Chapter 883: 76. Plant Habitat
The model mother chasing behind was not at her best.
She appeared injured, never managing to close the distance with Lu Li.
This was why it only appeared behind the convoy on the third day after they left Midnight City.
If he had a mount faster than the Mycelium Horses, Lu Li might be able to easily shake her off.
The boss-lady still couldn’t remove the mark—the process would be detected by the model mother, and if she went berserk, Lu Li would have nowhere to hide in the wilderness.
They had to wait until they were near the area marked as “Plant Habitat.”
If there happened to be a forest to block the view there.
“Avoid that mound!”
The boss-lady in the hood suddenly screamed.
Far in front of them, a hilly terrain suddenly emerged on the desolate land.
Lu Li didn’t ask what was there, circumnavigating the hill from afar.
Once they were far enough away, Lu Li glanced back.
The dust storm representing the model mother didn’t avoid the hill and plunged straight into it.
The swirling dust blocked the view; it seemed like nothing happened…
Sssss—
Lu Li slowed down, dropping his gaze onto the scattered stones all over the wilderness.
The stones trembled, spewing dust that engulfed his ankles, a faint tremor emanating from the direction of the hill.
“They can’t kill the leader! You idiot, run!” the boss-lady shouted, yanking Lu Li’s neck.
Lu Li withdrew his gaze and kept running.
“What is that?”
“A giant ant’s nest!” The boss-lady inside the hood bounced up and down like riding a horse: “You’re running out of steam!”
“Alright.”
Lu Li slowed his increasingly labored breathing.
The speed and endurance strengthened by the Doomsday Apocalypse were doubled as well; maintaining high speed couldn’t last long, but running thirty miles wasn’t unbearable.
Just as the boss-lady said, the hill couldn’t kill the model mother. The dust storm reappeared soon, though the distance widened a bit.
The wilderness was fraught with dangers, but fortunately, their path was maintained and cleared, and the presence of the model mother’s leader drove away the nearby scum.
After a thirty-mile trek, the model mother chasing Lu Li closed in to the point where her outline was vaguely visible, and in the distance, a shape appeared on the horizon.
The good news was that the Plant Habitat contained a forest.
The bad news was the forest was dark green, and they… were alive.
The dark green forest emerged abruptly on the gloomy, desolate brown land, existing like a clump of life in the lifeless wilderness.
Rushing recklessly into a mysterious and eerie unknown forest didn’t seem wise.
“Can we go in?”
Lu Li panted, his black eyes fixed on the depths of the dark green forest.
“I don’t know!”
Lu Li wasn’t completely unfamiliar with the Plant Habitat: the source of Nuno Alexandrovich’s curse.
Besides entering the forest, Lu Li had another option, to head to another Luo Lei Castle ruins thirty miles away.
Although it was destroyed with the advent of the Weird Times, the ruins remained, though possibly occupied by the strange.
And Lu Li’s continued journey there would exhaust him.
“Get ready to help me erase the mark.”
Lu Li whispered, stepping towards the Plant Habitat.
The dim shadow of the dark green forest was silent. The surrounding trees breathed, confirming they were still alive.
The dense canopy obscured the sky, the soft rotten soil mixed with fallen leaves underfoot, as Lu Li moved silently through the forest.
The boss-lady inside the hood removed the twisted mask and fastened it to the back of Lu Li’s head.
Suddenly, Lu Li’s right palm felt hot. As he opened his palm, a curled-up, spider-like mark slowly surfaced from beneath the skin.
At that moment, a piercing scream penetrated his soul from the outside.
Running, Lu Li stumbled, nearly falling.
The model mother roared in anger, sensing the mark was being destroyed.
The curled spider mark slowly woke, stretching its eight legs, revealing a face identical to the model’s on its body.
It seemed to sense Lu Li’s gaze on the skin and the approaching danger, emitting a shrill, weak scream, as it skittered on its slender legs, crawling up his arm.
Bang.
Before it crawled onto his shoulder, Lu Li’s left hand pressed the spider mark, imprisoning it in his palm.
“It’s not a mark, it’s a parasite!” the boss-lady screamed from behind.
The model mother’s relentless pursuit of Lu Li became clear: she was using his body to nurture offspring.
“How long will it take to remove?” Lu Li whispered.
In the tranquil forest, all sounds seemed to slow down unconsciously.
Perhaps there was something strange residing in this forest, or the forest itself was the strange.
“…It’s done!” The boss-lady’s surprised shout came after a brief pause.
Meanwhile, a human touch surged into Lu Li’s body, suddenly dragging him into the Death Retrace.
…
The echoing clock chimes on the street gradually faded.
In the dim small room lit only by an oil lamp, a woman quietly put down her half-woven basket, gently approached the bedside, and tenderly gazed at the sleeping little girl.
Seemingly stirred by her mother’s prolonged gaze, the little girl’s long eyelashes fluttered, then she sleepily opened her eyes.
Those leaden eyes left a deep impression on Lu Li.
A model.
Had she once been human too?
The little girl’s awakening plunged the woman into panic; she reached out, trying to cover her daughter’s mouth.
Her light-colored eyes, not yet clouded by death, looked kindly at her mother, the ignorant little girl smiled: “Mommy—”
The woman’s outstretched hand pressed onto the warm, empty bed.
Lu Li saw sparkling teardrops spill from the woman’s eyes, the most sorrowful moment being when they turned into tears.
…
Returning to reality, Lu Li staggered to his feet.
He heard an angry roar filled with sorrow and the sound of trees collapsing, as the model mother barged into the Plant Habitat.
Was the model’s true mother the leader strange?
Why did the model, seemingly affected by The Time of Silence, turn into a strange?
“The mark is gone!”
The boss-lady’s shout awakened Lu Li from his thoughts.
No longer delving deeper into the Plant Habitat, Lu Li turned, running along the edge of the forest.
A black whip-like shadow suddenly lashed in front of him, and Lu Li tilted his head to dodge the unexplained attack, hearing the boss-lady in the hood scream: “The bad trees are attacking us!”
Lu Li looked around.
The forest suddenly came alive.
Startled by the intruders, they shook their trunks, waved their branches, and entangled them with tendril-like arms.
The boss-lady was snatched up by a tree branch, flailing her limbs wildly as she was carried out of the hood.
Lu Li leaped up, grabbing the boss-lady’s leg, but couldn’t pull her down.
Rip—
The tearing sound as the seam on the leg split, nearly ripping the boss-lady’s doll body.
“It hurts!”
The boss-lady cried out in pain.
Lu Li let go, and as he fell, countless branches wrapped around and tightened him.
“Mother, save—”
Snap!
A crisp cracking sound suddenly rang in the woods, the branches all withdrew, and Lu Li and the screaming boss-lady fell into the soft soil.
A silhouette with his feet sunk into the rotting soil stood under a stout tree not far away, holding a slender branch like a whip.
His body was wrapped in layers of tattered burlap bandages, only the antler-like branches growing on top of his head exposed.
The wind rustled, and a hoarse whisper, like the swaying of trees, sounded.