Large Bluestone
The movements were extremely light, with barely any sound from the water, as they silently moved away from the dangerous area where they had just fallen in.
He couldn't swim at all, but fortunately the tributary was shallow, with the deepest part only reaching his waist. His feet were always firmly planted on the uneven riverbed rocks, so he didn't have to worry about drowning. It was because of this that he was able to escape underwater by standing on his feet and moving around.
Tiny black shadows occasionally darted across the river's surface overhead, and the remaining swarms of wasps continued to hover and patrol. Their buzzing, carried down through the water, became muffled and oppressive, like a shadow hanging heavily over the surface.
Lu Heng knew in his heart that he absolutely could not stay any longer.
He could only hold his breath and slowly move downstream. Only when his chest ached and tightened, and he was on the verge of his limit, did he dare to barely peek above the water, quickly take a deep breath, and immediately sink back into the water before the swarm of bees could react.
The brief moment it surfaced to breathe was so fast that its trajectory was almost impossible to detect.
The poisonous wasps overhead could only sense the fleeting ripples on the water's surface, but they couldn't lock onto any specific target. Their repeated dives failed, leaving them only able to circle anxiously in place.
This monotonous and tense underwater movement was repeated for a long time.
As he moved further down, the buzzing sounds from the water behind him gradually faded, no longer an oppressive feeling pressing against his ears. Lu Heng tentatively relaxed his body a little, no longer relying solely on his feet to move, but clumsily raising his hands to paddle.
It's the simplest and most primitive dog-paddle posture, without any rules or techniques, and the movements are stiff and awkward, but it's reliable and quiet.
Using the propulsion of the water flow and small strokes, his speed steadily increased, creating an irreversible distance between him and the pursuing poisonous bees. He drifted downstream for over a hundred meters, and the buzzing of their wings could no longer be heard overhead.
The persistent Black Tiger Poison Bees have finally been completely rid of.
The huge weight that had been hanging over Lu Heng's heart lifted with a thud. He slowed his movements and slowly moved towards the shallow water on the side.
His feet firmly planted on the soft mud of the shallows. Holding onto the tall grass by the water's edge, he slowly walked out of the river. His clothes were completely soaked, clinging heavily to his skin, chilling him to the bone.
Even though the crisis has temporarily subsided, Lu Heng dares not be careless.
He stood motionless on the riverbank, his eyes quickly scanning the entire riverbank, the shadows of the bushes, and the dead corners of the slope, carefully checking for any lurking beasts or other poisonous insects.
The entire forest was quiet and still, with only the soft rustling of leaves in the wind; there was nothing unusual about it.
Confirming that the surroundings were absolutely safe, Lu Heng's long-tense nerves suddenly relaxed, and a wave of exhaustion washed over him. His legs went weak, and he collapsed onto the warm, dry sand and stones of the riverbank.
His back pressed against the rough sand and gravel, exhaustion seeping into every part of his body. He slowly raised his hand, touching the stings on the back of his neck and the top of his head.
The moment my fingertip touched it, a sharp, piercing pain exploded, accompanied by a persistent, burning, and numbing sensation. The numbness slowly spread from my neck muscles to my shoulder, and a wave of soreness and weakness washed over me. My scalp felt heavy, and the effects of the toxins did not immediately subside upon my escape.
The embarrassing scene of being chased by the swarm of bees, fleeing in a panic, and jumping into the water and choking on the water, all flashed through my mind.
Lu Heng pursed his lips, his heart filled with speechlessness and frustration.
He muttered a complaint under his breath, his voice hoarse and weary.
"It was just a stone thrown at me, what's the big deal?"
He found it outrageous from beginning to end.
It was merely a momentary urge on the cliff top to throw a pebble at the side of the beehive in the distance. It neither damaged the nest nor provoked the bees. But it happened to coincide with the unexpected raid on the beehive by Beehawk. The enraged and out-of-control Black Tiger Poison Bees, without any reason, directed all their anger at the only living creature they could see.
