Chapter 133: Chapter 133: The Miasma of Wei Mountain

“So, what about you two?” Chang Xia asked teasingly.

She didn’t believe the Heluo tribe would just sit still. With elders like Pukang around, could the tribe’s totem warriors really all behave themselves?

Wei Mountain was right within Heluo territory.

And it was so close to the tribe—how could the clansmen not be on guard?

Besides, Su Ye said Wei Mountain was a treasure trove, which meant there might be something unusual about the miasma itself.

Shankun looked up at the sky, while Kongshan stared at the ground.

Sneaking into Wei Mountain wasn’t something they’d admit to openly. If the chief or an elder heard about it, they’d almost certainly get a beating.

After all, the tribe had officially warned everyone not to enter Wei Mountain without good reason.

Ahem—

But how many people actually took that warning seriously? That was another question.

Still, as long as no one got caught, nobody would care. In fact, the tribe was eager for someone to uncover the truth about Wei Mountain. If they could find even one or two rare treasures there—even if they weren’t as valuable as the bird tribe’s Ice Crystal Grass and Light Stones from the Qinghai Plateau, or the fish tribe’s Foundation Stones—as long as they were rare, the Heluo tribe would prosper.

At that point,

No beast tribe in Twilight Forest would be able to rival Heluo.

“Ahem!” Chang Xia said. “Relax, I’m not going to tattle to the tribe.”

Shankun and Kongshan looked a little embarrassed, glancing around.

They shuffled closer to Chang Xia and whispered, “We’ve been there.”

Chang Xia smiled knowingly. She’d figured these guys wouldn’t be able to resist exploring Wei Mountain.

“So, what’s it like?” Chang Xia lowered her voice, mimicking the two of them.

“Wei Mountain is strange—you can’t really get close to the depths,” Shankun said.

Kongshan added, “The deeper you go, the thicker the miasma, and the colder it gets.”

The further in you went, the colder it became and the denser the miasma. Basically, no one had ever truly ventured deep into Wei Mountain—not even the elders. Because of the cold, some clansmen speculated that Ice Crystal Grass might grow deep inside…

Ice Crystal Grass can lower the temperature and its ice berries have a cooling effect.

But over the years, more than a hundred people from the Heluo tribe had explored Wei Mountain.

Yet no one had ever uncovered the secret behind the miasma and the cold.

“How interesting!” Chang Xia said excitedly.

It was strange that such a vast Twilight Forest had no rare treasures. The Qinghai Plateau was much smaller, yet it had all sorts of rare resources, which allowed the bird tribe to look down on everyone else.

If there really were rare treasures deep in Wei Mountain, it would be a huge boon for both the Heluo tribe and all the beast tribes of Twilight Forest.

“You want to go to Wei Mountain?” Shankun paused, hesitating.

Chang Xia raised an eyebrow and retorted, “Don’t you want to go? Don’t you want to figure out the secret of the miasma?”

As she spoke, she slowly walked out of the corridor.

Then, she entered the courtyard of the cave dwelling.

She looked up, gazing in the direction of Wei Mountain, upstream from Bai Lake.

That thick, heavy mist—that was where Wei Mountain lay. It looked close, but it would still take half a day’s walk to get there.

“Of course we want to go—who wouldn’t?” Kongshan and Shankun exchanged glances and answered in unison.

If there really were rare treasures in Wei Mountain, the Heluo tribe would be set. Unfortunately, after all these years, the tribe had made no progress.

“If we get the chance, let’s go to Wei Mountain,” Chang Xia said firmly.

At that, Kongshan and Shankun were thrilled.

Chang Xia was favored by the shaman, and some in the tribe even speculated that the shaman had taught her some kind of shamanic art. The rumor was widespread, though the elders all pretended not to hear it.

It almost seemed as if they were deliberately letting the rumor spread.

Chang Xia, for her part, understood this well.

She neither confirmed nor denied it.

She just acted as if she knew nothing.

Things like past lives and such were far too fantastical.

