“We got lost not long after we went in.”

“Perhaps getting lost seems normal to you, but as long as you follow my brother, you’ll never get lost. At the very least, you can return the way you came.”

She seemed to think of something, and her expression began to turn ugly. “My brother’s thinking is different from ordinary people. He is used to labeling each person, or thing, with numbers. When he is in the forest, he constantly numbers the directions, positions, and special things around him,” she paused, glanced at Jiang Cheng, and said, “Not the kind of arrangement you imagine that starts from 1. As for what it is...”

“Interrupting,” Jiang Cheng said, “I have no interest in your brother’s talent. I just want to know about the forest.”

Su Xiaoxiao nodded. “I don’t know how to describe this forest to you. In short, this forest is something that neither you nor I can understand. My brother seems to understand it, but unfortunately, his expression is limited.”

“I only know that he kept emphasizing one sentence,” Su Xiaoxiao suddenly sat up straight, and then her whole aura changed, becoming solemn, “He said this forest… is alive.”

“The forest… is alive?” The approaching Fatty blinked.

He inexplicably recalled the black mist he had seen in the gaps of the forest before. That thing was like a swamp, making people unable to look away after one glance, and eventually sinking deeper and deeper.

“That’s right,” Su Xiaoxiao seemed to be worried that Jiang Cheng wouldn’t understand, so she looked towards the forest, but quickly shifted her gaze back. “At least in my brother’s understanding, when encountering the same tree at different times, he would give this tree another number.”

Jiang Cheng leaned against the rock, but his eyes were watching the forest. “Are you saying… in your brother’s perception, this tree is no longer the tree he encountered before.”

“That’s right.”

“Then what about in your perception?” Fatty asked, “Is there any change in this tree?”

“No.”

“How did you get the injuries on your bodies?” Jiang Cheng suddenly asked.

Upon hearing this question, Su Xiaoxiao’s body shuddered violently, but she controlled it well and quickly returned to normal.

“We got lost in the forest, and finally found a…” She paused here. Jiang Cheng didn’t urge her. He knew that the former didn’t want to say it, but was looking for a suitable adjective.

“Altar?” Su Xiaoxiao looked up and said.

Fatty was stunned for a moment, then reacted and thought, we are asking you, not you asking us. How would we know what kind of ghost thing you found in the forest?

“Let’s talk about the phenomenon,” Jiang Cheng comforted.

“It’s a circular, giant stone plate about 10 meters in diameter,” Su Xiaoxiao recalled, “pure white, and there are dense graves nearby.”

Jiang Cheng thought for a moment and said, “As far as I know, no tribe has the custom of building graves for sacrifices. They only take the heads of the opposing tribe’s chiefs or nobles.”

“Let me finish,” Su Xiaoxiao didn’t mean to be dissatisfied. She was just too nervous, so nervous that she didn’t want to mention this experience again. “There are graves near the giant stone plate, but the giant stone plate is piled with all kinds of skeletons.”

She carefully swallowed a mouthful of saliva, “There are human ones, and… and also all kinds of creatures.”

Jiang Cheng looked at her, able to clearly feel the fear in this woman’s heart, and he also understood that the woman was not just frightened by the graves and skeletons, she must have discovered other things.

Especially her wording.

All kinds of creatures…

Why not all kinds of animals?

Clearly this wording is what a normal person should use.

“What did you see in that pile of skeletons?” Jiang Cheng lowered his voice.

Su Xiaoxiao seemed not to expect Jiang Cheng to directly ask such a question. She suddenly raised her head, her trembling eyes staring at the latter’s eyes, as if trying to capture some clues from them.

But obviously, she failed.

In Jiang Cheng’s eyes… only her own shadow was reflected.

“I don’t know what those things are, anyway, they are not creatures that should exist in this world,” Su Xiaoxiao said in a trembling voice, “They are strange and varied. Some look like frogs and lizards, but they are much larger than normal size, 2 meters… no, they should be 3 meters tall, or even bigger. They… some of them even have wings on their backs!”

Recalling the scenes she had seen, Su Xiaoxiao’s face turned pale, and the only remaining blood disappeared completely, “They are like they came back from the time of hundreds of millions of years ago…”

Jiang Cheng was silent for a while, then suddenly opened his mouth and said, “Believe me, there were no such things hundreds of millions of years ago.”

Su Xiaoxiao was probably too excited, which led to the injury in her lungs being affected, and she began to cough violently, but just as she wanted to continue speaking, to describe the most bizarre and terrifying places, she found that Jiang Cheng straightened up slightly.

This was a feeling that was difficult to describe in words. In a short moment, she seemed to see the shadow of something from the latter’s body. What was it?

Or rather… who was it?

The bizarre sense of familiarity was fleeting, but Su Xiaoxiao never doubted her feelings, just like she never doubted her brother’s judgment.

“If I’m not mistaken, those things you said, the things on the altar,” Jiang Cheng breathed out, and when he turned his face back, everything was as usual, “have come alive, right?” he asked softly.

Fatty was suddenly stunned.

Although Su Xiaoxiao was surprised, she was not flustered, because she knew that Jiang Cheng had probably seen the scars on her brother Su An’s body, especially… the gunshot wound on his back.

“In addition to the creatures you mentioned, the people on the altar have also come alive,” Jiang Cheng said, “Some of these people have guns. They were the ones who injured your brother.”

“Yes.”

Fatty, whose brain had been down for a long time, finally started to reconnect. “You’re saying… you’re saying that some guys who had turned into skeletons have come back to life?”

“And shot your brother with a gun?!”

“Yes,” Su Xiaoxiao seemed to be answering Fatty’s question, but her attention never left Jiang Cheng. The latter had something very special that was attracting her.

A sense of déjà vu.

“I think you should have guessed it too,” Su Xiaoxiao said, “Those people are the teammates who came ashore with the old woman.”

“But for some reason, they died in the forest, and their skeletons were piled on the altar. At a certain moment, the things on the altar will be resurrected, and then…”

Su Xiaoxiao didn’t say the rest, after all, for the man in front of her, it was no longer necessary.

This was very similar to some kind of automatic defense mechanism on this forest, or even this island. Once outsiders stepped in, it would activate the altar in the forest, and then, it would be the killing time of the resurrected “weapons”.

And the killed “visitors” would be re-integrated into this defense facility, thus becoming new “guardians.”

This theory was not difficult for Fatty to understand, but what was difficult was to believe it.

Could there really be such a facility?

Didn’t the doctor say that this place is a shadow of the real world?

Since it’s a shadow, then… that is to say, there is also such a place in the real world, and there will also be such an altar in that place.

On the altar… piled with countless bones.

This is impossible…