Chapter 12

Chapter 12: Taboos of the Forbidden Area

In the face of the Blood Shadow Team Leader's provocative words, Luan Ya’s murderous intent grew stronger and she looked at Captain Thunder.

Captain Thunder’s expression didn’t change as he spoke lightly.

"Cross."

Hearing that, Cross drew his bow without saying a word and instantly shot an arrow into the sky.

Its speed was so fast that sharp whistling sounds could be heard as it flew like lightning, piercing directly into the eagle that was circling overhead.

Blood burst out and the eagle let out a screech. It fell down directly between the two teams, hitting the ground with a thud.

At the same time, one person in the Blood Shadow Team shook violently. He spat out a mouthful of blood and turned pale in an instant.

That was his eagle, and unlike Luan Ya’s dog, it was linked to his own spiritual energy. The backlash from its death caused him to suffer a loss.

The other members of the Blood Shadow Team were filled with murderous intent, but they were stopped by their leader. The Blood Shadow Team Leader slowly stood up from the dog corpse, and instead of looking at Luan Ya, he stared at Captain Thunder.

Captain Thunder also looked at him coldly.

The two looked at each other for a long time before both snorted coldly.

"Let's go." Captain Thunder said calmly and walked forward. Luan Ya and the others quickly followed, and so did Xu Qing.

He felt the deep hostility between the two teams and turned to glance back at the people in the Blood Shadow Team. He saw that they were waiting for Horse Four and Fat Mountain, but unfortunately, those two would never appear again.

Xu Qing kept silent and retracted his gaze. Following Captain Thunder and others, he gradually left the camp.

The forbidden area seemed to be close to the camp, but in fact there was still a bit of distance to walk.

The group walked for about half an hour before they saw the dark jungle in the distance.

From the outside, this jungle forbidden area seemed boundless, covering an unknown amount of land.

Right now it was day and the sun shone strongly, but inside the jungle forbidden area seemed to be a completely different world.

Looking into the distance toward the end of the jungle, they could see a storm clouds gathering. Lightning flashed between the clouds, making the forbidden area seem mysterious and even more dangerous.

Xu Qing observed everything and followed along silently. On the way, no one from Thunder Team spoke, but Xu Qing noticed that as they approached the forbidden area, everyone, including himself, tensed up.

Suddenly, Xu Qing was overcome with the feeling that he had stepped into a cold world. All the warmth in his body seemed to disappear in an instant. He had entered the forbidden area.

It felt as if everything that had happened in the normal world disappeared like a dream.

The familiar biting coldness awakened his memories of being in the city ruins under that blood rain.

He took a deep breath. His heart was extremely vigilant and he instinctively grasped the iron skewer tightly, just like when he was in the ruins.

The difference is that before, there were the remains of a city and the rubble of destroyed buildings all around, but now...

The trees were twisted into terrifying shapes, and the muddy ground was rotten to the point that it seemed to come from hell. Branches and leaves formed a canopy that seemed like claws reaching out to cover the sky.

But the Thunder Team members were obviously familiar with this place.

They carried their weapons on their backs, and it was obvious that they often walked this path. Each and every step was deliberate. Some places seemed normal, but they would jump past them. Some places seemed dangerous, but they would walk right on through.

There were also some places where they took a detour for seemingly no reason. This allowed them to avoid many dangers as they walked along.

Xu Qing followed behind them, paying close attention and mentally taking note of everything they did.

He also noticed some strange points. Captain Thunder wasn’t at the front the entire way; sometimes Barbarian took the lead, and sometimes Luan Ya did. They took turns alternately.

Although the group didn’t travel very fast, aside from sometimes hearing the roars of beasts in the distance, they were relatively safe.

There were some poisonous insects, but they didn’t approach after Luan Ya lit an incense stick.

After walking for about an hour in silence, the group finally stopped in a muddy place, breathing a collective sigh of relief.

Xu Qing noticed that Luan Ya took out some powder and sprinkled it in the mud, and soon a group of poisonous insects emerged from underground. They seemed to be aggressive, but Luan Ya’s expression didn’t change as she scattered a different kind of powder. This caused the insects to scatter quickly, and there was a brief period of activity before the mud settled down.

