Super Soldier in the City-Chapter 2062 - 2125: Phantom of the Dense Forest
Indeed, it was like that. To form a race and proliferate in such an isolated place, it definitely couldn’t be just one or two individuals; it required a significant number. These creatures lived in the water and had no worries about food. There were surely plenty of fish and turtles in the sea.
After Li Yifei dashed a certain distance forward, he suddenly noticed that the pursuers behind him had stopped. They seemed to fear something, clustering together, letting out low growling noises, yet not advancing.
Li Yifei glanced back and felt temporarily safe, but he did not relax at all. According to the law of the jungle, if a fierce animal dared not advance further, it meant there was another even more terrifying animal ahead. In other words, he had just run out of the territory of those crocodile-like creatures and into the domain of another animal.
What was this animal? After turning a corner, Li Yifei found the river suddenly became shallow, the riverbank narrowed a lot, not even ten meters across, and the water turned clear, allowing one to see the riverbed.
At the same time, his subtle sense of danger faded away. Looking back, those large creatures still had not pursued him.
Thus, after waiting for a while, Li Yifei decided to cross the river here. With a river crossing less than ten meters wide, Li Yifei could leap over easily, avoiding the need to swim. Even if there was something wrong with the river water, Li Yifei didn’t worry.
After crossing the river, Li Yifei decided to navigate through the forest, bypassing the territories of these massive creatures. According to his earlier calculations, he was about ten kilometers away from Xu Shanshan, definitely less than twenty kilometers.
From this perspective, one could see how fast that giant fish was. It took him on a frantic dive that reached so far.
Within the forest, Li Yifei still saw no creatures like flying birds or even squirrels and mice, not even a trace. His feet kept moving, his body constantly darting about, sometimes even taking great leaps forward.
However, at times, Li Yifei had to slow down. For instance, now, he found himself stopping completely, realizing he had lost his way.
Indeed, Li Yifei was lost. Since joining the army and going on missions, he had never lost his way in a jungle, no matter how complex the terrain. Yet within this particular forest, he suddenly couldn’t discern directions.
Scratching his head, Li Yifei shook his body, using True Qi to evaporate the misty water on him.
The white vapor dispersed as Li Yifei turned on the spot. He couldn’t see the sun nor the trees leaning towards the sunlight, and as for the tree rings, he couldn’t find directions through them either.
Had he entered a Formation Method? Li Yifei wondered as he closed his eyes, extending his perception. Ten meters, twenty meters... fifty meters, even reaching an incredibly distant range, over a hundred meters. Li Yifei sensed no fluctuations in Spirit Qi, but there were discoveries; at least the Spirit Qi in this forest was much sparser than that on the previous beach.
This was unusual. Logically, Spirit Qi should be sparser on the beach than in the forest.
With his perception, the surrounding scenery, the trees, rocks, and certain terrains all formed in Li Yifei’s mind, so even with closed eyes, he could observe the surroundings.
And just at this moment, within the edge of Li Yifei’s range of perception, a black shadow suddenly flashed by. To his senses, it was a moving object, moving extremely fast.
Li Yifei immediately opened his eyes and turned to look, but that black shadow had already vanished. Li Yifei instantly connected this to those crocodile-like beasts that suddenly halted in pursuit, suspecting whether this shadow was the forest’s strangeness and danger, which scared those terrifying creatures away.
Clenching the sword in his hand, after opening his eyes, Li Yifei saw nothing unusual. Casually twirling the sword, he marked a tree beside him and went forward towards where he spotted the shadow.
After walking about a hundred meters, Li Yifei stopped to sense again. As his perception range expanded, he once more spotted the shadow darting past, incredibly quick. When Li Yifei opened his eyes, the shadow had disappeared again, as if it had never been there.
Narrowing his eyes, Li Yifei quietly left a mark.
After six or seven tries, Li Yifei had actually advanced several hundred meters without retracing his steps or returning to the original spot.
Surrounding trees looked almost identical, but Li Yifei understood a bit more now. Closing his eyes again, after a few dozen seconds, Li Yifei possessed a slight smile on his lips, then suddenly thrust his sword, stabbing upward and slicing around him. The motions of both strikes were extremely swift, in less than a second, and after that, the scene before Li Yifei instantly cleared up.
