Duan Shanyue had seen this vine before when he was alone, and had suffered a lot from these things. So after seeing those things nailed to the ground, he immediately recognized the origin of the enemy.
There was something different about those vines, though.
The rubble rolled on the ground, and then was pushed farther away - the green plants were growing and expanding under the ruins, and then stretched out from the rubble. The woman kept backing up while holding the sword in both hands. In front of her, the green had spread out into a group of gray-white gravels, expanding slowly and alarmingly.
These vines are breaking through the boundaries of earth and stone at a speed visible to the naked eye.
"Is this still an ordinary plant..." Even across the river bank, Duan Qing could see the green thorns composed of strange plants that were spreading rapidly. Those roots that grow wildly are entangled with each other, and the whole body is covered with spikes, showing a natural terror to the intruders with its ferocious appearance. Some fine roots have overflowed to a place not far from the river, as if they will turn into a wild wave the next moment and engulf the enemy in front of them.
"boom."
Mengzhu jumped to the side in fright at the sudden loud noise, thinking that a new enemy had appeared. Xueling Huanbing was unmoved and continued to protect the girl with his sword. The dust dispersed, and the burly figure of Broken Mountain appeared from the source of the loud noise - he actually used his strength and jumped directly from the other side of the river.
Broken Mountain's bravery reminded another person. He stopped running around the river, and instead randomly found a narrower place in the river - it was about ten meters wide - then took a few steps back, and then accelerated.
With another sound of heavy objects falling to the ground, Duan Shanyue opened his stance and approached. However, in the face of such a thorny creature, the woman Xue Ling Huan Bing might be able to use the special effects of her weapon to cause some damage. A pure melee player like him really had no good solution.
The woman in the black cloak glanced here, and then took two steps forward. Duan Shanyue understood the meaning in her eyes, so he came over and protected Mengzhu on her behalf, just in time with Duan Qing, who was running over. Had a face-to-face meeting.
"Not bad, you can actually jump over."
"I'm not as skilled as you, I still have to run two steps first."
During the brief exchange, the two did not look at each other, while staring at the green "thread ball" in front of them that had almost turned into a huge thing. The next moment, needles shot out from a certain part of it. The two of them pulled Mengzhu and hurriedly hid behind the abandoned house on the right.
The white sword light suddenly lit up, like a bright sharp knife, slashing at the mess ahead.
There was a sound of the vine being cut by the sword energy, and the ends of several roots were cut off. They fell to the ground, rolling and stirring like living creatures. They struggled for a long time before slowly losing their vitality. However, the remaining wildly growing plants became even more violent as a result, with countless thin branches dancing randomly in the air, like violent living creatures.
"Is that all you have?" The woman in the black cloak exhaled, then snorted, but before she could finish her words, the crazy dancing suddenly stopped.
The thread made of vines stirred, and then gradually shrank like the stomach of a giant beast. The expressions of the people present became solemn at the same time, because according to the routine of normal virtual games, the thing in front of them seemed to be enlarging its moves.
"Take cover!"
Amid Duan Qing's shouts, Xue Ling Huan Bing finally put away the idea of testing the waters head-on. She stamped her right foot hard, dragged the sword with both hands, and flew towards the left.
There is a section of wall that collapsed.
As the shrinking vine suddenly expanded, a large number of needles burst out from it, shooting out in all directions. For a moment, the only sound that filled everyone's ears was the dense sound of "tuk-tuk-tuk-tuk". A faint cry of "Ouch" came from the other side of the river in the distance - that was the sound of A Niu, who was still on the other side, being hit by a stray bullet.
After a few seconds, the random shooting stopped, but to the perception of those present, this period of time lasted as long as minutes. Duan Qing poked his head out from behind the bunker on the other side and saw the current scene next to the river.
Although I was prepared in my heart, I was still shocked beyond measure.
With the vine group as the center, slender spikes densely covered the entire sight in all directions that could be taken care of, just like the sun radiating light to the surrounding earth. The needles all over the ground were densely inserted into the ground near the vines, and then gradually became sparse as the distance increased, and finally disappeared at the edge of the river bank. The broken wall on the other side where Xue Ling Huan Bing was hiding was also covered with acupuncture. From a distance, it looked like part of a hedgehog's fur.
