The Record of Unusual Creatures

In the dead of night, a large swarm of black bats swept over the sky and disappeared. In the middle of the swarm of bats, there was a white figure. Nangong Wuyue looked at them as they disappeared into the horizon and muttered, "Will Vivian drop Lily halfway into the woods..."     

Hao Ren gazed into the distance and said, "She already dropped Lily—when they flew into the woods."     

"…"     

"Don't worry, Lily's body is strong. This won't hurt her. And, this is what they usually do to each other anyway," Hao Ren said, like it was something very normal. "Every night when Vivian flies out for a stroll, Lily will hold a slingshot and watch her behind the window. These two are just like that... There's no cure."     

As a "high-speed combination" in the squad, Lily and Vivian were responsible of exploring the the Blood Lake's outpost. However, the knights had set up layers upon layers of ground defenses outside the Gnarled Grove to ward off the rock monsters. There were almost no gaps between the various sensitive magic towers and patrolling sentinels. Hao Ren did not want to cause unnecessary, so he advised them to cross the line of defense from the sky. Lily could not fly, hence Vivian needed to bring her along. And the moment they crossed the line of defense and flew into the woods, the vampire girl dropped the husky down right away.     

Y'zaks and Becky had already left. Hao Ren and Nangong Wuyue were the only ones still there at the moment. Under the chilly light of the two moons, Hao Ren glanced at Dragonspine Ridge, then tossed the MDT into the air and said,"Let's go!"     

"So lazy…" The MDT faded in a blue light and disappeared into the air, leaving its words slowly dissipating in the air.     

A few seconds later, Hao Ren and Nangong Wuyue reached a place about a 100 km from the south of Leyton via the MDT's teleportation function. This was where the strange collapse and changing shape of Dragonspine Ridge took place. Hao Ren, who had just recovered from the momentary vertigo of teleportation was startled by what he saw...     

Seeing something for one's self was better than hearing about it. It was hard to imagine how mountains could change shape and form a "Sky Road" from the words of others alone. Now he understood why Bishop Gelton and Ophra confirmed that the changing shape of Dragonspine Ridge was caused by the power of ancient, evil magic: At night, the dark mountains twisted into bizarre shapes like ferocious demons. On the walls of the mountain, which should have been smooth, there were countless stalactite or stalagmites sticking out. The small ones were dozens of metres long while the big ones pierced across the sky. The so-called "Sky Road" was in fact, a huge stalagmite that extended out like a road. The huge stalagmite, which was hundreds of metres wide pierced across the mountains of Leyton in the night sky and fell straight into the twisted woodland. It was probably not a natural formation, but there were no traces of it being man-made either. It looked more like it "grew" from the mountain.     

The reason why Leyton's line of defense worked was upon entering the Gnarled Grove from Dragonspine Ridge, there were geological folds that were lower than the ridge but steeper and harder to climb. The folds encircled the Gnarled Grove, and Leyton town was the only entrance. So when the monsters appeared, those who could not climb the mountain were blocked by these folds. But now, the Sky Road stretching out of Dragonspine Ridge completely crossed the defensive line from the sky. The rock monsters entering the sacred grounds through this past were almost unimpeded.     

This Sky Road often collapsed, changed shape, and even changed ends. The knights had no way to set a fixed line of defense at the end of the road. Hence, it was no wonder that they were so busy dealing with the rock monsters.     

However, the intelligence of the rock monsters was probably limited. They did not know how to deploy their superior forces to a cluster onslaught with the exception of what they did half a month ago. Rock monsters would storm the nearest stronghold from the mountain they cracked out from. If all the rock monsters in the entire mountain range had gathered at one point and swarmed the Gnarled Grove from this Sky Road, the Church Knights would not have been able to beat so many monsters.     

But now, there were no rock monsters coming down from the south peak. It was also possible that the rock monsters were dormant now. Hao Ren did not find any monsters wandering around. The magnificent and bizarre stone Sky Road just lay quietly across the night sky, looking harmless.     

