Stirring Things Up in the Wasteland 239

Chapter 239

The group was even more careful on the rest of the journey. Mainly because no one knew if the leaf insects had come from the sky or the ground. It was a good thing the male Beta’s ability level was high, and he could still hold on. If it had been a lower-level one, he would have probably been killed in an instant.

But even so, no one wanted to lose a hand or a foot.

“City Lord, Director Ji’s position hasn’t changed. She’s in the depths of the forest.”

As the team was slowly feeling its way forward, Zhao Ji suddenly spoke.

Ji Jinyu was by his side, protecting him. After all, although his ability level was high, clairvoyance was not an offensive ability.

Her mental power formed a shield, surrounding the two of them. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to expand the range of the protection, but that the actual situation didn’t allow for it.

After all, although she was a level seven ability user, to use a large-range mental shield for a long time, just like Ji Jinning’s sand armor, it consumed a considerable amount of spiritual energy.

Even if her level was high, she couldn’t keep it up forever.

“She hasn’t moved at all.”

Xia Jin was thoughtful. “Is it that she can’t move, or…”

Song Xun pondered. “Perhaps.”

“Generally speaking, Chaos’s main body has already been destroyed by us. Even if it has the ability to split its tentacles and possess people to avoid death, undoubtedly, its ability is definitely not as strong as when it was at its peak.”

Song Xun thought for a moment. “But we can’t rule out that it came here for some other purpose.”

No one could say for sure about this possibility.

“Let’s continue forward for now!”

Xia Jin nodded and called for the people behind her to continue walking. And the rest of the journey required even more caution. But although she said so, they had encountered many situations, but in reality, they had only just entered the forest for a few hundred meters.

This speed was already very slow.

But for the sake of caution, they could only do this. For one, it was to avoid dangerous casualties, and for another, it was because Ji Tang’s position hadn’t changed, and they also needed time to react to what this situation meant.

The group’s nerves were tense, and after a long time, they were a little tired. But at least they were all high-level ability users, with the lowest being level seven. As long as they had crystal cores and food to supplement them, they didn’t particularly need to rest.

They walked and walked, and walked.

After another two hours of walking, the area in front of them was a large forest of trees that would take a dozen or so people to embrace. Although the trees at the entrance were also very tall, compared to them, it was really a comparison between a child and an adult.

If you looked closely, you could also see their strangeness. The trunks were not a single piece, but a single entity formed by countless vines intertwining and gathering. Even the branches on the trunks were vines.

Then it was no wonder that these leaves and branches looked so strange.

Xia Jin looked up and squinted. “This place is not easy to pass either.”

Song Xun thought for a moment. “Looking at these vines, they should be used as a means of attack. But we also have to be on our guard against other things. Everyone, eat something and replenish your spiritual energy first.”

“Okay.”

The team continued to advance ten minutes later.

They soon entered the vine forest. It had to be said that the temperature in this vine forest was even hotter, at least ten degrees hotter than outside. But that was also normal. Who told this place to be so dense and unventilated?

It would be strange if the temperature wasn’t high.

But it was very strange. They had been walking all along, and it had been relatively quiet. It wasn’t until they reached the center that they heard a rustling sound, which was getting louder and louder.

“All around…”

The others hadn’t yet seen what it was, but Zhao Ji had. But before he could finish speaking, all the vines around them had moved. One by one, they all turned into the heads of snakes.

They had no limbs, and they looked extremely strange. The vines that served as their bodies would also occasionally ooze a black mucus.

In an instant, all the giant trees had split into long vine snakes. And this place had all turned into a sea of snakes. This scene was enough to make one’s hair stand on end.

The group stood back to back, trapped in the middle.

“This… my god, what kind of species is this? A mutated plant or a mutated animal?”

Ji Jinyu was not old, and she was not as tall as the others. She stood on her tiptoes and looked out, her face a mask of bewilderment.

“Go back.”

With just one word from Song Xun, Ji Jinyu was immediately so scared she shrank her head and became obedient.

In reality, in a common situation, as a doting mother, Song Xun was quite fond of her own daughter. But this also depended on the situation.

“How many meters are there to the outside?”

Zhao Ji calculated the distance. “About one hundred and fifty to two hundred meters.”

“Then let’s rush out.”

