Different

The walls of the stone shelter were thick and solid, blocking out the chilling winds scuttling outside. Once the wooden door was pulled shut and latched, all the howling, gloomy, and desolate sounds of the outside world were entirely isolated.

Inside, the room was dry, enclosed, and as quiet as death without a single sound.

The high-intensity tension of the past few days was completely shed within this tiny safe zone. Over the previous days of pioneering, house-building, stone-gathering, and combat, his nerves had been strained to the extreme every single moment; even during brief rests, a subconscious wariness against danger had always hung in the air. Only until he fell soundly asleep tonight had all the overdraft fatigue been completely cleared out.

Waking up at dawn, Lu Heng stretched his limbs and could clearly perceive the changes in his body.

The muscle soreness, stiff waist and back, and sluggish shoulders and neck that had previously been suppressed by topically applied Muscle-Bone Grass completely faded away. His body did not have the slightest bit of lagging fatigue, and every inch of his flesh and skin was relaxed yet powerful; his reactions, strength, and flexibility were all at their best state since his transmigration.

He sat in place in silence for a few seconds, thinking very directly in his heart.

The drop in temperature was becoming more and more obvious, the wind grew colder day by day, and visible signs of a cold wave lay right before his eyes. Natural disasters would not wait for anyone, and staying passively guarded inside the shelter would sooner or later get him driven to death by the sudden low temperatures and harsh environment. The only way out was to hoard as many medicinal herbs, supplies, and equipment as possible while there was still a buffer time, building up a few more layers of confidence to save his own life.

Yesterday he had only stepped on the outermost edge of the swamp, encountering enemies in a rush and fighting in a rush, with no chance at all to probe deeply. He had only explored a tiny corner of the entire Frost Forest; where the medicine was, where the resources were, and where fatal dangers were hidden, he knew none of it. Currently, the only reliable medicinal herb source he had locked down was the Muscle-Bone Grass around the swamp stone slopes.

If he wanted to get through the winter safely, he had to enter the swamp again.

Fighting with the Swamp Poison Lizard yesterday, that old wooden spear had bent, split, and deformed, with its spearhead badly damaged and completely ruined, making it utterly unable to withstand a second use.

Lu Heng pushed the door open and walked out of the shelter. The morning cold wind rushed straight at his face, and the biting chill clinging to his skin woke him up instantly. He picked out a sturdy-growing oak branch in the forest; the wood was hard and full of toughness, making it best suited for a path-finding spear.

He took down the iron axe from his waist and squatted on the ground to trim it right on the spot.

The blade of the iron axe was sharp and firm, making his chopping and shaving crisp and decisive. Pressing the timber down firmly with one hand while holding the axe handle steadily with the other, he first forcefully hacked off all the messy branches and protruding wooden knots, trimming the entire branch straight and regular. After the rough blank was shaped, he stopped heavy chopping, slowed his force, and used the axe edge to scrape and grind slowly bit by bit, smoothing out all the burrs and bumps on the shaft. Finally, he focused on narrowing the front end, repeatedly cutting and pressing it down to hone a thick and sharp spearhead.

His movements were not skillful, carrying a novice's clumsiness, but every single stroke was steady and heavy, without the slightest impatience.

A moment later, a brand-new long wooden spear took shape. The shaft was handy and the spearhead was sharp, far more reliable than the battered old weapon from yesterday.

Grasping it in his hand, his heart felt much more settled. The swamp terrain was damp and complex, with mud pits, hidden quagmires, venomous insects, and unknown hazards countless in number; in such a place, a handy weapon was the most basic guarantee for survival.

Packing up his equipment with the iron axe strapped to his back and the wooden spear gripped tightly in his hands, Lu Heng walked step by step along the gentle slope toward the swamp boundary.

At first, his feet were still stepping on the hard, dry soil of the mountain forest, where a breeze flowed and blew away the gloomy, damp air. Yet after walking a few dozen steps inward, the environment changed abruptly.

The wind stopped.

The air became dead-still, and a stuffy, heavy dampness mixed with the smells of rotting water weeds and fermenting silt pressed tightly around his entire body, making even breathing carry a turbid, sticky sensation.

The moment he stepped into this region, tiny black flying gnats swarmed over immediately.

They were extremely small, flying all over the sky, repeatedly circling around his ears, eye corners, and neck, landing on his skin to bite from time to time. Waves of tiny irritation came one after another; though not excruciatingly painful, they were exceptionally grinding.

Lu Heng's heart tightened, instinctively breeding aversion and vigilance.

These little bugs looked inconspicuous, yet they were the most troublesome. Numerous, endless, and unkillable, being bitten for a long time would cause the skin to swell and inflame. In a desolate place like this, a minor wound's inflammation could turn into a fatal trouble.

Dropping his gaze downward, the withered grass and dwarf grass stems lying fallen by the roadside were covered with fine leeches.

Black and extremely thin, they clung tightly to the shaded sides of the grass leaves, lying in ambush quietly without moving, waiting specifically for a heat source to approach. As long as his trouser legs lightly brushed past the grass clumps, they would immediately wiggle and climb, crawling along the gaps in the fabric toward his skin. Once they attached themselves to suck blood, they were very hard to pull off, and pulling them off by force would tear the skin and flesh.

Lu Heng put away all laxity instantly.

The places that looked the most inconspicuous were where one died the fastest.

He changed his normal walking posture, gripped the wooden spear tightly with both hands, and strictly maintained the cautious rhythm he had figured out-moving forward half a step, with the spearhead probing the path ahead first.

