The Pastoral Life of a Cultivation Master

Chapter 2934 How to cross the canyon
Fearing encounters with strange beasts along the way, the group did not travel very fast at the beginning.

At the very front, Chen Mo was leading the way, followed by Ouyang Nan, then Ouyang Ruoxi and Ouyang Nana, while Qian Zhenghao was at the very back, at the very end of the group.

Chen Mo was positioned at the forefront, a position he had secured. After all, apart from Qian Zhenghao, the other three already knew he was a master of the Innate Realm. Therefore, there was no need for Ouyang Nan to lead the way. As a master of the Innate Realm, his higher strength meant he could naturally react promptly upon detecting danger.

Furthermore, whether it's strength, eyesight, or other senses, they are all more sensitive than the others, so it's only right to have Chen Mo take the lead.

The group of five followed the retreat route they had taken the previous night, heading towards the canyon.

To everyone's surprise, they didn't see a single broken body of the strange beasts along the way. During the battle last night, most of the beasts, once killed, would explode at the last moment, using the force of the explosion to attack the group.

Therefore, these exploding monsters must have had their flesh and blood scattered all over the way.

But after walking for over an hour, they still hadn't seen any broken pieces of the beast's body. They only saw scattered traces, things left on the ground because they couldn't be collected. Any other parts that could be picked up had vanished.

"Amo, can you sense any strange beasts around us?" Ouyang Nan gestured for the group to stop and asked Chen Mo.

Chen Mo shook his head and said, "I can't sense it. It seems that we haven't encountered any strange beasts along the way. It's as if all the strange beasts have retreated, and they even took away all the fragments and body parts of the strange beasts."

"Why do those strange beasts take back the bodies of the dead ones?" Ouyang Ruoxi asked.

"I don't know," Chen Mo replied.

Qian Zhenghao watched the group discuss, but didn't step forward. He just stood at the back of the line, a few meters away, watching them.

His orders were to keep a close watch on these people, and if they encountered danger and there was no other option, to save himself and run away. At other times, he was to observe and say little.

Chen Mo and the other three understood Qian Zhenghao's meaning and could guess the reason why Qian Ying arranged this person, so they simply ignored the situation.

Of course, if this guy gets in the way, Chen Mo will take action without hesitation and won't be nice to him.

“I think we should continue onward. As long as we don’t encounter any strange beasts along the way, we can head straight to the canyon. Also, I suspect these strange beasts are wary of the cold environment, which is why they retreated at the last moment of the pursuit last night. So, let’s check if any strange beasts were left behind after we get out of this snowy environment,” Chen Mo said.

“Alright, let’s continue.” Ouyang Nan nodded in agreement.

Ouyang Ruoxi and Ouyang Nana naturally had no objections; they both put Chen Mo and Ouyang Nan first in everything they did.

Ouyang Nan turned around and gestured to Qian Zhenghao before continuing to follow Chen Mo.

Qian Zhenghao smiled awkwardly and followed behind Ouyang Nana as they continued walking.

After another hour or so, the group of five finally emerged from the hillside nursery's protective barrier and once again felt the warmth. Although martial artists possess a strong resistance to the cold, no one wants to be in a cold environment if they can stay in a warm one.

In addition, after getting here, the vision began to become clearer, and I was able to see a great distance.

A quick scan revealed no strange beasts; the entire valley was eerily silent, save for the sound of their footsteps. Of course, along the way, they could see scattered traces of battle.

In a flash, Chen Mo stood atop a large rock on the side of the valley, looking towards the canyon. But he still saw nothing. He could even vaguely make out the buildings on the other side of the canyon, but he still couldn't spot a single strange beast.

"Did you see anything?" Ouyang Nan asked Chen Mo.

Chen Mo jumped off the rock, then shook his head and said, "No, there's nothing there."

“Then let’s continue on and go back to our temporary camp from yesterday,” Ouyang Nan said.

The five people continued forward, and this time their speed noticeably increased. After all, there were no obstructions to their view, and they could see very far, so they were able to speed up their pace.

Upon arriving at the temporary camp, the five men saw that the supplies, luggage, and tents set up the previous night had all been destroyed. However, although it looked scattered, many things could still be used after some collection.

