Strange noises
"Still 'Ah'... Don't you feel it?"
Morina looked at the two of them and seemed to find it incredible.
Ruixia was stunned for a moment, then as if she remembered something, she quickly lowered her head to check the two snowflake-shaped silver ornaments on the hem of her coat.
Ximu followed his gaze and felt that they looked much older than when she first saw them.
"This is the protective gear my mother insisted I wear before I left the house. She said it's rare for me to travel far, and she was worried I wouldn't be sensitive enough to potential dangers."
After taking one of them off, Ruixia looked at it carefully, and her expression turned a little ugly.
"She said that if the silver jewelry is damaged, it means that you have suffered a certain amount of mental interference. Unless you can find and deal with the source of the interference immediately, you should never stay in the current location for too long..."
I see.
The vague sense of disharmony in my heart turned out to be due to this.
During their previous exploration in the dense forest, they had also discovered the remains of other victims.
When they were trapped in the dark prison, they were eager to escape, so they did not pay much attention to see if there were other victims in other cells - but after carefully examining the numerous skeletons that had fallen in the dense forest, they found that there were actually quite a few people dressed as adventurers.
That's strange.
As far as the adventurers' abilities were concerned, even if their level was average, as long as they were familiar with the monsters' movement patterns, escaping from that dungeon would not be difficult... But even though they had already escaped, these strong men who should have made greater achievements in surviving in the wild still failed here. It was really strange.
But if the magic circle covering this place also has the ability to destroy spiritual consciousness, then all of this will immediately make sense.
No matter how powerful a person is, if he has not practiced spiritual defense spells or worn relevant protective equipment, even if he realizes the problem, he will not be able to solve it for a while.
Unrest caused anxiety, interference destroyed logic. The more urgent it was, the more frantically one wandered around in the dense forest, and finally fell into despair in the endless ghost wall, and was finally captured by the magic circle.
From this point of view, this place is more like a silent hunting ground - all creatures that enter here are prey of the mastermind behind the scenes.
But...why is she okay?
Ximu touched his forehead. Along the way, he had indeed felt some uncomfortable pain there, but after putting on the earrings given by Molina, the discomfort gradually subsided.
Just as Morina said, she had survived the sacrificial ceremony but had suffered trauma that was unimaginable to ordinary people. Both her body and mind had been devastated. It was all because of her abnormal mentality and her extreme tolerance for pain due to years of training that she was able to move as usual.
Along the way, she felt dizzy, uncomfortable, and in pain... Before being discovered and rescued by Ruixia, she had been gritting her teeth and enduring it, and had no time to figure out where all these discomforts came from.
Is it because her tolerance to abnormal conditions is stronger than that of ordinary people?
This is also possible.
The interference that is almost impossible for ordinary people to maintain their sanity, for her, may only reach the level of "uncomfortable"... The props lent to her by Morina can just soothe her mind and relieve a large part of her pressure.
Ruixia quickly replaced her outdated equipment and quickly added two new ones. Morina, standing by, gave her an envious look, with a hint of aggression, as if to say, "I really want to compete with you rich people."
"Ximu, how about you? Are you feeling unwell?"
Faced with Ruixia's concern, Ximu shook his head without further explanation, but just pointed to the earring on his left ear.
"Ah, this is the item Morina gave you earlier, right? - Great, you're such a good person, thank you so much. If you don't have enough magic power, just tell me, I have potions with me."
The latter sentence was said to Morina, who instantly became happy, raised her head like a proud kitten, and laughed out loud.
"Of course not. Remember this! You're incredibly lucky to have met the selfless Lady Morina in this haunted place! Once you're free, you must write me a five-page letter of praise and have my heroic deeds played on repeat throughout the Temple of Life. Do you understand?"
She said so, but she didn't mention which country or where in the Temple of Life she belonged to. It sounded like a joke.
But Ruixia clearly wasn't about to spoil the fun at this moment, and immediately took over her conversation: "Of course. With you here, this little forest is no problem at all. We'll be out of it in a matter of minutes. Come on, let's try somewhere else and see what's going on."
"Okay, let's go!"
Morina waved her fist, her fighting spirit high, but her body was very honest. She turned her head to look at Ximu, who was always responsible for taking the lead.
For some reason, Ximu suddenly had the urge to smile.
She didn't respond, but stepped forward to confirm the general route they would take with Ruixia. Morina, who was standing beside them, didn't know if she wanted to be left out, but she still had to squeeze in and make a scene even though she didn't quite understand.
