Undying Body

This was a road that could never be walked to the end. Whether they walked forward or backward, they could never reach the end of this road. They couldn't reach the mountain peak, nor could they go down to the farm below the mountain.

Team Leader Zhou pushed aside a patch of weeds and emerged from the jungle, only to find himself still halfway up the mountain. Below, fields were intertwined, ancient houses glowed with faint firelight, a tall mill stood by the riverbank, and the distant village was hidden in the darkness, its full appearance unclear.

They had walked for seven or eight hours. By this time, it should have been daylight, but the world was still in darkness.

Everyone had stayed up all night, without any food or water, and had been constantly on the move for seven or eight hours. At this moment, their mental state and physical condition were close to their limits, and the bizarre situation they faced amplified their inner fear and panic to the extreme.

"We're dead, we're dead, we're dead!" Xiao Huang's lips were cracked and pale, and he threw his hat to the ground, refusing to move anymore.

"We can't get out! We must have hit a Ghost Wall!" A Kai kept licking his lips, his body severely dehydrated.

"This isn't working, Team Leader!" Da Tou looked down the mountain, then up at the sky.

However, as soon as Da Tou looked up, he saw black rain falling from the sky. No, it wasn't rain, it was black ash.

"Is it raining?" Da Tou felt something land on his face.

"How can there be black rain?"

"It's not rain! This is... ash?" Team Leader Zhou wiped the ash that had fallen on his face. The black ash stained his face and hands black.

A continuous stream of ash fell from the sky, landing on their faces. They looked up at the sky and immediately saw that the moon, which had been invisible before, had climbed above the clouds – a dark red moon.

The moon was a half-circle, like a knife, like blood.

Ash fell like rain, the crescent moon was a vivid red, and the clouds in the sky were torn and stained black, forming a bizarre shape. The sky of the entire world reflected a red and black hue, revealing a sense of fear and horror within its beauty.

"This... this isn't normal!" Da Tou's forced composure finally broke, and his face showed terror.

"How can there be a moon like this!"

"Where... where exactly are we trapped!"

"Team Leader! Team Leader, what should we do?" Everyone kept looking at Team Leader Zhou, as if he were their backbone.

"Dong!"

At this moment, a clear sound came from afar. The clear ringing of a bell hummed, dragging out a long aftertaste, startling the already panicked group like frightened rabbits.

"Where is that bell sound coming from? Is it from a temple? Or from down the mountain!" Team Leader Zhou looked around, but he immediately fixed his gaze on the mountain below.

It wasn't that he had found the source of the bell sound, but rather, firelight had appeared down the mountain – a large line of firelight, as if a crowd of people were coming up the mountain holding torches or lanterns.

"Someone! Someone is coming up the mountain! We can follow them, and we can get out by following them." Xiao Huang suddenly stood up and shouted down the mountain.

"We're here! We're here!" Xiao Huang's shouts carried through the air.

"Finally, someone is coming up the mountain, Team Leader, we can finally leave this cursed place!" The others also stood up. Even as experienced police officers, they were now terrified and their limbs felt numb in this bizarre place.

"Something's not right, don't move recklessly yet! Observe!" Team Leader Zhou felt that something was off.

Because there were originally only a dozen or so firelights down the mountain, but as they continued to walk up the mountain, the team holding torches grew larger and larger, and the line of firelight stretched longer and longer.

A dozen, more than twenty.

After turning a mountain path, it immediately became a long line of over forty people, continuously coming up along the mountain path.

"They're here! They're here! They're finally here!" Xiao Huang was excited, pointing at the approaching team!

"These must be search and rescue personnel!" A Kai nodded and said.

"Why are they using torches instead of flashlights?"

"Everyone be careful, get your guns out, stay alert."

Team Leader Zhou kept shaking his head, still ordering everyone to remain vigilant.

At this moment, on the downhill path, the distant firelight finally appeared before their eyes, but the joy on everyone's faces instantly froze, because the people walking up were wearing strange black robes.

What they were holding in their hands were not torches, but silver candlesticks, and the bizarre white candles burned with greenish-blue flames. When they moved forward, they weren't walking at all, but constantly spinning and jumping.

They sang strange songs in a language they couldn't understand at all, dancing with exaggerated movements, looking like marionettes being pulled by strings, constantly swaying in an exaggerated manner.

They held their candlesticks high, constantly dancing and singing, as if they were holding a grand ball.

They marched in neat formation, keeping a steady beat, and walked all the way up. Each person swayed from side to side, staggering forward. The red moon illuminated the entire mountain as if blood was flowing, and the continuously falling black ash made the world hazy.

"Dazed and confused! Bathing in blood and slaughter! Hehehehe!" The leading black-robed figure sang and danced, finally bursting into maniacal laughter.

"Mother killed me, Father ate me." A short, child-like black-robed shadow followed behind, making an even more terrifying sound.

"Brothers and sisters sat under the dining table, picked up my bones, and buried them in a cold stone tomb." Another small figure of similar height jumped out holding a candlestick and sang the latter half in a sharp voice.

