Starting Off Survival With A Small Treehouse-Chapter 639 - 433: Strange River
Keke’s certainty made Xu Xin take a deep breath.
He turned back to look behind him again, carefully searching, but still found no trace of the giant beetle.
"Could you have heard it wrong?" He rubbed Keke’s small head as he spoke.
"Ying ying!" Keke made two dissatisfied sounds, indicating that there was no way he could have heard it wrong.
This truly is... extremely baffling.
Why would the giant beetle emerge from the river and then warn him that the river is dangerous?
This is so strange.
Wait a moment.
He carefully recalled the appearance of the giant beetle.
"Huh? It seems... there are no blood patterns on the giant beetle?" Xu Xin frowned, trying to recall.
Was it that there were no blood patterns, or was it too dark to see them?
"Ying!" Upon hearing Xu Xin’s mutterings, Keke also made a sound and nodded its little head.
"You didn’t see blood patterns either."
Xu Xin looked behind him once more.
A giant insect without blood patterns.
Does it only have the bloodline of a giant beast?
He had only seen three creatures with a giant beast bloodline and no blood patterns.
One is the Lake Giant Python in his lake.
Another is the stream-bottom giant crocodile that hasn’t been seen for a long time.
The last one is the father of the two little pangolins at home, the giant pangolin.
There are only these.
Among them, although the Lake Giant Python displays a red dot in the area and seems quite hostile to him, staring at him eerily each time it surfaces, it has never harmed him.
The only time it hurt someone was when it attacked the mutated Ma Hongwei.
The stream-bottom giant crocodile doesn’t even need to be mentioned; it doesn’t show a red dot on the map, being a completely neutral entity, and has helped him several times.
It disappeared completely after the rainy season.
The giant pangolin, although lacking a mutated bloodline, mixed with a group of mutated pangolins, and even fathered two children with Xu Xin’s tamed pangolin consort, possessing only a giant beast bloodline without blood pattern mutations.
The three are quite different, and the only commonality is that these giant beasts without blood pattern mutations have never caused him any harm.
Might the nature of this giant pitch-black beetle be the same as them?
Or could it be like the stream-bottom giant crocodile, something that could become friendly?
...If only the map could be used underground, then he would know if the beetle was friend or foe.
Never mind, it’s disappeared now anyway, so he should just keep moving forward.
He passed through a passage made by the wings of the giant beetle among the mutated vine clusters and reached the riverbank.
The mutated vines around him were quite different from those on the surface.
If they were on the surface, they might have attacked Xu Xin like mad at this point.
But these mutated vines showed absolutely no desire to attack Xu Xin or Keke.
Their state remained unchanged, just swaying slightly like aquatic plants.
He easily walked to the riverbank.
The river was very wide, over fifty meters.
He looked both downstream and upstream.
The downstream extended so far that there was no end in sight.
The giant rhinoceros was just about three to four hundred meters downstream from him.
It had already filled its belly and was now bent over drinking water by the riverbank.
The river’s source was similarly far away, with no end in sight.
This meant that if he wanted to reach his destination, near the thick vine bundle plunging straight into the ground, he would have to cross this river.
The Scale Armor set was still in his backpack.
Wearing this suit, swimming across shouldn’t be a problem.
However, in this river...
Surely it wouldn’t be very safe, right?
Moreover, Xu Xin was particularly concerned about the message the pitch-black giant beetle had conveyed to them.
There is danger in the river; do not enter.
What danger exactly lies in the river?
Xu Xin looked into the river through the water.
Though the river had a faint red hue, it was exceedingly clear.
Clear to the bottom.
The riverbed was also covered in smooth pebbles polished by the current, all of which were blue grade.
What surprised Xu Xin was that there seemed to be absolutely no life in the river.
There were none of the giant fish he imagined, not even small fish or shrimp.
Just a clear, slightly red river.
Inside, no living creatures?
But wasn’t the giant beetle just coming out of there?
He observed again and confirmed that there was absolutely no sign of any fish or shrimp in the lake.
If there are no creatures, where is the danger?
Is it the water?
Is the water poisonous?
Probably not poisonous, right...?
He turned to look at the rhinoceros downstream.
The rhinoceros had finished drinking and was lying there, snoring away.
Even from such a distance, Xu Xin could hear its snores.
The surrounding mutated vines kept attacking it, but seemed only capable of tickling the rhinoceros.
Instead, a kick from the rhinoceros ended in the death of another patch of vines.
At least the rhinoceros seemed to have no issues.
"Keke, is there any danger in this lake?" Xu Xin asked Keke in his arms.
"Ying...?" Keke tilted its little head.
It seemed Keke didn’t know either.
He had no choice but to crouch down and slightly touch the red water with his hand.
