Forest Ranger, starting from Picking Up a Lynx Girl-Chapter 498 - 454: Let’s Go, Brother Xiong Will Take You to Explore the Cave (Seeking Monthly Votes)

Chapter 498: Chapter 454: Let’s Go, Brother Xiong Will Take You to Explore the Cave (Seeking Monthly Votes)

A long-haired creature, not quite like a male beast, emerged hesitantly.

Indeed, this is the white-furred creature.

But upon closer look, you can actually see that its fur has a brown-black base color, with white fur around its jaw and the top of its head slightly having a platinum-yellowish hue, somewhat like egg yolk under strong light.

Under the camping lights at night, the true color isn’t quite visible, but Ying Bo and Dai Wang are almost certain that this large monkey is the target they are looking for.

The long-haired creature is very timid, darting from tree to tree, and finally hiding behind the White Bear.

(Friends in the group, please help by using AI to do this. Just a rough idea will do, the rest is up to your imagination.)

It’s afraid of the other Two-legged beasts, and the others fear the two of them.

Both sides faced each other silently for quite a while before Chen Ying gently coughed and squeezed the White Bear’s paw.

"You two haven’t eaten yet. Let me find you something to eat."

On this outing, they specifically brought fruits, vegetables, and peanuts, all prepared for the Golden Snub-Nosed Monkey.

The storage box for food this time is larger than the one they used before, with stored supplies enough for about a week.

However, they are all non-perishable foods, so forget about green leafy vegetables as they won’t keep for more than a day.

Apples and carrots are favored by both bears and monkeys. Monkeys also like peanuts, pine nuts, and other nuts, while bears prefer sweeter things.

Chen Ying used a stainless steel basin to serve them their favorite foods, drizzling a bit of honey over the bear’s portion of fruit.

This honey was bought from the manor’s owner, who claimed it was authentic wild mountain honey.

You can tell the White Bear was very happy, munching away from the small food bowl.

The long-haired creature mimicked it, sitting down and grabbing food from the bowl to stuff into its mouth.

Chen Ying seized the opportunity to touch it several times, pulling out quite a bit of fur, and even got the long hair to open its mouth, using the chance to examine its teeth to collect some oral cells.

Dai Wang and the rest were so excited they were speechless.

After obtaining the samples, they headed towards the base as dawn broke.

The base has basic test equipment, and even if their equipment isn’t adequate, they can immediately send it by car to a specialized testing lab.

After stirring up half the night, Chen Ying and the others were a bit sleepy by morning.

They rested against the White Bear for a while, and upon waking, found the long hair was gone.

"Did you see where the long-haired creature went?"

"No idea, I drifted off for a bit too, and when I woke up, it was gone." Ying Bo stretched his neck, helping to make breakfast, "Let’s eat breakfast first, then try to look. If not, we’ll shift to the southwest direction in the afternoon, there’s a steep slope over there to go down. However, that area is on the shady side of Jiamu Gully, and has been explored several times already."

Finding something new in such well-trodden places is highly unlikely.

Yet, the place they’re going to now has also been visited in the past, but those who went down reported that it was impassable, with a half-human-high cave at the bottom, showing traces of snakes, which deterred them from entering.

It’s unknown if anyone else has gone down since, but records at the base indicate that those who did go down found nothing of value.

Ying Bo and their goal is not just the gorge below, but to see if they can delve deeper, searching for undiscovered species.

At the very least, they hope to find other white creatures.

After breakfast, Chen Ying patted the White Bear’s backside, letting it play on its own.

The White Bear refused to leave and followed them to the top of the gorge. Dai Wang had already returned, and this time he and Chen Ying would take the lead going down, while Ying Bo and another team member manned the safety rope.

Dao Meihua, following Ying Bo’s instructions, went to the shady path, intending to carefully search for any research-worthy plants, preferably medicinal ones.

The White Bear watched them clip on the safety rope to descend, wanting to follow, but after Ying Bo spent a good while persuading it with a furrowed brow, it reluctantly trotted off.

This point had been traveled by others before.

After descending, apart from a gloomy feeling, everything was relatively fine.

"Dai Wang, you wait here for me, I’ll walk a little further ahead."

Chen Ying watched over the safety rope while another rope was tied to his waist, with the other end secured to Dai Wang’s waist, to mark position and control the distance of movement.

In such an environment, any act of caution is not too much.

Remember what the outdoors instructor said, right? In a forest, even walking around a tree in advance can cause you to lose your way back.

Down here in the gorge, apart from being somewhat useful, even satellite phones aren’t necessarily reliable, let alone cell signals. Those are just used as lighting and recording tools here.

After walking a dozen or so meters, Chen Ying saw the cave described by the predecessors.

To say it’s half-human-high is quite an exaggeration; it’s more like a dog hole!

The entrance does show snake traces, but other animals have gone in and out as well.

Judging by the paw prints, it’s likely left by some rodent animals.

Taking out the camera, Chen Ying took several photos and carefully shone a flashlight inside the cave.

