on her panel.

[Current Exploration Island: Orchard Island]

[Exploration Progress: 5%]

[Remaining Exploration Time: 11:59:33]

On the map, aside from a green dot and the terrain near it, everything else was pitch black.

Only explored areas would light up on the map.

The green dot marked her position. She was roughly on the island's southern side.

With her general location known, Ji Xinghe opened her backpack to check the fruit's info.

If you want to understand a place, first understand everything that exists within it.

Besides, the Mist Heart Fruit had added to her exploration progress, meaning it was important for exploring the island.

"Mist Heart Fruit: Attack-assist type fruit, non-toxic, inedible. Typically grows near gray fog."

"Property: Reduces speed (creatures hit by Mist Heart Fruit have their speed reduced by 2 to 5 times; against dark creatures and Deformed Monsters, the reduction is doubled)."

"Note: One of the most hated fruits by dark creatures. Someday, they'll wipe out every sticky Mist Heart Fruit!"

There's a saying: everything has its counterbalance.

Combining the system's info with Xiao Xi's hints, Ji Xinghe could roughly deduce what lay in the gray fog's depths.

Dark creatures!

She'd only heard of dark creatures in her past life, yet here she was facing them so early in this one?

It seemed that even after rebirth, she couldn't blindly follow her past life's playbook. After all, she was improving, and the creatures she encountered were no longer the small fry of before.

Ji Xinghe looked around. It was still eerily quiet, with no movement at all.

Those fruits were somewhat useful, so if she wanted to pick them, she'd have to climb the tree—but climbing meant she couldn't hold her weapon.

Then she lowered her head, patted Xiao Xi in her pocket, and set her on her shoulder. "Xiao Xi's so capable—picking fruits should be no trouble at all, right?"

She'd noticed earlier, when Xiao Xi fought the Bubble Fish Beast, that her vines could stretch.

Hearing her words, Xiao Xi's vines instantly perked up.

The leaves on her head nodded. "Of course!"

With that, she extended her vines toward the nearest fruit tree.

Some trees bore dozens of fruits, others only a few.

The quantity wasn't large, so she planned to pick the fruits and then dig up the trees to bring them back for planting.

After all, it was Orchard Island—Ji Xinghe had even brought two shovels, afraid she wouldn't have enough fruit trees to dig up.

Though they weren't quite what she'd imagined fruit trees to be, as long as they were useful, that was enough.

Just as Xiao Xi coiled around the first Mist Heart Fruit, the gray mist on the ground suddenly condensed into a whirlpool.

A wolf-shaped monster leaped out of the whirlpool.

The monster was blood-red all over, gray aura seeping from its entire body.

Ji Xinghe quickly stepped back and called Xiao Xi to retreat.

The wooden bolt in the Star Feather Repeating Crossbow in her left hand was ready to fire, striking the monster—and the tree behind it.