"Thousands of arrows fired together are truly spectacular..."
Duan Qing murmured to himself, and then asked Mengzhu next to him: "Are you okay?"
The little girl shook her head slowly.
Duan Qing looked at Duan Shanyue with the same eyes again - this man who looked more like an uncle was staring in one direction.
"What about you, have you...what are you looking at?"
"Shh, look over there..."
Duan Qing looked in that direction, and cold sweat instantly flowed from his forehead - he didn't see a more vigorous vine army, but dry vines scattered on the ground.
It appears to be dead.
If it will die after a thousand arrows are fired, then this monster is too...stupid, or in other words, too easy to deal with. If that's not the case, then what on earth just happened...
The sound of footsteps came from the far side of the river, and a familiar red and black figure came into Duan Qing's eyes, and at the same time the doubts in Duan Qing's heart were solved.
The same man in the straw hat, red and black plaid shirt and suspenders, dressed like a farm uncle, came from that direction. He did not immediately pay attention to the people in front of him, but walked towards the mess that was scattered on the ground, held a very inconspicuous wooden pole with his hand, and then pulled it out with force.
Duan Qing sweated even more - it was a huge sickle.
Although it uses a wooden pole, the blade of the sickle is made of metal with a cold light. It looks very sharp. The green juice dripping from the tip of the blade also tells the story of what happened before. He didn't know where the blade of the sickle was inserted, which dealt a fatal blow to the monster made of vines. The real uncle put the scythe on his shoulder and looked in the direction of the tower, but several people present felt that this powerful man who had wiped out the mess just now seemed to be looking at them.
"Aren't we letting you people out..." After a long time, the farm uncle withdrew his gaze and used his free left hand to hold the straw hat on his head, partially covering his face.
"It's very dangerous here."
The same image, the same words, but after this period of experience, Duan Qing and others had a new understanding of the word "danger". When they heard this sentence again, everyone's mood was obviously different.
The little girl even almost cried - compared to what she had experienced these days, this uncle's face looked so kind.
*****************
"Hmm... So that person saved you... This was our mistake."
At night, on the vast land in the center of the ruins, a bonfire was burning. Because of the increase in the number of people, the bonfire became much larger. Several people sat around the fire, sharing food and exchanging various information found during the day.
"I sincerely apologize for our lack of consideration that put you in such a dangerous situation."
The food in front of me was quite delicious - as a fire mage, Freya personally manipulated the flames and made a barbecue with wild monsters caught from nowhere. As for the players' feasting, she herself didn't mind sharing the food with others. However, after finishing, the chef who "taken all the credit" sat behind Christine with an expressionless face. She put meat into her mouth and chewed hard with her cheeks puffed out. It seemed that she planned to express her feelings in this way.
Christine looked at her helplessly, so she had no choice but to express her previous apology on behalf of the two sisters.
"Uh... In this case, don't you two know that uncle?" Duan Qing took a sip of water, swallowed the delicious food in his mouth, and then asked the beautiful woman, what he got It was also an expected shake of the head.
"According to your description, that uncle should be a strong man, but since he is not from us or someone we know, he is probably a local." The voice of the woman in blue robe was still so pleasant: "Don't worry, since He saved you, so he shouldn't be our enemy..."
"But being able to live in such a forest is definitely not an ordinary person." She lowered her head and chuckled: "I really want to get to know you..."
Several people were discussing the battle they encountered in the ruins in the afternoon, and then asked about the origin of the uncle. Except for Duan Qing and Mengzhu, who had met once before, everyone else said they had never seen this seemingly strong man. of weirdos.
Except for one person, Duan Shanyue—he actually met that person once.
"Before, I struggled to survive alone in this forest, using all my abilities. I almost died countless times, all because of various luck... I won't mention those embarrassing things. , but...once, it was the uncle in the straw hat who saved me."
