28: Chapter 28 The Goats Appear in the Forest

Tu Ziguan was already holding that bizarre contraption in the palm of his hand.

It was square, palm-sized, with a piece of talisman paper stuck to the surface.

What was drawn on the talisman paper was not the array patterns of the Qingyun Sect, but rather blasting patterns that Mo Tang had figured out on her own.

Xie Feng swept the talisman paper with his spiritual power. The direction of the lines and the distribution method of the spiritual nodes could not be said to be identical to the principle of C4 explosives he had seen in documentaries in his past life; they could only be said to be completely identical.

"She calls this earth-shaking thunder."

"I must say, you gave this name so straightforwardly."

"Mo Tang said straightforward is better; if you give it a flashy name and it fails to explode, how embarrassing would that be."

Tie Rong did not understand what earth-shaking thunder was, but she could sense the compression density of the spiritual power on that talisman paper.

She switched her long staff from her left hand to her right, and then from her right hand back to her left.

"Just how heavy is that staff of yours?"

Xie Feng asked.

"Never weighed it," Tie Rong said. "As long as I can swing it, that is enough."

"Fine then."

Xie Feng tapped his blind cane on the pine needles, and his spiritual power spread out in all directions along the mycelium network.

He had to determine the core location of that thing first.

The mycelium was not the anomaly itself; it was its sensory organs and digestive System.

The real anomaly should be hiding at a certain node of the mycelium network, where the nutrients were most concentrated and the mycelium was densest.

When the spiritual power swept across the southeast direction, the density of the mycelium increased abruptly.

An entire tangled ball of silk, about three chi in diameter, hung at the intersection of the root Systems of three pine trees.

The mycelium on the surface of the silk ball was constantly writhing, resembling a grayish-white stomach digesting food, with something wrapped in the center of the silk ball.

There was more than one. Xie Feng's spiritual power swept across the outlines of those things: human torsos, limbs, and skulls.

They had already been wrapped into amber-colored cocoons by the pine resin secreted by the mycelium. The mycelium decomposed the nutrients into a paste-like substance and then transported it along the mycelium network to every corner of the Black Pine Forest.

"Found it." Xie Feng raised his blind cane and pointed to the southeast. "One hundred and twenty steps, beneath the intersecting roots of three pine trees."

Tu Ziguan switched the earth-shaking thunder to his left hand. "How do we strike?"

"I will cast the Mirror-Breaking Finger to tear open a gap on the surface of the silk ball. Tie Rong will use her long staff to prop open the gap and prevent it from closing. You stuff the earth-shaking thunder inside, sticking it against the innermost hunter. Then the three of us run."

"How far should we run?"

"As far as we can run."

Tie Rong slammed her long staff against the ground, the tail of the staff sinking three inches into the pine needles. "Let us go."

The three of them walked towards the southeast.

That hunter was still following behind at a distance of a dozen paces, continuously transmitting the positions of the three people back to the silk ball underground.

Xie Feng stopped, pointing his blind cane in front of him.

At the intersection of the root Systems of the three pine trees, the ground bulged into a huge swell. The pine needles were pushed apart, revealing the intertwined tree roots underneath and the silk ball wrapped among them.

Viewed up close, the silk ball was even larger than what the spiritual power had perceived; it was not just three chi, but at least five chi.

The densely packed grayish-white mycelium on the surface was constantly writhing, with every single strand burrowing into the cocoons at the center of the silk ball. There were four cocoons.

The amber-colored pine resin wrapped around four human bodies. Three of them had already decomposed for the most part, while the last one still maintained a human shape. Dressed as a hunter, his torso was intact, and the skin on his face had not yet been completely decomposed, allowing his expression to be seen.

His mouth was open, his eyes were wide, and there were no pupils in his eye sockets, only two clumps of grayish-white mycelium.

"You look quite a bit like him, Brother Feng."

"Shut up!"

Tie Rong gripped her long staff tightly, and Tu Ziguan pressed the talisman paper of the earth-shaking thunder down even tighter by a fraction.

Xie Feng mobilized the spiritual power within his body, operating six Meridians simultaneously, gathering the spiritual power of the Mirror-Breaking Finger at the tip of his right index finger.

