Qian Renxue (36)

The four of them left the wasteland that was gradually being covered in black dust and advanced toward the ominous black forest in the distance.

The ground beneath their feet gradually shifted from grayish white to a deep brown, as if it had been soaked again and again in blood, then dried by the passing years. The smell in the air also changed from the sweet, bloody reek of God-Corroding Miasma to a stale odor, like withered leaves mixed with mold. The closer they drew to the forest, the quieter their surroundings became—an unnerving, absolute silence in which even the sound of the wind had vanished.

"This is the Forest of Fallen Gods." Dai Chengfeng stopped and took a yellowed bone shard from his robes. Dense ancient script and simple diagrams had been carved into it. "According to the records left by those who came before us, this forest formed after the first Twilight of the Gods. The divine bodies of those fallen Deities, fragments of their Divine Souls, even their lingering obsessions and resentment, piled up on this land, mutated, and finally gave birth to this forest that defies the laws of nature."

Tang Wulin looked up. The trees in the forest were not the usual brown, but an almost pure black. Their trunks were rough and twisted, their surfaces covered in raised patterns like blood vessels. The leaves were dark red, shaped like human palms, and trembled faintly even without wind. Most eerie of all, some of the trunks actually bore the blurred outlines of human faces, their features distorted and their eyes tightly shut, as though they were enduring an eternal nightmare in their sleep.

"Where are the Soul Devouring Trees?" Qian Renxue tightened her grip on the Angel Holy Sword, her six wings spreading slightly. A