Chapter 330: Eerie Forest

Wu Tongyuan’s voice pierced the dead silence of the night, disturbing everyone’s minds. Their expressions changed, and cold sweat began to prickle their backs.

Indeed, within this deep forest now, only that fragment existed. Coupled with the disappearance of the previous two teams, it was hard not to let one’s imagination run wild.

“Old Wu!” Lu Xun frowned and glared at him, motioning for him to stop talking.

“What’s the use of glaring at me? I’m stating facts!” Wu Tongyuan stubbornly glared back. “Didn’t I say this thing was evil? This isn’t just a fragment; it’s an extraterrestrial monster! A small monster that fell off a big monster!”

This time, no one refuted Wu Tongyuan’s words. Everyone looked down at the communication device fragment on the ground, their brows deeply furrowed.

“Old Lu, our communication device is gone, and we know that thing is a monster… Let’s turn back,” Wu Tongyuan earnestly pleaded. “Before we’ve gone too far, there’s still time to go back. Monsters should be dealt with by planes and tanks, not by a group of helpless scientists like us.”

Lu Xun remained silent for a long time before shaking his head.

“We cannot turn back… It’s merely a peculiar magnetic field. We now understand how the previous two teams lost contact. Going back won’t change anything. If another team came, they would simply not bring communication devices. How is that different from us continuing forward? Our purpose here is to understand the principle of that thing; we cannot give up halfway.”

“Alright… fine.”

Wu Tongyuan waved his hand. “There’s no reasoning with you. I admit, compared to you, Dr. Lu, I’m just a coward who’s afraid of death, okay? Anyway, this exploration trip will be the same with or without me. I’m turning back first; you guys can continue.”

He turned and walked towards the dark jungle behind them.

Seeing this, everyone simultaneously turned to Lu Xun. Wu Tongyuan had been brought by Lu Xun, and their relationship was the best. At this moment, only Lu Xun could persuade him to stay. But Lu Xun did not speak to stop him; he simply watched silently as Wu Tongyuan turned and left.

The wind-swept, rain-drenched forest rustled, and in the endless darkness, only Wu Tongyuan’s flashlight slowly moved forward. He stopped automatically after walking for only a few seconds.

He looked at the dark jungle before him, which resembled an unknown colossal beast, and swallowed.

“…Old Lu, send someone to escort me?” He turned his head and asked cautiously.

Lu Xun replied calmly, “Sorry, we don’t have any spare personnel.”

Just as Wu Tongyuan gritted his teeth, Chen Ling’s voice suddenly rang out:

“Dr. Wu, is that right? I’m afraid even if someone escorted you, you wouldn’t be able to go back.”

Wu Tongyuan froze, looking at him in confusion. “Why?”

Chen Ling raised a hand and pointed to the forest behind Wu Tongyuan and the rugged mountains looming in the darkness. “Because we are no longer on the path we came from…”

At this statement, the others hadn’t fully grasped its meaning, but when several doctors saw that mountain range, their expressions instantly changed!

“Did we come from that direction?”

“No, there were no mountains in the direction we came from…”

A scholar in a protective suit walked to one of the trees, observed it carefully with a flashlight for a moment, and his expression grew even grimmer.

“No… these trees aren’t right either!”

“What’s wrong with them?”

“Generally, the leaves on the south side of trees are denser. We were heading south when we came, but now we’re facing east… This isn’t the forest we came through at all.”

“But, but we clearly walked out from here! Our footprints are still…”

“Wait, where are the footprints??”

It was only then that everyone realized the long trail of footprints left by dozens of people had now vanished. The ground showed no trace of them, as if they had appeared out of thin air in this forest.

This discovery sent shivers down everyone’s spines. Even Lu Xun, the leader, changed his expression. Everything happening before their eyes surpassed their normal understanding.

“It’s over… What did I tell you? What did I tell you?!” Wu Tongyuan stumbled back into the crowd, speaking tremulously. “Coming here was a mistake… Now look, none of us can go back!”

A research scholar wearing black-rimmed glasses remained relatively calm and said in a deep voice, “It might be too dark, and we misremembered the direction we came from. Plus, the wind and rain in the mountains could have washed away our footprints… Or perhaps, that fragment contains a hallucinogenic component? Look, none of us are wearing protective masks right now; we might have inhaled something that’s affecting our judgment.”

Chen Ling glanced at the speaker in surprise. Among the group, only he and Lu Xun remained relatively calm, still attempting to explain everything before them using scientific principles at a time like this.

“Dr. Fang is right. Our job is to explain all of this scientifically, not to attribute every anomaly to ghosts and monsters,” Lu Xun said in a deep voice. “Old Wu, say less. Don’t add to everyone else’s psychological burden.”

Wu Tongyuan opened his mouth, ready to retort, but seeing Lu Xun’s almost murderous gaze, he quietly lowered his head.

“But now we have no idea where we are, our communication devices are broken, and the compass is malfunctioning… How are we supposed to locate the Red Star fragment?” Su Zhiwei asked, frowning as she looked at the wildly spinning compass in her hand.

“If I’m not mistaken, Dr. Lu should be able to determine direction using the position of the stars,” Yang Xiao, who had been silent all along, suddenly spoke.

Lu Xun looked up at the sky, but thick dark clouds completely enveloped the mountains, blocking out any moonlight or starlight.

“No, the rain clouds are blocking the starry sky…”

At this, everyone’s hearts sank. Without a way to locate the Red Star fragment, they couldn’t proceed, nor could they even turn back… Unexpectedly, just ten minutes in, they were already at a stalemate.

Just then, Lu Xun seemed to remember something, and grasping at a last straw, he looked at Chen Ling.

“Guide Chen, you’re most familiar with this deep forest. Do you have a way to pinpoint the location?”

It was only then that everyone remembered they had a guide with them. Moreover, if he hadn’t promptly removed everyone’s masks earlier, they would likely have been incapacitated by now. They all turned to look at him.

Chen Ling held his flip phone, his eyes slightly narrowed as he looked into the distance… After a few seconds of silence, he nodded and said:

“Yes, I know where that fragment is.”

Everyone’s eyes immediately lit up. There was a sense of pleasant surprise, like finding a path after a dead end, and they let out a collective sigh of relief. Indeed, at a time like this, a guide was indispensable.

Chen Ling could locate the Red Star fragment, not because he was familiar with the forest, but because he could pinpoint the source of the magnetic field fluctuations through his electromagnetically disturbed flip phone… In Chen Ling’s eyes, the fragment shone like a torch in the dark night.

Chen Ling walked past the others, straight to the front of the team, and spoke calmly,

“Follow me.”