boyutpedia Chapter 281 Collection 9
Chapter 281 Collection 9
As night falls, the chirping of insects in the mountains and forests sounds like a lullaby, lulling people into sleep.
On the mountain road, bright car headlights pierced the darkness.
Ye Jingmo drove the car back to its original position, turned off the engine and lights, and got out with Jiang Li to go around to the back door to move the sulfur stones inside.
Suddenly, a faint noise came from the forest, causing Ye Jingmo to pause and turn his head warily toward the direction from which the noise was coming from.
His hand slowly reached for the pistol at his waist, his slightly tense body indicating his decisiveness to draw the gun in the next second.
The trees swayed, and a figure darted out, rushing towards Ye Jingmo.
Ye Jingmo instinctively reached for his gun to fire when he heard Liang Zi's familiar voice echoing through the forest, "Team Leader Ye, it's us, don't shoot."
This sound made Ye Jingmo quickly withdraw his gun and shine his flashlight on the approaching figure.
Sure enough, the figure was Pudding.
Pudding saw Ye Jingmo and Jiang Li, and happily stuck out its tongue, its tail swaying behind it like a propeller.
It happily pounced on Ye Jingmo and then jumped back to the ground, then went to sniff Jiang Li's scent, busy with its own little adventures.
Jiang Li played with Pudding, then looked at the three people who came out of the forest with a puzzled expression. "Captain Wang, what are you doing here?"
Zhang Tianmeng spoke first, "We were worried that you might have some problems on the way, so we came down the mountain specifically to meet you."
Wang Hao approached the car, glanced inside, and then looked at Jiang Li and Ye Jingmo. "Did you find any sulfur stones?"
Jiang Li pushed away the pudding that was pounced on her, opened the door, and went to the back seat to drag out two large sacks of sulfur stones.
She patted the sack and said with a smile, "It's all here."
"It's fortunate that you came down, otherwise Mo Ge and I might have had to make two or three trips to get this pile of sulfur stones up."
Jiang Li wouldn't tell anyone that she originally planned to put the sulfur stone in her spatial storage and then take it out and pretend to move it in when she and Brother Mo approached the cave.
However, since people have already come, we can't just do it that way; we'll have to trouble them to move it.
Wow, so much sulfur stone? That's amazing!
Zhang Tianmeng's expression was exaggerated. Looking at the two large bags full of sulfur stones in front of her, she was extremely excited. Now she wouldn't have to worry about not having enough sulfur after going down into the deep ravine.
If we set all these sulfur stones on fire, wouldn't that stun the snakes in the deep ditch?
"Stop talking nonsense and move the sulfur stones back first."
Wang Hao beckoned Zhang Tianmeng to come forward and help him carry one bag of sulfur stones, while Ye Jingmo and Liang Zi carried the other bag.
Jiang Li covered the car with leaves and other camouflage materials, and then walked with the four of them up the mountain path back to the cave.
She held a flashlight ahead to light the way, while also being alert to any potential dangers around her.
The mountains and forests are even more tranquil and dangerous at night, and many animals like to take advantage of the darkness to move around.
The forest at night is a paradise for animals, and humans are intruders who accidentally step into this paradise.
However, the five were lucky; apart from encountering a pheasant that suddenly darted out on the road, they did not encounter any ferocious wild animals.
The people inside the cave would occasionally look towards the cave entrance, wondering when the people outside would return.
Fu Qian was boiling water over the campfire, thinking that when they came back, they would have hot water to drink and get rid of the cold.
There was a thud behind them, and a large sack fell out of the hole, kicking up a cloud of dust.
"Ouch."
Zhang Tianmeng threw the large sack on her back into the cave. As soon as the pressure on her body was relieved, she felt soreness and fatigue follow.
He jumped down into the cave, his legs trembling, ignoring Fu Qian's shocked gaze, and forcefully moved the large sack at the cave entrance.
The large sack was placed beside him, and Zhang Tianmeng sat down against it, feeling so exhausted that he didn't want to move.
Fu Qian and the others realized what was happening and approached the cave entrance, where they saw the second sack being thrown down. They quickly helped to drag the sulfur stones blocking the entrance to the side.
Ye Jingmo and the other three also entered the cave and found a place to sit down and rest.
Jiang Li, who wasn't carrying a large sack, wasn't as exhausted as the others. She saw the water bubbling on the campfire, took a cup, poured some water, and handed it to Ye Jingmo first, then to the others.
Although I was drenched in sweat carrying the large sacks back, the mountain nights were rather cool, so drinking some hot water would help.
