After reaching here, Qingluan showed a happy smile for the first time and said: "Good idea, you deserve my praise."

After the two went down, those big birds immediately rushed over, but Song Xiaodong and Qingluan both had ways to deal with them, not confronting them head-on, and then finding an opportunity to leap onto the backs of the big birds.

The big birds were suddenly shocked and instinctively began to run.

Song Xiaodong and Qingluan both clamped their legs around the birds' bodies and tightly hugged the big birds' necks with their arms.

These big birds have limited intelligence and, feeling the threat, have no other thought than to run away. The other birds also gave up attacking the two and ran along.

After running for a while, Song Xiaodong noticed the enormous stamina of the big bird, realizing it would be difficult to tame quickly. He examined closely and then shouted to Qingluan: "There are two nostrils above this bird's mouth, block its nostrils."

Qingluan understood immediately, lifted a hand, and covered the bird's nostrils.

With its nostrils blocked, the big bird could no longer breathe, its movements slowed down, and it began to struggle. It was the struggle before dying, inevitably becoming more intense, so Song Xiaodong and Qingluan quickly tightened their grips on the big bird, refusing to let go.

When the big bird was about to suffocate, Song Xiaodong released it, and it quickly regained its vitality.

After a few times like this, the big bird, even as stupid as it was, understood that the ones controlling its life and death were the things riding on its back.

The primary instinct of any animal is survival, and this big bird wasn't particularly obstinate, so after Song Xiaodong's repeated actions, it finally understood that as long as it obeyed, it would not have its nostrils blocked and thus would not die.

Next came the taming process; Song Xiaodong had to make it understand his commands at the very least. Not thinking about other matters, if they wanted it to walk, it had to walk; if they wanted it to stop, it had to stop. Directions were another issue to be worked on.

This was definitely not an easy task. Song Xiaodong and Qingluan didn't know how much kung fu they exerted before they managed to make the birds they rode understand a bit of their intentions.

Once the two could finally ride the big birds and walk slowly, they felt more relaxed.

"Really fun, this is the first time I've tamed other animals," Qingluan, now as happy as a child, said.

Song Xiaodong laughed, "Yes indeed, this thing is quite fun; oh, where have we arrived now?"

Qingluan looked around but couldn't see any mountain walls, only enormous mushrooms and a bunch of chaotic light-purple plants everywhere.

Song Xiaodong smiled bitterly and said, "Seems like even if we don't want to go deeper, we've already ventured deep in."

Qingluan cast a sidelong glance at Song Xiaodong and said, "It's your fault for wanting to tame this bird." Saying so, she stroked the big bird's head, to which the big bird shook its head with some displeasure.

These big birds are carnivorous, inevitably holding some pride, allowing the two to ride on them, which is by no choice of theirs.

"Oh, you do have some temper; I'll get you something tasty later." Qingluan, unconcerned about their current location, teased her big bird.

Song Xiaodong surveyed the surroundings and said, "There isn't any special plan now, let's just let these big birds walk by themselves; they probably have their habitat, which could likely be under the mountain wall we came from."

Qingluan nodded and said, "No problem, we don't have to walk ourselves, just let them walk by themselves."

The two stopped controlling the big birds, merely riding on their backs, and the big birds soon resumed their usual activities.

These big birds constantly need food and soon started search for prey, leading Song Xiaodong and Qingluan to discover many other animals apart from the big birds.

Like butterflies with single wings as big as a palm and dragonflies resembling model airplanes; moreover, there were many over-meter-long lizard-like creatures.

Such creatures are the primary hunters of the big birds.

"Do you think these things might be dinosaurs?" Qingluan asked suddenly, pointing to the creatures.

Song Xiaodong grimaced and said, "I'm not sure, but any one of these creatures taken outside would certainly cause a stir in the biological world."

Qingluan repeatedly nodded and said, "Exactly, any animal here is unlike what we have out there. And with no sunlight, how do these plants grow? Where does the light from the cave roof come from?"

Song Xiaodong looked up and said, "Those should be some special moss; as for the plants here, fungal species like mushrooms might not need sunlight. Although sunlight is the source of all energy on Earth, the uniqueness of organisms is still beyond our complete understanding; just like some known creatures that may live their entire lives underground without seeing sunlight. Anyway, we aren't biologists, and we don't understand these things."

Qingluan said, "Indeed, this place is truly peculiar. Who would have thought there was such a world below the surface."

After the big birds had eaten, they returned Song Xiaodong and Qingluan to the mountain wall area, which might be their nest.

"Look, check out the mountain wall!" Song Xiaodong pointed toward the mountain wall ahead.

Qingluan looked up and exclaimed in surprise, "There are so many caves!"

Not far from the small cave entrance they emerged from, there were lots of caves, some with large openings that appeared spacious inside.

Song Xiaodong pointed to the cave openings and said, "Let's go take a look."

Qingluan agreed, and upon reaching the mountain wall, they marked the heads of the big birds they had ridden for easy retrieval tomorrow without needing to tame them again.

Jumping down from the big birds, the birds didn't pursue them anymore, seemingly considering them companions to some extent.

The two climbed the mountain wall, examining each cave.

Most caves were not very large, with only a few slightly bigger ones, but none of the caves formed new paths or extended deeply.

Song Xiaodong said, "Let's choose one to stay in for now, gather some dry grass, and make it more comfortable."

Qingluan had no objection, and they finally picked a spacious cave, first clearing out the rocks inside before gathering plenty of dry grass below.

Once they finished, the outside suddenly became pitch black.

This darkness was abrupt, like a sudden power outage, plunging the entire world into total darkness.

This darkness lacked outside elements such as moonlight, starlight, or artificial lights, leaving the world in complete darkness.

Although Qingluan and Song Xiaodong were strong, they were startled, as Song Xiaodong extends his arm to wrap around Qingluan's waist.

"What's going on?" Qingluan's voice carried inexplicable tension.

Song Xiaodong took a deep breath and said, "This should be the luminous moss-like stuff above shutting off its light function after a period."

"This... this is just too... strange." Qingluan nearly said it was too scary but realized saying 'scary' was embarrassing, so she quickly changed the words.

"Indeed, everything here feels strange, but you must admit, everything here is worth exploring. Exploring a new world is a thrilling thing, isn't it?"

Qingluan said, "It is indeed thrilling, but it's just too dark, a bit uncomfortable."

Song Xiaodong chuckled and said, "No worries, with the long night ahead, we can do things we like."

"You go to hell!" Qingluan pushed Song Xiaodong lightly but didn't muster enough force to push him away...

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