Chapter 1352 Traps and Countermeasures

"You guys should have noticed by now, right?" After walking for a while in the dense forest, Mad Eye, who was leading the way, suddenly muttered, not knowing who he was talking to.

"You just walk, we're aware," Nesslu replied smoothly two seconds later, then subtly turned his head back and winked at Garlic Head and the others.

Garlic Head understood, immediately slowed his pace, waited for the pirates beside him to pass, and slowly walked to Blackbeard's side.

"Captain," Garlic Head had just called out "Captain" when Blackbeard said directly, "It doesn't matter. If you encounter any situation, you can act according to the circumstances and report later."

"Yes," Garlic Head replied respectfully and hurried back up.

To outsiders, the conversation of these guys might seem a bit disjointed and inexplicable, but everyone involved was very clear that they were discussing the same thing – there were definitely other people in this forest.

Broken branches, rocks overturned on both sides of the road, traces of heavy objects being dragged, and so on. Judging from the various traces left in the forest, a large group of people should have recently collected various materials in this forest and moved them to a certain place.

Although it's not known whether they want to hoard supplies or manufacture some kind of facility, in either case... the possibility that this group of people is still within the range of Chew Demon Island is very high.

In other words... the pirates, as "latecomers," may encounter these unknown people at any time, or even come into conflict.

…………

Buzzing—

The terrible situation happened five minutes later.

Accompanied by a strange muffled sound, Mad Eye stopped.

"It's a magic array." Mad Eye was calm. Even though he was handcuffed and his combat power was restricted, he still had the demeanor of a captain.

"Don't move." Nesslu quickly saw that Mad Eye's right foot had stepped into the edge of a huge magic array. Therefore, he quickly spread his arms to stop his companions behind him; the entire pirate expedition team also stagnated.

"Hmph..." Mad Eye sneered and raised the shackles on his hands. "Do you think I would dare to move around in my current state?"

Nesslu ignored him, just glanced at the woods on the left and right, and then stepped forward to check the magic array.

At this time, the triggered magic array was emitting a faint light and constantly making a soft "buzzing" sound; if you looked closely, you could see some rune light flowing linearly and faintly in the air directly above the magic array, and clearer light patterns were floating on the ground.

Nesslu looked out along the edge of the magic array and found that the curvature of the edge was very small, extending far away... From this, it could be seen that the magic array covered a very large area in front.

"Can you understand it?" Seeing Nesslu's focused expression, Mad Eye was slightly expectant.

"No, I don't understand at all." Nesslu didn't beat around the bush and gave a very honest answer.

"Then what are you pretending to look at?" Mad Eye didn't stand on ceremony with him. Even though he had become a prisoner, he would say what he wanted and scold if he wanted.

"Heh... it's normal to take a look." Feng Bujue's voice rang out before Nesslu could reply, "It's like those people whose engines blow up. They obviously don't understand any mechanical principles, but they will prop up the hood and stand there looking at it for a long time... as if they can fix the car just by looking at it."

While speaking, Brother Jue had already walked up from behind.

Mad Eye turned to look at him and snorted, "Hmph... looking at your leisurely attitude of rambling on, I presume you can understand it, right?"

"Of course." Feng Bujue replied.

In fact, Feng Bujue could really "understand" this magic array this time; even if he didn't use the data perspective to perform "hard analysis," he could understand the principles behind it.

Because...

"This is one of the sensing arrays of the Illusory Demon Church." As Brother Jue spoke, he had already walked to Mad Eye's side, and without any warning, suddenly patted Mad Eye's back.

Mad Eye was caught off guard by this sudden action and staggered forward a few steps, entering the magic array.

"What are you doing?" Mad Eye, who had regained his footing, suddenly turned his head and shouted at Brother Jue.

"I'm just using action to tell everyone that this magic array is not aggressive." Feng Bujue replied calmly.

