Xu Xin now felt very dangerous.
He indeed had the thought of wanting to go out and give it a try, but it was just a thought. His prudence made it impossible for him to put this idea into practice.
But the truth was that he seemed to have lost his mind, conquered by the desire inside him, and stepped out easily.
"There must be something around here affecting me!" Xu Xin looked around warily, still seeing the usual poplar woods and low shrubs.
It was then that he realized the effect of the invigorating energy from the blue orange he ate in the tree house had worn off.
Xu Xin took a blue orange out of his backpack and ate it. His mind was revitalized once again; the fatigue vanished, and his mind became much clearer.
The surroundings were very quiet. The jungle at night always gave a gloomy, cold, and dangerous feeling.
Xu Xin fixed his gaze on that crack in the ground, from which the vines had just emerged.
"As long as I walk out of the three-kilometer range, will vines emerge from the ground outside to attack me?" Xu Xin's mind cleared up, and he began to ponder, "From where I stand now, it's less than a meter from the boundary. At such a short distance, can't those vines come in?"
Xu Xin suddenly remembered the vines that previously guarded the copper treasure chest. They attacked him only twice and then became dry and brittle, shattering with a touch, but the vines just now didn't, and they didn't even turn to poke at him again. Instead, they gradually retracted underground.
It seems that within a three-kilometer range, he indeed was protected.
To confirm his thoughts, Xu Xin tensed his mind and body, and again extended his foot outward.
This time, he didn't lose his mind; it was a deliberate action after careful consideration.
Sure enough, a red dot rapidly lit up on the map, and Xu Xin dodged his foot aside. A vine, thicker than the previous one, burst from the ground, shooting six or seven meters into the air.
The vine was covered with dense, blood-red thorns, causing chills to run down one's spine.
At that moment, Xu Xin's foot was still outside the boundary. The vine twisted in midair, directly swinging towards Xu Xin's ankle.
Xu Xin quickly retracted his foot to his side and backed away.
But the vine did not enter the boundary, as if there was an invisible wall on the three-kilometer demarcation line, stopping abruptly outside.
Under Xu Xin's vigilant gaze, the vine did not attack him again. It twisted, spiraled a few times, as if giving up, and slowly retracted underground.
"Is that really the case?" Xu Xin squintingly pondered, "As long as I exit the protective range, those bizarre underground creatures will attack me, but once I return to this range, even if they've already launched an attack, they won't pursue."
Is it because they would shatter like the vine that guarded the copper chest if they come in? But how does one explain the giant crocodile? Why can the giant terror crocodile with the silver chest move within the protective range?
Although he couldn't figure it out, Xu Xin at least could be certain that there was something around affecting his mind, trying to lure him out of the three-kilometer protective range so those underground vines could kill him.
Could it be the monster guarding the golden chest?
Xu Xin patted the little creature in his arms.
Keke twisted slightly in his arms, opening its eyes slowly: "Ying?"
"Keke, can you feel anything unusual around us?"
Keke rubbed its eyes with its paws, and then Xu Xin felt the previously soft little furball in his arms suddenly become tense.
"Ying!" Keke suddenly jumped out of his arms, standing somewhat nervously in the direction behind Xu Xin, raising its paws into a defensive gesture.
Xu Xin drew out a stone spear and pointed it in that direction.
Keke tugged on Xu Xin's pant leg with its paw, signaling him to follow.
Xu Xin looked at him with some concern, "Be careful not to get ambushed."
That direction was one Xu Xin had never been to, a dark spot on the map.
After walking for a while, probably just a few hundred meters, Xu Xin seemed to detect a special scent in the air, growing stronger as they advanced.
Xu Xin rubbed his nose, feeling stimulated, and uncertain in his heart, "Is this... a floral fragrance?"
Continuing forward, Xu Xin noticed that the poplars around seemed to have become sparse, and the ground was no longer entirely grass and shrubs, but there were gradually more small yellow flowers, gently swaying in the wind.
The floral scent was overwhelming, and Xu Xin's consciousness began to drift unknowingly, speeding up his pace.
But he quickly sensed something wrong, pinching his arm hard to regain clarity.
"It's this floral scent! This scent was luring me out of the protective range!"
Perhaps because he was previously in a position where the scent was faint, it deceived his sense of smell, but now Xu Xin felt this was the same feeling that influenced his mind earlier.
With this realization, Xu Xin hurriedly lifted his clothes, covering his nose and mouth, but felt it interfered with movement, so he took off his clothes and tied them around his face.
"Keke, come back. Let's go together." Now aware of the danger, he naturally couldn't let Keke lead the way.
"Ying!" Keke seemed unaffected by the floral scent and nimbly climbed up to Xu Xin's shoulder along his leg.
This little creature truly was mysterious.
Xu Xin gripped the stone spear and continued to walk forward.
The poplars around became sparser, and the yellow flowers on the ground grew more abundant. Even though Xu Xin had covered his nose and mouth, the pungent floral scent still made him furrow his brows tightly.
It was unclear whether it was due to his heightened alertness or the effect of the blue orange he had eaten, but despite the pungent smell, it didn't seem to affect his mind again.
"Hmm? What's that..." Xu Xin suddenly stopped.
There were no more poplars around. His feet were standing in a sea of flowers, a bright yellow sea of flowers. And right in front of him, a golden treasure chest shone brightly in the center of this sea of flowers.
"A golden treasure chest?" Xu Xin's eyes lit up. He didn't expect to find a golden treasure chest here.
"Ying?" Keke on his shoulder turned its head to glance at him.
Xu Xin didn't continue forward or rush to open the treasure chest. He always felt something was off.
This golden chest surely couldn't be that easily obtained. Beneath this sea of flowers, a great danger must be lurking.
His mental map showed no red dots, but Xu Xin kept an eye on it nonetheless. Although the map couldn't show underground monsters, it would give a warning before monsters emerged from the ground, which was enough.
Gripping the stone spear tightly, slowly and cautiously, Xu Xin moved towards the golden treasure chest.
According to Xu Xin's earlier speculation, this monster would amplify his inner thoughts infinitely, driving him to mindlessly fulfill them. Thus, he had to fight against his inner desires.
However, Xu Xin didn't feel anything unusual at the moment; his mind was extraordinarily clear without that overwhelming urge to realize his thoughts.
Without any incident, Xu Xin walked step by step to the edge of the golden treasure chest.
Standing in front of the golden chest, Xu Xin felt puzzled.
Just like that... did he come over?