Chapter 196

196 Without Owner

Selma Payne’s POV:

In the end, Aldrich, Dorothy, and Master Mary brought ten team members and set off. The rest of us would stay in the cave to preserve our strength and provide the necessary support.

The pine forest wasn’t far from here, and we reached it in less than half an hour.

At Aldrich’s suggestion, some team members transformed into their wolf forms. The wolf form had a stronger body and faster reaction. The corresponding human consciousness could hide in the body and safely observe the outside environment. Some of the other team members maintained their human forms just in case. No one knew what the forest would do to the wolves.

This pine forest was visibly stronger than the previous one. The pine trees were no longer sickly and skinny. Their thick branches, leaves, and scars that looked like human faces exuded a strong and cold vitality.

“I can feel a very powerful evil force.” Dorothy said, “It’s almost materializing into a physical body.”

We couldn’t help but be even more careful as we slowly moved forward under the light of the light stick.

The mark’s effect has been disrupted by some factors, and the Soul Sparrow couldn’t distinguish the direction here. We could only walk on the main road, especially left empty by the plants like last time. There seemed to be living things in the forest. I occasionally saw a black shadow flashing in the dense pine needles.

The stronger wolves also noticed this, but they couldn’t find anything when they looked carefully.

“An unknown creature,” Aldrich signaled everyone to be on guard. “We can’t be sure if it’s a friend or a foe. Everyone, stay alert!”

Ten minutes later, we ran into a small problem.

The creature in the tree’s shadow finally gave up on hiding and appeared before us with the help of the darkness. Surprisingly, they turned out to be moths the size of a fist. Their black wings and bodies covered with fine fur made them look like elves created by the night. They were creepy, but they had a strange, twisted beauty.

No one had seen such a creature, not even the most knowledgeable Master Mary.

Fortunately, the moths didn’t seem to be aggressive. They only stubbornly gathered on a tree or a patch of snow as if they were guiding us.

At this moment, everyone had the same question, ‘ Do we have to listen to these moths?’

As the forest was constantly changing, the path we were walking on was also constantly changing. The destination we were leading to was unknown.

Could these moths be the demonic shards’ bait to lure us?

Just as we were hesitating, a change occurred.

Suddenly, a miserable scream came from the distance, and it sounded like Linda’s voice!

After the shrieks, the moths became more agitated. They flew around strangely, their feather-like antennae trembling violently. I had no doubt that these moths would probably be cursing out loud right now if they could speak.

Master Mary tried to reach out to the moths, and the black sprites landed meekly on her arm.

She carefully dripped a drop of silver-white liquid on the moth’s wing. To her surprise, a wolf-shaped mist gushed out of the moth’s body!

“They are Linda’s family members!” Master Mary’s face changed. “Follow them! They know where Linda is!”

We immediately followed the moths, and our vision suddenly cleared after five minutes.

This was a somewhat familiar, wide, snowy area. It was almost the same as the space that the giant pine tree had marked out for us.

The only difference was that there were no tall ancient trees or plants on this snow-covered land. There was only a thin girl lying naked in the center – Linda!

We immediately stepped forward to check her physical condition. She was unconscious, and her clothes were gone. There were no external injuries, but her body was frighteningly cold, like a breathing ice sculpture. Master Mary didn’t find anything wrong with her after examining her. Other than the unconsciousness of unknown reasons, nothing else was found.

We tried many ways to wake her up, but we couldn’t.

We had no choice, so we sent two team members to send Linda back first, but when we turned around, we found that the path we came from had disappeared, and the dense layers of plants formed an airtight cocoon. We are like grasshoppers trapped in a water tank. Unless we flew out, there was no other way.

What a familiar situation.

I tried to command everyone to cut the trees, but the pine trees here moved faster. The cut was closed in a few seconds.

I searched through the space but couldn’t find a single unique plant.

This meant that I couldn’t touch the heart of the pine forest, and I couldn’t hurt it from the root.

There was another way, and that was to start devouring from the ‘capillaries’. However, the plants could cut off the connection with their kind anytime. Just from the increasingly ferocious branches and leaves of the pine trees, they probably wouldn’t wait for me to devour them.

These pine trees were aggressive!

Suddenly, the sharp pine needles shot straight at us.

Master Mary immediately created a layer of defense array flashing with silver light. The pine needles hit the defense array with a crisp and pleasant sound like a triangle iron.

However, no one was in the mood to think about enjoying music.