Chapter 40: Disappearance (4k two-in-one)

Hum—

At this moment, Xia Nan seemed to have returned to that night before he crossed over.

Under the action of the massive force, his toes left the ground, and his body was thrown high like a doll in a child's hands;

The intense pain from his back disappeared from his perception because it exceeded the limit of what the human body could bear, replaced by gradually blurring consciousness;

Seeing stars, his internal organs seemed to have changed positions, and before his eyes, it didn't seem to be the dense and lush shrub forest anymore, but that big truck sounding its horn, and that truck driver with a face full of alcohol and a flushed face.

"Pfft!"

His lips opened and closed, and the stinging blood spat from his mouth, along with the bloody smell filling his nasal cavity, brought him back to reality.

His body, covered in grass clippings and broken leaves, flew and rolled on the ground like a broken cloth bag.

The intense pain swallowed Xia Nan's body and mind like a tide after a moment of stagnation.

He couldn't judge the specific situation of the injuries he had suffered, but there was no doubt that the unbearable pain of dizziness, stinging, burning, and soreness merging together from all over his body had completely caused him to lose the ability to fight.

"Damn! Damn! Damn! Damn!"

The sudden turn of the situation caused Xia Nan to curse instinctively in his heart.

Thinking of the healing potion in the small bag at his waist, his arm lying on the meadow couldn't exert any strength at all.

The grey-white petrification at his fingertips spread at a speed visible to the naked eye due to the decline of the body owner's state.

It spread to the first knuckle in the time of a breath.

Bang—

The sound of heavy footsteps came from the dense forest outside his vision.

The shadow cast by the massive body of the Petrification Lizard gradually enveloped Xia Nan on the ground.

"Am I going to die?"

At this moment, after panic and resentment, he felt exceptionally calm in his heart.

Flashing before his eyes were the rusty nail embedded in the gnome Erji's skull, the ankle of Gagu who was held upside down by the Hobgoblin, and the broken wooden bow in Maji's arms.

Even though he had never seriously thought about the ending of his "transmigrator" career, but having witnessed the fate of the Smelly Fish and Rotten Shrimp squad, in the dark, he seemed to have been prepared to face everything in his subconscious.

"Ssh!"

The miserable cry made when the air was torn apart suddenly sounded from the top of the trees not far beside him.

The sharp arrowhead flashed with cold light, and the mist was whipped up violently.

The half-elf's iconic white-feathered arrow vibrated and rotated at high speed, shooting straight at the Petrification Lizard at a speed that the naked eye could only see as a phantom.

"Ding!"

The accuracy was lacking.

Whether intentional or unintentional, the wooden arrow didn't shoot at the lizard's eyes, but landed on the grey-green scales on the side of its body that were as thick and heavy as rock.

Sparks splattered, and the rough, solid defensive scales, comparable to steel, blocked the arrowhead outside the flesh without suspense.

Leaving only a shallow white scratch.

But precisely because of this, the Petrification Lizard's attention was temporarily diverted from Xia Nan.

The neck, piled with muscles and stone armor, turned slowly, and the Petrification Lizard cast its gaze toward the direction from which the wooden arrow came, the faint light in its dark green eyes flickering, and "Petrification Gaze" was cast invisibly.

And just then, in the blind spot that the Petrification Lizard's gaze couldn't reach, the shadows distorted, and a palm-sized brown earthen jar was thrown out.

"Boom!"

It hit the Petrification Lizard's skull and nose tip squarely.

The thick, viscous oil and turbid dust, just a spark, exploded and burned like a small bomb.

Roar—

The flames ignited the Petrification Lizard's head in an instant.

The painful roar sounded in the forest.

Xia Nan naturally wouldn't let down the good intentions of his teammates who had come to support him at the risk of their lives.

Even though his body had fallen into a state of serious injury under the attack of the Petrification Lizard.

But the calm mind he had when facing death allowed him to regain the ability to think and react again.

Almost the second the sound of the half-elf's wooden arrow breaking the air entered his ears.

Xia Nan used his greatest willpower, gritted his teeth, and topped the boundless pain coming from all over his body, forcibly controlling his somewhat distorted arm.

Trembling, he took out the healing potion with fluorescent light shaking in his waist bag.

Biting off the wooden stopper with his teeth.

Poured it in.

He drank half of it in one gulp.

