When Grandmaster Long's voice reached them, Baiyu had already treated Jiang Han's wound.
Although the treatment was quite rudimentary, it wouldn't lead to an infection that could worsen the wound later on. For Jiang Han, a Tier Four Martial Artist, he hadn't felt such pain for a long time.
Such scars like before.
Would usually heal in an instant, without requiring any special attention.
The terrifying healing ability brought by the strong physique of Martial Artists made one forget the pain of the wounds.
Baiyu walked over to the corpse.
According to their observation of the corpse, it was clearly a modern man who had undergone special exercise or training, possessing a certain degree of close combat skills.
Otherwise, Jiang Han wouldn't have been knocked down without resistance.
Baiyu's gaze fell on the worn-out diary held by Grandmaster Long. The cover was battered, stained with mud and blood, but its contents were barely damaged, evidently due to the meticulous care of its original owner.
He opened it.
The pages were filled with neat rows of writing.
Written over a hundred pages, the first half consisted of beautifully penned text using ink, although Baiyu couldn't understand these words, he could recognize them as being from Great Yan Dynasty, East Prosperity Imperial's neighboring country.
The latter half of the diary.
Was written in blood of various animals, somewhat blurred and twisted, but with careful identification, could still be recognized.
Both Grandmaster Long and Wulin understood the language of Great Yan Dynasty.
So translating it was not difficult.
"It says here this man was a Commanding General of Great Yan Dynasty, who inadvertently got pulled into this place after extinguishing an evil ritual of pagans.
At that time, he was with a small troop of about twenty men, who all got pulled in with him.
Eventually.
All of them died due to various reasons, leaving only him alone."
Wulin read the words calmly, most of the narrative consisted of self-pitying complaints by the writer.
Only a small portion.
Truly described his ordeal, exploring and gathering information on various parts of the forest, along with a map!
Yes.
A map.
It was drawn during his years of living in this forest, through his careful exploration, verification, and correction.
From the diary's description.
It noted forest's exits, many dangerous impasses, sources of food, clean water supplies, and safe places to live without large predators, etc.
"Commanding Generals of Great Yan Dynasty are generally Grandmasters. Especially since he marked the barbarian camp and the river we passed by.
The danger level of the barbarian camp is medium, while the river's danger level is high.
Evidently.
He previously knew about the giant crabs in the river."
Baiyu believed the diary's reliability was extremely high, the places marked were not wrong.
At the same time.
He also planned his escape from the forest in the later part but didn't get to execute it as his spirit collapsed first.
Towards the end of the diary.
It described how he frequently heard the voices of his deceased comrades in his ears. The messy handwriting, large chunks of unexplainable text, and chaotic paragraphs all indicated his spirit had reached its limit.
After analyzing the whole diary, they found almost no issues.
The diary was highly credible!
Especially, that map showed the way out!
When Baiyu entered this forest, from the outside it appeared to be an oasis in a desert. But upon entering, he knew it was not the case.
The true area of the forest was much larger than the oasis.
It was nothing like Baiyu had seen from the desert.
Obviously.
He either witnessed a mirage, or there was a hidden world within this forest, in any case, returning via the basic original route was certainly impossible.
An exit must be found within the forest.
Moreover.
Going back means facing the barbarian camp empowered by three Rune forces, which may lead to survival or death.
After reading the diary, Wulin put it away: "Let's go, I think we should check it out, whether there's any remaining water surface."
He was referring to the place where the man lived.
The map must be hidden there as well.
This proposal quickly won Baiyu and Grandmaster Long's approval.
"How is your injury, Captain Jiang?"
Having made the decision, Baiyu looked at Jiang Han.
Jiang Han showed a smile and shook his head: "It's not a big deal, just a bit painful, it will be fine after some time.
Let's go.
Finding the map is the most important thing right now."
Jiang Han clearly knew the priorities, his injury was not fatal, and they needed to find the map now.
Moreover.
Even if they couldn't find the map, resting temporarily at the confirmed settlement point would certainly be more appropriate than wandering aimlessly like this.
The four decided to wait for daylight to take action.
At night in such a jungle, any slight negligence would encounter danger.
A bonfire was lit.
Baiyu and the others climbed up the tree to rest.
The bonfire was effective in deterring various beasts but equally served as a beacon in the dark to those intelligent enemies.
Fortunately.
After experiencing the man's attack, the rest of the night passed without incident.
Early morning.
Based on the records in the diary and the traces left by the man, the four quickly found the road.
The following journey proceeded with surprises but without dangers.
The four arrived at a small hill, a wall made of stakes formed in front of the hill, with a latched gate on the side.
Such a gate is hard to open with brute force.
But mastering the technique makes opening it not difficult.
The four opened the heavy wooden gate.
Inside was a small yard, stocked with simple living tools, and even a brick stove built with stones.
Inside.
The internal part of the hill was half dug out, about the area of two single beds, with a simple grass mat and two flat stones, one large and one small.
The grass mat was clearly used for sleeping.
The large and small stones were probably a table and a stool, with various miscellaneous items placed atop the larger stone.
"This is indeed a settlement point, I even found a slaughter point nearby just now, with many animal skeletons and some dried meat chunks."
Wulin walked back from outside the yard.
Their gaze all turned to the stone table. After some searching, they indeed found an extremely detailed map.
It was recorded on torn pages from the diary.
With the diary's notes, they could barely understand it.
The forest's area was immensely large, and among it, there were numerous biological tribes, the barbarian camp being just one among them.
And the forest's exit, according to the map's illustration, seemed to be a cluster of buildings.