Duan Shanyue was also feasting unceremoniously, so he didn't mind mentioning the hardships he had suffered before. However, he was still a little scared when he mentioned this matter: "At that time, I encountered a... strange creature made of earth and stone. Except for the red light exposed in the middle, the rest of the creature was surrounded by hard stones. Those The stone is so hard that my fists almost have no effect..."
Duan Qing and others also had a rough impression of how powerful this pillar of the world was, so they could imagine how powerful the earth and stone monster was. If they were allowed to work together It is estimated that there will be no benefit. Speaking of this incident, Duan Shanyue stopped eating barbecue and scratched his short hair with his hands, as if he was recalling the details at that time: "I struggled with that monster for a long time, and then the uncle appeared. . Oh no, it was his weapon that appeared first."
He put down the bones in his hands, made a hammer-swinging motion with both hands, and gestured to the others: "That should be a sledgehammer. It's also a wooden pole. The hammer head flew over with a roar and hit that thing. , and then the monster banged..."
Duan Shanyue spread his hands: "...it was smashed."
"So powerful..." Aniu was shocked again and opened his mouth wide.
"Then he came over and picked up the sledgehammer and said something to me, um, the same thing as before." Duan Shanyue pointed in a certain direction, and Duan Qing knew that he was referring to what happened this afternoon: "Then he left. Lost."
"I didn't talk to him in the end. Now that I think about it, I feel a little regretful..." Duan Qing sensed something was wrong in Duan Shanyue's sigh. After a moment, he turned to Mengzhu and asked: "You mentioned something incredible before. There must be this farm uncle. In that legend... did it mention what weapons he used?"
"I made that up casually, but you still remember it..." The little girl pursed her shiny mouth and said in a low voice, but her face was a little red.
"But it is true that some players have encountered that NPC, so there is that rumor... Well, let me think about it..."
The girl tugged at her blond hair in distress: "They said... they didn't say it in detail, but... oh, it's been so long, who still remembers it? Besides, is it just a lie or two words..."
"Someone has mentioned it, some has not said it...Among the people mentioned, it seems that Big Brother North and South mentioned that the man was carrying an ax, the kind used to chop down trees...Chocolate My sister said that the straw hat man was holding a big knife and looked very handsome when he was playing... Yes, her eyes were full of stars and she had longing on her face, I remember it very clearly."
Amidst the black lines on other people's faces, the girl stumbled and told what she knew. Duan Qing finally got the answer he wanted - that powerful and strange uncle who seemed to use a different one every time. arms. This... feeling that was not normal aroused Duan Qing's attention and vigilance.
Could it be that there is a hidden master who is proficient in all kinds of martial arts hidden in this forest? How is it possible? The entire forest is abnormal, so this situation is obviously abnormal...but why? Is there anything in this that players need to pay attention to and think about?
where is the problem?
Duan Qing couldn't think of the strangeness of that uncle and its significance for a while. However, the discussion did not stop because of Duan Qing's thinking. First, several people talked about their findings - Mengzhu and Xueling Huanbing found some broken gemstones in various colors. It is said that the two of them were attracted by an ornament inlaid with gems. After Mengzhu took it off the shelf, the thing shattered, and then the vines attacked from the broken window, and what happened next That scene.
"Huh, as expected, women's focus is to be different..." After knowing the cause of the attack, the burly man holding his chest naturally would not let go of this opportunity to laugh. He knew that the little girl had got into trouble. Lowering his head with some self-blame, Xue Ling Huan Bing couldn't stand it anymore and took out the broken gems: "At least we have gained something, which is better than you empty-handed grown men... "
"Hey, we don't want to trade our lives for..."
"These stones..." Before Duan Shanyue could finish speaking, the woman in blue robe reached out and took the gems. She stared at what others saw as just some colorful stones, frowned and said: "...there are still magic skills left. It seems that it should have some protective effect before, but it's not sure yet. Maybe we can study it after we go back. After a while, you will probably have a clearer understanding of the original functions of these gems..."
She returned the stone to Xueling Huanbing: "Maybe that's why those vines have remained silent until now..."
"I'm just telling you, those vines were fine outside, why did they suddenly move..." The simple-minded little girl became happy again, waved her fist, then grabbed a piece of barbecue in front of her and bit into it viciously. It was like biting those vines.
