The Record of Unusual Creatures

According to Gelton and Ophra, this bizarre mountain path could sense approaching outsiders as if it was conscious of its surroundings. Even if only one knight stepped on the mountain road, it could cause the road to collapse. Plus, the spot where it collapsed was very accurate: only the stones below the outsider's foot would collapse. According to the soldiers fleeing back, a landslide like this was as strange and unnatural as the appearance of the Sky Road. It was as though the mountain rock was consciously shaking insects and ants off its body, so the soldiers were terrified. The whole Sky Road kept changing shape, therefore the locals were unable to figure out the collapse as well as the bizarre miasma that filled the air in the area. These were the reasons why the knights had not been able to capture the place. Although there was no "enemy" stationed there, it was more impregnable than any pass.     

Faced with the power left by the Ancient Magic Empire, the modern natives of The Plane of Dreams were powerless against the great forces of nature.     

Of course, the knights could have tried to blow up the "bridge", but it was apparently a stupid idea: Dragonspine Ridge could rebuild the Sky Road countless times, and it would not stop until the whole mountain was flattened.     

However, another questionable issue was on Hao Ren's mind after he heard these things: why was there only one "bridge" in the south of Dragonspine Ridge? If the whole mountain was really active, the power it displayed on the south side alone could engulf the entire of Beinz, and the knights would not have been able to do anything to stop it. But at the moment, there was only one entry that could be broken through in the entire mountain, and up until then, there were only four mountains that could produce rock monsters.     

Hao Ren speculated that perhaps the "ancient power" in Dragonspine Ridge had not fully awakened yet, or maybe there was only very little power left after it got suppressed for so many years. Or perhaps, the person behind it was not able to control everything. Anyway, Hao Ren sensed the disturbing smell caused by the changes in the mountain for the past two months. He felt that there were more formidable forces hidden in the depths of the mountain, which had yet to manifest.     

He was going to test the quirks of this place himself, and let the MDT monitor the energy readings around them to find out the source of the various bizarre changes in Dragonspine Ridge.     

First, he threw some stones on the path in front of him. But of course, it did not work. Then, he walked cautiously onto the Sky Road. At this moment, he suddenly remembered that it would be wise to let Vivian come with him: she could fly...     

But, he did not want to think too much at the moment. After embarking on the Sky Road, the road did not collapse as he had expected. The surrounding scene was still quiet, and the ground was not shaking.     

 "Nothing's happening." Hao Ren walked a few steps forward, then ran back and forth and said, "Did the soldiers make it all up to scare people?"     

 "Impossible," said the MDT while it floated around Hao Ren. "They are elite troops. How can they joke with their superior? Besides, many soldiers died in the landslide. I think this place has some kind of surveillance system and it's asleep at the moment…"     

Hao Ren stared at the MDT and said, "Your reason doesn't even make sense!"     

Anyway, there was nothing unusual happening across the ground. Nangong Wuyue was looking into the distance nervously. She had coiled herself on a big rock next to her, feeling uneasy. Since she saw that nothing happened, she slowly slithered towards Hao Ren and asked, "Nothing's happening?"     

"For some reason... It seems that we aren't able to 'alert' the mountain." Hao Ren had regarded the unusual changes on the Sky Road as a conscious act, so he unconsciously treated it as a human. "According to the information Lily heard from the soldiers in town, if anyone should stand here for more than a few seconds, this place would collapse. The stones on the ground would turn over, or even suddenly bounce up and throw people down the cliff. There have been no exceptions expect for now."     

Nangong Wuyue tapped the ground with the tip of her tail, trying to find some empty space beneath the ground, but she did not find anything. "Does this mountain only respond to 'locals'? It may have a detection mechanism, but it isn't operated manually. This automatic detection mechanism only senses the locals as 'people'."     

Hao Ren stroked his chin, nodded and said, "Probably. Anyway, let's go back to the mountain to see the situation there."     

As he spoke, he turned around and walked back. Nangong Wuyue moved her serpentine body and followed him from behind. However, after a few steps, they heard a loud "bang" coming from afar!     