[Polluted Water (Gray): Water contaminated by an unknown force, not a good resource for survivors, drinking it will cause irreversible damage and changes to the body, it’s best not to drink unless you’re dying of thirst.]
Xu Xin slightly opened his eyes.
This lake water was different from the polluted meat.
The description of the polluted meat explicitly told him it was highly toxic, causing death to survivors who consume it.
But the water was telling him it wasn’t good resources, moreover, it was drinkable, but would cause irreversible damage.
As for what this irreversible damage entails, it’s pretty clear.
Mutation.
He scooped up a splash of water.
The water was extremely cold, and had a faint aroma.
When the red mist is very thin, it’s exactly this kind of smell.
"Ying!" Keke let out an exclamation, interrupting Xu Xin’s thoughts, "Ying ying!"
And at that moment, a sense of crisis emerged from behind!
Xu Xin immediately dropped the water he was holding, grabbed his long halberd, and swung it fiercely behind him!
"Ka!"
Before he saw anything, he already felt the sensation in his hand of cutting something.
[Killed Blood Patterned Vine, earned points: 50 points!]
[Killed Blood Thorn Vine, earned points: 60 points!]
It’s the mutated vine!
The mutated vines behind suddenly launched an attack on him!
What is happening?!
No time to think deeply about it, he dodged the vine’s attack and swung his long halberd to fend off the vine’s aggression!
The surrounding vines, as long as they could reach his position, continuously attacked him!
Luckily, the vitality flowed through the halberd into his body, making him not feel tired, instead growing more and more courageous with each battle.
"Ying!" Keke had jumped down to his feet to avoid hindering his attacks, "Ying ying ying!"
What’s wrong?
Following the direction Keke pointed, Xu Xin looked towards it.
It’s...
He saw, over there, a swarm of insects numbering around a few dozen had gathered, and all the insects’ eyes were focused on her position, with an air of intending to attack him! 𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢
What is going on?!
Why did the vines and insect swarm suddenly launch an attack on him!
What’s happening!
What did he just do?
All around, the vines that could get close to him had been almost cut down by him. He chopped another vine, looked at the gathering insect swarm, took a slight step back, eyes solemn.
The bodies of these insects are easily three to four meters long.
One or two is fine to deal with, but a swarm of insects...
He simply couldn’t handle it!
At such moments, how he envied Wen Guixin’s abilities!
What to do?!
Jump into the water?
No, can’t jump into the water!
What did he just do that triggered these insects and vines to attack?
He scooped up a handful of water!
Exactly, after he touched the water and scooped it up, that’s when the vines and insect swarm started to attack!
After touching the water, he instantly became a target!
If he jumps in and gets drenched, he’ll be even more doomed!
What to do?
Confronting them directly is not an option!
What should he do?
Keke had already climbed back into his arms, trembling slightly.
That’s right!
Jumping ability enhancement!
He can use jumping ability enhancement to directly leap to the other side!
Although his watch doesn’t have a signal to contact others, he can open it, and choose to enhance!
He quickly glanced back at the river behind him.
Over fifty meters wide.
...Too wide!
No way!
Fifty meters, not impossible to jump if there’s a running start!
But surrounded by vines and insects behind him, where would he find room for a running start?
At this moment, an insect suddenly screeched sharply from within the swarm, and a group of car-sized insects charged towards him!
Xu Xin’s pupils contracted sharply, gripping his long halberd tightly, as his other hand retrieved the somewhat dim energy core from his backpack.
This energy core could repel mutated blood patterned creatures.
However, the surrounding insects and vines have light blood pattern mutations, but carry the heavy bloodlines of giant beasts; the core fragments’ effects might be negligible!
Fortunately, the moment he took out the core, the surrounding insect swarm momentarily halted.
Then, they continued crawling towards him.
But this time, their speed slowed, gradually surrounding him, then facing off.
Is he really going to confront them head-on?
Xu Xin dared not release the Silver King and Mimi.
He feared attracting that resting rhino hundreds of meters away.
He could still fight with the insects, but if the rhino is drawn over, it truly would be reborn right then and there!
As his mind churned with calculating whether his current abilities could jump across this river directly, from behind the insect swarm, suddenly came an insect’s cry.
Different from the previous charge-commanding call, not the same insect’s cry.
It sounded somewhat familiar.
"Ying!" Keke poked her little head out and called.
Ah!
It’s the cry of that black gigantic armored insect!
After this cry rang out, an astonishing scene occurred.
Surrounding insects, upon hearing the black giant armored insect’s cry, slowly retreated a few steps, then turned away scatteredly!
In just over ten seconds, the insect swarm before them completely vanished.
Leaving behind the trampled mutated vines on the ground.
"...What just happened?"
"Ying?" Keke tilted her little head indicating she didn’t understand.