Hao Ren raised the MDT in his hand as if he was using a searchlight. The MDT was puzzled by his behavior and asked, "What are you doing?"     

"Aren't you a sensor? I'm scanning our surroundings..."     

The Mobile Data Terminal paused for a moment, and then flew out of Hao Ren's hand and yelled, "Can't you use your brain? You can just tell me!"     

Then the MDT emitted a faint blue light to roughly scan their surroundings. More than 10 seconds later, it fell back on Hao Ren's shoulder and said, "The Sky Road in itself has no magic residue. Those are just simple stones. The source of this unusual phenomenon should be on the mountain."     

Hao Ren looked up and found a way to climb the Sky Road. Let's go up. It's said that if the Sky Road senses an outsider, you'll be 'dumped' down. Let's go up and try." He looked back at Nangong Wuyue and asked, "Are you waiting here or...?"     

"I'm not here to drag you down!" Nangong Wuyue put her hands on her hips and said, "Siren have no other skills, but their survival capability is stronger than yours. I'm an expert in exploring dangerous places like this, okay?"     

While Nangong Wuyue was talking to Hao Ren, she was surrounded by a mist that shielded his sight. After the mist dispersed, she had transformed into a beautiful serpent. She threw the ball of frozen clothes into Hao Ren's hand and said, "Keep it. When we get up there, let me go ahead of you. I hear there's a miasma on the mountain—I'm good at dealing with that stuff."     

Hao Ren kept Nangong Wuyue's clothes. He then looked at her soft and smooth tail, then at the rugged rocks. He asked, "Is your body structure suitable for mountain climbing? Don't break your skin again…"     

Nangong Wuyue slapped her tail and said, "You should watch Animal World more often to increase your general knowledge of animals!"     

After that, she twisted her body and climbed up the mountain. Her body fit perfectly around those rugged rocks, moving gracefully but also speedily. Hao Ren quickly followed her. Running up the mountain, he said, "But, Animal World has never talked about snakes that specialise in mountain climbing..."     

The two were moving fast, and they soon came to the place where the Sky Road began. When he climbed up, Hao Ren noticed that the Sky Road was not connected to the mountain out of nowhere after all. There were two roads at the junction and there was a pretty large, flat transition zone. And on the Sky Road along the mountain, there were broad, winding ramps that extended to both sides. But due to an angle problem, he did not notice these structures earlier on. The purpose of the flat and broad transition zone was obvious: to help the monsters infiltrate the place easily. After all, those monsters could not climb over the cliffs.     

"Such an exquisite and thoughtful design should be man-made," Hao Ren said as he pulled the corner of his lips, ready to find the area where the mountain began. But before that, he began to frown. "What's that smell?"     

The air was filled with an unpleasant odour as if the plants were rotting. It was so subtle that it was almost impossible to tell. If Hao Ren did not possess senses beyond the ordinary human, he would have probably ignored it or thought it to be the smell of rotten grass and wood. But before Hao Ren finished talking, a cool and moist breeze dissipated the unpleasant smell. Nangong Wuyue was moving her arms, using her Water Mist to disperse the poisonous mist around them. "This should be the miasma. It's dangerous because it's non-toxic when just inhaled. It'll react to the warm environment in the lungs for a minute before it starts to kill."     

Hao Ren immediately became frightened and said, "I just inhaled it!"     

Nangong Wuyue gave him a sideways glance and said, "Don't worry, my mist can detoxify it. And with your physique, a little bit of poisonous mist won't kill you."     

Hao Ren found Nangong Wuyue to be fully functional—she could cure, heal, detoxify, provide a protective shield, and even dispel poisonous air. Where could you find such high-end support? Her only problem was, she could not fight…     

"Now, let's test how this mountain 'senses' that someone is climbing the Sky Road." Hao Ren looked at the long "bridge" across the horizon not far away and said, "I want to see who's watching this side. By the way, when I fall down, remember to use teleportation to pull me back. It's gonna really hurt to fall down from such a high place and get hit by tonnes of stones—"     

The MDT hit Hao Ren on the back and said, "Okay, okay, just go!"