Chapter 1 Facing the Cool River Water

The South American tapir chose to plunge directly into the stream, willing to risk drowning just to drink its fill! Fang Senyan, having achieved his goal, let it escape. He then walked to the riverbank and carefully examined the area.

The river's flow wasn't too strong, but it wasn't weak either. Judging by its direction, it flowed towards the Dubaiya Great Marsh, which meant that he could at least travel by water to reach it. Most wild animals could drink directly from this river, meaning that after simple treatment like boiling, even ordinary outsiders could safely drink this freshwater.

More importantly, Fang Senyan traveled a short distance upstream and spotted a rocky hill, an uncommon sight in this area. It was about the size of an artificial hill in a park, roughly three kilometers away from the Dubaiya Great Marsh. Obviously, if he were to choose a camp, he'd want it backed by a secure hill, which would at least reduce pressure on one side during guard duty.

Soon, Fang Senyan discovered a readily accessible cave on one side of the rocky hill. A boa constrictor had made it its home. Fang Senyan quickly evicted the eight-meter-long reptile from its dwelling.

As everyone knows, snakes aren't fond of exercise. Apart from their lightning-fast strikes during hunting, they even have a surprisingly lazy elegance when fleeing. Once they're full, snakes can stay motionless in their nests for months! Therefore, snake dens usually have minimal impact on the original environment, unlike creatures like pigs or bears, which turn any place they inhabit into a sty within days.

Fang Senyan entered the cave and immediately saw a large pile of incredibly large shedded snakeskins, indicating that the unlucky boa constrictor had lived here for quite some time. However, Fang Senyan's gaze quickly fell upon the cave walls, where clear traces of smoke were visible. Yes, although Bernard Fogg had left this place centuries ago, young Lord Fogg had only been in his forties when he died. When he discovered that the family estate was about to collapse and came here following the main quest's nautical log, it had only been a decade or two since his ancestor had visited the place.

In this situation, even though the traces left by Bernard Fogg centuries ago had long been washed away by rain and wind, the special environment inside the cave could still provide significant assistance to Fang Senyan with the traces left behind by the young Lord Fogg! Fang Senyan even rejected the seemingly eager help from Mbenga because he feared that the burly man's carelessness would destroy potential clues.

Deep inside the cave, Fang Senyan quickly unearthed many valuable items: two wooden planks with clear Fogg family crests, two skeletons, several bundles of rotten rope, half a candle made of mermaid oil, and clear, long and short scratch marks on the cave walls. Finally, Fang Senyan found a few pieces of moldy linen clothing.

To be honest, it took Fang Senyan a considerable amount of effort to find these things, and it wasn't easy to identify them. It took him four or five hours, but after finding these items, Fang Senyan suddenly burst into wild laughter, laughing until tears streamed down his face.

Because Fang Senyan had found what he wanted!!

Yes, he had felt that the greatest secret of how Bernard Fogg, as an ordinary man, could enter the depths of the Dubaiya Great Marsh was very close to him.

From these scraps, from these unremarkable scraps!!

The wooden planks proved that Fang Senyan had indeed found the young Lord Fogg's camp upon arriving in this world. Although Westerners don't have the Eastern custom of ensuring burial for peace, they still don't desecrate the dead. Companions' bodies are often collected instead of being left scattered about. The two skeletons in the cave undoubtedly indicated that young Lord Fogg wasn't escaping calmly but in great haste, abandoning even his subordinates' bodies and unable to bring them back to their homeland.

As for the length of the ropes, they were at least fifty meters long when connected. Fang Senyan could vaguely recognize that they were reliable lifelines, like modern safety ropes. When ships encountered storms and severe turbulence, those going on deck had to tie themselves with these ropes to avoid being swept into the sea.

This meant that young Lord Fogg knew he was heading to a very treacherous and dangerous place, a place where people had to be connected by ropes to climb up and down. Therefore, everyone had to carry a lifeline, and these remaining two bundles were likely those of the two dead men.

As for the mermaid oil candles, they were obviously for lighting. First, they burned for a long time, and second, they didn't easily extinguish, equivalent to our modern wolf's fang flashlight.

Finally, the moldy and rotten clothes appeared to be quite thick and were clearly for keeping warm. Everyone must have had one, and the ones abandoned here were specially prepared for these two dead men... damn it, this was a tropical primeval jungle with an average annual temperature of over twenty-eight degrees!

This place was known for its humidity and heat. The young Lord Fogg bringing warm cotton clothes, one for each person, had obvious implications.

The scratch marks on the walls were of varying lengths, but carefully made, averaging thirty short ones and one long one. This naturally made people think of them as a way of keeping track of time. If a short mark represented one day, then a long mark would represent one month! This made even more sense. According to the markings, these people stayed here for exactly five months and sixteen days.

So, combining these key hidden elements, a hasty escape + lifelines + wolf's fang flashlight + warm clothing, in the context of a tropical rainforest... in the combination and arrangement of these keywords, it was clear where the young Lord Fogg was going. Without a doubt, it was a dark, complex, cold, and dangerous place, and for such a place to exist in a tropical rainforest... therefore, the only explanation was: it must be an underground cave!

This also aligned with Fang Senyan's previous judgment that entering the core area of Dubaiya by force was impossible. The only two possible routes were either through the air or underground. Since the Dubaiya people could use a dry underground river as the main passage to the outside world, why couldn't there be another secret passage?

Of course, many mysteries remained. For example, why hadn't the local Dubaiya natives discovered and blocked this passage? Or why could Bernard Fogg escape unscathed after doing bad things, and even ensure that his descendants could safely use this passage to repeat the trick centuries later? The secrets within could only be known after delving deeper into the mysteries.

"Very well, the facts have proven that my deduction is correct." Fang Senyan walked out of the dark cave and took a deep breath of the outside air.

"So, the next step is to find that theoretically existing passage. Right, five months and sixteen days! If it was understandable for Bernard Fogg, who had just arrived on the African continent, to stay here for five months and sixteen days, then why would young Lord Fogg, who was simply following his ancestor's diary like playing a game with a walkthrough, also stay here for so long? Could the truth be that they were waiting! Yes, they must have been waiting for a specific period of time! Only during this period would that damn secret passage truly appear!"

At this thought, Fang Senyan immediately grabbed the tipsy Mbenga: "Hey, big black guy! Does anything special happen in your hometown during the year? Or are there any bizarre legends that only occur over a long period of time?"

Upon hearing this, Mbenga immediately shouted excitedly: "It is said that continuously killing ten male lions and eating their… thing, can make one's abilities more valiant than a lion!"

Fang Senyan: "Uh… Anything else?"

Mbenga shrugged: "If you can obtain the flower bud of the *Da Wang Hua* (corpse flower) that only blooms once every ten years, you can win the heart of the darkest girl in the village."

"Brother, can we not mention things related to women?" Fang Senyan said, truly finding it a bit funny and helpless.

Mbenga then told a few more legends, but Fang Senyan didn't ask him directly about the Dubaiya Great Marsh, because if he pressed him too much, Mbenga would get a splitting headache and groan loudly. In the real world, this is called "coerced amnesia," where the body selectively forgets those overly terrifying fragments in order to protect itself, causing great harm to the patient. To treat this condition, one can only take him around, and as long as he is in the environment, he will slowly recall some related memory fragments.

This is why Mbenga can find those hidden treasures, and also why he repeatedly… for example, when his life is threatened, he will instinctively make the most correct reaction judgment. So Fang Senyan has to keep Mbenga by his side, because once he encounters danger, the experience he gained before may become a glimmer of hope. (To be continued.!)