Chapter 540: Unfathomable Fear

Chiyou cracked open one of each kind, then threw them out to see if the seabirds would eat them. To his immense shock, the seabirds ate every single one without leaving a scrap. This also caused Chiyou to rise in shock from where he sat on the Iron-Eating Beast, his eyes looking toward the distance at the boundless beach. Doesn't this... mean an endless supply of food? Then is there still a need to go trade with the Xuanyuan Tribe, or risk their lives catching crocodiles?

Seeing the pile of food growing larger and larger, Chiyou called a halt to the tribesmen who were still collecting, telling everyone to hurry over and prepare firewood, as they would spend the night right here.

The people who came this time were all the Soldiers he valued most, including his eighty-one great generals, with several hundred ordinary Soldiers remaining. This time, they were here to find new territory for the Jiuli.

To the south was his ally, the Sanmiao Tribe, and the territory of the Dongyi Tribe; he naturally would not head toward those places. He had not expected them to discover such a place; this lake, which had no visible end, was actually so rich in resources.

Moreover, it was very humid here, and the weather was very warm, even a bit scorching, unlike their current territory, where it was cold for at least half the time throughout the year.

Everyone had a wonderful meal that night, but in the middle of the night, some Soldiers began to vomit, and others said they felt a bit dizzy. Even Chiyou felt somewhat uncomfortable. But why were the seabirds able to remain safe and sound? Chiyou decided that some kind of poisonous food might have been mixed in.

He endured the discomfort, summoned the Soldiers who had no abnormalities, picked up the shells on the ground, and questioned them one by one to see which kind they had not eaten.

In the end, they said they had not eaten the things that were all crooked and covered in thorns; they had only eaten the two-piece shells and the long, strip-shaped ones.

But Chiyou knew very well that the seabirds had no problems eating these either. Could there be some other explanation?

But now he could not consider that much; they had already eaten, so they would just not eat them next time. Thus, everyone went back to sleep—though whether they fainted or fell asleep, no one knew.

Waking up the next day, Chiyou felt there was nothing unusual about himself, as if the headache from last night had not been his. The Iron-Eating Beast, because of hunger, had gone to a nearby bamboo forest to find something to eat on its own. Chiyou was not worried at all; with the Iron-Eating Beast's massive size, no wild beast could threaten it. In fact, whenever they encountered more wild beasts along the way, it was the Iron-Eating Beast that helped drive them away.

Today, Chiyou decided to continue exploring his new territory. There would definitely be more than just this food here, but he was a bit thirsty now, so he would go to the lakeshore to drink some water first.

Everyone arrived at the lakeshore in an orderly fashion, but unexpectedly saw many stranded fish. Every time someone found one, they would cheer. However, they did not forget about drinking water. They walked to the wide, clear lakeshore, squatted down, and waited for the incoming waves to splash water onto their hands, then cupped them and drank.

"Pfft!" So bitter!

Everyone had almost the same expression and feeling. The water was too bitter, so bitter that it was impossible to swallow. It was more bitter than any spring water they had ever found in the mountains. Those springs were at most salty and could be drunk, and were even somewhat delicious because they lacked salt, but this water was simply impossible to drink.

Everyone stood up and looked at the Dahu. The waves hit their feet, their eyes fixed on the lake water moving forward and backward, and then hundreds of people began to sway, stumbling a few steps before falling into the lake.

They all felt dizzy and lightheaded. As the waves hit their faces, they turned around in a panic and crawled back, their faces full of terror. Only a very few people were standing properly, and they were also at a loss, frightened by this sudden turn of events.

The tribesmen exclaimed, "This place is cursed! There is definitely a very powerful Spell-caster here who does not want us to come near."

Chiyou also crawled up with a face full of sand, not daring to look at the lake water again. As soon as his eyes looked at the waves, he felt like he was going to fall down on the spot. Now he also felt immense fear toward this place; everything here could not be explained. He dared not stay any longer, fearing that some other unpredictable thing might happen. Perhaps the reactions they had after eating the food last night were also a punishment.

Chiyou thought it made sense; how could such a rich piece of land not be occupied by a powerful tribe? As long as one occupied this place, there would be no worries about food. Perhaps the master of this place did not want to fight them directly, which was why they were being punished like this.

Thus, Chiyou dared not stay a moment longer, nor did he care about the fish they had picked up. He led the group and began to stride toward the forest, not forgetting to call out loudly for the Iron-Eating Beast to hurry over.

Everyone entered the woods and climbed up the tall trees, which finally gave them a bit of a sense of security. They saw some fruit on the trees that looked large and felt it should be edible because there were many wormholes on it, as well as traces of birds pecking at it. They carefully picked one, looked around, and feeling there was no danger, put it into their mouths and chewed vigorously to replenish their fluids.

Everyone listened to the sound of the waves not far away, all still feeling lingering fear. Only those who had felt nothing were not too terrified, because they really had no uncomfortable sensations, but seeing everyone else like this, they had to believe it even if they didn't want to.

The Iron-Eating Beast came trotting over, following the sound. Seeing Chiyou and the others climbing in the trees, it was very unhappy. It had not sensed any danger, yet these humans were acting as if there were an irresistible enemy here.

Just as Chiyou was considering what they should do next, a Soldier in a tree suddenly let out a loud cry and began to shake their hands frantically. As a result, they lost their footing and fell from the tree. Immediately after a few muffled groans, they spat out blood and stopped moving.

Chiyou hurriedly asked, "What happened? Who saw it?"

Some said it was a snake, others said it was an insect; no one had a definite answer. Chiyou felt this might be another warning from the master of this place, so he hurriedly climbed down the tree and told everyone that they must never come here again, and that everyone should leave quickly.

On the way back, their eyes kept looking around, fearing that some other danger might appear. On the way here, they had not been like this at all; they had only been listening to the huge sound of the waves, their thoughts and attention entirely on the distance.

Every little while, someone would let out a loud cry because someone had discovered a spider with strange arms; it was huge in size and also had a hard shell. Everyone felt their scalps go numb; it seemed like everything here had a shell and was shaped in a bizarre way.

Chiyou was becoming more and more panicked. He felt that they might have walked a bit too far just now and might have rushed into the territory of some tribe. It seemed he still had to go back to his own territory; it would be best to unite the Sanmiao and Dongyi, expand westward, and go fight the Xuanyuan for territory. He must never come here again.