Survival of the Nation: My luck was a tiny bit worse.

This side of the camp.

Chen Hao cut off the communication stone and stood on the watchtower, looking into the distance.

The sun had already set, and wisps of smoke rose from the chimneys in the valley.

The waterwheel in the mill turned slowly and steadily. Another crop of wheat had been harvested in the fields, and new rice seedlings had already sprouted tender buds.

Hassan and Farhan are counting the harvested crops in front of the public warehouse.

The three from Xiong Kingdom were moving frozen chunks of meat over in the ice cellar.

Nanbei was fast asleep under the watchtower, its tail occasionally brushing the ground.

Green Bean squatted next to it, diligently licking its paws. When it saw Chen Hao come down from the watchtower, it immediately meowed and darted over to rub against his leg.

"Mung bean, when will you grow as big as your brother Nanbei...?"

That way he can have a mount too.

Chen Hao squatted down and patted Green Bean's head.

Green Bean made a comfortable purring sound, then, as if it had thought of something, it suddenly grabbed his trouser leg and pulled him towards the experimental field.

"What's wrong?"

Chen Hao was half-pulled and half-dragged by Lu Dou to the edge of the experimental field.

In this small experimental field, which was specially fenced off, grows the mutated plant seed that Ou Yun had given him before.

The item that came out of the purple supply box was said to be something that could randomly grow into a plant with special abilities after being planted, but the specific abilities were completely unknown and had to be discovered by oneself.

The older brother even said at the time: "It can't be a man-eating flower, can it?"

At this moment, Chen Hao stood by the experimental field, looking at the tiny sprout emerging from the soil—

"Wow! It really sprouted!"

Chen Hao was quite excited and immediately picked up a pen to jot down notes.

These seeds are unusual. When his older brother threw them to him, he wondered how to plant them.

So they planted the seeds as usual, but for fertilizer, they used minerals that the wild animals had brought as tribute, ground into powder, and then sprinkled on the soil.

We did it just to give it a try, and to our surprise, it actually sprouted!

"Wow! Amazing, Brother Chen, you actually managed to grow it!"

Hassan, carrying a basket of potatoes, passed by and, seeing the tender green seedling on the ground, was overjoyed.

"Unfortunately, we still don't know what it is."

Chen Hao chuckled, "By the way, could you bring me all that ore powder? It's really useful for it."

"Alright!" Hassan said with a smile and left.

As evening approached, Ou Yun and Leng Ruolan rode Nanbei back to the camp.

"Didn't they say there was a teleportation system? Why did we have to walk back?"

"There's too much stuff, it's difficult to transport. Let's just move it back here for now."

Several large lynxes followed behind Nanbei, their backs fully loaded with animals.

Alexander and a few others came up to help unload the goods, and Chen Hao also helped out.

Ou Yun was starving. "What are we eating tonight?"

"Beef and potato stew, fresh out of the pot."

"Okay, okay."

Tonight's dinner was exceptionally lavish.

A whole pot of stewed beef with potatoes, the broth was rich and the meat was tender.

The potatoes absorbed the broth perfectly, becoming soft and powdery, melting in your mouth with the slightest touch.

Alexander contributed a few grilled fish, which Leng Ruolan had caught while patrolling the mountains. They had been kept in a small pond in the camp and were finally fished out to satisfy her hunger today.

Ivan then used frozen wild fruit juice from the ice cellar to make a large pot of chilled fruit juice—he even specially knocked some crushed ice from the ice cellar wall, shaved it into slush, mixed it with fruit juice and sugar, and made a large bowl of simple slush dessert.

"Come on, let's eat!"

Nine people sat around the campfire, each with a bowl in hand, eating heartily.

Nanbei and Ludou squatted to the side, each guarding a large piece of raw beef, working diligently.

"By the way, brother, what exactly are those seven districts you mentioned in the communication stone?"

Hassan took a few bites and couldn't help but ask.

Ou Yun swallowed the beef in his mouth and recounted the events that had occurred in the canyon, embellishing the story—

Black mist, behemoths, wishes, and the seven districts and their lords.

"You guys have no idea, in that scene, Leng and I almost died..."

"Thank goodness, you know that black mist, those tentacles, they just hung Captain Leng upside down. Luckily, Captain Leng was wearing pants, let me tell you..."

"Luckily, your big brother reacted quickly! A small knife, hey! It ripped that guy open and saved Captain Leng..."

Everyone listened very attentively and with complete focus.

Maxim's eyes widened, especially when he heard about Captain Leng's epic battle with the tentacles. "Captain Leng, is what he said true!?"

Leng Ruolan: ...

I'm too lazy to argue anymore.

How come I get the same questions wrong every year?!

But one thing is true—

"So that's how it is, the forbidden area is such a vast region..."

Alexander sighed.

"I thought this was the only forest."

"No, no, no, the important thing is, each region also has a lord... Could it be an even more advanced mutated beast?"

Hassan also looked thoughtful.

"What about that Abyss Bone Demon? According to that behemoth, is it the lord of this forest? Or just a subordinate of a lord?"

"It must be his subordinates."

Leng Ruolan, one of the parties involved, stated, "Although the Abyss Bone Demon is strong, it is not even in the same league as the giant beast that appeared later."

Ou Yun agreed, "That guy is definitely a lord, but I just don't know which region he's from..."

"Even the mobs are so hard to beat..."

Ivan shrank back. "Just how powerful must that lord be?"

"So we need to keep getting stronger."

Holding his bowl, Ou Yun said slowly, "The furnace is our core advantage. As long as we keep collecting high-grade materials and forging stronger equipment, our strength can steadily improve."

Since the forbidden area has given them a clear goal, then let's move towards that goal step by step.

Leng Ruolan also gave him an approving look. Good heavens, her brother actually said something inspiring in such a serious manner.

"Well said!"

Alexander raised his glass of chilled juice. "To go home! Cheers!"

"Cheers!"

Nine bowls and ping-pong balls collided together.

*

After finishing their meal and cleaning up the ground, the three from Xiong Kingdom and the three from Pakistani Kingdom returned to their respective camps.

The three from the Dragon Kingdom returned to their room.

Ou Yun took out all the spoils he had gathered in the canyon that day and laid them out all over the ground.

Dark red crystals, fragments of scorpion monster eggshells, and glowing ores scattered throughout the canyon—all of which Ou Yun found appealing and picked up a little of.

"Throw all these materials into the furnace tomorrow and see."

Ou Yun made the decision: "Use this dark red piece as the main ingredient, and the others as auxiliary ingredients. Let's see what we can refine."

"I think it's a good idea."

Chen Hao had already started listing the recipe combinations in his notebook. "The Lord Crystal has extremely strong energy, and it may need to be combined with a stabilizer to be successfully refined."

"High-energy materials are best used in combination with neutralizing minerals, otherwise it's easy to—"

"It's prone to exploding."