Chapter 833 - 832: Shadows in the Forest

Chapter 833: Chapter 832: Shadows in the Forest

The eerie surroundings heightened everyone’s alertness by twelvefold, as those silent towering trees and the intertwined root structures seemed to hide pairs of cold, watchful eyes, observing these unexpected guests who had crossed the gate of reincarnation.

Erin climbed onto Yu Sheng’s shoulder again, and the Omen Wandering Star orbited above her head, while the Little Puppet widened its eyes, muttering as it looked around, "Yu Sheng, why does this place give me the creeps... It’s clearly alive, and sometimes I feel like eyes are on me, but this forest hasn’t spoken... It’s like we’ve crawled inside a living corpse..."

It was fine if Erin didn’t describe it like that, but now that she did, the already eerie environment felt even more chilling, even Hu Li beside her bristled up suddenly, "Why use so many descriptive words now..."

"To be honest, I don’t know if it’s better for the forest to talk or not right now," Yu Sheng muttered with a frown, "In this situation, wouldn’t it be even more unsettling if these trees started speaking..."

"Honestly, I think it’s always creepy when trees talk!" Baili Xue hovered beside Baili Qing, "You guys are starting to lose your commonsense..."

Yu Sheng paused slightly, suddenly believing Baili Xue had a point, and the next second he found it hard not to realize that among this large group, the one with the most intact worldview was actually an eye sprite...

Meanwhile, as they spoke, the group cautiously entered the dense forest, moving slowly towards the gap opened by Yu Sheng earlier with the blood mist erosion.

The path was hard to traverse, practically nonexistent, with the ground covered in intertwined roots and vines, among which there were numerous bushes and grass mimicked by the branching roots, leaving scant places to step on. Often, Yu Sheng simply stepped on the sturdier roots to move forward, remaining alert to the surrounding movements.

They continued forward a bit longer, with the road becoming increasingly rugged and difficult, as weird dark-colored thorns spread from the bushes, making it hard to find places to step.

"I really want to burn this place down." Hu Li grumbled, her usual calm tone now carrying a trace of annoyance—her beautiful bushy tails had been scratched by nearby thorn bushes several times, making her smooth fur messy.

Erin quickly stopped her, "Silly fox, be careful, the old trees might just be sleeping. Wake them up with fire and who knows what could happen!"

"But continuing like this isn’t a solution," Lucrecia’s voice came from nearby. She spoke while looking up at the sky—the dense canopy obscured the sun, as the branches of the eerie giant trees intertwined in the air, leaving only glimpses of the chaotic glowing sky through the gaps. "But flying too high might pose additional risks... Wait a moment."

As she spoke, she took out a fairy tales book with a colorful cover from somewhere. She flipped open to a page showing a foreign Prince sitting on a magic carpet over a field—a vibrant and childlike drawing.

Lucrecia curled her fingers and tapped lightly on that page.

The foreign Prince in the book immediately looked up, rose quickly to bow to Lucrecia, then jumped down from the carpet, rolled it up, and handed it out.

The magic carpet unfolded and expanded rapidly in the real world, transforming in an instant into a flying carpet large enough to carry several people, silently floating a meter above the ground.

Yu Sheng stood by, his eyes wide open, filled with envy, "This is amazing... Can I learn this?"

"If you’d like to learn, I can try to teach you," to Yu Sheng’s surprise, Lucrecia actually nodded, "But I can’t guarantee success—no one on the Lost Home has learned it."

Yu Sheng didn’t pay attention to the second half, already delighted upon hearing the beginning, climbed onto the flying carpet carrying Erin, then felt Hu Li poke his arm as soon as he settled down.

The fox girl said softly, "Savior, if you are interested in spells, I can teach you too..."

Yu Sheng was even happier upon hearing this, but just as he was about to nod, Erin started babbling, "Think it through, if you mess up, you might end up producing a Mach ring with smoke while entering the atmosphere—without a bunch of big tails like the silly fox for visual cushioning, outsiders might not think it’s a spell but rather that a hemorrhoid exploded in low Earth orbit..."

"...Though your words are crude, they make sense, aren’t they a bit too crude?"

Ignoring the comment, the Little Puppet plucked the Omen Wandering Star off its head and continued playing with her stone ball.

Meanwhile, the flying carpet started smoothly gliding over the bushy vegetation and thorny patches, continuing its traverse through this eerie forest.

