Chapter 55: Chapter 55: Natural Spirits
Nowadays, the Shell Lady feels nothing about being bound and confined like this.
To her, the briefcase has beco a place to sleep, and it’s safer than sleeping inside a shell as she did before.
Awakened by Chen Shouyi’s movents, she lazily opened her eyes and yawned.
Once she saw her surroundings clearly, she was instantly wide awake, her eyes darting around. As soon as the Giant left to pack his things, she imdiately flipped herself upright and jumped off the bed, quickly running to a corner under the bed, fumbling around until a glass bead appeared in her hand.
She gently wiped away the dust on the surface and looked at the crystal-clear, perfectly round, srizing glow, feeling a thrill she couldn’t contain.
She had thought that she would never get this lost gemstone back again.
She had even secretly felt sad about it more than once.
Unexpectedly, as soon as she opened her eyes, a delightful surprise arrived.
However, this ti, she couldn’t let the Giant discover it.
Suppressing her excitent, she quickly ran out from under the bed.
She glanced up at a corner of the blanket hanging down, jumped with all her might, leaping thirty or forty centiters into the air, grabbing the hanging blanket, and quickly climbed back onto the bed.
Her face was flushed, feigning nonchalance, she glanced at Chen Shouyi, and seeing he wasn’t paying attention, quickly hid the glass bead inside her princess dress.
Chen Shouyi was completely unaware of the Shell Lady’s little actions. He was placing all the luggage into the newly bought backpack.
There were still four or five hours until six in the evening.
He took out a Universal Language Dictionary, leaned against the bed, morizing words while conserving energy.
With an intelligence now as high as 12.6, studying had beco quite easy for him. Even morizing vocabulary had beco an enjoyable task.
A language often reflects the level of material civilization behind it.
The more precise and detailed the language, with fewer ambiguities, the more advanced and developed the material civilization is, and vice versa.
This Universal Language, clearly, is quite crude.
Each word has several anings.
For example, the word for sun can also an sunlight, dayti, brightness, male, and various other interpretations, each requiring context to understand its aning.
The entire Universal Language Dictionary contains only about a thousand words, yet its anings are all-encompassing.
However, a backward civilization doesn’t necessarily an weakness.
In fact, in a world like this with an environnt that inhibits chemical reactions, developing productivity is quite difficult. Even after another ten thousand years, things might still remain the sa.
If Earth is a material world composed of the four fundantal forces: electromagnetic force, gravity, weak nuclear force, and strong nuclear force, then this world is a supernormal world composed of five fundantal forces.
In such a unique environnt, the upper limit of biological power can be elevated to produce all kinds of extraordinary abilities, even leading to the birth of deities.
...
Chen Shouyi morized the dictionary for an hour, finally feeling a bit sleepy, so he lay down for a short nap.
When he naturally awoke, it was already half-past five.
He ate five pieces of compressed biscuits and three cans of at to deal with dinner.
He then unhesitatingly shouldered the backpack containing arrows and jungle gear, and prepared to tie up the Shell Lady again.
It was then he keenly noticed sothing unusual about the Shell Lady, her legs seed to not co together tightly.
"What are you hiding in there?"
The Shell Lady tightly covered her skirt, shaking her head innocently with all her might: "Nothing, I don’t have a gemstone."
She couldn’t even lie convincingly.
Chen Shouyi was dumbfounded, but he didn’t want to lift her skirt and pretended not to see it.
After all, they’d need her to guide them at sea later, and if he angered her and she refused to help, it would be troubleso.
...
He placed the Shell Lady, who was beaming with a mischievous grin, back into the briefcase and zipped it up.
Leaving the inn, it was already dark outside, the streets sparsely populated. Pretending to hurry, he briskly walked.
Reaching an unfinished building, he swiftly made a turn towards the building when the patrolling police weren’t paying attention.
...
In the other world, it was just dawn, the sun had yet to rise, but the light was already brightening.