He opened his eyes and found that the surrounding trees had indeed changed. On the tree diagonally ahead, there were seven vertical and horizontal sword marks.
Indeed, haha, Li Yifei sneered inwardly, realizing he had fallen into a trap and somehow stumbled into a formation. Suddenly, a shadow darted in front of Li Yifei’s eyes, moving incredibly fast, disappearing in the blink of an eye. Unlike before, the shadow flew in one direction, appearing in Li Yifei’s sight for a full four to five seconds.
It’s alive! Gripping his sword, Li Yifei gave chase. After several dozen meters, Li Yifei saw the shadow.
"What is this...?" Li Yifei looked at the shadow less than twenty meters away, perched on a tree. It was entirely pitch black, somewhat resembling a bat, about a meter in size, with wings that had no feathers but were membranous. Its entire body was black without a hint of white, so Li Yifei couldn’t even see where its eyes or mouth were.
The thing was staring at him. Once aware of this, Li Yifei suddenly felt dizzy, and the scenery around him seemed to change suddenly, turning back into the dark, endless forest where all the trees looked the same.
Again! Li Yifei snorted in his heart, quickly slashing with his sword with purpose despite the seemingly chaotic movements.
With a sharp screech ringing out, Li Yifei opened his eyes and found the black creature had been slashed on one side of its wing, lying on the ground, shrieking in agony while trying to escape.
Li Yifei strode forward and slashed again, completely stopping its struggle.
What the hell is this? Squatting down to examine it, Li Yifei was somewhat stunned. Earlier it looked like a bat, but now, staring at its corpse, Li Yifei found a face—indeed a human face.
A real human face, with eyes, a nose, a mouth, and a rounded face, all just completely black.
Its entire body was still bat-like, with membranes on both sides that Li Yifei had cut open, discovering that if these membranes spread out, they could exceed two meters.
No wonder the shadow was so large earlier; it seems to be its size while flying.
With its death, Li Yifei regained his sense of direction and awareness. It seems the creature possessed some sort of mental disorientation effect, making him feel trapped within the formation.
Adding another sword strike, Li Yifei continued his journey; the more dangerous it is, the more determined he was to find Xu Shanshan as soon as possible.
However, he somewhat understood why two dispatched teams vanished without a trace. Not to mention the first team of special forces, even the second team with Seventh Brother and Ninth Brother faced ominous odds without knowing how to deal with those monsters. Apart from the bizarre, ugly monkeys that aren’t easily dealt with, those creatures were specifically hunting human hearts...
Not to mention the sea’s giant fish, the river’s crocodile-like creatures, and this black-colored monster that could make one lost within.
It’s wicked, too wicked. Li Yifei spent half an hour getting out of this forest. On the way, he encountered two more of those bat-like creatures, but with caution, Li Yifei guarded his senses and prevented his Spiritual Platform from falling, thus avoiding confusion. Furthermore, he found a way to counter them: these creatures must close in very near, even within arm’s reach, to confuse a person. So if Li Yifei were lost, he’d only need to carefully sense and then wield his weapon, and those creatures wouldn’t likely escape.
Even so, Li Yifei remained cautious.
Back at the seaside, as Li Yifei was about to leave, he suddenly saw a corpse dressed in special force attire. His heart skipped, and he immediately ran over. The corpse was still somewhat intact, but when Li Yifei turned it over, his heart sank.
The face was a bloody mess, some areas only left with bone, yet the body remained unharmed. As Li Yifei planned to search the corpse for clues, a shadow darted out from its embrace. Li Yifei raised his sword to cut, slicing the shadow into two in mid-air, spilling black-red blood. Li Yifei rolled backward, avoiding it; the black blood hissed upon contact with the corpse’s clothing, sand, and leaves—it seemed highly corrosive.
It was a snake, over half a meter long, body incredibly thin, akin to chopsticks. The snake’s body was cleaved by Li Yifei’s sword; carrying the head, it still seemed intent on attacking him. Li Yifei slashed again, severing its head. This time, it lost its aggression, dying after a few struggles.
Just then, a few more shadows shot out from within the corpse, all targeting Li Yifei.
Seeing the black snake, aware of its oddities, Li Yifei was guarded. His sword struck swiftly and precisely, slicing the black snakes apart with no hesitation. Some died instantly, their heads severed, while others, cut in half, still tried to bite Li Yifei as they landed.
