"I know we've only just met, and we have no capital to make you trust us, but He Shan, I think we should do so on this. My sister has always been good at these sorts of things, and her guesses, more often than not, have always been right on the mark," said Zou Yi with unconcealed pride in his tone.
He Shan paused for a second before he sighed in resignation as he said,
"Well, if we fail, we fail, and if there is something there, then it's our best bet."
"Where should we head?" he added, directing his question at Yu Mei.
"Not far, just up ahead at the corner of that maple tree," answered Yu Mei as she pointed at a Maple tree at one of the slanting corners a few hundred meters ahead.
Having only five minutes or less before the paralysis kicked in, they hurried ahead to the area Yu Mei heard the roar.
Even though they had already resigned themselves to whatever fate of what will be waiting for them there, they were all filled with trepidation. Even Yu Mei, the one who heard those voices had a concerned and worried look.
Their earlier experience was anything but easy. She and Zou Liqin almost lost their lives to the scarlet hummingbird, and Zou Yi still had a banged-up body from his clash with the willow tree.
Who knew what would be waiting for them at the origin of those animal noises?
Time seemed to slow down as the distance seemed to shrink. Three hundred meters, two hundred meters, one hundred meters, fifty, twenty until they were finally at the spot Yu Mei talked about with two and a half minutes to spare.
The area was....underwhelming. They arrived half expecting a white tiger to charge at them. Well, only He Shan expected this, but as for the rest, they expected an attack of some sort like what they had gotten from the snapping willow tree and the scarlet crown hummingbird earlier.
However, what they got was a gently flowing river, some cedar trees, short grass carpeted with fallen leaves, and shallow cricket noises. There was nothing remotely threatening in the area.
"Yu Mei, you're sure this is the place?" asked He Shan as he picked up a stone from the ground and casually threw it at a random tree ahead.
His actions drew gasps and glares.
"Sorry, force of habit," he said as he grinned foolishly.
"Yes, this is the place, though I can no longer seem to hear the sounds, either of the tiger or the other animals," Yu Mei answered as she looked around in confusion.
Moments ago, the sounds were as clear as day, almost as if they were being closely whispered to her ears, but now, she couldn't hear a peep.
Zou Liqin and He Shan cautiously looked around while Zou Yi tightly clenched his fists in an attempt to keep the frenzied side effects that were currently assaulting him at bay.
Despite looking around for almost a minute, they still didn't find anything that seemed remotely mysterious, ominous, or suspicious. Everything was the image of a mundane forest in Autumn and a river gently flowing with leaves on its surface being guided along.
"Why don't we jump in the river?" Zou Yi, who went to the extremes of even dunking his head in the water, suddenly said as he raised his head from the river.
His foaming mouth, beet red face, bloodshot eyes, fuming nose, and now add his wet hair. His current look did little to give the image of someone whose judgment could be trusted.
"Sure, why not?" said He Shan.
Zou Liqin thought He Shan was being sarcastic, but when she saw him test the waters with his hands and nod, she realized he was dead serious about it.
Are these two okay?
Zou Liqin tightly clenched the mallet He Shan gave her as she prepared herself to act.
The two of them were clearly delirious.
"I think we should jump. In all this time, as we made our way, the roar always sounded from the same spot. I think it may very well be in the water," said Yu Mei with labored breath.
Though mentally she seemed okay, her body could not escape the over-exertion being brought by the mushroom.
Zou Liqin looked at her before she gritted her teeth as she said,
"Fine."
The four, without hesitation, jumped into the river. The moment they did, the gentle river turned into a swirling whirlpool that slowly transformed into the maw of a tiger.
"Are you seeing this?!" He Shan yelled in fright at the sudden transformation.
"I can," answered Zou Yi in a worn-out tone. His consciousness seemed to be fading, and he wasn't alone.
The rest, the deeper they were dragged, the harder it became for them to stay awake. By the time they reached the bottom of the whirlpool, all of them were unconscious.
....
"Liqin..Liqin...Liqin..."
Zou Liqin groaned as she heard the faint, indistinct voice of someone calling her name. Her ears felt like they were submerged in water.
She tried to get up. However, everything seemed to spin around the moment she did, and she found herself back on the ground with a nauseated feeling welling inside her. She shook her head to try and alleviate the symptoms of vertigo, but it only seemed to worsen them, and eventually, she found herself vomiting.
It took her almost five minutes before she finally felt mildly okay to crawl and carefully monitor her surroundings.
When her vision got mildly better for her to take stock of her surrounding, all she saw around her were trees whose height stretched as far as the eye could see, and below them was grass.
"Liqin.."
She finally saw the source of her voice.
"Yu Mei?!" she said as she hurriedly crawled toward her. That was when she noticed He Shan and Zou Yi lying on the ground, just like Yu Mei. However, they didn't seem to be conscious yet.
"Liqin, I heard; swallow, cricket, bull, crane, katydid, cicada, dragonfly, hornbill, swan noises as we came down. I think they're clues. It's all on you now..."
Just as Zou Liqin was about to rush to crawl to Zou Yi, she heard Yu Mei's faint voice before she fell unconscious.
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