Chapter 69 - 25: Ironwood, Giant Bird, and Wild Goat
Continuing forward, the slope gradually became steeper, with exposed rocks forming natural steps that obstructed the path.
Worried about getting lost, Chen Zhou marked the trees along the way with his axe, while testing the hardness of these trees.
He found that most of the taller trees in the forest rarely had hard and solid wood.
One tree was particularly striking with smooth bark and almost no branches.
After cutting open the bark, the inside was clearly filled with pores, resembling a dry sponge, easy to break apart with force, good for nothing but its height.
The wood fibers of this tree were quite flexible and light, seemingly ideal for making rafts, so Chen Zhou named it the Float Tree.
Aside from the Float Tree, there were also some towering trees requiring several people to encircle them, resembling beech trees; their wood was denser than poplar but couldn’t compare with hardwoods like sandalwood or pine, making this tree suitable for building materials or plank cuts.
The island’s vegetation wasn’t like the tropical rainforest, teeming with plank roots and vines, nor was it as sparse and transparent as the conifer forests of Chen Zhou’s hometown.
Below the mountainside, both plants with tropical characteristics and slender trees and shrubs were visible.
As more tree species were tested, Chen Zhou concluded one rule: tall trees generally didn’t have solid wood.
This might be due to the abundant rainfall in subtropical woodland, with intense competition among plants.
To capture upper sunlight for reproduction, some trees sacrificed sturdy branches and some wind resistance, only to pursue growth speed, resulting in oddities like the Float Tree.
Observing the Float Tree still in its growth phase, Chen Zhou found it somewhat similar to bamboo, as it may only take a few years for a sapling to grow tens of meters tall.
Relying on its terrifying growth speed, the Float Tree monopolized the upper sunlight, overshadowing shorter and slow-growing tree species, causing them to wither or die due to lack of light.
As for being unstable at the root, it had its survival logic.
As long as it grew fast enough, once matured, it would immediately bloom and seed, even if the old tree collapsed under its own weight and died, new Float Trees would quickly fill the vacancy, continuing to expand its population.
Based on this rule, Chen Zhou shifted his focus and decided to try more of the shorter trees.
Walking and stopping, occasionally carving out a path.
One man and one dog moved towards the mountain top, about to reach the mountainside, but were blocked by a steep Broken Cliff.
The cliff face was over three meters tall, perpendicular to the ground, with petite orchids growing among the moss-covered rocks.
Looking up at the rocks, Chen Zhou tried to grab the protruding edges, but they felt slippery and difficult to climb.
Helpless, he could only walk sideways along the Broken Cliff looking for a gentle slope or a gap.
Heading west, progressively deeper into the mountains.
The terrain increasingly dipped, with more streams appearing in the forest.
Far from shrinking in size, the cliff seemed even taller against the low-lying ground, blocking large amounts of sunlight.
Realizing he had gone the wrong way, Chen Zhou was about to return the way he came when he suddenly saw a group of white things moving on the cliff ahead.
"Wild goats?"
The trees and wild grass in rock crevices obstructed the view, but from a distance, Chen Zhou judged that the moving white spots were likely goats, based on years of experience with herds in his hometown.
Realizing that food was close at hand, he quietly loaded the Crossbow Arrow, stooping cautiously forward, hoping to get the prey within range.
After roughly thirty or forty meters, the path suddenly cleared up.
A rushing mountain stream cut through the cliff, flowing down from a high place, merging into a bottom pool covered with green algae.
The poolside was overgrown with weeds, offering concealment.
Stoop over, Chen Zhou brushed aside the tip of the grass, gazing at the top of the cliff.
Sure enough, the white animals were wild goats.
At this moment, they were eating grass and drinking water by the cliff, with eight of them in sight, five big and three small.
A robust goat stood on the cliff, looking down, alert, seemingly keeping watch for the group.
The other goats were either munching on orchid grass in the rock crevice or standing by the stream, drinking water, appearing completely unafraid of predator attacks.
Their relaxation was because there were no indigenous goats on the island, only some birds and slightly larger wild cats.
The goats, being a foreign species brought to the island by passing merchant ships or Pirates, were not part of the menu of raptors and wild cats, encountering little danger during their population expansion and gradually relaxing their vigilance.
Had it been more timid sheep instead, Chen Zhou might have already succeeded.
"Shh~"
He whispered to Lai Fu, who was eager to try, to keep his voice down, putting aside the heavy and cumbersome matchlock gun and holding the crossbow, intending to bypass the grass by the pool and approach the cliff to shoot at the goat on watch.
But before taking a few steps, Lai Fu, who was quietly lying, suddenly opened his eyes wide, pressing his front paws to the ground, and started barking without any sign.
"Woof woof woof!"
The loud barking startled the goat herd, and with the sentry goat’s alarm call, the group gathered into formation, rushing up the cliff, disappearing in an instant without a trace.
"Damn, Lai Fu!"
Watching the duck about to be in the pot fly away, Chen Zhou couldn’t help but turn around to see what Lai Fu was up to.
The master’s scolding failed to stop Lai Fu’s barking; he had already bared his teeth, his front half crouching low, barking wildly, as if ready to launch an attack at any moment.