Chapter 544 - 541: "Full of Life

Chapter 544: Chapter 541: "Full of Life

"All right..."

Xi stood up and stretched, his bones making a creaking sound.

"The treatment is complete... Let’s head to that forest first. Once we pass through it, we should see the way off the island."

A breeze blew in from the lake, and the ripples on its surface lapped against the shore. Gentle waves washed onto the bank. Everything seemed so peaceful.

But Li Luo frowned. She carefully sniffed the air, and the damp water vapor filled her nostrils.

"Do you smell that? A fishy smell?"

"A fishy smell? I think so. It’s probably just a dead fish."

Li Luo looked out at the lake. The water was still rippling, but she had a feeling it wasn’t the smell of a dead fish...

"Let’s go."

"Okay."

The two of them started walking toward the distant forest. The wind continued to blow, and Li Luo kept glancing back at the lake. The fishy smell refused to dissipate; even as they moved away from the shore, it didn’t weaken in the slightest.

’Fresh meat, soil, weeds...’

Li Luo suddenly realized it wasn’t just a fishy smell. It was a mixture of countless scents: the fragrance of grass, the earthy smell of soil, the faint scent of raw meat...

’And that’s not all.’

’Ground wheat, torn bark, fallen fingernails...’

’Wait!’ Li Luo’s eyes widened in realization. ’Why can I perceive the source of these smells? And why can I distinguish them so clearly?’

Moreover, the smells didn’t seem to be coming from just the lake, but from the forest ahead as well.

The wind abruptly changed direction. The breeze that had been blowing from the lake reversed, and now that same strange smell was wafting from the forest.

As the two of them drew closer to the forest, Li Luo noticed that the swaying leaves looked a little strange.

After walking a little further, Li Luo’s gaze pierced through the mist swirling around the treetops, and she finally saw clearly what was hanging on the branches.

The moment she saw those "leaves," Li Luo froze.

"Xi, do you see the forest ahead?"

"I see it. What’s wrong?"

"Those leaves..."

Xi hadn’t been paying close attention to the lush green leaves. He had been focused on sensing the "life force" of Senluo Island. This was the most biodiverse and vibrant island in the Hua Sheng Islands.

It had been a long time since he’d last been here, and he was feeling nostalgic for the island’s scents, lost in his memories.

It wasn’t until Li Luo pointed it out that he noticed the bizarre "leaves."

"Has Senluo Island... always been like this?" Li Luo asked curiously.

To Li Luo’s surprise, Xi’s reaction was the same as hers.

Xi stared at the swaying leaves from a distance, frozen to the spot.

"How could this happen? How could this be?"

Muttering this, Xi charged forward. Seeing this, Li Luo immediately followed.

When they reached the edge of the forest, Xi stood ramrod straight. The ball of light that was his head flickered erratically, a clear sign that he was in immense shock.

"This area should be planted with Iron Green Wood. Their leaves are needle-shaped, like emeralds, and they sparkle..."

Xi then pointed to the weeds on the ground. "And this should be Light-Avoiding Grass, a plant that only grows in the shadows. Its leaves are oval, plump, and very cute."

The weeds here were indeed growing only in the shadows, but their leaves were anything but cute. They were various organs from different creatures, looking as if they’d been coated in a layer of green paint and forcibly fused with the roots.

Their habits were the same, but their appearances were completely changed, resulting in a bizarre, stitched-together state.

Xi immediately tried to find the root of the problem. He cautiously placed a hand on one of the stitched-together trees, wanting to understand what had happened to them.

But the moment his hand touched the bark, it recoiled.

"This isn’t bark..." Xi stared at his hand, stunned.

He extended a finger again and gently placed it on the bark.

"Flesh?"

He pressed his finger down gently. His fingertip punctured the fleshy, fat-filled bark and sank in without any resistance.

Xi pulled his hand out, trembling. A yellow sap flowed from the wound he had made, but its smell was unmistakable. The thick scent of fresh blood spread rapidly, so strong that even Li Luo, standing a short distance away, could smell it.

Following that, some white pus oozed out with the resin. The pus carried a strange, milky fragrance and contained small, round particles, like nodules from some kind of creature.

Xi held up his finger and froze once again.

This experienced healer was completely bewildered by the situation.

"Fleshy bark? Bloody sap? Milky resin? What in the world is this thing?"

Xi stumbled backward in a daze, moving away from the large tree that was still oozing the strange liquid.

Just then, a gust of wind blew past, and a sharp shriek suddenly erupted from within the tree.

"AHH!!!"

Xi flinched in fright, nearly losing his balance.

"Something’s wrong! This has to be a disease! A disease that causes organisms to mutate!" Xi made an instant diagnosis and stepped forward again, placing his hand on the tree.

However, a moment later, he quickly backed away from the tree again.

"The cause is wrong! The treatment failed! What’s going on?"

Seeing Xi’s panicked, startled state, Li Luo grew nervous as well.

"Can’t healers ’define’ diseases? Why did the treatment fail?" she asked, confused.

In her eyes, Xi should have been able to define this mutation as a disease and then cure it, just like he did with the stalactites.

Xi immediately understood Li Luo’s confusion and explained, "It doesn’t work like that. We can only define an objective fact as a disease. Therefore, we have to understand the cause before we can define it."

"I had to know why a stalactite is a stalactite before I could treat them."

"I don’t know why these trees have become like this, so I can’t treat them."

"It’s not mutation, not a disease, not relic contamination... I’ve tried them all. The cause is wrong."

Xi’s voice grew increasingly tense. If he couldn’t find the cause, he was completely helpless.

Listening to Xi’s explanation, Li Luo understood. A healer’s ability to use their power was predicated on "knowledge." Faced with an unknown ailment, they were completely powerless.

’It seems even a power this strong has its limits.’

For now, the only thing they could do was figure out what exactly had happened on Senluo Island and why these plants had become this way.

Thinking of this, Li Luo quickly said to Xi, "Don’t panic just yet. Do you know if anything has happened on Senluo Island recently?"

"I don’t know. I’ve been sleeping in the Red Spirit Flower patch, so of course I don’t know."

"What about before you went to sleep?"

"Before?"

Xi fell into deep thought, and faint memories slowly began to surface.

"Before... this place was used as a species sanctuary. The last time I was here, everything on the island was still normal..."