Then they heard a sound.

It was a human voice, coming from deeper within the southeast, separated by the dense pine trees.

"Someone is there."

Xie Feng's spiritual power swept towards the direction from whence the sound came.

One hundred and fifty paces away was a small clearing in the forest.

Standing in the clearing were five people wearing identical dark brown robes, the hems of their robes dragging on the pine needles.

They stood in a circle, and in the center of the circle on the ground was stuck a wooden stake, to which a cow was bound.

The mouths of those five people were chanting muddled syllables. They were not under the control of the mycelium; it was a rhythmic, cadenced incantation, resembling some sort of ritual.

The spiritual power swept across the faces of those five people; their eyes were not covered by pine resin, and their pupils were clear.

They were not Puppets controlled by the anomaly; they were living people chanting that ritual incantation of their own accord.

The spiritual power continued to sweep toward the center of the clearing, passing over the wooden stake.

That cow was still alive.

Xie Feng could not help but feel how terribly familiar this looked.

Then he suddenly realized something was wrong.

"Tu Wu!! Has it gotten dark now?!"

Tu Ziguan was greatly startled by him.

"It was fine when we left. With our journey and eating along the way, it is dusk and about to get dark now. What is wrong?"

"Is there a moon tonight?!"

"How am I supposed to know? The woods are so dense I cannot see the sky."

Before his voice faded, the last sliver of light leaking through the gaps in the pine needles above disappeared. The moon was obscured by clouds—a moonless, pitch-black night.

Black forest, night, beasts, sacrifice.

Xie Feng turned and ran.

"Run!!!!"

Not retreating, but running in the opposite direction.

Tapping his blind cane on the ground, the spiritual power of his six Meridians poured into his legs simultaneously. His figure darted between the pine trees, moving so fast that even the pine needles were whipped up.

Tu Ziguan froze for a split second, then followed.

Tie Rong froze for an even shorter time. Propping her long staff against the ground, her entire body used the momentum to spring forward.

The three of them had run less than thirty paces when the entire ground caved downward.

The pine needles and surface humus collapsed together, revealing the mycelium network underneath.

The grayish-white mycelium no longer hid in the soil; it gushed out from the ground, seeped out from the trunks of the pine trees, and hung down from the canopy overhead. The ground, trunks, and canopy of the entire Black Pine Forest were simultaneously covered in grayish-white.

The mycelium had originally planned to launch a sneak attack when the few of them threw the C4, but now seeing that they were about to run, it hurriedly began to contract.

Closing in from all directions, the mycelium on the ground surged like a reverse-flowing wave during an ebb tide. That hunter following behind was also swept along by the mycelium and pushed toward the three of them, his body already distorted by the mycelium expanding from within.

It was attacking, thinking that Xie Feng was running because he was afraid of it.

"You stupid anomaly!! You should kill that cow first, or even that cultist would do!!"

Xie Feng ran extremely fast while cursing loudly at the same time, momentarily stunning the entire network of mycelium.

What a joke! Seven years as a Keeper had made him recite the entire rulebook backwards. As an author of high-intensity update modules for Modu and Apple Orchard, there was not a single Spell he did not know, nor a single damned grimoire he did not understand.

When someone mentioned a Spell, Xie Feng could instantly tell them where it could be learned!

This damned scene before his eyes was far too familiar!

Black Goat Young Summoning Technique!!!!

"No, how on earth do you guys still know this Spell? I remember no Chinese grimoire can teach this Spell?!"

Xie Feng's movement across the pine needles could practically be described as flying.

The anomaly thought Xie Feng was bluffing and continued to approach, carrying the mycelium with it.

Xie Feng could not even be bothered to explore its rules anymore; right now he only had one thought.

"Damn legs! Run fast!!"

In the clearing, the chanting stopped.

Replaced by a long howl from that cow.

That was the sound of the windpipe being severed when a stone knife pierced the throat, and blood pouring into the lungs. The person presiding was beginning to slaughter the cow in a specific manner.

The contraction of the mycelium abruptly stopped. It sensed something strolling out from the shadows.