Chapter 459: Chapter 458: Twisting Weird Forest
In the dead of night, you would expect some moonlight to fall down, but this was the heart of the deep mountains.
The tree shadows blocked the moonlight directly. Without a lamp, relying solely on the naked eye, you would definitely stumble at every step.
Although there was much less snow around here, the temperature was even colder.
In Yun Ran’s mind, somehow she recalled a news story she’d seen before, where people had suffered hypothermia and died in similar places.
The further she walked, the stronger the stench of decay became, and the trees around grew more bizarre.
The atmosphere was building up to this point, and Yun Ran adjusted her clothes, seemingly feeling genuinely cold.
The Little Paperman carried the flashlight while leading the way; the surrounding silence was terrifying, with not a hint of bird chirping or insect buzzing, only the sound of their footsteps.
This overly quiet environment made Yun Ran, who couldn’t adapt to such silence, unable to resist the urge to make some noise.
"These trees have been thoroughly infused with Death Energy, growing in strange shapes. The decaying stench is released from their bodies."
Xuan Chu naturally didn’t know Yun Ran was uncomfortable with such quiet and thought she was speaking seriously with him.
He nodded immediately: "These trees are beyond saving; now they’re just relying on that Death Energy to barely hang on."
After saying this, Xuan Chu’s mouth seemed glued shut, resolutely refusing to speak another word.
The scene became cold and silent again.
Yun Ran once more felt Heavenly Dao Village was indeed somewhat backward, unable to keep up with modern education, turning a good genius into a fool.
Yun Ran’s disdainful gaze was so strong that Xuan Chu couldn’t ignore it.
He then proactively said, "Why are you looking at me like that? Did I say something wrong?"
Yun Ran immediately replied in irritation: "If Heavenly Dao Village’s people talk more, are they sentenced?"
Little did she know, Xuan Chu earnestly shook his head: "No sentence, but we practice Silent Zen; I’ve practiced it for ten years."
Yun Ran suddenly wanted to slap herself; it’s unethical to randomly criticize others’ forms of cultivation.
She really was damned; why did her mouth love to jabber so much!
"Watch out!"
While Yun Ran was blaming herself, suddenly Xuan Chu’s shout echoed in her ear.
As they drew closer to the Chaotic Stone Pile, the surrounding trees were ever more influenced by Death Energy and Evil Energy.
Momentarily, beside Yun Ran, an oddly shaped tree suddenly twisted its body.
Its branch exuding a decaying stench rushed towards Yun Ran’s head at lightning speed.
Facing such speed, no one could evade.
Especially those tree branches imbued with Death Energy — appearing bare and brittle like dead branches, yet incredibly hard.
Once these branches touched flesh and blood, regardless of humans or animals, they would be drained dry and die horribly on the spot.
Yet, Yun Ran merely tilted her head slightly to dodge the attack from that hard branch.
Seeing this ugly branch dare to attack their master in front of them, the Little Paperman was instantly furious.
One of the Little Papermen directly flew over, leaping high.
Then performed a Thousand-Pound Fall move, and shouted, "Hey!"
Stomped down on the branch that axes definitely couldn’t cut.
Still cursing under its breath, "You damn thing, ugly beast, how dare you lay a hand on our master, are you asking for it? Watch me kill you!"
The Little Paperman’s tiny head, with a fiercely glaring face, raised its palm, as sparks of electricity crackled out.
Apart from the Little Paperman on guard and holding the flashlight, all the others flew over, angrily gathering energy to squeeze out a pigeon-egg-sized electric orb.
"Ugly beast, go die!!!"
The pigeon-egg-sized electric orb was smashed onto the twisted trunk by the Little Paperman.
With a ’boom,’ a tremendous explosion.
A burnt smell, mixed with decaying stench, almost made Yun Ran choke and lose control.
"Ugh(⊙o⊙)..."
Yun Ran hurriedly closed off her sense of smell, but her eyes were still stung to soreness by the strong fumes.
If she’d known earlier that when these trees were struck by lightning, they’d emit odors dozens of times worse than before, she would never have suffered this.
Xuan Chu frowned, covering his nose with his hand, not sealing his scent as Yun Ran did.
Just as he was about to say these odors were suspicious, suddenly more trees started twisting.
Xuan Chu’s expression changed subtly: "Not good, these trees have gone mad; the stench just now is sending a message!"
Every visible tree around began to move; not just their trunks, branches, but their underground roots too.
The Little Paperman kept attacking the branches trying to ambush Yun Ran.
Yun Ran glanced at the situation around her, understood the trees’ aim, and grimaced.
"These trees want to form a ball, trapping us inside."
Had it been ordinary Xuanmen people, trapped in the net of these branches and roots, combined with these clearly toxic decaying gases, they certainly wouldn’t survive.
Watching the gathering trees, the pungent stench stung so much that one’s eyes could barely remain open.
Yun Ran pulled out a seemingly ordinary ribbon from her bag and tied it over her eyes, immediately removing the stinging feeling from her eyes.
"Break!"
Upon hearing Xuan Chu’s voice, Yun Ran turned her head to see Xuan Chu closing his eyes, with that small Magic Artifact in his hand emitting a powerful light.
The entangling branches were immediately blasted away, creating a huge hole by this powerful light.
Yun Ran didn’t just stand by and watch; she drew her Peach Wood Sword, performing a sword flower, then swiped it several times in mid-air.
Sword beams flew out, slicing the gathering trees into countless segments in their path.
With the Little Paperman’s help, within less than a minute, the spread-out Weird Forest turned bare, with even the roots burned by the Little Paperman.
The commotion here was considerable, causing the surrounding gases to wobble and reverse; a new wind direction blew in.
The original decaying stench was gently blown away by the wind, quickly dissipating over half.
Yun Ran retracted her Peach Wood Sword, seeing the scattered remnants of weird trees making the ground impossible to tread upon, she couldn’t help but twitch her lips.
Truly exhilarating to fight at the moment, but now the path ahead was challenging.
Xuan Chu’s eye corners shed a tear; after adapting for a while, his eyes finally recovered.