"But since these protections have been lost, those vines will not appear again, right?" Duan Qing said on the side: "Also, if you eat more, you will gain weight..."
"This is a free world, what am I afraid of..." The little girl squinted her eyes: "Stop bluffing, those vines are dead, don't even think of scaring me again..."
"Give me the gem, and I'll see if you panic when you encounter these things in the future."
"No. If I go back and sell the money, I can consider sharing some with you... Well, it's 10%."
"Hey, that's too much..."
Unlike what Xueling Huanbing said, A Niu and Duan Shanyue still found some ancient armor equipment, but this was the only harvest they had left after rummaging through all kinds of useless garbage. Although the armor is in tatters and difficult to use, the marks engraved on it are worth studying. So Broken Mountain asked Aniu to drag it back and show it to Christine.
"...This is the symbol of the ancient magic empire." Christine just glanced at it and answered.
She was holding a teacup that had been conjured from nowhere in one hand, and pointed to the diamond-shaped symbol with the other hand: "Here, here, and here should have colors representing the four elements of earth, fire, water, and wind. Maybe it's because of the age. The color has all been lost..."
The long rhombus has two vertical and horizontal lines in the middle, dividing the interior of the rhombus into four equal parts, surrounded by a circle of dotted patterns. Duan Qing and others looked at the sign, and sure enough, except for the lines engraved on the armor, no other colors could be seen.
"The appearance of this thing shows that we have found the right place... plus the previous gems." Christine's voice was full of confidence: "This should be where people from the ancient Magic Empire once lived. The place."
Duan Qing couldn't help but look around. The collapsed ruins and broken walls not far away seemed to suddenly wake up in the dark night, using their broken bodies to tell the story of the once vibrant scene when the people here lived there. Now that it has become like this, and even the final destruction of the Millennium Empire, people can't help but feel the power of time.
But there seems to be something missing in this long river of time.
"There are no corpses..." Staring at the ruins in the night and recalling the search during the day, Duan Qing suddenly realized what was wrong.
"We didn't find a single corpse." He looked around at the others, and as expected, he saw a look of awareness in their eyes: "If this small village encountered any disaster a thousand years ago, there should always be dead people... ..."
"And now there is not a single corpse, which means..." Xue Ling Huan Bing continued: "Did they all escape? That's not right."
"We can find the remains of some daily necessities in this village." Duan Shanyue first added: "In other words, there was no planned escape here. They did not escape on their own initiative. But... If he was in trouble and escaped passively, there should be some traces of war or disaster, at least... there should be corpses."
"But just now... there was nothing of value." There was also a hint of doubt in the little girl's voice: "There was not even a corpse..."
"So what, we can't see anything..." A Niu scratched his head and ears.
"Or there are many possibilities." Duan Qing explained: "For example, some kind of disease that wiped out human beings left no bones in the end, or there are creatures that like bones in this forest, and they cleaned up the place, and then or......"
He looked at the pair of great magician sisters: "There were humans who...did similar things."
"Don't look at us with that look. We also want to know what's going on." Facing Duan Qing's meaningful gaze, the woman in blue robe still smiled calmly: "But I still admire you very much. The adventurers' Observation and thinking…really very rigorous.”
"As for us, we did find something. But... let my sister introduce it to you." The soft voice belonging to Christine continued, but she seemed to intend to let her sister also express it. Ichiban: After saying this, she closed her eyes, holding the tea cup in both hands and drinking gracefully. Freya, who was hiding behind her, obviously did not expect that she had her own part in this discussion— —She was still stuffing barbecue into her mouth.
Realizing that everyone's eyes were suddenly focused on her, the red-robed woman stopped putting food into her mouth. She slowly put down the skewer of barbecue in her hand, swallowed hard, and then raised her head in pain as if she was choked, and beat her chest with her little hands.
The adventurers tried hard to suppress their laughter, and their faces became distorted.
Freya finally caught her breath. Slightly caressing her high chest, she regained her signature expressionless face.
"Earlier, we found some remains in front..." she said calmly.
"Human remains."
