Self exploration in the poisonous forest

Pulling down her sleeves, Xue'er put the bottle into her bag. It didn't work on her, but it will be useful for something, just like those oyster shell coins sitting back at the cottage.

Perhaps there would be a day when she would see the effects of that powder on some living and breathing flesh. As of now, that would have to wait.

She continued to explore the poisonous forest. Within, the trees were tall with dense leaves that prevented sunlight or moonlight from penetrating its shield, it seemed that there were no seasons in here, night and day did not exist either.

As Xue'er continued to walk, she realizes something strange. None of the snakes or insects came to bother her, it was as if she was one of them. Just like a zombie walking among other zombies.

Sure, the insects all had their own habitats, but they also had their sources of food. The insects ate the plants. The spiders ate the insects. The snakes ate the mice. That was the strange food chain, but if they were not hungry, they would not bother each other.

Xue'er observed them, with her head slightly tilted to the side. Until a random idea popped into her head.

She put her hand down in front of a tri-color venomous toad to see if it would ignore her, bite her, or become friendly with her. The toad had big round obsidian orbs as eyes, and Xue'er could even see a reflection of the forest within those orbs.

The tri-color venomous toad first, sniffed her hand, Xue'er could feel a slight tickling sensation in her hand from some of the slime it left on her palm, of course, there was a large possibility that it was the effects of the venom that was making her feel ticklish, but it still almost made her laugh.

After it sniffed for a while, it hopped away in the other direction. At that moment, Xue'er felt an urge to kidnap that adorable tri-color venomous toad and keep it with her as a pet, but she couldn't bear the thought of taking it away from its natural habitat.

She could only follow it around to see more of it.

She silently followed it to a small pond, where it hopped around the edges of the pond, not even touching the water, before getting to the other side.

At this point, Xue'er stood rooted in her place, she didn't follow behind the toad, instead, her attention turned to the pond of water.

The pond was not very large, about the size of a small house, but it was entirely clear. The strange thing was that there was not a single fish in the pond, there was not a single living thing in the water, or even close to the outskirts of the pond.

Xue'er felt that this was strange, it must be due to the water that they do not dare enter it and resorted to going around the pond.

[But what is it?]

Xue'er bent down and took a look at the water, she scooped a handful of water and brought it to her nose to take a sniff, it smelled like normal water, she then gave it a lick, thoroughly tasting the water.

[Not bad.]

She thought as she began to take off her clothes. First, her gray robes were folded neatly on the ground, then she took off her bag, finally the veiled bamboo hat and put it on top of her bag. All of which were placed neatly on top of each other.

Xue'er's thick ink black hair reached her waist, its strands were like silk that was flowing in the wind, like a shiny waterfall, half of it was tied up with a black ribbon that blended seamlessly into the dark hair. Her entire body was thin, with her skin being pale, but also flawless. Her height was taller than most girls her age, perhaps she was as tall as an average twelve-year-old girl.

She submerged her entire body into the pond, even her head was dipped into the water. But she stayed for no longer five minutes. This water did not give her the same feeling as she felt when she was in the waterfall, although it was the same crystal clear water, its quality was far behind.

As she came out of the pond, she felt that her skin had become slightly paler. Now, she looked even more deathly pale.

It was not a good idea to stay in that pond for too long.

She dried herself off with her internal energy, she made sure that there was not a single drop of water left on her body, before putting on her robes, her bag and finally her veiled bamboo hat.

She continued to stroll around the poisonous forest, as if nothing had happened, picking some plants that interested her and putting them into her bag.

This place was no different than a paradise to her, if she could, she would like to stay here, until she found the uses for all the types of plants and animals that lived within this forest.

Xue'er noticed that now, the snakes, insects and anything that could move on its own was now keeping their distance from her. Before, they would ignore her and perhaps crawl over her, but there was nothing like avoiding her.

[Strange.]

Now, this wasn't working out. If they were avoiding her, how could she keep observing them?

[Was it the water from the pond?]

However, this didn't matter, as she could still capture them. Even though they moved at a decent speed, they did not match up to her and she grabbed them with ease.

She had taken one blue-red spider, one five color snake, a red worm, a dark yellow scorpion and a brown centipede.

Placing them in a hole, that was well lined off with rocks, sand, and dried mud. Xue'er moved her hand in closer, causing them to scatter off in different directions, almost wanting to escape, but there was nowhere to go.

They crawled closer to the edges of the lining. Xue'er nearly smiled at the sight of this, as she took out a needle, poking herself on her finger. Allowing a single drop of blood to fall in the middle of the encasement.