The sky was cloudless, which was undoubtedly a good on for Chen Shouyi.
Not wasting any ti, he retrieved his weapons from the cave and imdiately prepared to board the ship.
By this ti, the sun was slowly rising over the sea, like a large fireball bathing in the ocean, creating a spectacular view.
Breathing in the damp, cold, and salty air, Chen Shouyi felt a slight thrill.
Taking up the oar, he rowed towards the sea.
...
With experience from the last ti, his speed was faster this ti. After rowing for about two hours, the small island was already in sight from afar.
However, he didn’t find any dugout canoe this ti.
Perhaps the disappearance of a canoe yesterday made the Barbarians wary, or perhaps it was on the other side of the island.
Chen Shouyi wasn’t in a rush, knowing he’d find it eventually.
This action was quite dangerous, and before coming, he had already planned the operation in his heart.
First, never venture deeply into the island before ensuring safety.
Ever since hearing about that "Sacred Tree" from the mouths of the dying Barbarians yesterday, he felt uneasy. There were too many mysterious things in this world, countless creatures that could cost him his life.
Second, destroy all the Barbarians’ dugout canoes.
He planned to circle the island, knowing he’d find them eventually.
In fact, this was his primary goal today. Once this step was completed, the passage would be relatively secure, possibly for half a year to several years.
...
The saying "you can’t reach a mountain even if you run a horse" applies to a small island as well. By the ti he truly approached the shore, another hour had passed.
He tied the beached dugout canoe to a rock on the beach.
Then he removed his clothes and changed into jungle gear, applying camo paint on his face.
As soon as he set foot on the island, the Shell Lady felt anxious. Standing on Chen Shouyi’s shoulder, she clutched his hair nervously and whispered in his ear:
"Giant, it’s dangerous here, let’s go back."
Hearing the Shell Lady’s warning, Chen Shouyi felt a chill in his heart.
Indeed, he also felt an oppressive sensation since landing on the island, similar to the low pressure before a thunderstorm, making it hard to breathe.
"Where is it dangerous, did you see sothing?" Chen Shouyi asked solemnly.
The Shell Lady had so mysterious abilities, perhaps she could truly see sothing?
The Shell Lady nervously whispered, "Yes, many, many!"
"Where?"
"Everywhere!" The Shell Lady pointed at a big tree in front, then at a rock not far away:
"They’re hiding, they’ll co out after sunset."
Chen Shouyi was bewildered. If she pointed at a tree, he could understand, but pointing at an ordinary rock and calling it dangerous was beyond common comprehension.
"What are they?"
"Spirits, there are strong Natural Spirits here."
Chen Shouyi suddenly understood. He had heard about Natural Spirits, many science programs specifically introduced these mysterious entities before.
In fact, it’s a term translated directly from the Universal Language. On Earth, they’re also called ghosts.
These things are almost ubiquitous in this world, where there are living beings, there are Natural Spirits. They mostly co from the souls of dead animals, lacking much intellect, driven by instincts alone.
They hide in trees, rocks, and underground during the day.
Weak ones secretly feed on the blood of dead creatures, unable to approach living beings, these Natural Spirits are pretty much considered trash.
However, so Natural Spirits are inherently powerful, possessing mountains and rivers, parasitizing life in their territories like leeches, devouring souls, and even being worshipped as Mountain Gods or Water Gods.
Those are truly terrifying.
When people refer to Natural Spirits, they usually an the latter, as the forr aren’t even worth ntioning.
The small island near the passage is mostly lifeless, with few of these entities.
But here, with dense vegetation and vibrant life, these entities are apparently abundant.
Fortunately, it’s dayti now. Aside from those that have already developed divinity, no other Natural Spirits can move during the day.
He boldly approached the rock the Shell Lady pointed at.
He indeed felt a slight chilling sensation.
He looked at the distant forest, no wonder the environnt here felt gloomy, as if sunlight filtered through it, leaving no warmth.
PS: Asking for recomndations, ah ah ah.
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