Chapter 148: Chapter 138 Investigation of the Mist (3rd update today)

“Tsk, this forest is so big, there must be over a hundred trees, right?”

Everyone stood in front of the forest, and Xiao Siyuan made a rough estimate: “The size… I now think your plan might not be reliable. Is it too late to regret now?”

“What do you think?”

Li Zheng took out two iron spades and handed them to Phoenix Mountain and Old Xiao: “You two hold these.”

He squatted down, brushed aside some dead branches and leaves on the ground, revealing the soil beneath: “Look, there’s actually not much flammable material. We just need to clear off the top layer.”

Phoenix Mountain grimaced: “That’s still a big job.

I think it might be more convenient to just charge in directly.”

Li Zheng looked at him and shook his head: “Naive.”

He raised his hand, took out a piece of fresh meat, and handed it to Yan Guang: “Here, help throw this in.”

“No problem.”

Yan Guang took it, raised his left arm, and forcefully threw it.

Swish, swish, swish…

The fresh meat hadn’t even entered the forest when the black branches swung in unison, catching the meat and wrapping it layer by layer, as densely as dozens of spiders weaving their webs simultaneously.

In the blink of an eye, these branches formed a large ball, intertwining and tightening.

After a moment, they all loosened again.

In the midst of it, where was the meat? Not even a bit of meat residue was left!

“Gulp!”

Phoenix Mountain swallowed hard, lifted his iron spade, and started working with enthusiasm.

Xiao Siyuan looked at Li Zheng in surprise: “You’ve encountered such trees before?”

Li Zheng shook his head: “No.”

Yan Guang asked: “Then how did you know their attack style?”

Li Zheng looked at them strangely: “Haven’t you guys watched fantasy movies before? Haven’t read novels? Aren’t tree spirits and tree monsters always like this?”

The two of them: “…”

After a moment of silence, Xiao Siyuan also began to swing the iron spade, joining Phoenix Mountain in clearing the dead leaves around the forest.

Yan Guang thought for a moment, bent down, and inserted her left arm into the ground, then started to run.

As she ran, the ground turned over, revealing the soil below.

Li Zheng shouted: “Remember to widen this circle!”

The three didn’t respond to him, focusing on digging.

Li Chun watched for a while and curiously asked: “Li Zheng, why aren’t you joining them?”

Li Zheng, with a serious face, stared at the forest ahead: “Because I don’t have any extra spades.”

“Uh…”

The little girl glanced at the Black Blade in Li Zheng’s hand and secretly smiled: “Clearly you just want to laze around.”

“Laze around?”

Li Zheng turned his head and seriously looked at her: “Girl, our squad divides the benefits based on contributions. My contribution was the largest in the last battle. If I don’t let others perform now, what will happen during the final distribution?

Would anyone be happy to run for nothing?”

“Oh…”

Li Chun nodded thoughtfully, flipped onto the neck of the small spider, and pointed ahead: “Little spider, let’s go help!”

“Hiss~”

The Five-Colored Xuan Poison Spider raised its head and hissed, moving its thick limbs to follow Yan Guang.

Its two front limbs, like a soil-turning vehicle, easily turned over piles of dead leaves, widening the area Yan Guang was responsible for.

“It shouldn’t be this simple.”

Li Zheng pondered, feeling that this instance was a bit too straightforward.

“Judging from the past three instances, this forest is equivalent to the second wave of attacks.

Judging by its size, once cleared, the BOSS should appear.”

He turned and looked around, but aside from the forest, Li Zheng didn’t notice any other unusual spots nearby.

“Could it be in the mist?”

Li Zheng shifted his gaze and focused on a dense fog not far away, making his way to the front of it alone.

Upon closer inspection, Li Zheng found that the mist was not blocked by anything transparent, but rather contracted into a huge bowl shape on its own, covering the island!

Following the edge of the mist for a distance, the ground at the edge was full of dead leaves and weeds, with no trace of seawater.

He squatted down, used the Black Blade to scrape open a shallow pit on the ground, and hollowed it out from beneath.

Just as he adjusted the angle to the vertical position breaching the mist below, Li Zheng suddenly stopped, no longer digging.

“There’s mist underground too?”

Looking up, Li Zheng, with a thoughtful look in his eyes, raised his hand and inserted the Black Blade into the mist.

“No obstruction.”

Retrieving the Black Blade, its surface showed no change.

“The mist is non-toxic? Not sure if it’s non-toxic, but at least it’s not corrosive.”

This mist over the island seemed intimidating, but Li Zheng always felt that it was more like a method of interception and blockage.

As if to prevent the creatures in this area from penetrating the boundary and entering the other side.

“Could it be that the other side of the mist… no, or rather, that the mist divides the entire island into several zones, each representing different levels of difficulty?”

Li Zheng thought of a plausible possibility, and after further reflection, he thought of Ancient Ruins and the Lost Castle.

“In the Ancient Ruins instance, we only discovered one hall, and the internal monsters were only Sword Mantis swarms and a mechanical giant.” Li Zheng stood before the mist, starting to analyze.

“Logically speaking, the technological race capable of creating these two types of mechanical life shouldn’t be limited to just these categories, right?

And the Lost Castle, above the ceiling where bats and monster wolves were released, could there be more space? Otherwise, it’s called a castle, yet there’s only a hall?”

Thinking this way, Li Zheng suddenly recalled something, flipping through a prompt he had received earlier during decomposition, and examined it closely.

“I understand now.”

With a look of realization in his eyes, Li Zheng turned and glanced at everyone still busy, his gaze lingering on Xiao Siyuan for a moment.

“Goodness, we’ve got a lucky Phoenix Mountain in our group.

Now Old Xiao’s destiny is showing characteristics? A Prophet?”

MWD3 Experiment No.3.

Remember when Xiao Siyuan initially speculated about the monster type in this instance, he once mentioned: unless there’s some sort of research lab on this island…

Originally, Li Zheng hadn’t thought much of it, but now on reflection, doesn’t it align perfectly?

“Is Old Xiao aware of inside information, or did he just purely guess it right?”

Perhaps I should ask him later. If it was a lucky guess, it would secure his “Prophet” status.

“If it just serves a blocking function…”

Perhaps I should try entering another zone in advance to check the difficulty?

Considering the uncertainty of whether the mist is highly poisonous, Li Zheng took out an air purifier, covered his mouth and nose, turned it on, and stepped into the mist.

“If the mist is toxic, hopefully it doesn’t exceed the Silver level…”

The air purifier could only purify toxins below the Bronze level. If the level was any higher, it wouldn’t be able to fully purify it, only slightly weaken it.

But with Xiao Siyuan around, even if it was Silver-level poison, as long as it didn’t instantly kill him, he could always hold his breath, retreat from the mist and receive healing.

Taking a deep breath, Li Zheng stepped into the mist, immediately engulfed and disappearing from sight.