Professor Linton was right.

Whether it was the plant species in the forest, the temperature, or the humidity level, this place seemed more like a temperate region. Of course, if one were to truly compare the regions from tens of millions of years ago to modern times, this place could probably be considered a cold temperate zone, after all, both the temperature and humidity were much higher in the Cretaceous period than they are now.

Compared to the frigid or tropical zones, being able to land in this place was already considered lucky for Xia Chuan and the others.

However, this also meant that in this relatively mild climate zone, there were many more species than in other places, especially in areas with rivers and wetlands.

"So don't think this dense forest is habitable just because of an abnormal Tyrannosaurus. The sooner we get out of here, the better." Professor Linton said while patting Dennis on the shoulder. "If you walk any slower, we might not even get out of here by next year. I might as well hop down and go on my own..."

On one hand, the old man was very dissatisfied with the performance of this human-shaped mount named Dennis. On the other hand, seeing the bloody wound on his arm, he felt quite distressed. So he made this remark to strike up a conversation, intending to get off Dennis' back.

Since they left the Tyrannosaurus and carefully walked for about half a kilometer, this eerily empty dense forest seemed to have suddenly turned on a switch, becoming a bit lively. In addition to the ever-present insect chirps, there were many other sounds in the dense forest--

From time to time, there were flapping sounds overhead, which were pterosaurs of various sizes gliding. They seemed unable to fly long distances and always stopped to rest on the tops of tall tree branches. Occasionally, they would dive towards another tall tree at an extremely fast speed, probably because they saw food, but most of them were still gliding towards the sea.

Even if the group of people traveling in the dense forest were very careful, they were still a sizable target.

Three pterosaurs swooped down from the sky, accurately targeting Dennis and Professor Linton on his back, fully embodying the principle of picking on the weak. The leading one was frighteningly large, with wings that could wrap up the two people even when half-spread, scaring Professor Linton so much that he almost fell off Dennis' head.

"Ah-- Get away!" Dennis was heavily slapped by one of the pterosaur's wings, and his footsteps were in a panic as he tried to dodge. Professor Linton was even more flustered, holding his head with one hand and waving the other in the air. As a result, a pterosaur bit his arm, its teeth as sharp as steel saws piercing into the skin, and beads of bright red blood rolled down in strings.

The two were thrown into disarray by this sudden attack. Dennis' vision was blocked by the pterosaur's wings and he couldn't see the ground at all. He tripped and fell heavily to the ground, and the slightly overweight Professor Linton also rolled to the side.

Shen Lan and Xia Chuan almost immediately turned back. The former grabbed one pterosaur in each hand and directly snapped their necks; the latter pinned the remaining one to the tree trunk with a dagger, swiftly and decisively resolving the crisis.

The one pinned to the tree didn't die right away and cried out miserably for a while, its huge wings flapping in spasms with great force. If Xia Chuan's dagger hadn't been stuck deep, it wouldn't have been able to hold it at all.

Shen Lan was already sensitive to sound, and this high-decibel cry was simply killing him. Hearing it made him dig at his ears. Unable to bear it any longer, he threw the two pterosaurs over his shoulder, freeing up a hand to grab the mouth of the one on the tree. "I still prefer dealing with these things in the sea."

Turning back into a mosasaur and swallowing it in one gulp, there was no need to suffer from this noise.

Seeing that the pterosaur had finally quieted down, Xia Chuan reached out to pull Dennis and Professor Linton up from the ground. In the collision, he inadvertently hit the back of his hand against the trunk of the tall tree.

Xia Chuan frowned and instinctively withdrew his hand to take a look. He saw several blood spots on the back of his hand, with a few long, white, hair-like thorns stuck in it, thin but tough, only visible when looking at the light filtering through the branches and leaves.

"Hiss--" Dennis, who had stood up, took a long breath and spread his hands, looking at his palms. He was much worse off than Xia Chuan-- his palms, forearms, elbows, and knees were all injured. His muscles were not as firm as Xia Chuan's, so more thorns were stuck deeper, almost covering entire areas, as if he had experienced a hail of needle rain.

However, Professor Linton was the worst off. With age, his skin was loose and his flesh thick. Some of the thorns that had pierced him had simply disappeared entirely into the skin, leaving only some black spots that couldn't be pulled out.

"What kind of tree is this! How can there be hidden weapons on the branches!" Dennis didn't know where to put his hands. It was impossible to just sit down and deal with it slowly, so he had to roughly pull out the parts that could be pulled out first, enduring the tingling pain, and looked the culprit up and down.

"This is an early fern plant, of course it's fuzzy." Professor Linton looked at the height of the tree and the branches and leaves above, and explained, dejectedly squeezing the black spots on his palms as if this would squeeze the thorns out.

"...A fern... several stories tall?!" Dennis had a face of despair, feeling that this forest was simply uninhabitable. He couldn't care about the thorns stuck in his hands and feet, and just wanted to carry the professor on his back and leave this ghost place as soon as possible.