After this, everyone squatted down, picked up some mud, and smeared it all over their bodies.

"Do you remember the details of the path?" Captain Thunder smeared mud on his entire body and motioned to Xu Qing to do the same.

Xu Qing nodded, picking up some mud and smearing it on without hesitation. At the same time, he glanced at Luan Ya. He felt that she seemed to have some understanding of poison arts. Captain Thunder continued to speak.

"The reason we jumped over some normal-looking areas is because the leaves were rotten, but still intact. This means that no beasts have passed through, so there must be something unknown."

"The areas we directly walked through had the feces of beasts on the ground. Their biological instinct is to choose a safe area to excrete, so those places are relatively safe."

"As for the reason we occasionally detoured, that’s thanks to Barbarian’s nose. His sense of smell is quite sharp, so he can distinguish the scents of some dangerous mutated beasts. There’s much more for you to learn on the way, so just remember as much as you can."

Xu Qing glanced at Barbarian when he heard this, and Barbarian turned his head and gave Xu Qing a toothy grin.

"As for this mud, it's something that our team discovered many years ago. It contains some shed skin from night lizards. Applying it on our bodies can not only cover up our auras, but also provide a certain degree of deterrent."

“Our destination is up ahead, but there’s also the Poison Dragon Pond to the north. Scavengers have divided this jungle forbidden area into several regions depending on nearby landmarks."

"The Poison Dragon Pond is one of them, but we aren’t going there this time." Captain Thunder finished smearing the mud over his body.

Xu Qing had already finished smearing his own mud at this moment. When he got up, Cross, who had objected to him following yesterday, spoke up in a cold voice.

"Pay attention to your mutation points. Heterogeneity in the forbidden area is abnormally strong, so you must always pay close attention. Once it passes a certain point, no one will be able to save you.”

Xu Qing nodded, already aware of this.

He could feel that the concentration of heterogeneity was extremely high in this forbidden area, but compared to back when the city ruins had just been transformed, it was still much lower.

However, he had already accumulated a lot of heterogeneity by this point. Even if he didn’t intentionally cultivate, just breathing normally, the mutation points in his left arm started to tingle.

So he took out a White Pill and put it in his mouth. Instead of swallowing it right away, he let it melt slowly.

Soon, everyone finished smearing mud on themselves. They looked at each other and resumed their journey.

Unlike before, this time, they traveled slowly. They pulled out their weapons and gripped them tightly.

Xu Qing glanced over their weapons.

Barbarian had a steel shield and a mace, Captain Thunder had gloves, Cross had a longbow, and Luan Ya had a serrated dagger that shone with a cold glow.

When Xu Qing went out to stalk Fat Mountain previously, he had some other gains beside getting rid of a hidden threat.

Due to his keen ears, he overheard many scavengers’ conversations with each other. He learned some things that he hadn’t known before.

For example, he learned about the different classifications of treasures. There were magic treasures, talisman treasures, and heavy treasures.

Among those, magic treasures were the stuff of legends. They were extremely rare.

It was rumored that every magic treasure had varying degrees of heterogeneity pollution, and they would increase in heterogeneity the more they were used. This heterogeneity was basically impossible to remove, so magic treasures were limited-use items. Naturally, coupled with their extraordinary power, they were exceedingly precious.

Thus, the special occupation of treasure breeder was born. Children would be raised from young and use their own flesh and blood to dilute the heterogeneity in magic treasures.

Captain Thunder had talked about it back then.

But besides magic treasures, there were also talisman treasures and heavy treasures.

Although talisman treasures were also rare, they were still possible to find. As for heavy treasures, those were common.

They were often made out of special materials, but unlike the other two, even ordinary people could find and use them.

Xu Qing felt that his iron skewer might be a heavy treasure, and the weapons of the people in front of him were obviously also of this type.

Time passed slowly. Xu Qing followed the Thunder Team and gradually walked deeper and deeper into the forbidden area.

There were some minor issues on the way, but those were mostly handled by Barbarian alone.

Occasionally, they would encounter some stronger beasts, and Cross would fire his bow.

