The next morning, Liu, the last one on night watch, and Lin Ye woke everyone up at dawn.
Han Badou groggily climbed off the Luo Beast fur; his original team never set off so early.
"Kuan Ge, why are we leaving so early?"
Han Badou asked Yan Kuan, who was beside him, in confusion.
"It's what Chen Dage said. The two hours around sunrise are less likely to encounter powerful Magical Beasts, making them suitable for travel."
Upon hearing this, Han Badou glanced at Chen Bugu, who was using his Storage Ring to store Luo Beast meat, feeling that he was becoming increasingly mysterious.
"I can't get this information either. How does Chen Dage know?"
"He seems to know a lot about this forest. As for how he knows, that's his secret. Anyway, I don't care about that. As long as Chen Bugu can lead me out of this forest alive, nothing else matters."
"Kuan Ge, you really think things through."
"Ba Dou, why don't you go ask?"
"No, no, Kuan Ge, I'll go help pack up."
Ba Dou quickly waved his hand after hearing this and ran to help Lin Xiaoxiao pack up the Luo Beast furs. These furs were much more comfortable to sleep on than directly on the ground, so they decided to fold them up and have Chen Bugu put them into his ring to take with them.
Five minutes later, everyone was fully rested.
"Ba Dou, we're ready to go. Go say goodbye to Wei Lai. He really took care of you, so don't leave without a word. Also, tell them we took half of the Luo Beast meat, and the rest is theirs."
Chen Bugu had previously discovered that there were no captive Luo Beasts in this Goblin tribe, perhaps because they had all been killed before, but there was a good supply of Luo Beast meat.
After removing Han Badou, there were still 14 people from the Guan Zhou group, and the remaining half of the Luo Beast meat could at least ensure they wouldn't go hungry for the next three or four days.
"Okay, Chen Dage, please wait for me for a moment."
Han Badou ran to the other side of the tribe and found Wei Lai's wooden house.
"Uncle Wei, are you up? We're about to leave."
Han Badou stood at the entrance, looking into the house.
"Hm? Is that Han Badou? You're leaving so early?"
Wei Lai rubbed his eyes, seeing the dim light outside the wooden house, with Ba Dou standing at the entrance, silhouetted against the light.
"Yes, Chen Dage said it's safer to travel at dawn."
"It's indeed safer to follow him. Although he kills without batting an eye, I think he's a good person."
"Uncle Wei, then I'm leaving. We're taking half of the Luo Beast meat; remember to take the rest."
"Okay, Ba Dou, go. If you ever meet your uncle again, remember to put in a good word for me."
How could Ba Dou not understand Wei Lai's words, which sounded inexplicably like a farewell?
In this place of near-certain death, perhaps this separation would truly become a final farewell.
"Uncle Wei, are you really not coming with me? I can talk to Chen Dage."
"No need, Han Badou. Everyone saved my life before. I can't leave like you. You don't need to speak for me, and don't make it difficult for your Chen Dage."
Ba Dou fell silent. He knew that when Wei Lai first entered this forest, he almost died facing a Goblin for the first time. It was a couple from Guan Zhou who saved him. Later, the woman died, but the man was still there, and Wei Lai was unwilling to leave.
Han Badou knew that if Chen Bugu took Wei Lai, there might still be a slight possibility, but if there were other people, the possibility was slim.
"Alright then, I'm leaving, Uncle Wei. Take care. I hope we meet again someday."
"Go, Han Badou. We'll meet again someday."
Han Badou turned and left, leaving Wei Lai sitting in the wooden house, watching the brightening sky outside, silent for a long time.
...
After Han Badou returned, Chen Bugu and his group immediately set off, continuing towards Soaring Sky Tree.
However, before that, they had to find a nearby water source.
They hadn't found any water storage facilities in the Goblin tribe, but the Goblin's portable beast skin bags often contained clear water, and the Goblin Blacksmith's cooling water source was also unknown.
Overall, there must be a river or spring near this tribe.
When Lin Xiaoxiao and Lin Lin heard that there might be a river nearby, their eyes lit up.
Water meant they could bathe!
For the past few days, their drinking water had mainly come from plundering the Goblin teams' beast skin bags, which was only enough to meet their basic drinking needs and certainly not enough for bathing.
They hadn't bathed for five or six days straight, and they were already dirty and smelly.
Originally, when Lin Xiaoxiao learned that one of the Guan Zhou group was a water-attribute Element Awakened, she was happy for a while.
