Exploring the Mountain

Late autumn had arrived. Temperatures began to steadily drop, and daylight hours shortened with each passing day. Nearly all the trees in the forest had lost their green, and from afar, the entire forest looked dim and yellowed, like an old photograph from a bygone era.

At the same time, leaves began falling in great numbers, carpeting the forest floor and laying out a Golden Road. It was breathtakingly beautiful, intoxicating to behold.

Pandora often sat or stood atop the small hill, expressionlessly watching the forest for half a day at a time, no one knew what she was thinking.

Richard, unlike Pandora, was not lost in the scenery. He knew perfectly well that all this seemingly beautiful scenery was merely the result of basic physiological changes. For example, changes in temperature and sunlight hindered chlorophyll synthesis in leaves, reducing its content while increasing lutein and carotene, thus producing yellow. Or increased secretion of the plant hormones abscisic acid and ethylene, which caused leaves to fall.

The animals in the forest did not understand the same principles, but neither were they intoxicated by the colors of autumn. In truth, autumn scenery held no aesthetic appeal for them. What it brought was a reduction in food due to falling temperatures, followed by a crisis of survival.

Autumn had already arrived. Could winter be far behind? Winter was an enormous trial for every animal in the forest. Under such circumstances, both herbivores and carnivores grew restless...

And so, the day of the beast tide arrived once more.

That night.

A full moon hung high in the sky, casting down dim silver light like a thin veil draped over the earth.

Looking closely, one could see clusters of black shadows spread densely across that veil. They were crazed animals, savagely attacking one another, biting and clawing bloody wounds into each other's bodies.

Not far from the small hill where the Black Ancient Castle stood was a mountain over a hundred meters high. Its sides were steep and its summit flat, making it resemble a black tombstone half-buried in the earth. The animals slaughtering one another atop it were the most frenzied. Most fought with bloodshot eyes, fearlessly biting at one another. Even after drawing their last breath, they still clamped their jaws tightly around their enemies' bodies.

Suddenly, invisible waves of Mental Strength rapidly spread from within the mountain, sweeping across more than half the forest.

The animals, already consumed by madness, immediately became even more enraged, violent, and bloodthirsty. They completely lost their reason and became Flesh Puppets controlled by the mental waves. Then, guided by something, they swept outward from the mountain, preparing to flatten everything around them and eliminate all obstacles.

That guidance was so powerful that dozens, hundreds, thousands, even tens of thousands of animals joined in, becoming a frenzied animal army that roared as it advanced in every direction.

The small hill where the Black Ancient Castle stood was silent, but it did not remain so for long. Soon, rustling sounds began to rise from below the hill.

In the clearing before the ancient castle, Pandora glanced at Gregory.

In his human form, Gregory said confidently, "Don't worry. I'll let them know what I'm capable of." As he spoke, his body rapidly swelled. In the blink of an eye, he transformed from a middle-aged burly man into a giant dragon over ten meters long. With a spread of his wings, he shot into the sky with a howl.

Pandora expressionlessly said, "Ha!"

Ha? What was that supposed to mean? Gregory thought. He had noticed that Pandora had recently become particularly fond of using this single syllable to express herself, but its exact meaning was difficult to understand. Most of the time, he had to rely on context, Pandora's mood, and a little mysticism to figure it out.

After thinking for a long time, Gregory still could not tell whether Pandora was satisfied or dissatisfied this time. Filled with confusion, he flew into the air and clearly saw the densely packed crazed animals surging up from below the hill.

Forget it. I'll stop thinking about it and deal with what's in front of me first. I nearly screwed up last time. If I don't do well this time either, I might really get beaten up. Sigh! Gregory thought wearily. The next moment, he opened his mouth and spewed a blast of fire.

Whoosh!

With the sound of exhalation, flames nearly solid in form poured down like a massive red war blade, viciously cleaving into the black tide of crazed animals below the hill. Wherever they passed, screams erupted, followed by utter annihilation.

When strength created an absolute crushing advantage, no amount of numbers had any meaning.

Gregory began slaughtering them—coldly slaughtering them, then... boringly slaughtering them. He slaughtered while sighing, slaughtered while his mind wandered.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Flames continually poured down, wiping out wave after wave of crazed animals. Yet more always rushed in to fill the gaps, endless and unceasing.

"Another night of work," Gregory said with a yawn, unable to stop himself, before breathing out another blast of fire. "Whoosh!"

"Sigh, why did I choose to live here in the first place? Wouldn't somewhere else have been better? Whoosh!"

"Come to think of it, where have all the other dragons gone? I haven't seen so much as a trace of another dragon in all this time. Otherwise, I could call a few dragons over to help. We could chat while breathing fire, and it wouldn't be so boring. Whoosh!"

"I heard Pandora say that kid named Richard claimed he could use this beast tide to figure out what causes them and solve the problem once and for all. Who knows whether that's true. Whoosh!"

Inside the Black Ancient Castle, in a room on the first floor.

Richard sat cross-legged on the wooden bed, already deep in meditation. Then his body trembled, and his consciousness swiftly shot out of his flesh.

His consciousness rose, breaking through the roof of the ancient castle and reaching the air above. Richard saw Gregory muttering to himself as he breathed fire.

In the clearing before the ancient castle below, Pandora stood with a cold expression, staring around her. Whenever she noticed a straggler rushing to the top of the hill, she immediately stomped off the ground and leaped over, smashing it down with a punch. Then she looked up and shouted at Gregory in dissatisfaction, telling him that he had made another mistake.

Gregory muttered something and began slaughtering with greater intensity.

After watching for a moment, Richard shook his head. He did not forget the task at hand, controlling his consciousness as it flew toward the nearby mountain. During the flight, he deliberately controlled his Mental Strength to envelop his entire body, preventing the strange Mental Strength waves inside the mountain from eroding his consciousness.

Soon, Richard's consciousness reached the mountain's surface and found it drenched in blood. The ground looked as though it had been watered with blood, making it easy to imagine how many animals had slaughtered and bled here before.

After sweeping his gaze over the animal corpses covering the ground, Richard controlled his consciousness and began to descend, slowly sinking into the soil below.