The liquid was cool and slightly sweet and fragrant.

After flowing into the abdominal cavity from the esophagus, it turned into warm currents, driving the blood to transmit throughout the body.

As if bathing in a hot spring out of thin air, the pain all over his body was relieved in just a few breaths.

He regained control of his flesh.

The blue-grey figure burning with fire flashed in the corner of his eye.

Xia Nan had no time to wait for the healing potion to take further effect.

Just having regained his mobility, he used both hands to support himself and climbed up from the ground forcibly.

Then he continued to run toward the depths of the dense forest without looking back.

The wooden arrow, the incendiary bomb, and the half-elf duo who disappeared again after attacking, let Xia Nan instinctively know that this was not a counterattack horn blown by Haian and Wood.

It was just a delaying tactic carried out to save him from the claws of the Petrification Lizard.

He had to seize the opportunity to pull away as much distance as possible.

And the facts were indeed so.

The sudden flames and the intense burning pain at the sensitive nose tip caused the Petrification Lizard to shake its head instinctively like a bull.

And although its facial scales were relatively weak, they were still tough and solid, playing a considerable role.

Ten seconds? Or twenty seconds?

The flames that had been burning violently were extinguished as the trees and grass in the surrounding forest were broken and crushed.

The thick nostrils exhaled hot air.

The two auras above the tree crown had long since disappeared, and only the figure that was stumbling but still maintaining a certain speed and moving away rapidly remained in its perception.

As if teased by a weak prey, the fierce anger unique to wild beasts ignited in the heart of this cruel magic beast.

"Roar—"

It roared toward the sky violently.

Then, like a tank, it once again chased in the direction Xia Nan fled with a rough posture of charging and crashing.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

The heavy footsteps like beating drums came from the dense forest behind him again.

Xia Nan felt the shaking of the ground and the intense commotion of trees collapsing behind him.

He wanted to speed up, but his body had reached its limit.

His step frequency slowed down, and the soft meadow under his feet felt like a swamp filled with mud, making it increasingly difficult to lift his legs.

Half a bottle of healing potion allowed him to temporarily recover from a state of serious injury and possess a certain degree of mobility.

But wanting to recover as before in such a short time was obviously not something a small mouthful of potion could do.

After all, its name didn't have prefixes like "Potent" or "Ultimate."

He just ran forward as much as possible.

Even though the mist in the air became increasingly rich, visibility dropped rapidly, and the trees in his vision gradually became dense.

Obviously, he had left the scope of the "outskirts" of the Mist Forest.

And besides that, Xia Nan noticed even more.

The direction he chose in a crisis seemed to be exactly where the source of the otherworldly objects was, which he had hesitated about before deciding to return.

The buildings with different styles by the road, intertwined with the branches of shrubs, appeared more and more frequently.

Not just the wooden restaurant that had once towered, but even a dilapidated temple with half a copper bell hanging, a magnificent palace that had collapsed for the most part...

As if gradually approaching the very center of all this.

The highly concentrated attention seemed to make the flow of time accelerate accordingly.

He didn't know how long it had been.

Until the warm currents from the healing potion gradually dissipated and could no longer be felt.

Xia Nan slowed his pace under the influence of his overdrawn physical strength.

"Hoo... hoo... hoo..."

Breathing heavily and rapidly, his consciousness and sanity returned to his brain following the influx of air.

"Ran... ran away?"

He wondered subconsciously in his heart.

Clearly, while he was fleeing just now, he could still clearly feel the chasing sound of the Petrification Lizard, which was even more rapid than at the very beginning under the effect of anger.

With the speed he sensed in his heart at the time, there was even a moment when he felt that everything he had done before was futile.

But...

"When?"

Since when did the Petrification Lizard's footsteps suddenly disappear?

It was definitely not that it had left his perception range, causing the other party to slow down its pace to search for his whereabouts.

It was the kind of sudden disappearance of footsteps like an emergency brake.

Breathing heavily.

Xia Nan had a dazed look after intense exercise, his gaze looking around.

The mist permeating the air was much richer, and even the sunlight overhead was weakened by it.

Suddenly noticing a trace of something wrong.

"What about those buildings?"

The broken walls that were everywhere just now seemed to have suddenly disappeared, and not even a brick or tile appeared.

Dim, quiet.

Xia Nan suddenly had an illusion.

