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He Yi: "Yes, the candy they spit out is different from other candies. It's soft and quite delicious, but it's hard to find. They're very alert; every time we find it, they move away, and we can't go back to the old spot to look for it again."

Jian Mo became more and more interested as she listened. "Can we look for it? What you've said makes me really want to check."

He Yi grinned. "If others were talking to me, I wouldn't bother, but if you want to see Dr. Doctor Jian Mo, then of course I have to go."

Upon hearing this, Wu Jiong glanced over.

He Yi felt a chill on her neck, and pulled her wide teeth back in. "Find it, find it, find it now."

The people around them couldn't stop laughing.

The group dispersed and wandered around in the woods.

After searching for a while, a sub-orc shouted from ahead, "Found it! It's in the tree!"

Jian Mo pulled Wu Jiong along and they both looked up at the tree. "Where is it?"

Orc: "Right under the first branch, there's a brownish thing that looks like a tree scar, do you see it?"

Thanks to Jian Mo's current transformation into a sub-beastman, his eyesight has improved considerably. He squinted for a long time before finally spotting the scar, which was slightly smaller than a coin.

Jian Mo: "Are those the bugs you were talking about under the tree scar?"

The orc laughed, "That's not a tree scar; it's actually an insect."

Jian Mo understood. "Mimicry?"

Orc: "What is mimicry? I don't know. I'll go up and catch that bug, then you'll understand."

The orc put the basket on its back on the ground, conjured claws, jumped up into the tree, grabbed the trunk with its claws, and climbed to a height of five or six meters in no time.

Then, he stretched out his long, slender fingers and pinched the coin-like object out, showing it to Jian Mo and Wu Jiong under the tree. "This is the insect."

Looking at the insect still struggling between his fingers, Jian Mo blurted out, "Isn't this some kind of turtle ant?"

Some worker ants of the turtle ant species have evolved shield-like heads to block the entrance to their burrows, which is quite unique. Jian Mo had encountered related information before and hadn't forgotten it all these years.

The sub-orc shook his head. "We call them Fruit Beetle here. Fruit Beetle can convert Black Cotton Fruit into sugar. If you see these Fruit Beetle hiding on the tree trunk, you can basically be sure there's sugar inside."

Jian Mo shook her head. "What do you call this? My shell is the bowl that holds me, and my head is the symbol that will kill me?"

The people of the Dense Forest Tribe laughed.

Another sub-orc said, "Stop playing around, hurry up and rummage around, see how much candy is inside?"

Urged on by his companions, the orc clinging to the tree reached his furry paws into the small tree hole, trying to pry open the hole and retrieve the candy inside.

Seeing that he was having a hard time digging, the others quickly climbed up the tree, took out the knife tucked behind their backs, and widened the hole in a few quick movements before reaching in together to pluck the hole.

The tree hollow didn't look very big, and the collection inside wasn't particularly extensive.

Several people searched for a while and pulled out several handfuls of shiny crystals.

Everyone climbed down from the tree, picked a few leaves, and placed the crystals they had on the leaves, gesturing to Jian Mo and Wu Jiong: "This is sugar."

Jian Mo looked at the translucent, irregular crystal and thought it resembled a piece of frosted glass.

He asked hesitantly, "Should we eat it directly? Don't we need to cook it?"

One of the sub-orcs laughed, "No need, we've been eating them for hundreds of years, it's really nothing, don't worry."

Jian Mo smiled and took one. It felt soft and bouncy. She put it in her mouth, and a rich fruity flavor instantly burst out. It was like eating concentrated fruit juice gummies. It was delicious and had a very unique texture.

Jian Mo exclaimed in amazement, "It's delicious!"

A member of the Dense Forest Tribe: "Yes, it's delicious, but it's not easy to find."

Another person chimed in, "It's not that hard to find. If you look hard enough, you can find it. But it's not worth it. You could find so many delicious things in that time!"

Jian Mo thought about the food she had encountered along the way and felt it was really not worth it.

Putting everything else aside, the forests of the Dense Forest Tribe are truly abundant with delicious food—various soft stems and tubers, sweet berries, oily nuts, and plump medium to small-sized game.

No wonder they have so many rotten teeth. They eat really well and don't pay much attention to oral health, so it's normal that their teeth are in bad shape.

Besides Black Cotton Fruit and fruit gummies, the people of the Dense Forest Tribe also took Jian Mo and Wu Jiong to pick other sweet berries.

As the people of the Dense Forest Tribe said, this season is rich in produce, and there is plenty of food to gather.

They spent most of the day picking, and their baskets were completely full.

After picking the fruit, Jian Mo and the others were about to head back.

Since they couldn't take the fresh berries, the people of the Dense Forest Tribe gave them dried fruit instead.

The final packing included chili peppers, metal blocks, and various specialties from the Dense Forest Tribe, totaling twelve baskets of supplies.

Looking at the large basket placed on the open ground, Shu Tao suggested, "Why don't we take you back?"

Wu Jiong: "Thank you, but the Riverside Tribe is too far from here. It would be too tiring for everyone to make the trip. We can carry them ourselves. I'll carry four baskets, and the two Flying-Winged Beasts will each carry four baskets. We can manage."

Ying'ao, who landed nearby, chirped calmly, which served as confirmation of Wu Jiong's words.

Jian Mo chuckled and patted Ying'ao's leg, then patted Jiujiu's leg as well, saying, "We'll head back now. Your fillings might not be very strong. If you feel any discomfort, just come to our Riverside Tribe to find me."

Shu Tao nodded.

A wave of reluctance washed over He Yi: "If only Doctor Jian Mo and your family lived closer to us, we could see you every day. Now, how often can we see each other?"

Jian Mo smiled and said, "Our two tribes aren't close, but with friendship between us, we still feel very close. Thinking about it, it doesn't feel so far."