"All I remember now is following Gu Qing all the way to this deserted mountain forest outside the city, wanting to see what the kid had come here for."
"Then, somehow, my mind went blank, and I couldn't remember anything."
"..."
Elder Liang fell silent on the other end of the phone, sinking into thought.
Only after an unknown amount of time did he speak. "Resume following Gu Qing and keep your phone recording audio the entire time. If anything unusual happens again, I'll head over to you immediately."
"All right, understood."
Deacon He nodded and said, "If there's nothing else, I'll end the video call now."
"Wait."
Elder Liang stopped him from hanging up and narrowed his eyes slightly. "Something looks off about the forest around you. Zoom in and let me take a closer look."
Deacon He complied, pointing the camera at the surroundings, which were covered in signs of mutation, and zooming in so Elder Liang could examine them properly from the other end.
Elder Liang narrowed his eyes and studied the scene closely, his expression growing increasingly grave. "What's going on? How could plants this warped exist on Earth?"
"Even in the Origin Land, you can only find twisted, mutated things like these in certain extremely dangerous Life Forbidden Zones."
"Something's wrong. Something's very wrong!"
"He Qiji, where exactly is this strange mountain forest outside the city? Send me your location immediately. I'm going there to investigate personally!"
"..."
"I'll send it now."
Deacon He quickly tapped his phone screen and shared his location with Elder Liang, then asked, "Elder Liang, should I stay here and wait for you, or keep following Gu Qing?"
Elder Liang said, "Keep following Gu Qing. Don't wait for me."
Deacon He nodded. "All right, I'll end the video call."
Elder