"La la la la la ah!"

"Woo woo woo woo woo!"

The strange black figures behind followed, shouting the accompaniment in unison.

"La la la la la ah!"

"Woo woo woo woo!"

The few people who had just been happy felt a chill run down their spines at the sight of this bizarre situation. The expressions on their faces gradually froze, turning pale.

At this moment, the leading black-robed figure holding the candlestick high turned his head and glanced at them. He raised his head, and from beneath the black robe, their true faces were revealed.

It was a face made of straw, and their hands were also made of straw. The candlesticks were stuck in them like this, and they couldn't turn easily, only move by swaying.

Their faces were covered with a piece of paper, like a child's doodle, depicting crooked facial features. In the darkness of the night, they appeared even more terrifying and horrifying. Their eyes were black pebbles, not carefully embedded, but rather violently slapped and stuffed in.

This was a team of scarecrows, scarecrows that could move, scarecrows that could sing.

Team Leader Zhou and the others were drenched in cold sweat, their legs trembling uncontrollably. Horror and fear had deeply penetrated their hearts, consuming all their reason. The frantic singing drilled into their ears, as if biting at their souls.

They wanted to draw their guns and make them stop, but they couldn't even move a single finger. They wanted to run, but found their feet wouldn't budge. They wanted to scream and roar loudly, but found their throats couldn't utter a single syllable.

The scarecrows in black robes circled around them once, then continued walking up the mountain. From above, their procession, holding candlesticks, looked like a knot, and within that knot were Team Leader Zhou and the others.

They were trapped motionless in the center, and then, their eyes slowly became vacant. It was as if plants were taking root and sprouting on their bodies, growing straw. The withered yellow straw devoured their flesh and blood, devouring their eyes and brains.

They raised their hands high, and an illusory candlestick appeared in their hands.

As the procession reached the end, they immediately filled in.

At this moment, they too had become identical monsters. A doodled piece of paper was pasted on their straw faces, and two irregular stones were stuffed in. They held torches high, performing the exact same movements, swaying left and right, moving forward in a daze.

"La la la la la ah!"

"Woo woo woo woo!"

The procession continued to move forward. The further up they went, the more they could see the people who had previously gone missing in the mountains joining in. The number increased, from dozens to hundreds.

They were constantly approaching the mountain peak, getting closer to the Necro Tree on the peak, which was hundreds of meters tall and still expanding wildly. Compared to the outside world, here its body had expanded tenfold, looking like a pillar supporting the sky.

The Necro Tree waved its long vines, dancing wildly in the sky, like the shadow of a devil dancing in the sky.

And at this moment, the blood-red sky was torn apart, and white light illuminated the entire world, as if a bolt of lightning had pierced through it, cleansing the entire world.

A figure like the sun appeared in the sky, illuminating the entire illusory world.

He tore open the sky of this world and, upon entering, immediately targeted the giant demonic tree on the mountain peak. Intense light shot out from between his fingers.

"Divine Art: Holy Storm!"

A violent storm of light swept up from the mountain peak, instantly spreading out, annihilating everything on the mountaintop, leaving nothing behind.

Dust rose, ashes scattered, and throughout the entire mountaintop, shattered rocks could be seen constantly falling. Smoke and dust rose hundreds of meters, and exploding sparks fell towards the mountain like meteors.

"Roar!"

A huge roar of pain came from the mountain peak. Along with this roar, the entire world shook violently. The red moon in the sky dimmed and faded, and the black ashes stopped falling.

But within the roar, the demonic tree that should have been wiped out grew back again. A tremendous power erupted, and the vines instantly shot out thousands of meters, entangling towards Fang Xiu.

And on the vines, Fang Xiu saw that each vine carried a bizarre face, like a terrifying nightmare, constantly roaring, cursing, and cursing him.

Fang Xiu discovered that after entering this illusory world, his power had expanded to the extreme, but along with it, the power of that demonic tree had also expanded to the extreme.

Countless vines constantly lashed at the sky. Throughout the entire sky, its nightmare whips could be seen roaring and emitting strange power, chasing and biting at Fang Xiu.

"Implosion Spell!" Fang Xiu used the spells brought by the Saintly Posture, constantly bombarding the demonic tree. A red ball of light fell to the ground, merged into the Necro Tree's body, and instantly exploded.

"Still not dead? What exactly is going on? Is this an Undying Body?" Fang Xiu raised his head and looked outside the world, immediately realizing that the Necro Tree in the outside world had already revived.

"Are both of them its main body? Must they be killed simultaneously to kill it?"

"What the hell is this thing?"

Fang Xiu immediately felt how difficult it was to deal with something that was even slightly related to the word "god."

"Boom!"

And at this moment, a violent explosion suddenly came from the real world above. Along with it, this illusory world also shook violently.

Fang Xiu looked up and saw that the Necro Tree in the real world was directly torn apart and exploded. Intense flames completely ignited the mountaintop, and the trunk of the Necro Tree burned into a pile of wreckage in the artillery fire.