Chapter 1217: Prison (11)

The ground was muddy. Dried roots erupted from it and stretched into tall canopies overhead.

Bright yellow fruits hung from the canopies, their dim glow acting as the only source of illumination in the endless darkness.

The whistling sound returned to Lith’s ears.

It drifted softly past him like a cold breeze, guiding him deeper into the prison.

"My clothes..." Meng Yuexin muttered with visible displeasure as mud stained the hem of her robes.

Elemental energy could not be controlled here.

For someone accustomed to commanding natural laws with a mere thought, the sensation felt suffocating.

Lith ignored her complaints and continued walking toward the direction of the whistle.

Along the way, half-buried bones protruded from the mud beneath his feet.

Some were human.

Others were too large.

Or shaped incorrectly.

Crunch.

Lith stepped on something brittle and glanced down.

A jawbone sank slowly into the mud.

’No imminent danger for now.’

He continued forward.

Then—

Splash.

Lith stopped walking.

Meng Yuexin immediately noticed the change and raised her guard.

Splash.

Another step echoed from somewhere within the forest of roots.

Lith slowly looked ahead.

Nothing.

Only tangled roots.

Only dim fruit-light.

The whistle near his ears continued uninterrupted, as though urging him to keep moving.

Splash.

Splash.

The sound was getting closer.

Yet the roots ahead remained still.

Meng Yuexin narrowed her eyes.

"...something’s there."

Lith’s amethyst eyes turned crimson as sigils surfaced within them.

[Destiny Seer]

Threads appeared in his vision.

Dozens of white threads stretched through the darkness ahead.

All of them were moving toward him.

But strangely—

Every thread stopped at the same spot.

Exactly one meter away from where he stood.

Splash.

Splash.

Splash.

The footsteps abruptly quickened.

The muddy ground trembled lightly.

Meng Yuexin shifted into an attacking stance. "Enough hiding."

The roots ahead suddenly parted.

A pale figure rushed out from the darkness.

Its body was thin and elongated, almost skeletal.

There were no eyes.

No nose.

No ears.

Only mouths.

Mouths layered over one another across its entire face.

Some smiled.

Some twitched.

Some moved soundlessly as if whispering words that could not be heard.

Meng Yuexin’s expression stiffened slightly.

Not from fear, but repulsion.

’What is that thing...’

The creature sprinted toward them through the mud with unnatural speed.

Splash! Splash! Splash!

Then

It stopped.

Exactly one meter away.

As if it had collided against an invisible wall.

The mouths across its face opened wider.

The creature pressed itself forward desperately.

Its limbs trembled violently.

Yet no matter how hard it tried

It could not cross that final distance.

Meng Yuexin’s foot crushed into the mud as she prepared to strike.

But right as she was about to move,

A hand grabbed her shoulder.

"Wait," Lith said calmly.

His crimson eyes remained fixed on the creature.

Then Lith noticed something strange.

The monster was not staring at Meng Yuexin.

Nor was it staring at him.

The countless mouths across its face were all twitching toward the empty space beside Lith as though listening to something only it could perceive.

’No.’ Lith thought. ’It’s not listening.’

The creature pressed itself harder against the invisible boundary.

’...it’s angry? Why is it angry?’

As the thought crossed Lith’s mind, he could feel the whistle breezing past his ear.

The moment the whistle rang, the creature got a little more aggressive.

It didn’t take long for Lith to connect two and two.

’This whistle?’

The creature’s mouths stretched wider.

One after another, they began opening soundlessly, almost as if cursing.

Meng Yuexin frowned. "What is wrong with that thing?"

Lith did not answer immediately.

He lowered his gaze slightly and looked at the muddy ground beneath its feet.

There were no formations. No barriers. No visible walls either.

Despite that, the creature could not cross.

’A restriction placed on prisoners?’

Just as this thought surfaced in Lith’s mind, he heard another splash.

Meng Yuexin heard it too.

Splash.

A second sound echoed from behind them.

Meng Yuexin immediately turned around.

The sight she saw instantly made her pupils contract.

Several pale figures stood motionlessly between the roots.

Then more appeared.

And more.

Some were hanging upside down from the canopies.

Some crawled out halfway from the mud.

Some stood silently beside protruding bones.

Their appearances were all different.

One had fingers stitched into the shape of antlers.

Another had skin covered entirely in blinking eyes.

One of them possessed no upper body at all and dragged itself through the mud using dozens of arms.

None of them crossed the invisible line.

They simply stood there.

Watching.

Lith heard more splashing and turned around, only to see a similar scenario.

The muddy path he and Meng Yuexin stood on had unknowingly become surrounded from both sides.

White threads filled his vision but all stopped a meter from him.

A clear passage existed in the center, and the threads did not enter this boundary.

It was as if the prison had marked a route that only the jailers were allowed to walk.

Meng Yuexin slowly exhaled.

For the first time since entering this layer, her hand quietly moved towards Lith’s sleeve.

It was not out of fear.

It was out of instinct.

"...there are hundreds of them."

Lith observed the silent figures carefully.

None attacked.

None made a sound.

Yet the feeling they gave was far worse than a battlefield filled with screaming enemies.

It felt as though every monster in the forest was staring at a piece of meat they were forbidden to touch.

Plus the yellow illumination from the fruits contrasting against their pale bodies only added to the creepiness.

’Is this what grandma meant by things getting worse from here onwards?’ Lith thought and deactivated his skill, having his eyes return to their original color.

The whistling sound breeze past Lith’s ear again.

It was soft and felt ancient.

It lingered on the empty passage in front, calling Lith deeper into the prison.

The moment this sound resurfaced, Lith noticed something strange around him once again.

The creatures.

All of them had lowered their heads simultaneously.

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