Crystal Mountain did not exist on Fang Ming's previous life's Earth, but it did exist on this Blue Star—in fact, Fang Ming had observed this planetary civilization carefully. This civilization was similar yet different from Earth's, with many divergences.
This was one of those differences.
In terms of culture and entertainment, many movies and novels had not appeared on the Blue Star. If Fang Ming had not possessed the Heaven Yuan Jade, a congenital spiritual treasure, he probably would have had to become a literary plagiarist on this Blue Star, copying numerous cultural and entertainment products.
"Crystal Mountain..."
Crystal Mountain was named so because of a beautiful lake within it, called Crystal Lake. It was somewhat famous within Huada Prefecture in the Pretty Country, which is why the mountain was also called Crystal Mountain.
Initially, Crystal Lake was a rather popular tourist attraction.
Later, after someone fell into the water and lost their life, a murder case occurred. Following this incident, Crystal Lake's popularity gradually declined.
And now, with Fang Ming's arrival.
An ancient tower, slowly shifting from ethereal to solid, descended into the depths of Crystal Lake.
And numerous demonic creature tribes slowly began to leave the ancient tower.
...
Several days later.
Several cars traveled along a mountain road.
The men and women inside the cars were chatting and laughing, heading towards their destination—Crystal Lake Camp—with joyful hearts.
These men and women were all university students, taking advantage of their holiday break to go out and have fun.
Crystal Lake Camp, although once a relatively popular tourist spot, was now essentially on the verge of abandonment.
Normally, there were few people who came here.
Without human traces, lush vegetation had regrown, and the area was almost reverting to a primeval forest. m..oΓg
Under such circumstances, even if others had free time, they would visit popular tourist destinations. Almost no one would travel to such an extremely unpopular tourist spot with no entrance fees and no staff.
Yet, a group of students had come.
This showed the students' strong spirit of adventure and their abundant free time, to travel to these mountains—it also showed their bad luck, to specifically head towards the mountains where the ancient tower and demonic creatures were located.
Their bad luck had reached a certain level.
Jack was one of these students.
He was the initiator of their excursion—during their free holidays, wealthy people always thought of how to travel. Perhaps some wealthy people didn't have this interest, but Jack did. He had also gathered a group of people from university, who also had plenty of free time and money, to organize an exploration trip.
The target of this exploration trip was Crystal Mountain in the distance—Jack knew that a murder had occurred here in the past, and it had been abandoned, with no staff remaining. But wasn't that precisely what made it interesting?
If it were an ordinary tourist spot, Jack and a group of classmates with similar hobbies would not have come here.
While driving, Jack suddenly heard a thud. He paused for a moment, feeling as if his car had hit something.
"Jack, what did the car hit?" asked Ned, who was also in the car.
"I clearly saw nothing in front of me... could it be a rock?"
Jack said, getting out of the car to check.
This car was newly bought, and with Jack's family's wealth, he wasn't heartbroken about the car. He just wanted to see what he had hit—if it were a person, then the problem would be huge.
Jack didn't think it was a person, because he believed his eyesight wasn't so bad that he couldn't see a person standing in front of the car.
He hadn't been drinking, so there was no issue in that regard.
But Jack couldn't analyze what he had hit while in the car.
It could be a rock, or perhaps... a small animal?
Jack had already gotten out of the car and was observing. He noticed some green viscous fluid on the front tire.
This was not normal.
Before he set off, his front tire definitely did not have this green viscous fluid.
He sniffed the green viscous fluid carefully.
Jack frowned. He was certain that he had hit something, which was why there was this green viscous fluid.
It should be some kind of small animal, in the blind spot of the car's vision, and he had hit it.
However, the problem was that he couldn't see the body of the small animal. Even if it had run away, given this green viscous fluid trail, Jack couldn't imagine what kind of small animal would have blood that was a green viscous fluid.
"What kind of animal is this?"
Jack's mind flashed through images of various animals, and he rejected each one.
Even Jack, who had dealt with many small animals before, couldn't imagine what animal would leave such a green viscous fluid trace.
"Do you know what you hit?"
Ned, sitting in the car, hadn't seen Jack get back in for a long time.
He felt speechless, wondering what his friend was doing, taking so long to check. Under these circumstances, Ned also got out of the car, wanting to see why Jack was analyzing for so long.
When Jack saw Ned approaching, he didn't answer his question first. Instead, he said, "Ned, take a look. What did you hit on the front wheel? What kind of animal would leave green viscous fluid?"
"I've analyzed for a long time and can't figure it out."
Ned first looked at the trace on the front wheel and saw that it was indeed green viscous fluid. He shook his head and said, "This trace doesn't affect much. Don't worry about what it is, let's keep driving."
"Look, the other cars have already passed. We're the last group now. Don't be late to Crystal Lake by nightfall."
Ned pointed forward.
Jack followed his gaze and saw that his classmates had already driven their cars far ahead along the mountain road, and the two of them had fallen behind the main convoy.
The time spent checking was already too much. It was time to get back in the car and continue driving. Jack knew he should listen to Ned, but the question of what that thing was still lingered in his mind. He muttered to himself, "Green viscous fluid... what kind of creature could it be?"
"Maybe a possum?"
Possums are a species of rodent. Rodents worldwide have many different species, and their habits vary greatly.
Possums are one of the rodent species that differ greatly from ordinary rats.
Ned didn't know either, he just casually offered an answer to appease Jack, hoping that Jack wouldn't dwell on the problem anymore.