At the edge of the forest, there were still trees, but the vegetation had noticeably changed--

The towering tree ferns comparable to the giant sequoias of North America became sparse and scattered, replaced by a patch of shrubs.

Xia Chuan took the lead and walked to the front, taking advantage of the remaining bit of sunlight to look a little further ahead. Through the shrubs, lush grass and trees could be seen, with something reflecting light in between, slightly dazzling.

Xia Chuan's brows relaxed, clearly in a good mood.

"Water!" Dennis raised his hand, pointing to that area and exclaiming, "It's a wetland, Professor! Is this where you woke up before?"

Professor Linton leaned on a stick and looked around, then shook his head hesitantly, "It doesn't look quite like it, probably not..."

Dennis was stunned for a moment, "Huh? Then--"

"Doesn't matter, as long as there's water." Xia Chuan interjected decisively, then started finding footholds to walk forward through the shrubs, reminding as he went, "There's bound to be creatures near the water, watch your step."

The shrubs here were uneven in height. In shadier areas, they grew thick and tall, looking not much different from normal trees. Only in brighter spots were they relatively shorter, but still past Xia Chuan's waist. Their branches and leaves were stiff, some with barbs, and grew densely, easily scratching arms if one wasn't careful, very likely to add more injuries to the already wounded trio.

Xia Chuan occasionally used his knife to clear the shrub branches beside him, barely clearing a narrow path wide enough for one person.

"There are many creatures in a place like this, but probably not many big ones." Professor Linton walked between Xia Chuan and Dennis, leaning on a stick. Looking at the extremely dense shrubs, he said, "But past these shrubs, a bit further ahead, it's hard to say. There might even be crocodiles floating in the wetlands."

Dennis' teeth chattered, "The Deinosuchus?!"

"The Deinosuchus are in Africa!" Professor Linton turned his head and gave him a look. "But just because they're not Deinosuchus doesn't mean it's much better. The crocodiles of this era aren't that much smaller in size."

Xia Chuan, who was leading the way up front, listened without even raising an eyebrow and just continued chopping branches and walking.

Crocodiles are creatures with frightening combat power. Few people wouldn't be afraid of them. In fact, if it were in the past, if Xia Chuan knew there might be crocodiles nearby, he would definitely take a detour if possible, not needing to directly confront such animals.

But now, especially after walking through a jungle mixed with terrestrial carnivorous dinosaurs, giant snakes, and pterosaurs for a day, crocodiles could no longer bring him any sense of excitement...

Compared to the dense forest, their speed through the shrubs was much faster, perhaps also due to having more motivation after seeing water. The three rushed with the last ray of light out of the shrubs, then walked a distance over the grass and trees, finally arriving at a place with a glimmer of water.

However, the water was still very shallow, only accumulating in low-lying areas, scattered and hidden among the grass and trees. The three no longer spoke and immediately headed forward along these scattered puddles.

As they walked farther and farther, the puddles in sight became larger and more elongated. The ground underfoot gradually turned wet and soft, sticking to their pants with dampness. Before long, the advancing trio stopped in unison--they had found a place where they could temporarily settle.

After the increasingly numerous scattered low-lying areas, they finally saw a shallow river-like area. Of course, it was still essentially a puddle, just with a larger area and deeper water, and quite a few live fish. The best part was that there were several tall tree trunks lying beside this "shallow river". Who knows how long they had fallen, whether blown over by the wind, hit by something, or perhaps washed over and piled up here by water flow in the past.

In any case, those few broken tree trunks were piled haphazardly, about half a person's height. When resting in such a perilous place, one always needs to rely on some cover to feel a bit more secure. These remnant broken trunks were a good choice.

Xia Chuan quickly scanned the surroundings, then led Professor Linton and Dennis to the edge of the pile of trunks and squatted down with his back against them. His knife was already sheathed at his waist, and in his hands were the shrub branches he had chopped down to block the way.

He looked at the ground for a moment, found a relatively dry spot, and threw down the shrub branches, quickly setting up a pile of wood for a fire. He then stretched out his hand towards Dennis.

Without needing him to speak, Dennis very cooperatively rummaged in his bag, took out a lighter and placed it in Xia Chuan's palm, "Here--"

Only upon seeing this kind of thing did Professor Linton seem to notice that Dennis was still carrying a black bag of considerable size on his back.

He grabbed the edge of the black bag, almost burying his entire head inside, and rummaged through its contents before staring wide-eyed and raising his face, "That's cheating! Why is it that when I woke up, there was nothing around me, my luggage had long disappeared, and I even have a lame leg, but your bag is still with you? Are you the only one who still has luggage on them?"

"When I woke up, I still had an underwater gun on me." Xia Chuan answered offhandedly while using the lighter to start the fire.

"Oh my! That's a good thing to have! Although it may not be of much use against big creatures, it should work against smaller ones, especially underwater. Can that thing catch fish?" Professor Linton said, glancing at the shallow river and subconsciously swallowing. "I'm a bit hungry, haven't had a proper meal in over a day."

Xia Chuan: "...Don't get your hopes up, it's lost." That underwater gun had long been swatted into the boundless sea by a certain someone's tail, never to be found again.

Professor Linton had a look of despair on his face, muttering, "How could it be lost, such an efficient hunting tool..."

Xia Chuan: "..."

The fire quickly ignited, not too big or too small, just right. Xia Chuan tossed the lighter back to Dennis, then took out the knife from his waist, deftly spinning it on his fingertips, and said, "No underwater gun, but this works just as well."

With that, he walked towards the "shallow river".

Taking a closer look at this newly formed "shallow river", Xia Chuan saw that apart from a few fish, there were no other conspicuous creatures inside. They had probably just flowed in with the water.

In this kind of small pond, catching a few fish of decent size without any other interfering factors was not difficult for Xia Chuan. In just a few minutes, he brought several fish to the campfire. "I just cleaned them in the water. You guys can start grilling them first," he said as he tossed the fish to Dennis.

"Huh? What about you?" Dennis asked, holding the fish.

"I'm going to wash up." Xia Chuan pointed to his shirt, half of which was covered in blood.

Dennis had long noticed that he couldn't stand it and immediately understood, waving his hand. "Go ahead, we'll start grilling. Come eat when you're done washing."

Xia Chuan didn't wait for him to finish before striding towards the "shallow river." The river was surrounded by dense grass and trees, half-concealing and half-revealing, with thin streams of water meandering above and below, proving that the water in the river was quite active.

He found a spot hidden by the grass and trees downstream, swiftly unbuttoned two buttons of his shirt, and was about to take off his top to clean the blood stains when he heard some movement not far away, a rhythmic rustling sound.

Footsteps!

Xia Chuan abruptly looked up towards the source of the sound and saw Shen Lan's familiar figure appear in his field of vision, but the silhouette was a bit strange, as if there were things hanging on the shoulders, hands... and even the waist, and they were not small.

After taking a closer look, he was completely speechless. "..." This guy really brought back everything edible along the way!