The whole weird world is waiting for me to go to heaven

Chapter 1126 Search and Escape

In this deep jungle, not a single plant grows normally; they are all entangled, devouring, and merging with each other.

The vines climbed up the tree trunk and split into finer tendrils, piercing into another plant.

The tree split open, and a cluster of fungi and flowers bloomed together, the twisted bark resembling a face groaning in pain.

There are also many translucent vesicles, of varying sizes, oozing yellow pus and blood. Upon closer inspection, it appears that there are some remaining fragments of bone and rotten flesh inside.

Everything was a flowing, vibrant color, which was a huge pollution to the eyes.

Luo Ming felt dizzy and lightheaded after taking only a few steps deeper.

He tripped over a twisted tree root and almost fell flat on his face.

Fortunately, the Taibai Sword Immortal pulled him up from behind.

"Be careful."

"Thanks……"

Luo Ming glanced cautiously at the Taibai Sword Immortal, who was still radiant and full of energy.

"You...were not affected?"

The Sword Immortal Taibai looked puzzled: "What effect?"

Just then, Luo Ming heard gunshots from ahead.

Without having time to say anything more, he hurriedly ran forward.

The three young men they had met at the bathhouse were in front of them, raising their guns and firing wildly into the jungle.

Something else is screaming in the woods.

The sound was sharp and piercing, like fingernails scraping against a metal plate.

The unpleasant sound made Luo Ming very anxious.

He raised his gun and aimed it at the one in the middle of the three young men.

But strangely, the three figures flickered in his eyes, sometimes overlapping and sometimes separating.

The gun barrel hovered back and forth, making it impossible for him to aim.

He shook his head.

With barely clear eyes, he pulled the trigger with trembling hands.

However, the scene before my eyes changed!
He stood on the sewage-strewn street, and a girl stood in front of a shack made of vesicles, her eyes wide open like those of a frightened fawn.

not good!

But the bullet had already been fired!

That's too late!

The next instant, another gunshot rang out from behind!

Surprisingly, they came from behind and surpassed others.

It deflected his bullet with perfect accuracy.

The bullet missed the frail girl.

It startled her, causing her to let out a terrified scream before turning and disappearing into the vesicle.

Then, everything changed again.

In the blurry vision, a figure could be vaguely seen darting into the jungle.

Luo Ming stood there, stunned.

My heart was pounding like a drum.

That scream just now...

And that figure...

He could never forget those eyes.

but--

It's clearly... Esir!

Why are you running so fast?

The Taibai Sword Immortal smoothly squeezed through a clump of jagged bushes, completely unharmed. Upon seeing Luo Ming, he let out a low cry of surprise:
"How did you get yourself into this state?"

Luo Ming looked down and saw that his body was covered in countless bloody scratches. Although the snow-white robe was not real, the pain in his flesh was real.

The sound of the gunshot echoed in my mind.

That exquisite and swift, yet strangely unpredictable, marksmanship.

"It's you!"

“Of course.” Taibai Sword Immortal did not deny it. “I don’t know who you’re going to fight, but it looks like—it’s a thin little girl.”

"No...I clearly...didn't..."

"Why...why did this happen..."

Luo Ming felt very distressed.

He knelt on the ground, clutching his almost splitting head and muttering incessantly.

"That's what makes this forest so strange. If you're not resilient enough, your mind will be affected, and even what you see will be distorted."

"is that so……"

Luo Ming's ability level was certainly not high, otherwise he wouldn't have been working as a waiter at Palm Garden. It's just unexpected that he would be unable to stay in this "hunting ground" for long.

"What are you afraid of?" Taibai Sword Immortal suddenly asked.

Luo Ming's face paled, and he pursed his lips, seemingly unwilling to speak.

"The three young men you just saw were from the bathhouse, right?"

“You…” Luo Ming was taken aback.

"You want to ask me how I know? Because I just saw them run over there."

The Sword Immortal Taibai looked completely unperturbed.

Luo Ming panicked instantly, gripping the gun handle tightly and looking around.

"where is it?"

"You tell me first, who are those people?"

Luo Ming gritted his teeth and finally spoke: "That is Lord Escher, Lord Helena's younger brother. The other two are his knights, Andy and Brandon."

Taibai Sword Immortal nodded.

This can also be inferred from the conversations in the bathhouse.

"It sounds like this Esir and Helena don't get along very well."

Luo Ming hesitated.

Taibai Sword Immortal: "Tell me, and I will help you stop them."

