Chapter 661: Floating Islands III
I sat down thinking of what"s the purpose of this challenge going to be. The whole island looks like a serene beautiful place without anything worthy of note but the strangeness of the plants and behavior of the animals. But on a deeper glance you could see that this is nothing but a ma.s.sive trap that is waiting patiently to close down on its prey.
I continued sitting down as I didn"t feel like doing anything. This is the only stage we were let out of earlier than expected, and it feels like a bait.
So, I sat down, waiting patiently to see what"s going on.
And sooner than later, the bracelet s.h.i.+ned in my hand as it began displaying the purpose of this trial.
"To clear the Trial of the Floating Island you simply have to achieve two objectives. The first, to survive the night on the Floating Island. And the second, to slay a three eyed ape. But things are not as they seem, be wary and most of all be careful."
I turned the bracelet off and began thinking about the purpose of the quest. It"s not pitting us against each other, but to hunt a specific type of apes. Three eyed apes, I don"t know what that is, but it seems that it is pivotal for this request.
I began by heading out and looking around, making sure not to disturb anything that had that dark matter inside it. I didn"t know what the reason for it to exist, but since nothing here is trying to eat or consume one another, I should probably do the same.
The mission that requires us to kill an ape is probably something that will trigger this darkness. So, I"ll need to wait out and a.n.a.lyze the ape first once I find it.
However, I have a feeling that if I were to go on a killing spree, things will go awfully bad for me. So, I did what any sane person should do in my case. I began moving via Traceless Step.
Making sure that my whole presence is hidden. From beast and prey. Walking up and between creatures that were unaware of my presence, not seeking to hunt or slay anything, but to look for other cultivators.
It didn"t take long before I arrived at a location where a man was wandering around through the bushes, he was slicing and cutting them apart as he was moving. I on the other hand stood atop a tree branch looking at what he was doing.
From the direction he was coming from I saw a few peach trees that had been cut in half. The man seemed rather unaware of the darkness hidden beneath the island.
But, nothing seemed to retaliate against him, or so I thought at first before I noticed something stuck to the sole of his foot.
It was small and almost inconspicuous. A piece of the darkness of the island itself was embedded on the soles of his feet. Whenever he took a step it would attach a smidgen more.
Finding nothing else to do I kept following the man.
High above us, a shade began covering the island. Looking up, it was the arrival of what would make the "night" in this region.
A gigantic floating island, almost as big as a planet from the Vast Expanse, slowly moved above the island, covering it in its entirety in a shade that kept getting darker and darker.
"d.a.m.n it, this is annoying!" the man cursed as he continued cutting apart veins and brushes around him. An unaware deer seemed to get too close to the man and ended up being split in half. "f.u.c.k off!" the man cursed.
Slowly even without his own notice, he began scratching his neck. Small rash like protrusions were growing on his skin.
By the time he noticed them, something flashed next to him which took his eyes off the disease like protrusions.
It was the size of a small human, dark brown fur and three glowing eyes, it stared at him for a second then screeched so loud that even I who was so far back was affected.
I immediately used my Qi to shut down my ears not to go deaf right there and then. However, the man who took the full burnt of the scream had blood coming out of his ears. Enraged, he chased after the ape with fury in his voice and action, using Qi to slash away at the ape who simply dodged and screeched once more. The reverberations were enough to make the man keel over, barely holding himself.
As signs of dizziness and nausea were clear on his face.
The man didn"t give up yet, as he spouted profanities that would make a sailor blush.
He then went after the ape that kept mocking the man. The ape climbed up a high tree and began slapping its own a.s.s in an attempt to taunt the man.
What the man didn"t notice in his fury of needing to chase after the ape, that the disease that had been plaguing him started acting up, hardening his body enough that when he moved, pieces of his skin and flesh began falling off.
Unable to understand what was going on, and especially with incredulous pain wracking his body the man tried to shout in pain, however no sound came out as his mouth was suddenly covered by a black slime that rose from the ground itself.
The slimy darkness went right inside the man"s mouth, wriggling visibly through his hardened skin, cracking it like would a seismic catastrophe do to flat ground. It began bulging out pieces and bits of his body, from the head to his torso then shot out everywhere, completely eradicating him from existence itself.
The ape laughed at the man and moved further ahead.
I followed after the ape, taking my time not to be spotted and walking via Traceless steps to see where it was going.
Soon, I arrived at another spot where a cultivator was carefully scanning the surrounding. The ape then picked a peach and threw it against the cultivator to let him know where it is. Then another chase began.
The cultivator also seemed to have the same rash on his skin, and the same smudge of slime on the sole of his feet that they never seem to notice.
The same events happened almost exactly as earlier, with the ape running around, screeching and taunting the cultivators, making them exert themselves then the slime would come out and kill them afterward.
This happened several times through the course of the next couple hours.
I began taking note of what was going on and realized something important. The ape always found the people with the rash. And whenever it drew a cultivator"s attention, it always started with the sound attack, then the taunting and running around.
As if programed to do so, the ape continued "hunting" cultivators.
I needed to figure out how this came to happen. First things first, it seems that the cultivators that died had all one thing in common, which was the rash, and that seemed to appear after they come in contact with the slime under their feet. How that came to happen to them can only be linked to the fact that they all harmed the natural -which was clearly unnatural- order of the floating islands.
I constantly checked under my foot to see if I too had such a slime underneath me. But so far nothing happened.
I had the thought of picking one of the fruits or damaging one of the trees to try and capture and a.n.a.lyze this slime, but I shook the thought away. I had no idea how this disease functions or if I can rid myself of it in time.
The ape soon stopped and began looking around as if searching for his next prey. At that time I had already approached the ape enough that I was right behind it without the creature ever noticing me.
I simply grabbed it by the neck, locking my arm tight at the now freaked out and distraught creature. His voice didn"t come out as I slowly squeezed my hand until I heard a snap. The creature"s neck had broken now and it immediately slumped down.
My bracelet s.h.i.+ned as having succeeded in completing half of the objective and goal of this task.
I immediately began scanning myself, to see if I was also inflicted with the same black sludge. However, there was nothing on my foot, and my body didn"t give me any reaction to any disease or sickness that I thought would be inflicted upon me once I harmed one of the habitants of this island.
Considering it strange, I inspected the body of the ape, and realized something different.
The ape didn"t have an ounce of that slimy darkness inside it, it was a rather normal ape. Which by itself was strange, after all every creature in this area was inflicted with that darkness but this ape.
I need to further study this. But for now, I had already completed half the task.