Chapter 1237: Forest of Death
There were all kinds of strange sounds that came from around Lin Fan after he stepped into the forest.
But from time to time, the forest around him did suddenly go silent as if everything around him had suddenly disappeared.
With how these things happened around him, it really was quite eerie walking through this place.
One could see how this place became known as the Forest of Death.
Though the one sign that showed that this place was filled with death the most were the bones that were scattered all over the place. Every few steps, Lin Fan could see a few bones that were scattered around the area.
They were never bones that seem to come from the same animal.
It seemed that this place was filled with all kinds of death with how many different kinds of bones were scattered here.
But from beginning to end, Lin Fan never actually saw anything around him.
It was as if everything that was in this place was hiding away from him.
Almost as if it was preparing to strike at him at any moment from the shadows.
Though it wasn’t as if there was anything that could sneak up on him since Lin Fan had his spiritual sense around him the entire time. If there was something that tried to approach him, he would find it right away with his spiritual sense.
The only reason that he didn’t spread it out further to explore this place was because...
"What is this strange feeling in this place? Why does it feel like there’s something that is restraining me?" Lin Fan couldn’t help muttering to himself.
When he had tried to scan the forest with his spiritual sense earlier, he found that there was something that was stopping his spiritual sense from spreading. It was similar to how the mist had stopped his spiritual sense in the Mist Lands.
So there was a part of Lin Fan that wondered if it was another Outer God that was exerting its presence in this place...but he soon tossed this theory out.
Weiss had already shown what the gods would do to the Outer Gods when they found them, as well as the grudge that was between the gods and the Outer Gods. So even if there was a fragment that had been hiding in the Mist Lands, it didn’t mean that there would be the same thing here.
If that many Outer Gods were able to make their way onto the magic continent, then what were the gods doing?
So it wasn’t as if it was that likely that it would be another Outer God...
Still, Lin Fan couldn’t help keeping this in the back of his mind just in case.
After making his way through this place for a bit, he found that there was nothing at all.
From the stories that he had heard at the nearby Adventurer’s Guild branch, the ones that had come out of this Forest of Death alive would always seem like they had gone crazy.
They kept muttering something about how they kept walking around and getting more and more lost.
This was most likely what they had been talking about.
Without anything to guide him, Lin Fan didn’t know exactly which direction he should be heading in. At the same time, it seemed like there was something that was also affecting him mentally.
He could tell that there was something that was affecting his mind, that was making him lose track of where he had been previously. Whether it was through the trees themselves moving or through some kind of mental attack, it did seem like everything blended in together.
Though in Lin Fan’s case, he didn’t really have to panic.
As long as he wanted to leave this place, it would only take a single thought.
He had done the same thing as before where he had been leaving pieces of dirt in the ground wherever he went. Even if the things in this Forest of Death wanted to make him lose track of where he was, it was impossible as long as he had that trail of crumbs.
In fact, since Lin Fan had broken through and become stronger, he had even greater control of those pieces of dirt and the gravity that they released.
As long as he wanted, he could allow them to pull him out of this place.
It would be like a trail of magnets pulling him out of this forest.
That was just how strong his control of gravity forces was now.
So even if Lin Fan had no idea where he was in the Forest of Death, he at least knew which direction he should be heading in.
Though he was surprised that nothing was happening at all.
He had thought that since he had found the right path, the ones that were hiding in the shadow would panic since he would be able to find his way through eventually. So they would want to do something to him before he could escape from their trap.
But it seemed that they had quite good patience.
That was until something finally happened, though it didn’t come from where Lin Fan had expected it to come from.
All of a sudden, there were roots that came out of the ground that stabbed at him with sharp ends. It seemed that whatever these roots belonged to had sharpened them for a long time to ensure that they would kill whatever they hit.
But that didn’t work in front of Lin Fan.
The only thing that happened was that a layer of water appeared around him that stopped all of the roots that had stabbed at him. Though it was a layer of water, it seemed like it was a layer of steel with the sound that the roots made when hitting it.
Though that was also a sign of how hard these roots were.
"As expected, it was the trees that were moving." Though Lin Fan had already expected this, it was still interesting to see this theory being confirmed.
At the same time, it meant that he knew what to target next.
Though he did take a closer look at the roots.
It wasn’t because of how hard they were, it was because of what they tried to do after they had stabbed into the Clear Water barrier that Lin Fan had created.
The Clear Water barrier was too strong to fall for it, but the roots had tried to suck up the Clear Water that made up the barrier. It seemed like these roots did function properly as roots.
"Is it for sucking water or..."
If these roots were used to stab people, then one would be able to imagine what kind of liquid the roots were made to suck in. It would most likely be a red liquid that was rich in iron...
As expected of the Forest of Death, even the trees that were here were things that were made to kill.
Since that was the case, there was no reason for Lin Fan to hold back.
In a place where it was kill or be killed, there was only one thing that he could do.
"Burn." Lin Fan said as he waved his hand around him.
When he did this, there were black flames that appeared around him that spread out in all directions. They were aimed at the trees that were all around.
The moment that the black flames hit the trees, they immediately started to spread.
Using the body of the trees as tinder, the black flames grew and grew as it quickly covered these trees.
In response to this, the roots of the trees came out of the ground in an attempt to hit and smother the flames. Only no matter how the roots of the trees tried, it didn’t seem like the flames were going out.
In fact, the flames even seemed to spread to the roots when they were hit.
So the only thing that the trees could do was cut off the pieces that were on fire, but that still didn’t work. The black flames spread too fast for the tree to do anything and it didn’t take long for the trees to be fully engulfed in these black flames.
The trees seemed to understand that they were done for, so the only thing that they could do was try to take out the one that controlled the flames.
All of the roots immediately stabbed out at Lin Fan once more.
But all it took was a single flick of his hand for these roots to be cut.
The black flames that surrounded the roots were still under the control of Lin Fan, so he transformed them into blades that cut right through these roots. There was no resistance at all from these roots as they were cut apart.
In the end, there was nothing that the trees could do as they were burnt to ashes by the black flames.
As they disappeared, Lin Fan could see that there were more things that were being revealed under the ground. As the roots of the trees disappeared, there were more bones that were suddenly uncovered.
All of these bones no doubt belonged to previous victims that had fallen in this Forest of Death.
This place really was a place that was filled with death, as per the name...
But it wasn’t as if Lin Fan would allow this place to take his life.
Once the trees had been turned to ashes, the path ahead had actually cleared up for him.