Prior to this, Sheyan had also noticed this circular scar. Yet as he was br.i.m.m.i.n.g with fervour to locate the pa.s.sageway entrance then, he simply overlooked it as part of nature. However, after failing to acquire any fruits after the excruciatingly long search, Sheyan inevitably started to doubt the authenticity of his deduction.
Hence, right now, he suddenly realized that this large striking scar appeared like a ‘丁’ character. His heart instantly stirred, as he reflexively headed in large strides towards the direction of the ‘丁’ scar.
After trudging for 20 metres or so, Sheyan immediately inhaled deeply as he felt his heart throbbing intensely; pumping blood into his brain.
"Once is chance, twice is a coincidence." Thus, Sheyan continued following the guided direction of the ‘丁’ carved scar. "Oh!" He then discovered the third tree with an identical ‘丁’ scar.
"Third time"s a pattern!"
Sheyan immediately beckoned to Mbenga.
"Do your tribesmen practice the habit of carving marks on trees, to prevent yourself from getting lost? Or perhaps, other similarly habits you’ve heard of before?"
To that, Mbenga replied with utmost arrogance.
"The village folk in this jungle are like hybrids of hyenas and leopards...losing our way???? HAHAHAHA!"
Without hesitation, Sheyan followed the directions of these ‘road signs’ to advance. These markings were relatively concealed, with some hidden within the tree canopy. Nonetheless, there was definitely one within every interval of ten or so metres.
After a short half-hour elapsed, an additionally enormous tree greeted Sheyan’s sight. Its tree trunk was exceptionally ma.s.sive, where its board-shaped roots alone was 2-3 metres in width. The crown of the tree roughly spanned over 200-300 square metres, but its height was scarcely 10 metres; giving a look of short and stout, resembling a wine barrel that was smashed down by a hammer.
If one observed from a bird’s eye view, one’s vision would be totally obstructed by the incomparably dense jungle. Not a sliver of the branch could even be seen.
Sheyan then snapped off a branch, where dense and creamy sap immediately oozed out; alongside an indescribable odour. When the sap touched his skin, it induced a slight numbing sensation.
As he circled two rounds around this eccentric looking ma.s.sive tree, Sheyan discovered a cl.u.s.ter of vegetation that was particularly luscious.
Presently, it was during the dry season, where the tropical rainforest had been thirsting for rain for over two weeks already. The surrounding flora was distinctively withered and dispirited, but only that particular patch of vegetation remained exuberant; completely incompatible with its drying environment.
As Sheyan and Mbenga inched closer to that cl.u.s.ter of vegetation, a wave of moisty vapour surged into their faces; instantly rousing their spirits. Mbenga marched forward and swept aside the thicket with his wooden pike. All of a sudden, a deep black hole was revealed.
The size of this hole was roughly the size of a human. For Sheyan to pa.s.s through, he had to bend his head. Gigantic cobwebs stretched across the entrance of this hole. Upon witnessing their webs being ripped asunder, a few long-legged spiders hastily exercised their plump and striking yellow striped legs, as they took off speedily.
Burying his head forward, Sheyan leapt into the cavern hole. Expecting a spongy moist suppleness to feedback from beneath his feet, the sensation he received, was instead the opposite. As he reached his hand down to feel, Sheyan could immediately feel the edges of stone slabs; a glaring indication of artificial construction.
"It’s here." Sheyan lighted a candle torch, as it brightly illuminated the pa.s.sageway ahead. Ripples of water vapour rushed against his face.
As they continued advancing 10 metres down this flight of stairs, Sheyan observed there was no longer any commonplace vegetation growing here. Instead, the place was filled with vegetation that adhered to the ground, a.n.a.logous to strawberries.
Their purplish-black leaves were roughly the size of copper coins, and pasted on the ground to grow; cyan-coloured fruits sprouted out from these vegetation.
A queer aroma hovered in the air here, it was neither pungent or fragrant.
The growth of this vegetation completely disallowed other types of vegetation to grow! They impressed an unexplainable dominance, that even the roots of ma.s.sive trees were daunted to deviate away from them.
When Mbenga noticed this type of vegetation, his expression changed drastically. Ignoring the filth, he knelt to the ground and bowed to this strange plant. Then, he immediately exclaimed.
"Chaliba!"
That was merely a statement of expression of the native aborigines. It was a.n.a.logous to the phrase ‘what c.r.a.p is this?’ of Sichuan people or easterners. To explain it in words, it was just an expression of disgust.
Sheyan proceeded to ask Mbenga why he knelt and kowtowed, where Mbenga only responded with an extremely vacant look. Seemingly about to salivate, he couldn’t come up with a reasoning. Evidently, it was just his instinctive reaction.
Since Sheyan couldn’t fathom the deal with this, he bluntly ignored it. It would be fine as long as it wasn’t poisonous.