But later, she found that the person was only Black Iron one-star, and his only ability was to condense a water whip for attack. When the whip dispersed, it was only about a cup's worth of water.
The Guan Zhou group was still counting on him for drinking water, so Lin Xiaoxiao felt too embarrassed to ask.
After learning there was a river nearby, Bai Ting was also excited. He said he had to wash his suit. Since he killed Xue Ke yesterday, his white suit was stained with a lot of blood and didn't look clean enough.
Everyone also noticed that Bai Ting had an inexplicable obsession with his white suit, which others couldn't understand.
An hour later, everyone finally found a small stream.
The stream was shallow, only reaching their calves, and the current was not strong, so even an ordinary person could stand in the stream comfortably without being affected.
Chen Bugu cupped his hands, scooped up the stream water, and lightly tasted it with his tongue, confirming that there was no unusual taste.
Then he activated Breaking on the stream water in front of him.
After the Gene Lock was Broken, Chen Bugu became increasingly aware of the power of Breaking, so he always used Breaking as an extra layer of insurance when uncertain.
"Ba Dou."
"Okay, Chen Dage."
Seeing Chen Bugu's expression, Ba Dou guessed his concerns.
So he activated Energy Monitoring and observed carefully.
"Within the monitoring range, there are no energy bodies in the water."
Chen Bugu finally breathed a sigh of relief and nodded to the people behind him.
There was nothing they could do; their current monitoring capabilities were limited. They couldn't just give up the water source in front of them out of caution.
Seeing Chen Bugu nod, everyone filled their beast skin bags with stream water and drank it gulped down.
Yan Kuan, as Chen Bugu had instructed, used Earth Element to raise four one-meter-high stone fences in the stream, enclosing some water in the middle.
Several men were the first to take off their clothes and bathe in the stream.
Bai Ting diligently scrubbed his white suit, but the bloodstains could never be completely washed away.
Lin Xiaoxiao and Lin Lin stood with their backs to the others, acting as lookouts.
"Hurry up, we want to wash too!" Lin Xiaoxiao shouted.
A few minutes later, Chen Bugu and the others put on their clothes. They felt much more comfortable after bathing.
Yan Kuan removed the stone walls, and after the stream water flowed again, he raised them once more.
At Lin Xiaoxiao's request, this time the stone walls were taller, a full 1.6 to 1.7 meters.
After Lin Xiaoxiao and the other entered, only their heads were barely visible.
To prevent the men from peeking, Lin Xiaoxiao's four Cold Steel Flying Daggers slowly circled around them.
Wang Bin made a fire by the stream to help dry everyone's clothes.
Chen Bugu, meanwhile, took his Rapid Wind Dagger and went to chop down trees. He wanted to hollow out some small tree stumps to make containers for water, so they could carry more water when they left.
...
On the other side, Wei Lai sat in the open space of the Goblin tribe.
Wei Lai was kind, fair, and reasonable, and often led the way when danger arose. Everyone implicitly accepted him as the leader of the team.
"Brother Wei, Little Zhang and the other two still haven't been found..."
A man anxiously approached Wei Lai, his face filled with worry.
It turned out that after the Guan Zhou group woke up, they suddenly discovered that two people from one of the wooden houses were nowhere to be found.
After waiting for ten minutes, with no sign of the two returning, Wei Lai had no choice but to organize everyone to search the surroundings, but they found nothing.
"Could they have gone to the bathroom somewhere far away? Let's wait a bit longer."
"Brother Wei, we've already waited for 10 minutes. Even if Little Zhang and the others went to the bathroom, they wouldn't go that far."
Wei Lai's expression wasn't good. How could he not understand this logic? But if Little Zhang and the other really disappeared inexplicably, wouldn't that mean...
"Little Zhang and the others seemed to have cursed that guy named Chen a few times yesterday. Then this morning, when we woke up, Little Zhang and the other two mysteriously disappeared, and that group of people named Chen also ran off. Could it be..."
"Don't guess wildly. Ba Dou and the others told me they were leaving."
"If we had known this, we should have left people on watch last night, just like that group."
Wei Lai's brows furrowed even deeper after hearing this.
That day, Wei Lai and his group waited for two hours, but Little Zhang and the other two never returned.
Although no one said it out loud, everyone guessed that Little Zhang and the other two had died.
As for where they died, everyone had their own guesses...
When they set off again, only 12 people remained in the Guan Zhou group. Everyone had different expressions, and no one knew what they were thinking.