to blame

The mist carried the unique damp and fresh atmosphere of the mountains, and surrounded them silently, like large groups of cotton clouds, floating slowly and heavily in the air.

Hurrying in such an environment of unknown details, naturally it is impossible to string everyone together, it is really dangerous, if you can't use your hands and feet, that is really terrible.

As a result, the members of the team began to count in circles.Starting from Baiying and Li Youran who opened the way ahead, including Qingqiu who was being carried by Ming Xia on the way, and then to Nanjiang who escorted the team behind.

Both the compass and the wayfinding equipment were functioning normally, and indeed, as they had learned before, there was no disturbance in the valley.The display screen of the pathfinding equipment also always displays a normal scanning picture, occasionally a few bright spots appear, and then disappear quickly.

These are small animals such as sparrows, rabbits, and mice that appear unexpectedly within the scanning range.They are vigilant by nature, and once they sense that a giant is approaching, they will immediately choose to avoid it.

When the light began to dim, the fog seemed to become thinner. At least the people in front and behind, the surrounding woods, and rocks could be seen in outline.

Ming Xia looked at Tang Xun who was walking in front of him, and then turned to look behind him.His gaze passed the two team members behind him, and landed on the face of Nan Jiang who was escorting the team.Nan Jiang noticed his gaze almost immediately and gave him a comforting smile.

Ming Xia also nodded with a smile, turned around and continued on her way.

He rubbed against Qingqiu who had squeezed to the side of his neck, and said in a low voice, "Why am I a little restless?"

Qingqiu also rubbed his cheeks, and whispered something in his mind, "Mingxia, let me tell you, I'm also a little up and down in my heart."

Ming Xia's heart skipped a beat, "The scanner was turned on, but nothing special was found. Besides, the sounds of birds, wind, and insects... nothing seemed abnormal."

"I know." Qingqiu walked back and forth on his shoulders a little uneasy, looking a little anxious, "Actually, I don't really trust that instrument."

Ming Xia didn't say a word.

In fact, he also felt that it was not very reliable to go to the monster with equipment.By the way, what is the principle of this instrument?

He remembered that Nanjiang said that humans have not had an authoritative and accurate academic explanation for the "monster power" so far.

The only certainty is that it is essentially a kind of energy fluctuation.

Ming Xia considered the problem from this perspective, and felt that the so-called scanner probably relied on detecting energy fluctuations in the air to determine the traces of monsters.

But this is only theoretically possible.What if each "monster power" is energy of a different nature?Will the instrument still give accurate test results?

For example, the "monster power" of the fishwife is obviously able to manipulate the substance "water", but the gu carving lives in the woods, does it also have the ability to manipulate the water element?

Ming Xia tipped Ding Qingqiu's little head, "The more I think about it, the more complicated it becomes. What do you think a monster is?"

Qingqiu looked at him innocently, "Born by nature, without father or mother."

Ming Xia, "..."

"No relatives, no family, no property." Qingqiu counted for him with his paws, and the more he counted, the more sad he was, "If you want to find some human food, you have to walk and talk like a human first, in case you find food When you are caught, you will be beaten."

Ming Xia, "..."

Ming Xia stroked its small head.Is this a monster?Obviously it is cabbage.

Qingqiu sighed, "This sad monster..."

"Okay, don't be depressed. I just said that casually, but you fell in love with it." Ming Xia squeezed its little claws, "No family is a setting for you, no one can do anything about it." .But you can find friends for yourself, friends are for company."

Qingqiu was depressed for a while, then nodded and said, "You're right."

"We are friends," Ming Xia continued to comfort it, "I will get you whatever you want in the future."

Qingqiu's mood improved, he raised his wings and hugged Ming Xia's chin, "Although I'm not sad now, but... this place still feels wrong to me."

Ming Xia Fu forehead, why did he digress again? !If Qingqiu hadn't brought up the topic again, he would have forgotten what they were talking about in the first place.

Ming Xia quietly asked it, "Did you find anything?"

Qingqiu blinked his round bean eyes and looked left and right, "Do you feel that something is abnormal?"

"No," Ming Xia replied honestly, "It's just that I'm not at ease. If I analyze it carefully, I don't think there's anything abnormal. Air, temperature, bird calls, traces of small animals... No matter how you look at it, it's all here. Pretty normal kind of woods."

Qingqiu murmured: "Yes, there is everything in the woods here."

"What do you mean?"

"I just think it's too normal." Qingqiu hesitated, "Have you ever heard a word called... The fake seems to be true?"

The fog slowly dissipated, and the scenery in front of me suddenly became clear.

A gentle grassland appeared in front of them.The dense grass was as high as an adult's knee, and the green color was like the photoshopped pictures Ming Xia had seen in magazines.

There seemed to be cattle and sheep grazing in the distance, but at a distance, from where they were standing, they could only see clusters of vague black dots.Other than that, there was nothing alive in sight.

The team rested on the spot, and Nanjiang and Tang Xun, who was engaged in technology, sat together to check the equipment, determine their coordinates, and readjust the direction of progress.

While gnawing on the compressed biscuits, Ming Xia purposely went around to Tang Xun to take a look.

