Chapter 419 Roots Under the Lake

Lili’s exclamation up ahead caused everyone to rush forward. Hao Ren instantly thought of the underground tendrils that the husky and the bat had encountered when scouting for information last night. His heart skipped a beat: indeed, his guess was right, the caverns under the blood lake were connected to the root system of the Twisted Forest!

With this thought, he raised his shield to the maximum and ran to the front, ready to deal with a fierce battle at any time and cover the retreat of the others: according to Vivian and Lili, those tendrils would actively attack external enemies!

But when he ran to Lili's side, he found that there were no enemies attacking.

"This is..." The bearded man followed closely behind Hao Ren. Even with his ascetic monk's composure, he was shaken from the bottom of his heart when he saw the spectacular scene before him, "Could this be the underground part of the Twisted Forest in legends? This cave is actually connected to them?"

At the end of the cave was a huge cavern, slightly smaller than the one with the pool, but still amazingly vast. And the most shocking thing in the cave was the countless huge roots probing down from the rock layers above!

The smallest of those huge roots was at least a meter in diameter, winding for an unknown distance. They protruded from the rock layers above the cave and grew wildly in the air, crisscrossing and forming a structure like a thorny net. This "net" almost covered three-quarters of the cave ceiling, so that the original rock layers could only be vaguely seen through the gaps between these roots. A large number of roots grew completely irregularly, with a small part hanging down to the ground, even piercing deeply into the earth of the cave, while a large number of roots were attached to the walls of the cave, gradually spreading and merging into those seemingly hard rocks.

The entire upper part of the cave was filled with these huge tree roots. Hao Ren looked up and felt an unspeakable majesty and magnificence from those huge black root systems—and of course, the psychological pressure that came over him was almost terrifying.

"...This is the true form of the Twisted Forest..." Hao Ren murmured to himself. Although he had made various guesses before, he never expected that witnessing the underground part of this ancient plant would be so breathtaking, "This should only be a small part... Perhaps this entire underground cave system is used to accommodate these roots!"

The bearded man's face twitched a few times, and finally he could only put his hands on his chest and murmur in a low voice: "May the Goddess have mercy..."

The young monk next to him was more open-minded: "It doesn't matter, this is all created by the Goddess. According to the sacred scriptures, all creations of the Goddess are our brothers and sisters, and the Twisted Forest is the most ancient sacred creature. We have devout faith, and we will be safe and sound here."

Becky's tears were about to come down: "Goddess... you made big brother a little too ugly..."

So the four ascetic monks glared at the mercenary girl who couldn't keep her mouth shut.

"They don't seem to move," Lili said at this time, finally calming down. Her experience of being chased by tendrils last night had made her lose her composure just now. Now that she had calmed down, she immediately stood up straight and pretended to be an expert, "Well, it seems that there are many kinds of tendrils. Maybe the tendrils buried deep don't move."

Vivian glanced at her: "Don't pretend to be a big shot, your fur is still standing on end. Smooth it down first."

Lili flicked her tail. This time, she didn't mention her "big tail is good" theory, but trotted to the cave to observe those roots up close.

"Why don't the roots here move?" Hao Ren was seriously thinking about this question. He looked at Vivian, "Are you sure this is the kind of thing you encountered last night? Could it be that what you encountered last night wasn't roots at all?"

"It is indeed these things," Vivian was very sure. She took out the sample fragment she had taken before from her arms again, "You can compare it."

After the comparison, the results were conclusive. The huge roots in front of them were the tentacles that the bat and the husky had fought for three hundred rounds last night, but those in the cave clearly had different functions. They didn't move.

"The life form of the Twisted Forest has transcended the general meaning of plants," The group walked carefully through the cave occupied by roots. Vivian analyzed thoughtfully as she walked, "Probably its roots are also divided into many types, some are used for exploration, some are used for absorbing nutrients, and some can even be used for combat. What the big dog and I encountered last night should be the kind responsible for exploration."

"You encountered these roots?" The bearded man noticed Vivian's meaning at this time.

