The deep, secluded jungle, the lush vegetation, if you don't look closely, you can't even distinguish which one is a growing tree trunk and which one is a hanging vine.
Sunlight penetrates through the dense branches and leaves, dappling the bushes, leaving behind mottled traces.
You don't see a single bird, yet you can always hear the calls of unknown birds.
And there is a indescribable smell of acid and decay diffusing in the air.
At this moment, the jungle is similar yet slightly different than before!
Perhaps it is because of the prolonged drought.
Not having walked far, they encountered a corpse.
From a distance you could already smell the stench of the corpse.
Jiang Yao and Tang Xiaoguo both covered their noses and mouths, Shen Bing also frowned.
Washing clean cloth, dripping a few drops of flower water, covering it over your nose and mouth, can effectively reduce the magic damage from the stench of decay.
Lu Zhe had Yao Yao and Guo'er stay put, he and Sister Bing covered their noses, and carefully made their way over. Not having walked far, they soon saw an animal corpse.
It was around 50 centimeters, resembling a pig, but with a much longer snout than a pig's.
Its forelimbs and head were black, its hind limbs and tail were also black, only the middle section was white.
At this time, large amounts of flies were crawling over its body, and large fat maggot babies were happily wriggling around in its nostrils and mouth.
Shen Bing looked it over: "With how extensive your knowledge is, do you know what this is?"
Lu Zhe didn't want to touch it, but through its appearance, and looking up relevant descriptions in his survival handbook, he could basically determine: "It should be a Dream-Eating Beast from the Classic of Mountains and Seas!"
"Stop spewing nonsense, there's no such thing!"
"How could the ancestors lie? Actually, it's a kind of tapir that normally lives in ponds. How did it run here?!" Lu Zhe also felt something was off!
He pondered for a bit, and came up with a guess: "It normally lives in the tidal flats below, perhaps because of the drought, the tidal flats dried up, or because of competition from aquatic predators, it had no choice but to look for another place to find water sources, unexpectedly running here and dying of thirst."
Shen Bing nodded: "There are no attack wounds on the body! What a pity, if it walked a bit further it would have found the creek."
Then, Lu Zhe took out a small plastic bottle, used tree bark to gather the maggots and put them in the bottle.
"What are you doing?"
While collecting maggots, Lu Zhe said: "Yao Yao loves fishing, I'm getting some maggots to give her as fish bait, I'll surprise her in a bit!"
Shen Bing said in astonishment: "Giving maggots to a girl, Lu Zhe you are so talented, but I advise you not to do that?!"
"Why?"
"Yao Yao loves being clean so much, if you give her a bunch of maggots, are you not afraid of scaring her to tears?"
Lu Zhe thought about it: "You're right!"
Having collected over half a bottle of maggots, he poked an air hole in the bottle cap, then screwed on the lid: "Then I'll just use them myself!"
"Let's go!" The two left the corpse, found Yao Yao and Guo'er, and continued walking deeper into the jungle.
When they were close to reaching the creek, they discovered more and more animal traces!
Monkeys, squirrels, mountain goats, wild boars, and all kinds of birds of paradise!
Flying and gliding about the primeval jungle with their colorful feathers.
Tang Xiaoguo pestered Lu Zhe, wanting to catch a couple to bring back and pet, but was flatly refused by Lu Zhe!
When they arrived at the mountain creek, they also saw a dark brown deer drinking water by the streamside, and not far from it was a wild boar.
As expected, the water source attracted many wild animals.
When they saw Lu Zhe, it was as if they saw a terrifying predator, and they sensitively fled into the jungle!
This made Lu Zhe fall into contemplation: "Do I, who loves nature and little animals so much, look so scary?"
Oh well, that's not important!
Lu Zhe noticed a gratifying thing, which was that the water volume of the mountain creek had not decreased due to the drought, instead it had increased!
Lu Zhe guessed that the aggression of the warm currents and the convergence of magma at the volcano base increased the evaporation of moisture within the mountain, then going through filtration and cooling by the mountain's rock and gravel, resulting in the eventually collected water flow being even bigger than before!
This was good news!
In other words, no matter how hot the weather got, the freshwater resources on the volcanic island would not be depleted.
It was just a pity the hot spring water was still around 60-70 degrees, there was simply no way to reach the volcano base through the hot springs, and he didn't know how the planted vegetation was doing down there.
Since they had no way to bathe, they could only wash their faces in the mountain creek.
Compared to the water in the trenches at camp, the water here was more mellow, not at all like evaporated water!
Jiang Yao and Guo'er took off their shoes and happily soaked their feet in the creek water.
Some unknown little fish swam over and gently nibbled at their feet, tickling the two girls into giggles.
"Haha, I discovered another business opportunity!"
"I know! When we go back we can open up a fish spa!"
"Right on, the little fish here nibble more comfortably than the ones at shops."
"You're right, aren't they, Lu Zhe?"
Lu Zhe didn't speak, he was thinking about another issue:
"The hot spring water is sixty to seventy degrees, the water here is only around twenty degrees, what would happen if I directed the creek water into the hot spring pool?"
Shen Bing's eyes also lit up: "The temperature here might decrease?"
"Correct!"
"We could try it!"
However, when Lu Zhe came to the hot spring cave again, he started worrying again.
The hot air billowing out from the hot spring cave was getting thicker and thicker, and the smell of sulfur was also getting stronger!
Shen Bing was somewhat worried: "Can we still go in?"
"I'll try!"
Covering his nose and mouth, he crawled into the cave. He only felt the steam scalding his skin till it tingled unbearably.
If it were anyone else instead of him, any girl that went in would definitely get scalded.
Looking again at the hot spring pool, it was bubbling nonstop.
Lu Zhe didn't touch it with his hand, but estimated the temperature had already neared 80 degrees!
He hurried back out.
The three girls had all gathered around: "How is it? Lu Zhe?"
"The temperature of the hot spring has already reached close to 80 degrees!"
Tang Xiaoguo said worriedly: "Is the volcano going to erupt?"
"No! I guess it's just because of the drought, there won't be big danger, it will just be a bit difficult to get to the volcano base!"
Jiang Yao said worriedly: "The only sweet potato vine is still inside, after so many days without watering, it must have withered!"
Shen Bing said: "Lu Zhe, why don't we still try that method?!"
"Mm!" Lu Zhe nodded and started preparing.
Chopping thick bamboo, splitting them down the middle, removing the partitions to use as water troughs, propping them up one by one from high to low using bamboo poles and rocks, it was very easy to direct the creek water over.
The creek water flowed along the bamboo pipes, turning a corner and entering the hot spring cave, pouring noisily into the hot spring pool.
Then Lu Zhe checked his watch: "I'll come back and see if the water temperature changes, if it drops below 50 degrees, I'll take the risk and go in once! For now, let's go catch some fish by the lake!"
When they arrived at the lakeside.
Looking at the lush vegetation along the lakeside, Lu Zhe decided to clear out a spot suitable for fishing!
And at the same time back at camp, the two young girls encountered new trouble!
A terrifying chicken attacked the camp, launching an assault on the two young girls.
The two girls screamed in fright, firing their guns in panic but missing, only able run towards the bonfire.
But this chicken was completely unafraid of fire, charging straight at them!