Starting Off Survival With A Small Treehouse

This front includes every direction ahead.

This means the river spans right before them.

He continued walking forward.

Due to his enhanced hearing, even though he couldn’t map the surroundings underground anymore, he could still discern the positions of nearby animals through sound.

Most were insects, so there wasn’t much to worry about.

The journey so far, except for the giant beasts, these large insects had no desire to attack him either.

Soon, he walked to a spot just thirty to forty meters from the river and saw the river.

"Eek!" Keke exclaimed in surprise.

"...This is really..." Xu Xin’s brow slightly furrowed.

The river was wide, at least fifty meters across.

Compared to the stream by his treehouse, this was significantly wider.

The river water wasn’t turbulent; its flow was steady.

No signs of abnormalities at first sight.

But the biggest anomaly was the color of the river water.

The water flowing through the entire river appeared pale red under the shining white light from above.

Indeed, this river was not an ordinary one!

It was more likely a polluted river!

The riverbank vegetation could tell you that.

Xu Xin had been walking for so long, mostly encountering ordinary, non-mutated thorny vines, with fewer mutated vines.

But here by the river, all the vines were mutated!

The branches of these vines stood upright, swaying constantly in the air.

That giant rhinoceros had just been feeding on this type of mutated vine.

Compared to the mutated vines on the ground, those by the river were not much thicker, roughly less than twenty centimeters in diameter, similar to the vines reinforced in special areas Xu Xin had encountered above ground.

Moreover, the blood patterns on them weren’t as bright as those in special areas above ground, rather, they looked somewhat dim.

These vines were probably at the very bottom of the food chain in this underground world.

Much like the grass above ground.

While this underground world had non-mutated vines, just like the cluster where Xu Xin had just hidden, which was a bundle of non-mutated vines.

But he hadn’t seen other creatures eating those non-mutated vines.

Be it giant beasts or those gigantic insects, the herbivorous creatures mostly ate these mutated vines.

It felt like they needed these mutated vines to supplement something missing in ordinary vines.

Considering the frenzy of these underground creatures when Silver King appeared, Xu Xin seemed to understand.

"...Is it still about mutated energy?" Xu Xin murmured to himself.

These giant beasts truly lacked mutated energy.

Things without mutated energy just weren’t worth even a glance for them.

Just like Xu Xin now.

He felt a wave of relief.

This was all thanks to Lou Fei’Er and his wristband, otherwise, he would not be this at ease now.

Just hoping nothing goes wrong on Lou Fei’Er’s side.

Gripping the long spear in his hand, he approached the vine cluster.

"Eek...!" Keke suddenly called out, stopping in his tracks.

He heard the sound of something emerging from the water with a splash.

Through the gaps in the vine cluster, he saw a pitch-black beetle about three meters long crawling out of the river.

Freshly emerged from the water, it glistened, the two pitch-black horns on its head reflecting a metallic sheen.

Then it started moving towards him.

...Is that thing coming for him?!

Very soon, it neared the vine cluster.

At this moment, the rhythmically swaying vine cluster suddenly launched an attack on the pure black beetle!

However, being at the bottom of the food chain, they could never turn the tide.

Even if it was just a relatively "ordinary" giant black beetle.

The horns atop the beetle didn’t even twitch, the attacking mutated vines were cut in half, as if sliced by blades.

The stabbing mutated vines couldn’t even breach the beetle’s defense.

That pitch-black shell was like a powerful alloy, leaving no traces on it.

"How pitiful..."

"Eek..."

Those mutated vines that dominated above ground and murdered survivors in danger zones were so humble in this underground world.

They really couldn’t beat anyone.

The vine cluster still wanted to fight the beetle, countless vines wrapped around the pitch-black beetle, attempting to bind it.

But the beetle immediately spread its wings and flew up!

Xu Xin’s eyes widened.

This beetle had wings too! You couldn’t tell at all!

Under high-frequency vibrations, the surrounding vines were shattered into powder!

And by the riverbank, a roughly four-meter entrance was cleared.

The rest of the vines dared not further attack the beetle, silently shrinking back into motion.

The beetle slowly landed, retracting its wings, returning to its original form, then continued towards Xu Xin and Keke.

"Eek..." Keke shrunk back in Xu Xin’s arms.

Xu Xin took out his long spear, holding it tightly, standing still.

If the beetle made a move, he would be ready to retaliate.

However, he had no intention of attacking first.

After all, with danger looming everywhere around here, finding trouble himself was simply asking for it. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

Moreover, insects are typically social creatures; if killing one attracts a swarm, that would really doom him.

Is this creature truly coming for him?

Why did it emerge from the river?

But things seemed to be different from what he imagined.

The pitch-black beetle at least three meters long brushed past him.

Just as it passed, it tilted its head for a glance, its mandibles slightly opening and closing.

Its wings vibrated slightly, emitting a rather clear sound.

Then, the giant beetle ignored Xu Xin, turned its head and crawled away.

"...Eek?" Keke tilted its little head, watching the giant beetle’s back, with a tone of confusion.

Xu Xin let out a sigh of relief.

That giant beetle easily dealt with the vine cluster; its real strength was likely outstanding.

If a one-on-one fight, he wouldn’t chicken out, but with so many monsters around, it’s best to avoid a fight.

So, was this big beetle just here at the river to drink water?

"Eek!" Keke nudged Xu Xin, pointing to the departing giant beetle, then gestured with its little paws, "Eek eek eek!"

Xu Xin slightly started, then his pupils contracted.

He sharply turned to look at the pitch-black giant beetle.

But after just a few seconds, the beetle was already gone.

"...Do you mean that the sound the beetle made was telling us... not to enter the river, or it’ll be dangerous?"

"Eek!"