Chapter 396

Chapter 396: Anomaly

The Extraordinary Beast Team pressed on, continuing southward as more small oases appeared along their essential route.

Each oasis shared the same configuration, with familiar plant mimicry types, weak extraordinary beast guards, and intervals not far from the swamp…

Everything made Fulan feel uneasy, as if she and her subordinates had fallen into some terrifying cycle.

Yet, the passage of time and the continuously changing swamp did not reflect this; in Fulan’s sharp senses and memories, these sights and materials had never ceased or repeated.

Fulan knew that some humans outside the city had succumbed to a perceived time-loop due to the dual effects of mycelium infection and biological fields, but her connection with Lin Qingliu indicated that this was not the case.

After days of moving forward and driving countless small beast packs into the swamp to drown, Fulan made a stunning discovery.

In the distance, at the edge of her sight, it seemed there were no vast plains or scattered oases; the once-obscured expanse of the extraordinary beast forest had completely vanished, replaced by a thin black line stretching across the horizon.

Instinctively, Fulan sensed something was amiss.

What was it? Was it the ocean? But no matter how she looked, there was no hint of the azure belonging to seawater.

That almost pitch-black color was also difficult to associate with mycelium and beasts; although the mycelium ecosystem could grow in various colors, it was always a mix rather than that pure deep black.

Standing atop the hieroglyphic extraordinary beast, Fulan fell into deep thought.

Should she continue forward? This did not seem like a good decision; if this small group of extraordinary beasts faced an unknown enemy further ahead, they could be easily wiped out.

However, Fulan, possessing a thinking ability and courage similar to humans, felt the call of that dark gap urging her to advance, to explore what exactly lay ahead.

Even if it was an unknown land, even if mycelium itself hesitated to reach out its tendrils there…

After pondering for a long time, Fulan turned to her extraordinary beasts.

Nearly a thousand extraordinary beasts had been categorized by Fulan.

Beasts with broad backs were designated to transport food and supplies, whereas those with fangs and claws were the main force in battle, and those from small, agile creatures formed groups of scouts.

At this moment, whether the gentle beasts standing several meters tall or the scout beasts resembling Fulan’s own form, they all looked up at their "Master" standing high above.

Regarding this group of beasts that had not yet fully evolved, Fulan was uncertain about what to say.

After a moment’s consideration, she displayed the calm authority of a superior among the extraordinary beasts and said,

"Everyone, stay safe, continue forward; after all, we’ve come this far."

—

A whole day later, as Fulan stood on the edge of the abyss gazing into the bottomless chasm, she remembered a phrase she had heard in a divine enlightenment dream:

"When you gaze into the abyss, the abyss also gazes back at you."

Before Fulan and the extraordinary beasts lay a realm of pure darkness.

The only discernible feature was a cliff before them, and below lay an almost completely pitch-black substance.

Fulan struggled to describe what she saw; if this was a chasm, then one should at least have some sense of the other side, yet before her there was only the azure sky and the dark earth – no third color existed.

But if this were an ocean, this darkness and silence would be entirely inconsistent. The exploratory team had originally set out from the seaside; Fulan understood the sea well, both in dreams and reality. However, this scene before her could not possibly be called an ocean.

Yet, this darkness was not entirely still. Fulan and her team had traversed the edge of the swamp to arrive here.

As they moved forward, the swamp, which had started as a deep green, continuously deepened and darkened, eventually becoming indistinguishable from the substance in the abyss.

The extremely viscous black fluid streamed down the chasm beside Fulan, seemingly mixed with identifiable parts of extraordinary beast corpses. The black substance filled the spaces between the fur, forcing out all the bubbles to create menacing hard spikes.

Fulan couldn’t shake the feeling that these dead extraordinary beasts had been the ones driven into the swamp, but considering the viscosity of this black substance, she felt it couldn’t move that quickly…

Yet, this spectacular and bizarre scene resembled a living swamp, continuously feeding the abyss with food in a strange manner; it was too unsettling to delve into further.

Fulan’s mind was filled with chaotic thoughts, a sensation akin to the long-dead mycelium starting to influence her thinking once more.

It felt as if a voice was constantly coaxing her to take a step forward, to step into that eternal and bottomless darkness…

Countless extraordinary beasts stood around the chasm, most affected like Fulan, their bodies starting to tremble slightly, and even their originally clear mismatched eyes began to dilate, the black area expanding steadily.

The first to falter were the small extraordinary beasts; after witnessing a few unfamiliar subordinates lose their wits and tumble into the endless darkness, Fulan swiftly regained her clarity.

Before more of her comrades succumbed to the deathly abyss, she decisively commanded a retreat.

Such a perilous area, no wonder there were no signs of mycelium or extraordinary beasts; perhaps even they would be affected upon coming here…

This was no ordinary discovery, sufficient to warrant her personal return to Hope City to report to Lin Qingliu.

In any case, the initial Exploration Plan required revision; the extraordinary beasts exploration team needed to retreat a certain distance until beyond the influence of the abyss before continuing to survey the nearby terrain.

With a mind swirling with thoughts, Fulan suddenly remembered an idea.

Not long ago, she had made a discovery during an exploration and used Lin Qingliu’s blood to summon a brief clone within a big tree.

This should have been something she thought of much earlier, yet she hadn’t taken this approach despite encountering so many unusual discoveries along the way…

A rare sense of fear arose in Fulan’s heart as she called out to her loyal master within. However, the blood that had merged with her being offered no response.

The signal… had been blocked.

In that moment, Fulan finally ceased her hesitation; what needed to arrive had arrived, and what needed to be seen had been seen. Given the current situation, retreating was the best course of action!