The pterosaur nailed to the tree had also completely died at this point. Shen Lan pulled out the dagger and tossed it to Xia Chuan, then threw this third one over his shoulder to carry.

Professor Linton stared at him, dumbfounded: "You, you..."

"What about me?" Shen Lan looked back at him.

"Such a large pterosaur must weigh at least two or three hundred kilograms each, you..." Can you really handle carrying three?

Shen Lan was obviously used to his own physical functions and didn't feel there was anything abnormal. Hearing Professor Linton's halting words, he thought he was asking why he was carrying such heavy pterosaurs while traveling, so he patted the pterosaur's back and explained succinctly: "Tastes good."

Xia Chuan: "..."

Dennis: "..."

These two had eaten plate-sized ammonites before, so although they were a bit speechless seeing the pterosaurs, they were somewhat mentally prepared.

Professor Linton was the only one who suffered. He was not young, and had just been pricked by thorns and then scared silly by Shen Lan's brutal recipe. For a long time, he was in a daze, not even reacting when the person carrying him changed from Dennis to Xia Chuan.

It wasn't until they had walked a long way out that he said in a trance-like manner, "Eh-- the speed seems to have gotten a lot faster."

With the change in configuration, the entire team's marching speed indeed increased significantly. Denise only needed to protect the black bag on his chest and didn't have to bear much weight, making it less strenuous to keep up with Xia Chuan and Shen Lan.

"Chuan, is your lower back really okay?" Denise couldn't help but ask, feeling a bit annoyed with his own physical fitness. If he could be a bit stronger, he could at least help reduce some of the burden on Xia Chuan and the others.

"It's fine." Xia Chuan carried Professor Linton on his back and walked a long way behind Shen Lan, but he didn't seem to be struggling much.

At least his tone remained steady, and his breathing didn't become rapid or heavy. His voice was always very low, as if he was too lazy to make an effort to speak. In a slightly noisier environment, it was easy for people to not hear him clearly.

However, for Shen Lan, it was just right, not too high or too low.

He turned his head to look at Xia Chuan while carrying the pterosaur on his back. His gaze swept over Xia Chuan's waist, and seeing that his walking posture was normal without any signs of enduring pain, he turned his head back and continued to lead the way.

Although Xia Chuan's personality was always very tough, completely ignoring minor injuries and pains, and even enduring major injuries and pains without making a sound, this time he really wasn't putting on a brave face. At the seaside, his lower back still had some difficulty exerting strength, and large movements would cause tearing pain. Now, after just half a day, there was almost no impact, and he moved freely as if his back had never been injured.

In comparison, the burning pain on the back of his hand was more noticeable, but this level of pain was not a problem for him and could be directly ignored.

Their marching speed was much faster than before, but this dense forest seemed endless.

Professor Linton, lying on Xia Chuan's back, wasn't idle either. Along the way, he judged their position based on the density and height of the plants in the forest.

"We are approaching the central zone of this forest," he said to Xia Chuan and the others, looking around.

"Only reaching the center—" Denise was about to express his surprise when he received a glare from Xia Chuan. He immediately lowered his volume by half and said softly, "We've only reached the central area after walking for so long..."

"What did you expect?" Xia Chuan said impatiently.

It turned out that their earlier perception of few living creatures in the forest was entirely because they were still at the edge of the woods, and at that time, the Tyrannosaurus was there. This kind of terrestrial predator had a strong sense of territory and was fierce in combat. Creatures on its menu all wanted to avoid it, so that area was relatively empty.

Now, the closer they got to the center of the dense forest, the more living things they encountered—

Moths with wingspans as large as books flew in groups of three to five. If one wasn't careful, they would flutter onto people's bodies, and the thick powder on their wings would rub against the skin, making people very uncomfortable;

The small dinosaurs scurrying between the branches were not much larger than those moths. They specialized in digging out soft-bodied insects from tree holes to eat. Occasionally, if they didn't grab firmly, the insects would fall from a height, just like the scene with the caterpillars Xia Chuan and the others encountered before;

There were also snakes coiled on the horizontal branches of some tall trees, but those snakes were somewhat different from modern snakes. In addition to their particularly large size, some looked more like legless lizards.

Fortunately, most of these snakes were lazy and only interested in the small dinosaurs in the trees. One snake that unwisely decided to attack Shen Lan ended up becoming the fourth reserve food item, also carried on Shen Lan's shoulder.

Xia Chuan looked at Shen Lan's trailing silhouette with some exasperation, feeling a sense of bizarre humor—

It was as if a wilderness survival situation that should have been full of crises was forcibly twisted by Shen Lan into a spring outing... and a spring outing with the whole family in tow.

This sense of incongruous "leisureliness" surrounded them until Shen Lan suddenly stopped in his tracks and pressed his hand on Xia Chuan's shoulder, preventing him from moving forward. Xia Chuan was startled by his obstruction and didn't react for a moment, but the next second, his face changed color—

Suddenly, there was a rustling sound in the surrounding bushes, and then, one by one, shadows appeared behind the low trees, silently surrounding Xia Chuan and the others in the middle...