Chapter 264: 260 Deep Mountain Mist

The next morning, Fang Mu and Mo Guangning set off with the essential items for exploring the mountains.

Fang Mu had a premonition that this trip into the mountains would be abnormally dangerous, and he could not guarantee how much time would be spent in Nong Mountain; in short, he had packed enough food to last two or three weeks, mostly portable compressed food. His backpack was bulging with a huge pile of things, and water actually accounted for the largest part of the weight.

Mo Guangning did not say anything about this. This Zhuang man, with his simple appearance but delicate heart, could actually already sense to some extent that Fang Mu was going into the dangerous Nong Mountain to do something even more perilous. He remained calm on the surface, but was hesitant inside, sometimes lost in thought.

After leaving the range of the mountain village and entering the mountain forest, Fang Mu could not help but ask Mo Guangning: "How far is it to Nong Mountain?"

"It might take over an hour to walk. The road here is uneven; will you be okay carrying so much stuff?" Mo Guangning said.

Fang Mu smiled and said, "It's fine, I should be okay."

After saying this, both of them began to move forward in silence. The mountain forest ahead began to fog up, and the mist grew thicker and thicker...

Although Fang Mu did not know where Nong Mountain was or what it looked like, he felt that he was getting closer and closer to it, and the feeling of panic in his heart gradually magnified.

The deeper they walked into the mist, the more bizarre and strange the vegetation in the forest became. Occasionally, he would see tree roots as thick as trunks, trees with leaves growing from their roots as if the large trees were growing down from the sky, not to mention those plant leaves that were as translucent as faint green gems, and unknown fruits that were plump but exuded a rotten, foul stench hanging upside down from the trees.

Apart from the magnificent yet strange sights within his line of sight, this mountain forest shrouded in thick fog was as quiet as cotton inside a pillow. He and Mo Guangning were like the only two living creatures traveling through this dull world, tiny and lonely.

Gradually, the fog became so thick that he could barely see his own feet. Fang Mu's walking speed slowed down involuntarily, but he noticed that Mo Guangning, who was leading the way in front, did not seem to have any intention of slowing his pace. He shouted at the other man, wanting him to wait for him.

However, Mo Guangning seemed not to have heard, walking straight ahead.

Fang Mu had a bad premonition and tried to step forward to pull him, but his foot was tripped by something soft and slimy, and he nearly fell.

Just in the moment of shock while watching the road, the guide Fang Mu had hired disappeared into the clouds and mist.

Fang Mu broke out in a cold sweat. While calling out to Mo Guangning, he moved forward slowly, hoping that this was a joke Mo Guangning was playing on him.

But time passed second by second, no one answered him, and the surroundings were deathly silent.

Fang Mu could not help but begin to maliciously speculate that this was not a simple malicious joke. He deeply suspected that this was a trap set by that uncle and nephew, a snare set for him by the entire village that once worshipped evil deities. They wanted to murder him so he would die in this Miwu Senlin from which one could never walk out.

They very likely regarded him as a sacrificial offering for the ritual, to be presented to that indescribable toad-like thing.

That diary was real; it was written by a version of himself that came from the future and for some reason returned to the past. But the village chief of Wenya Tun was lying; he clearly remembered the appearance of "himself." From the moment he arrived at the village, he had remembered "himself."

It was for the sake of faith and also for the sake of the former village, so the village chief and his nephew discussed taking revenge on him.

He wasn't drunk at all last night; it was all an act. After he was carried back to the bedroom by his nephew, he began to plot how to make me die in this lawless forest...

The more Fang Mu thought, the more chaotic his mind became, and his expression shifted between light and shadow.

Ribbit...

Just as Fang Mu was letting his imagination run wild, he suddenly heard a cry. It was the first time since entering this mist-locked mountain forest that he had heard a sound made by other creatures in the environment.

This frog croak was like a stone thrown into a calm lake, stirring up ripples, and soon the forest was filled with the sound of frogs.

Fang Mu felt that a large number of toads and frogs had appeared all around, hiding in the dark, peeping at him as he acted ridiculously out of panic, despising him, this human who overestimated his own capabilities.

No, those might not be harmless creatures like toads or frogs, but a group of frog-men peeping at him with curiosity. He was like a stray cat that had wandered into someone else's house; he could only pray that those things did not have a tendency to abuse "cats," and that only he would be able to survive.

"Ah!" A scream rang out, like a thunderbolt striking Fang Mu.

He trembled all over as if electrocuted, then moved his shaking legs and ran forward, stumbling, faster and faster, regardless of everything, running wildly in a daze, losing all composure.

While running, he forced his voiceless throat to let out a hoarse cry: "Mo Guangning! Mo Guangning! Where are you!?"

Fang Mu did not know where he had run to; he was only chasing the sound of the scream from just now, and as a result, he was tripped by something again during his run.

Falling to the ground, Fang Mu's backpack seemed to have been slashed by something sharp. In the thick fog, he felt his back lighten, and a large pile of things from the bag suddenly scattered all over the ground.

The pain made Fang Mu suddenly calm down for an instant. His heart trembled, thinking that he actually shouldn't have run toward the place where the scream came from, because that meant he was actively throwing himself into the embrace of danger; he was courting death!

Only after realizing this did Fang Mu break out in a cold sweat, and soon he was frightened into silence again by the scene before his eyes.

He saw that under his lower leg lay a severed leg wearing military-green hiking pants. Only the lower leg remained, and the severed surface and the fabric of the pants were still stained with foul-smelling mucus and mangled bite marks. The fresh, bloody scent attacked Fang Mu's nose like choking chili peppers.

He recognized it; this lower leg belonged to the poor Mo Guangning, the guide who had accompanied him here and then "abandoned" him to save his own life, who had unfortunately encountered some kind of large, unknown wild beast in this deep mountain mist, being gnawed until only such a severed limb remained.

Seeing the corpse of his murdered companion, Fang Mu could no longer maintain his sanity and ran through the mountain forest. He could no longer care about what he might step on, whether he would step into thin air and fall from a high slope, and even less about whether there would be sharp objects ahead that could easily tear his backpack, even if he were to be cut.

The surrounding frog sounds grew louder and louder, like a welcoming party greeting him, their honored guest. No... it should be more like a funeral procession seeing him off, "cheering" him on as he stepped toward death.

"Ah!" Fang Mu stepped into thin air, his hands and feet grabbing at everything, wanting to find something to hold onto, yet his body uncontrollably fell, fell, fell... falling to the bottom of the valley, into a bottomless cave.

When he woke up again, the bruised and battered Fang Mu found that he had arrived in a mysterious cave.