"Ah?" Yano froze. "Could we have gotten lost because this forest creates visual distortions? Then why weren't the first two groups of hunters affected?"
"Maybe someone among them had the ability to break through that kind of misdirection." Sun Hang followed his train of thought—he couldn't exactly tell the two of them that the real culprits behind their wandering in circles weren't the forest itself, but three damn monkeys, could he?
Yano and the Huntress asked no further questions. Obediently, they closed their eyes and gripped the knots in the rope, while Sun Hang wrapped the front end around his palm and headed in the direction he had just chosen.
He not only shut his eyes, but plugged his ears as well, walking forward in complete silence... As for detecting obstacles, he relied on several strands of mycelium extending ahead like feelers.
To ensure he kept moving in a straight line, Sun Hang never detoured even when trees blocked the way. Instead, he simply severed their trunks at the roots and stepped over the stumps flush with the ground.
More than ten minutes later, Sun Hang suddenly felt as though everything had opened up before him. He opened his eyes and found that he had left the forest behind. He was standing in a valley littered with boulders.
Sun Hang looked back. That bizarre forest was less than ten meters behind them.
"We're out. You can open your eyes now," Sun Hang said.
"Whew..." Yano let out a long breath. "I could actually feel the fear that had been surging deep inside me suddenly disappear just now, so I guessed we'd probably left the forest... But since you didn't say anything, I didn't dare make a sound either."
"You could've said something and I still wouldn't have heard you.