In a trance, Ximu felt a strange feeling rising in his heart.
This feeling of establishing a connection with people other than blood relatives doesn't seem as scary as imagined.
+++
"Hey, this is the nth time..."
Although they did not feel hungry or thirsty in this strange forest, their originally high morale inevitably declined after encountering many obstacles.
After another round of being chased by monsters, Morina collapsed exhausted under the shade of a tree in the safe zone, muttering, "Have we exhausted the north? Should we change direction again?"
"Well, indeed... not only the north side, we have already marked most of the 'border' of the forest."
Looking at the long string of crosses on the map, Ruixia pondered for a moment, and then adjusted it downwards a lot.
After their tireless attempts, they discovered that although the forest was large, it did have some kind of invisible "boundary". Once they tried to cross it, they would immediately and silently return to a random point in the center of the forest.
Fortunately, they now have sufficient ammunition and are increasingly familiar with the forest terrain, which allows them to escape from the monsters that are close to them again and again with minimal energy consumption.
It's not impossible to defeat them if they really try hard, but after careful observation, they found that although the defeated monsters would dissipate, they would regroup after a certain period of time and generate the same monster again.
That would be pointless - no matter how abundant the resources are, they are still limited. If you can't find a way to break through the ghost wall, it would be a complete waste of effort to fight them head-on.
"In the end, the only place I haven't been to is the south... But if I remember correctly, there seems to be a lake there?"
Looking in the direction he pointed, Moliina was still a little confused, but Ximu did have some impression of the terrain.
"It's where I picked up the backpack."
In other words, it was where they first met Morina.
"oh!"
After hearing this, the red-haired girl suddenly realized something and clenched her fist, tapping her palm.
"Although the fog was quite thick at the time, judging by the feel of the mud under my feet, I felt like I was indeed walking by water... but I'm not sure if it was a lake. Even with the lantern, my vision was still very limited, and I couldn't see far away at all."
"At least according to the information sent back by the 'Insect Swarm', it seems to be a large body of water. Since we don't know the depth and we don't have any means of crossing, I ruled it out from the beginning... Now it seems that we have no choice but to go there and take a look."
"Maybe we can slowly get out of here by following the lake."
Although Morina sometimes complained, she cheered up quickly. "If all else fails, we can chop down two trees, make a raft, and see if we can cross the lake."
If the water source is really a lake, this idea might actually work... But in a place like this where monsters roam everywhere, could there be some unknown dangers hidden beneath the water?
Although she was worried, Ruixia didn't want to make everyone worry in advance, so she didn't say anything more.
The three of them repeated the previous series of operations, including sprinting, detouring, and entering the safe zone. They passed by several monsters on the way and picked up some supplies from some fallen corpses. They were generally safe.
"Did you hear anything? A rustling in the bushes?"
This was not the first time she had heard this kind of unknown noise. Seeing that Ximu and Ruixia remained indifferent, Morina couldn't help but ask questions.
"We've been hearing this sound all the time, but since they haven't actively attacked us, we haven't paid much attention to it."
And I don’t know if it was an illusion, but as we walked along, it seemed that the closer we got to the south, the more frequent these movements occurred - Ruixia exchanged glances with Ximu, who was at the front of the team, and it seemed that both of them gradually noticed this.
At this time, they were not far from the nearest safe point. For some reason, Ximu felt vaguely uneasy. When he was about to remind the two people behind him to speed up, a sharp sound like a whip suddenly broke through the air. In a moment, Morina, who was standing in the middle, tilted her body, and then was tied up by a long object!
"Oh my god, again?!"
The loud cursing was soon heard far away. Ximu sped up, turned around and chased after her. Soon he found Moliina's figure in mid-air.
She drew out her dagger and fiercely chopped at the long silver bar that was tied around her companion's waist!
"when!"
The sharp sound of metal clanging resounded through the forest. Ximu was startled by the unexpected huge recoil. Knowing that he couldn't cut it off immediately, he quickly controlled the weapon in his hand, used the force in the opposite direction, and slid down the long strip that was briefly straightened by the previous blow, ready to attack Huanglong directly!
The branches and leaves in the forest and the sparse mist were thrown away one by one at high speed. In the rapidly approaching field of vision, a strange animal with a big open mouth and a metallic luster all over its body appeared in front of Ximu.
This is—a toad?
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