Before every single step down, he used the spearhead to fiercely probe the silt, shallow water puddles, and intertwined withered grass ahead of him, testing whether there were soft, sinking deep pits, hidden underground currents, or living creatures lurking in the dark beneath. Confirming that there was no abnormal movement and not the slightest sign of danger, he would dare to slowly put his foot down and step firmly.

The rhythm was slow, the progress was slow, and it was extremely tedious, yet it could avoid a sudden deadly ambush to the maximum extent.

Advancing step by step through such probing, when he reached a shallow water shoal, he saw a cluster of low berry bushes growing densely by the water's edge. The berries were dark in color with a layer of damp moisture condensing on their surface, making them exceptionally conspicuous among the withered and barren swamp vegetation.

Lu Heng did not approach or pick them, simply memorizing this location firmly.

The auspiciousness or doom of strange wild fruits was hard to tell, and without verified safety, they must never be touched. He planned to wait until his subsequent supplies were sufficient and his equipment better before coming back to investigate whether they were edible. For now, he only marked them and did not covet unknown resources for the moment.

Continuing to hold the spear and probe deeply at a slow pace, after pushing forward for another section of distance, a familiar fishy and muttony stench suddenly drifted into the air.

The smell was not thick, but its recognizability was extremely high, highly similar to the body odor of the Swamp Poison Lizard from yesterday.

Lu Heng stopped instantly, his whole body's muscles tightening reflexively as his fingertips clenched the wooden spear and his gaze swept rapidly across the surroundings.

Ahead was a sunken depression where the silt on the ground had been repeatedly rolled flat and smooth, with no newly grown weeds and sparse, disorderly surrounding vegetation. The entire area exuded the desolation left behind by a solitary predatory beast that had once inhabited it.

Still, he did not dare to be certain.

Just because the smell and terrain were similar, it could not directly determine a lair; misjudging the wilderness was sending oneself to death.

Lu Heng bent down to pick up a few sections of dry, withered branches and a small lump of dry mud, using the strength of his wrist to toss them one after another into the deepest part of the depression.

The withered branches rolled upon landing, and the mud lump struck the silt, producing a faint, muffled sound.

He concentrated his mind and settled his breath, staring fixedly at the movement in the depression while holding his breath for a dozen seconds.

There was no abnormal movement, no lunging and pouncing, and no strange noise. The entire depression was quiet, with only the fallen debris lying silently on the muddy surface.

After repeated probing yielded nothing, combined with the orientation-this location was extremely close to where he had killed the poison lizard yesterday-plus the consistent fishy stench and the activity traces of a solitary predatory beast, all clues piled together, allowing Lu Heng to make a judgment.

There was a high probability that this was the nest where that solitary poison lizard had previously inhabited and hidden.

After confirming there was no danger, his gaze landed on the exact center of the depression.

Right at the center of the flat muddy clearing, a Black Iron chest sat quietly. The box body was dark and heavy, looking exceptionally eye-catching in the muddy and dilapidated environment.

Lu Heng remained cautious, circling the outer perimeter of the chest to conduct a complete inspection. Confirming there were no blind spots, no ambushes, and no traps, he stepped forward and reached out to touch the chest body.

A slight latch click sounded, and the chest lid sprang open automatically, neatly presenting the supplies inside.

[Obtained: Tanned Leather Armor Blueprint]

[Obtained: Potent Insect-Repellent Ointment Blueprint]

[Obtained: Body Enhancement Potion (Black Iron)]

[Obtained: Light Crossbow, Crossbow Arrow × 12]

[Obtained: Frost Forest Beast Compendium]

Two crafting blueprints, a physical enhancement potion, a set of ranged weapons, and the compendium.

It happened to fill his biggest shortcomings at the current stage: having no armor, no insect-repellent methods, limited physical strength, and only melee weapons. The arrival of this batch of supplies instantly raised his survival fault-tolerance rate by more than a notch.

Properly storing all the chest supplies into his storage slots, Lu Heng's gaze swept over the damp soil crevices at the edge of the nest.

Among the cover of weeds, a few inconspicuous medicinal herbs were growing.

He immediately raised his wrist to activate his bracelet, aiming at the herbs one by one to appraise them as clear entries popped up before his eyes.

[Name: Hemostatic Grass]

[Grade: Common]

[Characteristics: Juice is mild and non-irritating; external application can quickly contract superficial skin and flesh scratches and bruising bleeding, with stable hemostatic effects]

[Usage: Routine external trauma emergency treatment]

[Name: Swamp Mosquito-Repelling Grass]

[Grade: Black Iron]

[Characteristics: The plant carries a special volatile scent, naturally restraining swamp flying gnats, black leeches, and all kinds of venomous insects, with a stable repellent range]

[Usage: Keep close to the body or crush into juice to smear on skin for long-lasting avoidance of insect and leech harassment]

Lu Heng bent down, carefully avoiding the surrounding wet and rotten silt, and reached out to pick two stalks of Hemostatic Grass and three stalks of Swamp Mosquito-Repelling Grass, storing them separately to prevent their medicinal properties from interfering with each other.

Up to this point, the true target of this trip, the Muscle-Bone Grass, still had not been found.

The depths of the swamp were extremely vast with complex topography, where depressions, water weeds, and silt layers obstructed his view step by step; the stone slope topography suitable for Muscle-Bone Grass to grow had not been found yet.

After a brief rest, Lu Heng gripped his wooden spear tightly once more, maintaining the cautious rhythm of probing every step, and continued to push deeper into the swamp.

The stuffy, damp, and cold air around him never dissipated, and the unknown crises lurking in the dark never vanished. Before the cold wave completely swept across the entire region, he had to thoroughly hoard enough life-saving Muscle-Bone Grass, paving a safe way out for the coming natural disaster.