Chapter 467 - 464: Dangerous Activation

Chapter 467: Chapter 464: Dangerous Activation

"See that forest up ahead? It means we’re through the outer region and have reached the central zone. The animation is much more pronounced here. You need to be careful."

Before Li Luo lay a strange forest. The first impression it gave was one of utter chaos.

Roots were completely ripped from the soil, sprawling across the ground with no rhyme or reason. Plants like these should have withered and died, yet their leaves remained a vibrant green.

The place looked like it had been hit by a typhoon. Great trees grew every which way, the earth was upturned, and streams flowed backward through fissures in the ground. Everywhere, there were signs of things having moved.

"You need to be wary of everything around you. Including the wind."

Zhou Dynasty lifted his head, sniffing the breeze that carried the scent of leaves.

"Do you smell blood?"

Li Luo quickly followed suit and sniffed the air. Sure enough, mixed in with the earthy scent of the forest wind, there was the faint smell of blood.

"Just a little. It’s very faint," Li Luo said, nodding.

"Animated things hunt anything that moves..." Zhou Dynasty said lightly. "So they hunt living creatures."

"When we first arrived on this Sky Island, the Sky Island Investigation Team went through hell just to figure out the principles of this animation pollution. At first, we thought those animated things were some kind of organism..."

"How did you guys discover this Sky Island?" Li Luo asked curiously.

"It was just a routine survey..."

The Sky Island Investigation Team periodically lands on uncharted Sky Islands to survey their ecosystems and set up beacons. Our arrival on this island was just one of those routine survey missions.

Whenever the team lands on a new Sky Island, we head to its center to set up a beacon.

Beacons can’t be placed on the edges of a Sky Island. These "great rocks" flying through the sky often fracture and break apart. Placing the beacon in the center is the best way to guard against that.

When the investigation team I belong to first arrived, we thought this was an island with a normal ecosystem, one perfectly suited for human habitation.

Hoping to convert this Sky Island into a human monitoring station, the team headed for the center of the island, full of enthusiasm.

But as soon as we entered the forest, we were attacked by a species of giant tree creature.

"A treant?"

There are many tree-like creatures in the Abyss, and most of them are intelligent. But this giant tree creature on the island showed no desire to communicate. It attacked the team on sight.

Razor-sharp leaves sliced through the air, and several team members were seriously injured before they could even react.

Fortunately, the team managed to eliminate the strange giant tree in time.

"’There are treant-like creatures on this island, and they’re hostile to humans.’ That was our team’s initial theory."

But we soon realized something was wrong.

As we pushed deeper into the forest, we were attacked by all sorts of strange creatures.

Creatures of stone, creatures of liquid, creatures of mud...

The island’s ecosystem was incredibly complex, teeming with a vast variety of species, but they all had one thing in common: an extreme hostility toward humans.

They were impossible to communicate with. They attacked the team on sight, fighting to the death.

The deeper we pushed into the forest, the more of these creatures we encountered. Their intelligence also seemed to increase. They started using traps, ambushes, and camouflage, making life hell for the team.

"Captain, shouldn’t we pull back? Who knows what other dangers are in here."

The captain shook his head. "We set up the beacon before we leave. At the very least."

Under the captain’s orders, the whole team pushed deeper, and as a result, we encountered even more bizarre creatures.

Creatures of air, creatures of dust, and even...

"A creature of light."

Zhou Dynasty recalled, a lingering fear in his voice.

"That one animated thing inflicted heavy losses on our team. We even lost two comrades. It was only after encountering it that we truly realized just how dangerous this island was."

"Did you defeat it?"

"No, we just ran. It couldn’t enter any place with shadows, and someone on the team had a relic that creates darkness. We used that relic to escape its pursuit."

"It was only after that encounter that we discovered these things we’d been calling ’creatures’ still retained the properties of what they originally were. The characteristics they had as inanimate objects hadn’t vanished."

"Light can’t bend into shadows, air can’t spread from low pressure to high pressure... as bizarre as these creatures were, they were still bound by the laws of physics. The team figured that out."

"But back then, the team still didn’t know it was caused by animation pollution. We just thought it was an innate trait of those creatures."

"Until... the things we were carrying started to animate."

"One of our team member’s backpacks suddenly started moving on its own. He opened it, and a can of food jumped out. The sharp lid sliced his hand open."

"It was only after we destroyed that crazy can that someone on the team suggested it was a type of animation pollution."

After listening to Zhou Dynasty’s story, Li Luo nodded. "I see."

"Once we understood the principle, dealing with them became much simpler. We learned to counter the specific properties of each animated thing, move by move. That’s how the team made it to the center and set up the beacon... And well, you know the rest."

"And I got left behind," Zhou Dynasty said, spreading his hands with a helpless shrug.

He glanced at the twisted forest around them, his tone turning serious. "The animation pollution has gotten stronger. It wasn’t this terrifying back then. And now animated water is starting to appear in the outer regions..."

"When we get to the beacon, I have to report the island’s current state to the monitoring station. Get them to send a team to clean up this pollution."

Just as Zhou Dynasty finished speaking, the earth suddenly let out a loud RUMBLE.

Immediately after, the forest floor rippled like an ocean wave, rising and falling for a moment. The earthen tide only began to recede once the rumbling had completely subsided.

But in the wake of the earthen wave, countless great trees were torn from the ground and sent toppling over.

However, the roots of the fallen trees began to sway slowly, like tentacles. They extended, groping at the air around them, until they touched the soil. Then, as if starved, they burrowed hungrily into the ground.

The bizarre scene made both Li Luo and Zhou Dynasty stop in their tracks.

The fallen trees had all come to life, their root-tentacles writhing. When some tentacles brushed against others, they began to attack each other.

They twisted together like a pair of entwined vipers, furiously tearing at each other until one was ripped completely apart and fell to the ground.

The severed roots didn’t die immediately. Instead, they wriggled violently, just like the severed tail of a gecko.

However, the writhing of the roots attracted the attention of the soil.

Like sharks that had scented blood, the surrounding soil swarmed toward the roots. Like a colony of ants, it slowly surrounded, buried, and devoured them completely...