Perspective: Taishi Xi

In this moment, walking in this dense forest, I felt the beauty of magic for the first time. All spells are deceiving and practically useless.

The reason for me to come to such a conclusion is naturally because Bai Yueguang, Hei Luoli, and I came to the Kalanga Boho Forest early to scout ahead before an activity, and then… got lost.

Yes, got lost. Completely unable to find a way out, no matter which direction we took, it felt like we were just going around in circles in the same spot.

"I say, this trail mark, wasn't it left by us three hours ago?" I pointed to an Arabic numeral '6' on a tree.

Yes, every hour we would leave a number on a prominent tree and continue forward. The last one we wrote was '9', and now seeing '6' means that...

"So, after walking for 3 hours in the forest, did we end up back where we started?"

"Seems like it, Taishi Xi," said Hei Luoli with a rather matter-of-fact expression.

"Don't use that strange nickname for me."

Hearing her call me that gave me goosebumps; it must be something that scoundrel Bai Yueguang taught her.

Thinking this, I glanced at Bai Yueguang, who had a face full of wry smiles.

"Isn't it cute to be called like that? Right, Bai Yueguang?"

Pfft!

Seeing Bai Yueguang's face turning almost gray, I felt a slight sense of satisfaction.

Do you know what it means to not invite trouble upon oneself? I believe you are experiencing it quite profoundly now, aren't you?

"Can we stop worrying about names now? What do we do next? The activity starts tomorrow, and we are lost here; is that okay?"

"Blame who? Who thought this forest was nothing to fear and led us in here?"

"Well... it was an accident, who knew our... sense of direction would go awry?"

This was a subtle way of saying it; he was talking about our mini-map.

Yes, ever since we entered this forest, our mini-map had practically lost all functionality, except occasionally detecting nearby magical beasts. Now, we can only rely on our sense of direction to navigate.

However, being so accustomed to the mini-map for a long time, we had almost completely lost that sense of direction; coupled with the fact that the forest all looked similar, we were now wandering aimlessly like headless flies.

"I say, how about we just head up the mountain?" Hei Luoli suggested.

"We always wanted to get out, but ended up going in circles. Maybe heading up the mountain could help us find a route better. After all, climbing the mountain would give us a sense of elevation, and we might not get lost that way."

"While that sounds plausible," Bai Yueguang questioned, "what then once we're up the mountain? Our goal is to leave here, right?"

"Maybe the view from the mountain will be better than here, and we might spot some special marks that could lead us out of the forest."

Nodding, I said, "Besides, do you have a better idea? Should we just use your Zhanqie to chop down the trees in the forest? Without trees blocking our path, wouldn't the visibility be clearer?"

"Hey hey hey, isn't that going too far? Directly damaging the forest for the sake of navigation..."

"Stop talking nonsense and get up the mountain!"

"Ba Jiang, Xi Jiang, stop quarreling~"

"That's enough!"

We both exclaimed simultaneously.

"Really, so cute, let's just continue following Bai Xiao Xi."

Hei Luoli shrugged.

This guy really... sigh.

"Alright, Bai, you're in charge of jumping up to see which way the mountain is."

That's right, the only way we can determine our location now is to have someone jump up and survey the surroundings to decide where to go next.

Unfortunately, every time we decided on a direction before, we would end up getting lost somehow, I don't know why.

Perhaps the combined lack of sense of direction from the three of us created an additional effect.

Bai Yueguang obviously didn't want to be the one doing this grunt work, but after glancing at me and then at Hei Luoli beside him, he probably realized he was the only male here, so he sighed and walked to a spot where there were no trees blocking his view.

Then, he sprang up in one swift movement, and the only words that came to my mind to describe this scene were, "Just like a monkey."

I voiced this out loud just as he landed, and Bai Yueguang, frowning, glanced at me.

"Then you should jump next time!"

"No."

"You..."

Hmph, I just enjoy seeing others fail.

"Alright, enough chatter, which way should we go this time?"

"This way."

Bai Yueguang pointed to our right.

"It's probably about 20 kilometers in this direction."

"That's really far..."

I scratched my head.

"Should we run over?"

"Don't be ridiculous, last time we tried running over, we ended up circling in the forest. Let's just walk."

"What a pity, if only I had brought more talismans."

Even though it's not as convenient as magic, if I had set up markers along the way using talismans, we might have made it out.

But I thought we would be back soon, so I didn't bring them, and now we're stuck here for a day.

It seems no matter what, I should always be fully equipped, it's such a hassle.

Well...

Glancing at the darkening sky and the mist-filled forest ahead, I could only smile wryly.

Let's just keep moving.