Chapter 6 - The Forest (2)

Five minutes had already passed as he sat waiting for the fruit to take effect.

He remains patient and waits because he believes the fruit will take some time to take effect.

"This appears to be the limit." After an hour had passed, the man opened his eyes and sighed.

The man then looks at his fruit and the two fruits in the hands of the woman. "I'm not sure if it's just me, but if the other fruit we bring has no effect, I think we'll have to live with this weakness."

The man then consumed the red fruit and waited for it to take effect. But, even after five minutes, he received the same result as the previous silver fruit, leaving him disappointed. He then looked at his wife.

"Perhaps the fruit will work on you, you should try it."

The woman nodded and immediately ate the blue fruit and the green fruit. She received no power from the fruit she ate, just as the man did.

"What I fear is happening, we won't be able to get another power from the Miracle Fruit."

"We can't tell anyone about this because if we do, they can easily exploit our weakness." The man spoke sternly to his wife.

"Isn't there still the last fruit that we haven't tried yet? "Should we try it now?" The woman asks her husband.

"Not today, maybe later when we reach the Ningjing tribe. We just need to rest and hope that your leg heals so that we can start walking again tomorrow."

***

Five days have passed since they discovered that miracle fruit cannot be used to increase their power.

In these five days, they have already walked far away from their initial position. The further they walk, the closer they get to the Ningjing tribe, and the more nervous they become.

The question they never think about always arises in their minds. They become more concerned when they consider whether their father's family will accept them or whether the Ningjing tribe will remain in the same location.

But when they recall their recent journey through Fenghou Forest, their concern fades and is replaced by a happy smile.

The woman can already walk the day after her leg is injured, albeit slowly. On that day, they simply strolled through the beautiful and tranquil Fenghou forest.

The next day, the woman's leg was nearly healed, and she could walk normally, with some discomfort.

The woman's wound is completely healed the following day, leaving no discernible scars, just as her previous scars were a lie.

They begin to hasten their journey with the fully healed leg because they are eager to meet their other family.

In every corner they walk, they always meet many roaming beasts. Looking around at the many wild beasts, they realize that if this isn't in the Fenghou forest, they'll end up in the beast's stomach.

Every day, they encounter a new beast, such as a monkey with six legs, a lion with a wing, a five-horned buffalo, and many other creatures that do not exist outside of this forest.

They become braver and enter to take shortcuts after seeing that all of the beasts ignore them when they enter their territory.

They meet many small and adorable beast pups.

They enter a densely forested area without realizing it because they don't pay attention to their surroundings. It's so dense that sunlight can't get through the thick branches and leaves of the tree. The atmosphere grows more gloomy and dark as they enter further. Many spider webs begin to appear in the surrounding tree. For the first time since entering the forest, the husband and wife become scared. But when they thought that all of the beasts that they meet always look docile, then they felt some relief.

As they progress deeper, a swarm of small spiders emerges from the hole and crack in the tree. Numerous tiny eyes peer at the man and the woman as tiny spiders move around on the web.

The man and woman, frozen in place, felt goosebumps while being stared at by thousands of small spiders.

They walked forward, fearful and trembling.

The deeper they go, the more spiders they find. At first, there are only small spiders, but one by one, the bigger ones start to show up.

A spider the size of an adult fist leaps and pounces from behind the man, with no warning.

The woman, sensing something from behind, quickly pulls her husband, who was nearly bitten by the spider, to the side. When the man turns around, he is startled to see a spider the size of an adult fist almost bite his back.

Red with black and yellow hues, nine eyes with four fangs, facing the husband and wife, two small front legs lifted and screamed a squeaky creepy sound, indicating that this creature will begin to attack again.

And so it does!

The spider suddenly jumped in the direction of the couple.

They were terrified as the strange spider pounced on them, their faces pale, their hearts racing, roots firmly in place, they didn't know what to do, all they could do was watch as the spider got closer to them.

The closer the spider gets, the faster the woman's heart beats and the more blood the heart pumps.

Suddenly, everything starts to become slow in the eyes of the woman. The movement, the jump, and even the spider's shriek appeared slow to her. She instinctively hugs her husband and jumps to the side.

Slittt…!!

Despite the fact that the woman is already moving as fast as she can, the spider's fangs slashed the husband's right hand. Blood splattered everywhere, and many spiders became restless and bloodthirsty after catching a whiff of the blood.

One by one, they start to walk slowly, surrounding them both in the middle.

And suddenly thousands of spiders pounced on them.

The woman clutches his husband's hand, pulls and avoids the spider, punches what can't be avoided, and flees back the way they came.

"Husband! Quickly, carry me!" the woman shouted.

After hearing his wife yell, the man came to his senses.

He lifted his wife and carried her on his back, running and running but getting lost in the middle due to the many spiders covering the road. There is no tree at all, just a sea of spiders.

"Keep moving! Follow my lead!" the woman shouted.

The man believes his wife, so he keeps running forward without care.

