Chapter 666: “Deadly Land (1)”
Without having to be fearful of the poisonous mist, they had one thing less to worry about on the path forward.
The bone filled land beneath their feet stretched out before them. As they moved, the layers of bones thinned and the companions could see the light from the Spirit Fire Globes reflect off soldier’s blades sealed under the ice. The ice glittered under the light, an icy bed of cold starry reflections paved their way forward.
Mu Qian Fan had told them, at the bottom of the Heaven’s End Cliff, the most terrifying things usually hid behind the blinding mist.
Soon, the path of icy bones gradually thinned out and before them, the terrain changed. The ground was covered all over in moss. The Spirit Fire Globes lit up an area of several meters around the group. Mu Qian Fan had not used Spirit Fire Globes the last time and although they could see their way forward, the light they used did not show the way as clearly.
The Spirit Fire Globes’ advantage showed up in that situation, as Jun Wu Xie could clearly see everything in the places the light reached.
The green moss grew in abundance and they covered the entire ground densely. They made the path slippery and sticky and every step they took called for caution to avoid taking any unnecessary spill onto the ground.
Jun Wu Xie took out a three segmented nunchuck. It was made out of wood and made very light, its two joints linked with a short metal chain. The nunchuck could be joined together by holding the segments together and twisted clockwise, and when joint up, it formed into a simple wooden staff.
It was simple staff that people used for everyday training but Jun Wu Xie was using it to inspect the ground as they proceeded forward.
The green moss covered an extensive area of the ground and the entire land looked exactly the same everywhere. But under the expansive fresh green moss, it was highly possible that they his deadly sinkholes.
Jun Wu Xie took the lead, the staff in her hand pushing and prodding into the ground to make sure it was safe before she stepped onto it. Behind her, Qiao Chu and the others walked in a single file, stepping only in the same places that Jun Wu Xie had stepped on.
Within the all encompassing mist, silence fell again.
When the staff in Jun Wu Xie’s hand prodded the ground three steps ahead of her, she suddenly felt the ground offering no resistance!
Jun Wu Xie fell forward, and just as she was leaning, she quickly righted herself, but she could feel the staff in her hand being pulled by a strong force, from the other end of it.
[A sinkhole!]
Jun Wu Xie’s eyes darkened.
Immediately abandoning the idea of withdrawing the wooden staff, she released her grip. In the short period of a few seconds, the more than a meter long wooden staff was completely swallowed up. Before the wooden was completely submerged, the moss that had split open bubbled a while, before it closed up and reverted to its unbroken state.
“The environment here….. is really rather scary.” Qiao Chu was right behind Jun Wu Xie and he witnessed the whole thing.
When Jun Wu Xie had attempted to retrieve the wooden staff, she had employed the use of her spirit powers, but it had not helped her in the slightest. All her powers were no match for the sinkhole’s deadly grip on the wooden staff.
Only the Heavens knew, what would happen to a person who got swallowed up by the sinkhole…..
What was more terrifying was that the sinkhole had just revealed itself just for a short while, and it had immediately reverted back to its original invisible state, making it impossible to find any signs of them.
“Are we able to use Lord Meh Meh to scout the way forward? Since it is so humongous in size, these regular sinkholes wouldn’t affect it at all.” Qiao Chu suggested with a slight frown.
Jun Wu Xie shook her head in rejection.
“We are not able to ascertain the size of the sinkholes in the area. If a large sinkhole appears and if Lord Meh Meh steps into it, we have no way of rescuing him. However, if any one of us were to fall into a sinkhole, we can still use Lord Meh Meh’s power to struggle out. But if Lord Meh Meh gets stuck, our way forward will become much more difficult.” Jun Wu Xie still remembered every single word Mu Qian Fan had told them.