"Then you can't tell the lords... that it was me who said it."

"Do not worry."

Luo Ming then said, "After the previous chairman of the group passed away, Lady Helena, as that man's daughter, naturally inherited the position."

"However, the chairman had always favored Escher the most during his lifetime, and he was by Escher's side when the chairman passed away. After the chairman's death, Escher even produced a handwritten letter saying that he intended for Escher to succeed him..."

"So even now, Lady Helena hasn't been able to take the position of Chairman; she's still the CEO, while Escher is the COO..."

"If it weren't for the approaching date, this battle for succession would probably have continued for quite some time."

"I see." The Sword Immortal Taibai stroked his beard. "Then what exactly is going on with this hunting ground?"

Luo Ming froze instantly.

"You don't want to talk about it?" The Sword Immortal Taibai raised an eyebrow. "However... I seem to see them chasing prey—"

"I'll talk!"

"Please help me!"

Luo Ming grabbed Taibai Sword Immortal's sleeve urgently.

The Sword Immortal Taibai gave a noncommittal reply.

"Actually... this hunting ground..."

Luo Ming looked at the dark, twisted vines and the tangled vesicles, and gritted his teeth.

"That is the true outer city."

……

Zhang Lan was lying in the infinity pool on the terrace.

If someone else were there, they would see strange vines wriggling all over the pool, turning the clear water into a deep black color.

Many flower buds, large and small, are rising from the bottom of the pond.

Comfortable sighs rose and fell, and the petals opened, revealing the pale face of a woman within, which looked like a pool full of floating heads.

After soaking for a while, they slowly got up.

The charred, dried-out corpse, curled up on a lounge chair by the pool, slowly transformed into the shape of a woman's body.

But this is limited to shape only.

Because this body is made up of countless vines and blooming orchids, with a woman's face appearing and disappearing in the center.

At the head, many flowers are gathered together, resembling a polyhedron.

Having absorbed plenty of water, the flowers became exceptionally vibrant, and the woman's face was no longer pale; only the pool water had dwindled by more than half.

A coconut with flowers and a straw was thoughtfully provided on the small table next to the recliner.

The woman reached out with her vine-like hand and hooked it.

The flowers on the coconut were hooked off.

A look of pity crossed her face as she casually tucked the flower into her hair.

As soon as the flower fell into the vine-like hair, wriggling tendrils passed through the broken ends of the flower and burrowed into it. Then, the flower seemed to grow on the vine and bloomed even more beautifully.

Moreover, a bud is faintly emerging in the center of the flower, and upon closer inspection, the outline of facial features can be seen. It is likely that before long, another face will grow out.

As I sipped my coconut juice, I heard sounds of children playing downstairs.

The woman remained motionless on the chaise lounge, her neck slowly extending to the edge of the terrace, all faces looking down at the same time.

In the garden, Ariel and Helena's son, Gavin, was chasing and playing on the lawn.

A faint smile spread across all the women's faces. Only then did Ariel seem like a little boy.

However, her smiles quickly froze.

because--

The faces of the statues on the lawn were also following the two running boys.

……

Ariel had, of course, already noticed the strangeness of these statues.

Wherever he went, he was always followed by eyes.

This is not an illusion.

This gaze is drawn to these statues.

The problem lies with these statues.

So he deliberately ran back and forth on the lawn.

The test is to see if these statues will continue to follow you with their gaze, or if they will go any further.

However, nothing has been found yet.

Gavin, however, seemed completely oblivious.

He was always focused on chasing after Ariel and playing games with him like a guard catching a thief.

"Sigh, you caught me again! How come I never win when I'm a thief?"

Gavin pouted angrily.

Ariel didn't say anything.

After all, with such a high level of cultivation, how could he not catch up with Gavin, who was still a low-level "New Human"?
After playing like this for a long time, Gavin finally realized the insurmountable gap between them and became somewhat unhappy.

His eyes darted around.

"How about we play a different game?"

What do you want to play?

"How about we play hide-and-seek?"

Ariel did not have such a childhood.

Back on the grasslands, he was an abandoned child, and no one wanted to play with him. When he arrived at the Northern Palace, all he found were heavy rules and daily training, thus skipping over his childhood.

Therefore, he would not refuse.

They just asked how to play.

He was also curious whether the statues would go any further if he were alone.

He walked to the archway column.

My forehead was pressed against the cool marble.

