The further you go, the more shrubs and trees there are, and the more dense weeds become more and more sparse.

Before you know it, the exploration team composed of the protagonist and the Praetorian Guard team leaves the wilderness overgrown with tall grass and arrives at the intersection of forest and grass, and then slowly transitions into the woodland.

The most striking feature of the woodland surface is its emptiness and darkness, as the thick canopy almost shades the top, and the faint sunlight barely reaching the bottom of the woodland is not enough to support the survival of large areas of herbaceous plants. There are only a few ferns on the woodland floor, or a few tenacious weeds, barely surviving in the light spots that penetrate through them.

The main body of the whole ground is a large number of dead branches and leaves, almost all of which cover the ground tightly, and it has only rained a while ago, and the dead branches and leaves soaked in rainwater are full of mud, almost no different from the swamp.

The protagonist walks ahead, trying to find a dry road to move forward, some criss-crossing fallen branches are natural roads, although they have to go around and around, but they are much stronger than walking in the mud to get dirty, and maybe even block the trachea and suffocate.

In the dark, cloudy woods, the protagonist leads the team on a trek, looking up from time to time to observe, sometimes targeting the tree overhead, sometimes the fern next to him, and sometimes watching the bugs that have just passed.

The useful resources found in this forest are not as abundant as those found in the meadow just now. It may be that the tall trees take away too much of the sun's energy, and the biodiversity in the woods, especially the diversity of plants, is not very rich.

But it's not unfounded, for example, there are a lot of ferns in this woodland, and there are many edible parts of the whole body.

These ferns compete with herbaceous plants in areas where weeds are abundant, but they are able to enjoy the sun in the occasional small clearing in the forest, showing great vitality.

The leaf buds and young stems of ferns are rich in nutrients, which is bracken, with a fragrant and smooth taste, and can be eaten as soon as hot water is blanched. The rhizome of bracken contains 35-40% starch, and it is a good source of starch to extract bracken root powder after washing, mashing, filtration, and drying.

The protagonist notes the location of the ferns, and the accompanying Praetorian Guards also mark them with pheromones along the way, so that they can send ants along the way to gather resources.

Apart from these ferns, the rest of the results are lackluster, mostly resources found in some grasslands, and not very abundant.

Until the protagonist discovers a rotten wood.

It was a large tree that had fallen for some reason, its branches and leaves had almost corroded, and its bark was barely recognizable, black like a black pillar, and it was impossible to distinguish the species.

The rotten wood lies quietly on the ground, surrounded by fishy backwater pools of sewage, but there are also relatively dry roads to reach the bottom of the rotten wood.

The surface of the rotten wood is covered with moss and insect eyes. Mosquitoes and flies scurried up and down the rotten wood, not reveling around the rotten wood, but around their food—a dead, half-rotting worm with tiny maggots crawling on the surface of the worm's corpse.

The worm was very large, probably the size of a child's palm, and looked like the larvae of some kind of beetle. The protagonist has seen the larvae of the double-pronged rhinoceros beetle, the stag beetle, and the beetle, which resembles this corpse.

The corpse showed signs of swelling, and the yellowish, stinking water flowed freely on the surface and under the body, and for mosquitoes and flies, this corpse water was not inferior to the elixir and jade liquid.

There are probably quite a few such worms in the rotten wood, at least the protagonist sees countless dense cavities on the surface of the wood.

This rotten wood is a good hunting ground, and the white fat worms taste good, and although the protagonist doesn't eat them - he accepts farmed mealworm meat or fly maggot meat at most - the other ants like it.

If you can find some eggs that can be domesticated, you can also bring them back to the nest to keep them, and reserve resources for the revival and expansion of the beetle army in the future.

Although the team is mainly here to explore, the protagonist doesn't mind making a cameo appearance in the hunting team, and the right is to train the soldiers! Yiyun Chinese

The protagonist leads the party through a swamp made of sewage, comes to the rotten wood, and climbs up.

He then issued an order to hunt, and with the exception of the Immortals, who remained by the protagonist's side, the other Praetorian Guards moved in groups to find delicious prey.

- I'm the dividing line -

The light is dim, but the protagonist's unique vision is unaffected.

He watched with amusement as a group of Praetorian Guards grabbed a pod-sized bug, bit its buttocks, and dragged it out of the small hole.

The poor bugs resisted so hard that even the intestines containing the brown excrement were ripped out, and the filth was thrown everywhere.

The insect was still invincible to the brute force of the ants, and when its head was exposed, the two Praetorian Guards immediately approached, ignoring the struggles of the insects, and cut them down with sharp copper jaws on the left and right, and soon cut off the insect's head alive.

The group of warriors happily returns to the protagonist with their headless loot.

And beneath him, he could feel the constant movement, the sound of Praetorian Guards walking down the moth into the rotten wood, chasing and capturing their prey.

Although the sun is not visible, the protagonist feels that it is nearly half of the afternoon, and when the Praetorian Guards return, it is time to return, so that it is too dangerous to rush in the unfamiliar wilderness after dark.

Soon, two of the five Praetorian Guards had returned, all of them fully loaded.

It seems that there are a lot of insects in this rotten wood, no wonder there is a man named Bei Ye, when he is hungry, his eyes light up when he sees rotten wood, and he can find some protein by pulling it casually.

The third and fourth teams also return, and the protagonist is about to send a herald to urge the last team of ants to return, when he hears some different sounds, and the tentacles instantly stand upright.

It was a slight "gurgling" sound, mixed with several different struggles, such as the thud of arthropods or antennae tapping on fallen leaves.

The protagonist's heart moves, leaving a team of warriors to guard the prey, and rushing to the place where the noise is made with the rest of the warriors.

Turning over the rotten wood to the shady side, the protagonist sees three Praetorian Guards on the ground, on a relatively intact fallen leaf, stuck with unknown slime.

On the sidelines, the other Praetorian Guards were struggling to pull their trapped companions out, even if a wounded rat woman she had just caught was limping away.

But such a rescue backfired, and there was a large patch of slime on the leaves, and the rescuer would be trapped if he was not careful.

The protagonist hurries over, ready to cut through the half-solidified slime with the sharp obsidian knife he carries with him.

At this time, an unusually loud sound came from behind!

The protagonist looks back and sees a huge mass of sludge rising high in the muddy and smelly pool!