Volume 15 Gray Fog Forest Chapter 738: Man-eating Forest
Mo Jue walked up to a mist-ridden tree as thick as a bowl and said to Ke Lan and the others, "The area outside the red line is relatively safe, but conventional positioning equipment often fails. When we lose our way, we usually choose to use the tree ring method to determine north and south." The "tree ring method" is a very ancient method of determining direction. In the old era on Earth, people often used this method when they lost their way in the forest.
The principle is also very simple. Most plants are phototropic and tend to grow towards the direction of the light source. Whether on Earth or on Alpha Centauri, the side close to the equator always has more sunlight. Therefore, it can be determined that the side with sparser growth rings is in the direction of the equator, while the side with denser growth rings is close to the pole of the hemisphere.
"In this respect, the Mist Tree is the same as the trees on Earth." Mo Jue opened his backpack and took out a small circular saw powered by energy crystals. Judging from the texture of the saw blade, it should contain a large proportion of Nino alloy.
"The Gray Mist Forest is located in the northern hemisphere of Alpha, so the side with dense growth rings is the north, and the side with sparse growth rings is the south." She turned the searchlight on her helmet to an angle, facing the Mist Tree in front of her, and started the circular saw. "There is no need to saw down the entire tree, just cut off a wedge to determine the direction."
But just as Mo Jue was about to saw, a badly worn scabbard suddenly appeared in front of her.
"What's wrong?" Mo Jue turned her head and the person who stopped her was the only young man wearing sunglasses in the group. From the time they met until now, this guy who had been holding a long sword and resting with his eyes closed had not said a word... It seemed that he had never even opened his eyes.
As a "paratrooper from hell", Mo Jue is naturally a cyborg. Her right eye looks no different from a normal human eye, but it is actually a cyborg prosthetic eye. The sunglasses worn by Asano Akira have no shielding effect on her at all.
"This guy... why is he still closing his eyes?" Mo Jue muttered to himself, and stepped aside a little, "Is there something wrong?"
"It would be too slow to saw with a saw. Our time is precious." Ke Lan answered for Asano Akira, "Let him do it. It will be faster."
Ke Lan said this, but in his heart he was complaining: So Asano Akira, a boy with thick eyebrows and big eyes, has suddenly learned to show off? No, this guy, since I met him, seems to be showing off all the time, but people around him don't feel awkward at all... This is probably the highest level of showing off in the legend: invisible showing off, the most deadly.
"It will be faster for him to come? What do you mean?" Mo Jue was stunned for a moment, but still handed the circular saw over.
But Asano Akira just shook his head and didn't answer.
"Step back a little, be careful not to get hit." Ke Lan kindly reminded, grabbed Mo Jue's arm and pulled her back a dozen steps.
Asano Akira held the scabbard in one hand and the handle in the other. All that was heard was the clanging sound of metal clashing between the hilt and the scabbard. Except for Ke Lan and Ze Luo, no one else even saw the sword being unsheathed, before a gray sword beam had already "embedded" into the tree trunk.
Mo Jue: “????”
The next second, with the disappearing gray sword light as the dividing line, the upper half of the tree trunk fell down with a loud bang.
"He...he he he...did he cut the tree down with his knife? And he only cut it once?!" Mo Jue couldn't believe his eyes. "Wait, did he really draw his knife just now?"
Danning subconsciously focused his attention on the Blasphemer mecha standing at the back, and murmured, "Could it be... the Fallen Angel mecha that took action?"
"It's just a mist tree with a diameter of 20 centimeters. Is it necessary to make such a fuss?" Ke Lan waved her hand, walked forward, and carefully observed the annual rings on the cross-section of the tree trunk.
They entered the Gray Mist Forest from the southwest and headed north towards the red line. Judging from the tree rings, there was no deviation in direction.
Of course, this was only because they were still in the outer area of the Gray Fog Forest. The fog here was not too thick, and visibility was about ten meters. With nearby trees and terrain features as landmarks, plus Mo Jue and Danning, two experienced guides... If they could get lost here, they might as well turn around and return to the Ark now.