Nangong Wuyue was immediately startled and shouted, "Alas! It collapsed…"     

Nonetheless, nothing happened to the ground beneath her feet. The loud bang was coming from somewhere else. Hao Ren turned around to comfort the timid siren. "Don't be too sensitive. It happened somewhere else… Umm, do you have to do this?"     

Actually, Nangong Wuyue coiled her tail the moment she heard the loud bang earlier. The speed in which she tied herself into a knot was super fast. Hao Ren turned his head and saw a familiar snake ball swaying on the ground. Nangong Wuyue was flailing her arms, trying to keep her balance.     

Hao Ren smacked his forehead and asked, "...Do you need to coil yourself into a big snake ball every time you hear a little sound?"     

Nangong Wuyue untied herself and muttered, "So, this is what you meant by the big snake ball…"     

The loud bang was coming from the east—in the depths of the mountain, around where Hao Ren was, but a little distance away. Hao Ren suspected that a new rock monster had collapsed from the mountain. He quickly pulled Nangong Wuyue along, rushing to see the situation there. They bolted across the bumpy mountain road and a moment later, they were approaching the site of the loud bang. Suddenly, Nangong Wuyue stopped Hao Ren and whispered, "I smell blood."     

"How come your nose is more sensitive than mine?" Hao Ren immediately slowed down his pace and muttered.     

Nangong Wuyue crept down and wriggled slowly along the mountain path. In a low voice, she said, "Everybody has something they specialise in. According to your words, compared to Lily's nose, our noses are pretty much useless."     

Nangong Wuyue was approaching a huge mountain rock. She hid behind the rock, coiled herself and slowly lifted herself to take peek. Hao Ren found that this girl could do more than he imagined: she was a jack, though he did not know how much weight she could handle.     

The siren stretched her head out to have a further look. She then immediately cried out in a low voice to beckon Hao Ren forward. Hao Ren immediately deployed his shield and ran in front of her: Nangong Wuyue could not fight. If there was an enemy, he had to be in front of her.     

However, there were no rock monsters on the scene. Under the dim moonlight, there were only a few soldiers lying across the small, rocky flat ground. Strictly speaking, the soldiers were dead. They died a miserable death, apparently in the hands of the rock monsters.     

"They just died a while ago." Nangong Wuyue quickly wriggled to one of the soldiers and said, "The blood is still warm. How terrible..."     

Nangong Wuyue sighed. She had seen a lot of life and death during her time on Earth, so she had no aversion toward the dead. However, the death at the hands of rock monsters was often extremely agonising that even an unusual creature like her found it a little uneasy.     

Most of the soldiers who were killed had their limbs broken, and some were even crushed to the ground together with their armour. There were also several mages on the scene, but apparently, they were killed before they even had time to cast gravity spells on the rock monsters: they did not have the chance to take out their wands.     

Relating this incident to the loud bang just now, it was easy to guess what had happened there: These soldiers were most likely members of the Royal Knights in Dragonspine Ridge. Based on how the situation looked, they were probably just resting for a while. But as the soldiers let their guard down, the cliff on top of them suddenly cracked and the rock monsters fell from the mountain. This did not give the soldiers enough time to react. Some of them were probably killed on the spot.     

Hao Ren looked up at the rock and found a dent, which was probably left by a rock monster.     

This was a small probability event, yet it was unfortunate and very likely to happen again in Dragonspine Ridge. The soldiers and mercenaries, who patrolled the mountain every day were going to be most afraid of stone giants falling from the sky and smashing them now, despite the fact that a case like this did not happen very often.     

"The monster should have gone down the hill." Nangong Wuyue rose a little and looked into the distance. The traces left behind by the rock monster were easy to spot on the road. "Want to give chase?"     

Just a single rock monster had little value to Hao Ren. There were many trolls like that wandering around the west side of the mountain. Therefore, he shook his head and said, "No, we'll go to the main peak over there. The MDT is detecting a potential energy active point there."     

The two of them stood in silent tribute to the soldiers who encountered an unexpected tragedy. Nangong Wuyue left a layer of enchantment around the bodies to prevent the wild beasts from gnawing on the bodies of the soldiers. The next day, another patrol unit would be able to find the missing soldiers and bring them back.     

Then, they left.     

But not long after they left the place, Nangong Wuyue's expression suddenly changed and she said, "We need to go back! Something's happening there!"