After persuading Wu Yong and the others to return to the village first, Si Cheng led Yun Qi and the other two on their exploration journey.

They walked along the other side of the greenery and found a large patch of wild duck eggs in a place they hadn't reached in the past two days.

At first, Yunqi excitedly picked up several more baskets, but later there were just too many to pick up completely, so he gave up.

"I wonder when these wild ducks will fly back? It would be good to catch some."

"They might come back in a few days. This is the perfect breeding ground for them. You can't even see a snake here."

"It must be because of these green plants. It's a pity I haven't seen any reptiles these past two days. Otherwise, I could catch a couple to do an experiment."

"If these plants are really incompatible with snakes, then finding a snake here would be really difficult."

"Brother Cheng, they should be far away by now." Yunqi turned around and looked in the direction they came from. Although she couldn't see anyone, she subconsciously looked in that direction.

"They set off with us, and by now they should have crossed a mountain."

“Wait,” Yunqi said, retrieving a drone that had been prepared beforehand from the cloud-shaped space. “They shouldn’t notice us using this, right?”

"Flying a little lower shouldn't be a problem. How's the battery level?"

"Everything is ready. It was all set up yesterday, and I even did a quick test flight." Last night, under Si Cheng's cover, Yun Qi secretly went into the space and dug out the drones that had been hidden at the bottom of the box.

With Sicheng's control, the drone began to fly low. Since there was no network to transmit images, it could only be sent back to check the images after exploring a certain direction and reaching a certain distance.

On their first two return trips, all they found were dirt and rocks, so the two gave up and continued trying from the very edge.

The surprise they received this time was, "It seems to be in this direction; this lake looks quite large."

"It looks like it's in a mountain valley. Let's go closer and take a look." Although the transmitted images are relatively clear, they were taken from above. It would be more realistic to go to the actual location to see for ourselves.

"Let's go, I'm getting a little excited." Yunqi put everything he had taken out back into his spatial storage, and the two of them walked empty-handed in the direction the drone had returned from.

The two walked for about half an hour and came to a stone wall, which blocked their way.

"This is too well hidden. If it weren't for the drone, we would definitely have missed it too." Yun Qi looked at the two or three-meter-high stone wall and was speechless.

"Let's get a ladder out first, go up and see if there's another way."

"It seems this space isn't useless except for storage; it's practically a cheat code for home and travel." Yun Qi proudly took out the escalator.

After Si Cheng secured it, he told Yun Qi to wait while he went up to check on the situation.

When he stood on the rock, he was speechless and stared straight ahead.

Yunqi was getting a little anxious as she watched him from below without any reaction. Without asking any questions, she simply grabbed the handrail and followed him up.

"So beautiful," Yun Qi finally uttered after a long while.

From their vantage point, it looked like an oasis in the desert, with yellow-green grass growing along the shore of the large lake in the middle, dotted with wildflowers, and butterflies and bees that had disappeared from view were now fluttering about.

Fish occasionally leap across the surface of the lake, and birds sometimes swoop down to catch the fish.

"This is simply a forgotten paradise, it's so beautiful."

"Yes, I've never seen such a view before. Standing here, I feel completely at peace and serene," Si Cheng remarked, a rare occurrence for him.

"I don't want to damage this place. It's a natural retreat. I want to abandon everything and live here in seclusion."

Yunqi suppressed the thought as soon as it arose. She could endure loneliness for a year or two, but living away from people for a long time was something she really couldn't stand.

"If you really want to live in seclusion, you'll have to take us with you. But you'll definitely feel guilty if you have such a beautiful place all to yourself."

"We're just ordinary people, it's just talk. The mortal world is still waiting for me to explore." After saying that, Yun Qi chuckled to himself.

The two of them stood there, appreciating the beauty of nature, neither wanting to move an inch.

"Although the weather hasn't changed, the air feels much fresher than before. You can smell the fragrance of grass just by standing here." Yunqi, perhaps influenced by the environment, couldn't help but become poetic.

"The air will be better in the future, which is another gift from nature."

"It should be said that it is his self-repair; the previous humans were really too careless." Yunqi felt that if everyone had protected the environment more in normal times, perhaps these disasters would not have happened.

"Let's go down that way." Si Cheng felt he had been standing there long enough. He looked around and realized he could only continue walking east along the pile of stones, where there was a gap.

"Wait, the escalator hasn't been put away yet." Yun Qi quickly squatted down and put the escalator into his spatial storage before carefully following him forward.

The rocks here are rugged and uneven; if one weren't already used to the potholes and craters left by disasters, one might have fallen flat on one's face.

"This is simply a natural gate to the mountain stronghold. Nature is truly a marvel of craftsmanship." Yun Qi was led by Si Cheng to jump onto the flat ground. Looking at the flat ground surrounded by stones on both sides, he thought that if two more gates were installed here, this natural barrier would be much stronger than the walls of Pinghe Village.

When the two of them got to the lakeside, they realized that it was much wider than they had imagined.

"This place is no smaller than our village, it's just that there isn't as much usable land as there is."

Si Cheng disagreed, saying, "Although there isn't much land here, there are many places around that can be developed. If we manage to develop them properly, our area might be even better."

"But my environment is so nice, why don't I see any animals?"

"If I'm not mistaken, the tiger's den should have been on this side."

"Could there be other tigers here too?" Yunqi nervously clung to Sicheng's arm, still feeling the shock of being attacked by a tiger. She began to look around.

"There shouldn't be any more, otherwise, we would have made some noise while we were out here these past few days." Si Cheng put his arm around her shoulder to comfort her.

"Let's walk around this area first. It would be scary if something suddenly jumped out." Yunqi was still a little worried, afraid that even if there were no tigers, there might be other creatures.

Si Cheng naturally had no objections. He took Yun Qi's hand and began to examine the area inch by inch.