Three Pillars Lake

The next morning, Linsey and Red set off again.

The rest of the journey returned to the monotonous travel and the hardships of traversing mountains and valleys.

The terrain of the Thousand Mountains Stone Forest varies greatly.

Some stone pillars even form natural paths, but in other places the earth's surface is covered with dense, sharp stone spikes, looking like the back of a hedgehog.

Even with that, Linsey and Red could still jump over it using their agility.

However, the long-term wind erosion and decay have made these small stone pillars brittle, and sometimes they can even break underfoot, triggering a chain reaction that causes people to fall down along with the broken stones.

The only good news is that the surrounding environment is actually relatively safe.

The death of the Black Eagle King was an unexpected event.

The other Devil Beast that had occupied their territories in the area were unaware of what had happened, so they continued with their usual hunting habits.

As a bird of prey, the Black Eagle occupies a sufficiently large territory.

So the next two weeks will be long.

Linsey and her companion traversed the Thousand Mountains Stone Forest in a straight line, without encountering a single Devil Beast of Third Stage or higher! Until the afternoon of the fifteenth day, two weeks later.

After traversing another section of the stone forest and returning to flat ground, Hong shook off the pebbles from her clothes and couldn't help but ask:

"Linsey, should we be almost there?"

Linsey opened the map first.

He glanced at it, thought about it carefully, and then gave the girl beside him a regretful look:

"Before the Black Eagle King died, he said it would take half a month to fly east from their lair. Red, how much slower do you think we are compared to those flying creatures?"

Hong rolled her eyes.

Why didn't we leave two Black Eagle behind?

"If we use them as mounts to fly, we should be arriving at our destination by now."

Linsey spoke frankly, shattering the illusion of red:

"You're overthinking it."

"Although those guys are quite strong, their body structures aren't designed for human flight. If you try to climb on top of them, the end result will probably be that you all fall to your deaths on the ground."

Hong asked curiously:

"What if they grew a little bigger, like the Black Eagle King?"

Linsey shook her head again:

"It still doesn't work."

"Unless it's seven or eight meters or more... no, if you're not riding on their backs, but instead letting them grab you in their claws, then it might be possible for them to carry us there."

Hong's expression was fine at first, but she quickly realized the problem with this method. "What if they fly up high and then let us go using this method?"

Linsey clapped her hands, making a gesture as if she were flattening an object:

"Then just snap it open, and then you don't have to think about anything anymore."

"..."

"Linsey, use all your weird stuff to figure out a way, I want to fly too."

"If you can't do it, you can't do it. Just give up."

Once it became clear that there was no way to improve the way they traveled, Hong's eyes began to wander aimlessly around.

When I'm in a bad mood.

She would try to transfer her bad expression onto her prey.

Unfortunately, this method of relaxation yielded no results.

To adapt to the environment, most of the creatures in the Thousand Mountains Stone Forest are accustomed to living on cliffs or complex terrain with craggy rocks.

Flat terrain like this, which is convenient for traveling, is not favored by wild animals.

Only shrubs and weeds grow quietly here.

The situation only changed after Linsey and Red finished lunch, a whole morning had passed.

The terrain ahead became difficult again.

Huge stone pillars of various shapes are scattered throughout the area, and streams flow along the low-lying areas at their bases, making it clear at a glance that this is a difficult terrain to traverse.

However, Linsey didn't care about any of that.

His gaze was drawn to a strange sight ahead.

Among this vast stone forest, three stone pillars, each a hundred meters tall, tilted and collapsed, but they ended up intersecting and holding each other together, maintaining a delicate balance in this collapse.

If this happened on Earth, it would definitely be developed into a famous tourist attraction.

Red, who was next to Linsey, also saw this scene.

However, her perspective on the landscape was completely different from Linsey's. "These stone pillars are just unreasonable."

"It's so hard, yet so brittle. Isn't there a relatively stable state between them?"

Red's complaints, in fact, served as a reminder to Linsey.

These three hundred-meter-high stone pillars may indeed be hard, but given their length and the impact of their collapse, they should have shattered on the spot rather than maintaining this delicate balance.

To create this spectacular sight.

It must contain some of the unique characteristics of this world— Essence.

"Let's go take a look."

"Perhaps we can gain something!"

Linsey had an idea and grabbed Hong, rushing towards the three stone pillars.

That night, the two men, their trousers soaked through, approached the leftmost of the three stone pillars.

Out of caution, Linsey opened the map first.

Sure enough, there were some yellow markings symbolizing neutrality around the base of the stone pillar, and there were quite a few of them.

Linsey warned, "Red, there are Devil Beast living here."

Hong gripped the [Wood Poison Javelin] in her hand, her expression turning solemn:

"Shall we fight?"

"Don't rush into action." Linsey shook her head, put on the [Treant Flower Crown] from her Equipment Slot, and was the first to walk over. "They're not very threatening; we can try communicating with them first."

Linsey and her companion followed the moonlight to the foot of the stone pillar.

This is a clear lake with a few damp mounds peeking out, and there's no sign of Devil Beast.

"Squeak, squeak..."

A slight creaking sound came from underground.

The sound was almost beyond human hearing, but fortunately Linsey was equipped with a device that enhanced her perception, which allowed her to detect the subtle movement.

Linsey's gaze shifted to the damp mounds.

"We mean no harm." It tried to communicate in Beast Language, then threw over two pieces of Beast Meat and a chunk of potato. "If you can understand us, could you come out and talk to us?"

"..."

The air fell silent for a moment.

Even the creaking sounds from underground disappeared.

After waiting for about a minute, a claw suddenly emerged from the surface of the mound where Linsey had thrown the food, and quickly dug through the moist soil.

A head that looked somewhat like a mole popped out of the mound.

It glanced cautiously at Linsey, its gaze shifting back and forth between the food and the two humans.

Linsey glanced at the map again; the marker was still yellow.

He pulled Hong back two steps to show that he posed no threat, and then continued, "This food is a token of my goodwill."

Seeing Linsey's actions, and with the increased affinity from her equipment, the mole-like Devil Beast finally spoke:

"You... are human?"

Linsey nodded quickly:

"That's right, we are traversing the Thousand Mountains Stone Forest."

"I just heard that there's a depression in the ground nearby, which might be dangerous, so I wanted to ask you for more details."