At this moment, he was like standing in the very center of the huge cyclone of a hurricane that was raging on the earth, calm but the most dangerous—

Eye of the storm.

Subconsciously turning his body, his footsteps stepped forward lightly.

Hum—

Without any preparation, extremely abruptly.

The space around Xia Nan suddenly distorted and blurred for an instant.

In the next second, his body disappeared into the mist.

"Xia Nan? Xia Nan?"

In the depths of the dark and quiet dense forest, a call with a lowered voice suddenly came.

Haian lowered his body, carefully walking through the trees.

Beside him was his guard Wood, who was as inseparable as a shadow.

Unlike the brilliance and cleanliness of their first meeting, the two now looked quite wretched.

Not only were they covered in grass seeds and leaf fragments, but even the hair on their foreheads was congealed together by sweat.

The silver-grey eyes emitted a faint light in the darkness, and Haian was carefully searching for his companion's figure.

The dark vision unique to Elven blood allowed him to clearly capture things within sixty feet of his surroundings as if it were daylight, even in a dimly lit environment.

No discovery.

Wood didn't say a word, but was also doing his best.

While maintaining vigilance, he was carefully searching for details on the forest floor with his rich experience.

The two, one possessed combat techniques related to "Ranger," and the Elven blood flowing in his veins was worthy of being called a "darling of nature";

The other was a "Rogue" who was good at hiding and active in the shadows.

Just by leaving the Petrification Lizard's line of sight, they easily escaped the other party's perception.

And precisely because of this, they were able to take advantage of the Petrification Lizard's inattention to launch a surprise attack, save Xia Nan from the other party's claws.

And after that, they circled a large circle and followed the commotion all the way to this place.

"Young Master, here!"

Wood seemed to have discovered something, stooped down, and reminded the half-elf beside him.

I saw a string of footprints printed on the soft and moist meadow before him.

Seemingly chased by something behind and exhausted, the footprints were short and dense, and there were some plant roots that had been crushed beside them.

But strangely, the owner of the footprints seemed to have disappeared suddenly, causing the originally continuous footprints to stop abruptly on a piece of ground.

The half-elf Haian suddenly looked up, his gaze searching and capturing in the lush tree crowns.

"Young Master, this place already belongs to the depths of the Mist Forest, we..."

Wood looked hesitant, reminding him beside him.

Hearing this, Haian's expression remained unchanged.

Glancing at the sky that had become somewhat dim under the cover of the tree crowns overhead, and looking down at the footprint that had suddenly stopped.

He opened his mouth slowly and firmly:

"Search for another two hours, if there is still no discovery... we will temporarily retreat to the outskirts."

"Good."

At the same time, on the other side.

"Boom!"

The rough blue-grey scales like rock slammed into the tree trunk.

The thick brown bark, capable of resisting sword slashes and axe chops, was instantly pierced, the tree fibers were hooked and torn, revealing the tender tree heart inside.

The Petrification Lizard "Basilisk" was venting the anger it had accumulated in its heart on this innocent oak tree.

Mud splashed.

The massive root system that had been deeply rooted in the soil was suddenly lifted under the giant force of the magic beast that seemed capable of crushing steel, along with half of the broken tree trunk.

It roared wildly, and a ghostly green light, like will-o'-the-wisps, flickered incessantly in its eyes.

Part of the scales on the top of its skull and nose, as well as the brown crystal bone spurs around it, could vaguely see the scorch marks after being burned.

The Petrification Lizard could feel the human aura that was gradually dissipating in the dense forest in the distance ahead.

It also clearly knew that such weak creatures were far from being its opponents.

Even if they happened to survive the erosion of "Petrification Gaze," it only needed a light claw, or just a bite.

These cunning prey would become its dinner.

But even so, the Petrification Lizard had no intention of continuing to hunt.

It just stayed on the outskirts of the increasingly dense buildings, destroying the surrounding trees and shrubs in vain and powerlessly.

As if there was an invisible dividing line between it and those building ruins.

Making it dare not take even a single step.

Until the end, after lifting dozens of towering trees to the ground, causing countless creatures disturbed in the forest to turn into cold stone sculptures.

The Petrification Lizard then looked at the direction Xia Nan disappeared from afar with hesitation and vigilance like a human.

Turned around.

Dragging its bloated body, it disappeared into the depths of the mist and dense forest.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 41 =====