Although the little apprentice sister is weak, she can fight

Chapter 115: Strange Forest

"……it took."

Unknown creature: “……?”

Shen Qiao transformed into a sparrow kite and stabbed directly in the back with his backhand.

There was a "hissing" sound, as if some kind of paper product was torn, and the uncomfortable feeling sticking to my back disappeared.

But Shen Qiao obviously didn't intend to let this thing go. She didn't pull out the kite, but loosened the umbrella handle with one hand, turned around, and used the other hand to suddenly push the entire umbrella through the trunk of a sycamore tree behind her.

Her face was gloomy, and she spoke word by word, "I said...you made my glasses blurry."

Everything I see is blurry now! These handprints are hard to clean, okay?!

After the invisible object was poked into the tree trunk, a black shadow dissipated from the tip of the umbrella and returned to the shadow cast by the sycamore tree like a wisp of quicksand.

Shen Qiao wiped his lenses clean and put them back on.

It has no entity and cannot be perceived. It turns out that this thing is a shadow?

She subconsciously turned her head to look at the corpse that had just been knocked down by Zhang Zhi and had broken the tree trunk, but she found that only black ash was left on the ground, and the headless figure seemed to have escaped in the chaos.

Bang!

The sound of bricks hitting glass caught her attention. As the knocking sounds continued, cracks began to appear in the space not far from her on the left. The knocking sounds continued for a while, until the entire space seemed to be distorted and transparent glass fragments began to fall down.

Is this... another spatial barrier of illusion?

She was about to go over to take a look, but she saw a pitch-black thing being thrown out from the crack first, and Zhang Zhi, who had been separated from her at some point, also jumped out immediately afterwards. After landing, he destroyed the entire illusion.

"I said it was impossible not to feel something. Turns out we're on a different level."

Shen Qiao's attention was drawn to the dirty-looking leather on the ground. She couldn't help but lean over with her hands on her knees to examine it. "Brother, what is this?"

"Oh, it's Wutongmei's skin." Zhang Zhi explained.

Zhang Zhi squatted down, grabbed a corner of the skin, and rolled it up. "It's said that a demonized sycamore tree will absorb any living creatures that die near it as nutrients, ultimately leaving them with only a strip of skin."

"Some living creatures weren't completely dead before being absorbed, so when they realized they'd been absorbed, they felt resentment. This resentment accumulated over the years, eventually becoming demonic creatures attached to the Wutong tree. Because they were fused into the tree's shadow, this 'Wutong Charm' is also called 'Wutong Shadow.'"

"The essence of these things is very similar to shadows. Some high-level Wutong Charms can use shadows to gather together and form illusions. It was this thing that separated us just now."

This is the first time I've heard of this...

"Let's go. There are so many strange things here. There's no need to figure them all out."

Shen Qiao responded and couldn't help but look at the tree shadow again.

She didn't know if it was her illusion, but she seemed to see a "figure" about the same height as her standing up in the shadow, imitating the posture she had just followed, leaning forward with her knees supported under the tree.

This is a pretty quick learning.

Shen Qiao turned his head and ignored him.

On the way back, we inevitably encountered many strange things.

There were human heads floating around unconsciously in the woods, long-armed monkeys entangled in trees, pulling out their own bones and throwing them down piece by piece, and sycamore trees that looked at the people who came and collected the leaves to wrap around the trunks.

Although these spiritual creatures look scary, they are actually not without intelligence. The things that first provoked the two people have been dealt with. Although these things seem curious about the two people now, they did not take the initiative to provoke them like before.

They didn't encounter any other special situations while passing through the forest. The exit at the end of the forest was right in front of them. Just as the two were about to breathe a sigh of relief, Zhang Zhi looked back out of habit.

He didn't know if it was an illusion, but he always felt that there was something at least a hundred meters away, standing there and looking in their direction.

Unfortunately, it is too far away, and the trees block the view, so it is not clear visually.

Shen Qiao noticed that something was wrong with Zhang Zhi, so he asked, "What's wrong?"

It's something that I'm not sure about in the first place, and it would be even more troublesome to go back and check now.

"It's okay, let's go." He didn't say anything for the time being.

After walking out of the forest, we officially arrived at the foot of Fantasy Mountain.

The spiritual energy on Fantasy Mountain is relatively thin, so there are generally no more aggressive spiritual creatures.

Walking up the mountain road, when they were almost halfway up the mountain, Zhang Zhi stopped Shen Qiao.

"Don't rush up yet. I haven't found any signs of anyone having been here before. I'm wondering if the person I met just casually mentioned this Fantasy Mountain to me and never actually came here at all?"

This is not impossible.

but……

Shen Qiao raised his head and looked towards the higher mountain top.

Ever since she started walking in the mountains, she always felt that there was an invisible gaze staring at her. Now, as she got closer and closer to the top of the mountain, the feeling of being watched became more obvious.

"Senior Brother." Shen Qiao called Zhang Zhi.

"Do you ever feel like you're being watched?"

Zhang Zhi frowned. He did feel that discomfort, but it didn't come from the top of the mountain.

But...

"behind."

"Mountain."

The two of them spoke at the same time, but gave two completely opposite answers.

The atmosphere in the air was silent for a while, and the two of them looked up and down the mountain with their eyes intertwined.

But nothing.

Zhang Zhi turned his head and looked again, his expression becoming serious.

It might have been an illusion when he was in the Thousand Monsters Forest before, but this time on the mountain path, he finally saw clearly the abrupt standing object.

It was a slender black shadow.

This thing is a little closer than the one I saw just now. Judging from this distance, it is about three or four meters high.

But such an obvious thing was standing there, how could Shen Qiao not see it just now?

"Are you sure you didn't see anything?" Zhang Zhi asked Shen Qiao again.

Shen Qiao shook his head at first, then turned around to take another look to make sure he hadn't seen it just now, and finally gave a positive answer.

"No."

Zhang Zhi suddenly understood what was going on.

He didn't mention it again. If he guessed correctly, Shen Qiao wouldn't see it as long as he didn't remind him.

Okay, are you targeting him?

"It's okay. Should we continue going up?" He changed the subject.

It is not impossible to continue moving forward. In order to deal with these poisons, Shang Mian gave them a pill that is specifically used to deal with this kind of hallucinogenic poison on the way here.

Shen Qiao hesitated for a moment, but a voice in her heart kept reminding her.

The things on the top of the mountain are very important.