There's a big problem with dreams in this world.

"May I take a look?" The leader of the trio asked slowly after a moment of silence.

“Okay.” After thinking for a moment, Lu Qing handed over the Hunter’s Medal.

She wasn't worried about whether the other party would steal the Hunter's Medal. If they really dared to do that, Lu Qing would definitely let them experience what cruelty was.

"It's genuine," the leader said, touching the Hunter's Medal in his hand.

He looked at Lu Qing and respectfully handed back the Hunter's Medal, saying, "Your Hunter's Medal must have come from the werewolf, right? I heard him mention a few days ago that he gave it away."

“Every holder of the Hunter’s Medal is our honored guest, so you will receive 1,000 reputation points to purchase items. In addition, your reputation will increase by 50 points every morning after the event.”

"And everything you buy from us will be 20% off!"

After they finished speaking, the three of them put down the cloth bags they were carrying, took out the items that Lu Qing had bought, and neatly arranged them on the ground.

"You've spent a total of 680 reputation points here. Here are the items you purchased," the trio leader said, gesturing for Lu Qing to enter.

After he finished speaking, he quietly added, "However, the diesel generator set won't be delivered until tomorrow morning because it's quite large, and we don't usually carry it with us."

"It's okay, I can wait." Lu Qing nodded, indicating that she understood.

The diesel generator package is actually just a diesel generator, with two tanks of diesel fuel for generating electricity and a small refrigerator included.

With this device, Lu Qing can put leftover food in the refrigerator for refrigeration. In addition, there are many electronic devices in their current house that can be used.

One of the more important ones is the electric light.

Every time it gets close to night, even though it's not actually night yet, it's almost impossible to see anything inside the house. Lu Qing isn't affected, but the scientists and the elderly are quite uncomfortable.

Unable to see anything clearly, their work was forced to stop. Even with a fire, they could only barely make out what they were seeing.

However, the lights can't be left on all the time, especially when there are a lot of monsters at night. Lu Qing just wanted to reduce the difficulty of her work before it was completely nighttime, and she didn't want to be a third wheel and attract the monsters.

"Wait!" Lu Qing suddenly realized a problem. This was the outer edge of the Dark Forest. How did the trio contact the werewolves inside the Dark Forest?

She voiced her doubts, only to receive this response from the leader of the three.

Have you ever seen a wild man inside the forest?

Lu Qing was initially stunned, but then she realized that she had indeed seen savages inside the forest, and since this man was the leader of the savages, those savages must be under his command, which meant...

"Do you have the ability to move freely inside and outside the forest?"

"Hehehe, perhaps..." The leader of the trio chuckled mysteriously.

After he finished speaking, he turned around and walked away into the distance.

"This transaction is over. We'll be back tomorrow morning," the leader of the trio said, waving his hand.

"Oh, wait a minute, I have another question to ask!"

Suddenly remembering something, Lu Qing looked at the leader of the trio and asked, "Since you are the leaders of the savages, you must know quite a lot, right?"

"I'd like to ask if you have any information related to leaving the forest?"

"..." The three people who were about to leave paused. The man who was leading them turned around and looked at Lu Qing, saying:

Do you want to leave this forest?

"Yes." Lu Qing nodded without hesitation.

"I see..."

The leader of the trio glanced thoughtfully at Lu Qing, then took out a leather scroll from his robes and tossed it towards her.

"This contains the methods for getting out of the forest, analyzed by the investigators who came from outside before, but so far, no one has succeeded." The leader of the trio paused, then added before leaving:

"The investigator gave his plan a name: Going with the Flow."

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Chapter 385: Speculation on the Exit

PS: Thank you to the reader "A Dream" for the 7320 Qidian Coins!

"Going with the current?" Lu Qing looked at the animal skin scroll in her hand and couldn't help but read aloud.

It sounds like a plan related to water flow. Does she have to go diving again? Although there are still oxygen tanks at home, the gas inside is almost used up, and the oxygen compressor is still at the abandoned train.

In other words, if the plan really requires the use of oxygen tanks, Lu Qing will have to consider whether she should go back.

As for how to get back, it certainly won't be through the tunnel. Didn't the three of them say that they, as savages, have the ability to travel between the inner and outer edges of the forest? Lu Qing can try to find out from them.

If she really didn't want to say, she could consider using her abilities or simply telling the other party that there was an oxygen compressor on the train, which would likely pique their interest.

After glancing at the three people who had already walked away, Lu Qing returned to the house and opened the animal skin scroll.

As soon as the scroll was opened, a huge map came into view. The terrain of the dark forest was depicted in detail with black charcoal. At a glance, one could roughly tell where the high places were, where the low places were, and where there were cliffs and rivers.

Lu Qing was genuinely surprised when she saw the map. She didn't know exactly how big the Dark Forest was, but she also knew how difficult it would be to record every part of the terrain within the forest.

After all, even for her, it would take one or two months to explore an area, and that would only be a rough exploration. She wouldn't record every detail of the terrain like a mapmaker would.

Judging from this, the person who drew this map was definitely not a simple person.

However, looking at the map, Lu Qing suddenly noticed something strange. Logically speaking, the Dark Forest should be completely blocked by tree walls, but on this map, there is an area that is not blocked by tree walls!

