Read Novel Full Chapter 631: Changing Terrain: Unseen Attackers!
Chapter 631: Changing Terrain: Unseen Attackers!
“The World Tree is inside.”
Sophie’s voice was not loud, but in this strangely silent world, it sounded exceptionally clear.
Gabriel did not respond immediately. He stood at the edge of the ridge, his gaze passing over the endless sea of trees ahead and slowly extending toward its deepest reaches.
This forest was simply too vast.
From where they stood, almost everything within sight was covered by dense canopies. Countless ancient trees, some dozens or even hundreds of meters tall, intertwined with one another. Their massive trunks rose from the earth like natural stone pillars, while the deeper regions of the forest were completely shrouded in a faint green mist.
Even with Gabriel’s current eyesight, he could not see what lay hidden within.
What was even stranger was the silence.
Despite its immense size, the entire forest was so silent that it seemed completely devoid of life.
Gabriel observed it for a moment before slowly speaking.
“Let’s go in.”
Sophie nodded without saying a word.
The two descended from the ridge and soon officially entered the forest.
Nothing unusual happened when they first stepped inside.
The earth beneath their feet remained moist and soft, and only ordinary plants surrounded them. However, the ancient trees that had already appeared enormous from a distance became even more exaggerated up close.
Many of their trunks would require more than a dozen people to encircle them with their arms. Their enormous roots rose from beneath the ground and intertwined, forming natural ravines throughout the forest.
Gabriel and Sophie continued forward. Nearly an hour passed, yet they did not encounter a single monster.
They did not even see an ordinary animal.
At first, Sophie constantly observed their surroundings, but as time passed, her expression gradually became serious.
“Something is wrong with this place.”
“Mm.”
Gabriel responded calmly.
He had been observing the area ever since they entered the forest.
There were no obvious paths or traces left behind by humans.
There were not even any of the directional markings commonly used by adventurers.
But those things were not what truly concerned him.
It was the path behind them.
Gabriel stopped and looked back.
The route they had taken, which should have still been clearly visible, had completely disappeared behind a dense wall of trees.
It was not simply because the trees were obstructing his vision.
He remembered it clearly. A little over ten minutes ago, they had passed an enormous ancient tree whose crown had been split in half by lightning. Beside that tree stood a huge boulder covered in black moss.
According to the route they had taken, they should be able to see that tree again after retracing their steps for a short distance.
But Gabriel had already checked several times.
It was gone.
The surrounding terrain was changing. But The changes were extremely subtle.
The entire forest was not suddenly moving, nor were they trapped inside an obvious illusion. Instead, every time they travelled a certain distance, the positions of the surrounding trees, bushes, and natural paths would shift slightly without them noticing.
Once dozens of these tiny deviations accumulated, an ordinary person could completely lose their sense of direction after walking for only half an hour.
Gabriel turned around again. “Can you still sense the World Tree?”
“Yes,” Sophie answered without hesitation. She raised her hand and pointed deeper into the forest.
“That way.” She paused. “And it’s getting stronger.”
Gabriel followed the direction of her finger, his eyes narrowing slightly.
As expected, there was indeed some kind of power interfering with their sense of direction.
But it could not interfere with Sophie.
No matter how the paths within the forest changed, she could always accurately sense the same direction.
That meant they had not truly become lost.
“Keep moving,” he said.
The deeper they travelled into the forest, the taller the surrounding trees became. Sunlight could barely penetrate the overlapping layers of leaves. Only the occasional thin beam of light slipped through the gaps, leaving the entire forest submerged in a dim atmosphere.
After walking for another twenty minutes, Sophie suddenly stopped.
At almost the exact same moment, Gabriel stopped as well.
Neither of them spoke.
Because something had moved just now.
Not ahead of them.
Not on the ground.
But above their heads.
Gabriel slowly raised his head.
His gaze passed through the layers of branches and leaves.
There was nothing there.
Only thick branches crossing one another.
But he had seen it clearly.
Among the canopies dozens of meters above them, an extremely blurry figure had appeared for less than half a second.
It had been fast. So fast that he had not even seen its outline clearly.
The next instant.
Whoosh!
A sharp sound tore through the air from their right without warning.
An arrow!
And its target was not Gabriel. It was Sophie!
Gabriel’s right hand rose instantly.
At some point, Crimson Judgement had already appeared in his grasp.
Clang!
The silver white arrow collided violently with the crimson blade. A crisp metallic sound rang through the forest as the arrow was blasted away by the terrifying force. It spun through the air before burying itself in an ancient tree dozens of meters away.
More than half of the arrow instantly sank into the trunk.
Sophie’s expression changed slightly.
Gabriel, however, did not immediately counterattack.
His gaze followed the arrow’s original trajectory.
Something was wrong. That arrow had appeared to be aimed at Sophie’s head, but if he had not intervened, its true path would have taken it past her ear.
It had missed by several centimeters.
For an ordinary archer, that might have been a mistake.
But the speed and stability of that arrow proved that it could not have been fired by an ordinary archer.
In other words, the attacker had deliberately missed.
Was it a warning?
Gabriel’s expression did not change.
The next second.
Whoosh!
Whoosh!
Whoosh!
Three consecutive sounds came from the left, behind them, and from the right.
…
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