Deep in the rock crevices, the darkness is like solidified ink.
He spread himself into a thin layer, clinging to the cold and damp rock wall, completely blending in with the moss, rotten leaves and the cold atmosphere of Rock itself. The power of "Concealment" was driven to the extreme, erasing its own sense of existence.
Time passed slowly in dead silence. The sounds from the direction of the camp gradually faded away. His consciousness was floating in the endless coldness, weakness and hunger. The obsession to go to "Star Dou Core" that originated from the depths of his soul was now covered by a more primitive and urgent desire - to eat, replenish energy, and maintain existence.
Every pulse of the broken core in the depths brings tearing pain. The meager energy brought by the devouring has long been exhausted, making it even worse than before.
"Hungry..."
"Weak..."
In the broken consciousness, only these most primitive thoughts are swirling. Leaving the camp means temporary safety, but it also means losing the various sources of "life". The forest is full of vitality, but most of the free life energy is active and full of "resistance". In its current state, it is difficult to effectively absorb it.
It needs prey. Prey that can provide enough energy without attracting trouble.
The sky was completely dark. The light from the campfire was cut into broken spots by the trees and Rock, and could not shine into this shadow. The night wind howled in the forest, bringing the sound of distant streams and more rustling noises belonging to the night.
It's time to act.
The piece of "moss" began to flow extremely slowly, along the uneven parts of the rock wall, downwards and outwards, toward the broader, dark forest floor outside the rock crevice. Its movement was astonishingly slow, like a drop of sticky night dew sliding down the rock wall.
It left the shelter of the rock crevices and blended itself into the thick, rotting leaf litter of the forest. The rotten leaves were soft and moist, exuding a strong smell of decay and death. Like a flat, dark-colored worm, it silently passed through the gaps in the fallen leaves.
Its "perception" spreads in the darkness. A vague instinct - a hunger and thirst for the breath of life, an early warning of danger.
At night in the forest, countless tiny lives are active. Under the soil, earthworms are crawling; in the rotten wood, beetles are gnawing; in the humid air, tiny flying insects are flapping their wings. But these lives are too small, and the energy they contain is a drop in the bucket for it at this moment.
It needs bigger prey. At least Soul Beast that contains a certain amount of Soul Power.
It cautiously, like the most cautious ghost, "cruises" in the shadows of the forest. Its direction follows the vague obsession guidance deep in its soul, towards the southeast where the forest is deeper and the breath of life seems more majestic. Every time it moves a certain distance, it needs to stop, reintegrate with the environment, and "scan" the surroundings with its vague perception.
Fortunately, during its slow movement for nearly an hour, it did not encounter any powerful Soul Beast. Those auras that it instinctively felt were fatal threats - thick as a mountain, swift as the wind, cold and vicious - seemed to have coincidentally avoided its inconspicuous path. Perhaps it was the effect of the "Concealment" ability, or perhaps it was just pure luck.
But it is also unlucky that it has almost never encountered any suitable, weak Soul Beast prey. The relatively weak breath that occasionally passes by in its perception is either fleeting and disappears so fast that it is difficult to track; or it is hidden in thick soil, solid tree holes or steep rock walls, making it impossible to attack. Those breaths are slightly stronger, or they live near areas that make it feel vaguely uneasy.
It "swam" through a bush that exuded a faint sweet fragrance, and sensed that there were several fist-sized "Venom Sting Bee" lurking in it, with carapace shimmering with a faint blue luster. Each one exuded an aura that was close to ten years old, but the bee swarm gathered and the threat of the tail needle made it instinctively choose to stay away.
It even "smelled" a faint smell of blood floating in the wind, and "crawled" following the smell to a bush, only to find a few bloody feathers and a few messy gray hairs, indicating that a small killing had just occurred here, but both the predator and the prey had disappeared, leaving only some residual energy fragments, which was meaningless.
The feeling of hunger is like a maggot attached to the bone, getting stronger and stronger. The pain and weakness in the core are also intensifying. The power of Dan-Devour is restless in the body, which is a thirst for release and devouring, but reason tells it that it must not be used easily. Every time Dan-Devour is used, it is a huge consumption, and its existence will be exposed in an instant. In this crisis-ridden Star Dou Forest periphery, exposure is almost equal to death.
What makes the broken consciousness even more uneasy is that as it goes deeper and deeper into the forest, the surrounding environment seems to be undergoing subtle changes. The air is more humid, filled with a faint, slightly sweet smell of decay, which is different from the pure smell of rotting fallen leaves. At the same time, this breath is mixed with some kind of... toxicity. Some low ferns and moss with strange colors and ferocious shapes began to appear on the ground, and some mushroom canopies glowed with ominous fluorescence. Even the wind that blew by seemed to have a hint of stagnation and coldness.
This seems to be an area with a relatively strong poison barrier. For normal Soul Beasts and humans, this is a harmful place. But for him at this moment, the ubiquitous and faint smell of poison makes it feel slightly more "comfortable". It instinctively knows that in this environment, it may be easier to find prey that is suitable for itself and easier to obtain - those Soul Beasts that are also adapted to, and even rely on, toxicity.
But the premise is that it must find its prey as soon as possible. Otherwise, before it is discovered by other Soul Beast, its increasingly strong weakness and core instability may kill it first.
It stopped under the shadow of a boulder covered with dark green moss, spread itself wider, and absorbed as much of the meager and toxic free energy as possible from the moist soil and air. The efficiency was pitiful, but it was better than sitting still and waiting to die.
Time passed minute by second. Deep in the forest, the more powerful Soul Beast began to become active, with vague roars, neighs and Soul Power fluctuations, like giant beasts lurking in the night, making it even more difficult to maintain his "Concealment" state. Hunger and weakness were almost overwhelming. It collapsed. To the southeast where the vague obsession pointed, the aura of life became more and more majestic, but also more and more dangerous. It could even vaguely feel that in that very far direction, there were several terrifying auras that made its soul tremble, as vast as the sea and as deep as the abyss. Just a vague sense was enough to almost freeze its core.
You can't go... at least not now. It's too dangerous there. In its current state, approaching it is tantamount to seeking death.
But if you don't go there, where else can you go? The outskirts of the forest don't seem to be a safe place. There are very few suitable prey, and it... can't hold on any longer.
There is no time to hesitate.
The almost solidified, water-tank-sized mass of ink-black poisonous mud forcibly gathered the last bit of consciousness, driving the body that was almost collapsing, leaving the shadow of the boulder and continuing to move toward the southeast, towards the depths where danger and opportunity coexist, "crawling" more slowly and more difficultly.
This time, it no longer deliberately looks for prey, but devotes all its attention to maintaining "Concealment" and fighting against the increasingly strong sense of weakness. It is like a real ghost, drifting forward amid increasingly dense poison barriers, increasingly rugged terrain, and increasingly heavy premonitions of danger.
No Soul Beast encountered.
Didn't encounter any Soul Master either.
This area between the periphery and the core seems to have become a forbidden area of life. Only those strangely tenacious poisonous weeds and poisonous mushrooms that exude an ominous aura grow quietly in the darkness.
I don't know how long I have been "climbing" for, maybe an hour, maybe two hours. There seems to be a hint of light in the sky, but the light deep in the forest is still dim.
His condition was extremely bad. The core pulse was so weak that it almost stagnated, and the body's peristalsis became extremely difficult. Every "move" was like squeezing the last bit of strength from the dying body. The feeling of hunger had turned into a numb pain, and what was even more frightening was that a coldness originating from Origin that was about to dissipate began to spread.
It must find prey, it must... survive!