164 The Heart
Selma Payne’s POV:
This inexplicable sentence made everyone confused.
After Kerner’s inspection, he found that Linda’s life force was rapidly depleting. Dorothy immediately cast some recovery and exorcism spells on Linda. The return party had no time to waste and immediately set off.
Only Dorothy, Kerner, and I, and five other members, were left in the forest.
What surprised me was that Yuri was among them.
This man who always found trouble with me had not said a word since leaving the illusionary world, and I often ignored him.
I didn’t expect him to stay behind. I could see that he usually respected Frank.
“Don’t look at me like that,” Yuri said in frustration. “Frank is my captain, okay? He took good care of me, and I respect him a lot. Can’t your noble brain understand this simple cause and effect, Miss?”
Alright, as expected; he was still that annoying petty person.
We had no choice but to go around the tall pine trees and choose another path because Dorothy insisted that there was a problem with the tree size.
An extremely ominous aura. She didn’t even want to look at the pine tree. I felt that anyone close enough to it would be lost in its ugly branches.
It was as if someone had set up the route. Besides a relatively clean main road, the small roads we opened were all rugged and difficult. It was as if the weeds and shrubs that had disappeared along the way suddenly realized that it was time to go to work. This kind of ‘loyalty to duty’ was annoying.
“Wait,” I waved my hand to stop the people behind me and carefully observed the surroundings. “Don’t you think this place looks familiar?”
Some of the more observant members had already noticed that something was amiss. Behind the cover of the thick bushes was a small snowy path that we had cleared out twenty minutes ago.
The bad news was that we were lost.
The worse news was that our compass was not working.
“Maybe the compass didn’t fail, but the forest has been changing. I feel that, just like last night’s illusion, this forest is constantly changing.”
I was getting rather annoyed. Regardless of whether that demon or some other faction caused all of this, couldn’t they try something else? ‘It’s always a space of change, always these complicated smokescreens. I’ve had enough of this!’
Under an inexplicable impulse, I suddenly began to chop down the surrounding trees. These trees were very strange. Dark red liquid flowed out of their trunks as if they were real blood. Every time I cut down, the rustling of the leaves sounded like a muffled wail.
“It’s alive!” I shouted, “These aren’t pine trees. They’re alive. Kill them!”
The team members joined in the frenzied tree-cutting party. Only Dorothy was a little worried. “We shouldn’t be so impulsive. No one knows what this will cause.”
“They’re trying to intimidate us!” I said viciously, “Some inexplicable changes, ha! I’ve had enough. Why are we the ones being played? If you want to get out of the maze, there is another way besides finding the right path-destroy it!”
We madly hacked at the trees. Thanks to the werewolves’ impressive physical fitness, these thick trees were as fragile as children’s walking sticks to us.
Ten minutes later, we returned to the huge pine tree.
Now, even I could see something strange about this pine tree. Its dead branches and leaves were scattered all over the silver-white snow, and these pieces were carbonized and blackened as if they had been burned.
Dark red liquid was flowing out of the broken branches of the giant pine tree. Some had already dried up, while others were dripping with a sticky substance.
f𝘳𝒆ℯ𝑤𝚎𝚋𝗻𝚘𝘷el. c𝗼m
This sight gave me an inexplicable sense of déjà vu-it was as if this pine tree was the heart of the entire forest, and the plants around it were its blood vessels. The heart controlled the blood vessels but would also suffer a backlash from the damage the blood vessels received.
Destroying the pine trees would also destroy this strange forest!
It was useless to search for Frank using the route we had cleared out. The changing forest would make us forever lost in the complex paths. If we wanted to leave, the only way was to destroy this evil creation at its roots.
I was unsure if destroying the giant pine tree required a special method, so I asked Dorothy, “Do you think we need any special method to destroy this tree?”
“No.” Dorothy shook her head. “To be honest, I think this is just a pine tree. Although it is filled with evil power, it cannot change its structure. Moreover, I don’t know if it’s just my imagination, but this pine tree will die on its own without us having to do anything. Its life force is already very faint and gradually fading.”
“How long will it take to die?”
“I think one or two years.”
I couldn’t help rolling my eyes.
“So, fire will help, right?”
