In short.
The authorities had temporarily defined this incident as an unidentified ecological disaster. The radio station made no mention of the city crossing into an Otherworld or anything of the sort.
At the same time.
The anchorwoman, Wenwen, also read from the official script, detailing the scope of the ecological disaster. The main urban area of Dongfu City, along with the adjacent half of Wanghai District and a small part of Qixia District, were all surrounded by a mysterious, unknown Magic Forest.
Hearing this, Su Chen, who had just launched his drone, felt a wave of relief. The great weight on his heart had finally been lifted.
His uncle’s family in the Bright District was out of danger.
He dismissed the possibility of them having arrived early. Even if they could have taken leave from work, there was no way their two schools would have coordinated things like that.
With that, Su Chen was free of any weaknesses or worries holding him back.
BZZZ!
The buzz of the drone’s propellers faded overhead as Su Chen quickly refocused, his hands gently nudging the joysticks on the remote control.
After switching to full manual control, the drone sped eastward. In less than half a minute, it arrived above the base’s warehouse.
Following the route he remembered, Su Chen flew the drone straight ahead after it crossed the regional boundary.
The view from above was even more terrifying.
Ancient trees towered into the sky, their crowns as dense as a dome, shrouding the entire forest Earth Realm within.
In the distance, a faint gray-white mist rose from the ground, as if the forest itself were breathing.
As for the terrain, the eastern forest area was noticeably flatter, while the middle featured a distinct, raised section that looked like a mountain range running through it.
Interestingly, he could vaguely make out several large birds in the distance, flying over the mountainous landscape through the drone’s camera.
’It’s still relatively safe.’
Su Chen had to take advantage of the twilight window to survey more of the forest’s terrain.
There was still some daylight, and with no strong winds to interfere, the chance of a crash was greatly reduced.
He pushed the joystick forward, and the drone continued deeper into the forest.
In less than three minutes, it stopped and hovered in the air.
As the triple-lens Hasselblad camera began to zoom in, the 100-megapixel main lens could even capture the veins of every single leaf. Soon, on a slope half-covered by vines, Su Chen quickly locked onto a gently sloped, rocky patch of ground, partially hidden beneath the vegetation.
That was the exact spot where he had found the ore crystal.
There was no mistake.
Because a gaunt Demon Dog was clawing at the broken stump of the ore crystal, trying desperately to dig out the main body of the crystal buried underground with its front paws.
’Keep trying.’
Su Chen silently cheered it on, hoping he would still find it there the next morning.
Then, he pushed the joystick, and the drone set off again, pressing deeper into the forest.
Before long, he located a winding river that cut through the dense woods from north to south like a necklace.
Zooming the camera in again, the river’s true appearance was gradually revealed.
The water was slightly murky. Under the evening glow, it had a strange, rust-red sheen, as if it contained a large amount of dissolved humus or was carrying a heavy load of silt.
’Completely undrinkable.’
Su Chen was a little disappointed. At the very least, water of this quality was completely unsuitable for humans with a delicate physique.
He reckoned it would be questionable even after being filtered and boiled.
The local magical beasts had probably long since evolved a powerful immune physique, allowing them to adapt to the bacteria, viruses, and parasites in the river.
Furthermore.
Some sections of the river had gentle banks and sluggish currents, with gnarled, giant trees growing diagonally from both sides toward the water’s surface.
As the camera lens pierced the murky water, a thick, dark shadow could be seen swimming intermittently.
’A giant python?’
Su Chen stared at the drone’s screen. After stirring up a cloud of silt, the long, dark shadow disappeared completely.
Recalling the snakeskin he had found shed deep in the forest earlier, he felt it couldn’t have been an illusion.
’It really is like a scene out of *Anaconda*.’
From experience, large, murky, slow-moving rivers were inherently dangerous. Not only did they provide a breeding ground, but their depths were especially suitable for hiding ’big game’.
And how to cross the river was another problem.
The river on the screen was, at a rough estimate, at least half a kilometer wide—hardly comparable to the small river and artificial canal back at the base.
A huge, fallen ancient tree was submerged in the middle of the river. Even if he used it as a bridge, he would still have to risk swimming the last part of the way.
When the drone’s camera zoomed back out, he could see that some sections upstream were narrower, while downstream it widened abruptly, with some parts visually estimated to be over two or three kilometers across.
’This is going to be tough.’
Su Chen aimed the drone’s camera toward the mountain range on the other side of the river.
The mountain range stretched on endlessly. Looking down from above, he could see a strange, reddish-brown color on the surface of several mountains. In the light of the setting sun, it looked like dried blood scabs. Zooming in, he could even make out exposed rock strata.
This made Su Chen’s pupils contract slightly, and his heart fluttered with an idea.
He might have just stumbled upon mountains full of ore.
His intuition told him there was a very high chance, and that it was a surface-level deposit.
The idea of venturing deep into the eastern forest, which he had just dismissed, was suddenly rekindled.
Considering his path forward, for the sake of his family’s jade pendant and its miraculous conversion ability, he would have to make the trip to survey the terrain and mineral veins sooner or later.
Relying on just the essences was still a bit slow.
’I’ll figure out how to cross the river later.’ Su Chen added it to his mental to-do list.
With no communication network, the drone had to rely on its radio video feed. Fortunately, there was very little interference in the air, which ensured a decent flight range. If not for the powerful 100-megapixel camera, the terrain survey wouldn’t have gone so smoothly.
To conserve the drone’s battery, he decided to end the survey there.
On the way back, he also panned the gimbal, pointing the drone’s camera to the north and west respectively.
To the north, the terrain was uneven, the horizon disappearing into highland mountains. To the west, there seemed to be canyons and ravines that cut the forested terrain into fragmented pieces. The far end was submerged in the sunset’s glow, a magnificent illusion like the entrance to Hell.
A short while later.
The DJI drone returned safely with only 13% battery remaining.
After retrieving it, Su Chen immediately put it on to charge.
The one thing the RV wasn’t short on was electricity.
If it was lacking anything, it would be diesel fuel, of which only half a tank remained.
But the RV was trapped at the campsite and couldn’t go anywhere. With smooth driving, that half-tank of diesel would be enough for at least 300 kilometers. Besides, even if it ran out of fuel, it wouldn’t affect the use of the electrical appliances inside.
"...We interrupt this broadcast with an urgent message. Civil engineering teams and heavy construction machinery within the city are urgently needed to assemble at nearby locations such as Tianhe Square, Brocade Garden City, and Central City..."
Listening to anchorwoman Wenwen’s follow-up explanation, it was clear the security committee was planning to build defensive fortifications using the buildings on the city’s periphery. To motivate people, they even promised generous rewards for the civil engineering ’bros’.
And this happened to coincide with the opinion of Feng Zhiyuan, the owner of the archery range.
At that moment, on the rooftop of the campsite’s clubhouse.
"The river will dry up sooner or later. The water level has already dropped a lot, and soon it’ll just be a trench," Feng Zhiyuan said with a serious expression, pointing into the distance. "We can park the abandoned vehicles behind the trench to form a simple barricade."
With this vehicle barricade in place, the Archers shooting from behind it would be much safer. It would relieve a great deal of their mental burden, which should significantly increase their accuracy.
Besides, with a trench in front and a low wall made of temporary vehicles behind, it should at least be able to stop the momentum of the magical beasts’ charge.
This was the best solution he could think of on short notice.

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