Chapter 56: Narrow Road for Enemies

After much preparation, the group set off once again on their journey to the outer lands, this time after a long while.

This time, they planned to rely on eating and supplies, intending to survive until they reached the edge of the Sea of Death.

This kind of journey was nothing for Sykes, who had always been in the habit of patrolling his territory.
After all, he would circle the entire Sea of Death every once in a while, which was also how he had met Ella before.

But trying to conquer the Sea of Death in a weak state was a rare and novel experience for him.

The merman’s current body’s strength was comparable to that of the players.
The resources he consumed were also from the players’ cooking creations.
And his companions were a group of low-level, weak mages.

In Ella’s words, Sykes was now much closer to the players.

“Charge, charge, charge!” Hua Yibing took out a small flag from somewhere and waved it forward with force, like a real commander.
The tip of the flag pointed straight towards the sea ahead.

“Towards the unknown territory, charge! For the merfolk!”

Old Li also joined in on the fun.
“For the merfolk!”

Then, the two of them turned their gazes to Yan Shuangwen.

Of course, Yan Shuangwen couldn’t possibly participate in their strange oath.
Instead, he silently took a step back and hid beside Sykes.

“Childish,” Sykes heard him complain, but the last part of his tone was slightly raised, with an imperceptible sense of relaxation.

Seeing that he had failed to persuade his roommate, Huahua turned his expectant gaze to Sykes.

Sykes was silent for two seconds, then turned and stepped through the boundary gate first.
“Let’s go.”

“Scott! Yan Er’mao! You two are cheating!” Hua Yibing’s angry voice came from behind.

“You’re not loyal to the lord!”

This time, during their exploration of the sea, because the 1234 team had a clear goal—just to go far, not to collect resources—their speed was much faster than usual.

Under the guidance of the pointing instrument, they headed north all the way.
According to what Old Li had gotten out of Xavier, this direction was the closest to the edge of the outer lands.

As if they had secretly drunk a luck-turning potion, the group’s journey this time seemed a little too smooth.
Not to mention the strange fish and beasts that usually blocked their way, they should have at least encountered a few aggressive fish like the white knife fish, right?

Almost more than half of an explorer’s time was spent fighting wits and courage with these guys.
Such unexpected events were also the biggest factor limiting long-distance travel.

But there were none, none at all.

The four of them traveled unimpeded all the way.
Not to mention fish, there weren’t even large underwater rock mountains or dense coral groves that required detours.

In just a short hour, they had already reached a distance they had never reached before.

The group stopped to rest for a while, and Old Li, who was in charge of the supplies, also began to distribute various foods to maintain their health.

Old Li: “About five hundred health points worth of supplements per person. When you run out, come to me for more. Because we don’t know how long it will take to reach the edge, try to avoid meaningless health-consuming actions.”

He emphasized the last sentence, and also stopped Hua Yibing’s attempt to poke a small flower.

“I’m talking about you, Huahua,” Old Li sighed.

Hua Yibing, who was suddenly called out, subconsciously sat up straight.
“Here!”

However, after hearing Old Li’s words clearly, he argued unconvincedly, “I didn’t even go to provoke those hermit crabs or anything. I was just looking at the flower.”

Sykes looked down at the small orange-yellow flower that was almost poked by Hua Yibing’s贱hand.
He broke off a branch from the side, waved it in front of Huahua’s eyes, and casually threw it onto the small yellow flower’s petals.

The little flower that had been shaking its head just now instantly stopped moving.
Then, with two ‘swish, swish’ sounds, something like a bug or a snake seemed to be surging under the flower’s base.
Then, a few dark black vines shot up into the sky, wrapping the branch tightly and forming a round vine ball.

After a full minute, the vines slowly retreated and disappeared under the ground again.

The spot where the branch had been thrown was now completely gone, not even a speck of dust left.
Only that small orange-yellow flower still stood gracefully in its original spot, looking harmless and gentle, a stark contrast to the ferocious predator image from a moment ago.

“See? In the Sea of Death, a flower that can be so vibrant will never be an easy-to-mess-with existence,” Sykes wanted to correct Huahua’s bad habit of teasing and touching everything with his personal experience.

But he didn’t expect Huahua’s eyeballs to roll.
He smiled and took out a mixed lemon candy from his backpack, and with a ‘smack’, threw it onto the little flower.

The vines didn’t seem to expect food to be on the hook so quickly today.
They eagerly wrapped the prey into a ball again, then, as usual, secreted digestive juices to turn the prey into a puddle of water and sent it into their mouth, which was opened somewhere…

“Groove!”

The next second, under the gaze of the four people, the unknown creature let out a rather human-like dry heave.
A few dark black vines trembled crazily in the water, shaking into wavy instant noodle noodles.

