A Good-for-Nothing

260. Trapped

Translator: Dragon Rider

The canopy of the tall trees’ leaves blocked the sunlight and the forest was shrouded in thick mist. Seen from a distance, the forest looked like a piece of black industrial waste floating among blue waves, one surrounded by some silver-white laces, which made the island look as though it were isolated and drifting alone.

At this time, those in the depths of the forest on the island had no time to recite poetry. In fact, everyone in the forest was having headaches. It was a misty, labyrinthine forest – this had been the first thought that popped into their minds when they had first walked into the forest. They were cloaked in fog as dense as thick gauze. Thick silvery beams of sunlight streaming through the gaps between huge leaves crisscrossed the darkness, making the sky seem gloomy.

“Damn it. It’s one o’clock in the afternoon, and the sun is at its strongest, but it’s still so difficult see things clearly in here, I’m afraid we’ll be killed after sunset, when it’s too dark for us to see anything,” said Chen Qianlin, his expression becoming serious, holding Sharpness in his hand, looking around warily.

The forest was terrifyingly quiet. There was no wind or hum of insects. They felt as though they were in a dream in which they had accidentally intruded into a forest.

“Lao Ka, Luca, the fog is getting thicker. I want you two to lead the way for us,” said He Zheng. With his Yin Yang Eyes, he could see that this place was shrouded in black gas, but it was not demonic Qi. It was some kind of weird, inexplicable substance.

Exorcists were endowed with abilities that ordinary people did not have. Some of them were beasts, and some others were spirits of artifacts. Of course, most of them were humans, the most intelligent living things on earth. Humans were also the closest to gods, which was why providence had generously given them many gifts.

Lao Ka didn’t turn into a wolf, but his eyes were instinctively giving off a green glow in these conditions, and his pupils had narrowed into two slits like those of feline animals, which lent him an air of peculiarity.

In the Rose team, there was also a Yōkai, a Snow Wolf.

Lao Ka and Luca the Snow Wolf took on the duty of leading the way for them on their own account.

“It seems the visibility is indeed decreasing,” said Carnotte, coming to a sudden halt.

After Carnotte said this, Tao Wujiu smelled something very strange. It was a weird fragrance that gave him an urge to seek out the source of it.

“This smell … ”

“What’s wrong?” He Zheng asked Tao Wujiu in a muted voice.

“It smells very familiar. A very dangerous smell,” Tao Wujiu murmured.

Suddenly, as though something snapped in Tao Wujiu’s mind, he jerked his head up, his pupils contracting drastically. “I remember! Gear Flowers!”

Rumor had it that in South America grew a kind of predatory flowers, which had eccentric appearance and gave off a faint fragrance. Their white petals were covered with purple markings. They looked like giant gears and there were cylindrical stamens in the middle.

But how was it possible that there were such flowers on this island?!

“The scent of a Gear Flower has anesthetic effect, and the fluid secreted by their stamens is a kind of highly concentrated digestive juice. A normal-sized Gear Flower could easily digest a wolf with its digestive juice.”

“Shit. Those bastards of the Global Exorcism Committee should have told us the existence of such dangerous creatures on this island!”

He Zheng did not panic. He calmly inquired of Tao Wujiu, “Is there a way to kill those flowers?”

“The quickest way is to burn them, but when they’re burning, their venom will vaporize … ”

Tao Wujiu smiled a mirthless smile, “Actually, I’m not quite sure what we should do either. I just heard something about it when I was in school. The botanists just stuff those flowers and study them. Who would spend any time trying to figure out how to kill them?”

“So their fragrance anesthetizes people … How about we cut their stems?”

Surely the flower would no longer be able to cause anybody serious harm when it was separated from its stem?

“That’ll do, I think.”

He Zheng nodded. “What we need to do next is find out how many of them there are.”

Lao Ka and Luca said together, “We’ll handle it.”

Old Ka had not turned into a wolf yet. With a flying leap, he swiftly got onto a branch of the tallest tree in the forest. Lao Ka heightened his eyesight, his eyes emitting a brooding green light like those of a wolf.

“There aren’t many of them. I’m seeing only three or four on this side. They’re at eight, ten, and twelve o’clock respectively.”

“I’m seeing the same.”

Joe was somewhat apprehensive. “Zheng, is there anybody immune to the fragrance of Gear Flowers here?”

Qiu Luo gave a stroke of his sharp sword with a swishing sound. “Give me five minutes.”

Nobody knew who he said that to.

Chen Qianlin slightly pressed his lips together, his countenance giving little away.

To the exclamations of Joe’s team, Qiu Luo turned into a blur and disappeared quickly. Qiu Luo did not know the directions very clearly, but he was confident that although he did not have an intimate knowledge of the forest, he was very familiar with the areas they had walked past.

Lao Ka was still standing on the tree branch, keeping a close eye on Qiu Luo’s every move, offering Qiu Luo the guidance he needed.

Chen Kai squinted his eyes. He had become very quiet the moment he had entered the forest.

No one noticed that the yellow-haired pal was behaving uncharacteristically. All of a sudden, Xiao Han started to tremble without warning, her face ghastly pale, her arms wrapped tightly around her, panting heavily.