As soon as the light entered the cave entrance, it was quickly swallowed by darkness. Beyond the initial one or two meters, it was impossible to discern the depths of the poverty within.

But within just this one or two meters’ range, there was a large snake coiled up there.

Chen Ying hurriedly retreated to avoid it. After making a mark, he continued to move forward.

The entire path sloped downwards; the gradient might not be very steep, but the road conditions were quite complex, necessitating the use of machetes to clear the way.

Yet he didn’t know much about plants, and cutting indiscriminately might accidentally destroy rare species, which would be a disaster.

He continued to pat himself on the back. When the rope at his waist tightened, he knew it was time to head back.

The return trip was quick, and as he reached the bottom of the cliff, he sensed the sky had turned somber.

"Looks like it’s going to rain, Mr. Chen, should we head up first?"

"Alright, you go up first, I’ll follow and take up the rope."

Dai Wang didn’t hesitate and climbed up huffing and puffing. Chen Ying was just about to climb up when he saw the White Bear leisurely descending from the other side of the mountain wall.

"No way, how did you get down here?"

Chen Ying grabbed its fur and glanced at that mountain wall, feeling it was even more treacherous than this side. Could this bear perform Cloud Climbing?

The White Bear bit his clothes, signaling him to follow. After thinking for a moment, Chen Ying informed the team members above of the situation via the walkie-talkie and attached a heavy object below the rope, instructing them to take up the rope first and lower it once he needed it.

After instructing, Chen Ying patted the White Bear vigorously, "Go on, lead the way!"

The White Bear shook its head and started walking forward. When it reached the cliff, it skillfully stepped on the protruding parts and climbed up the three or four-meter-high stone wall in two or three moves.

Chen Ying filmed with his phone from below, then fixed the phone to his chest and began climbing, recalling the White Bear’s footholds as he went.

It was quite a struggle; after all, the White Bear was taller and stronger in upper body strength. There were two places where ordinary people simply couldn’t climb over.

Fortunately, in the past few years, Chen Ying had gained some training in Jiamu Gully. After laboring like a bull and a tiger, he finally managed to scramble up.

The short climb got even the White Bear anxious, almost coming down to carry him up.

Once he finally got up, he was so exhausted he could barely stand and lay on the ground to rest for a few minutes before struggling to his feet.

After getting up, he found himself on a small slope, not large in area but elongated in shape. From where he stood, less than ten meters ahead, there was another steep rock wall.

Looking to the other side from here, he could barely see the tops of tents exposed at a somewhat distant place.

Strictly speaking, the place he was at and the camp were in opposite directions.

However, the White Bear found a way from the camp to him at the bottom of the valley, implying there was certainly a passage humans didn’t know about.

Walking along the small slope for more than ten meters, he surprisingly found a cave on a wall covered in vines!

"Damn, there’s actually a cave here?" Chen Ying was shocked and involuntarily sucked in a cold breath.

The camera on the phone was running non-stop along the way. Following the White Bear, he squeezed into the cave, which had a slightly unpleasant smell but wasn’t as bad as imagined.

There were many broken bones at the entrance of the cave, judging by their size and shape, they seemed to be remnants of rodents.

Inside, the cave passages twisted and turned. Some areas were spacious enough to roll around, while others were so narrow that the White Bear had to lie down and squeeze through.

There were branches along the way, but with the White Bear leading the path, one wasn’t afraid of getting lost inside the cave.

Encountering various small creatures inhabiting the dark caves along the way as well.

Chen Ying put on a mask and headscarf, and pulled up the hood of his raincoat, trying not to leave any gaps for those small creatures to exploit.

In such a manner, walking for about half an hour, they emerged from another cave.

The cave exit was flat, requiring one to crawl through the passage to get out.

After emerging, they found themselves in a twenty-square-meter cavity on the mountain, with marks of falling stones on the top and a floor covered in rubble.

Honestly, if the White Bear hadn’t led him out through here, from the outside, no one would have guessed that this fissure could lead to another side of the mountain.

After coming out, they found themselves in a mountain forest with evident animal trails.

The animal trail was yet another fork. They were on the right fork, while the left one led toward a naturally formed water pool between cliffs below.

This must be a communal water source for the animals.

Chen Ying had an infrared camera in his bag. He simply found a suitable spot here and set up the camera, facing the water pool. Any animals coming here to drink would be captured in frame.

Once set up, the sky had already turned very dark. When he turned on the walkie-talkie, he found there was no signal.

He patted the White Bear, gesturing for it to quickly lead him back. After half an hour of walking, the walkie-talkie finally picked up a signal.

Once Chen Ying’s safety was confirmed, the other side breathed a sigh of relief.

Ying Bo asked where he was, and Chen Ying couldn’t really say. He glanced at his phone, surprisingly finding one bar of signal.

After several attempts at refreshing, he finally loaded the map, and to his surprise, found himself at the northwest of the camp, forming an isosceles triangle with both the base and the camp.

He screenshot his location and sent it to the group chat, shocking everyone who saw the message.

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