Chapter 472 - 469: The Depths

Chapter 472: Chapter 469: The Depths

The first rays of morning sun pierced the darkness, spilling into the clearing.

The living darkness that had surrounded the clearing slowly faded, hiding away in unknown crevices, waiting for the next night to rise again.

Faint black residue drifted through the forest—the remains of the battle. They dissipated in the light, leaving no trace that they had ever existed.

The animated things died once again.

Zhou Dynasty suddenly sat up from the rock, panting heavily.

He looked like he’d had a scare, glancing around in a panic.

He didn’t calm down until he saw Li Luo sitting atop the large boulder.

"What’s wrong?" Li Luo asked curiously.

"I had a nightmare. I dreamed the cola I was drinking came to life, turned into a snake in my stomach, chewed through my guts, and burst out of my navel, hissing at me..."

Zhou Dynasty rubbed his stomach and said, still unnerved.

Li Luo’s expression turned a little rigid. "You didn’t have to be so specific."

"Sorry..." Zhou Dynasty scratched his head. "I got a can of cola from your relics last night. Is there a price to pay for it?"

Hearing his words, Li Luo sighed. "You kept thinking about the price before bed last night, didn’t you? That must be why you had a nightmare."

Zhou Dynasty smiled sheepishly. "Perhaps."

"There’s no price," Li Luo said, looking at him seriously.

"Really?" Zhou Dynasty sounded skeptical.

"Really. Just like your Holy Sword." Li Luo picked up the stone Longsword in her hand and gave it a little shake.

Zhou Dynasty nodded. "That’s a relief."

He let out a breath, stood up, and brushed off his clothes.

"Let’s get going. We still have a long way to go."

"Okay." Li Luo hopped down from the top of the large boulder.

After gathering their things, the two left the boulder and headed toward the center.

...

The forest here seemed denser, and the trees had become unusually tall.

The lush foliage was so thick that not even sunlight could get through. Though it was a bright, sunny morning, this part of the forest was extremely dim.

Dappled light touched the ground as Li Luo and Zhou Dynasty trod over thick tree roots, pressing deeper into the woods.

"The animation pollution here doesn’t seem as severe as before," Li Luo said with some confusion. "Aren’t we deeper in now?"

Zhou Dynasty shook his head. "It’s not like that..."

He patted a large tree beside them and said seriously, "These trees are completely animated. They’re just hiding it."

Zhou Dynasty paused for a moment, then offered an unexpected explanation:

"They’re... playing dead."

"Playing dead?"

"Yes. The more severe the animation pollution, the more intelligent the animated things become. So they’ve learned to play dead," Zhou Dynasty explained.

"But why would they play dead?"

"To avoid conflict. In this forest, anything that reveals it’s ’active’ becomes a target for all the others. All the animated things attack it. Now that they have intelligence, they’ve figured this out. So they all play dead."

Zhou Dynasty pointed to the soil on the ground. "Everything here is alive. They can sense our presence, but to them, humans are too weak. We’re not considered worthy prey, so they won’t risk being attacked by other animated things just to come after us."

"So, for now, we’re pretty safe."

Li Luo nodded, taking in Zhou Dynasty’s explanation.

’I never thought that once animated things reached a certain level, they’d go back to pretending to be inanimate.’

But this didn’t put Li Luo at ease. On the contrary, it made her skin crawl.

’Everything is alive... it’s all just an act.’

A motionless tree might, in the blink of an eye, ensnare its prey with its branches.

The placid soil might, in an instant, churn up and swallow everything whole.

The gentle breeze in the woods could, at any moment, turn into a terrifying tornado.

...

With intelligence, these animated things had become even more terrifying.

Li Luo took a deep breath, forcing down her fear. Her movements, however, grew even more cautious.

’Is that all there is to it?’ Mo Ling wondered, listening to Zhou Dynasty’s explanation with skepticism.

He didn’t believe these animated things were playing dead just to avoid being ganged up on.

Having witnessed the encroachment of the living darkness, Mo Ling knew that something far more terrifying was hidden in this forest.

’They aren’t just trying to avoid being attacked. They’re hiding from something even more powerful.’

As far as he could see, everything was calm. It felt as if they had wandered back into a perfectly normal forest.

Even the soil underfoot was perfectly still.

’Is the soil playing dead, too? What on earth would attack soil?’

Mo Ling quickly scanned the area, but he couldn’t find any unusual animated beings.

’Could it be something formless again?’

Li Luo and Zhou Dynasty seemed unaffected, still moving forward cautiously.

Mo Ling, refusing to be fooled, kept searching the unnervingly calm forest. Finally, he spotted something amiss.

’This forest... it actually still has insects.’

Even though the area was crawling with animated things, they didn’t seem able to completely exterminate the insects.

’Maybe because all the animated things in this area are in disguise, the ecosystem is relatively stable. That must be why so many insects have gathered here.’

The animated things seemed completely uninterested in these minuscule creatures, allowing them to live on.

But the insects in this forest gave Mo Ling a strange feeling.

’Are they hiding from something?’

These insects darted around erratically, as if being chased by something. One moment they’d be chewing on a leaf, the next they’d suddenly take to the air, flying about in a frenzy.

After flying for a bit, they’d calm down, land on a leaf, and resume chewing. But before long, they’d shoot up again as if possessed, leaving that tree entirely and flying to another to begin the cycle anew.

’Have these insects sensed something terrible?’

Mo Ling meticulously scanned the area around the insects, but found nothing. They were simply being startled for no apparent reason, then calming down just as inexplicably.

Just as Mo Ling was wracking his brain, the unexpected occurred.

A cloud of mist suddenly coalesced in front of Li Luo and Zhou Dynasty. Once formed, it shot toward the sky, but before it got very high, it made an abrupt turn and plunged toward the ground.

Yet before it could reach the ground, the cloud of mist burst apart as if attacked, only to immediately coalesce again a short distance away.

"It’s an animated mist," Zhou Dynasty said, watching the bizarre cloud warily. "What’s it doing?"

It was as if something terrifying was chasing it, forcing it to flee everywhere, yet it could never escape its pursuer’s clutches...