Chapter 272: Fire Trap

These fire trees seemed to have no life of their own. They did not undergo any changes under these sounds. Instead, the zombie beasts became somewhat crazed because of them. They became dazed, rolled around, crashed into trees, attacked the ones making the sounds, and displayed all kinds of different behaviors.

The mutated creatures, however, showed no intention of fighting back. Even when their heads were knocked off, the sounds continued to come from them without stopping.

Joo Joowon saw the same kind of fleshy buds that had previously appeared on the Big Belly Zombie’s body growing on these creatures. However, they were not as obvious as those on the Big Belly Zombie. Many of them stopped functioning halfway through, unable to reconnect their mutated and severed bodies, and eventually lay motionless where they were, never moving again.

However, even so, Joo Joowon could still tell that their health bars were somewhat thicker than those of zombies. At least, when zombies below the elite monster level suffered a fatal attack, they would still die when they were supposed to. These mutated creatures, however, seemed to possess some of the abilities of elite monsters and bosses. Before their health bars were completely depleted, it seemed that they simply would not die.

Very soon, all the remaining zombie beasts had their mental mutations triggered by this mental attack and became one of them.

Joo Joowon suddenly understood why dark creatures threw themselves toward sources of light without regard for anything else. They did not have an attraction to light. They were doing it to "preach."

Wherever there was a source of light, it meant that living creatures were active there, and every living creature was a target for their preaching.

Are they still not going to make a move?

Joo Joowon watched the fire trees around him. Whether they had been intimidated into silence or truly possessed only instincts without intelligence, they had still made no move until now. The mutated animals also had no intention of leaving. They simply remained quietly where they were, their expressions becoming "dazed" once again.

Joo Joowon could not help feeling as if they were constantly praying every moment of every day.

A considerable amount of time passed again. It might have been half an hour, or it might have been several hours. Some animals that were farther away also arrived, and they too became members of these mutated creatures.

During this long process, Joo Joowon finally discovered that these fire trees were not actually motionless. It was simply that they moved far too slowly, so slowly that their movements were almost impossible to notice.

While the mutated creatures were preaching, the fire trees had been moving the entire time. Soon, they formed a scattered but orderly encircling formation, surrounding the mutated creatures layer by layer and trapping them in the center.

Joo Joowon silently retreated to the very edge to avoid accidentally being injured.

After waiting for quite some time again, it seemed that the fire trees had determined that all the creatures that could arrive nearby had already come. The flames inside these trees then began to float out.

The blazing flames shot into the sky like sickles cutting through wheat across the mountains, flying toward all the mutated creatures and surrounding them from every direction. Trapped within them, the mutated creatures found it extremely difficult to escape.

Dense and fierce flames burned violently. A pungent smell began to spread through the surrounding area. Strange black smoke started rising from the tops of the mutated creatures’ heads, accompanied by shrill screams from the mutated creatures whose minds had completely fallen into madness.

Their already mutated bodies became even more grotesque and terrifying after being stimulated. They charged directly through the sea of flames without caring about anything else.

However, it was useless.

At some unknown point, the ground beneath their feet had become sticky and pitch-black, faintly showing a dark red color. It was like flowing mud, sticky yet still flexible, silently corroding the mutated creatures that came into contact with the ground beneath their feet.

The sky was an even greater forbidden zone. The endless sea of flames was like a thick layer of clouds. The creatures with feathers had not even had time to fly out of the sea of flames before the feathers on their bodies had already been completely burned away. They fell heavily to the ground, and before they could even make a sound, their bodies had already collapsed limply.

The corpses returned to the red mud, while the essence within their bodies was burned into black smoke.

Joo Joowon secretly wondered what exactly that black smoke was.

Judging from the appearance of the mutated creatures before this, they should not have cared about the injuries on their bodies. It was not that they could not feel pain. Rather, they simply did not care about it. Yet at this moment, they were still crying out in agony. This meant that they were feeling an even deeper level of pain.

What was it?

Was their Mental Power being ignited, or was their soul being ignited?

However, Joo Joowon soon had no time to think about these things.

After the mutated creatures had almost all been dealt with, leaving only a few lonely ones behind, several clusters of flames unexpectedly swayed out and then shot toward Joo Joowon with a whoosh.

Joo Joowon: "..."

He immediately turned around and ran. He jumped up and down as he desperately tried to shake off the flames, wishing more than anything that he had been born with four more legs.

The flames pursued him relentlessly without falling behind even a little. Joo Joowon also did not dare to run back toward his body. He was afraid that the flames would notice his body, so he could only search for another source of water.

Fortunately, he had been paying attention to the sounds of flowing water around him all this time. Originally, he had thought that mutated beasts might come over to drink water, and he could hide nearby and launch a surprise attack when that happened. Now, however, this had become his lifeline.