"Have they pinpointed the latitude?"
Zhan Lingfeng suddenly stood up, almost tripping over his chair in his excitement.
Zhan Yi, standing nearby, was stunned by this sight.
Ever since Gu Nanyan had gone missing, the Master had been acting strangely.
How could this be?
Didn't Master Zhan dislike Gu Nanyan? She'd only been living at home for two or three days, yet he was this concerned about her.
What kind of magical power did this Gu Nanyan possess?
Zhan Yi suppressed his doubts and calmly stepped forward to steady Zhan Lingfeng.
"Master Zhan, we haven't pinpointed the exact latitude, only a general area," the staff member reported.
Hearing this, Zhan Lingfeng realized he had misunderstood. He was truly letting his concern cloud his judgment.
He steadied himself against the table and calmly instructed, "Continue locating the island."
Then, turning to Zhan Yi with a serious tone, he said, "Zhan Yi, keep searching for Meng Li's whereabouts, and closely monitor all of Meng Li's subordinates. Report to me immediately if there's any unusual activity."
Meanwhile, on the island, Teacher Chen Tianqi's two teams had joined forces.
They had stored rainwater, had an iron pot and fishing rods, as well as wooden tools. Survival wasn't an issue.
Next, they began searching for the grass balls.
Unfortunately, after searching for a long time, they couldn't find any. Everyone even began to doubt if there were any grass balls on the island at all. It wasn't until three days later that they managed to find just 5 grass balls.
Song Ze, completely exhausted, plopped down on the ground without a care for his image. "I'm done searching. This is impossible. These grass balls are too hard to find. Did they only drop a dozen or so on the entire island? We'll be searching until the cows come home at this rate."
All 9 of them were covered in dirt and grime. Five days of life on a deserted island had completely stripped away their polished celebrity appearances.
Their clothes were filthy, and their bodies reeked of sweat, having gone rancid.
"Do you think the grass balls might be in the center of the island?" Zhou Qinian spoke up.
For the past few days, they had been walking along the island's perimeter, not venturing towards the center.
Hearing Zhou Qinian's words, Chen Tian frowned, "The center of the island has wild animals. It's too dangerous."
"Dangerous or not, we have to go," Zhou Qinian's eyes were determined. "We must find those grass balls. It hasn't rained for days, and we've almost used up our stored rainwater. If we don't find a new water source soon, we'll die of thirst."
Everyone fell silent.
They knew Zhou Qinian was right, but they truly lacked the courage to venture into the island's center.
Yang Tongtong, frightened, weakly said, "Maybe... maybe it will rain in a couple of days."
"And what if it doesn't?" Zhou Qinian countered. "In this heat, without fresh water, how long can we last? Rather than praying for rain, we should use our remaining strength to venture deeper into the island.
We currently have 5 grass balls. Even if we can't find a water source, we can exchange them for fresh water at the store.
But all of this depends on us going to the center of the island."
After some discussion, they finally decided to head towards the island's center. They couldn't remain where they were indefinitely.
Besides, there were 9 of them, and they had bows and arrows. They should be able to handle ordinary wild animals.
Having made up their minds, the group slowly made their way towards the island's center, carrying their belongings.
As it turned out, there were indeed grass balls deeper in the island. In just half a day, they found two more.
Teacher Qi encouraged everyone: "Keep your spirits up, everyone! We might find the store before nightfall. With these grass balls, we can stay at the store for a night, so we won't have to worry about wild animals."
"That's right, let's keep going!"
The group's morale was high. They used wooden sticks to search through the grass, not leaving any corner unchecked.
"Hey, look at this. What is it?"
Sister Sha discovered a scratch mark on a tree trunk.
Everyone gathered around to look, but no one could identify it. After studying it for a while, the older of the Twin Sisters suddenly paled and shouted, "This is bad! It's a tiger's claw mark. It's marking its territory. We need to leave now!"
At the mention of a tiger, everyone turned tail and ran, not caring which direction they were heading.
After running for over half an hour, the group finally stopped to rest against some tree trunks.
"Waa... waa..."
The Twin Sisters were crying, hugging each other. They had run so fast that the Younger Twin had lost her shoe.
Now she was barefoot, her soles bloody and torn from stones and twigs, hissing in pain.
Everyone only had one pair of shoes, with no spares to give her. In the end, they could only find a thick jacket to wrap around her feet, allowing her to walk with difficulty.
The Sister Twin, heartbroken for her sister, said, "Teacher Qi, Brother Chen, why don't we make a fire and cook here? Everyone's been exhausted all day, and my sister can't walk anymore."
"Well..." Chen Tian scratched his head, unsure of what to say.
Teacher Qi remained silent as well.
Song Ze, however, didn't mince words and flatly refused: "No way. It's too dangerous here. If any wild animals come, we won't be able to escape."
The Sister Twin's eyes welled up with tears at his words.
The Younger Twin grabbed her sister's hand and shook it, comforting her, "I'm fine. I can walk."
Seeing this, Zhou Qinian spoke up: "How about this: the Twin Sisters and Teacher Qi can stay here to set up the pot and cook. The remaining 6 of us will split into two groups and head in different directions to see if we can find a suitable place to spend the night.
If we can't find anything, we'll return here before dark to set up camp.
We'll light fires around the perimeter, which should keep us safe."
This arrangement was good, and the others agreed.
After dividing up the tasks, everyone dispersed.
Unfortunately, none of them had Gu Nanyan's excellent lightness skill, nor did they have a tiger to ride. The surrounding area was overgrown with weeds, making it impossible to cover much ground.
In the end, they all returned empty-handed, making it back to the original spot just before nightfall.
Dinner was meager - just three fish stewed with wild vegetables and some wild berries.
This small amount of food was far from enough for 9 people, but given their situation, they had no choice but to endure. Now that they were far from the shore, they couldn't fish and had to rely on the fish they had stored earlier.
Not knowing when they might find the store, no one dared waste food, so they had to eat sparingly.
As night fell, the women went to sleep in the tent. Zhou Qinian and Song Ze kept watch by the fire, while the remaining three men slept near the fire. The weather was warm, and the fire had heated the ground, so they wouldn't catch cold.
Zhou Qinian took the first half of the night watch, with Song Ze taking the second half.
Song Ze was dozing off when he felt someone shaking him.
Thinking it was his turn to keep watch, he was about to speak when Zhou Qinian clamped a hand over his mouth. "Shh, keep your voice down. Look over there. What's that?"
Song Ze squinted in the direction Zhou Qinian was pointing and saw a pair of glowing green eyes.
Wolves!
He jolted awake, instantly alert.
Zhou Qinian didn't know what the wolf's intentions were, or how many there were. Not wanting to startle them, he told Song Ze to add more wood to the fire to make it blaze higher, while he quietly went to wake up Teacher Qi and the others.
Soon, everyone was awake. They lit all the branches they had collected, forming a circle of fire around the group.
Everyone huddled together, shivering in fear.
Yang Tongtong asked tearfully, "They... they won't come near us, will they?"
"Don't be afraid. Wolves fear fire," Teacher Qi reassured her.
No sooner had he spoken than a pack of wolves emerged from the forest. There were over a dozen of them, their eerie green eyes fixed intently on the group.
