Chapter 502: Island of Devil’s Maw (8)
Leideson’s answer was quite direct. He raised his arm to point. “Go down this way, pass through the ‘mocking forest’ and the ‘haunted swamp’ and you’ll see the shrine.” After saying that, he turned and left, swiftly disappearing from the players’ sight. The players did not dawdle and started to move down the direction Leideson pointed. As they moved, Atobe complained, “So after all that, the person with the axe has landed with the responsibility of clearing open the path…?”
“It matches the camp and faith that you have chosen quite well.” Feng Bujue chided.
“Eat me beep!” Facing Brother Jue’s snide words, Atobe still felt this reply was the most appropriate.
“Ha ha…” Feng bujue brushed it off with a smile. “But… in a way, being chaotic evil has its benefits. For example, I can’t repeat the words that you just directed at me.”
“Eh? That’s true.” Pegasus chimed in. Obviously, he just gave it a try but similar to Brother Jue, his intention wouldn’t be translated into words.
“Hmm… Interesting…” Ambitionist concurred. “I also can’t say those words… looks like only those who choose to believe in Idiente can say it.”
“So what?” Atobe grumbled, “It has no actual benefit.”
“Whether it has benefit or not, I have no clue.” Uncle Worthless added, “But from this, we can confirm that… the influence from our choice of faith on this scenario is far from over.”
“Yes.” Ambitionist agreed. “With that as a basis… in the following progress, we might run into situation where only members of certain faith could resolve.”
“Yes.” Feng Bujue nodded and warned. “There’s one more thing to be careful of… Different faith, other can help to deal with different problem, they might bring different complications.”
…
While they conversed, they had walked out from the jungle. Then, a high cliff appeared to greet them. Cutting through the cliff was a valley. The red moon showered down its glow to reveal a gloomy façade of some trees and foliage.
“Ah… Just looking at it from afar, I still my hairs standing on end.” Atobe stood at the forefront with the axe and said weakly.
“I for one think this will be an interesting place.” Feng Bujue said. “It should help improve my vocabulary greatly.” After he read the description for all trash-talking tree sprites must die, his intrigued towards the mocking tree was piqued.
“I think you are already quite a wordsmith.” Uncle Worthless praised sincerely.
“Hah… Well, one can never learn too much,” Feng Bujue replied. Soon they arrived at the mouth of the valley that appeared hard to navigate. They moved into a single file and slithered into the eerie forest. The ground here was black and grey in color, they looked like cement. The smell of sulphur lingered in the air. The surrounding trees had dark brown bark, their tree roots twirled and twined, their tree trunks slithered like snakes and their branches opened up like unkempt flowers; from appearance, if a normal tree was ‘standing’ then the trees in this forest were in a ‘rave’.
“Do you hear that?” After walking for some distance, Atobe suddenly turned around with a pale face.
“Ah… there is some noise, isn’t there?” Feng Bujue’s calm and rather annoying expression calmed his teammates down a bit. “it’s probably the system trying to scare you. Just ignore it.”
“Oh… okay then…” Pegasus who followed behind were also soaked in cold sweat. But after hearing what Brother Jue had to say, he too calmed down slightly. Actually not long after they entered the mocking forest, some chattering noises drilled into their ears. The noises sounded like whispers but one could not really tell what they were saying. For Feng Bujue, this was nothing but for normal people, when they were trekking through an unfamiliar place, with these unknown noises in their eyes, it was normal for them to be slightly afraid.
“Ha ha ha ha!” Suddenly a giant laughter that bordered on insanity rang out. This sudden hike in volume caused everyone (except Feng Bujue)’s Terror Points to take a rollercoaster ride.
“Who is it?” Atobe asked nervously. His hand grabbed the axe tightly and his palms were slick with sweat.
“Pa ta!” Another strange growl.
“Oh ha ha ha…”
“hue hue hue hue…”
These obviously wicked laughter and scares echoed around them. These sounds swirled around the trees like a whirlpool, making it impossible to determine their source.
“Do not panic.” Even though sweat was sliding down Ambitionist’s temple, his tone was rather even. “The sounds probably came from the trees.” He pushed on his glasses, “We all know we’re in the mocking forest, so there is nothing surprising about this.”
“He… he…” Pegasus’ bushy-browed face was like frozen. He tried his best to put on a brave front. “Of course! How come a hero be scared by a small thing like this!”
As he finished, suddenly a voice appeared behind him, “Boo!”
“Ah!” Pegasus was numb from the shock. He screamed and turned to assume the attack pose. “Who is it! If you dare, come out and face me!”
“ha ha ha… Turn fear into anger, is it? Such trash.” Following this humiliating word, the mocking tree appeared and there was more than one of them….
At that moment, all the trees around the players started to mutate. Every tree trunk had a human face appear on them, the lines on the tree trunk was moving like liquid as they gathered around their ‘faces’ to form features like hair and beard.
“Quick, we have a group of human among us.”
“I bet we can cook them like celery.”
“yes, 3rd rate explorer, but first rate dish, ha ha ha ha…”
“Hey, that sissy over there. Have you considered sex change operation?”
“That blind man in the pyjama, better go find a walking stick before you trip.”
“The kid that calls himself a hero, don’t worry, I won’t attack your personality… because you do not have one! Ha ha ha…”
“Four eyes toad! Four eyes toad!…”
Well, they certainly lived up to their names. After the mocking trees showed up, they started to mock and read the group to filth. They even came up with some new materials according to the players’ appearance… and their reads almost never overlap.
“Hey! You, yes, you!” One of the trees called after Feng Bujue. “Do you think you are that great? Ah~ I can see from your eyes that you think greatly of yourself. Let me tell you though how look in my eyes… you dress like a mad parrot, so that tells me you have bad teste. I believe you are a country bumpkin that likes to eat sausage with mashed garlic because when you speak, the air that comes out of your mouth smells like beans that are trying to escape the digestive system of a cow.”
Listening to the mocking words, Feng Bujue showed no trace of anger. If anything, he was nodding along with his lips moving like he was trying to memorize these words, so he could use them in the future…