After walking north for about five minutes, Mo Jue finally digested the shock, but she would still look up from time to time to glance at Asano Akira - if she guessed correctly, this young man who always held a long sword and almost never opened his eyes should be the most powerful fighter in this group.
——Without counting the Fallen Angel Mecha as “a person”.
"Although the tree ring method is useful, it is only limited to the area outside the red line." Mo Jue said to Ke Lan, "After crossing the red line, the tree rings will grow more and more densely - you should also know this - the tree rings of the mist tree 100 meters beyond the red line are almost all crowded together, and it is impossible to tell where they are dense and where they are sparse."
"Well, if the tree ring method can still be used after crossing the red line, this forest will not be described as so terrible by people." Ke Lan said in a relaxed tone, "The income of you 'lumberjacks' will also be greatly reduced... After all, things are valuable because they are scarce."
"Since you were able to break the record of that expedition team, you must have some unique tricks." Thirty-three said, "Lumberjack... since the end of the old era, this profession has disappeared for nearly a thousand years."
"In the area behind the red line, visibility will drop rapidly. After walking about a hundred meters, visibility will be compressed to less than half a meter. You can't even see your companions standing next to you..." Mo Jue looked at the surrounding fog with some envy, "But if your fog-dispersing equipment can continue to work behind the red line, the fog will not be too much of an obstacle to you."
"Besides the fog itself, is there anything else we need to pay attention to?" Ke Lan asked, "If we can just block the fog a dozen meters away and travel freely, then the Gray Fog Forest won't become a restricted area, right?"
"The fog is just one of the easiest problems to solve, but the real trouble is hidden in the fog... As for the things we need to pay attention to, they are all over the forest." Mo Jue said.
Ke Lan: "You might as well make your words clearer."
"It's hard for me to describe those things to you in words. Once you actually encounter them, you will understand." Mo Jue said with a frown.
"You wouldn't tell us everything you know and then we would kill you, would you?" Thirty-three joked.
“Silence me?” Mo Jue showed a somewhat bitter smile on his face, “I’m just afraid… before you can silence me, we’ll all die in this forest.”
"When you decided to come in with us, did you already have the intention of dying?" Ivan couldn't help but ask.
"Anyway, you saved my life. If you want to take it, just consider it as repayment. As long as my brother is still alive, it's fine." Mo Jue said indifferently.
"You shouldn't be so pessimistic, right?" Ke Lan touched his nose. "How many people did you lose the last time you explored to a depth of 500 meters?"
"Two people." Mo Jue replied.
"How many people were there in total on that exploration mission?"
"Eleven."
"You only lost two people out of eleven. You are much better than the expedition team in the record." Ke Lan praised, "Nearly fifty of them crossed the red line, but in the end only less than twenty returned. Moreover, their team members' strength, equipment and logistics level are also better than yours, but the distance they explored is not as far as yours."
“But I know that if we had gone at least ten meters deeper, we would have been wiped out.” Mo Jue said, “In fact, when we broke the record of that expedition team, we were still fully staffed. These two people disappeared before we turned back.”
"How did you disappear? Can you tell me the details?" Ke Lan asked curiously, "Also, what did you encounter 500 meters away? Why do you say that if you go a dozen meters further, the whole army will be wiped out?"
"I don't know." Mo Jue shook his head. "At that time, I was not the leader of the lumberjacks ... The leader was my father, and his understanding of the Gray Mist Forest was far superior to mine."
"What about your father?" Ke Lan regretted asking this question the moment she said it... Since Mo Jue is now the leader of this team, his father is most likely dead - judging from Mo Jue's age, his father should not be old enough to have to retire.
"He was one of the two people we lost during that exploration." Mo Jue's answer was just as Ke Lan had vaguely guessed. "Since then, I have become the new team leader. I no longer allow anyone in the team to go deeper into the Gray Mist Forest... The wood at 200 meters is enough for us to live a comfortable life."
"It seems that your father is the kind of person with a pioneering and enterprising spirit, but it's a pity that his daughter is rather timid." Thirty-three commented.
