Chapter 159 - 157: Night Spirit

Chapter 159: Chapter 157: Night Spirit

The Cat Owl abruptly spread its wings and took flight, letting out another screech!

The gust from its wings sent snow showering down from the trees, and the menacing feel of its screech was even stronger than before! It was accompanied by a powerful Spiritual Intimidation!

The branch had only grazed a few of its feathers before freezing motionless in mid-air, as if it had always been that way.

It made one wonder if their eyes were playing tricks on them. ’Maybe it was just a regular tree branch?’

The startled Cat Owl was furious. It was extremely vengeful, so after unleashing its intimidation, it angrily lunged at the "branch," viciously tearing it down with its powerful talons!

To its surprise, the "branch" kept getting longer as it pulled, stretching to a full two meters. Then, the Cat Owl unceremoniously flung the two-meter-long "branch" to the ground!

Everyone instinctively took a step back.

With a THUD, the "branch" landed in the snow and lay still for a long time.

After a moment, the branch began to move—

It unfolded six slender legs, slowly propped up its long, stick-like body, and raised its twig-shaped forelimbs, attempting to climb back up the tree.

Its movements were incredibly slow, almost sloth-like, so everyone watched cautiously, not daring to make a rash move.

To Feng Ling, the creature looked like a giant stick insect. Every part of it resembled a branch, its mimicry perfected to the extreme. As long as it remained motionless in a tree, it was indistinguishable from a real one.

Feng Ling looked down at Huangfu Miaomiao. "What is this thing called?"

"The display says it’s called a Night Spirit," Huangfu Miaomiao said, frowning as she stared at the slowly moving Big Worm. "The name is orange-red, meaning it’s an aggressive Pollution Body."

"It has a surprisingly beautiful name for something that looks like that," Feng Ling quipped.

The stick insect finally reached the base of the tree. It raised its two slender forelimbs high, looking comical, as if it were holding up two forked clothes-drying poles.

Just when everyone thought it would slowly climb the tree, the stick insect’s forelimbs hooked onto the trunk. Its body crouched low, very, very low, almost touching the ground, and then it suddenly leaped upward—

In an instant, it leaped more than ten meters into the air!

Its six legs latched firmly onto the tree trunk, and it quickly blended in with the branches and leaves, making it impossible to tell which part was the tree and which was the Pollution Body.

Everyone jumped in fright.

Xu Yiming exclaimed, "It was so slow on the ground! How did it get so fast the moment it touched the tree?"

Su Yuqing said, "The tips of its six legs have small hooks. That structure is good for climbing trees, but it would make walking on the ground difficult."

Feng Ling also looked up, frowning. "Those slender legs don’t look like they have any muscle on them, but its jumping power is incredible... Its attacks probably rely on that same launching ability."

Su Yuqing conferred with Feng Ling. "They’re up there and we’re down here. This puts us at a great disadvantage. We need to come up with a plan."

A Hunter soon suggested, "Why don’t we use fire?"

Someone immediately objected, "A forest fire is no joke. It would be one thing if it stayed within the Maze, but what if it spreads outside? The national border is just a little further north. That could cause an international incident, couldn’t it?"

Feng Ling looked toward Li Qing.

"That is indeed a possibility," Li Qing said with a slight nod. "A damaged Maze is like a bubble that’s been popped. The pollution inside can spill out, and a large fire could spread out as well."

"Does that mean we have to climb the trees to kill them?" Xu Yiming said, staring worriedly at the towering trees. He couldn’t even spot the Pollution Body from before anymore.

Identifying a target ten-plus meters away would be easy if you were looking straight ahead. But looking up at a tree trunk and branches at that same distance, through all the overlapping shadows, was a different story entirely. It was extremely difficult.

Su Yuqing knew some of the Hunters were skilled climbers, but she still frowned. "Climbing the trees is too dangerous. We’d be walking right into their attack range. Besides, we have no way of knowing how many of those Pollution Bodies are up there. By the time we made a move, we could already be surrounded."

Feng Ling agreed with Su Yuqing. Her Cat Owl had nearly been ambushed just moments ago.

She glanced over and saw the Cat Owl perched in the snow nearby.

Though its expression was as cold and proud as ever, Feng Ling could sense the waves of resentment it was sending her.

’Even the Cat Owl, who loves perching in trees more than anything, has come down. That just goes to show how bad of an idea climbing up would be!’

Spiritual Suppression could only offer a temporary deterrent. Continuously releasing it would be too taxing for the Cat Owl.

’What if I were to use Spiritual Suppression?’

Feng Ling dismissed the idea. ’My Spiritual Suppression has a much wider range than the Cat Owl’s, but no matter how large it is, it can’t possibly cover this entire forest. The effort would kill me.’

’Besides, my spiritual power is indiscriminate. With the exception of lifeforms born from the Nest itself, it affects all living things. That means the Hunters would be caught in it too.’

While Feng Ling was deep in thought, the others were also discussing countermeasures, all of them at a loss.

People kept suggesting ideas, but someone would always find a reason to object. In the end, none of the plans seemed foolproof.

Feng Ling said, "We can’t go up there, so we have to find a way to make them come down. Think. What could we use to lure them?"

"...Food?" Xu Yiming glanced at the Cat Owl. "It attacked your Pet because it was hungry, right?"

Hearing this, Su Yuqing nodded and said gravely, "We haven’t seen any animal tracks. It’s likely they’ve eaten all the animals in this area. There isn’t even a single bird left."

"All creatures in the Maze exist on a food chain. They should have their own prey and natural predators. But after the Maze Master was killed, that food chain broke," Feng Ling mused. "Perhaps there weren’t many of them to begin with, and the destruction of the Maze created an imbalance."

She turned to Xu Yiming. "We killed a lot of wolves earlier, right? We can drag one of the carcasses over and see if we can lure these Big Worms down."

"Easy enough," Xu Yiming said. "But how do we deal with them once they’re down here? Do you have a plan?"

Feng Ling answered without hesitation, a smile playing on her lips. "Don’t worry. Once they’re down, I’ll take care of them."

Xu Yiming’s heart skipped a beat, and he felt a thrill of excitement for some reason.

’Is she finally going to show us what she can do?’

’The previous Pollution Bodies were too weak to be a challenge, so she didn’t bother. Is she finally going to reveal her Card Ability now?’

The smile on Xu Yiming’s face grew more genuine. "Leave it to me," he said. "I’m fast."

He called over two other speed-type Hunters and they quickly departed. Just a few minutes later, they returned with several dead wolves.

The temperature was so low, however, that even though the wolves hadn’t been dead long, their carcasses were already starting to stiffen.

Feng Ling chose one of the dead wolves and dragged it under the tree by herself. To prevent the stick insects from dragging it away, she made sure to tie the carcass securely to the tree trunk.

All that was left was to wait.

Everyone tilted their heads back, their eyes fixed on the trees—