After winding and turning several rounds, Sheyan reckoned they were now close to a hundred metres beneath the ground. In view that his free staying time was left with 10 plus hours, he subconsciously hastened his footsteps.
But after making a sharp bend, Sheyan abruptly discovered a person sprawled flatly atop the descending flight of stairs!
Alarmed, Sheyan immediately executed an alert stance. Yet after a long while, that person remained motionless sprawled on the ground. Soon after, Sheyan realized that this person was just a corpse.
Swiftly trudging forward, Sheyan discovered this individual was dressed in a familiar fas.h.i.+on. Skintight cotton socks wrapped around his calves, while he wore loose trousers above; this allowed one to move about conveniently on a s.h.i.+p. After unb.u.t.toning two b.u.t.tons of his sleeveless suit, Sheyan noticed a filthy, beige coloured s.h.i.+rt without a single necktie.
In the Caribbean sea world, Sheyan had seen a similar style aboard many s.h.i.+ps. In most cases, such individuals held the positions of vice or third mates/ officials on s.h.i.+ps. Due to them specializing in a particular trade like calculations, their statuses were higher than ordinary sailors but lower than the first mate.
Probably, this person had suffered some strange ambush previously. Though it was just a corpse, Sheyan still started searching his limbs for clues to decipher his ident.i.ty.
Very quickly, with his plentiful maritime experiences, Sheyan determined this should be a sailor that had accompanied Little Lord Fokke to this continent.
His death was caused by a gunshot to the back, and to Sheyan’s astoundment, the lead bullet that killed him was crafted in the exact fas.h.i.+on as ‘Ambition’.....very evidently, this evil was committed by ‘Ambition’s’ twin brother, ‘Penitence’, that Little Lord Fokke had carried previously.
Perhaps due to the special environment of this place, the corpse was constantly maintained and didn’t decompose fully.
Actually, this phenomenon wasn’t very rare, even in the real world, there would be rare cases where preserved ancient corpses were found. Thus, Sheyan didn’t pay particular attention to that.
After continuing a few dozens of step, an approximately 20 square metres platform greeted his sight. If ordinary folk were to reach this point, they would definitely be feeling rather fatigued and would utilize this place for a short breather.
Over here, Sheyan also discovered an extremely tattered canvas that was bundled up on the ground. As such, he could fundamentally reconstruct the sequence of events after Little Lord Fokke and his team had arrived at this platform.
Little Lord Fokke definitely would’ve had straightforwardly informed his subordinates, they were here to search for an elixir of immortality. Most likely, he would’ve baited their loyalty with the prospects of diamonds, gold and other riches. Perhaps, that unlucky brat had discovered this place was obviously not a diamond or gold mine, or perhaps, he suddenly missed his family. Maybe, the sinister atmosphere of this place had stolen his fighting spirit, prompting him to abandon the canvas bag he was carrying to escape.....
Obviously, Little Lord Fokke wouldn’t permit such a conduct. Thus, he drew his musket and fired; plundering the life of his comrade. By killing the chicken, he also warned the spectating monkeys around.
Sheyan then proceeded to examine that discarded canvas bag. He realized the bag was already opened and was unusually heavy. After rummaging through the thick clothing, he discovered everything else was withered vegetation. That same ‘Chaliba’ vegetation that Mbenga had kowtowed to sample! Those vegetation made up the bulk volume of this unusually heavy canvas bag.
Sheyan was slightly bewildered by this scene, but a notion immediately welled up in his mind.
"This person definitely wouldn’t store such an abundance of these ‘Chaliba’ plants for no reason. He was definitely ordered by Little Lord Fokke to do so."
"However, after murdering him, Little Lord Fokke still allowed this bag of ‘Chaliba’ plants to be carelessly discarded here....does this mean that Little Lord Fokke had ordered each individual to carry that many ‘Chaliba’ fruits? Therefore, I can take a step further and deduce, this plant that only grows here, that Mbenga prostrated to, will be extremely useful in the future!"
Thinking of that, Sheyan instantly backtracked without hesitation, before audaciously plucking these plants. Indeed, he then received a notification from his nightmare imprint.
[ You obtained an unknown plant! This plant cannot be brought out of this world ]
As time was tight, Sheyan could only continue advancing. After descending for nearly 10 minutes, he suddenly felt a peculiar sensation; a weightlessness that only happens when a plane takes off. Furthermore, a buzzing sound was resonating within his eardrums!
After standing still for a brief while, everything became clear. That was the sonorous swoos.h.i.+ng of water! The thunderous clamour of the underground river smas.h.i.+ng against cavern walls!!
After winding past another bend, finally, an amazing 7-8 metres broad underground river welcomed his sight! Sheyan reflexively took a deep breath.
He finally found it!! The mystery concealed by the torn pages.