Chapter 199 ·How Did You Suddenly Start Moving
Chapter 199: How Did You Suddenly Start Moving
Lilia frowned.
Terrain changes? Or an illusion?
If it was those charlatans from the Immortality Society, creating this kind of disorienting maze wouldn’t be surprising.
“Alright, stop trembling over there, it’s making me dizzy.” Lilia waved her hand impatiently. “Keep moving. If you still can’t find the way, I’ll throw you out to scout ahead.”
Xiao Hong felt as if she had been granted amnesty. She hurriedly adjusted Bulara on her back and continued trudging forward step by step, muttering “almost there, almost there” under her breath.
After another ten-plus minutes.
The casual look on Lilia’s face gradually disappeared.
Something was off.
Very off.
The smell in the air had changed.
Lilia narrowed her eyes, a faint red glimmer flickering deep within her pupils. She didn’t speak, but her footsteps became lighter, and even her breathing slowed to the bare minimum.
Xiao Hong ahead seemed to sense it too, her pace noticeably slowing.
As a local creature that had roamed mass graves for years, she had a beast-like instinct for danger.
“H-heroine…” Xiao Hong’s voice dropped to a whisper, tinged with a sob. “Up ahead… there’s something…”
Following her trembling finger.
The thick fog parted slightly.
About fifty meters away stood an enormous crooked-neck tree.
This tree looked extremely abnormal. Unlike the surrounding Corpse-Faced Locust trees that were dry and blackened, this one had an eerie dark red color, as if it had been soaked in blood for hundreds of years.
Its trunk twisted like a person arching backward in extreme pain.
The most scalp-numbing part was what hung beneath its canopy.
They weren’t skeletons, nor Resentful Spirits.
They were grayish-white, cocoon-like things.
When the wind blew, those cocoons swayed in midair, producing a creaking “creak—creak” sound like an old wooden door.
“What the hell are those?” Lilia asked in a low voice.
“I… I don’t know…” Xiao Hong’s teeth chattered. “They weren’t here the last time I came… Heroine, let’s retreat, okay? This place is too cursed. I feel like if we go any further, we’ll end up as fertilizer…”
Lilia ignored her cowardly suggestion. She stared at the tree—her instincts told her this thing was definitely connected to her objective.
Just as the two were fully focused on the scene ahead—
Crack.
A crisp sound suddenly exploded behind them without warning.
It was the sound of joints being forcibly twisted.
In this deathly silent environment, it was louder than thunder.
“Who’s there?!”
Every hair on Lilia’s body stood on end. She spun around almost reflexively, her right hand already gripping the short blade at her waist, killing intent erupting instantly.
Xiao Hong let out a shrill “Aah!” and nearly took off on the spot.
Then—
They saw a suffocating sight.
Bulara, who had been treated like a dead pig and carried the entire way, was now standing up.
“Oh my.”
Bulara tilted her head.
“The energy here… seems quite good.”
She stretched lazily as if she had just woken up, her joints cracking loudly like firecrackers.
The muscles on Lilia’s face twitched twice.
This woman…
Of all times to wake up, she chose this exact moment to play dead and then revive!
“You…” Lilia gritted her teeth so hard her short blade nearly shattered in her grip. “Were you pretending to be dead the whole time?”
Bulara turned her neck back, revealing that signature eerie, stiff smile.
“Lilia-senior sure knows how to joke.” She spoke in that flat, emotionless tone. “As a precision puppet created by Her Majesty Hera, rational allocation of energy is a basic setting. That was sleep mode earlier, to prepare for the upcoming high-intensity battle… See? It’s been saved now.”
Saved your ass!
So I was just your free porter?!
Lilia took a deep breath, reminding herself that killing a teammate would deduct performance points—and besides, this thing was as hard as stone right now, she might not even be able to break it.
“Fine. You win.” Lilia pointed at Bulara’s nose. “I’m remembering this. When we get to the Black Sea, if you don’t charge first as the meat shield, I’ll dismantle you and use you as firewood!”
Bulara shrugged indifferently, even kindly helping Xiao Hong—who had collapsed in fright—straighten her collar.
“Now then, that thing ahead…” Bulara stared at the crooked red tree.
“It seems like something quite interesting is wrapped inside.”
Lilia rolled her eyes and turned her attention back to the tree.
Although this traitorous doll was irritating, she had to admit that having her as a meat shield made her feel much more secure. At least she didn’t have to worry about someone stabbing her in the back—unless the one doing the stabbing was Bulara herself.
“Quiet.” Lilia made a shushing gesture, lowering her body slightly like a hunting leopard. “Let’s go take a look.”
“Xiao Hong, follow behind.”
“Ah? We’re still going?” Xiao Hong’s face turned miserable, but under Lilia’s murderous glare, she could only scramble to her feet and follow behind the two demons cautiously.
This wasn’t exploration at all—this was a live broadcast of a horror movie!
The three of them lightened their steps and slowly approached the crooked tree.
As the distance closed, the burnt, scorched smell grew stronger.
When they got within a dozen meters of the tree, Lilia finally saw clearly what those “cocoons” really were.
They were… skin.
Complete skins peeled off from unknown creatures, stuck together with gray mucus. They bulged as if filled with liquid.
Even more disgusting—those skins were subtly wriggling, as if breathing.
“Ugh…”
Even Xiao Hong, a flesh-eating monster, couldn’t help but retch at the sight.
Lilia didn’t vomit, but her stomach churned violently.
This aesthetic… this twisted taste…
“Shh.”
Bulara suddenly raised her hand. Her originally stiff fingers transformed into five sharp surgical blades.
“There’s something inside.”
She pointed at one of the largest skins.
It hung at the lowest branch, only two or three meters above the ground.
Not only was it larger than the others, but its outer layer was semi-transparent.
Through that thin, vein-laced skin, a curled-up shadow could vaguely be seen inside.
Thump.
Thump.
A dull heartbeat echoed from within the cocoon.
With each beat, the cocoon contracted, drawing dark red fluid from the tree trunk.
Lilia stared at that shadow, her eyelids twitching wildly.
That outline… why did it look so familiar?
Like… a human?
At that moment—
Rip—
A tearing sound like fabric splitting apart.
The cocoon suddenly split open.
A gray, decayed hand covered in black runes shot out, grabbing onto the trunk!
Foul-smelling fluid gushed down.
A naked humanoid creature with gray-white skin and no facial features—only a vertically split mouth—slid out of the cocoon and crashed heavily onto the ground.
“Grr…”
It lay there, turning its head around once, and then—
Where its eyes should have been, it locked directly onto Lilia’s hiding spot.
They had been discovered!