I Live on the Land in Global Games
Chapter 86 - 85 Withered Woods

Chapter 86: Chapter 85 Withered Woods

After speaking with Shi Yin, Mu Ying descended the mountain.

The house at the foot of the mountain had long disappeared, luckily the cave was still there.

The wolf pack was also resting here.

Mu Ying set up a tent inside the cave and slept through the night, with the wolf pack sleeping outside, she didn’t have to worry about safety.

The first thing she did upon waking the next day was to inquire about the injuries on Da Hui.

Before Doomsday, there were no beasts near Wolf King Slope that could threaten the wolf pack; it could only have been some monster that appeared around here after Doomsday.

After some questioning, Mu Ying’s brows furrowed—it was plants?

To the north of Wolf King Slope there was an area where a large number of trees had died off, and animals had also perished.

The wolf pack’s water source was a stream that ran through that forest. Recently, the water’s color had also looked off. An old wolf that drank that water didn’t survive, and the dead tree area was still expanding, with plants constantly dying.

That’s when Da Hui went into the woods to investigate. As soon as he entered, the dead trees and vines there started moving, attacking him wildly. Fortunately, he hadn’t ventured too deep and had grown much stronger than before Doomsday, which allowed him to barely escape.

If it weren’t for Mu Ying’s timely return, he wouldn’t have survived.

Dead trees that still moved, and seemingly spreading, forced Mu Ying to temporarily abandon researching the wild transformation into wolf form.

She directly flew on her broom to the north side of Wolf King Slope.

She could see the eyesore of dead yellow amidst the dense forest, like an ugly scar.

The Dead Forest seemed denser in branches than the normal forest nearby, and parts of the dead vegetation twisted abnormally, with more vines and shrubs than in a normal forest.

Mu Ying concentrated and used her natural sense to examine the Dead Forest. She saw not a hint of green that would indicate life, but instead it was filled with an unsettling black gas.

This black gas was continuously infecting the natural power of the normal trees.

The trees near the Dead Forest were also in poor condition, their leaves yellowed, and the wild grass and shrubs were nearly as bad as those in the Dead Forest.

Mu Ying felt as if she could hear the forest’s moans and nature’s cries.

Riding the broom made it difficult to cast spells, so Mu Ying had to land somewhat closer to the Dead Forest and used a creature detection spell to probe the dead trees.

"Dead holly."

"Dead snake head grass."

"Dying cypress."

...

The feedback from the spell casting didn’t show anything unusual; it seemed to be just some dead plants.

But Mu Ying knew that wasn’t the case. Da Hui had said that some of these dead plants could move and were aggressive.

She thought for a moment, then took out her bow, aimed at the dead trees, and shot several arrows. There was no response, as though they were truly dead.

But Da Hui’s injuries didn’t lie, and what she had just seen with her natural sense also proved these dead trees were problematic.

"Anyway, as long as it’s wood, it’s always afraid of fire, right?"

After all, these dead trees had no natural power left, burning them wouldn’t be regrettable.

Mu Ying decided to use the Level 2 Spell Blazing Flame Magic Ball that she had learned not long ago.

A massive fireball, five feet in diameter, appeared in the Dead Forest. Under her control, it slowly rolled through.

The once quiet Dead Forest revealed its true form under the scorching flames.

The thick layer of dead leaves on the ground stirred and rose up, forming a hunched, humanoid creature resembling pine needles, which quickly fled the area where the fireball rolled.

Several bushes, singed by the fire, uprooted themselves and fled, slapping the flames with their withered branches as they ran.

The withered vines on the trees also started to move, staying away from the burning trees.

For a moment, it was a chaotic dance of demons, and only the dead trees were truly dead.

Mu Ying also took this opportunity to understand more about these creatures.

"Withered Needle Monster, level 1, a medium-sized evil plant transformed from fallen leaves during the Black Plague, can continuously spread the Black Plague, and when motionless, it looks exactly like a pile of leaves, skills include needle sting and claw attack."

"Withered Branch Monster, level 0-1, a small-sized evil plant transformed from fallen leaves during the Black Plague, can continuously spread the Black Plague, and when motionless, it looks exactly like dead bushes, skill includes claw attack."

"Withered Vine Monster, level 2, a medium-sized evil plant transformed from tree vines during the Black Plague, can continuously spread the Black Plague, and when motionless, it looks exactly like dead tree vines, skill includes Skill Entanglement, can cause vested plants to wither rapidly."

These monsters weren’t very high-level, and they were very afraid of fire, making them not too difficult to handle, but they were extremely damaging to vegetation.

If left unchecked, it was estimated that the Qingshan Forest would soon become a dead land.

Mu Ying felt fortunate that she had discovered it early; only a small area of the forest was infected.

She ignored the monsters fleeing into the Dead Forest, and slowly rolled the Blazing Flame Fireball along the edge of the Dead Forest, planning to start burning from the edge.

The area of the Dead Forest was much drier than the surrounding forest, making it easier to ignite. The fire spread much faster inside the Dead Forest than outside.

To prevent a forest wildfire, Mu Ying could only use this fact to her advantage, cautiously igniting the outer ring of dead wood first.

Fortunately, for some reason, all the withering monsters she encountered along the way ran into the Dead Forest; otherwise, if they had charged directly out of the Dead Forest, that would have caused her quite some trouble.

"Aoao~" Burn them to death!

Seeing Mu Ying take revenge excitedly, it barked excitedly at the side.

Ever since Mu Ying came back, Da Hui seemed to have found a backing, completely reverting to its true nature, no longer pretending to be profound in leading the Wolf Pack.

Although its king somehow became a little one, the Wolf Queen became more powerful!

The Blazing Flame Fireball, compared to the Mage’s Fireball Technique, had lower attack power and speed, but its only advantage was that the fireball was large enough to be summoned directly within the casting range, and it could control the movement of the fireball before the spell expired.

This saved Mu Ying a lot of Mana Value, and also sped up the igniting process.

When about two-thirds of the fire circle had closed in, the withered monsters finally realized the danger, no longer blindly hiding in the Dead Forest but attempting to extinguish the flames and obstruct her fire-setting.

But by then, the fire was too strong, and the withered monsters using their bodies to extinguish the flames only caused them to burn themselves.

The fire-touched Withered Needle Monsters surged towards Mu Ying, shooting out a dense mass of needles.

Mu Ying used the Jumping Technique to dodge to the side.

The Withered Vine Monster extended its long vines towards her; she wiped her hand over the Storage Pouch, and a long and a short sword appeared in her hands. The spell Scorching Metal was attached to them, and every contact with the Withered Vine Monster burned off a section of vine.

Compared to the Withered Vine Monster and Withered Needle Monster, the weakest Withered Branch Monsters were actually causing Mu Ying the most trouble.

They only scratched at her with withered branches when they got close, but were the only creatures that directly ran out of the Dead Forest.

However, once they were out of the Dead Forest, the black aura on the Withered Branch Monster’s body was constantly eroded by the stronger natural power outside, and Mu Ying could finish them off with a few slashes.

The grown wolves also joined the battle, specifically targeting the Withered Branch Monsters to bite, with Da Hui being the most ferocious.