The woman in the back keeps looking around for a way out.

"Turn left and keep going forward!"

"Go forward, and in 5 meters, go to the right!"

"This will be our final obstacle!" Put me down!"

He immediately stops and puts her wife down.

She dashed, clenched her fist, and leapt forward, punching hundreds of tiny spiders in a single motion.

In an instant, the man hugs his wife and flees the spider's territory after spotting the exit, which has already been cleared.

When they were outside of the territory, the man and woman fell to the ground, exhausted, panting, and too tired to even talk.

"That was so dangerous." the man said while looking at the thousands of spiders that were positioned in front of the territory's border, watching the couple's every move with keen eyes.

Goosebumps appear on the man's body, and he stands quickly, picks up his wife, and runs to find a more comfortable place for them to rest.

They came across a large tree after a short distance that was comfortable enough for them to rest and spend the night under. He makes a simple bed out of a leaf, he and his wife lie down, and the wife falls asleep while hugging her husband in less than a minute.

The man hugs his wife as he mulls over the incident, assessing and reviewing everything from the beginning. Realizing that every creature in this forest won't be dangerous, the man becomes overconfident and realizes that they are all too conceited about everything. He decided that starting today, he will be more vigilant, at least until they reach the Ningjing tribe.

And he must give credit to his wife for her quick response today, otherwise, they have already become spider food.

But…

He never sees that his wife has such a fast reflex and responds like that, it's like she can see everything in slow motion. Is this one of the fruit effects? The red one strengthens her body, the silver one makes her stronger, and we still don't know what the black one does.

So I can assume that my wife's reflex is caused by the black fruit.

The man's eyes become heavy as he thinks. And, without realizing it, he falls asleep while hugging his wife.

***

When the man wakes up the next day, the sun is already shining brightly in the sky. He looks to the side, and his wife is still sleeping due to the intensity of the power she used the day before.

The man gets up and looks for a nearby river to drink from and clean his body.

When he came back, the woman had already woken up, and they continued their journey.

Because of the lesson they learned the day before, they are staying out of the spider's territory and avoiding it.

When they are about to enter the colossal ants' territory, they just stay rooted on the ground, with yesterday's incident still fresh in their minds, making them nervous to enter another beast's territory.

But, gradually, after taking a deep breath, the man overcomes his fear and walks into the ant's vast territory, where a few ants emerge from the ground and the man prepares to flee.

Fortunately, the ants return to their nest after only a brief glance at the man.

The man and woman continue to walk silently, keeping an eye on their surroundings and raising their guard in case some beast attacks them.

As the sun began to set and the sky darkened, the cool breeze blowing away the dry leaves and the stillness of the night, accompanied by the singing of the insects, calmed the husband and wife's previously agitated hearts.

They rested under a tree and hugged each other, warming each other's bodies as they waited for the sun to rise.

There is no incident or problem after they enter Fenghou Forest for twenty days. The husband and wife become calm in front of the beasts, unlike when they first entered the forest, everything was full of novelty for them. The husband and wife's teamwork is improving as they complement each other's weaknesses. It was as if their souls had become linked, and they didn't even need to speak to understand what each other meant.

On day twenty-eight, everything about the man and the woman changed. The man resembles a powerful general, even with his clothes on, his bulging muscles are visible. While the woman's hair becomes more silky black and her skin becomes smoother and whiter, she looks like a goddess that has descended into the mortal world. Despite being only five months pregnant, the woman's belly grows larger and begins to resemble that of a woman who is eight months pregnant.

The dense forest begins to thin out and young bamboo becomes visible on the twenty-ninth day, indicating that they will soon be leaving the Fenghou forest area. They are hurrying along their journey, eager to meet the members of the Ningjing tribe, but this has them oblivious to the perils of the forest. Just a few steps later, something can be heard breaking through the wind. The woman immediately pulls her husband back and looks in the right direction.

On the trees, a dozen tiger-clawed monkeys were seen hopping.

Without hesitation, the man carries the woman and runs in the opposite direction. A sudden object pierces the man's thighs as he runs carelessly, causing him to stumble and allowing the dozens of monkeys to catch up to the husband and wife. Without pausing, one of the monkeys brandished its claw and lunged at both of them.

The woman becomes anxious, which causes her heart to beat faster and her blood to pump faster.

The feeling she had before returned, the world began to slow down, swaying leaves appeared clear, the brandishing claw appeared slow in the woman's eyes.

She is in a rush to aid her husband and escape the claw. But, strangely, her body refuses to comply with her command. Her body is sluggish and unable to respond to her brain's commands.

When the claw was almost a meter away from them, the woman's hand had already reached the man's shoulders. She squeezed his shoulder. The man who understands what she means immediately kicks in the direction of the monkey.

BANG!

The monkey was hurled back in the direction of the herd.

The man's leg, which just needs to wait for a few minutes to heal, gets worse.

He stands up, carries his wife, and immediately runs, not caring about his injuries getting worse.

Blood splattered following the man's footsteps.