Wilderness: I Tame Beasts to Survive-Chapter 40 - 39: The Woods

The leg seemed to have been detached from a body for some time. Its temperature had dropped rapidly, nearly matching that of the surroundings.

The splotches radiating across the ground must have been splattered blood and bits of flesh.

"A leg... But where’s the rest of the person? Where did they go?" Lü Xiuning scrubbed through the footage, trying to find the leg’s owner.

"Judging by the direction of the blood splatter, they must have gone over the wall. The image is too blurry to make out any clear tracks." Han Ning stared intently for a long time. Aside from some spots on a section of the wall, he couldn’t find anything new.

The drone had been flying quite high, and with the fog and leaves obstructing the view, they were lucky to have even spotted a human leg at all.

"Scrub forward some more. Let’s see what’s outside the campus."

Lü Xiuning dragged the progress bar, and the drone’s field of view slowly panned outward. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

Past the school’s perimeter wall, a vast, swamp-like environment appeared below.

As the footage reached the point where the drone was circling the exterior, the shadow of what looked like a plant leaf flickered into view on the left side of the screen.

"Plants? There’s a vegetated area to the left of the swamp?"

The group let out surprised murmurs as they spotted the faint shadows of leaves on the left of the screen.

’Leaves... vines. Could Zhao Wei and the others have been dragged over the wall by vines?’ Lü Xiuning muttered, his brow furrowed.

"Teacher Lü, what’s our plan? Do we go after them, or...?" someone asked.

Lü Xiuning said after a moment of thought, "While there might not be as many Iron-toothed Snakes in the woods as we feared, they can still hide in the treetops, making them difficult to defend against. I think we should just head for the academy’s East Gate, exit there, and follow the base of the wall."

"That could work. Should we scout the area outside the East Gate with the drone first, just to make sure it’s not dangerous?" another teacher suggested.

"Yes. I brought five spare batteries, so we have more than enough power."

As he spoke, Lü Xiuning stood and packed away his tablet. "The three missing people are likely outside the campus. We’re changing our route to the East Gate. The road there is wide, which should make it a bit safer."

The terrain in the woods was too complex, and the dense canopy made it hard to guard against surprise attacks from the Iron-toothed Snakes. It was better to walk a few hundred extra meters and take the wide, paved road to the East Gate to get outside.

With the plan decided, the group didn’t even bother cleaning up the snake corpses. They immediately changed course and headed toward the academy’s East Gate.

The East Gate wasn’t far from the Botanical Garden—no more than two hundred meters as the crow flies, and three hundred meters at most along the paved road.

There weren’t many Soul Beasts near the paved road, just a dozen or so scattered about. Any that dared to block their path were immediately dispatched by the students’ Silver Lotus Wood, saving them from even having to use their rifle ammunition.

Soon, the group arrived before a large, black iron gate.

The gate was similar in style to the South Gate, with a central barrier and a smaller path for pedestrians and vehicles, and a guardhouse to the side.

Since the Soul Beast invasion, the security guard in the guardhouse had long been killed.

The area outside the East Gate was much like the one by the South Gate: a vast stretch of swamp. The eerie calls of Demon Eye Frogs and the roars of unknown Soul Beasts occasionally reached their ears, sounding particularly unsettling.

Yin Yi stepped forward and used a Vine Whip to knock open the guardhouse door. Lü Xiuning and Han Ning stood in the doorway; Lü Xiuning operated the drone while Han Ning was in charge of orienting it.

With no trees to block the view, the drone flew unimpeded. It followed the perimeter wall as it stretched to the horizon, recording everything below.

After the drone had flown over 200 meters to the left, reaching a point where even Han Ning could barely make out its light, Lü Xiuning finally guided it back.

A short while later, Lü Xiuning retrieved the drone. Just as before, he opened his tablet and reviewed the footage with the others.

The first two-thirds of the video showed nothing out of the ordinary—just uniform swampland dotted with red and blue patches.

But in the final third of the footage, the silhouettes of swaying leaves appeared on the screen.

Through the dense foliage, they could faintly see red patches squirming below.

"Teacher Lü, what’s that?"

Suddenly, a student pointed to something surrounded by the squirming red patches.

"Is that... a backpack? A travel bag?"

Lü Xiuning paused the footage and looked closely for a moment.

"It’s definitely a backpack. You can see the straps on the side."

’So it’s true... the three of them really were dragged outside by some unknown creature.’ Lü Xiuning sighed, gazing at the dark curtain of the sky.

Their worst fears had come to pass.

After a few seconds of silence, Lü Xiuning put down the tablet and said in a grave voice, "Let’s go. Dean Wu’s orders were clear: we find them alive, or we bring back their bodies. At the very least, we need to find out what happened to them."

"There might be leeches in the swamp out there. Everyone, take five minutes. Reload your weapons, recover your physical strength, and make sure your leg bindings are secure."

Five minutes passed in a flash. Han Ning and Lü Xiuning led the now-rested group onward in the direction of the woods.

By walking along the wall, they only had to guard three directions against any Soul Beasts that might appear, leaving one side secure.

In the swamp at night, the group moved swiftly across the pitted, muddy path. They relied on the hazy beams of their flashlights to stay close behind Yin Yi, who led the way.

Some leeches, smelling the scent of living people, tried to lunge from the mud and burrow into the students’ thighs, only to be blocked by the sturdy cardboard on the outside.

The bright beams of the flashlights cut through the white mist, casting the surroundings in a bizarre and surreal light.

Whenever a black leech blocked their path, one or more of the Silver Lotus Wood would fire off Silver Thorns, instantly blasting it to a pulp.

The going wasn’t easy, but these disgusting leeches were still more manageable than a dense swarm of snakes. After struggling through the muck for over a hundred meters, Han Ning, who was at the front, saw the terrain suddenly change. The rolling mud pits and puddles gradually gave way to a sparse wood. The only constant was the thick fog ahead, obscuring whatever lay at its end.

Not far off, the gooey mud flattened out into solid, blackish soil, from which stalks of pale grass grew.

Wild Silver Lotus Wood were scattered here and there.

Farther on lay the pitch-black entrance to the woods, its interior completely hidden from view.

"We’re about to enter the woods. Everyone stay alert. Watch out for sudden attacks from Iron-toothed Snakes from above and below."

Lü Xiuning turned to give the order, took a quiet breath, and led the way into the sparse woods.