Chapter 259 - 155: There Aren’t Ghosts, Are There?
"Why aren’t Jilong, Ma Yu, and Niu Ben back yet?"
"You, go take a look."
He pointed at a random person and ordered him to go check in the direction the three had left.
The man hurried into the woods. He saw nothing along the way and didn’t hear even the faintest shout.
He did, however, see some strange plants, especially those Big-Mouthed Flowers. He’d seen them before when he was wandering around, and they were always open. The ones he saw now were all closed.
They looked listless and droopy, as if they were lazy.
After looking around, the man ran back.
"Captain, I didn’t see anyone!"
"Hmm? No one? Where could they have gone?"
The three men the captain had sent were his trusted confidants (the parasitized ones), so it was impossible that they were unhappy with his new captaincy and were deliberately trying to embarrass him.
"Captain, could they be lost? This mountain range stretches for dozens of kilometers. Maybe they went the wrong way?"
"It’s possible. Let’s go! We’ll all search together. Consider it a pre-battle drill!"
The captain decided that everyone would search for the missing people together.
"By the way, have the men who went to set up the climbing ropes returned?"
"Reporting, not yet."
"Alright, then. We’ll head over to that side of the mountain first."
The entire flanking detachment of nearly forty thousand men marched toward the mountain peak, preparing to cross the range and check on the rappelling preparations on the other cliffside.
After crossing the summit, everyone noticed that the strange-looking plants were gone. Instead, there was a lot of withered grass that resembled Scarecrows, and occasionally, they could see some tall tree stumps on the ground.
No one paid these things any mind. They continued forward, talking and laughing as if on a spring outing.
The captain grew a little angry seeing this. ’Such terrible military discipline.’ But then he considered that these were troops from under different lords, and since his own men (the parasitized ones) kept quiet, he decided to hold his tongue.
’Hmph! In the coming battle, I’ll send you disobedient ones out to die first.’
"Sir, a body has been found up ahead."
"What?" The captain was startled and hurried forward to check.
And then, he saw a decaying corpse.
"Tch, what’s the big deal? Isn’t this just a corpse that’s been dead for years? Gave me a little scare. It’s fine, keep moving."
When the group arrived at the cliff’s edge, the captain looked at the fixed anchors that had been set up and glanced around.
’Where did those bastards disappear to?’
"Spread out and look for any clues!"
After the forty thousand men spread out, they quickly scoured the area near the cliff. Aside from a few more decaying corpses, they found nothing else.
The captain thought for a moment. It wasn’t worth wasting time over a few dozen men. So he led the detachment to search for the more than ten thousand who had gone missing.
However, he still left behind a few hundred men to continue setting up the climbing ropes, as well as a thousand-man unit to stand guard.
When they crossed the peak again and returned to the mountain forest filled with strange plants, the Big-Mouthed Flowers, having finished digesting their full meal, opened their great maws once more.
As the main force passed by, they would watch for the right moment to devour people from the rear of the column.
Without anyone noticing, the number of people falling behind at the rear of the force dwindled significantly.
"Captain, something doesn’t feel right."
"What’s wrong?"
"We’re missing more men!!!"
"Hmm?"
"Everyone, halt! Count off, from front to back!"
"One!"
"Two!"
...
When the final count came in, the captain’s expression changed. This time, he finally sensed that something was truly wrong.
Everyone was walking together, so how could several hundred people just disappear? If someone hadn’t noticed his friend was missing and shouted, who knows how many more would have vanished before they realized.
’This is impossible!’
If it were an enemy attack, there would have been some commotion. The key was that everyone vanished without a trace—no sign of them alive or dead. That was what made it so terrifying.
"What were the people who disappeared doing?"
"Everyone, think back carefully!"
...
"Sir, they... they were all walking at the rear of the column."
"One moment they were walking, and the next... they were gone."
"Let’s go, back and search!"
In the shadows, the plants quietly moved the bodies on the ground under their roots. Everything looked perfectly natural.
