The unmistakable wrong sensation underfoot made Zhu Yu want to quickly retract her step, but she couldn’t control her balance as it tipped forward, causing her body to sway and her entire self to stumble ahead, her feet staggered onto a soft ground.

And then, she began to uncontrollably sink down.

For a moment, Zhu Yu panicked, her mind quickly searching for solutions to deal with such a situation, recalling the methods she’d seen before on how to survive sinking into quicksand.

Thus, she dared not make too violent movements, for fear of wasting energy and sinking even faster.

According to the "experience" accumulated from elsewhere, as her knees were about to sink in, she moved slowly and gently to lie back, simultaneously spreading her arms, unfolding her entire body as much as possible on the things below that were neither like quicksand nor like mud, maximizing the surface area to distribute the force.

Logically, this method should work.

Even though she hadn’t personally practiced it, she had seen many such experiments and understood the mechanics behind it.

Under normal circumstances, she should be able to stop her body’s descent with such actions, then slowly figure out a way to turn over, or simply not roll over, moving gently and slowly towards the hard "shoreline" she had just crossed until she could find a place for leverage, thus escaping danger completely.

However, something strange happened.

As she softly and slowly lay back, gradually lying flat, she discovered that her sinking speed didn’t slow down at all; instead, it accelerated, and her whole body swiftly sank, with those thick and pitch-black things wrapping around and engulfing her.

Zhu Yu felt a wave of chest tightness, unable to breathe. She wanted to struggle, but her limbs seemed to be stuck in the thick and sticky liquid, unable to move no matter how hard she tried.

Just as a near-desperate emotion began to spread in Zhu Yu’s heart, suddenly—

A drop of icy liquid fell on her face, prompting a sudden clarity in Zhu Yu’s mind, followed by a cold dampness from behind, an unpleasant sensation.

Then... she abruptly opened her eyes under this torture of cold dampness.

She was lying face up in a forest, with the bright sky above, some branches and leaves draped over her, and droplets from the leaves slowly slid down, hitting her face with a plop.

Underneath her was a wet grassy ground, indicating that it had rained heavily the night before, soaking the earth thoroughly, causing the water to seep into her clothes, resulting in that uncomfortable wet and cold sensation.

Zhu Yu supported herself up from the ground, quickly checking herself over to find that she was intact, not missing an arm or a leg, nor had she gained any additional injuries.

She stood up and moved her limbs, finding them perfectly fine except for the cold, without any dizziness or imbalance.

She looked around, but within her line of sight, the little cabin was nowhere to be seen, and she had no idea where she was.

While she was looking around, faint rustling sounds suddenly came from the surroundings, prompting Zhu Yu to quickly dodge behind a slightly thicker tree nearby.

In no time, the figure of Rune appeared not far away, seemingly searching for something, his actions cautious and vigilant.

Seeing it was Rune, Zhu Yu breathed a sigh of relief, knowing he should be looking for her, so she quickly emerged without making a sound and vigorously waved at Rune.

Rune immediately saw her, and his expression also showed a sigh of relief, quickly approaching her: "Sir! Finally found you!"

"Where are the others?" Zhu Yu asked hurriedly.

Seeing that Rune was also fine, she was already reassured for the most part, but since she had been separated from the others, the reason for it remained a mystery, and she wanted to find out.

"They’re looking for you as well, I’ll report to them right away!" Rune promptly put his fingers into his mouth and whistled, a short sound like a bird’s call in the forest.

Soon, there was rustling around, and Lu Qing and Fu Lu quickly approached, seeing Zhu Yu safe and sound, Lu Qing’s previously stern expression finally eased.

Before Zhu Yu could speak to him, Rune suddenly knelt down with a thud.

"Sir, it’s all my fault, failing to find anything suspicious during the investigation, almost making the four of us fall into danger.

Though Sir was found unharmed, it’s assumed you were quite frightened.

I didn’t perform my duties well, please punish me!"

"Stand up first." Lu Qing, though still slightly displeased, didn’t intend to punish Rune, instead reaching to pull him up from the ground, "Indeed, there’s some carelessness on your part, but right now the four of us are indispensable. Let’s learn from this mistake, and be vigilant next time."

"What exactly happened?" Zhu Yu still hadn’t figured out the situation, she could only guess half of it, the remainder was still confusing, "I estimate last night in that cabin, we must have fallen into someone’s trap, right?

When I sat down, I touched a bone of some poultry, chicken or duck or goose, and from its smoothness and completeness, it didn’t resemble one gnawed by beasts, and there were no lingering feathers, can’t be naturally deceased inside.

So I concluded then, it must have been gnawed by someone, which implies there was someone inside the cabin.

As a result, turning my head, you three were gone, leaving behind many doors surrounding.

Now that my mind’s clarity is restored, thinking back, I reckon I was put into a trance by some sedative, so everything seen and experienced were illusions.

Why I ended up here, no way of guessing.

Lu Qing first instructed Fu Lu to find relatively dry firewood, prepare a fire to warm Zhu Yu, meanwhile pulled her to his front, pressing her wet back to his chest to provide some warmth, preventing her from feeling too cold.

"The three of us had pretty much the same experience, indeed entranced by some sedative in the cabin, caught in hallucinations unable to wake up." He answered while pulling Zhu Yu’s wrist, placing fingers to check her pulse, "All four of us were thrown out of the cabin, and scattered at that. We couldn’t find you when waking, worried something happened, blessedly you’re safe."