His instrument for detecting monsters is still a string of small green lights, and the slender arrows scan back and forth on the electronic screen, occasionally scanning out a few small red dots, and then disappearing quickly.

Nothing is out of the ordinary.

Ming Xia was a little flustered, finished her food in two or three bites, and started to patrol around a small area with a bow and crossbow.

After walking around for two laps, I suddenly felt that something was wrong around me.The place where they were resting seemed to be quite open, but the place farther away was still shrouded in fog, and nothing could be seen clearly.

They seemed to be shrouded in a semi-circular hood made of mist.

Looking at the road they came from, you will find that it is actually a very narrow canyon.

But when they came here, they didn't feel like they were walking on a narrow road. Ming Xia always thought that they had passed through a relatively open forest - although the fog was extremely thick at that time, walking in an open place is different from walking in a narrow and cramped place. place, that feeling is completely different.

That road seemed to shrink slowly after they crossed it.

No, not a shrink.Instead, the forest they passed through was suddenly divided into several narrow passages, with rocks, trees, and fallen leaves. In such a blink of an eye, they couldn't tell which one was the right one. The way they came.

"I seem to understand why this piece of terrain has to be marked blank on the map." Nanjiang glanced at these passages that seemed to be splitting, and said softly: "Because it is constantly changing, it is a living of. So it has no fixed shape and size.”

Ming Xia's heart pounded, and he hugged Qingqiu harder than usual.But Nan Jiang and his team members did not show much panic.Ming Xia felt that maybe it was because they had been fighting on the front line of catching monsters all year round, and they were well-informed.

"The topography of the blank area will change," Tang Xun carefully observed the map on the computer screen, "but the areas already marked on the map will not change. In other words, let's go through this blank area and continue to North, you will definitely reach the place where the forest is marked on the map. Go east from there, and you will return to Xixin River."

If this process goes well, when they return to Xixin River again, they will have bypassed the narrowest part of the river bank, and the next journey will become much safer.

The way they came could no longer be distinguished, so they could only keep going.

Ming Xia watched Tang Xun skillfully manipulate the equipment, and a thought popped up in his mind like lightning: Ever since he entered the Xishan Great Formation, he had heard that electronic equipment would not be disturbed.

Or the monsters have not yet mastered the technology to interfere with electronic equipment, but they have monster power.

For example, Qingqiu can let him see what it sees.So other monsters also have this skill?Are the things they saw along the way really what they saw with their own eyes?

Thinking of this, Ming Xia immediately shuddered.

He quietly told Nanjiang this idea.

Nan Jiang didn't think he was whimsical.What Qingqiu, a little monster whose demon power has not been fully released, can do, there is no reason other monsters can't do it.

"It doesn't have to be so serious." Nanjiang grabbed his shoulders and dragged him aside, and whispered to him, "It takes energy to control other people's consciousness. For example, Qingqiu can only steal from you. Let it talk to all ten of us at once, and it can't do it."

Ming Xia nodded, feeling that his statement was more objective than her own suspicion.

"Even if the earthquake has caused some damage to the formation, it won't release all the monsters at once. Moreover, the formation itself has a suppressive effect on the monster power." Nanjiang patted him on the shoulder, "So, don't Too worried. Something like that that pulls everyone into a hallucination at once will not happen in a short time."

Ming Xia quickly understood the implication of his words: If the formation cannot be repaired in time, the suppressing power may be weakened, and the power of the monsters will gradually increase.

So... the mission this time is actually to repair the formation?

Ming Xia wanted to test it, but the time and place were not right, so it was not suitable to ask such a question.

Nan Jiang told him softly, "There is something weird here. If there is something...don't separate from Qingqiu."

Ming Xia and Qing Qiu nodded together.

"Brother Nan!" Tang Xun called him not far away, "The situation is wrong, come and have a look!"

Nan Jiang ran over with Ming Xia, and saw that the pointer on the scanner screen that had been scanning at a constant speed suddenly accelerated for some reason, and at the same time a small red light was lit under the window.

Ming Xia couldn't understand the small abbreviated marks on the instrument at all, and quickly asked Tang Xun, "What does this mean?"

"The detected energy fluctuations exceeded the safety value set by the instrument." Tang Xun frowned slightly, "There is something nearby."

Before he finished speaking, small yellow dots jumped out on the small screen, two or three at first, and then lit up one after another.

Tang Xun looked up and looked around, the grassland was empty, only a few cattle and sheep grazing leisurely in the distance.

Looking at the densely packed small dots that almost covered the entire screen, Tang Xun asked Nanjiang with some doubts, "Is it because the equipment is broken?"

Small yellow dots indicate that animals are nearby.If it is a living creature with demon power fluctuations, the dots that appear on the screen should be red.

Nan Jiang looked dignified, and cast his eyes on the pasture in front of him.

At the end of their vision, there was a layer of mist like light smoke, and at this moment, the mist was gradually dissipating.

Ming Xia followed Nan Jiang's line of sight, his eyes slowly widened, showing a look of horror.

Just in front of them, where the fog dissipated, a steep hillside was exposed, with strange rocks on the hillside, and thin residual snow on the shady side.

Mountain peaks protrude to the high sky, like the withered claws of monsters.And between these sharp claws, countless black monsters resembling bison are staring at them.