"Is this the rubber you're looking for?"
While Lin Yuan was thinking, Bai Ling asked cautiously.
She was terrified that what she had led them to find had nothing to do with rubber and would anger these two formidable figures.
"You could say that." Lin Yuan answered casually and handed the Rubber Seed to Bai Ling, gesturing for her to look for herself.
"Ah, so this is where rubber comes from!" Bai Ling had barely exclaimed before her expression changed. "Wait! This is..."
Her eyes suddenly went blank, and her body began trembling slightly.
Lin Yuan froze, then immediately realized that Bai Ling's high spiritual sensitivity was acting up again.
She seemed to have seen something by touching this Rubber Seed.
"Oh, oh my god..."
Bai Ling let out a moan in a voice so faint it was almost inaudible, and then her trembling grew more and more violent.
Lin Yuan patted Bai Ling, but she did not react at all.
Seeing that something was wrong, Lin Yuan was just about to take the Rubber Seed from Bai Ling's hand when she suddenly jolted and came back to her senses.
Then she crouched on the ground, gasping for breath. It took quite a while before the terror in her eyes gradually faded.
Only after Bai Ling gradually returned to normal did Lin Yuan ask with concern:
"What happened? What did you just see?"
Bai Ling swallowed.
"I saw... a huge, strange tree, as tall as a building of over ten stories, and its girth was even greater than its height."
"It kept scattering rubber seeds in every direction, infesting every animal that came near."
"Some of the infested animals willingly became its fertilizer, some went off to attack other animals, and others lured more creatures over for it to infest."
"The trunk of this giant tree was covered in holes, and each hole hid who knows how many infested animals. A single tree was a nest for an entire Rubber Beast Herd."
"But that wasn't the most terrifying part. The most terrifying part was... there were so, so many trees just like it. Looking into the distance, I couldn't see the end of them. They had turned almost all the creatures on the island into their slaves!"
"And they kept making strange cries that made people lose themselves. I almost couldn't wake up..." Bai Ling's voice still betrayed lingering fear.
"Well, it's a good thing you managed to snap yourself out of it in time," Lin Yuan comforted her.
Bai Ling shook her head without saying anything.
Only she knew that she had not woken up on her own.
The whispers of those countless giant trees had filled her with an inexplicable terror, almost driving her to a mental breakdown.
At the critical moment, she had suddenly sensed another kind of terror beside her.
As the two terrifying auras clashed, she had instead regained some of her will and hurriedly severed the connection, waking up.
But after waking, she had realized that the terrifying presence that appeared later had come from the seemingly amiable Lin Yuan before her.
The aura this guy gave off all by himself rivaled that of those countless giant trees!
What the hell is he... How did I get mixed up with him...
Bai Ling could not help wailing inwardly over her plight.
Then Lin Yuan said something that left Bai Ling even more distraught:
"Then can you sense where those Rubber Beast Nests are? I'd like to take a look."
Of course. I knew things would always take a turn for the worse... Bai Ling sighed inwardly, then answered helplessly:
"Yes. When I sensed them just now, I established a connection with them. I can pinpoint the location of that cluster of nests."
At that moment, Lin Yuan was immersed in the joy of discovering a huge gathering of rubber beasts and being able to harvest rubber to his heart's content, and failed to hear the misery in Bai Ling's voice.
He swept his hand through the air.
"What are we waiting for, then? Let's go!"
The cluster of giant-tree nests was closer than Lin Yuan had imagined. With Bai Ling leading the way, they arrived nearby in less than half an hour.
A vast clearing had opened up in what had originally been dense jungle, and at its center stood who knows how many of the strange giant trees Bai Ling had described.
The clearing between the forest of strange giant trees and the ordinary jungle was several hundred meters wide, drawing a stark boundary between the two.
Countless rubber beasts were running and playing in the clearing.
Among them were ordinary wild animals such as lions and rhinoceroses, as well as strange creatures that seemed to have been pieced together from two different beasts.
Those Assembled Beasts were larger than ordinary predators and clearly held higher status, serving as something like squad leaders within the herd.
But what concerned Lin Yuan more than the giant trees and rubber beasts was a team lurking at the edge of the jungle, observing them.
The team consisted of around twenty people, all aboard a ship over ten meters long fitted with caterpillar tracks. They were observing the rubber beasts through a large telescope on the deck.
It was a team from the Adventurer Group.
He had not expected to run into them here.
The members of the Adventurer Group were all focused on the distant forest of giant trees and had not noticed Bai Ling and Lilia.
As for Lin Yuan, he had already lain back down inside Lilia's coffin and was watching everything through her shared vision.
Only the Adventurer Group? Where are the consortium and the Black Blood Society?
Lin Yuan could not help finding it strange. This forest of giant trees was clearly extraordinary, so how could the other two large teams ignore it?
Lin Yuan did not believe they lacked the means to discover this place.
The only possibility was that there was more than one place like this on the island, and something on the level of this giant-tree forest was not worth a struggle between the three major teams.
Sure enough, this multiplayer instance was far beyond the beginner instance in both scale and level.
Lin Yuan was very interested in the Adventurer Group's ship, which could travel on land, and wanted to have a friendly exchange with them.
But how to approach them was a problem.
With Bai Ling, he had saved her first, and then they had spent so long traveling together. Naturally, they could get along amicably and overlook a few oddities.
Well, at least Lin Yuan thought they were getting along amicably.
But with the Adventurer Group, Lin Yuan's habit of lying in a coffin and having a puppet girl pull it around would seem very strange.
It would be no surprise at all if they treated him as an enemy and attacked.
Of course, Lin Yuan could also leave the coffin and approach them while pretending to be an ordinary player.
But he could not stay on land for too long. Surely he could not interrupt their conversation with, "Hang on, let me go lie in my coffin for a bit," could he? They would definitely see him as a monster.
More importantly, whether he, as a ship, could board another ship was also unknown.
What if his large ship crushed the Adventurer Group's little ship?
Then they would absolutely become sworn enemies.
After thinking it over, Lin Yuan finally decided to have Bai Ling, who looked the most like an ordinary human out of the three of them, approach them.
Naturally, Bai Ling did not dare refuse Lin Yuan's request.
Moreover, after experiencing Lin Yuan's terrifying presence, she had suppressed even the thought of subtly warning the Adventurer Group.
These two are too terrifying. If they notice me trying anything, both the people on that ship and I might be done for. I'd better do as they say.
Bai Ling mentally prepared herself, then could not help lamenting:
Why am I so unlucky? I'm clearly just a harmless, frail, helpless, adorable young girl...
Despite her lamentations, she still followed Lin Yuan's instructions, taking the initiative to approach the Adventurer Group and greet them:
"Hello, I'm Bai Ling, an independent player. Can we talk?"
Seeing Bai Ling appear before him with Lilia and the coffin, the Adventurer Group's captain's pupils abruptly contracted.
Someone who can subdue an uncanny entity? When did such a terrifying powerhouse enter this instance?
Before you continue