Hao Ren then roughly explained the various intelligence he had explored last night. Currently, they had only told Ofra about these things, but the bearded man and the other three were more "one of them" than Ofra, so it was more reasonable to tell them.

"Heretics!?" The four ascetic monks reacted more strongly when they heard the word heretic. The older nun even gritted her teeth, "And they also slander the Goddess's doctrine, and even created a false god themselves!?"

"And even a fool can see that it's an evil god," Hao Ren spread his hands, "Even if we put aside faith, we can't let those dangerous guys jump around. The giant brain they summoned is extremely dangerous, and the entire religious ritual is insane. I will take care of it."

Elson glanced at Hao Ren, feeling that his words were a bit presumptuous. An ordinary mercenary captain could actually say so carelessly in front of four ascetic masters that he wanted to take care of the heretics, but the bearded man and the others didn't think so. They knew Hao Ren's identity, so they just nodded calmly when they heard the words: "That's the best, I'm glad to see that you have this heart, but it's better to let 'us' solve this matter. This is a problem for 'this side'."

He deliberately strengthened the tone of the words "us" and "this side". Obviously, even though he had been forced to remove his dream plane household registration like Becky, he still regarded this place as his first hometown in his bones.

"Of course, we have already reported this matter to Marshal Ofra. Soon the archbishop will also know. Next should be a large-scale search for heretics. Those cultists' rituals are very cruel, requiring a lot of flesh and blood, and they will also summon monsters. As long as the search is careful, it is not difficult to find them."

The bearded man nodded, suddenly with a worried look: "I just didn't expect that there would be corruptors in the Kingdom Knights and the Church... The depravity is shocking. I really don't know how long they have been developing secretly. Archbishop Gerton is afraid that he will have to bear a great responsibility for this."

The bearded man was full of emotion, but Hao Ren was not familiar with Gerton, so he didn't respond, but continued to walk towards the opposite side of the cave.

At the same time, he asked the data terminal in his mind: "Where are we roughly now?"

The data terminal immediately sent an image to Hao Ren's mind: "Just left the Blood Lake area, haven't entered the Twisted Forest area yet. In addition, the roots we encountered are only a small part of the roots extending from the Twisted Forest. This unit just increased the power to scan and found that more roots do extend directly to the depths of the lake."

Sure enough, the truly huge part of the Twisted Forest was underground, and its main body had penetrated deeply into the Blood Lake. Then Hao Ren was completely sure that there must also be such "root caves" under the Dragon Spine Mountains!

If there is a chance in the future, perhaps he can explore the Dragon Spine Mountains through this channel...

Hao Ren thought so, and casually asked the data terminal to record the spatial coordinates of this cave.

The old werewolf Elson had been highly vigilant since entering this giant cave. Whether as a former mercenary or as a current soldier, he had the most malicious speculation about any strange place: "Be vigilant. It is said that a group of dwarf miners dug too deep in the mountains and accidentally dug out a root of the Twisted Forest, and as a result, they all went crazy—according to this vampire lady's speculation, these roots have many functions, so be careful to encounter roots that can release nerve toxins or produce mental attacks."

Female members of the team should be careful of tentacle monsters—Hao Ren silently added this sentence in his heart, but he doubted whether the sturdy girls in his team would really be afraid of tentacle monsters if they encountered them... Even the little mermaid who was sleeping soundly in the portable space might not be afraid of these roots, at least not psychologically: Dou Dou would 100% regard this place as a fairy-tale fortress filled with the aroma of food, like a candy house...

Hao Ren walked forward while thinking wildly like this. Just as he was about to leave the cave occupied by huge roots, a strange feeling suddenly struck, causing him to shiver subconsciously.

The feeling was like an invisible peeping coming from all directions, as if countless eyes were staring at him, fleeting, but unusually clear.

Hao Ren looked around in horror. He vaguely remembered that he had had this feeling when he first walked in the Twisted Forest.

Could it be these roots?! Are they thinking?!