Asura in Arknights

Apart from the loud noise of the fall, there was no other unusual activity.

"See? I told you it was your imagination. How could a tree possibly be..."

Before Magellan could finish speaking, the upper half of the tree trunk that had fallen to the ground underwent an extremely strange change, wriggling slightly like a soft lump of jelly under everyone's gaze.

She stared wide-eyed at the half-tree trunk in disbelief.

Xuan Cheng was right. Neither plants nor ice blocks would react like this after being cut in two. This was clearly some kind of living creature. That tree might have actually grown legs and run away.

In Li Ang's perception, when the tree trunk was wriggling, the entire trunk seemed to disintegrate into countless tiny parts, and then merged back together after it stopped.

Only by raising the precision of his perception to the highest level could Li Ang barely discern what made up these ice crystal trees.

“Insects?” Li Ang blurted out.

These weren't ice blocks at all; these trees were clearly made up of countless tiny, translucent insects less than 0.1 millimeters long. This unique shape reminded Li Ang of coral polyps.

The difference is that corals are made up of dead coral polyps, while these unknown polyps are clearly still alive.

"What did you say? This is an insect?" Magellan seemed extremely surprised.

She slowly reached out to approach the fallen half of the tree trunk. When Magellan's hand was less than ten centimeters away, a sharp protrusion suddenly emerged from the trunk and stabbed towards Magellan's hand, startling her so much that she quickly pulled her hand back.

"Don't be reckless!" Li Ang warned Magellan.

“Xuancheng is right. This forest is alive. These aren’t trees at all, but rather countless translucent little insects, like coral polyps.” ​​Li Ang voiced his guess. “During the day, these insects should be in a dormant state, and they will awaken after sunset. I’m sure I’m right, Lord Xuesi?”

Xue Si, who was behind, snorted coldly, which was considered to confirm Li Ang's guess.

"So these are all insects..." Magellan circled the tree trunk a few times with great curiosity. With the naked eye, he could not see anything special about these ice crystal trees.

Magellan wanted to collect some samples from it, but he didn't have a suitable container with him, so he had to give up.

"I understand what you just said, but what are coral polyps? Are there really such amazing creatures in the world as these worms?"

"Coral polyps are a type of worm that lives in the ocean. They are quite different from the worms we see in front of us. Coral polyps have a very short life cycle. They are born and die in almost the same place. Their corpses pile up and eventually form corals that look a lot like plants. However, these worms are all alive," Li Ang then explained.

"I can't believe such a creature exists..."

After listening to Li Ang's explanation, Magellan couldn't help but sigh that his knowledge was still not broad enough, as he had never heard of the existence of such a magical creature. "It's a pity I don't know what kind of ocean you are talking about. If I have the chance, I would like to go and see what the coral polyps you mentioned look like."

Upon hearing this, Li Ang turned around abruptly and grabbed Magellan's shoulders with both hands. "What did you say? You don't know what the 'ocean' is?"

In his emotional state, Li Ang subconsciously used more force, and Magellan couldn't help but show a pained expression, "It hurts..."

Realizing his lapse in composure, Li Ang released Magellan and said apologetically, "I'm sorry, I got a little agitated just now."

After rubbing his shoulder and waiting for the pain to subside slightly, Magellan frowned and said with some dissatisfaction, "I really don't know why you're so agitated. It's not like I've been to every place. Is it so strange that I don't know where the ocean is?"

"It's strange," Li Ang silently replied to himself.

Moreover, judging from Magellan's reaction, she wasn't simply unaware of the location of the sea, but rather had never even heard of the word 'sea' before.

This is completely abnormal! No matter how difficult it was to transmit information, Magellan should have heard of the ocean. Does that mean the ocean doesn't exist in Terra?

After this thought popped into his head, Leon searched his memory. Since arriving in Terra, he seemed to have never heard of the sea. Even the Terran geography he found in Letania did not seem to mention the existence of the sea.

"And you? You've never heard of the 'ocean' either?"

Everyone, including Jingzhe, shook their heads after hearing Li Ang's question.

However, after shaking his head, Jingzhe added, "I think I've seen these two words in some ancient book from my sect, but I don't know exactly where the ocean is."

Just as I suspected... These people really had never heard of the existence of the ocean.

However, just because they don't know doesn't mean it doesn't exist. In some unknown corner of Terra, there must be an ocean, otherwise, this world wouldn't have a normal water cycle system, nor could life have arisen.

"So where exactly is this ocean you're talking about?" Magellan asked curiously.

“…You’re going to be disappointed.” Leon took a deep breath and replied, “The sea is south of Iberia.”

Leon was just giving a random location; the entire Iberian Peninsula was under lockdown, making it impossible for Magellan to cross Iberia and reach the southernmost point.

