"Thank you, elder brother. I'll let them try," I said, bowing to Xiao Yao.
The construction vehicles continued to advance. I thought Bai Qingcheng would let them pass, but unexpectedly, as a construction vehicle passed Bai Qingcheng, she suddenly kicked it. The vehicle, like a toy, was kicked into the abyss, tumbling for a long time before the sound finally ceased.
"...It wasn't necessary to be so ruthless," I ran back, forcing a bitter smile. Below might be a parabolic space. My Qi observation technique was blocked by stones, and I couldn't sense the aura of those little demons. httpδ:/m.kuAisugg.nět
Bai Qingcheng remained silent. She walked to the large pine tree by the stone, the same tree where Wu Qian had hidden earlier. I followed her and used my foot to brush aside the pine needles on the ground. Soon, I found something unusual. The soil color beneath the pine tree was different from the surrounding area, clearly indicating the entire tree had been transplanted. To conceal the traces of transplantation, a large amount of pine branches were used for cover.
"So, if we go in, we should turn left at the pine tree?" Wu Qian guessed.
"That should be the case," I nodded.
Leaving the car behind, it would have been fine to just kick the demons down. We still had to walk.
The four of us followed the cement road into the chessboard area. Indeed, the cement roads inside were crisscrossed, and the paving specifications were all the same. Coupled with the fog, it was difficult to discern direction. We could even circle back to the same spot without realizing we had been there before.
Moreover, there were many pine trees in the mountains to begin with. They were not only at the intersections but also in other locations. We had to use the method from before to identify new trees, but this method was too troublesome. I didn't want to bother with it again, so I used a dagger to carve three lines at the root of each new tree as a marker. Normal vehicles passing by wouldn't see the marks; one had to crouch down by the tree roots to see them clearly.
After walking for about three kilometers, Yao Yao said she had detected Daji's aura. I asked where it was, and she replied it was seven kilometers away in a straight line, resting at her current location, possibly having gotten lost.
"Why isn't she walking in a straight line?" I asked, confused, pointing to the sky. "From a high vantage point, one can see far. Walking in one direction should allow one to get out."
"You'll know if you try," Bai Qingcheng pointed to a small chessboard-shaped mountain nearby.
"No need to try," Yao Yao sighed. "The top of every mountain has been sealed by the Shan Hai demonic tribe. What you see from above are all illusions; they are not real locations."
"Oh? Such a spell exists?" Wu Qian exclaimed in surprise.
"Just a trick of the eye," Yao Yao said.
"Can you break it?" I asked.
"Yes, but it consumes true qi. I had to break three mountains consecutively, which severely depleted my true qi, leading to胧月's sneak attack. Otherwise, even if I couldn't defeat her, I could still outrun her..." Yao Yao lamented regretfully.
I truly hadn't expected that a simple board game could lead the Shan Hai demonic tribe to employ so many tricks.
"One can imagine that once the formal competition begins, the top of every mountain will be filled with illusions, and the area below will be a maze. Even Daji can't find her way out. Then all our chess pieces should go to the wrong positions, and they might very well run into the positions of the Shan Hai demonic tribe's strongest players, getting eliminated one by one!" I speculated.
"That's likely the case. That's why every time Ya Nan flies into the air and enters an illusionary circle, she gets lost," Yao Yao said.
"Ya Nan can be affected by illusions, but what about the drones?" I asked.
"Probably not. The principle of illusions is the combined effect of drugs and spells, affecting the human brain. What people see is light entering the eyes and forming images in the brain. I don't know much about drones, but they shouldn't have a brain, right?" Yao Yao said.
"They have chips," Wu Qian, an expert in this field, stated confidently. "But they definitely won't be affected, unless they encounter a strong magnetic field that affects the drone's operation. However, as long as they fly higher, that can be solved."
"It can be broken on the ground, and it can be broken in the air, so there's no problem," I said. "There's still the issue of the fog. How do we deal with it? Drones can't see the ground from the air."
"I've thought about that. It's easy, just use infrared cameras," Wu Qian said.
Indeed, the fog could block the drones' vision, but it couldn't block the body heat of the demons beneath the fog.
Bai Qingcheng nodded. "It's fortunate we came here in advance. Otherwise, you all would have been annihilated without knowing how you died."