Chapter 87: Strange Phenomenon

Chen Mo landed steadily on the opposite branch pathway.

Golden Phoenix and the other two were stunned. When Chen Mo said he could cross, they didn’t really believe him. But they followed his instructions and triggered a Basic Trap he had set up beforehand after receiving his signal. As a result, Chen Mo actually managed to jump across successfully.

“I made it!” Chen Mo was in a good mood. The Trap Chain skill was even more useful than he had imagined. Used well, this skill might produce many unexpected effects. Just now, he used Trap Chain to make the Shockwave Trap explode behind him, pushing himself forward.

Beside the narrow, grayish-brown bare branch pathway, there was a pulley wheel. Chen Mo walked over and turned the wheel. The branch pathway more than ten meters above came down.

Boom!

The pathway lowered, and the gap disappeared. Golden Phoenix and the other two excitedly ran over.

The other side of the gap had been unreachable until now; they were the first group of Players to get here!

After the three crossed, Chen Mo wanted to turn the pulley wheel again to recreate the gap and stop other Players from coming. However, he found the wheel extremely heavy. Even when he used all his strength, it didn’t move at all. He realized that once the pathway was lowered, it could not be raised back up.

“Do you have any more of that double-jump Potion? Sell me some!” Golden Phoenix knew the Red-Eyed Rabbit Potion was a good item and wanted to get some for emergencies.

“It’s very hard to obtain right now. I only have this one bottle. We can talk about it another time.” Chen Mo shook his head. Monster Blood was too hard to get. Very few Players had the primary Gathering Skill now. Even with the primary Gathering Skill, only one blood drop could be collected from hundreds of monsters, making it difficult to buy.

Despite this, Chen Mo still used the Gathering Skill on every monster he killed.

Since he had learned Blood Refining Art, he had to practice the Gathering Skill. Otherwise, if he encountered rare monsters later, he wouldn’t be able to try his luck collecting their blood.

Moreover, he had the special equipment “Seed of Hope”!

If he used the skills on the Seed of Hope less often and kept accumulating energy points, then used all the energy at once when needed to increase his Luck Value, the chance of collecting blood from rare monster corpses would greatly increase!

Chen Mo glanced at the Seed of Hope’s energy points. In the past two days, he had only killed some Flower Fairies and apes, and the energy points were just over a hundred. He had observed that there was no fixed pattern to gaining energy points. Sometimes he gained 1 point from killing one monster, but other times he killed over ten monsters without gaining even 1 point.

Chen Mo guessed it might be related to him being in a party. He needed to find time to test it by killing monsters alone.

“The monsters are different.”

The Giant Wood Maze was covered in white mist. On the other side of the gap, the mist seemed a bit thicker. The four of them advanced carefully and soon encountered monsters.

They were still apes, but the previous apes had black fur, while these apes were white.

“Their Defense is so high. Their Attributes are much stronger than the black apes, but they’re still Level 13 monsters.” Chen Mo used a Scouting Skill and found that the white apes were still Level 13, but they were much stronger than the black apes of the same level.

Whether in Attack or Defense, one white ape could match two or three black apes.

The white apes were strong, but the party formed by Chen Mo and Golden Phoenix wasn’t afraid even of Level 14 monsters, let alone Level 13 ones.

It took them some time, but they killed the white ape. The four then discovered that although the white apes were stronger, there were far fewer of them. They often had to walk about ten meters before encountering one or two white apes.

Since they were searching for Eliya, they explored every fork in the path, so their progress was slow. However, the amount of Blood of Curse kept increasing. Chen Mo estimated that they might actually be able to break the Sealing Magic Array and release the Area Elite.

About half an hour after Chen Mo and the others crossed the maze gap, another group of Players arrived at the original gap location. This group had a uniform Guild emblem on their chests; they were all from the Four Seas Guild.

The Four Seas Guild team was very surprised to see the pathway already in place over the gap. The team leader showed a hint of panic on his face.

“Captain, the situation has changed! We need to report to the boss immediately!” another person in the team said urgently.

“Don’t panic. The gap pathway wasn’t supposed to lower until before 6 p.m. The people ahead couldn’t have crossed long ago. After reporting, we’ll chase after them!” The captain forced himself to calm down.

…

“What?” In another Undeveloped Area of Shadow Main City, a middle-aged male Priest named Sihai Weijia received the news, his face darkening.

There were many male Priests in the Game, but those who knew about the Four Seas Guild knew that this little-known Guild was very powerful, and their Guild leader was unusually a Priest. Among the established Guilds in Shadow Main City, leaders had various professions, but a Priest as the Guild leader was unique to them.

“Let’s go! Back to the city now!” Sihai Weijia waved his hand and led the way toward the Giant Wood Maze.

…

“Boss! Boss Qing Shan, we just got news that the Four Seas Guild is making a move! We heard before they were planning to do something secretly in the Giant Wood Maze. Now something seems to have gone wrong, and the Four Seas Guild members are rushing over!”

In another outdoor area, a Player quickly ran up to a Warrior. This Warrior was Da Qing Shan, whom Chen Mo had met once in the Starter Village.

In just over half a month, Da Qing Shan was no longer a clueless newbie. He had come to Shadow City and even established his own Guild, though for some reason he had developed a grudge against the Four Seas Guild.

“Haha, the Four Seas Guild! Daring to cross me, Da Qing Shan? Now you’ll see what I can do!” Da Qing Shan’s eyes lit up upon hearing the news, and he rubbed his hands together eagerly.

“Let’s go, everyone, follow me to ambush the Four Seas Guild! Don’t be scared! There are rewards for killing, and rewards even if you die!”

“Yes, Boss Qing Shan!”

Da Qing Shan waved his hand grandly, and his followers replied loudly with great spirit, very enthusiastic about ambushing the Four Seas Guild.

…

“Did the monsters here mutate? Why are there such strange monsters!”

Deep in the Giant Wood Maze, Chen Mo and the other three were still advancing when they encountered a new situation.

The monsters that appeared were no longer white apes but had become ape monsters with two heads, three hands, or four legs.

The monsters were still apes, but they were misshapen and even stronger than the white apes.

“The monsters are Level 12 now, but their strength is comparable to Level 14!”

Chen Mo used the Scouting Skill on several of these strange monsters and was shocked by the data he saw!

This was very abnormal. All four of them vaguely felt that something strange was going on in the Giant Wood Maze.