After finally recovering a little, the vines drilled into the soil with a ‘swoosh’, decisively lifting the yellow flower from below.
At first glance, it looked like the flower had grown a few pairs of legs out of thin air, and it fled and disappeared from the group’s sight—

The wind is tight, let’s scram! This place is not suitable for staying long!

Sykes: “…”

Yan Shuang: “…”

Alright, this works too?

The little yellow flower walked away with his hands on his hips and laughed wildly.

But as he laughed, he slowly stopped again.

Hua Yibing turned around, looked at them and said, “Look, why is there another red one on the hillside over there?”

Sykes followed the direction Hua Yibing’s hand was pointing and saw a bright red flower flaunting itself on the hillside.
Its conspicuousness was much more times higher than the previous one.

Isn’t this…

Old Li exclaimed in shock, “Isn’t this the one I found before!”

His face changed drastically.
He quickly grabbed Sykes and Yan Shuangwen, one on each side, and urged them to leave quickly.

“Run!”

“Shouldn’t we pick it and give it to the lord?” Huahua didn’t understand why Old Li was reacting this way.
“Isn’t that flower a very powerful item?”

Old Li didn’t have time to explain.
He pushed Hua Yibing’s back urgently, urging him to run faster.
“You don’t understand! That flower is powerful, but don’t you see who it’s growing on!”

After that special mission, Old Li had specially asked Scott, who had read many Sea Realm books.
The other had given him a very shocking answer—that red red-topped flower was actually the flower on the big snake’s head!

Now seeing a red-topped flower that was exactly the same, just a little smaller than before, and then combining it with the previous encounter, what else could Old Li not understand?

This was probably an unlucky encounter with the苦主he had tricked the flower from and then left!
He had just been saying how smooth everything had been before.
It turned out there was a big pit waiting for him ahead!

Old Li didn’t even turn his head back.
He brought out the results of his daily laps during this period and shot out like a torpedo—
Why not run fast, what are you waiting for?
Waiting for the avenging red-topped snake to come and swallow all four of them?

Unfortunately, Old Li’s feelings were not received by his teammates.

Although Yan Shuangwen had cooperated with his call and swam away at the first moment, Hua Yibing and Scott were still standing in their original spots, looking at the newcomer with great interest.

Huahua was fine.
His curiosity was as strong as his ability to cause trouble.
But Scott, who had always been quiet and obedient to commands, also didn’t move.
Instead, he stood in his original spot, staring at the red flower that was getting closer and closer, his gray eyes shining brightly.

“Scott! Huahua!”

Old Li spun around a few times, seeing that he couldn’t call those two guys.
In the end, he still chose to stop his escape and swam towards where his companions were staying in self-abandonment.

What if?

He held a kind of lucky mentality.
What if it was just a friend or a relative of the snake from before?
He could probably muddle through by pretending to be a roadside decoration, right?

The red flower grew bigger and bigger, and the distance to the 1234 team’s position also grew closer and closer.

They could gradually see the appearance of the red flower’s owner—it was a giant snake with a pitch-black body, deep blue eyes, and a crystal-clear red scale on its head.
Both its appearance and its size made Old Li feel damn familiar.

“Hiss~”

The snake raised its head and flicked its tongue in the direction of the players.
Its deep blue eyes narrowed into a narrow line.

Its gaze accurately passed through the cover of Huahua and Sykes and fixed on Old Li’s body.

The debts that are due will always be paid.
Otherwise, you won’t know which intersection your creditor will be waiting to put a bag over your head 🙂

Old Li was already prepared to be swallowed by the angry snake.
He also felt a pang of pain for the health-restoring food he had just eaten—if only he had eaten it a little later.
Since he was going to die and go back anyway, why waste so many resources to fill up his health bar?

“You guys take these things and continue on later. I probably won’t be able to leave today. This snake is after me.”

Old Li sighed, put the resources from his backpack, plus Hua Yibing’s stiffened claw, and handed them all to Scott.

Hua Yibing’s expression had turned completely blank at this time.
He let his claw be lifted, and he was unprecedentedly obedient from head to toe.

A faint white soul could be seen floating out of his mouth—ahhhhhh, it’s a snake!!!
Help, Mom, it’s such a big snake!!

“This snake is after you? What do you mean?”
But Sykes didn’t leave immediately as Old Li had imagined.
Instead, he stood in his original spot and asked Old Li unhurriedly.

Old Li hadn’t expected the usually obedient little kid to be so stubborn now.
Seeing that the snake’s tail was blocking the road, his plan to sacrifice himself to save his teammates was hopeless.
He could only roughly explain his encounter with the red-topped snake.

“So, it should be here to take revenge on me,” Old Li sighed heavily.

But Sykes shook his head.
“I guess, probably not.”

The gray merman’s lips curved into a mysterious smile, signaling Old Li to look down.

There, a long, thin tail tip was holding a bright red flower and carefully placing it in front of him.

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