Chapter 174 You have disturbed the guardians
The closer it got, the stronger the fishy smell became, almost to the point that it made people feel physically uncomfortable.
The celestial horse beneath him would occasionally let out a soft, uneasy neigh, but it would quickly stop, looking around fearfully, as if a ferocious and terrifying dragon might suddenly leap out from the nearby shadows and devour him whole.
We tried to reassure them, but it didn't have much effect.
As they were about to leave the forest and step onto the edge of the wasteland, the Pegasus hesitated, pausing in place.
This is the fear of realizing that danger is about to be faced.
Shen Xue frowned, looked up into the distance, then looked down at herself and shook her head, saying, "Instead of acting so timidly, we might as well just be reckless and charge straight through."
“The Pegasus are, after all, spirit beasts. Compared to us, who are rather slow to sense impending danger, their intuition will be more helpful,” I said.
"But if we do that, we will never be able to take a single step."
That is indeed the case.
Just as Miyuki said, lingering here will not only not help us cross the [Dragon Graveyard], but may even increase the possibility of attracting danger.
I had previously obtained information from the two little ones about possible traces of dragon activity in the vicinity. However, I was unable to delve into the more specific locations and actions for fear of alerting them in advance, but I did have some guesses.
However, information is time-sensitive.
If we miss this opportunity, who knows what unexpected things might happen later.
“How about we go a little further out?” Hikari suggested. “If we keep at a distance that these children can barely tolerate, perhaps the situation will change.”
We exchanged a glance, and after carefully considering the possible locations of the dragons we had scouted out, we ultimately had no choice but to accept this approach.
Taking action is always better than missing an opportunity.
After retreating a certain distance, we began to detour into the woods on the left.
"The only thing to be careful about is that the terrain here is slightly higher than below, and the tree canopies are not very dense and are relatively short," Shenxue whispered, reminding him from behind. "As we move forward, we must always keep our bodies low to avoid accidentally causing any unnecessary noise."
“We know even if you don’t say it,” Annie couldn’t help but complain. “Standing up straight all the time is just asking for trouble.”
I turned around and looked at the sound. I saw that the three people in the middle all had their heads down, looking as if they wanted to crawl on the back of a celestial horse. Sparse red and white stripes had begun to appear on the outer edges of their calves straddling their sides.
The Pegasus roaming the forest had to fold their snow-white wings and walk slowly with their heads down. Even so, streaks of blood gradually appeared on their snow-white bodies, and many of their furs showed signs of falling out.
Only Shen Xue, who was following at the back, and her mount were in relatively good condition. Upon closer inspection, it was found that both she and her Pegasus were covered with a light layer of aura. When they touched nearby branches, frost-white marks would appear at the point of contact, and then silently shatter into the air.
I tried to attach temporary defensive barriers to each individual, but the results were always unsatisfactory.
The influence of the magical turbulence in the Abyss Mountains seems to be even stronger here, and there are other unknown factors interfering with spellcasting. Although I can fill the gaps in the broken defensive barriers from time to time, the effect is much weaker than elsewhere. It is easy to shatter and break apart if I am not careful, or be attacked by dense leaves.
I carefully examined the leaves near the branches.
The trees growing near the [Dragon Graveyard] are a species I've never seen before in the outside world.
Not only is it only about the height of a person, but it is also thin and twisted. The leaves hanging from its wildly growing branches are mostly sparse, hard, and pointed, bending and turning randomly, pointing in different directions. The edges of the leaves are serrated, and the surface of the leaves has many thorns, so you can easily get scratched and injured if you are not careful.
In addition, given its proximity to dangerous areas, it's no wonder that there are few traces of wild animals here, and almost no signs of birds or beasts.
But we also cannot proceed from the outside of the forest.
This strangely growing forest is a deep brown, even mixed with a little bit of dark red, as if it has been polluted. While it is possible to hide in the forest and use the shadows and the leaves overhead to barely conceal one's presence, if one were to fly directly into the air, given the conspicuousness of Pegasus's color, anyone who is not blind would notice it instantly.
It's as eye-catching as throwing an orange-yellow lifebuoy into a deep blue seascape.
"The first obstacle we need to overcome is just ahead."
Feeling the pegasus's body tremble slightly beneath me, I whispered a reminder: "The [cats] said they found a small amount of cooled animal excrement here, probably left by a dragon when it passed through the forest. Fortunately, it's not a big problem for now, but we still need to be vigilant, because we never know when it might pass through here again."
"Why do you say the problem isn't that big?" Hikari asked, puzzled.
Miyuki, who was following behind, answered her question: "Because the excrement wasn't fresh, it means that the creature had been passing by for a while. Judging from the overall ambient temperature, we can be sure that it hasn't been active in the vicinity for the last two hours."
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