Cave Refuge

Time reversed by five minutes.

The Guard Squad member who had fallen to the ground looked up at his comrades on the city wall with a resentful gaze, hoping to quickly identify which disloyal bastard had pushed him over.

Although he was sure that their captain had played a role in his downfall, considering the captain's actual combat strength, he eventually had to switch his target of vengeance to the teammate who had pushed him, finding an opportunity to let him experience the same feelings he was enduring right now.

Since he was already pushed down, if he did nothing and immediately climbed back up the wall, though safety might be guaranteed, he could become the butt of others' jokes forever, possibly being branded a coward for the rest of his life.

One can die in many ways, perhaps as weighty as Mount Tai or as light as a feather, but one must not die socially. Once socially dead, those dark spots could likely haunt one for a lifetime.

With that in mind, he calmed his somewhat disconcerted heart and then crouched down to gather some wild grass under his feet.

He yanked the wild grass directly from the soil, and the ground underneath, once smooth from the grass, now became uneven because of their removal.

The reason for his rough handling was first that he didn't believe the ubiquitous wild grass was any kind of rare plant, and secondly, having no botanical knowledge, he naturally couldn't recognize the value of the grass in his hands.

He casually stuffed the pulled grass into the backpack behind him. The most important reason he didn't use Storage Items was that he actually lacked Storage Equipment, so whatever he grabbed naturally had to go into his backpack.

Although some might feel Storage Equipment had become widespread—after all, nearly everyone who was a friend of Dong Tianyu had Storage Equipment regardless of how they obtained it—Dong Tianyu's status had been rising since the Natural Disaster, and he mingled with only the learned and noble, making possession of Storage Equipment among their group an inevitable norm.

But the reality in the camp was different. Not even mentioning those survivors who had not chosen a Bearing branch for their Companion Spirit Treasure, the majority of survivors in the camp hadn't evolved their Companion Spirit Treasure more than twice, let alone reached the third stage of evolution.

To evolve a Companion Spirit Treasure, one would exhaust a vast number of Mysterious Cores, far beyond the imagination of ordinary people. It's precisely for this reason most common people had seen others use Storage Items.

But after truly understanding them, they would realize certain things could only be obtained if born with them. If you're not born with them, even working to death might not be enough to acquire them in the future.

Of course, besides the most important reason, another significant reason was that using Storage Items to store items had some delay. Though the delay was not long, in combat, even a mere second could affect the outcome of the battle.

That's why most survivors, even those with Storage Items, preferred carrying a tool belt with various emergency tools, so they could draw their weapons more quickly and smoothly during a fight.

Despite having prepared in advance, as the Guard Squad member approached the forest without yet entering, dozens of Flying Daggers made from various leaves suddenly ambushed him from all directions.

The sight of so many shadows flying out from the forest caused the Guard Squad members on the city wall, who were holding onto safety ropes, to pull hard on them. Seeing his action, the others quickly realized what was happening, and everyone rushed to help, eagerly uniting their efforts to pull their friend back to the safety of the wall as fast as possible.

Despite their immediate response to danger, tugging and pulling at the safety ropes, the proximity between the Guard Squad member and the forest was too close. The sudden ambush from the forest's direction seemed suspicious no matter how one looked at it.

However, at this moment, the most important thing was to ensure the safety of that person. After all, it was they who had pushed their own friend down, and though it was just for a joke at the time, if the other party were to be injured or even die because of it, that was something they absolutely did not wish to see.

In their frantic pulling, the safety rope that had been loosely trailing on the ground suddenly tensed, and soon after, while the member of the Guard Squad had not yet reacted, they swiftly dragged him toward the camp.

Though the members of the Guard Squad on the city wall reacted quickly, he had already reached the edge of the forest, and alongside the dark shadows that sped out of the woods, many still managed to hit their target and embed themselves in his body.

Since the safety rope was tied behind him, when he was attacked by the dark shadows, he could only use his arms to protect his face, as for the safety of the other parts of his body, that was left to fate.

When he was pulled up to the city wall, everyone fell silent at the sight of the things that had penetrated his clothing and entered his flesh.

However, upon seeing the person lying unconscious on the ground, bleeding from over a dozen spots, everyone immediately dispersed to maintain the upwind and then began to clean his wounds and dress them simply.

What silenced the crowd was the realization that the objects that had ambushed and hit his body, still embedded within, were not any special weapons, but various different leaves.

Seeing the performance of the teammate lying on the ground at that time, those present instantly developed a tangible understanding of the saying, "Flying Flower Picking Leaves, all can injure a person."

Had it not been for the fact that those leaves had entered their teammate's body before everyone's eyes, they would never have believed that the leaves they pulled from their friend's body, identical to those that fell from the trees before the Natural Disaster, could not only pierce through clothing but also easily breach the physical defenses of a Martial Artist.

It is known from testing that a Martial Artist with a Cultivation Level at the Energy Refining Realm, relying solely on their physical body, can be immune to small firearms. This proves that when those leaves attacked their friend, the impact must have already exceeded that of standard handgun bullets.

And in such an extreme impact, those leaves still remained intact, not showing any signs of fragmentation, even after entering the body, giving off a highly unscientific feeling.

Looking at the perfectly intact leaves of various species plucked from their teammate's body, everyone on the scene unconsciously cast their gaze towards the forest outside the camp.

Though their teammate had over a dozen puncture wounds and was dragged back to the city wall with blood seeping out of him, looking as if his life wouldn't last long,

In fact, these were merely puncture wounds, and all one had to do was to remove all the leaves embedded in his body and apply some Hemostatic Medicine, and with the physical condition of a Martial Artist, he would quickly recover as before.

When that member of the Guard Squad was pulled back to the city wall, bloodied all over, Dong Tianyu had just arrived at the edge of the forest.

Yet by the time Dong Tianyu ventured deeper into the forest, not only did he not suffer any attacks, but the forest's interior was eerily silent. Apart from the plants, there seemed to be no evidence of any living creature having existed there.

Although the forest that encased the camp had grown overnight, the quiet environment inside the forest was also somewhat abnormal at this time.

After all, before entering the forest, Dong Tianyu had sensed many eyes on him, but once inside the camp, he could not find the source of those gazes. Therefore, even if he hadn't found anything now, Dong Tianyu was not going to give up so easily.