“Chang Xia, if you want to bring water to the cave dwellings, you don’t have to choose Wei Mountain. It’s pretty far from Bai Lake, and it wouldn’t be convenient,” Shankun said. “The Little River is a better choice—it’s much closer to Bai Lake.”

“Little River?” Chang Xia blinked, hesitating.

Kongshan explained, “Little River is a tributary that flows from Wei Mountain. It passes through several mountains, and one of its streams flows into Bai Lake.”

“Can we divert water from Little River? I haven’t seen any streams flowing into Bai Lake besides the Bai River,” Chang Xia said in surprise.

“Most of the tribe’s cave dwellings are north of Bai Lake. The stream from Little River enters Bai Lake from the south. You’d have to go around behind the cave dwellings to see where it flows in…” Shankun explained.

Chang Xia had indeed been circling around Bai Lake lately.

But the south side of Bai Lake was covered in dense forest and was quite far away.

After listening to Qing Shan Kun’s explanation, Chang Xia finally figured out the exact location of the small river. At the same time, she couldn’t help but marvel at the size of Bai Lake.

Every time she looked at it, the shimmering waves always amazed her.

Who would have thought that even Bai Lake had another inlet that Chang Xia hadn’t discovered yet?

She used to think about planting lotus roots in Bai Lake, but now she was reconsidering that idea. It felt just like when she tried fishing with a rod before—she had overestimated herself and underestimated both the size of Bai Lake and the strength of the fish in Bai Lake and Bai River.

“In the afternoon, I’ll go check out the inlet on the south side of Bai Lake,” Chang Xia said.

Kong Shan cautioned, “Do you want to talk to Chen Rong about it first?”

“I’m not stupid; why would I go alone?” Chang Xia rolled her eyes at Kong Shan. Did she really look that clueless? The south side of Bai Lake wasn’t close by; she’d have to circle around the northern wasteland to get there, and that spot was very close to the dense forest.

Naturally, wild beasts roamed the forest.

Given Chang Xia’s current abilities, she could probably handle ordinary wild animals.

But if she ran into a wolf pack or wild boars…

She’d be in serious trouble.

The wolves and wild boars in the Twilight Forest were ridiculously strong.

And it wasn’t just wolves and boars—even an ordinary wild rabbit could injure you if you weren’t careful.

A rabbit weighing ten or twenty pounds could kick with surprising force.

“Hehe!” Kong Shan just laughed, not saying anything more.

In the distance, the twin cubs ran too fast and ended up rolling across the courtyard ground. Shan Kun, exasperated, hurried over to scoop up his two silly cubs, checked them over to make sure they were okay, and then set them down again.

Lu You walked over and said helplessly, “They’re running way too fast!”

“It’s fine, they’re tough,” Shan Kun replied with a laugh.

Whose cubs didn’t grow up with a few bumps and bruises? As long as they weren’t hurt, it was nothing to worry about.

“Shan Kun, are you sure they’re really okay?” Chang Xia asked, rubbing her forehead.

One of the twins had clearly scraped his nose, a faint trickle of blood at the tip. The other had a bump on his forehead and was lying on the ground, dazed—he probably wouldn’t be back to normal for a few minutes.

Shan Kun waved it off confidently. “These little injuries are nothing. They’ll be fine in no time.”

“…,” Chang Xia rolled her eyes, picked up the twins, and carried them back to the storage room in the cave dwelling to find some ointment for their wounds.

This ointment had been specially prepared for Chang Xia by Su Ye.

There wasn’t much of it, so Chang Xia hadn’t shared it with Nan Feng and the others.

Seeing Chang Xia carry off the twins, Shan Kun looked suspiciously at Kong Shan and asked, “Did I say something wrong?”

“I don’t think so!” Kong Shan replied. He thought the same way as Shan Kun—beast cubs in the tribe all grew up with a few knocks and scrapes. These little injuries really didn’t count for much.

But Chang Xia clearly didn’t see it that way.