Chapter 172: Staying Behind

Chapter 172: Staying Behind

“This… is really something.” Zheng Yichen rubbed his chin and muttered. Looking at this vast Stone Forest… if the entire Stone Forest were shattered, how much area could the boiling mist it created cover? If he found a way to dig up a few stones here, seal them up, and toss them into some crowded place, it would be a power ful poison gas bomb for sure.

Zheng Yichen ignored the harmful effects of the mist, but that didn’t mean others could!

He tried sending out a Projection, controlling it to fly into the Stone Forest. Zheng Yichen observed the situation inside. There didn’t seem to be anything special. As long as you didn’t touch those stones, it seemed even safer than the Forest of Illusions. At least in the Forest of Illusions, the longer you stayed, no matter what you encountered, the more likely something bad would happen.

After confirming there was nothing going on here, Zheng Yichen made a gas mask on the spot. It wasn’t really useful, but it had symbolic meaning and was shaped to fit a dragon’s face. He then walked in. The moment he fully entered, there was no strange occurrence like a sudden chilly wind rising. Just like what he saw from the outside, even after Zheng Yichen had gone in over fifty meters, he suddenly rushed back out to double-check.

“Alright, seems I was overthinking it a bit.” He turned back and went in again. Zheng Yichen gave a powerful jump and flew up, looking down at the Stone Forest below from a high position. There were no restrictions on flying either. In this Stone Forest, as long as you didn’t force yourself to die trying, it was pretty much harmless… right? No way!

This kind of sinister place, even if it looked completely normal on the surface, who dared say it was a harmless place? You could only use that to fool yourself.

He found a relatively open area. Zheng Yichen moved a few obstructive stone pillars to another spot. He took out the map and looked at it. It had completely stopped reacting. The enhanced Prophecy Magic had completely failed.

“Hmm? It’s clearing up?”

After spending some time in the Stone Forest, Zheng Yichen, who had set up a hammock and was lying on it, felt light shining on his eyelids. He opened his eyes, slightly surprised. The mist that had covered the Stone Forest had actually dissipated at some point, making the sky in this area as clear and sunny as everywhere else.

“Great… who knows if it’s intelligent or just meant to fool people?” He shrugged. Zheng Yichen rummaged in his pocket for a while and pulled out a sphere about half a meter in diameter. He pressed a switch on the sphere, and its surface immediately sprouted many round holes. Every hole showed an image that looked like an eye. He easily tossed the sphere up into the sky, then put on a pair of sunglasses—still a dragon-face special edition. Many split-screen images appeared in the sunglasses.

“A techno-magically modified version of the Wizard’s Eye. I’ve been wanting to try this for a long time.”

Through the sunglasses, Zheng Yichen watched the sphere, which had become a small dot in the sky due to the distance, and the corner of his mouth lifted slightly. That thing wasn’t just acting as a surveillance tool like the so-called Wizard’s Eye; it was also… a bomb! If something unexpected happened and this place was surrounded, detonating that thing would be enough to shake all the nearby stones into powder. These stones’ strength was very ordinary.

Now that he had been flying for several days, it was time to get some proper rest. As for trouble coming to his door… since this place had an effect that interfered with Prophecy Magic, even if it couldn’t affect the one on him too much, just a little interference would be enough. Moreover, with the Stone Forest’s characteristics, if he encountered any trouble, was there anywhere else that would give him more of an advantage than here?

If there were few people, he would defeat them or take control. If there were many… if there were many, then he would just dismantle this Stone Forest!

Zheng Yichen didn’t believe others could ignore the boiling, strange mist that completely covered this place. Since this was such a perfect spot to stay behind and buy time, why not stay? Over these past few days, Zheng Yichen hadn’t just been traveling the whole time; he had also been gathering all the resources he could find along the way.

“Little Dragon… so good at stirring things up? In just four days, he found such a place…” Dan Marina looked at the basin of water in front of her. Just a few minutes ago, it had clear images, but now it had turned into ordinary clear water. The special liquid power in the water had been completely used up. Logically, this basin of water should have lasted half a month. The effect? The effect was similar to that of a crystal ball that could see a certain person.

It was just a different form. Dan Marina said she had long grown tired of the crystal ball routine over a hundred years ago.

“Explain clearly.” Loris put down the Magic Weapon Summoning Book, her gaze sharp as she stared at Dan Marina.

“Worried?” Dan Marina rested her chin on her hand and chuckled lightly. “The place he went is very dangerous, but for him, it’s actually a pretty good spot. As long as he isn’t too unlucky~”

“Stop being cryptic.”

“The Soul-shattering Stone Forest.”

“…” Loris stared at Dan Marina with unfriendly eyes!

“It’s really fine!” Dan Marina spread her hands, saying very helplessly. Loris’s reaction fully displayed a certain characteristic of Witches, like a curse. Fortunately, she encountered not an ordinary being, but a Cursed Dragon that could ignore the Witch’s curse-like traits. Tsk tsk, speaking of which, the one who named the Cursed Dragon that probably never expected a true dragon worthy of the name to actually appear.

Anyway, if it weren’t for this dragon, the Witch before her, even if she could survive the Witch Hunt, would most likely run into trouble during her weak period, instead of living as leisurely as she did here now… As for Zheng Yichen, Dan Marina had nothing much to say.

One could only say… he was special. His worldview was very different from the people of this world, and his way of being a person also felt quite good… Well, the reason she said this was only because Zheng Yichen’s behavior was sufficiently ordinary. It was precisely because he was ordinary that he felt good. If he were a bit more cunning, it would either bring positive effects or great negative effects. Being ordinary allowed for compatibility.

Just the fact that he was willing to nod and adventure out alone showed that Zheng Yichen was quite good. Other descriptions? No other descriptions were needed.

“From what I know, the master of that Stone Forest left long ago.”

“I know that too. That was thirty-seven years ago!” There was no sign of Loris’s gaze softening.

“Ahem, for us Witches, thirty or forty years is just a blink of an eye, right? Maybe she has already forgotten about the place.” Dan Marina said somewhat sheepishly. Thirty-some years… uh, it was indeed a bit long. At least for most Witches, time was still counted by the day. They didn’t have the Dragon Clan’s peculiar sense of time.

“Your Prophecy Art.”

“…Alright, alright, I’ll hurry and collect neutralizing materials.” Under Loris’s cold stare, Dan Marina raised her hands in surrender. Under the effect of that nasty Prophecy Art on Zheng Yichen, he was a trouble magnet. So, the master of the Soul-shattering Stone Forest really might get a sudden whim, have nothing better to do, and decide to visit home.

“Those two Alchemical Puppets are nice. You don’t mind if I take one, right?”

“Hurry up!”

In the Soul-shattering Stone Forest, Zheng Yichen focused his gaze on the stone pillars he had moved away, silently speechless. Were these things trying to play a game of statues with him? When he wasn’t paying attention, they silently shifted back toward their original positions. After he stared at them for a long time, they didn’t show any intention of moving at all… Zheng Yichen simply took out a rope, tied them to other stone pillars, patted his claws, and lay back down in the hammock.