Jiang Li looked at the beads of sweat sliding down Ye Jingmo's forehead, took out a wet wipe from her backpack, and reached out to wipe Ye Jingmo's forehead.
"You're finally back," Fu Qian said with joy. "Are you hurt?"
Jiang Li shook her head. "Our trip to Twin Star Volcano went very smoothly this time, and we didn't encounter any danger."
"That's good." Fu Qian nodded happily, pleased with Ye Jingmo and Jiang Li's successful return.
"With these two large bags of sulfur, we are much more confident about making it into the deep ravine."
Wang Tang couldn't wait to untie the rope on the bag, take out a sulfur stone, weigh it up and down, and his smile almost stretched to his ears.
After finishing her water and catching her breath, Zhang Tianmeng looked at Wang Hao and asked, "Captain, are we going to the deep ravine tomorrow?"
Upon hearing this, everyone turned their attention to Wang Hao, wanting to know what he was thinking.
Holding a water glass in his hand, Wang Hao said in a calm voice, "It's already too late tonight. If we go to the deep ravine tomorrow, I'm afraid none of us will be well-rested."
Furthermore, we need to break these sulfur stones into powder, otherwise they won't burn well.
"We also need to check the specific situation of the ditch, determine the location where we saw the vanilla flowers, and make a plan before going down into the ditch."
After listening to Wang Hao's words, everyone nodded in agreement.
Wang Hao then said, "That's all for today. Everyone should rest. We'll discuss going to the deep ravine tomorrow."
Everyone dispersed, found a spot, and prepared to sleep.
Jiang Li took out a mat, spread it on the ground, and lay down on it without waiting.
When her sore limbs lay on the soft bed, they seemed to be relieved, and Jiang Li let out a comfortable groan. She no longer wanted to move.
A pair of large hands grasped her arms, massaging her muscles with just the right amount of force. Those hands were like a precise masseur, each kneading just right, making her feel as if she were floating on clouds, ethereal and blissful.
"Waaah... Brother Mo..."
Jiang Li turned her head and saw Ye Jingmo. She wanted to refuse his massage because he had also worked hard all day and was probably not feeling well. She could relax her muscles herself, so there was no need for Ye Jingmo to waste his energy.
Ye Jingmo remained expressionless, his gaze fixed intently on Jiang Li, and softly said, "It's nothing," while his hands continued their work without pause.
Jiang Li: What can I do? I can only accept it.
Jiang Li knew she couldn't persuade Ye Jingmo, so she could only passively accept the situation.
Jiang Li subconsciously relaxed all her muscles, letting Ye Jingmo knead her body as casually as if she were making a rice ball.
Sleepiness gradually swept over Jiang Li's mind. Her eyes blinked sluggishly, her eyelids drooping slowly. She tried to open her eyes a crack and mumbled "Goodnight" to Ye Jingmo in a sleepy voice.
Hearing Jiang Li's steady breathing, Ye Jingmo slowly stopped what he was doing, looked up slightly at Jiang Li, and saw Jiang Li's sleeping figure reflected in his eyes.
He slowly moved closer to Jiang Li's cheek, gently kissed her forehead, and then pulled her into his arms without giving her a chance to refuse before falling asleep contentedly.
The shadow of the campfire flickered on the ground, continuously radiating its light and heat.
At dawn, birdsong echoed through the mountains and forests, as if all things were beginning to awaken and experience the beauty of the early morning.
The people in the cave also woke up one after another. After a quick wash, they gathered together, all eyes fixed on Wang Hao in front of them, waiting for him to give them their tasks.
Today we need to check on the deep trench and prepare sulfur powder; there's quite a lot to do.
Wang Hao picked up a pen and began to scribble on a piece of white paper. "Today we need to prepare for picking fragrant herbs in the deep ravine tomorrow."
“I will divide everyone into two groups. One group will go to explore the specific situation of the deep ravine, and the other group will grind all these sulfur stones into powder in the cave.”
At this point, Wang Hao looked at Fu Qian and tapped the white paper with his pen. "Fu Qian, you take Jiang Li, Liu Yu, and Zhao Mingkai to grind the sulfur stones in the cave. Today, you must grind all the sulfur stones into powder."
Fu Qian paused for a moment, then nodded in agreement. Suddenly, she thought of a problem: "What do we need to grind these sulfur stones into powder? The base didn't give us anything like a hammer."
"Go out and pick up a few stones. These sulfur stones are slightly less hard than regular stones, so they should be able to be crushed into powder."