As soon as Song Xun’s voice fell, the vine snakes rushed over in an overwhelming wave. Dozens of snake heads stretched out and bit at her. She directly raised her Miao Dao and slashed.

Thump thump!

The vine snake was cut in half, and its soft body fell to the ground. And the snake head also turned back into a vine the moment it fell.

“I’ll clear a path. Follow me!”

Song Xun looked up, and a myriad of lightning bolts appeared. With a crackle, with her strength, the vine snakes near her body were all blasted to death. And then she continued to rush in the forward direction.

The others followed closely behind.

Xia Jin and Ai Fei were at the back, bringing up the rear. It didn’t make much of a difference whether she was in front or not. It was enough with Song Xun there.

Crackling!

Crackling—

Song Xun’s attack was fierce and swift. With her strength, and at full speed, the group quickly rushed out of the vine area. Only a few of the seven-level ability users in the middle had been slightly injured, but it was nothing serious.

“Let’s continue forward.”

“Yes.”

The group was silent, cautiously continuing to walk forward. But it was very strange. The rest of the road was very smooth, so smooth that there were no attacks from mutated plants or insects. This was simply… illogical?!

According to the current speed of progress, it should take another two hours to reach the center of the forest. And in front…

Whoosh! Whoosh—

The vines were intertwined, and they shot out from the grass. They raised their vine bodies like snakes, but they surrounded the group and did not attack, nor did they leave.

“No, what’s going on?”

“What do they want?”

“…”

Song Xun glanced at them and paused for two seconds. “Don’t worry about them. We’ll keep going.”

With Song Xun speaking, even if the others were puzzled, because they trusted her, they didn’t say much. The group walked past, and the vines retracted.

“Compared to an attack, they’re more like…”

Xia Jin was thoughtful. “More like they’re monitoring us.”

Song Xun looked up. “Then let’s go. Chaos is waiting for us in front.”

Xia Jin understood. “Is it deliberately luring us?”

“Not really.”

Song Xun advanced quickly. “They probably discovered us when we entered the forest. It probably has some backup plan.”

So when they had first entered the forest, they had been attacked. And after that, it had been basically smooth sailing, because Chaos was also waiting for them to go over.

What backup plan?

Song Xun didn’t know, but they had to go.

The farther they went in, the more the floating mist gradually sprinkled down. The mist, as thin as white gauze, was hazy, and when you walked in it, you could even feel a certain dampness.

A few dozen zhang ahead, which was probably about the center of the forest, the mist suddenly became thicker, and it turned a hazy gray.

It was thicker, and it was also increasingly blocking the view. It was a good thing Zhao Ji was here.

After about another half an hour, Song Xun, who was at the head, suddenly stopped.

Even though Zhao Ji had not given a warning.

“Mommy, what’s wrong?”

Ji Jinyu asked from the side. Before she could answer, Zhao Ji’s shocked voice came first. “What is this… hiss! What a big tree…”

The group was taken aback.

After advancing further, and in a short while, only about a minute or two later, they also saw it.

They saw the wall that was standing not far in front of them!

A wooden wall!

It was very long, and it really looked like a wall, probably dozens of meters. But it was indeed a tree, because it had the rough texture of a tree, hard and with a few slight cracks, and its thick, dragon-like trunk was deeply rooted in the soil.

Looking up, the height was rising, and you couldn’t see the top at a glance.

“What kind of mutated tree is this? So tall, so big.”

The mist was blocking, and the sun couldn’t get through. It wasn’t pitch black, but there was a certain gloominess. No wonder the mist here had turned a gray-black. It was all because there was no reflection of light.

How tall was this tree? Song Xun didn’t know. Was it this tall when she was flying in the sky? She thought carefully, but she couldn’t remember.

But looking at it now, the trunk in the mist was so endless, it felt as if it were reaching into the clouds. And they were like a single ant, insignificant.

Whoosh!

Suddenly, a gust of wind rushed at them, and it made a sharp, breaking wind sound.

“Be careful above!”

The speed was very fast, and what was attacking was a strange plant similar to a vine. There were countless of them, crisscrossing, and the leaves on them were huge, with colorful flowers blooming. Red, yellow, blue, green, cyan, indigo, purple, white, pink, and black, all colors were there, and they were very beautiful.