Moreover, judging from the geographical location, the area north of Ursus is an ice field, the area west of Sargon is a desert, the area east of Yan is a mountain range, and the most likely place is the sea, which is just south of Iberia.

"So that's where it is. No wonder I've never heard of it," Magellan said with some regret.

Since it's in Iberia, she probably won't have much chance to go and see what's going on.

"Alright, we've strayed a bit from the topic. Let's see how we get through this 'forest' in front of us."

Chapter 81 Brute Force Breakthrough (5/6)

Because I casually mentioned coral polyps, the topic unknowingly veered off to a strange place.

After Li Ang told them that the sea was located at the southern end of Iberia, most people lost interest in the place, but one person silently kept it in mind.

The ocean...

As Jingzhe silently murmured these two words, she became even more curious about Li Ang's origins.

At first, she thought Li Ang was an Agor who came from Yan, because Agor was one of the important ethnic groups in Yan, and Li Ang was fluent in the language of Yan and had a name from Yan, which was a very reasonable guess.

However, when Li Ang revealed the secrets about Iberia, Jingzhe overturned her previous guess.

As everyone knows, Iberia is jointly ruled by Agor and Liboli, and the power that Leon wields is clearly different from the tradition of Yan Kingdom. Perhaps... he is a person who came from Iberia?

Jingzhe's guess was quite close to the truth, but unfortunately he only saw the first layer. Even if he directly mentioned the matter of time travel, probably no one would believe it.

“Alright, we’ve gotten a bit off-topic. Let’s see how we get through this forest,” Li Ang said.

Hearing Li Ang's words, Jingzhe put aside her speculations about his identity and focused on figuring out how to get through the forest.

After Magellan's experimentation, they had roughly figured out the characteristics of these 'insects': if someone gets within 30 to 40 centimeters of them, these insects will awaken from their dormancy and form spikes to attack the person who enters that range.

Although the distance wasn't very far, the trees in this forest were so dense that it was impossible to avoid touching them.

Moreover, although the spikes formed by these insects may seem insignificant, they are actually extremely powerful. Magellan accidentally punctured a hole in the suitcase containing the drone.

If they rashly venture into this forest, they will definitely be unable to withstand the attacks coming from all directions.

Perhaps... we can force a passage through? These insects are extremely fragile; a single bolt of lightning can kill them.

A seemingly feasible method popped into Jingzhe's mind.

However, Jingzhe soon realized that the Ice Crystal Tree was not just what they saw in front of them; it was a vast 'forest' stretching for nearly several kilometers. Even if Jingzhe were to squeeze every last drop of energy out of it, he would not be able to make a path through it.

Jingzhe then came up with several other methods, but she quickly rejected them herself.

The only feasible option is to find out how these insects sense them and try to deceive them, but Jingzhe is not good at this kind of thing.

After a moment of silence, no one could offer a single helpful suggestion.

Most of the methods they came up with were utterly ineffective in the face of the vast expanse of this ice crystal forest.

“Since none of you have any ideas, let’s go with my plan,” Li Ang said with a sigh of relief.

"Do you have a way?" Jingzhe asked with a hint of anticipation.

“It’s very simple. You should have seen the spell I cast earlier. Fire is very effective against these insects, so I’m going to carve a path through this forest.”

"..."

Upon hearing Li Ang's answer, Jingzhe was slightly speechless, thinking to herself, "Wasn't Li Ang always performing admirably? How could he make such a basic mistake now?"

After calming herself down, Jingzhe patiently explained to Li Ang, "I've thought about your method too, but it's actually not feasible."

"The fire spell you used is indeed quite good, clearing out more than ten square meters of space in one go, but have you considered how many times you can use such a spell consecutively?"

"This forest is very large. Even if all of us take turns going up, we still can't make it out of the whole forest."

Reality is not a game; warlocks are not like game characters who can use spells without limit once their mana bar is restored.

Even if a staff is used as a spellcasting unit, each time a warlock uses Originium Arts, it will still put a certain burden on the body. If this burden accumulates, the warlock will need to rest for at least a week to recover.

Because there is no fundamental difference between warlocks and infected, warlocks simply transfer some of the cost of using Originium Arts to their staffs.

To everyone's surprise, when faced with Jingzhe's questioning, Li Ang stroked his chin and replied, "Number of times? Although I haven't tried it specifically, it should be a hundred or two hundred times. If we slow down the pace, we can do even more. That should be enough for us to get out of this forest."

"...Don't joke with me like that, it's pointless."

Jingzhe's first reaction was that Li Ang was making fun of her.

The Originium Arts with the power of that one, when used in relatively narrow terrain, could even destroy a full squad. To be able to use such a spell more than ten times in one go would already be considered genius.

Using Originium Arts hundreds of times in a row is something no human could do.

“I wasn’t lying to you, I was serious just now,” Li Ang said sincerely. “My Originium Arts… are a little different from others, so I should be able to do this.”