For example, the food, water, sleeping bags, ropes, and other supplies were still usable. The supplies and luggage were likely trampled by the beasts, hence their scattered state. Of course, a small portion of the supplies were unusable, completely crushed to dust by the beasts. Chen Mo looked at the surrounding supplies but didn't collect them; instead, he walked towards the canyon.

After careful observation, numerous traces of climbing up and down were found on this side of the canyon, but no strange beasts were seen. Standing at the edge of the canyon and looking into it, only billowing black mist remained, completely obscuring the area below, making it impossible to see anything at all.

Chen Mo casually picked up a rock, about the size of a basketball, and threw it directly down into the canyon.

The stone fell, breaking through the black mist, only to be obscured again. Listening intently, one could hear no sound of the stone hitting the ground for a long time.

However, faint roars of beasts could be heard coming from beneath the black mist.

"What, did you hear something?" Ouyang Ruoxi also walked over, looking down into the canyon, and asked.

Chen Mo casually grasped her soft hand and said, "It's a bit dangerous here. Stand behind me." No one knows what's going on down in the canyon, and his own divine sense can only work within three meters. If there's a strange beast attacking, or a weapon like spikes, and he can't react in time, something bad could happen.

He himself is alright, since he can react quickly enough when an attack comes close, but he might be a little slow to help those around him. It's fine if it's someone else, but with Ouyang Ruoxi standing next to him, that's a different story; he has to protect her.

"Okay!" Ouyang Ruoxi replied sweetly, feeling very happy.

“These roars, though few in number, are clearly the same as those of the beasts that attacked us last night. This means that the beasts from last night all climbed up from the bottom of the canyon. We just don’t know how deep this canyon is, or what the environment is like at the bottom,” Chen Mo said.

Chen Mo looked across again, but still couldn't figure it out. He could only hold Ouyang Ruoxi's hand and examine the abandoned cableway bridges on both sides of the canyon.

Previously, this abandoned suspension bridge was the only way to cross the canyon, but it is no longer usable and needs to be rebuilt.

However, building a new cableway bridge is simply impossible. Therefore, the only way to cross the canyon is by using ropes, securing both ends tightly, and then stepping on the ropes to cross the canyon.

Of course, it might be quite dangerous for an ordinary person, but it's not so dangerous for a martial artist. As long as a movable rope is added to the rope, with one end tied around the waist and the other end sliding along the rope, it can provide protection.

In this way, martial artists can use ropes to cross the canyon. In fact, highly skilled martial artists don't even need protection; they can cross the canyon simply by using leverage.

At this time, Ouyang Nan and the others also arrived at this side of the canyon. Looking at the abandoned rock bases on both sides, they agreed to Chen Mo's idea of ​​building a cableway to cross the canyon.

“But there’s no problem securing the rope on this side, how do we secure it on the other side?” Ouyang Nan asked.

“That’s easy. First, use a slightly thinner rope, attach a grappling hook, and throw it to the other side. Once it’s hooked, I can use a thicker rope to cross over, and then use the rock base on the other side to tie it up,” Chen Mo said.

If flying weren't prohibited in this canyon, we wouldn't have resorted to such a clumsy method. We could have just flown over directly; now we need to use some leverage.

“This plan is feasible.” Ouyang Nan and the others nodded, feeling there were no problems.

“However, we can build a rope and cross it, but what about the beasts? What if they attack us while we're crossing? Or even after we've crossed? You see, the rocks along the canyon edge are covered in fresh claw marks left by those beasts. It means nobody knows when they'll appear. So, if we want to cross this canyon, we have to consider those beasts,” Ouyang Nan asked.

“Yes, Captain is right. Of course, this is another issue I wanted to raise: before we cross this canyon, we need to determine the habits of the strange beasts,” Chen Mo said.

"How so?" Ouyang Nan asked.

“Actually, after thinking about it all this way, I’ve concluded that these strange beasts must have an extremely keen sense of smell and be nocturnal. That’s why when we set up a temporary camp here during the day, those beasts didn’t appear; they only attacked us in the dead of night. Just like now, since we came back, we haven’t encountered any beasts along the way, and even standing on the edge of the canyon, no beasts have come out to attack us. I even threw a rock down just now, and no beast came up,” Chen Mo said.

"That makes sense." Everyone nodded in agreement.

“However, although your judgment is reasonable, it still needs to be verified,” Ouyang Nan said.

"How do we verify it?" Chen Mo asked.

Everyone looked at Ouyang Nan, wanting to hear her opinion.