After walking for a long time, Mang Hu and his companion stopped ahead.
Ahead of them stood a towering tree.
The tree is over a hundred years old. Its roots are thick and strong, its branches are intricate and its leaves are numerous. Its roots are firmly planted in the soil, and its rhizomes grow wildly all around it.
"We've finally arrived! This is it! This is the tree!"
Manghu waved his hand and turned back to say, "The tunnel should be behind this tree, in that thicket of bushes."
As they followed Manghu toward the bushes, they looked at the ancient tree with a sense of awe. Its age was estimated to be even older than that of the Qingye tribe. If they wanted to pinpoint the exact location of the tunnel, this ancient tree would be a perfect landmark.
Mang Hu was the first to disappear into the bushes. Yi turned back and said to Li Qing apologetically, "Bear with it, we'll see the tunnel in a few more steps."
"fine."
Li Qing responded, glanced back at the spot one last time, and disappeared into the bushes.
Manghu, who was leading the way, complained, "It's been so long since we've been here that we almost forgot how to get around. Luckily, we saw several saber-toothed tiger carcasses along the way, which made us realize that we had entered an even more dangerous area. Otherwise, if we had really gone deep into that area, we probably wouldn't have even had a chance to cry."
Mang Hu's words also brought Li Qing back to his memories. After he finished complaining to Mang Hu, they walked for about seven or eight minutes and came to a clearing. On the clearing, there were several saber-toothed tiger corpses that had been eaten beyond recognition. At the time, this scene disgusted Li Qing, but at the same time, it also shocked him.
As a prehistoric feline, the saber-toothed tiger was certainly no match for behemoths like the Tyrannosaurus Rex. However, these saber-toothed tigers died a gruesome death, seemingly without any strength to resist before their demise. This was terrifying. Even when faced with a more powerful creature, the intelligent saber-toothed tiger should not have died so tragically, without even the slightest power to resist. This caused the still bewildered Manghu to change his expression drastically. He quickly led the two away from that place, and the three of them went through many dangers, big and small, along the way, finally arriving here unharmed.
"Just how dangerous is that area that the Qingye tribe stopped building paths and turned them underground? And what kind of behemoth could make the saber-toothed tigers slaughtered like lambs to the slaughter?" Li Qing thought to himself. "It seems that in this era, there are many more terrifying and powerful creatures that have not yet been discovered in the deeper parts of the forest."
Suddenly, Mang Hu's voice came again from ahead, "Strange, where exactly is he..."
Before he could finish speaking...
A loud bang suddenly rang out!
"Ouch, that hurts so much!"
The tiger's voice came from underground not far ahead.
He shouted, "Come quick, we found it, but it's quite high up here, be careful."
Following the direction from which Mang Hu had shouted, the two carefully crawled forward, and soon they saw a large pit in the ground.
Below the large pit, there were many leaves that looked like they had been arranged to provide cover. Manghu waved his hand from below and said to Yi, "Jump, I can catch you."
Yi responded. She trusted Mang Hu completely and, without any hesitation, took a step forward and jumped into the pit.
Mang Hu did not disappoint Yi's trust. He caught Yi as she jumped from the air and carefully helped her stand up. Then he shouted at Li Qing, "Jump!"
Li Qing: "If I'm not mistaken, you definitely won't catch me, right?"
Manghu asked in bewilderment, "What nonsense are you talking about? She is my sister, it is only right that I catch her. You are not from our tribe, why should I catch you?"
"Fine, whatever, you're such a siscon..."
"What the hell?"
"nothing."
The height of the pit wasn't a problem for Li Qing; he just needed to be careful. Li Qing took a deep breath, jumped down, and landed on the ground in a crouching position. After stabilizing himself, Li Qing stood up.
"To be honest, since it's for escaping, there should at least be stairs," Li Qing complained inwardly, feeling some pain in his feet. "Well, I guess there aren't any stairs or anything like that in this day and age."
He looked up at the tunnel ahead.
The tunnel was very long and completely unlit. However, in the pitch-black tunnel, many kinds of small insects with a glimmer of light on their rear ends crawled around, providing a faint light for the tunnel.
Several insects crawled around Li Qing's feet. They were about the size of ants. Looking at these strange insects, Li Qing couldn't help but ask curiously, "What are these insects?"
Mang Hu said, "We like to call these little guys firefly beetles. They usually like to live in relatively dark environments like this. It's definitely a lot more convenient for us."
Yi asked Li Qing curiously, "Don't you have these little bugs where you live?"
Li Qing smiled wryly and said, "Our place is nothing like yours. Back home, even getting food is a problem. We've never even seen such a strange little insect before."
Manghu said warily, "Don't forget what you said. You're just passing through our tribe on your way back to the Red Flower Tribe. If you have any designs on our tribe, like stealing food or something..."
“Brother, Mai Zi isn’t that kind of person!” Yi said, dissatisfied.
When the topic of tribes came up, Manghu seemed like a completely different person. He snorted coldly and looked at Li Qing.
Li Qing shrugged.
"I promise I won't do anything reckless."
“We still have a long way to go before we get back to the tribe,” Manghu said, giving Li Qing a deep look before turning his gaze forward. He saw several more intricate forks in the road illuminated by the fireflies. “Only one of these forks leads to our tribe. The others are extremely dangerous. No matter what level of warrior you are, if you stray into one, you will never come back alive.”
"Didn't you say you hadn't been here in a long time?" Li Qing asked. "Can you remember which road is the right one?"
Manghu explained to Li Qing, "On the only correct path, there are markings that only our tribe can understand."
Manghu paused, then suddenly said in a low voice, "We haven't brought people from other tribes back to our tribe for a long time, especially since we're taking a route that could be said to be vital to our tribe's survival. Yi and I agreed to bring you here because we trust you and believe that the people of Dian are not the kind of vicious people like the Black Wind and Mishan tribes. We hope you won't disappoint us."
Li Qing said emphatically, "I understand."
At a time like this, he certainly wouldn't be joking.
Mang Hu glanced at Li Qing and walked forward, saying, "Let's go."
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