Chapter 363: Chapter 363 Overlord’s Mask
On the edge between two dense forests, and in the gra.s.s that was almost as tall as a full grown human being, one or two strange human heads often popped out from the gra.s.s from time to time to watch the movements on the other side of the forest vigilantly.
“Those are Watchers, the one that was killed by the golden armored woman is also one of them. Amongst all the plants, they are the weakest. However, they are also indispensable. The Ruler Of The Forest needs them to monitor everything that happens on the edge of the forest. Although they are the weakest, you can’t underestimate them. They are not the creatures that we can mess around with.” The old man carefully hid the broken spear in his clothes and said quietly.
Chu Yunsheng didn’t pay attention to what the old man was saying. He was still thinking about how to leave this place as soon as possible. However, it seemed like he would have a little bit of trouble avoiding those Watchers.
So he could not help but look at the Watcher that was nearest to him from top to bottom, in attempting to remember all its features.
“Hissss…”
The Watcher immediately noticed that Chu Yunsheng was looking at it. It was making a hissing sound to express its dissatisfaction.
The old man quickly dragged Chu Yunsheng away. He lowered his voice and reminded Chu Yunsheng again, “young man, if you want to survive in this place, the first rule you need to remember is that you shouldn’t look at those plants at any time. They don’t like people staring at them. If they get angry, you will be killed!”
Chu Yunsheng immediately stopped looking at it and pressed down his cap. He speeded up his pace and carried on thinking for a solution.
The hazy s.h.i.+mmer in the sky slowly disappeared, many lamp-like plants began to glow in the forest, some were glowing dim yellow light, some were like light sticks glowing in strange cool colors. Most of the “lamps” were in different shapes and colors, and the light they gave out made the whole night forest look mysterious and wonderful…
“Those are Lamp Plants, they like to be active during the night time. We are also depending on them to give out light during the night. But don’t try to approach them, they will confuse your vision and make you lose yourself. They will make you believe that you have returned to the age of light, and then hide you until you become one of them.” The old man kept explaining everything to Chu Yunsheng. It seemed like he knew everything about this place.
As they walked further, many rows of brown cactus-like plants began to appear in their sight. Different to the plants they saw earlier, those plants had a human head at the bottom of their bodies.
“Those are Thorn Shooter Plants. They are a bunch of dangerous creatures, don’t try to smile in front of them, even if you want to show your friendliness, they will think that you are mocking them. They will shoot many sharp thorns at you!” The old man emphasized.
When they just pa.s.sed rows of Thorn Shooter Plants, they encountered another group of tree-like creatures. On those creatures’ branches, there were many eggplant-like fruits, and of those eggplants-like fruits had a small mouth and sharp teeth. Some of them were half open, some of them were completely closed.
Chu Yunsheng thought that if he was not wrong, those plants must have a human head as well. However, even with his ability, he was surprised that he couldn’t even find their heads.
“Those are Poisonous Eggplants, they always like to hide their heads. They thought that in that way, no one will be able to find out that they are one of those Zhiwu People. But if you dare to try to find out where their heads are, then they will spit poisonous liquid at you. Their deadly liquid could even kill an insect!” The old man’s eyes had a faint of admiration when he said it.
After a group of Poisonous Eggplants, it was an area that was covered with sharp spikes. All the spikes were as tall as a full-grown human being. In the lamp plant’s cool light, those sharp spikes were revealing the deadly sheen.
“This area is Underground Stingers’ territory. We need to keep a distance from them at all times. They like to bury their head in the ground, only revealing their faces, so they could stare into the sky at all times. It is said that they are waiting for the sun to come out, and if anyone dares to block their views, they would use their sharp spikes to stab them.” said the old man.
…
With the old man’s help, Chu Yunsheng got to know many new creatures in just one day. There were other Zhiwu People like Vine People, Juanxi People, Fruit Bomb people….
This place had an army of strange plants that had human heads!