Jiang Li's eyes darted around like two black gems as she offered her suggestion.
Fu Qian immediately understood and gave an OK sign, as if to say, "I understand."
With the tools, they no longer had to worry about how to crush the powder.
Wang Hao turned to Ye Jingmo and the others, "The rest of you will come with me to investigate the details of the deep ravine. Fu Qian, give us those two small bags of realgar later."
"We'll talk about the rest after we've finished exploring the trenches."
Wang Hao dismissed the group and pulled Ye Jingmo aside to discuss the best way to explore the deep trench.
As Ye Jingmo was about to leave, Jiang Li grabbed his hand and quickly stuffed a bag of sulfur powder into his palm, worried that the realgar Fu Qian had given him wouldn't be enough.
Ye Jingmo felt a bag in his hand. He glanced at it out of the corner of his eye and saw that it was a bag of sulfur powder. He knew that Jiang Li had given it to him because she was worried that there wouldn't be enough realgar.
"Brother Mo, be careful."
Ye Jingmo saw Jiang Li wink at him, but didn't say anything, just nodded seriously.
He then walked out of the cave with Wang Hao and the other three, heading towards the deep ravine.
After they left, Jiang Li and Fu Qian also came out of the cave, but they didn't go far. They just looked for suitable stones nearby to break the sulfur stone.
Soon, they found a suitable stone.
Jiang Li gestured with her palm to measure the size of the stone, found it to be a good grip, and hard enough, so she took it back with her.
Inside the cave, Jiang Li took a piece of cloth and poured out half a bag of sulfur stones from the ground.
She casually picked up a piece of sulfur stone and placed it on top, then swung the stone down and smashed it until the sulfur stone turned into powder. However, because the force was not even, there were still some small stones of different sizes.
The three men worked together, smashing large rocks. Liu Yu, who was still a little dizzy, had a simpler job: collecting small sulfur lumps of varying sizes from the cloth and carefully crushing them into finer powder with stones.
The activity of breaking stones in the cave flourished.
On the other side, Wang Hao led the other three to the deep ditch. They first walked around the ditch to determine its length.
Wang Hao drew the approximate length and width of the deep ditch on a piece of white paper, then looked up and said, "To conserve realgar and to ensure safety, two people will go down into the ditch, and the other two will hold the rope from above."
Wang Hao's gaze swept over Ye Jingmo, and he decided to go down with Ye Jingmo.
During this time together, he discovered that Ye Jingmo was the best in terms of fighting skills among his group, and that he acted decisively and efficiently.
Wang Hao knew in his heart that if he weren't a member of the military, he probably wouldn't have been chosen as the captain.
“I’ll go down with Captain Wang, but besides exploring the deep ravine carefully, we may also need to survey the ravine from above.”
Once you're completely below the deep trench, your field of vision is too narrow, making it difficult to get a comprehensive understanding of the whole situation.
Ye Jingmo wanted to see if he could see what was happening in the deep ditch from mid-air.
Wang Hao understood Ye Jingmo's idea and had no objections. After getting his gear ready, he grabbed the climbing rope and headed down into the ravine.
In mid-air, Ye Jingmo held onto the climbing rope with one hand and shone a flashlight into the deep ravine with the other, allowing him to glimpse some of the scenery.
Based on his memory of rescuing Liu Yu, Ye Jingmo quickly located the spot where Liu Yu was rescued and then used that location to find the approximate area where the vanilla flowers were found.
"That should be where we found the vanilla flowers, roughly to the north."
Ye Jingmo used the beam of a flashlight as a pen and spoke to Wang Hao next to him.
“That’s right, we’ll head that way in a bit.”
This deep trench is a crack that runs from north to south, and it is about two hundred meters long.
Ye Jingmo and Wang Hao went down into the ditch and immediately sprinkled realgar powder on themselves to avoid snake attacks.
This deep ditch is filled with only sparse weeds, no lush plants, and mostly bare black mud soil, with occasional animal bones visible on the ground.
Ye Jingmo and Wang Hao walked slowly back to back, trying to memorize the landmarks around them so they could find their way accurately later.
Hiss~
The sound of snakes flicking their tongues could be heard from time to time.
Ye Jingmo looked at the snake that had crawled around them on the ground. Its beady eyes were filled with danger, and it opened its mouth to reveal sharp teeth.
Wang Hao held a flashlight in his left hand and a spear in his right. The spear was made of bamboo and had its head sharpened to a point, seemingly gleaming with a faint, cold light.