Chapter 75: 75, Prehistoric bird

Ren Xiaosu's mind began to race when he heard Yang Xiaojin mention the Huozhong Company, for the information contained in her words was substantial.

Regarding the news of the Huozhong Company, Xu Xianchu clearly knew nothing, meaning that in terms of intelligence, Yang Xiaojin far surpassed this private military man.

Moreover, Yang Xiaojin said, "Perhaps only the core personnel of the Huozhong Company know what's inside," why was it determined to be core personnel rather than the entire company? It must be that Yang Xiaojin had gone to seek out members of the Huozhong Company to gather intelligence, but returned empty-handed.

Ren Xiaosu believed that Yang Xiaojin couldn't do all this alone, just as he didn't even know how many shelters humanity had built, having only heard of the largest sequence being the 178th Shelter.

He didn't know the Huozhong Company, nor how many consortiums there were; to understand the full picture of the world in this era where communication was not advanced, one must have an organization behind them!

Therefore, Yang Xiaojin must belong to some organization, but as for exactly which one, it was unknown.

Ren Xiaosu was someone who enjoyed learning and thinking; at this moment, Yang Xiaojin saw Ren Xiaosu's thoughtful expression and immediately fell silent. Yang Xiaojin was not foolish either; she realized that Ren Xiaosu was analyzing the information in her previous words!

Ren Xiaosu suddenly asked, "Are there only these two known places?"

Yang Xiaojin glanced at him, "There will be more and more."

In the afternoon, everyone except Ren Xiaosu showed signs of fatigue; Liu Bu and the other three ordinary people had blisters on their feet, but they didn't dare fall behind or ask to rest.

Ren Xiaosu drank a bottle of water, then filled a new one from a shallow stream; the others, having no containers, had to use large leaves to hold water.

Xu Xianchu ahead had a canteen, Yang Xiaojin had a hidden bottle of water, so she also had a container; Ren Xiaosu, of course, had not only bottles but also an iron cup he had brought from home.

But Luo Xinyu, Liu Bu, and Wang Lei didn't have any, so Ren Xiaosu and the others walked ahead, while behind them, Luo Xinyu and the three each held a leaf, looking as miserable as possible...

When fetching water, Ren Xiaosu specifically instructed, "Never approach deep rivers, and even when taking water from shallow streams, leave quickly."

Because when Xu Xianchu and the others mentioned that prehistoric birds appeared in the areas controlled by the Huozhong Company, he remembered the shadow in the river he had encountered while spearing fish!

It was a creature that even other fish in the water feared; Ren Xiaosu even felt a bit regretful for not having seen its true form.

At dusk, Ren Xiaosu and the others finally found a new cave, though this one was small; six people sitting inside felt cramped, but there was no choice, as the forest at night was too terrifying.

When everyone huddled together to roast food over the fire, each felt a rare sense of security, perhaps only then realizing the importance of companions.

Ren Xiaosu surveyed the cave, looking for traces left by humans, such as the words carved in last night's cave.

However, it was a pity that there were no new clues here.

Xu Xianchu instructed, "If you want to relieve yourselves, it's best not to enter the forest to avoid accidents. If the girls need to go, we won't look and can have one girl supervise us, for your safety."

The group chewed on the freshly boiled pine root stems; Liu Bu, recalling the wild boar scent earlier, jokingly said to Ren Xiaosu, "Why don't you make a wish or something, in case another animal comes our way?"

Ren Xiaosu replied irritably, "Why don't you make a wish?"

He wouldn't sacrifice Yan Liuyuan's health for food; the pine root stem tasted like celery and wasn't particularly hard to swallow.

At this moment, Ren Xiaosu was very careful with his words and actions, fearing to bring disaster upon his family's Yan Liuyuan.

Liu Bu's face showed some embarrassment: "I was just joking with you. If wishes worked, I would have wished for animals to come to us by now. Do you think they would?"

At that moment, strange sounds came from the forest outside the cave, seemingly very dense.

Ren Xiaosu and the others instinctively picked up their weapons; the next moment, three wild boars, two wildcats, two snakes, and seven monkeys emerged from the forest.

The wild boars' size was obvious; these wildcats looked like leopards from the textbook! The monkeys were nearly as tall as humans, standing upright at about 1.6 meters!

Ren Xiaosu was certain this wasn't Yan Liuyuan's luck boost; these creatures together could easily kill them all—this wasn't good fortune!

Ren Xiaosu stared at the beasts in a daze: "Liu Bu, what kind of mouth is that of yours!"

Liu Bu was almost in tears: "I was just saying something random..."

The beasts and humans were in a stalemate, as if the beasts hadn't expected anyone here; Ren Xiaosu lowered his voice and said, "Liu Bu, tell them we're vegetarians today, let them go..."

Liu Bu immediately cried, looking at the beasts outside the cave: "I said it works... uh... you guys go away!"

Originally, Ren Xiaosu was just joking, but when Liu Bu said "go away," the beasts actually turned and ran off in the other direction.

In fact, Ren Xiaosu could have fought them; although pistols were hard to harm these animals, he still had the shadow as his ultimate trump card.

But Ren Xiaosu wasn't about to expose it; once this thing appeared, Xu Xianchu and the others would surely know he had a method to copy others' abilities, and the consequences were unknown.

Moreover, if you copied someone's shadow and it turned out stronger than theirs, their faces wouldn't look good!

Ren Xiaosu looked at Liu Bu in surprise—could this guy have awakened luck like Yan Liuyuan?!

No!

Ren Xiaosu looked back toward the forest: "Something must have driven these beasts here. Beasts shouldn't coexist peacefully; they neither attack each other nor us, which means there's something more terrifying oppressing them. They came to this cave for refuge!"

"That seems to be the case," Xu Xianchu nodded. "Because we occupied this cave, they went elsewhere."

"Do you remember, yesterday evening there was movement in the forest, but the other side didn't appear and stayed away? I always thought the source of the sound had caused the crisis, but now I think it might have been animals seeking shelter in a cave," Ren Xiaosu recalled. "What exactly is in this forest that even these 'native' creatures must flee their territory, and different species coexist peacefully?!"