Chapter 373 Root System

Lily's exclamation from the front immediately caused everyone to rush forward. Hao Ren instantly thought of the underground tentacles Husky and Bat encountered last night when they were checking for information. His heart skipped a beat: It was indeed as expected. That’s right, the caves beneath the Blood Lake are connected to the roots of the Twisted Woodland!

With this thought, he held up his shield and ran at the front, ready to deal with a fierce battle and cover the retreat of others: according to Vivian and Lily, those tentacles will actively attack foreign enemies!

But when he ran to Lily's side, he realized that there was no enemy in front of him.

"This is..." The bearded man followed Hao Ren closely. Even with his determination as an ascetic, he was still shaken from the bottom of his heart when he saw the spectacular scene in front of him. "Is this the underground part of the legendary Twisted Woodland? Is this the underground part of the legendary Twisted Woodland? The cave is actually connected to them?”

At the end of the cave is a huge cave. Its scale is slightly smaller than the previous place with the pool, but it is still astonishingly vast. The most shocking thing in the cave is the countless huge roots protruding from the rock formations above!

The smallest of those huge roots are one meter in diameter, and they are winding in an unknown geometry. They protrude from the rock formations above the cave, grow wantonly in the air, criss-cross, and twist and turn to form a structure like a large net of thorns. This "big net" almost blocks three-quarters of the cave roof, so that the original rock formation can only be vaguely seen through the gaps between these roots. The growth of a large number of roots is completely irregular. A small part of them hangs down to the ground and even penetrates deeply into the ground of the cave. There are also a large number of roots attached to the four walls of the cave, gradually spreading and merging into those that look extremely hard. of rocks.

The entire upper part of the cave was covered with these huge tree roots. Hao Ren looked up and felt an indescribable majesty and magnificence from those huge black root systems - and of course the psychological pressure that hit his face. , almost terrifying.

"...This is the true form of the Twisted Woodland..." Hao Ren murmured to himself. Although he had made various conjectures before, he still did not expect to see the underground part of this ancient plant with his own eyes so thrilling. "This should only be a small Part of...perhaps this entire underground cave system is used to accommodate these tree roots!"

The bearded man's face trembled for a few times, and finally he could only put his hands on his chest and whisper in a low voice: "The goddess has mercy..."

The young monk next to him was more thoughtful: "It doesn't matter, these are all created by the goddess. According to the sacred scriptures, all the goddess's creations are brothers and sisters with us, and the Twisted Woodland is the oldest sacred creature. We are devout in our beliefs. It’s safe and sound here.”

Betsy was almost in tears: "Goddess... you made your eldest brother so ugly..."

So the four ascetics immediately glared at the mercenary girl who was speechless.

"They don't seem to be moving," Lily said, calming down at this time. The experience of being chased by tentacles last night made her so frightened that she lost her temper. As soon as she calmed down, she immediately stood up straight and pretended to be an expert. , "Well, it seems that there are many types of tentacles. Probably the tentacles buried deep will not move."

Vivian glanced at her and said, "Stop pretending to be a wolf with a big tail. The hair is still fried. Please smooth it down first."

Lily swung her tail, and this time she didn't mention her theory of "big tails are good". Instead, she ran into the cave to observe the roots up close.

"Why don't the tree roots here move?" Hao Ren was thinking about this question seriously. He looked at Vivian, "Are you sure this is the kind of thing you encountered last night? Could it be that you encountered it last night? It’s not a tree root at all?”

"These are indeed these things," Vivian was very sure. She took out the sample fragments she had taken before from her arms, "We can compare them."

After comparison, the result was conclusive. The huge roots in front of them were the tentacles where the bat and the husky fought for 300 rounds last night. However, the functions of these in the cave were obviously different, and they would not move.

"The life form in the twisted forest has transcended plants in the general sense." A group of people carefully walked in the cave occupied by roots. Vivian analyzed thoughtfully as they walked, "Probably its roots are still there. There are many types, some are used for exploration, some are used to absorb nutrients, and some can even be used for fighting. The one Big Dog and I met last night should be the one responsible for exploration."

"Have you ever encountered these roots?" Only then did the bearded man notice what Vivian meant.

Hao Ren then gave a brief summary of all the information that they had discovered last night. So far, they had only told Ofra these things, but the four bearded men were more "ours" than Ofra, so they were It's more natural to say this.

"Heresy!?" The four ascetics reacted even more when they heard the heresy. The older nuns even gritted their teeth. "And they also slandered the goddess's teachings and even created a false god themselves!?"

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

Elson glanced at Hao Ren and felt that what he said was a bit exaggerated. An ordinary mercenary captain could say so carelessly in front of four ascetic masters that he wanted to take care of heretics, but the bearded man They didn't think so. They knew Hao Ren's identity, so they just nodded calmly when they heard this: "That's best. I'm glad to see you have such a heart, but it's best to let 'us' solve this matter. It's a problem 'over here'."

He deliberately emphasized the tone of the words "us" and "here". It was obvious that even though he had been forced to remove his household registration in the Dream Plane like Betsy, he still regarded this place as his first hometown.

"Of course, we have reported this matter to Marshal Ofra, and soon the rector will know. The next step should be a large-scale search for heretics. The rituals of those cultists are very cruel, requiring a lot of flesh and blood, and also Monsters will be summoned, and it is not difficult to find them as long as you are careful when searching."

The bearded man nodded, suddenly with a worried look on his face: "I just didn't expect that corruptors would appear within the Kingdom Knights and the Church... The depravity is shocking. I really don't know how long they have been secretly developing, Rector of Gelton. I’m afraid I have to bear a lot of responsibility for this.”

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

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

The data terminal immediately sent an image to Hao Ren's mind: "We have just left the Blood Lake area and have not yet entered the Twisted Woodland area. In addition, the roots we encountered are only a small part of the roots that spread from the Twisted Woodland. This machine just added I scanned it with high power and found that more roots spread directly to the depths of the lake."

Sure enough, the truly huge part of the Twisted Woodland is underground, and its body has penetrated deep into the Blood Lake. Then Hao Ren is absolutely sure that there must be such a "root cave" under the Dragon's Back Mountain Range!

If you have the opportunity in the future, you may be able to explore the Dragon's Back Mountains through this channel...

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

The old werewolf Elson has been highly vigilant since he entered this giant cave. Whether as a former mercenary or as a current soldier, he maintains the most malicious speculations about any strange place: "Be vigilant. It is said that a group of dwarf miners dug a mine tunnel too deep into the mountains and accidentally dug out a twisted forest root. As a result, they all went crazy. According to the vampire lady's guess, these roots have many functions, so be careful when encountering them. Roots with the ability to release neurotoxins or produce psychic attacks.”

Female members of the team should beware of tentacle monsters - Hao Ren silently added this in his mind, but he doubted that one of the tougher girls in his team would be afraid of whom if they encountered a tentacle monster... even The little mermaid who is currently sleeping in the portable space is not necessarily afraid of these roots, at least not in terms of mentality: Doudou will 100% regard this place as a fairy tale fortress filled with the aroma of food, similar to a candy house...

Hao Ren just walked forward while thinking wildly. When he was about to leave the cave occupied by huge roots, a strange feeling suddenly hit him, making him shiver subconsciously.

That feeling was like an invisible spy coming from all directions, with countless pairs of eyes staring at me, fleeting, but extremely clear.

Hao Ren looked around in horror. He vaguely remembered that he had felt this way when he first walked in the Twisted Woodland.

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