There is no greater calamity than this.
The stinging pain in his scalp and neck was persistent, and the waves of tingling numbness would occasionally shoot up to his head, constantly reminding him of the life-or-death danger he had just faced. If he had been slower along the way, or if he had been surrounded by the swarm of bees, even his Black Iron Tier physique would not have been able to withstand the dense stings given the swarming venom of the Black Tiger Poison Bees.
Lu Heng lay quietly, letting the evening breeze sweep over his soaked clothes, slowly calming his rapid and disordered breathing. The physical strength exhausted from the violent downhill escape slowly returned, the tightness in his chest and the soreness in his muscles gradually subsided, and his physical condition gradually stabilized.
After fully recovering, he sat up, supporting himself on the sand and gravel, and looked up to carefully examine the surrounding landscape.
The river meanders long and winding, with a gentle, clear flow. The banks are covered with lush vegetation, and the slopes are gently undulating. After a moment of careful observation, Lu Heng was certain that this tributary was not the river he had previously explored on the cliff face.
The landscape, shoreline vegetation, and riverbed structure are all completely different.
Fortunately, the water flow was generally consistent and belonged to a branch of the same watershed, so it wouldn't completely disrupt his judgment of the location of this mountain forest and prevent him from getting completely lost.
Recalling the entire process of his underwater escape, one detail remained deeply etched in his mind.
The riverbed of this tributary was unlike any other river he had ever seen. Ordinary riverbeds are usually filled with silt, fine sand, and small pebbles, and are soft and flat. But the riverbed here was densely covered with rocks of all sizes, piled up in a staggered pattern, in great numbers, with almost no dead corners of silt.
Moreover, the color, texture, and density of these underwater stones are significantly different from ordinary mountain pebbles.
Upon realizing this, Lu Heng's eyes flickered.
He had been preoccupied with the materials Shelter, searching everywhere for iron ore and high-quality stone, but with little success. This riverbed full of strange rocks might hold an unexpected treasure.
Lu Heng got up and walked to the water's edge, bent down and reached his hand into the clear river water, sorting, feeling and searching among the piled stones one by one.
The underwater rocks were mostly ordinary, rough, and worthless stones. He patiently examined them one by one, his fingertips repeatedly tracing the cold, hard surfaces.
A moment later, a boulder half-buried in shallow mud and sand made his fingertips pause.
The stone was thick and heavy, its edges worn smooth by years of river erosion, leaving a fine and dense surface. He gripped both sides of the stone with his hands, and with a little force, he lifted it slightly out of the mud and sand. He weighed it in his hand, and its heavy weight was far greater than that of ordinary gravel.
Lu Heng immediately raised his Wristband's authentication function.
A clear entry appeared on a pale blue screen.
[Item: Large Bluestone]
[Rank: Black Iron Tier]
[Introduction: After years of erosion and soaking by river water, the stone is dense and hard, with extremely strong resistance to weathering and pressure. It is a high-quality natural building stone, suitable for reinforcing Shelter walls and upgrading defensive fortifications.]
His gaze swept across the text on the panel, Lu Heng's fingers unconsciously tracing the smooth surface of the stone polished by the water, his fingertips repeatedly brushing against the cold, hard stone. The building materials he had been searching for all along were actually hidden beneath this inconspicuous little river.
Suppressing the surging emotions in his heart, he continued to explore and search along the shallow water, and soon figured out the pattern.
Although the riverbed is littered with boulders, large, Black Iron Tier Large Bluestone is scarce, scattered among ordinary stones rather than clustered together. At a glance, it is filled with useless pebbles, with very few high-quality stones.
There are no shortcuts to accumulating enough materials to upgrade your Shelter.
Standing in the cool, shallow water, Lu Heng gazed at the piles of rocks covering the riverbed and made up his mind.
He could only patiently proceed along the riverbed, meticulously searching, identifying, and sifting through countless ordinary pebbles to slowly collect these rare Large Bluestone, gradually accumulating the core building resources needed for the Shelter.