Xiao Qi was the second one to feel unwell. His symptoms were not as serious as those of Xiao Han, but he was also clenching his teeth.

“What’s wrong?! Qi, Han!” Xiao Han and Xiao Qi’s teammates noticed their odd behavior and flung out their arms to stop the brother and sister from toppling over.

Xiao Han was holding her chest with her eyes tightly shut, her face covered in tears. Xiao Qi was gritting his teeth, and his forehead, just like Xiao Han’s, was beaded with cold sweat.

“Someone is … calling for help. They’re in great pain.”

As mediums, they were capable of communicating with most of the spiritual entities, but if a medium was not powerful enough, they could easily be affected by a spiritual entity’s mood.

“This can’t be happening. Clearly we’re the only ones in this place!”

When Qiu Luo cut the last Gear Flower, the surroundings gradually changed.

The fog in this area lifted. The dense foliage automatically made way for the sunlight, which finally went through the fog and reached this small area for the first time.

“What’s going on?!”

Everybody’s face went deathly white at the sight of the next scene.

There were several people lying on the ground, all of whom were black-haired. Unless they were very much mistaken, those were members of the North Korean team, who had landed on the island before He Zheng and the others. They had even talked for a few moments when they had been on the ship.

But at this moment, all members of that team were lying beside Gear Flowers. Some of them had lost their hands, and some had lost their feet.  One of them had even had more than half of his torso corroded by the Gear Flower’s digestive juice.

“Wasn’t the North Korean team with the Wolf-Kingdom team?” The Wolf Kingdom was located on the Siberian Plateau, and members of its national team were fierce and powerful. Moreover, after the competition started, the Wolf team and the North Korean team had got along very well, and they had even joked that they would do everything they could to win the championship.

“Impossible. How could the Global Exorcism Committee not have taken any measures to prevent contestants from encountering such dangers?” a member of the Rose Team exclaimed.

Chen Kai, narrowing his eyes, squatted down to scrutinize their wounds.

“There are no visible wounds on their bodies, but each of the victims has a pinhole in their neck. It seems they were injected with anesthetic.”

“The North Korean team had six members, right?” asked Chen Qianlin suddenly, whose eyes had been raking the scene all along.

“Yes.” But there were only five bodies on the ground.

He Zheng gritted its teeth. Zu Zhichong wasn’t here and nobody present was capable of any spiritualistic spells. However, Xiao Qi and Xiao Han were able to communicate with ghosts.

“Xiao Qi, Xiao Han, can you communicate with their souls and ask them what happened here exactly?”

“Yeah,” Xiao Qi nodded. Xiao Han was still teary, her eyes tightly shut.

Soon Xiao Qi and Xiao Han were doing their psychic thing. On the surface they were no different than usual, except for that their eyes were tightly shut and they were murmuring some incomprehensible incantations.

The brother and sister were sitting propped against each other’s back. After a few moments, Xiao Qi opened his eyes, a rather odd expression on his face. “They said their killer had a sharp sword.”

“Sword? How is that possible … ” He Zheng muttered.

“Look! There!” They swiveled their heads around and saw that all the Gear Flowers severed in the middle had disappeared into thin air, and that all bodies of the North Korean team bore sword wounds.

Everyone’s pupils instantly contracted. Blood was dripping from the point of Qiu Luo’s sword.

He Zheng felt as though an iron fist had clenched around his heart. Thin mist gently covered everyone’s eyes and they couldn’t see their companion’s faces clearly.

“Clear your mind. Guard your Zhonggong,” said a male voice which seemed to emanate from the depths of everyone’s soul. He Zheng closed his eyes. Dan Zhu sensed danger, flew out of He Zheng’s forehead and with that two silvery twitters were heard in everyone’s mind. In that instant, the fog dissipated and everybody felt a scorching dazzling light over their eyelids.

In a kind of stupor, He Zheng heard someone exclaim, “Phoenix!”

He Zheng opened his eyes. The surroundings had changed dramatically. All of them were sitting on the beach at the edge of the forest, their weapons in their respective hands, all their faces grave. Qiu Luo had unsheathed his sword, and even He Zheng himself was holding the Shadow Sword.

It was only then that they found that they had not entered the forest at all!

They had merely been resting at the perimeter of the forest, but they had actually fallen prey to some kind of enchantment unawares.

He Zheng glanced at Dan Zhu who was hopping around on his shoulder, his face turning very serious.

One of those sitting on the ground let out a little moan. Qiu Luo was the first to turn around. He looked very clear-headed but the expression in his eyes was apprehensive.

“He Zheng, all of you except Chen Kai were caught in the reverie.”

“I was unable to wake you guys up.”

Chen Kai’s forehead was beaded with sweat. He Zheng noticed that for an instant his fair-complexioned face suddenly changed and was gilded by a glaring golden light.

The worst part was that there was blood at the corners of Chen Kai’s mouth.

He wiped the blood off nonchalantly, staring at the little gray bird scampering around on He Zheng’s shoulder. Then he stretched lazily and said, “I wouldn’t have gone to that much trouble to wake you guys up had I known beforehand you have a phoenix.