Ancient Eden

~End of chapter 6

Mu Qing gathered everything into her bag and stuffed the few fruits inside as well. When she got out of the wooden house and looked down, she noticed that the wooden house in the branch fork was actually higher than she had originally thought, it was about five or six meters high, and although the ground wasn’t hard, she didn’t want to risk injury by jumping down.

She tied the rope to a thick like a thigh branch, grasped the rope, and stepping on the coarse bark, on the hollows of the trunk, she slowly made her way down.

Mu Qing, according to the direction indicated by the compass, started heading south.

Chapter 7

(2.3)

There was no path on the ground, there were ferns and large trees with protruding roots everywhere, some of which even overlapped like small mountains, with layers of thick and slippery moss. Oddly shaped insects kept appearing and disappearing. Mu Qing slowly and painstakingly walked forward.

Near noon, the forest became very hot, every step Mu Qing took, made her sweat non-stop, she was also breathing quite heavily. Along the way, she was surprised by countless strange-looking animals that she could swear she had never seen before, they seemed… like the prehistoric animals that had long been extinct on Earth and that one could occasionally see in scientific TV programs. Fortunately, the size of all of them was smaller than her, most of them were startled by her and ran away immediately in a dash.

Mu Qing had been feeling thirsty since earlier. Because she was sweating very profusely, the moisture in her body was almost depleted. Her clothes were clinging to her body, and it was very uncomfortable. Just when she felt so thirsty that her throat started burning, she finally stopped walking and leaned on a tree root that was protruding from a giant tree. She took out a coconut-like fruit from her backpack.

She didn’t have the strength of that man and wasn’t able to break it open with her hands. But she had the knife. Fortunately, that man had only taken the telescope with him.

She pushed the tip of the knife into the outer shell, and after a long moment of efforts, she managed to open a small slit. That was enough.

She pressed her mouth close to the slit and slowly sucked the juice that flowed from it. Although she wanted to drink it all in one gulp, but then, her body would eliminate the excess water after she was done drinking, it would be a complete waste of water for nothing. And she couldn’t afford to waste it.

She took a few sips, kept the liquid in her mouth and slowly swallowed it, after a while, she took a few more sips, and closed her eyes to feel the comfortable sensation of her mouth and throat being slowly moisturized by the liquid.

She put the fruit, which also contained water inside, back into her backpack. After resting just now, she felt that her body had also recovered some strength. She was about to get up again to resume walking towards the south, when suddenly she smelled a heavy foul smell, like a gust of wind assaulting her nose.

In the dense forest in front of her, a giant bird suddenly appeared from nowhere.

Even in her wildest dreams, she could never have imagined that such a giant bird could exist in this world. Its body was gray, standing over there, it was at least two meters high, its head was as big as a horse, under its wings, there was a pair of feet with sharp claws, and its beak was even thicker than her arm.

She noticed that its abdomen seemed to be wounded, some dark red blood was running down its legs that had claws thicker than her waist. But this would not affect its ability to come up to her and use its claws to hold her down and tear her apart with its long beak that had a curved hook.

Mu Qing was a little scared. The big bird had already spotted her, and its pair of dark eyes were gazing at her grimly right now, as it slowly walked towards her.

She only had the Swiss knife in her hand. But using this kind of knife, to deal with this bird, would appear like a tale from One Thousand and One Nights.

Her mouth, which she felt had just been a little moisturized, became dry again.

Mu Qing slowly stood up, trying as best as possible not to let the giant bird notice that she was intending to try to escape. Then, when she was ready, she suddenly turned around and started running, wrestling her way out of there.

She went towards the direction where the vegetation was the bushiest. 𝒷𝓮𝒹𝓃ℴ𝓿𝓮𝓁.𝓬𝓸𝓂

The huge bird’s body was too huge, it might be obstructing from advancing forward by the bushy vegetation, while she could escape, using the advantage of her smaller size.

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Translator : Laura