Lin Ze put the last piece of pancake rolled with pickles into his mouth, patted the residue on his hands, and returned his attention to the map.
He didn't know how to read this kind of hand-drawn animal skin map, but the boundary line between the black area and the blank area on the map was clearly drawn and curved like a wriggling worm.
"Which direction did your father enter from?"
Colin's finger moved two inches north from the edge of the valley and stopped at a notch.
"On the north slope, there is a path trodden by the tribe. That's where my father entered."
Lin Ze frowned. "Where is he buried now?"
"The cemetery on the southern slope of the valley."
"I want to go see him. Maybe I can find something."
Colin was silent for a moment and nodded in agreement.
At this time, there was a sound of footsteps outside the door, and a young girl opened the curtain and came in. She was in her early twenties, with short hair reaching her ears, a tanned face, her sleeves rolled up to her elbows, and her forearms were covered with thin lines carved by thorns.
She was carrying a rattan basket in her hand, the bottom of which was stained with wet mud and broken leaves.
"Grandpa, there are fewer fungi on the northern slope."
Colin turned sideways and glanced at the fungi in the basket, frowning. "How much is missing?"
"Usually I can pick more than half of the basket, but today I only laid the bottom, and..."
The girl pulled out two mushrooms from the bottom of the basket and handed them over, "These two mushrooms grow on the edge of the stone seam. They are dark in color and have a hard umbrella cover. I have never seen anything like this before."
Lin Ze leaned over and took a look. The cap was dark gray, with an abnormal dark green ring around the edge. The surface was not as smooth as normal fungi, but was covered with a layer of fine particles, which looked similar to sandpaper.
Colin looked at it over and over for a long time, put the fungi on the table, and shook his head.
"The north slope is too close to the forest. I'm afraid it might have gotten something strange on it."
"Grandpa, who is this?" The girl finally set her sights on Lin Ze.
"This is Lord Dragonborn." Colin introduced briefly.
Then he said to Lin Ze, "Sir, this is my granddaughter, Eve."
Eve looked at Lin Ze twice, his eyes stopping on his dusty robe and messy hair.
"Dragonborn?" There was not much awe in her tone, more like a plain confirmation.
"Grandpa, please rest first while I go and show these two fungi to Beilun." She picked the fungi back into the basket, nodded to Lin Ze and went out.
When the door curtain fell, a gust of wind was brought in, blowing the corners of the map.
"This girl has been running with me in the woods since she was a child. She is better at picking herbs and identifying fungi than anyone else in the valley." Colin said while looking at the swaying curtain.
Lin Ze leaned on the back of the chair and slowly tapped his fingers on the table.
He is thinking about a problem.
He had also read a lot of information about Dark Magic plants and mutant creatures in the Ministry of Magic file before.
In most of those cases, there is a clear source of the spell. As long as the source is found and the right medicine is prescribed, the problem can be solved.
But the forest Whitewater Valley has been expanding for five hundred years. It cannot be burned down, but it grows faster if it is cut down. This is no longer just Dark Magic.
This forest seems to be alive.
"Ke Mr. Lin."
"Huh?"
"Is the rate of expansion of this forest constant? For example, how much does it grow every year? Is there a pattern?"
Colin thought for a while, dug out a stack of yellowed sheepskins from an old wooden box beside the table, and spread them out on the table.
"This is the location of the edge of the forest recorded by the elders of the valley. I measured it with steps. It's not very accurate, but the approximate range is correct."
Lin Ze stacked the sheepskins together and compared them, and found a pattern.
The expansion rate in the first three hundred years was very slow, with the area moving outward by about one or two steps every year.
But starting two hundred years ago, the speed suddenly accelerated, and it doubled in the past hundred years.
"What happened in the valley two hundred years ago?"
Colin's fingers stopped on the sheepskin.
"Two hundred years ago, the population of the valley increased from more than 1,000 to nearly 3,000, and we cleared several hillsides on the north slope."
"What did you do when you opened up wasteland?"
Colin opened his mouth, then shook his head.
He stood up and walked to the corner, took out a book whose leather cover was almost falling apart from the bottom of the box and flipped through two pages.
"Before clearing the land, Council of Elders performed a ceremony and moved the boundary marker of the forest half a mile away."
"Boundary monument?"
"Left by our ancestors, there is a stone pillar with runes engraved on it, standing at the junction of the valley and the forest. It is said that the stone pillar is the only thing left by the devil who planted the curse five hundred years ago."
Lin Ze sat up straight.
"Where is the boundary marker now?"
"It should be at the edge of the forest, but the specific location... my father went to see it before entering the forest that time, but he never mentioned it after he came back."
Lin Ze stood up, folded the map and put it in his arms.
"Okay, take me to see the North Slope."
Colin did not refuse, picked up an old wooden stick from the corner, put on a short cloak and took Lin Ze out the door.
The north slope of Whitewater Valley is much steeper than the south, with more gravel than soil, and the turf is so thin that you can see the rock formations underneath.
The two of them walked for about one stick of incense, and the terrain gradually leveled off, and an open meadow appeared in front of them.
At the end of the meadow, the outline of Black Forest appeared in the field of vision.
Seen from a distance, the shape of the trees is no different from normal trees, but the color is too dark. The entire forest seems to be covered by a layer of gray mist, and even the sunlight seems to have been swallowed up by half.
Lin Ze stopped about ten steps away from the forest.
He squatted down and placed his palms flat on the grass.
The moment his fingertips touched the ground, he felt a very subtle tremor coming from deep in the soil.
"Did you feel it?"
Colin squatted down and put his hands on the ground.
"Earthquake?"
"It's not an earthquake."
Lin Ze stared at the ground for a long time, stood up and patted the mud on his knees.
"Let's go back and prepare first. I'll go in and take a look tomorrow."
Colin didn't ask any more questions, just nodded and followed Lin Ze back.
It was already dark when the two returned to the stone castle. Eve set up a large pot in the yard, with firewood burning underneath. Mushroom soup was simmering in the pot. The aroma came out from the edge of the pot, mixed with the smoke of the firewood, and made the whole yard warm.
"Grandpa, Master Dragonborn, come over and drink soup." Eve greeted, stirring the pot with a long-handled wooden spoon in his hand.
Lin Ze walked over, found a stone to sit on next to the fire, and took a bowl of soup.
In addition to the mushrooms, there are a few pieces of air-dried meat in the soup. It doesn't have a strong salty taste and is very fresh in the mouth.
"How is it?" Eve squatted opposite and looked at him.
"Not bad." Lin Ze took another sip.
Eve smiled, showing two small tiger teeth, lowered his head and continued to add firewood to the fire.
The firelight reflected on her face, making those sunburned freckles particularly obvious.
Lin Ze held the bowl and looked at the jumping flames, still thinking about the forest in his mind.