"I can feel that something is wrong too. It is as though the forest is like a maze." Commander Xia said with an uncomfortable expression.
Luo Yuan quickly comforted them as he saw that everyone had started to get panicked and worried, "Luckily we realized this earlier; otherwise, we might need to stay another night here. Let me go up the tree and try to figure out where we are. We might be able to get out of the forest soon."
Luo Yuan picked the largest tree in the area and reached the top of it in just a few breaths. The tree was about 100 meters tall and he only began to feel that there was a heatwave when he was standing at the top. The heavy transpiration process of the trees caused the surroundings to look very foggy. Fortunately, Luo Yuan has excellent eyesight and the objects he was looking for were huge peaks. He looked around carefully for a few seconds and then got back onto the ground after a few leaps.
"How’s the situation?" Huang Jiahui immediately asked once he landed.
"It’s good, we are just about 20 km away from the nearest peak and we should be able to reach there before the sky turns dark. Let’s go!" Luo Yuan said.
Everyone felt relieved when they heard his words and quickly climbed up onto the back of the giant lizard. They really did not want to stay any longer in this scary forest. However, things were not as simple as what they imagined. After the giant lizard walked for about 10 minutes, Luo Yuan climbed up another big tree to check on their whereabouts. He realized they were not even close to the peak and the mountain now seemed to be even further away from them.
The peak from afar looked like a mirage; no matter how long they walked, they will never actually get there. This lowered their morale as they got more worried.
"What should we do? We seem to be misled by ‘something’!" Zhao Yali said superstitiously.
"Even if ‘something’ was trying to mislead us, it doesn’t mean that we won’t be able to get out of here." Luo Yuan said. He then pondered for a moment and continued, "Perhaps what we see is not the reality and what we hear might be also wrong. However, I don’t believe all five senses could be distorted simultaneously. I think what I see is real."
"Do you have any solution to this?" Zhao Yali quickly asked.
"I only have one silly idea, but I still need to test it out with an experiment." Luo Yuan said.
He jumped down from the giant lizard and selected two big trees as his starting and end points. He then walked ahead of the team and returned after a short while. He was smiling and said, "I walked three steps more than what I supposed to."
"Do you mean that distance in the forest is distorted?" Commander Xia asked.
"No, we would have realized it if the distance was the main problem." Luo Yuan said.
"It was the direction. There is an unknown force which has misled us! When we were walking in a straight line earlier, we were walking in circles. If we don't check where we are going from time to time, it is possible that we can be stuck here forever." Luo Yuan explained.
Luo Yuan was still puzzled by the fact that he walked three steps more than he was supposed to even though the distance between the two trees was only about 35 steps. Moreover, this was the result of him walking while looking at his destination, otherwise, no one knows how far he would have gone.
"I’ll walk on top of the trees later, and you follow me with the giant lizard." Luo Yuan said. That was the only way he could think of at that moment. Everyone quickly nodded.
Then, Luo Yuan climbed up to the tree again and jumped rapidly like a monkey as the sky was getting darker. He was moving at a very high speed to avoid falling asleep unconsciously like yesterday. The giant lizard needed to "jog" to catch up with him.
Using this new strategy, the peak was finally getting nearer in their vision and the mysterious forest was far behind them after half an hour. Everyone finally felt relieved and the strange force was finally gone.
They rested for a while and then continued their journey again soon after. They passed by a low peak and then stopped in front a stone heap when the sky was completely dark.
There were not many plants due to the absence of soil. They only saw weeds which were as tall as human beings and a few small plants. Those weeds looked yellowish and wilted under the hot sun compared to the greenery in the forest earlier. It looked like they would die anytime soon.
Due to the lack of life in the area, the level of danger was lower in this environment. They did not see any mutated beast and there were very few insects. The group finally felt calmed and relieved. They fell asleep after dinner and the campfire faded around 12 midnight. The last bit of light was finally gone after being blown out by the wind.
Suddenly, someone got up after hearing some soft noises. It was Cao Lin. She hesitated and then slowly walked towards Luo Yuan.
"Brother Luo! Brother Luo!" She called him softly.
Luo Yuan was meditating at that moment and slowly opened his eyes to look at Cao Lin.
He asked uncertainly, "What happened?"
"Can… can we talk somewhere else?" Cao Lin felt nervous as she saw Luo Yuan look at her. Her rosy face immediately became slightly pale.
Luo Yuan got up from the ground and walked a few steps further with Cao Lin. He then asked, "What’s up?"
"My… my chest was stung by something just now. Could you please help me check?" Cao Lin gritted her teeth and said. She pinched the edge of her shirt while her body was trembling slightly.
She was probably nervous and scared.
"Since when was she so comfortable to allow others to see this part of her body?" Luo Yuan wondered.
"Is it serious?" He asked.
"I… I have no idea!" Cao Lin said with a shaky voice and then began to remove her shirt.
Luo Yuan wanted to stop her but he did not say anything in the end. After that, he could not help but stare at her naked body as she was not wearing anything else inside. He saw a pair of snowy ‘rabbits’ bouncing but there was a palm-sized purple bruise on one of them.
From Luo Yuan’s initial observation, it did not look like her breast was stung by something but instead it looked like a result of pinching. Luo Yuan got the message but he did not expose the truth or reject her either as that will make her feel embarrassed. Obviously, she has put in a lot of effort and courage after hesitating for a long time.
He sighed and gently caressed the "bruise". The bruise was gone with the help of his will and her skin became snowy white again very soon. Luo Yuan continued to inspect the area for a few more seconds and then pulled back his hand and said, "Let’s go back. We need to wake up early tomorrow morning."
Cao Lin‘s face was very hot and she quickly put on her clothes and then ran back to where she slept.
Luo Yuan sighed and returned to where he meditated earlier. He could easily do anything he wanted without paying the price as he was strong, but he could not disobey his integrity. He did not know what made him think about that phrase. He suspected that other strong people would never hold back on such an opportunity, except himself.