As soon as he finished speaking, Mad Eye belatedly looked down at himself, and indeed he had not suffered any harm.

"Then you should come in yourself! Why push me?" Mad Eye was still a little depressed, so he said more.

"What are you saying... What if I misjudged? It's better for you to die than for me to die." Feng Bujue used action to prove that... arguing with him would only become more and more depressing.

When Mad Eye heard this, his beard bristled with anger, and his rage value was visibly rising.

Feng Bujue didn't want to continue teasing this straightforward captive on this topic, so he quickly changed the subject: "To put it bluntly, this is like a thin string with bells on it, mainly used to notify the array maker... that someone has entered the range of the magic array."

"How do you know so much?" Mad Eye asked again.

Brother Jue shrugged: "I once asked Talium, who is in charge of this area, to show me and explain the graphics and functions of all the conventional magic arrays of the Illusory Demon Church. There aren't that many, actually... a hundred or so, and most of them have certain rules. I can even draw some of them."

"Listening to what you're saying... you have dealings with the Illusory Demon Church?" Mad Eye asked tentatively.

"I do have some." As Feng Bujue spoke, he also walked into the magic array and winked at Nesslu, meaning they could continue to move forward. "However, that kind of relationship... may not be reliable at a critical moment."

Nesslu received his instructions and signaled the people behind to follow, so the team started moving again.

"Hmph... mutual exploitation, is it?" Mad Eye also stepped forward again, walking and asking.

"More or less." Feng Bujue said, "My philosophy is that as long as there are no absolute conflicts in principle, people can cooperate when their interests align."

"Heh... it sounds like Blackbeard and you are currently in this kind of relationship." Mad Eye was also an experienced person and immediately stated the truth.

"I don't need you to worry about that." Feng Bujue didn't react too much to this statement and calmly replied, "Right now, you should first try to survive in this situation."

While the two were talking, the thirty-member pirate expedition team had already entered the range of the magic array.

From this place on, Feng Bujue left his original position and came to the front of the team, advancing almost side by side with Mad Eye.

Because of his relationship with the Illusory Demon Church, it would definitely save a lot of trouble for him to "show his face" in front.

That's what he said, but...

…………

In an increasingly tense atmosphere, the team advanced for another ten minutes or so; just as the surrounding forest was becoming denser and denser, an anomaly... occurred.

Whoosh—

"Be careful!" By the time Nesslu shouted this, a magic arrow had already arrived, cutting through the wind.

This arrow was shot from the woods in front of the crowd, and it went straight for Feng Bujue's face without deviation.

Brother Jue didn't panic. With his reaction speed and the help of zero-time difference calculation, there were countless ways to dodge an attack of this speed; however, in order to prevent the restricted Mad Eye from being affected, Brother Jue still cautiously used [Lingxi Finger], directly clamping the magic arrow.

"I say..." As the magic arrow dissipated, Feng Bujue turned his head and said loudly into the woods, "Take a good look before you attack. You should recognize me, right?"

After he finished speaking, he waited for a few seconds, but the only thing that responded to him was silence.

"What's wrong?" Seeing that the attacker didn't react, Brother Jue continued, "Do you think I'm impersonating and aren't sure?"

But after the second question, there was still no movement in the woods.

In that instant, Feng Bujue vaguely sensed something...

"Retreat!" A second later, Brother Jue's expression changed, and he turned his head and shouted at the pirates behind him.

Unfortunately, his shout was a bit late.

Almost at the same time as the word "retreat" came out of his mouth, a burst of strong light erupted from the rear of the team, shooting straight into the sky.

Violent light energy erupted from the ground like a volcanic eruption, forming a cylindrical beam of light that soared into the sky and quickly expanded, carrying out a terrifying indiscriminate strike on everything in this area.

After the light burst, looking down at North Island from high altitude, one could see... a perfectly round gap had been blasted out of this island, and the boiling seawater in the gap was still emitting billowing smoke.