What Li Ang actually possessed was not Originium Arts, but rather the 'power' of the Executor.

He uses Originium Arts, which consumes Originium energy from the atmosphere. Before the Originium energy in the surrounding environment is depleted, Li Ang can use Originium Arts indefinitely.

Jingzhe gave Li Ang a deep look and said, "Then let's try it as you said."

"Watch me."

Li Ang slightly modified the spell unit structure of the Blazing Wave Sword, removing the explosion part and leaving only the purest combustion.

Its lethality is thus reduced, but it is still just right for dealing with these slow-moving insects.

A tiny spark flew from the tip of the short sword and spread hundreds of meters away in the blink of an eye. The sky was illuminated red by the flames, and countless ice crystal trees twisted and deformed under the scorching heat of the flames, melting into a pool of liquid that looked like water amidst a series of crackling explosions.

Gradually, the expression on Xue Si's face, which had been one of watching a good show, turned into shock, and finally froze into numbness. He didn't know what words to use to describe the shock in his heart.

Although he was defeated by Li Ang not long ago, Xue Si did not take Li Ang seriously, because that was not his true strength. If he could unleash the power he obtained from the mountain sacrifice, killing Li Ang would be an easy task.

The reason why Xue Si was captured here without any resistance was simply because things were going smoothly.

That was his original thought.

Reflected in the firelight in her pupils, Yukishi murmured, "Where on earth did this monster come from..."

Chapter 82 Cooperation (6/6)

The towering flames lasted for most of the night. By the time they emerged from the Ice Crystal Forest, a small portion of the forest had been burned down. The insect corpses on the ground had solidified into smooth ice mirrors, reflecting the figures of each of them.

“We have passed this test, and now it is time for you to keep your promise,” Li Ang said to Xue Si.

The snow spirit on Simona's back kept smiling bitterly. He hadn't expected that someone would use such a reckless method to pass the first test.

Although theoretically, a large enough number of people could flatten the Ice Crystal Forest, Sami wasn't foolish enough to send so many people into the Dark Mountains.

Even if someone occasionally sneaks into the Dark Mountains, it's at most a dozen or so people. The Ice Crystal Forest is more than enough to hold off a group of that size. Who knew we'd encounter such an unreasonable monster as Li Ang today?

It's not that the Ice Crystal Forest's defense is weak, but rather that Li Ang's abilities are too unreasonable. Although the release speed is somewhat slow, who else can throw out Originium Arts like he's throwing away trash?

They destroyed the Ice Crystal Forest using the purest and simplest methods, and even Xue Si had to admit defeat.

If they had that level of strength... maybe they could help them withstand the final crisis?

"Okay, okay, I understand, but... could you please remove the restraints on me first? It's very inconvenient to talk like this."

This time, Li Ang didn't think much about it and directly had Xuan Cheng remove the restrictions on Xue Si.

"I'm a little curious, why did you suddenly change your mind and cooperate with us?"

Having finally regained her footing, Yuki stretched her body and said with deep emotion, "Because I need to rely on your strength."

"Use our strength? And why?"

"Didn't you notice that I'm the only one who came?" Xue Si sighed and said, "Because our internal opinions aren't entirely unified either."

"If I had to say, this mountain festival was actually my personal action. My other colleagues wouldn't stop me, but they also wouldn't help me either."

"If I succeed, all the better, but if I fail again, things won't get much worse."

"That's why I want to rely on your strength."

Li Ang nodded. Xue Si's words were not hard to understand; it was not surprising that the Sami leadership had split into two factions.

However, this old man is in a really bad situation. He doesn't even have a single person supporting him, and in the end, he has to rely on the help of these foreigners.

"And what about Simone? Does she willingly go along with your reckless behavior?"

Perhaps because Xue Si had already set aside her pride and spoken, Simone also broke her previous silence and answered Li Ang quietly, "Because... I had no other choice."

"Simona's problem is caused by the failure of the ritual, and there is no cure. The only feasible solution is to have her undergo the ritual again. Only by successfully becoming a Snow Priest can she continue to live; otherwise, she probably won't survive the year."

Simone nodded silently; everything Yuki had said was true.

"Um... if that's the case, then that forest must be one of the locations for the ceremony, right? Is it okay for me to destroy so much of it?" After the two sides reached a cooperation agreement, Li Ang's previous actions became somewhat awkward.

“It’s alright. Simone successfully completed the first stage of the ritual last year. The problem lies in the next stage.” Xue Si waved her hand dismissively. “As for those trees… they’re not so easy to destroy, and you’ve already done us a favor.”

"There were too many ice crystal trees. We were planning to clear them out anyway, and this number is just right, just right," Xue Si said, enduring the pain in her eyes.

After that, Xue Si explained the entire process of the mountain festival to them.