Li Yan's muscles suddenly contracted. He hurriedly tried to exert force and retreat, swiftly sweeping his gaze around, but he found nothing.
The entire shore returned to silence once more. Only those enormous "Other Shore Flowers" swayed endlessly in the dimness.
"Damn it, what the hell are these things?"
Li Yan's heart pounded wildly in fright, cold sweat drenching him as he cursed inwardly.
After steadying himself and waiting another dozen breaths or so, he began moving forward again.
About half an hour later, a "Ghost Thorn" appeared by the riverbank. Li Yan quietly crouched beside the river. He did not rashly make a move, instead carefully observing the river water and his surroundings.
The area was deathly silent, with no figures appearing anywhere. At a time like this, Li Yan dared not let down his guard even more.
Slowly, he shifted his gaze back to the river not far away. The dark green surface was equally calm.
Even from so close, Li Yan could not tell whether the water was flowing. Nothing floated atop that stretch of dark green river water; it seemed like a pool of stagnant water.
Yet when he strained his eyes toward the center of the river, with his vision unobstructed, he seemed to see rippling patterns there.
It was as though the water from both sides of the river flowed toward the center, collided in the middle, and, without splashing, suddenly sank beneath the heart of the river.
It was as though the river water on both sides formed face-to-face waterfalls there and crashed downward. Within that falling dark green water, elongated faces appeared one after another.
Those faces seemed to struggle in agony, yet no matter what they did, they could not escape the water's surface before being swept straight to the