But if you were to be mesmerized by that beauty, you probably wouldn’t even know how you had died.

The faint fragrance was fresh and elegant, but Song Xun and the others all held their breath with all their might, attacking and dodging, and no one dared to smell.

“Protect the city lord!”

Xia Jin controlled the solidified metal long knife in her palm and, with one slash at a time, she and Ai Fei, on the left and right, led their men to block the attacks of these evolved plants, and they had forcibly opened a path for Song Xun.

The continuous attacks were getting stronger and stronger. In the end, even Xia Jin and Ai Fei were about to be unable to take it anymore, and their faces became a little pale.

Clearly, there was not much time left for them.

Song Xun knew what Xia Jin meant. The enemies after this, she still didn’t know what they were like. Her ability could not be wasted here.

“Go.”

“Mommy, go and save Mama…”

Song Xun didn’t hesitate. Although this place was dangerous, for Xia Jin, Ai Fei and the others, holding on for a while was obviously no problem. And she, as long as she solved the problem in a short time, it would be fine.

Roar!

With a flap of her lightning wings, she went straight for the huge tree. But suddenly, she stopped.

On that huge tree in her line of sight, the rough trunk was surging, and the roots of the vines that had been constantly attacking had all intertwined, as if they were very human-like in their attempt to stop Song Xun. They had turned into a coiled, giant python.

It was a real giant python.

A rough estimate was that it was larger than a hundred-story high-rise. And it was a python that was intertwined with the trunk and vines, so its body was not covered in layers of scales, but rather the rough texture of a tree bark.

It could move.

But it couldn’t make a sound.

It slowly descended, and its huge, textured snake head was tightly staring at the group of people under the tree, or more accurately, Song Xun.

Countless flowers, red, yellow, blue, and purple, were blooming on its body. And when it had lowered its distance and had gotten closer, the group finally saw a person standing on the head of the giant tree python.

A person they were all very familiar with.

“Ma, Mama…”

Ji Jinyu was stunned, and so were the others.

That was indeed Ji Tang, but at this time, her entire body was covered in red tentacles, and you could hardly see her human form. The roots of the tentacles seemed to have been inserted into the texture of the tree python below.

This scene looked incredibly terrifying. The countless beautiful flowers, in the hazy sunlight and shadow, couldn’t suppress that heart-pounding feeling.

“So she was controlled by Chaos?”

Xia Jin was panting, her face grave. “Did it discover us before? Did it deliberately lure us here, or was its destination here to begin with?!”

But no one could give her this answer.

Because that huge tree python had moved.

“Damn it, forget it. Let’s just fight…”

They quickly moved. The two level seven earth-type ability users activated their abilities with both hands, and the already wet ground immediately turned into a swamp. They joined forces and buried a section of the tree python’s body in the ground.

Even if it was just for a short ten seconds, it was enough for the others to launch a wave of attacks first, with Song Xun as the attack group, and Xia Jin as the support group from the side.

Shi Tou, with Ji Jinyu’s assistance, ascended into the air, and his main attack was to punch to the flesh. The fire ability then burned with a sizzling sound, and a white smoke rose, and then it all turned black.

After all, it was a tree. To be afraid of fire was a natural instinct. It was just a pity that Song Ye hadn’t come.

Even if it was just a short time, the group cooperated well, and their abilities were constantly being outputted, and they had made the giant python sway. But it was too big, and these short-term attacks were just tickling it.

It was impossible to be fatal.

“Ah…”

A female Alpha who was controlling the water was hit by a tail of the giant tree python that had broken free. The great force sent her flying, and she fell to the ground and slid a long way. A mouthful of blood spewed out, and she had lost her combat power in an instant.

“Everyone be careful. Try not to be hit by it.”

After breaking free from the swamp, the giant tree python’s tail smashed down again, one after another, smashing the entire earth with a rumble. The nearby mutated plants fell one after another, in a patch after another.

It was a completely indiscriminate attack.

The earth-type ability user still wanted to replicate the previous trapping action, but how could Chaos give them a chance?

Xia Jin shouted, “Zhang He, can you control it?”

The newly ascended level seven mental control ability user, Zhang He, was pulled away by the nearby Ji Chao, and with a “boom,” the tail fell.

“I’ll try.”