Lucrecia sat in the center of the flying carpet, maintaining control of it while also somehow producing a crystal ball from somewhere. She placed the crystal ball on a floating velvet cushion, her fingers tracing mysterious symbols on the surface—the tiny glimmers danced within the deep purple crystal, continually connecting into various geometric figures that seemed to hold special significance.

"What are you doing?" Baili Qing asked curiously.

"Checking data characteristics," Lucrecia replied without looking up. "This area has clearly undergone severe distortion. The presence of the Dark Angel has masked its original appearance, so even I can’t determine what this place is... However, some more fundamental and essential things cannot be easily changed. After all, surface coverage cannot rewrite the underlying data structure of the world."

Yu Sheng listened with partial comprehension but fortunately, his confusion didn’t last long as the Star Sea Witch quickly completed her "inspection."

"This is indeed the Old World," Lucrecia looked at Yu Sheng, her eyes still brimming with residual magical light, "...the divination results show we’re in Plande."

Yu Sheng blinked, suddenly recalling the name: "Plande? The one Erin mentioned in the Garden Network?"

"Yes, the ’Assembly Hall’ in the Garden Network is a data replica of Plande," Lucrecia said with a smile, "And where we are now is the location of the ’original’ in the Old World."

"This doesn’t look like a ’city-state’ at all," Erin scratched her head, gazing around and sighing, "It’s all trees."

"Even without these trees, this place probably wouldn’t be as I remember it," Lucrecia shook her head, "When Father reset this world, he reorganized all data from the Old World, integrating it as part of the new world’s underlying structure... No one knows what the Old World would be like after the ’reset.’

"Your dad doesn’t know either?" Yu Sheng asked curiously, "He didn’t give you a map or some kind of manual?"

Then he saw the "Star Sea Witch" roll her eyes and suddenly lean over, her voice very low: "Uncle Yu, I’m telling you in secret, my dad’s craftsmanship back then was actually quite rough, especially when compressing the Old World, given the tight schedule and heavy tasks... Don’t say that I said it."

Yu Sheng blinked and in the next second found Lucrecia sitting elegantly in the center of the carpet as if the previous comment was just an illusion.

He hadn’t had time to say anything else when he felt the carpet sway slightly, the previously steady flying carpet suddenly stopping.

Erin immediately asked nervously, "What’s wrong? What’s wrong?"

Lucrecia was already standing up, one hand withdrawing her wand: "There’s something in front, suddenly appeared—look up."

Yu Sheng quickly looked up, and in the next second, he was stunned in bewilderment.

He saw a huge fragment — like a narrow triangular mirror — standing obliquely in the forest as if falling from the sky. The tip of the "mirror fragment" pierced the distant ground, while the other end tilted upwards above the forest canopy, and the carpet was positioned where the tree crowns were sparse enough to allow a view of the scene on the "mirror."

The mirror did not reflect the sky and forest scenery, but rather displayed a dim scene from an unknown source. Thick white mist floated in the high skies of the mirror world, with a nearly blood-colored dim moon hanging in the clouds and mist, and under the moonlight, the land of the mirror world was cracking and darkened, the horizon seemingly twisted and rolled due to some anomalous natural phenomenon.

And on that twisted barren land, the outlines of buildings could be vaguely seen—the image was too blurry to discern whether those buildings were a majestic city or a pile of molten ruins, only faintly recognizing that they had many tall spires, bathed in moonlight’s blood-red hue.

"Whoa..." Erin was now standing on Yu Sheng’s shoulder in surprise, the Little Puppet wobbling, "What is this... does the Old World have this? It doesn’t seem like something from the Old Tree or the Beauty God."

Baili Qing also stood up, staring at the skewed mirror world in the sky, her gaze heavy with thought, as if making a connection yet uncertain.

"Can we get closer?" Yu Sheng asked, "There seems to be a gap between the tree crowns, looks like we can fly over."

"Flying over isn’t a problem, but we don’t know what will happen once we get close," Lucrecia nodded, already maneuvering the carpet to slowly ascend, "My crystal ball hasn’t sensed the presence of this thing, it’s not part of the Old World’s original structure."

Yu Sheng nodded along: "Let’s stay alert, we still know very little about the ’this side’s’ situation; if anything unusual happens, prioritize retreat."