Chapter 361: The Rampantly Growing Forest

Du Zhengyi opened the door and couldn't help but be stunned. For a moment, he thought the corridor had disappeared, then he saw the original walls of the corridor through a few rare gaps between the tangled branches.

The corridor had turned into a primitive environment overnight. Luo Qi poked his head out from behind him to look outside; they seemed to be in a real jungle.

Du Zhengyi suddenly thought he saw light. He looked up and vaguely saw some tiny cracks in the ceiling, with light filtering down from above. No matter what had happened, it seemed things must have spiraled out of control last night.

The sound of chopping came from deep in the jungle. Du Zhengyi and Luo Qi looked in that direction in unison, and a machete split the tough vines. Majiang's face appeared from behind the leaves. "You guys are still in the room? You slept until now? Do you have any heart at all?"

"What are you doing?" Du Zhengyi asked.

"I'm walking back to find you," Majiang said gloomily. "Now we can only clear a path with a knife like in a jungle adventure. And once these things grow to a certain scale, they grow even faster than yesterday. The paths we cut close up again in a few minutes; almost everyone needs to carry a knife to move to another place."

"Where is Guan Xinyue?" Du Zhengyi asked.

"Her face was scratched by branches and she's unhappy, so I let her go to the garden outside to take shelter with some Mages," Majiang said, his face full of impatience. "You're still just standing there? Are you coming or not? In a while, the rooms won't be safe either, and the paths I worked so hard to clear will close up."

Du Zhengyi took Luo Qi to follow him into the small path between the vines, walking unsteadily through the vines as he led the way.

"Why not jump out the window and walk from the outside?" Du Zhengyi asked; he was always one to think about practical routes.

"I thank you for being so smart, while we're the only fools," Majiang said with a dark expression; it seemed he had been overwhelmed for a while. "The Highland Mages were worried that this invasive plant would spread to the outside garden and destroy the precious plants they worked so hard to grow, so they used all the Magic Crystals to create a Barrier surrounding the exterior of the building. It's a pure Physical Barrier; the plants definitely can't get out, but we can't come and go as we please either."

"Can't we use the Orbital System to get to the hall?" Du Zhengyi asked again, ignoring Majiang's hostile attitude.

"No," Majiang said. "These plants looked harmless at first, but once they grew to a certain scale, they started devouring energy. By the way, they finally figured out why these things grew faster and faster later on: after they took root underground, they headed straight for the core crystals of the Orbital System and destroyed them completely, absorbing the energy just like fertilizer. Now the Orbital System at the Highland Mage station is completely paralyzed. If they want to leave here, they need to walk twenty kilometers to find the next connection point."

Luo Qi suddenly sniffed.

Du Zhengyi looked Majiang over carefully. "What's wrong with you? Why are you so irritable? Have you been using a lot of Medical Magic?"

"Uh-huh, there are too many idiots. I never thought there would be so many idiots. I used to naively think that the IQ of our sect was above the average for Mages," Majiang said.

"Why? Did they fall in the newly grown forest?" Du Zhengyi asked.

"That was just a few individuals, and it wasn't serious." Majiang's expression became a bit colorful. "It's like a sudden power outage in human society; there are always people who get bored and hyper. Last night they gathered in the garden to party, and some people even made hallucinogens. A few idiots climbed to the top of the trees and jumped down, breaking their legs. Then there were some super-idiots partying in the swamp who somehow got a real crocodile. That crocodile was over two meters long and dragged one of the drunk Mages into the water. Damn it, this guy was the most severely injured; I was called out in the middle of the night to piece him back together and stitch him up."

Du Zhengyi didn't know what to say, and Luo Qi laughed behind him.

"So you were busy all night?" Luo Qi asked sympathetically.

"Busy for the second half of the night, and that was when I was most tired," Majiang said gloomily; his gloom was mostly due to his lack of sleep.

Majiang looked back at them and asked, "What did you do last night? I didn't see you anywhere."

"We were sleeping," Luo Qi said happily.

Majiang looked at him gloomily. "Together?"

"Stop talking nonsense," Du Zhengyi interrupted their conversation, successfully cutting off Luo Qi's intention to continue spouting nonsense. "Can't the Highland Mages think of a way? The plants can already get light naturally now."

"Yeah, we underestimated the power of plant growth," Majiang said. By this time they had returned to the hall area, though finding others in such a large jungle was not easy. "In the middle of the night yesterday, they drilled through the ceiling. The primitive magic of survival is truly full of madness. These things first extended underground, found the energy source of the Orbital System to gain power, and then extended upward to drill countless tiny holes in the roof. No one thought moonlight would be useful either. Actually, we should have thought of it yesterday when we discovered this plant was light-sensitive and that artificial lighting also had an effect on them—but that's hindsight. Who could have thought of moonlight? And the moon didn't rise until very late. The Highland Mages' house turned into a dilapidated shack leaking everywhere. They tried every way to fix the roof, but the speed of repairs couldn't keep up with the holes being poked. They also couldn't rely too much on Magic; any Magic involves the use of energy, and as long as there is energy, it will be absorbed by the plants. It was already quite strenuous for them to set up the Barrier; they calculated for a long time before placing High-energy Crystals twenty-four meters away, but this artificial Barrier cannot block sunlight. However, at this point, no one wants to do that anymore; their energy is focused on killing the plants. For now, these utilitarian plants haven't penetrated the bedroom walls; they are just spreading along the halls and corridors where it's easy to grow, but when there isn't enough space to survive, it's only a matter of time before they enter all the rooms."

Du Zhengyi felt a bit helpless; this was truly a non-lethal but annoying trouble. But just at this moment, an open space finally appeared before them, and some Mages were busy there. "This is..."

"Oh, this is a method Ziyi came up with. It seems to have had some effect," Majiang said. "Next, we need to study how to use it on a large scale."