It was a river, and the mapmaker seemed unable to reach its end. Considering the name of the plan, "Going Downstream," Lu Qing had some guesses in her mind.

........

"call........."

Lu Qing slowly exhaled. She had finished reading the contents of the scroll. To put it simply, the plan could be summarized in just one sentence.

"There are no tree walls in front of the river, so theoretically, as long as you follow the river, you will definitely be able to leave the forest."

Ahem, this is a bit of a simplification. It doesn't explain why there's no tree wall blocking the river or why no one has succeeded so far.

First of all, as Lu Qing had expected, the map was drawn by the trio of savage leaders. They relied on a large number of savages to explore and spent several years recording every part of the terrain in the dark forest.

There are two main reasons why people believe there is no tree wall in front of the river.

The first point is that after exploring for so long, we still haven't found where the tree wall blocking the river is. If we haven't found it, does that mean it doesn't exist?

However, this argument is somewhat untenable and doesn't seem very reliable, so we should focus on the second point.

If you look closely at the map, you'll see that the Dark Forest has spread from its initial center point and has now become an irregular long strip on the map.

The direction in which it spreads the fastest is the direction the river flows through!

According to the trio's analysis, the reason why the forest took this shape must be inseparable from the river. Think carefully, how did most of the mutated creatures in the forest mutate?

Did the mutation occur because the person drank the black water from the river, or because they came into contact with the black water during a rainy day?

Of course it's the former, since the probability of the latter isn't very high. But if you think about it more carefully, why is it water in particular?

Of course, it's because water is widely distributed, and all living things in the forest need drinking water. If the forest had consciousness, it would definitely choose water as the raw material to promote biological mutation.

Of course, these were all speculations by the trio, and the truth was unclear. The only thing they firmly believed was that the river was definitely related to the expansion of the forest, so the forest could not use tree walls to block the river, otherwise it would slow down the expansion of the forest!

That concludes our speculation. Now that we've covered so much, shouldn't we head straight for the river?

No, everyone understands the logic, but why has no one successfully escaped from that river so far?

According to the animal skin scroll, if you follow the river forward, you will soon come to an area filled with thick fog, where it is difficult to distinguish directions and you can easily get lost.

In addition, the ground will become uneven and full of puddles. If you are not careful, you will step into a puddle filled with black water and die on the spot.

But these are not the most deadly things. The most deadly thing is that in that thick fog, there are many mutated creatures whose bodies are wrapped in pitch-black mist.

That black mist greatly enhances the physical attributes of mutated creatures and wraps around their surface like armor, preventing them from sustaining serious injuries even when attacked.

The only solution is to shine a strong light on it. If there is no strong light, you can use a torch, but a torch will be much slower than a strong light.

As for where they could go further, the trio had no idea, because the area they were in was already blocking their way, preventing them from advancing any further.

"Black mist..."

Lu Qing touched her chin, recalling the black mist split-headed creature she had encountered in the tunnel.

Even underwater, its speed far exceeded that of ordinary Split-Headed Ones. It's unimaginable how fast it would be if it were placed on more familiar land.

However, Lu Qing wasn't too worried about this. After all, if the other person would be hindered underwater, wouldn't she be?

If she can kill once, she can kill a second time; there's nothing to worry about.

Moreover, the scroll also explained the weaknesses of the black mist. Knowing this information, Lu Qing didn't think she would be unable to defeat it.

However, there were also some tricky issues. Although Lu Qing was very confident, she couldn't guarantee that she could protect the elderly and the scientists. After all, the mutated creatures in the forest were incredibly diverse, and it wouldn't be surprising if they were caught off guard.

Moreover, what lies in the area beyond the river is also a mystery. Perhaps it's intuition, or perhaps it's a perception from the Thousand Jewels, but she senses that the King of the Head-Splitters might be right by the river.

"It's almost dawn, let's prepare breakfast first." Lu Qing thought to herself as she glanced at the sky outside.

She stood up and put away the animal skin scroll.

She planned to discuss the trio and the contents of the scroll with the other two during lunch later, as for what to eat this morning.

Needless to say, it's instant noodles!

Rubbing her hands together, Lu Qing felt a little awkward, but her body honestly produced a lot of saliva. She skillfully tore open the instant noodle packaging, put the noodles, seasoning, and water into the pot, and put it on the gas stove to heat it up.

Soon after, a rich aroma wafted from the pot.

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Chapter 386: Participating in the Underworld Marriage

"Is this the wedding venue?"

Lu Qing picked up the invitation in her hand and looked at the contents written on it.

"Cornfield......."

Muttering the word to herself, she looked at the wooden house in front of her and noticed a large expanse of withered farmland nearby, with several scarecrows stuck in it.

These scarecrows looked dilapidated, riddled with holes and covered in dust.

For some reason, Lu Qing couldn't help but think of crows whenever she saw a scarecrow.

Perhaps influenced by works of art, on Earth before Lu Qing's time travel, the character of the scarecrow was usually associated with crows.

"Seeing these scarecrows reminds me of Wayne," Lu Qing said, pointing to the scarecrows in the distance and looking at Wayne standing on her shoulder.