Bai Qiu observed from midair for a few minutes.
Then, after taking out the Stone Staff, he leapt down, magical light screens appearing continuously beneath his feet to cushion the impact, and soon landed beside the others.
“I’ve got one good news and one bad news. Which one do you want to hear first?” Bai Qiu said.
“Um… the bad news first?” Ning Xingxue asked cautiously.
After all, for her, things couldn’t get much worse than they already were.
How much worse could it be?
Bai Qiu nodded. “I just surveyed the terrain, resources, monsters, and plants. Let’s start with the terrain—where you’re standing right now is one of the few ‘prime spots’ on the entire map. In many areas, the water is deep enough for us to travel by boat, and there are aquatic predators lurking beneath.”
“Then… what’s the good news?” Zhao Daqiang asked.
The group swallowed nervously.
For anyone who wasn’t fully prepared, this dungeon was basically hell-level difficulty.
After all, who casually keeps a boat inside their storage card?
“The good news,” Bai Qiu continued leisurely, pointing ahead, “is that this dungeon doesn’t have many resources. We should be able to finish quickly and head back. And I discovered something very interesting.”
“This area is extremely barren compared to the Fertile Grasslands. The plant species are few, the quantities are low, and they’re scattered. And the culprits behind all this… are the giant catfish and the crocodiles!”
“This… how can ‘almost no resources’ count as good news?”
The same thought popped into all three of their minds, but none of them said it aloud.
Since Bai Qiu said it was good news, it must have its reasoning.
“I found that the giant catfish and crocodiles are roughly the same size. They’re the type of predators that avoid each other’s territory. But the swamp is completely devoid of any other creatures besides those two predators! The lack of plant life is likely because those two species have run out of food and resorted to eating plants.”
“Forget the catfish, but crocodiles eat plants too?” Huang Qi was stunned.
Bai Qiu’s explanation sounded unbelievable to him.
But Zhao Daqiang and Ning Xingxue disagreed.
Not only did they believe it, they even began discussing it further.
The earth-element mana in this dungeon was incredibly dense.
The mud here was actually nutrient-rich black soil.
Though it looked disgusting, Bai Qiu could feel that the Stone Staff could exert several times its usual strength here—an even higher boost than the Thorn Staff had in the Fertile Grasslands!
At this point, he no longer had to worry about mana consumption.
Gathering the massive amount of elemental energy beneath his feet, he used the Stone Staff to create solid “footholds,” allowing him to move across the swamp effortlessly.
The mobility issue for Ning Xingxue and the other two could also be solved the same way.
“Hup!” Bai Qiu shouted, thrusting the tip of the Stone Staff into the swamp.
Channeling his mana, he activated the staff—and instantly, a solid mud platform formed under its influence.
The mud slab was three meters long and two meters wide, large enough for all four of them to stand on.
Bai Qiu stepped onto the dry platform to test its texture.
It was quite sturdy, though since he had only made it five centimeters thick, stepping on it increased the pressure and caused the platform to sink slightly.
It felt similar to placing a wooden board on a non-Newtonian fluid and stepping on it—you could clearly sense the mud slab sinking, but even with sudden added pressure, the sinking speed didn’t increase much.
He still had plenty of reaction time.
As long as he kept moving and continuously created new slabs, there was no need to worry about sinking.
After all, the previous slab wouldn’t have sunk yet before he had already created a second one.
And with the Stone Staff, combined with the overwhelming amount of earth-element mana here, he practically couldn’t run out of energy!
Creating a mud slab consumed less than one-twentieth of the mana he’d need to stay suspended in the air.
As for the deeper parts of the swamp, Bai Qiu already had his own plans.
There were plenty of wooden materials around, so making a simple raft would be easy.
Once inside a dungeon, all outside communication would be blocked, so Bai Qiu was unable to bring in external tools to help himself.
He could only look for materials inside and rely on himself.
Ning Xingxue struggled onto the mud slab and complained, “You knew this trick—why didn’t you use it earlier?”
The other two also nodded.
Each took out the bottled water stored in their storage cards to wash off the mud on their bodies.
Ning Xingxue even removed her rubber boots, revealing a pair of “mud feet.”
Bai Qiu chuckled.
While they cleaned up, he generated another mud slab and said, “I just learned it. Besides, this trick only works in this dungeon. The earth-element mana here is too concentrated. If it were any other dungeon, making these slabs would be nearly impossible.”
“And you guys didn’t warn me to bring proper gear either, did you? Compared to me, you’re all pretty well prepared.”
Stepping onto the newly formed slab, Bai Qiu added:
“Right, keep up. Once I make a new platform, the old mud slab won’t last long without the staff sustaining it. It’ll crumble in under thirty seconds. Don’t blame me if you fall behind.”
Hearing that, the three of them rushed over immediately—so fast they were practically glued to Bai Qiu’s back.
Startled, Bai Qiu quickly stopped them. “Stop! Don’t get that close!”
The three were confused. Bai Qiu said, “Did I make the slab this big so you could crowd right next to me? Don’t get my clothes dirty—I don’t have many sets left! Once this mud stains them, they’re ruined!”
The three were speechless.
In their minds: You’re treating that bargain-bin outfit like some priceless treasure?
And you, the only top-tier expert among all fifty safe zones, someone whose level towers above everyone else—how could you be short of clothes that cost less than 300yuan in total?
But they didn’t voice their thoughts.
After all, no matter how unreasonable a big shot’s words sounded, they still had to be treated as reasonable.
So they obediently split up and took positions at the four sides of the mud board.
Bai Qiu took the lead, Zhao Daqiang and Huang Qi stood on the left and right, and Ning Xingxue covered the rear.
Bai Qiu deliberately laid the mud board toward those trees that looked dead but were actually full of life, and signaled everyone to get ready for logging.
“Later, we’ll build a big raft once we reach the deep-water area. Don’t let a single branch or piece of wood slip away. I still have some fabric in my storage card—I’ll take it apart later and turn it into rope.” Bai Qiu said while laying the mud boards.
What surprised him was that Zhao Daqiang actually had experience building rafts, so he handed that task over to him completely.
Everything in this secret realm posed no difficulty at all to Bai Qiu, who possessed the Fivefold Arcane Crystallized Eyes.
But in reality, even if ten teams with the combined strength of Ning Xingxue’s trio tried to clear this place, it still wouldn’t be easy!
In terrain like this, once danger appears, there’s nowhere to run.
Movement is severely restricted, and no one knows whether there are unknown threats lurking in the silt and marsh.
Everyone would have to stay tense and alert without relaxing for even a moment—how could anyone move and chat so leisurely like they were doing now?
— The end of the Chapter–
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