Bamboo Forest

After rushing to Lin Chenxing's room, Gao Zheng stood immediately by the bedside, watching the medical staff from the corporate infirmary bustle about as they examined him.

Gao Zheng asked the doctor at once, "Doctor Mao, how is Chenxing?"

Doctor Mao shook his head, sighed, and said, "I can only confirm that Lin's bodily functions are entirely normal. As for when he might wake up, it is difficult to say."

"According to the test results, the cognitive activity in President Chen's brain is currently very high. Under normal circumstances, he should be awake, but... I have never encountered a situation like this."

"He might wake up in the next two days, or it is not impossible that he never wakes up at all."

Gao Zheng sat on the edge of the bed and slowly reached out to hold Lin Chenxing's hand, but his own hands could not help but tremble, and his voice wavered slightly, "Chenxing, there was good news today, but why must the heavens toy with us like this?"

"You are one of the pillars of our corporation. Neither President Chen nor I will allow anything to happen to you. You must wake up soon. We are all waiting for you."

After holding Lin Chenxing's hand and watching him quietly for a while, Gao Zheng tucked his hand back under the quilt, and a long-absent, naturally imposing expression appeared on his face.

"Lin Jin, what exactly happened before?" Gao Zheng spat out, word by word.

All the veterans who had followed Gao Zheng since the early days of his startup realized that his fury had become uncontrollable.

Lin Jin reported to Gao Zheng with caution, recounting their experiences one by one starting from the moment they left the base.

It turned out that five days ago, while the Third Exploration Team was exploring various plants in the forest, they arrived near a Bamboo Forest.

This Bamboo Forest was somewhat too quiet, unlike the previous areas where almost every grove had a few monsters roaming about, occasionally roaring to announce their presence.

Lin Chenxing signaled for everyone to watch their footing, to avoid stepping on dead leaves as much as possible, and to minimize the sound of their footsteps to avoid alerting any monsters that might be in the Bamboo Forest.

All the team members followed suit.

However, after traversing almost the entire Bamboo Forest, they did not find a single trace of any monster.

This left Lin Chenxing and the other team members very puzzled, but at the same time, they felt relieved.

After some discussion, this Bamboo Forest was designated as a transit and rest point for the team's outward exploration.

Yesterday, January 26th, after a battle with a Mid-level Beast Soldier—a second-tier monster by their own classification—a Tri-Horned Wild Boar, they successfully killed the beast and harvested three sharp horns. However, two team members were severely injured after being gored by the boar's horns. After an emergency retreat to the Bamboo Forest, Lin Chenxing and the others decided to rest there and properly treat the two wounded men before moving on.

After drops of blood splattered onto the ground, the atmosphere of the Bamboo Forest began to change.

It sounded like a breeze blowing through, a rustling sound that was crisp and pleasant throughout the entire forest, causing everyone's spirits to relax.

Lin Chenxing assumed it was just a normal wind blowing through and did not pay much attention to it.

Then, accompanied by the rustling, a large number of bamboo leaves began to fall, and under the influence of the wind, they drifted in unison toward the spot where everyone was resting.

As a few bamboo leaves swept past a low thicket of thorns, a team member noticed that although the leaves were moving slowly, some of the thorns were sliced clean off. He shouted, "Run! We have to leave this Bamboo Forest! These bamboo leaves are dangerous!" With that, he turned and ran out of the forest, away from the direction the leaves were drifting.

Everyone was now highly sensitive to such warnings; they scrambled to their feet, carried the two severely wounded men, and fled the Bamboo Forest. Once outside, they turned back and saw that those bamboo leaves had scraped away an entire layer of soil from the spot where the twenty of them had just been sitting, and they felt a sudden chill of terror.

Standing outside the Bamboo Forest, Lin Chenxing could not help but sigh, "It turns out the monsters aren't the most terrifying things; these plants, whether dead or alive, are the most dangerous."

"I don't know why these bamboo stalks, which didn't attack us for the past few days, suddenly took action today."

Qin Shuanghai, a young fan of Lin Chenxing's in the team, said excitedly, "The reaction speed training the Captain made me do was truly farsighted. If we hadn't trained specifically for this, we would have all been finished here."

Another team member, Liang Yun, said, "When has the Captain's decision ever been in vain? But this incident was indeed sudden. I didn't expect it to be just as the Captain thought—the plants have also started to change. However, this also means our previous direction was correct; those rare treasures the Captain mentioned, which can help us quickly improve our physical fitness, must exist."

Lin Chenxing coughed intentionally to interrupt their constant flattery and said, "Alright, enough of that. Everyone, look at what is different this time compared to when we came before, and why it triggered an attack from these bamboo stalks."

Lin Jin asked directly, "Could it have been caused by the smell of blood when we were treating their wounds just now?"

Lin Chenxing looked at the two severely wounded team members, then back at the Bamboo Forest, and said, "It's a possibility, but there's a problem. When we came here to rest last time, we were also covered in quite a bit of monster blood. Why didn't that smell pique their interest?"

Lin Jin hesitated for a moment and asked, "Could it be that these bamboo stalks only react to human blood?"

Lin Chenxing narrowed his eyes, staring at the Bamboo Forest, and spoke slowly, "If that's the case, then this Bamboo Forest is a high-level threat to us. But I don't think that's it. If they only reacted to human blood, why don't other monsters come here?"

Qin Shuanghai said, "Captain, why don't we circle around this Bamboo Forest and see what is different inside compared to before?"

Lin Chenxing agreed with this suggestion and had Qin Shuanghai take three team members to scout around the forest.

Nearly an hour later, Qin Shuanghai finally returned. He reported to Lin Chenxing, "Captain, there are some monster remains at the edge of the forest, and they are all fresh. Further out from the forest along the remains, there are drag marks. It seems these monsters were dragged to the edge of the forest and then tossed inside."

Upon hearing this investigation result, Lin Chenxing was somewhat shocked, which only strengthened his resolve to destroy this Bamboo Forest.

"Let's go. We'll head back first and come back tomorrow to destroy this forest."

Afterward, Lin Chenxing led the members of the Third Exploration Team back to the base and began preparing for the next day's plan.

The next day, January 27th, early in the morning, all members of the Third Exploration Team—except for the two severely wounded—were waiting at the base gate. Once Lin Chenxing arrived, they set off immediately, following the path they had cleared earlier toward the Bamboo Forest.