It made Chu Yunsheng wonder who had an ability to produce a Plants Empire like this?
From the old man’s tone, it seemed like the ruler of this forest might be a human being.
Of course, whether it was a human being or not, it really had nothing to do with him. He was just a pa.s.serby. Although he was temporarily trapped here, he would eventually get out of here.
He refused to get to know anyone again. He just wanted to carry on his journey alone, and quietly.
However, his fate seemed to want to play a game with him. From the beginning he was dragged into this forest unconsciously, then he got into a strange fight inadvertently, and then he didn’t know why he would follow the old man to this place. Everything was against his will. But everything happened one after another.
Eventually, they arrived at a wall made of many trees densely packed together. What was more shocking was that those three were so big and so tall that they couldn’t even see the top of the tree. According to the old man, the trees in front of them were called Guardians. They had the strongest defense ability amongst all the plants.
“The swarm once pushed all the way here, but they were eventually stopped by those guardians. The swarm had tried everything they could and attacked non-stop for almost a month. All of those guardians lost their branches during the defense at that time. It was because of them, the ruler of the forest had enough time to prepare an army of masked men and initiate a counter-attack.” the old man said respectfully.
“Can I touch them?” Asked a young man who was carrying a big bag on his back, and the bag seemed to be stuffed with many things. He was following the old man and Chu Yunsheng from the beginning, so he also heard everything the old man said.
“Yes, you can, they are the most gentle creatures amongst all the Zhiwu People, they have never harmed anyone before.” the old man suddenly felt a little melancholy as if he suddenly remembered something sad.
The young man jolted, adjusting the seemingly heavy bag on his back and slowly walked forward a few steps. He pressed his hands on the big entangled tree roots, instantly a strange energy fluctuation began to appear around them.
“Oh my G.o.d, this is amazing, this is G.o.d’s work!” The young man was amazed.
His voice was a little loud. The golden armored woman instantly turned around and looked at the young man, the old man, and Chu Yunsheng while her eyebrows were pressed close together.
It was at that moment, the masked man who was guarding the entrance seemed to have activated something. The entangled tree roots began to slowly move away and opened a pa.s.sage for them to pa.s.s through.
Chu Yunsheng followed them to pa.s.s through a pa.s.sage that was made of tree roots. Behind the pa.s.sage was a big open green field with many thatched houses scattering around the places. The place was bustling with people and everyone seemed to be busy doing something.
“All of you, follow me.” The masked man pointed his spear at Chu Yunsheng’s group and said.
“This man has some skills, you may want to consider recruiting him.” One of the men that had fire energy patted the masked man’s shoulder and said while pointing his fingers at Chu Yunsheng.
“If it is the person you introduced, then there won’t be any problem.” The masked man said respectfully. Especially when facing that golden armored woman, he didn’t even dare to look her into her eyes.
Both of them were talking about Chu Yunsheng. However, no one had asked about Chu Yunsheng’s opinions.
The old man who was standing next to Chu Yunsheng suddenly tugged the corner of his clothes and said, “Congratulations! Young man. I knew that they would hire you. You look more competent than ordinary people.”
Chu Yunsheng shook his head. The first rule in his list was to stay away from strange things, not to mention that he did not want to get involved in anything that happened here.
“Young man, you probably don’t know…” The old man was surprised. He immediately wanted to explain the benefits of joining them to Chu Yunsheng, However, he was suddenly interrupted.
“You, follow me. The rest of you need to go there to register yourself, even if you are originally from here. All the information will need to be checked.” Said the masked man.
Seeing Chu Yunsheng seemed to want to refuse, the old man secretly patted his back and said, “young man, no matter what reasons you have, it is not wise to refuse them at the moment. Otherwise, they will think you are a spy.”
The old man’s words instantly reminded Chu Yunsheng that because of the three forces fighting with each other inside his body, his power was greatly reduced. If those masked men wanted to lock him up, he probably would not have any ability to resist, not to mention that the golden armor woman was also here.
