Chapter 35: Self-reflection
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
"Yin!" Cocoa jumped into Xu Xin's arms and buried its furry head in his chest.
"Alright, alright, it's fine now," He patted Cocoa's head, feeling the relief of surviving a disaster.
Recalling everything that had just happened, Xu Xin was still in a state of shock. If he had made even one mistake, he would have already left this world.
The yellow flowers on the ground began to wither rapidly. Soon, the sea of yellow flowers had become a barren land. Not even weeds or a single blade of grass grew here.
Xu Xin sat on the ground and placed Cocoa on her lap. He then put on the top that was covering his face.
"As expected, I was still affected mentally?" As he calmed himself down, he recalled what had just happened.
He had previously wrapped his shirt around his face, but it didn't seem to have any effect.
If his mind had not been affected, he would not have recklessly entered the strange sea of flowers, even if the golden treasure chest he had been looking for was in the middle of the sea of flowers. However, at that time, he had only paused for a moment and entered the dangerous area without much thought.
After he walked to the treasure chest, if it was the usual him, he would've put the golden treasure chest into his backpack and left the strange sea of flowers as soon as possible. He would've opened the treasure chest in another place, instead of taking out the key and wanting to open it on the spot like just now.
The most obvious evidence that he had been affected was the fake treasure chest. To think he thought that a damned stone was a treasure chest! This must be an illusion caused by inhaling too much of the flower's fragrance.
He looked at Cocoa, who still had its head buried in his arms, and smiled. If it wasn't for this little fellow, he would have died here today. He took out an orange from his backpack and stuffed it into Cocoa's arms.
"Yin!" Cocoa immediately hugged the orange and happily ate it.
The little fellow didn't seem to be affected by the flower fragrance, so Cocoa's two suspicious cries had made him suspicious. The first time was when he mentioned the golden treasure chest, and the second time was when he took out the golden key.
The two confused cries made Xu Xin realize that his and Cocoa's eyes were looking at different things. Cocoa didn't seem to have seen the golden treasure chest. Therefore, when he looked at the treasure chest again, he began to observe it carefully.
Before coming here, Xu Xin had seen the copper and silver treasure chests side by side in his treehouse. When the patterns on the two treasure chests were pieced together, they would form the body of a beast that looked like a kylin. So, at that time, he had deduced that the head of the beast was printed on the golden treasure chest.
However, the patterns on the fake golden treasure chest were messy.
Although he couldn't be sure whether the patterns on the treasure chest were real or fake, he would rather believe it was fake than not. So he straight away picked up the stone spear and shoved it at the fake treasure chest. He didn't expect that the illusion would really be broken.
If he hadn't discovered the truth and had opened the fake treasure chest with the key, the process of the stone cracking might have been hidden in the illusion of the treasure chest opening. By then, he wouldn't have had the time to run, or even react, and would have been swallowed by the man-eating flower.
As for what happened after that, he tried his best and managed to keep his life.
This time, the man-eating flower was far more dangerous than the previous beast horde and vines. It made Xu Xin deeply feel how weak he was. If it wasn't for Cocoa's help and a series of coincidences, he would have been dragged step by step into the abyss of hell by this man-eating flower that could affect people's minds.
These strange creatures were too terrifying. They were much more terrifying than those wild beasts!
Fortunately, these things didn't seem to be able to move for long within the three-kilometer radius of the treehouse. The vines from before only attacked him twice before they died. This time, although the man-eating flower lasted a little longer, it still couldn't escape the fate of being turned into a dry specimen.
After resting for a while, Xu Xin, who had calmed down, stood up and picked up the rock spear that was thrown on the ground. He began to clean up the dried and crisp residue of the man-eating flowers around.
Since the flower was so strange, it must be the monster guarding the golden treasure chest. Maybe the golden treasure chest was hidden in the body of the man-eating flower, just like the copper treasure chest.
In the end, Xu Xin poked at all the remains of the man-eating flower, but he still couldn't find what he was looking for.
"Could it be that the treasure chest isn't in the monster's body?"
He swept the debris to the side, and the hole formed by the cracked rock appeared in front of him.
The cave was pitch black. However, this wasn't too difficult for Xu Xin. After eating a red berry, he had the ability to see in the dark. No matter how dark the environment was, it was as bright as day to him.
The hole was wide enough for one person to pass through. Inside was not a golden treasure chest like he had imagined, but an underground cave that was only two meters high. From Xu Xin's angle, he couldn't see what was deep inside the cave.
The hole that the man-eating flower had made was dug out, and it was obvious that the huge man-eating flower had come out from deeper underground, or perhaps it had just happened to pass by this underground cave.
"What is this place? Could the golden treasure chest be inside?" Xu Xin fell into deep thought.
"Yin!" Cocoa tugged at Xu Xin's clothes while still in his arms and pointed at the hole with its claws. Then, it used its claws to draw a rectangle.
"Are you saying that the treasure chest is down there?"
"Yin!" Cocoa nodded its head and rubbed its tail against Xu Xin's arm.
"How do you know?" Xu Xin was still very curious about the magical properties of Cocoa.
"Yin?" Cocoa tilted her head.
Forget it, it couldn't explain it anyway.
"But..." Xu Xin frowned.
The space below was too narrow, and the width of the cave could only allow one person to pass through. If they were to encounter danger, such as vines or something, there would be no place to hide in such a small space. There was basically no possibility of escape.
If the golden treasure chest was in this cave, Xu Xin wanted to give up.
He had already obtained the silver treasure chest. At the very least, he would definitely not be eliminated at the end.
"Yin!" Seeing that Xu Xin was hesitant, Cocoa immediately jumped out of his arms and grabbed his pants, wanting to bring him down.
"Cocoa, there are no dangers down there?" Xu Xin asked.
Cocoa nodded its head.
After getting Cocoa's confirmation, Xu Xin's fear of the unknown cave lessened.
He took a look at the cave, thought for a moment, and decided to go down to look for the golden treasure chest.
At the very least, Cocoa's sense of danger had been extremely accurate up until now. Whether it was the first copper treasure chest or the man-eating flower, Cocoa had given a similar warning before the monster appeared. However, it had not sensed the Deinosuchus that hadn't harmed him.
So far, its danger premonition was 100% correct.
Hence, Xu Xin decided to believe it.
After all, after going through such a dangerous experience and barely surviving, even Xu Xin would feel indignant if he had to return empty-handed.
But before that, he had to expand the hole. If something really happened, it would be too difficult to climb out of this small hole.
Taking out his blue-grade stone shovel from his backpack, Xu Xin began to work.
Within 10 minutes, he had expanded the straight hole into a slope that they could walk down directly.
"Perfect. This way, if anything happens inside, I can run up straight away," Xu Xin looked at his masterpiece with satisfaction and put the shovel back into his bag.
-- Gift
received