He closed his eyes and shouted:

"one two Three……"

They kept shouting until they reached "one hundred".

All sounds are silent.

Just now, you could still hear Gavin's footsteps, which he couldn't hide due to the difference in their cultivation levels, as well as his heavy breathing, as if he were in a great panic.

However, at a certain moment, it could no longer be heard.

There was only a slight breeze and the rhythmic sound of ocean waves.

Ariel looked up and glanced around.

The arcade was empty, as was the lawn.

He sensed it and a smile crept onto his lips.

Gavin's presence lingered in a corner on the second floor.

It was hidden quite well.

If it weren't for that pounding heartbeat, he might have missed it.

Ariel lifted his foot.

But in that instant, something around them seemed to move.

Ariel instinctively looked back, but couldn't discern anything amiss.

But a certain kind of energy has tightened.

It was as if some rule had been triggered, and the malice that had never been exposed before finally revealed its claws.

The world notifies you: [The statue has been moved.]

Ariel could not see the difference with the naked eye.

Only the precise calculations of "the world" revealed that the statues that were originally lined up on both sides of the avenue had moved one millimeter toward him.

He lifted his foot again.

It moved two millimeters.

Lift your foot again—

It moved three millimeters.

And so it went, faster and faster, until Ariel could finally see a difference that was visible to the naked eye.

The statues that were originally standing neatly on both sides of the road began to shift, gradually forming an arc, and at the center of this arc was him.

And all those faces were turned toward him.

The features, sculpted from cold, pale marble, reveal a sharp malice, though their expression is unreadable.

Ariel ignored him and headed straight for the spiral staircase on the second floor.

Then more things followed.

Looking down the stairs, all the statues were now on the lawn.

Really interesting.

With that thought in mind, Ariel pushed open the crystal door and entered the second floor.

The corridor was covered with a deep red carpet, and the walls were decorated with gold reliefs, various artworks, medals and trophies placed in crystal boxes.

This is the Palm Garden's art gallery.

The site showcasing the collections and glories of the Covin family throughout history.

Gavin is hidden among these precious collections.

As expected of the young master of the Kovien family, he doesn't worry at all about whether he might damage any priceless treasure.

Ariel walked step by step through the corridor.

The sound of footsteps was absorbed by the carpet and was barely audible.

But a very faint friction sound came from behind.

That was the sound of the marble base being dragged and clattering down the stairs—

The statues are going up the stairs.

Out of the corner of his eye, Ariel saw a head emerging from the bottom of the crystal door, climbing the stairs. With another step, a shoulder appeared, and behind that shoulder, another head emerged...

Finally, a marble face was pasted on the door.

A cold gaze pierced through the transparent crystal, striking Ariel directly.

But when Ariel got there, he continued walking, and the statues did not break through to enter this level.

It seems to be a no-go zone for them.

Ariel finally stopped in front of a suit of armor in the corner.

He reached out and lifted the abdominal armor.

Gavin's face was visible inside.

Her smile, missing a front tooth, exuded innocence.

"You've finally found me!"

Ariel nodded.

"You really don't like to talk much," Gavin said, sounding a little unhappy.

Ariel nodded again.

He stopped talking a long time ago.

Gavin didn't care. He took off all the armor on his body with a clatter and threw it on the ground without a care.

The sound was exceptionally clear in the corridor.

This will mask any further sounds of bumping or knocking outside.

"Keep going! This time it's my turn to come to you!"

"Let's start here then. I'll count from here, and you hide!"

Without waiting for Ariel's response, Gavin leaned against the wall and started counting down quickly, reaching "ten" in the blink of an eye.

Ariel caught a glimpse of his sly smile and shook his head.

Looking around, I tried to find a suitable place to hide.

But this art gallery can be seen from one end to the other at a glance, with a huge portrait hanging on each side, which seems to depict members of the Coveyne family.

One side seems to depict an epic battle, while the other shows the group's development and how the floating islands came to be what they are today.

The scene is lifelike, and the characters have different expressions.

But all eyes...

It was as if everyone was watching him.

The only entrance and exit here is the door leading to the spiral staircase, but it is now completely blocked.

Those cold, marble-carved faces pressed down on the transparent crystal door, their chilling malice almost tangible, piercing Ariel with deadly force.

But he ignored them.

He was simply trying to find a hiding place in this corridor.

　I'm moving a lot soon, that's why I've been so busy. I'll update more frequently once this is over o(*￣3￣)o
　　(End of this chapter)