Chapter 284: The Strange Box
The giant plant was extremely quiet. Lin Ye had thought those roots would attack him, but they didn't.
Lin Ye swung out his fishhook to pull Xia La and Ethan up onto the giant plant, then threw silk strands downward.
"This plant actually isn't attacking us, even though I clearly saw those root tendrils moving."
Ethan felt very strange about this.
"Maybe it's in a good mood right now. We'd better not stay here long regardless."
Lin Ye pulled Xia La and quickly climbed upward. There were almost no floating islands around the giant plant. Only by reaching the plant's top could they leave this area.
"It won't attack us when we reach the middle, will it?"
Xia La asked worriedly.
"Even if it does, we still have to go up."
Lin Ye's climbing speed grew increasingly faster, and Ethan had already fallen behind him. When Lin Ye reached the midsection of the giant plant, vibrations suddenly came from beneath his feet. Numerous branches surged toward them from all directions.
"Dammit, your guess was spot on!"
Lin Ye used the Cross Scepter to control compressed spiritual energy blood blades that swept away the branches in front of him. But the branches on the giant plant seemed endless - as soon as one batch was cleared, the next would quickly surge over.
With branches coming from everywhere, to avoid being trapped and killed by them, Lin Ye could only pull Xia La and rapidly escape by jetting compressed spiritual energy, quickly moving away from the giant plant's range.
Lin Ye wasn't the only one running away. Ethan had jumped down when Lin Ye was attacked.
Lin Ye pulled Xia La and fell only several dozen meters downward before landing on a nearly hundred-meter-long floating island.
Ethan and Richard also landed on the same floating island, having forcibly followed Lin Ye to the same spot.
Although they couldn't climb back up, controlling their landing point with spiritual energy wasn't difficult.
The giant plant area was a dead end, so Lin Ye could only mentally replan their escape route.
"What do we do now? That area only has that plant. To go upward, we must pass that plant."
Ethan stared headachely at the giant plant above them. He lacked the ability to quickly deal with such a massive plant.
"Should we organize others to fight through together? Many people are trapped here. If we gather enough people, there should be a solution."
Richard had no ideas either - he had almost been whipped to death by those branches earlier.
"...Let's go to the edge of the floating island first. Follow me."
Lin Ye walked toward the position farthest from the giant plant on the floating island.
"And then? There are no other floating islands here. We can't just fly up, can we?"
Ethan raised his doubt.
"Correct. We fly up."
Lin Ye forcefully stomped off a small piece of the floating island. That small piece of land quickly disintegrated under gravitational forces.
"You want to create a stable small floating island, then fly upward?"
Ethan looked surprised at Lin Ye's actions. He could understand the principle of using floating islands to ascend, but this only sounded simple. There were many technical problems that needed solving, making it impossible to achieve quickly.
"Exactly. When the time comes, you'll take turns pushing the floating island upward and maintaining your own stability. I'll handle the rest."
Even for Lin Ye, it was difficult to push a floating island upward alone for extended periods. He needed several reliable teammates who could coordinate.
"If you can truly create a stable small floating island, then I'm fine with that. But the gravity here is so chaotic - even large floating islands gradually collapse, let alone small ones."
Ethan acknowledged that Lin Ye was ridiculously strong, but he didn't believe Lin Ye could quickly create a qualified floating island in this environment.
"We're not planning to reach the top with it. We just need to pass through the area where the giant plant is located."
While speaking, Lin Ye didn't stop working. He didn't need to create a stable floating island - he only needed a controllable platform that could provide temporary footing.
Lin Ye took out the peeper's corpse from his loot space, then cut off a piece of the floating island. The floating island fragment collapsed immediately after being cut off, but Lin Ye forcibly fixed those materials next to the corpse.
Corpse, floating island fragments, blood from the Bloody Ring.
Lin Ye carved synthetic runes on these three materials, synthesizing them together.
After simple shaping, he created a roughly two-square-meter simple platform with handrails on the edges and containing flesh and blood.
"Let's go. Take turns pushing the platform upward, keeping the force application point at the platform's center. I'll try to maintain platform stability. If it tilts over, grab the handrails and wait for me to handle it."
Because gravity differed at every position, Lin Ye had to constantly monitor the platform's stability situation, maintaining the platform's dynamic balance.
"It won't suddenly collapse, will it?"
Ethan clearly understood the difficulty of creating platforms, which was why he doubted this platform made in just a few minutes.
"You don't have to come up. This beautiful lady and I can completely push the platform. Honestly, there are a bit too many people."
Richard really wanted to ditch Ethan, so he could be the only seventh-tier pathfinder in the team.
"...I was wrong. Please definitely let me ride this platform that looks very stable."
Ethan promptly admitted defeat. He had no method to pass the giant plant alone, so he could only move with them.
"Enough talk. Quickly push the platform upward."
Lin Ye didn't care at all what Ethan said. He could feel the floating island's falling speed accelerating.
Ethan used spiritual energy to push the platform rapidly upward. Lin Ye tried to maintain platform stability, but because gravity changed too quickly, Lin Ye could only ensure the platform didn't tilt over or collapse.
During the ascent, the four not only had to control the platform's upward movement, but also ensure they weren't thrown off the platform between the tilting platform and gravity changes. This wasn't easy.
Besides Lin Ye, the other three could only tightly grip the platform handrails and frequently switch who was pushing upward.
"I'm your employer, right? Why do I have to push the platform too?"
Xia La hugged the handrail while struggling to push the platform. If Lin Ye hadn't promptly changed the platform's angle several times, she would have almost been thrown off the platform multiple times.
"No choice. If you don't want to fall into the Abyss, you'd better do what you can. Otherwise, I can't save you either."
Lin Ye stood at the platform's center, swung out his fishhook, and hooked a white cardboard box from the darkness.
"You still have leisure to go fishing?!"
Xia La hugged the handrail while hanging off the platform's edge, shouting loudly.
"No, I'm just curious about what's inside this white box. This is gathering information, not fishing. Understand?"
Lin Ye stored the box. At that moment, he spotted a green plastic box in the distance and hurriedly swung out his fishhook again.
"At least pull me up first!"
Xia La was almost at her limit.
"No hurry. Let me cast one more time."
Lin Ye looked around. He didn't know what these boxes of different colors and materials were, but that didn't stop him from fishing for boxes.