Yarra’s Adventure Notes
Chapter 1119 - 232: The Burial Ground

Chapter 1119: Chapter 232: The Burial Ground

Including Pannis, everyone had imagined the appearance of the Burying Ground multiple times. As the deepest layer of the Forbidden Land of Living Souls, and the barrier at the core area of the Forest of Death, the Burying Ground was always shrouded in mystery. Over the past three thousand years since the Fourth Epoch, there have been fewer than ten recorded intelligent beings who entered the Burying Ground and managed to leave alive, and not a single one had done so in the last three hundred years. Therefore, for everyone, the Burying Ground was an utterly foreign place. No one knew what kind of environment it truly was, and even the scant historical records only mentioned it in passing. Thus, everyone could only rely on imagination and conjecture to envision what the Burying Ground looked like.

However, it wasn’t until they actually stepped into the Burying Ground and saw it with their own eyes that they realized their conjectures about it were completely wrong; to say it was beyond everyone’s expectations would be an understatement.

Past the dense forest that blocked their view, what everyone saw was a tender green meadow, with lush grass closely carpeted against the ground, stretching into the distance until it faded from sight. Sprinkled among the green carpet of grass were numerous vibrant flowers swaying in the breeze, the fragrance of budding greens mixed with the subtle scent of wildflowers drifted across the meadow. The warm morning sunlight shone directly onto the meadow, inciting an uncontrollable urge to tumble around upon it.

No one would have believed without seeing it with their own eyes that one of the most dangerous places in the world, the Burying Ground that everyone feared, could be such a beautiful spot akin to a dreamland. Compared to all the dangerous scenarios everyone had in their minds, the reality presented a stark disparity.

"If you think about it, this makes a lot of sense," Catherine said with a self-deprecating laugh. "The danger here stems from its proximity to the core area of the Forest of Death and being covered by the Forbidden Land of Living Souls, not because the environment itself is particularly perilous. Even if it is extremely dangerous, it might not be due to the land itself."

"We should still be careful," Pannis cautioned, not letting his guard down. "This place might not be as simple as it seems, there could be hidden dangers that are invisible to the eye."

"Of course, in the wilderness, the more beautiful something is, the more dangerous it tends to be," Catherine nodded and said, "The dazzling silver serpent has the most colorful appearance, yet it also has the deadliest poison among living beings, capable of killing a strong bull in just two seconds. The Rainbow Birds are said to be as magnificent as real rainbows when they spread their wings, but wherever they are found, bloodthirsty vines and Hunter Flowers are sure to be present. What is special is always dangerous, and I suspect this place is no exception."

"Could this place also be hiding something like those drooping silktrees we first encountered when we entered the Forest of Death..., um, is that what they’re called? Maybe here the danger doesn’t come from worms under the ground, but rather from something that itself is a man-eater." As the team cautiously moved across the meadow of the Burying Ground, Lina looked around and said, "We might unknowingly walk to a spot where a man-eating flower suddenly pops up from the ground and swallows Vivian whole."

"That’s why you’re an idiot," the Mage girl gave Lina a disdainful glance, not bothering to quibble over why she was the one who’s supposed to be swallowed, and said sarcastically, "Whatever it is that’s here, it’s not carnivorous plants; you got it wrong from the start, which is just pitiful."

"Eh? There are none?" Lina, ignoring Vivian’s pitying gaze, asked in confusion, "Why wouldn’t there be?"

"Do you plan on starving those plants to death?" Vivian retorted, "Haven’t you noticed that there aren’t many Twisted Souls here? If those plants grew here, how often would they encounter a living creature in a thousand years? There’s no way they could survive."

"Let’s not argue for now." Pannis suddenly stopped in his tracks, rubbing his chin as he said, "It seems we’re in trouble."

"What’s wrong?" The girls immediately raised their weapons, and even Dillie raised its tail. Then, all around them was serene, with no signs of anomalies, not even a glimpse of Twisted Souls. Catherine held up the Falcon Shield, circling the outermost edge of the team, but after several rounds, she had to ask in a low voice, "What trouble are you talking about? We don’t see anything."

"Haven’t you noticed?" Pannis said with a wry smile, "Look back at the direction from which we came."

"There’s nothing in the direction we came from either, Divine Spell, True Sight." The priest tilted her head in thought and then suddenly rubbed her eyes. The divine spell True Sight, capable of seeing through illusions, was already cast upon herself. In a flash, everything in the young girl’s vision turned to shades of black and white. However, the direction they came from looked no different from what she had seen before. Lina canceled the Divine Spell with great confusion and asked, "My True Sight should be able to see through anything but top-level Illusion Magic like Master Antuin’s, but I didn’t spot any anomalies."

"No, there is definitely something wrong." Vivian’s face seemed a bit stiff as she urgently said, "Haven’t you noticed? When did we walk such a long distance? It’s been less than five minutes since we left the dense forest. Is that kind of distance possible in five minutes?"

Oftentimes, obvious problems are overlooked due to habit, just like the girls were experiencing now. The dense forest that they had left just minutes before, now appeared incredibly distant in their field of view. Even with the Hawkeye Spell that Vivian cast on herself, the view was still somewhat blurry, indicating that the distance to the dense forest had stretched to four or five kilometers away. Yet the group had not been sprinting at full speed; it was impossible to cover such a distance in mere minutes.

"Let’s try going back," Catherine and Pannis exchanged glances. Pannis pulled out a metal spike and stuck it into the lawn as a marker, Catherine gestured, "Just follow our footprints back and see if we can return in five minutes."

Under the lead of the knightly young girl, the group of seven turned around and began walking back. Unlike before, they were now on high alert, constantly watching the dense forest ahead and the metal spike behind to judge the team’s current distance. Yet, more bizarrely, after five minutes had passed, the distance between the team and the metal spike was not even five hundred meters. As for the dense forest ahead, it remained a blur.

"It’s best for everyone not to separate," Pannis said in a grave tone, "Before we confirm the reason, let’s not move anymore."

"How strange, why is this happening? Can you only travel one way in the Grave of Bones?" Catherine wasn’t really asking Pannis, she was just muttering to herself, "Or could something be interfering with our perception?"