The flanking detachment, returning to search for the missing people, found no trace of them in the jungle—no bodies, not even any of their personal belongings.
A few heroes with tracking skills examined the footprints on the ground, only to find that the tracks just stopped abruptly.
It was as if people simply vanished mid-stride. But that was impossible. How could a person just disappear into thin air?
They had already checked the surroundings many times. Apart from some plants that looked different from the ones on the ground, there was nothing unusual. They figured these plants were just native to this high-altitude mountain environment.
If something was making people vanish into thin air, the only possibility was the sky.
’The sky?’
’But there’s nothing in the sky, is there?’
The captain was unwilling to give up. He ordered his men to launch ranged attacks at the sky. Arrows, Wind Blades, and other less conspicuous projectiles flew into the air, traveling farther and farther away.
The captain ordered everyone to watch the sky and look for anything unusual.
In the surrounding thickets, the gluttonous Big-Mouthed Flowers seized the opportunity to eat several more people.
"Sigh... I guess I was overthinking it. How could there be a problem in the sky."
"Sir—this is bad! More of our brothers have disappeared!!!"
"What? When did they disappear?"
"Just now! We were all watching the sky. When I stopped and looked around, I realized the few people standing next to me were gone!!!"
Nearby, a few Big-Mouthed Flowers hidden in the woods were working hard to digest the people they had swallowed. Inside their tightly shut maws, a powerful protective shield enveloped the person inside, remaining completely still no matter how they attacked it.
Inside its mouth, strong digestive fluids were rapidly corroding the person. In just a moment, they lost their life. The Eye Demon on their back jumped out, trying to escape, but could only look at the shield in despair.
Most importantly, this shield not only trapped them inside the great maw but also blocked all sound, preventing their voices from escaping.
"What???"
This time, the captain was truly flustered.
"Let’s go! We’re not waiting anymore. We’re going to the cliff and heading straight down."
He decided to stop looking for the missing people. He didn’t care what was strange about this place anymore. He would just go down the cliff and complete the lord’s mission.
Everyone was visibly panicked. They huddled together and ran towards the designated descent point.
But even so, people continued to vanish into thin air. One moment two people might be chatting, and the next, one would turn to look elsewhere, and when they looked back, the other person would be gone. It was utterly terrifying.
But no matter what they did, they couldn’t figure out what was causing it all.
Everyone was on edge. The slightest rustle would draw a barrage of attacks from the group, but they never hit anything, at most striking some of the surrounding plants.
When the panicking flanking detachment ran back to the cliff’s edge, they were horrified to discover that the thousand-plus men left behind had also disappeared, and the climbing ropes for the descent were not ready.
In the nearby grass, there were a few more decaying corpses.
"Cap... Captain, I just thought of something. This continent has only existed for less than a year. How can there be corpses that are this badly decayed? I think... I think... they might be some of our missing team members."
"Captain, you don’t think this place is haunted, do you?"
"Dammit, what ’haunted’? We’ve seen specters from the Undead Race before. What’s so scary about that? Besides, those specters don’t have this kind of ability!"
"No, Captain, that makes it even more terrifying!!!"
...
"Let’s go! We’re retreating!"
"Captain, what about the mission?"
"What mission? If we stay here any longer, we’re all going to die! Let’s go, now!"
The detachment, which originally had forty thousand members, had not only failed to find the missing personnel during this large-scale search but had lost nearly ten thousand more. Now, only a little over thirty thousand remained.
The captain was certain that if they stayed any longer, they would be in greater danger as their numbers continued to dwindle.
The group hastily scrambled over the mountain peak and ran toward the cliff they had come from.
Behind them, Amuti opened his eyes and led his subordinates in a quiet pursuit. How could he let such a juicy piece of meat that had fallen right into his mouth get away?
After toying with them for so long, the enemy’s flanking party was now filled with terror. The Withered Messengers could teleport in at any moment and deliver a fatal blow.
Under the cover of the mountain wind, the rustling sounds of movement grew denser...