‘Maybe it is time to accept my fate again.’ Chu Yunsheng thought.
‘Or maybe, it would be much easier for me to leave this place after I became one of those masked men.’
Chu Yunsheng breathed out a burning air through his mouth and then nodded his head. Then, he slowly followed the masked man towards a big grandiose tree house.
“He is introduced by the fire energy people, please register him in, and if there is no problem with his background, just give him the equipment straightaway.” said the masked man who took Chu Yunsheng to the tree house. He then whispered something at the other masked man’s ears before he left.
“What’s your name? And where did you come from? When did you come to Zhiwu forest?…” The masked man, who was responsible for registering, asked Chu Yunsheng several questions in one breath.
Chu Yunsheng opened his mouth and pointed to his throat, then shook his head.
The masked man was dazed for a second, “a mute? Those b.a.s.t.a.r.ds! What do they think our masked man army is?… Can you write? Carve your detail on this bamboo slip.”
Chu Yunsheng took over a needle and began to randomly carve a name and his fake background onto the slip.
The masked man had already treated him as someone related to those fire energy people, so he didn’t even bother to check Chu Yunsheng’s background. He just simply took out a box that was made of soil from the tree house, threw it to Chu Yunsheng and said with an unfriendly tone, “the manual is carved onto the box, you can take a look yourself. We only give out masks here. You will receive a weapon and a s.h.i.+eld once you are allocated into a specific unit.”
Chu Yunsheng caught the box and took a close look. There were several lines of words on it. It was very clear.
“Here is your token, take it and go to the barrack that way. Someone will tell you what to do.” The masked man waved his hands impatiently.
But Chu Yunsheng didn’t go to the barrack straightaway. Instead, he found a quiet corner and took out a light yellow mask that seemed to be made of soil.
There seemed to be different types of masks in this area, or at least the colors of masks were different. The one he had was light yellow, the masked men who took him here and the masked man, who registered him in, all had darker yellow masks.
He was holding the mask in his hands and watching it carefully. However, apart from a faint earth elemental energy fluctuation, he didn’t find anything special.
All the plants here were different from the plants in the spore forest, the energy they emitted was not a vibrant wood elemental energy. Instead, it was solid earth elemental energy.
‘No wonder the swarm could not conquer this place. Unlike the wood elemental energy, the earth elemental energy had a natural advantage over the fire elemental energy.’ Chu Yunsheng thought.
When Chu Yunsheng moved the mask close to his face, a strange thing happened. From inside the mask, suddenly appeared many small fibrous silk-like threads, reaching out towards Chu Yunsheng’s face.
In the next moment, the mask instantly stuck onto his face, and then the earth elemental energy began to flow towards him quickly.
Unlike the earth elemental energy that was able to turn a person into a soil sculpture. When the earth elemental energy went into his body from the mask, what originally quiet three forces began to fight for the energy again.
Although the energy was soon consumed completely by the three forces in his body, Chu Yunsheng noticed that the three forces seemed to be finally separated from each other. Although they had just been separated a little bit from each other, it finally gave Chu Yunsheng the hope of solving the most troublesome problem he had.
After a series of seemingly clothes-tearing sounds, Chu Yunsheng tore off the mask from his face. He touched his face, finding that everything seemed to be intact.
‘So this is the source of the masked men’s power. It can grant ordinary men powers, and make them fight like awakened human beings? But who has the ability to make this kind of mask?’
He also had the ability to produce weapons like roaring flame guns to arm ordinary people. However, he was not able to do it on this kind of scale.
Suddenly, he thought of one possibility. The old man who took him here had told him the ruler of this place had a thing called ‘Tubi’. It was said that that thing was dug out of the ground after Earth was plunged into the darkness.
‘So could that thing be the stuff that was left by those galaxy overlords that the senior pract.i.tioner mentioned?’
‘Could so-called Tubi also be a mask?’ a strange idea suddenly came into Chu Yunsheng’s mind.