"I'm not being cowardly. I'm thinking about everyone else... We just want to protect our own lives. We are loggers, not explorers... If we want to pursue excitement, why don't we become relic hunters?"
"Why do I feel like I've been DISSed..." Ke Lan touched the tip of his nose again with a guilty look on his face, and said to himself in his heart.
Mo Jue wanted to say something, but Danning, who was walking in front, suddenly stopped and said in a deep voice, "We're here!"
What he was referring to was, of course, the boundary between the Gray Fog Forest restricted area and the outer area - the "red line".
Right in front of everyone, a thick and solid wall of fog, almost like a substance, spread out. Compared with this wall of fog, the fog outside the red line was simply too thin.
What is most amazing is that although the fog in the two areas is connected to each other and there are signs of flow between them, the concentrations between them do not interfere with each other - Ke Lan couldn't help but think of an idiom: clear distinction.
The allusion of this idiom comes from the two major tributaries of the Yellow River in China: the Wei River and the Jing River. When these two rivers converge, a strange sight of clear and turbid water appears - one side of the river is clear and green like emerald, while the other side is a muddy yellow current with a lot of silt. The dividing line between the two bodies of water is as clear as if it was drawn with a pen. The scene in front of Ke Lan now is almost the same as this strange sight of clear distinction between the Wei River and the Jing River.
“Even if you can dispel the fog, I still suggest you tie the safety rope.” Mo Jue said.
The "safety rope" she was referring to was a steel-core cable that was more than 50 meters long. The two ends of the cable were fixed to Dannin at the front of the team and the Blasphemer mecha at the rear. The others used secondary ropes with buckles to connect themselves to the main rope... In this way, they could avoid falling behind and getting lost to a certain extent.
Logically speaking, if everyone is strung together on a rope like grasshoppers, no one will get lost from the main group... But according to records, all expedition teams that attempted to enter the Gray Mist Forest carried this kind of equipment. Even if they tied themselves to the safety rope, the people who were supposed to be missing still disappeared... Some people even got out of the forest without realizing it, only to find that the safety rope and other companions "locked" to the safety rope were missing.
"Put on your gas masks too." Ke Lan looked at the others and put on the mask first .
Blocking the fog relies on Ze Luo's spatial ability, but if a battle breaks out, Ze Luo may not be able to take care of everyone.
After doing all this, Ke Lan took a deep breath of the air in the mask that had the peculiar sour smell of the oxygen generator reaction, grabbed the secondary rope around his waist with one hand, placed the other hand on the heavy main rope, stepped across the red line, and walked into the fog wall.
"Zeluo, remove the barrier first and see how powerful this fog is."
"Visibility...about two to three meters." Sanshisan's voice came from Ke Lan's right side. He was no more than five steps away from Ke Lan, but his voice sounded like it came from fifty meters away.
These fogs not only block vision, but also affect the transmission of sound.
Ke Lan took two more steps forward and when he looked up, he saw a black skeleton looking at him.
"Open the barrier."
As soon as he finished speaking, the surrounding fog was pushed away by an invisible giant hand. Ke Lan could see clearly that in front of him was a fog tree that two people could hug together, and the skeleton just now was a human skeleton that was almost integrated with the tree trunk.
Most of the skeleton has been embedded in the tree, and the gaps between the bones are almost completely filled with wood fibers... It looks a bit like the fossil of an ancient creature, except that the stone has been replaced by wood.
From the helmet on the skull, it can be confirmed that the deceased was a soldier of the 9th Independent Armored Corps of the Field Corps...that is, a member of the 1,500-man armored unit.
"Hey, this corpse..." Sanshisan also noticed the situation here, "Why is it embedded in the tree trunk? Could it be that this guy leaned against this tree when he died, and the tree grew and wrapped the bones inside?"
"It took at least three hundred years for this Mist Tree to grow to this size... When this man died, the tree was already this thick. He was 'swallowed' by the tree." Mo Jue's face was a little pale. "I told you a long time ago that this forest will eat people."
