Bewitched?

He looked at the time and saw that it was already eight in the evening. It happened to be a moonless night, and the starry sky was unusually clear and bright. There was a bright river of stars hanging in the sky, a sight that Xu Xin, who had lived in the city since he was a child, had never seen before.

"I remember that the moonlight had been very bright last night. It seemed to be a full moon, right? Yet, it's a new moon today. This world is really strange," Xu Xin sighed but didn't think too much of it. After all, this was another world, and it couldn't be comprehended according to the rules of Earth.

He prepared everything he needed again and headed northwest of the treehouse.

To the northwest of the treehouse was a lake. If Xu Xin wanted to head further in the direction, he would have to go around the lake.

Of course, he had also considered the possibility that the treasure chest would be in the middle of the lake.

However, if it really was in the lake, he wouldn't have any way of obtaining the golden treasure chest.

After all, the lake was very dangerous.

Although the python in the middle of the lake was no longer around, the lake was still the only place with red dots within three kilometers of his treehouse. The red dots in the center of the lake were not very bright, much dimmer than the wolves killed by the black bear, but there were many of them. They were densely packed and constantly swimming about, probably piranhas or something.

With his current ability, fighting for the treasure chest with piranhas in the water was just sending himself to Hell's gates.

Xu Xin flung his arm and threw a stone into the middle of the lake.

"Yin?" Cocoa, who was on his shoulder, was affected by Xu Xin's actions. It grabbed onto his shoulder and almost fell off. It then grabbed onto his clothes and climbed onto his shoulder on all fours.

The rock landed in the middle of the lake, causing a huge splash. The water began to boil in an instant. As the water was clear and the center of the lake was deep, the commotion did not raise any sand. Xu Xin could vaguely see countless fish swimming wildly in the water, and a few even jumped out of the water.

It was a type of fish that was blood red in color. It looked only slightly bigger than his palm, but its sharp teeth that were like saws caused Xu Xin to tremble in fear.

As expected, the lake was full of piranhas. These piranhas seemed to only wander around the center of the lake and would not come to the side of the lake, so the fish and shrimp in the shallow water were not affected.

At this moment, because of Xu Xin's stone throw, a large grass carp was frightened and accidentally entered the center of the lake.

In that instant, the lake water began to boil again. The violent splashes were even higher than the splashes caused by the stone that Xu Xin had thrown. A faint blood-red color appeared where the grass carp was originally located, then diluted by the lake water.

Oh good Lord, he can't afford to offend them, no, he couldn't. He would first search the other places.

Walking around the lake, Xu Xin soon reached the other side.

Xu Xin wasn't very familiar with the northwest part of the place. He had only taken a few casual glances when he first explored the area. He hadn't been here again since realizing that there were no blue-grade resources, so the Map of this area was still black.

He headed straight in the direction pointed out by the golden treasure chest compass. With the Map, he didn't have to worry about losing his way in the forest like the others, and the compass would naturally be of its greatest use in his hands.

The resource area extended from the lake to the east, so he had only walked a few hundred meters in the northwest direction before realizing that he had left the resource area. With that, he was once again surrounded by a sea of white light.

Xu Xin didn't feel that there was anything wrong with it, though. After all, the copper and silver treasure chests were not located in the resource area either. They were both located relatively far away from the treehouse where there weren't any high-grade resources in the surroundings. According to this pattern, the golden treasure chest might not be in the resource area as well.

Xu Xin continued to walk forward without a clue. From time to time, he would stroke Cocoa on his shoulder. However, Cocoa didn't lead the way like it did when they were looking for the copper treasure chest. Instead, it continued to lie on Xu Xin's shoulder, looking a little listless.

It was understandable though, after a busy day with Xu Xin, the little guy only wanted to sleep now that it was nighttime.

"Cocoa, didn't the red berries and oranges I gave you have any special effects?" Xu Xin had given Cocoa several oranges today. If the oranges' effects had worked on it, it shouldn't be sleepy.

"Yin?" Cocoa tilted its head and looked at him. Its eyes which were half shut were filled with confusion.

It seemed that the special effect of blue-grade items was useless to animals. Xu Xin shook his head and held Cocoa in his arms. He stroked its fluffy tail and said, "Sleep for a while. I'll wake you up if something happens. You'll have to be more alert then."

"Yin," Cocoa responded and fell asleep in Xu Xin's arms.

The forest was very quiet at night, not even the chirping of insects could be heard. Only the rustling of the leaves and the sound of his feet stepping on the grass could be heard.

Without Cocoa moving on his shoulder and sweeping its tail around his neck, Xu Xin felt somewhat out of place.

Although there were no red dots on the Map that represented enemy units, Xu Xin was still highly focused, constantly paying attention to the movements around him and the changes on the map.

It was still the same white poplar forest. After walking for so long, Xu Xin didn't feel anything out of place.

[Reminder, do not leave more than three kilometers away from your treehouse, or something unthinkable will happen.]

He had reached the border again.

Standing at the border, Xu Xin frowned.

He was really at a loss this time. Following the direction of the compass, he hadn't noticed anything strange, not a single bit. Could it be that the golden treasure chest was really in the lake?

This was going to be troublesome.

Xu Xin raised his head and looked at the hill that was right before his eyes.

The dense army of red dots was on the other side of the hills less than 1 km away from him. He couldn't get there, but those wild beasts didn't seem to want to enter his territory either.

He was still safe for the time being.

Looking at the hills before, Xu Xin suddenly had a thought, "What happens if I walk out of this border? Will something terrifying happen?"

This thought sprouted in Xu Xin's heart. For some reason, his desire to leave grew stronger and stronger. He stared at the hills before him. It was as if there was a fatal temptation there, and he couldn't help but take a step forward.

This time, the mysterious voice did not remind him again.

Driven by the desire in his heart, Xu Xin took another step forward and was already half a step out of the boundary.

Just as he was about to move forward again, Cocoa that was in his arms moved.

"Yin..." Cocoa seemed to feel uncomfortable while sleeping, so it wriggled in Xu Xin's arms.

It was this movement that jolted Xu Xin out of his reverie. However, he had already taken his third step.

A strong sense of danger rose in his heart, and he quickly retracted his foot.

The moment he pulled back, the spot where he was about to take his third step suddenly split open. A sharp vine drilled out and stabbed straight into the air, reaching a height of four to five meters!

There were a few blood-red threads on the dark green vines that looked like blood vessels, making people shiver.

Xu Xin hurriedly took a few steps back, tensing up his muscles in preparation to dodge. However, the vine did not charge at him again like the one from the copper treasure chest. Instead, it hovered in the air for a while before slowly retracting back into the ground.

On the map, the red dots representing the vines were slowly fading away, and after a few dozen seconds, they completely disappeared.

"How could I have done such a reckless thing just now?!" Xu Xin recalled what he had just done. As a cautious person, he would never do something so suicidal, yet he just did.

If Cocoa hadn't moved in his arms, he would have been pierced by the vines.

Now that he thought about it, he who walked out without considering the consequences and was driven by desire didn't seem like himself.

"Was I bewitched?"