"This, this is Jiang Guiju's rope!"

Chang Shoushang also noticed this anomaly.

"It seems there's some trouble."

Li Pu stood up.

The two exchanged glances, both frowning.

This roller is a special device; if the binder takes a detour or retreats, it tightens automatically.

Now that it's drooping on the ground, it only indicates one thing: no one is tied at the other end anymore.

"Phone, watch, all can't be reached."

Chang Shoushang tried, but to no avail.

Just as the senior introduced before entering, communication fails inside the mist.

"The three probably acted together. Could they have gotten separated?"

"What do we do?"

Though he was a senior, he sought the opinion of Li Pu, the freshman.

"Let's try to pull the other two back first."

Li Pu thought for a moment and instructed Chang Shoushang to turn the crank on the roller.

"Alright."

Chang Shoushang nodded and began turning the crank.

Clank, clank, clank...

The reverse-rotating roller started to tighten the three ropes.

It's believed that Hang Xing and Chang Shilian on the other end would feel the tug and cooperate by coming back.

Because this was the agreed action for any unexpected situation — pull the person back.

"Too slow."

Watching the rope's retrieval speed, Li Pu couldn't help but shake his head.

The three had been in the mist for over 30 minutes, during which they didn't know how far they had walked or how long it would take to return.

So, he stepped forward, grabbed Jiang Guiju's rope, which had dropped to the ground, and began pulling it back with force.

Since there clearly was no one on the other end of the rope, there's no concern about injuring someone from fast retrieval.

Li Pu's manual retrieval efficiency was naturally much faster than Chang Shoushang's roller turning.

"What the heck, how is he so strong."

Watching this scene, Chang Shoushang muttered softly.

He wondered if this guy could compete in the Southwest Star Cup without even summoning a beast, just relying on his extraordinary physical strength to win a rank?

In less than 3 minutes, Li Pu had completely retrieved the rope.

"This..."

Upon seeing the retrieved rope, Chang Shoushang was at a loss for words.

Because the free end of the rope was completely intact.

This implies it's not an accident like a magical creature biting the rope off, but rather that Jiang Guiju herself likely untied the rope.

"Could she have encountered an illusion and been enchanted?"

Chang Shoushang rubbed his chin.

With the rope unbroken, it was hard to tell if this was good news or bad.

"I'll go take a look."

Li Pu thought it over and decisively tied the safety rope to himself.

[Grass?]

The scarecrow lying in a pit he had dug in the ground was awakened by a pat.

"Huh?"

This decision left Chang Shoushang momentarily stunned.

There were only three pairs of goggles, and the seniors hadn't left any extra ones for them.

This indicates that the seniors meant for them not to enter the mist under any circumstances.

"Don't worry, it'll be fine."

"If it doesn't work out, I'll retreat immediately."

But Li Pu was confident.

Actually, there was something he noticed upon arrival but hadn't told anyone.

That is, in his eyes, there was no mist at all.

Being able to directly see into the so-called illusion mist, it was just a typical East Wilderness Ridge stone forest landscape.

By enabling and disabling [Imitation], he quickly found the answer.

The illusion mist, the illusion mist, turned out even the mist itself was an illusion, which slightly surprised Li Pu.

But on the other hand, it demonstrated that the supposed illusion mist wasn't actually scary to him.

[Willpower]: Immune to Fear/Illusion effects, great strength increase

This thing doesn't affect him.

Not allowing Chang Shoushang a chance to speak further, he headed in directly with the scarecrow.

"The direction the senior walked earlier seemed to be that way."

Recalling this, Li Pu proceeded quickly.

Inside, it was obvious that it differed from the outside.

First, it wasn't as excessively barren as the East Wilderness Ridge.

The air's humidity was noticeably higher than outside.

Near many rocks, green weeds grew.

Occasionally, some trees could be seen, although not many, they were quite lush, appearing to have grown well.

Rumble, rumble...

As he walked on, he suddenly heard some dull sounds nearby.

Following the sound, he got closer and discovered the source was moving.

A mound of earth was moving at a steady pace.

Li Pu couldn't see through the ground, but it seemed some magical creature was hiding beneath.

"Judging by this mound, the creature seems to be of considerable size."

"But now isn't the time to provoke magical creatures, finding people is urgent."

Having delved some two to three hundred meters, he still hadn't found Jiang Guiju nor spotted Hang Xing or Chang Shilian.

"Let's search separately."

He decided to increase efficiency.

[Grass!]

Scarecrow: Summoner, leave it to Ben Cao.

The scarecrow raised its arms and responded.

Thus, the man and plant split left and right to search.

In under 5 minutes, the scarecrow returned.

[Grass, grass, grass!]

Scarecrow: Summoner, see what Ben Cao found!

It was carrying a thick bundle of reddish-brown skins, picked up from somewhere unknown.

It opened and displayed them before Li Pu.

Unexpectedly, the thing was seven or eight meters long, seemingly the shed skin of a long-shaped magical creature.

"What is this?"

Li Pu couldn't discern its origin and asked the scarecrow to "scan" it.

[Scan]

As the watch scanned over it, information promptly appeared.

[Feed-type Worm Skin, D-grade feeding material]

[Trade station price, 50 Crystal Coins/piece]

"It's not worth much."

After checking the information, Li Pu realized it was the skin of a worm.

The moving mound they encountered earlier likely was a large worm.

Connecting the dots, it made sense.

However, feed-type magical creatures are typically farmed, used to feed summoned beasts.

Why did one appear in the desolate East Wilderness Ridge?

And which precious summoned beast requires D-grade feeding material?

For the moment, Li Pu couldn't grasp it.

The relevant material for this item wasn't much, just 2/100.

It offered a D-grade skill, able to absorb nutrients from soil.

While D-grade skills were good, collecting a complete set would require 50 pieces of shed skin.

He decided to store it temporarily and review later.

[Grass, grass!]

Scarecrow: Summoner, look over there!

Just as the worm skin was stored, the scarecrow pointed towards a large rock not far away.

This rock Li Pu had merely scanned without detailed examination.

But the scarecrow was different; its perception of plants was exceptionally keen.

"Huh?"

Upon its reminder, Li Pu discovered something.

Under that large rock was a round, short, animal tail-like clump of brown grass.

Could this be the bear tail grass the seniors were searching for?

...

...

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