As for Luan Ya, her attacks seemed to be more similar to spells. When she made her move, incoming beasts would stop and appear to have their souls sucked out.

During this period, Xu Qing also made a move once. He grabbed a poisonous snake that was coming from behind and directly crushed it to death.

After finding that Xu Qing followed them without making any novice mistakes from beginning to end, Cross put away his judging gaze and began to give some guidance.

"Kid, this forbidden area seems dangerous, but as long as we don’t let our guards down, it’s basically pretty safe, except for three taboos."

"You have to remember to keep these taboos in mind."

“The first is when mutated beasts from the depths of the forbidden area come out to the outer area. This situation isn’t very common, and we usually only move around in the periphery."

"But once we encounter them, it is extremely dangerous. We only know the habits and abilities of the beasts in the outer area, but the forbidden area is just too big. The mutated beasts deeper in are diverse and have various abilities. Just a bit of inattention will cause your death.

"The second is singing." Speaking of this, Cross's face showed fear.

"There are rumors circulating that in this forbidden area, you can sometimes hear singing, and out of those who hear the singing, less than one out of a hundred survive. I myself have never heard this singing. Out of those of us here, the only one who’s heard it is Captain Thunder.”

Xu Qing looked at Captain Thunder.

Captain Thunder didn't speak, just looking at the depths of the forbidden area. There was a hint of complexity in his eyes.

"Let me talk about the third taboo." Luan Ya smiled and glanced at Xu Qing.

"Kid, the third danger here is actually very common. It’s bewilderment fog."

"When this fog appears, it’s so dense that you might as well be blind. It’s almost a sure thing that you’ll get lost. But the bewilderment fog lingers for a long time, and if you can’t get out quickly, you’ll be trapped in the forbidden area. Since the heterogeneity is so high here, your own heterogeneity will gradually increase, and that will be the precursor to your death."

"But there are actually two ways to resolve this. One is to have fire, and the other is to have a strong spirit."

"The former treats the symptoms but not the root cause. Although fire can disperse the fog in a small area and restore visibility, the bewilderment fog is strange and it’s hard for the fire to persist. As for the latter, only one such person might appear in the camp every several dozen years. This kind of person often stops being a scavenger quickly and has better prospects.”

"There is a fourth danger, and that is an ambush by enemies.” Barbarian, who was leading the way, suddenly said gloomily.

Luan Ya was about to speak, but at that moment, Captain Thunder suddenly looked up ahead. His expression suddenly changed, and he whispered in a sharp voice.

"Quiet!"

The next moment, Cross drew his bow, Luan Ya’s eyes lit up, and Barbarian flexed his muscles. Xu Qing's hair stood straight up. He felt a strong danger coming from the trees up ahead.

Soon, faint lights appeared in the darkness. They were cold eyes that gloomily stared at the team.

And there were a lot of them.

Giant wolves walked out of the darkness. These wolves were each the size of a buffalo and had black scales all over their bodies.

At a glance, there were at least dozens of them, and even more could faintly be seen in the distance, no less than a few hundred.

And each wolf was giving off spiritual energy fluctuations equal to the second level of Qi Condensation. The expressions of Barbarian and the others changed in an instant.

"Black-scaled wolves!"

"Don’t they usually only live at the border between the outer and inner areas? What are they doing all the way out here?”

Cross's pupils contracted, and Luan Ya’s face grew pale.

Although a single black-scaled wolf was nothing to them, this many would be extremely difficult to fend off.

Most importantly, the heterogeneity in the forbidden area was too strong. Once the spiritual energy stored in the body was all used up, they could only rapidly absorb the surrounding spiritual energy to supplement it. After the battle, it would be too late to separate out the heterogeneity. In this way, heterogeneity would accumulate in the body extremely quickly, and the risk of mutation would increase to a terrifying level.

Xu Qing’s breathing hastened. The pressure the wolves gave him was enormous.

"You guys retreat first while I stop them.”

While everyone’s hearts shook, Captain Thunder spoke up in a deep voice and walked out slowly.

Spiritual energy fluctuations that surpassed Cross by at least two-fold rolled off of the old man as he walked forward.

The wolves immediately stopped and stared at Captain Thunder.

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