Chapter 184: Dangerous City Of Graves
"You are Bai Yi?!" The three people were still very afraid at first, fearing that Bai Yi's team would attack them. However, when Bai Yi walked out, one of them was immediately shocked, and loudly shouted out. Previously, in New Christchurch, although it couldn't have been said that the entire city knew him, at least half of the people there could still recognize him.
Bai Yi walked over, bearing a smile on his face. "I am Bai Yi."
"The battle in the City of Graves back then was extremely desperate; we still don't know how we much managed to escape either. I heard that the number of survivors was very small, probably not more than 10,000 people. I also heard that something happened to Hamilton on the northern island of the Devil Isles too, and that the situation there deteriorated more and more in the end. However, information is hard to come by nowadays, so I don't know what exactly happened either. We actually had eight people at the start, but in this time of more than a year, our team members have died one by one from various dangers, and now there's only the three of us left." After recognizing Bai Yi, the three of them immediately relaxed. His reputation among the evolved humans was still very good.
Their bonfire burned quietly, cooking their food. The wood crackled from time to time, releasing soft snapping sounds. The three of them sat on top of a rock, telling Bai Yi's team their experiences over the past year plus.
"What about the others?"
Salva shook his head. "I don't know. We could still see some people at first, but towards the end there were fewer and fewer of them. When those evolved lifeforms passed the Hypersomnia Stage and entered LV2 Metamorphose Stage, the Devil Isles became even more perilous. In the end, the outside really was too dangerous, so we gradually turned around and returned here to the City of Graves, residing at the perimeter."
"You guys know of any rallying points for humans now?"
"We don't know. How could there be any gathering points now? There aren't many people remaining to begin with, and with how everyone was slowly entering the Hypersomnia Phase, everyone basically just found a place with their close teammates and hid there." Salva laughed bitterly. Their numbers weren't many in the first place, but all the evolved humans still guarded against one another. During the Hypersomnia Phase, they didn't even have any ability to protect themselves once they fell asleep, so how could anybody have the energy to spare to build a new rally point?
Hearing Salva's words, all of their moods became a little heavy.
There should still be some evolved humans left in the Devil Isles, but there would definitely not be a lot of them. However, all these evolved humans were still wary and guarding against one another, barely managing to make it through each day in the Devil Isles, and struggling without any hope in sight. If they really could, all these people would definitely have wished to return to the normal world.
"Why did you guys return to the perimeter of the City of Graves?" the others asked as well.
"Because this place is safe."
"Safe?"
"That's right, safe. There are basically no evolved lifeforms around this city. We were also chased by those LV2 Metamorphose Stage lifeforms all the way here. After we reached this place, we realized that all the other evolved lifeforms seemed to be avoiding this location. The perimeter of the City of Graves ended up becoming a relatively safe place," Salva explained, and the other two nodded as well.
"Avoiding this location?"
"Right, it's very dangerous inside. Before, we saw some evolved lifeforms accidentally wandering into the city, but we have never seen anything coming out from it. It's like they were all eaten by something."
Another guy added on as well, "That's right, the evolved lifeforms that walked into the city would start moving slower and slower. Even though they were struggling vigorously, they seem to be bound by something, and very quickly lost their ability to move. In the end they would be dragged inside slowly, most probably to be devoured by some terrifying monster."
Bai Yi and his team felt that things were getting more and more mysterious as they listened. Didn't the city just have a lot of evolved lifeforms and humans dying in it? How had it become like this? Unless it was a ghost city again, just like Wellington?
Momo shook her head. "It's not ghosts, I didn't see any signs of ghosts."
"The Devil Isles have really become even more dangerous now." Bai Yi heard Momo's words and couldn't figure out what was going on either. On the contrary to their expectations, after expending much effort, once they finally met a few other evolved humans and understood some things, their moods became even heavier. At this time, Betsy had finished cooking their food, so Bai Yi didn't continue on with this topic either, but rather gathered everybody for a meal. The three newcomers didn't stand on courtesy either, but just thanked him seriously.
If nothing unexpected happened, the three of them would definitely be willing to follow Bai Yi. Based on his reputation, this was practically a given. Although evolved humans were still on guard against each other, it all depended on who a person was.
"Should we enter the city and take a look?" Woolf asked while eating.
"You want to see?"
Woolf cracked open his big mouth and grinned. "I'm a bit curious."
"Don't go, that place is really very dangerous! The lifeforms that entered all died mysteriously!" Salva immediately stopped Woolf after hearing his words.
"Hahaha, no worries! I'm very strong!" Woolf started laughing loudly.
Ever since entering LV2, Woolf had become more and more confident—or rather, more and more reckless. Bai Yi glanced at Woolf. Bai Yi was also very curious when it came to the City of Graves. Some time ago, Yu Han had never really answered his question of 'Did you really turn the entirety of New Christchurch into a burial gift just to take revenge?'. Although Yu Han hadn't answered his question, Bai Yi felt that Yu Han would have had his own motives for this, and probably nobody would be able to guess what his motives were. It was likely only Ning Xue knew them.
"We can go and scout it once, but we must be careful. Not everyone will go in," Bai Yi said.
"It's really too dangerous!" Salva wanted to stop them again.
"Relax, we'll be careful," Bai Yi said.
The three of them saw that Bai Yi was resolute and didn't try to dissuade his team again; perhaps they really were stronger than them. On the afternoon of the third day, the group of them came to the place where the three newcomers had supposedly seen an evolved lifeform walking in. After walking a certain distance, it had started to struggle vigorously and tried to escape, but couldn't do so no matter how hard it tried, and it had finally died inside.
In the end, they chose Woolf and Pupu to go in. Pupu's intuition was the strongest among all of them; if he felt that something was wrong, then based on his personality, he would definitely not continue moving forward. In addition, around Pupu and Woolf's bodies was a supple and strong vine. Bai Yi and a few others stood at the back; if Pupu and Woolf found that something was wrong, they would pull the two of them back.
Actually, Woolf wasn't suitable for this sort of scouting mission, but there were only a few of them who had entered LV2. Bai Yi couldn't bear for Momo to take on such a risk, and as the leader, Bai Yi couldn't do everything himself. As for Melvin, although he had entered LV2 as well, he was indeed a level lower than the rest.
Woolf and Pupu headed toward the center of the City of Graves, and Bai Yi activated his Reverse Flower Eyes, seriously observing the situation inside.
Woolf was quite carefree and walked casually, while Pupu was extremely serious. Pupu was super afraid of dying; if not for Bai Yi giving him no choice this time, he wouldn't have taken this risk either. Pupu paused after practically every step he took and felt for any changes in his body. After walking for more than 100 meters, his speed became very slow, and Woolf was already ahead of him by more than ten meters.
Woolf turned around. "Pupu, aren't you being too cautious? There's nothing here at all."
However, Pupu suddenly shouted, "Pupupu, come back now!" Pupu oinked and slowly retreated backwards. However, the moment Pupu stepped back, the front leg that he had just raised stiffened in the air. Pupu instantly panicked and cried out pitifully, struggling desperately to move backwards. His four hooves flailed about desperately, but they were seemingly caught in something and he couldn't escape no matter what.
Woolf immediately got a shock at Pupu's actions and wanted to run over, but the moment he took a step he realized he couldn't move either. It was just like his body was restricted by something invisible, completely unable to move.
Bai Yi and the rest didn't hesitate and immediately pulled on the vine. This was a vine that they specially searched for; the amount of tension that it could endure was extremely large. All of them pulled on the vine and felt that there was an immense pull coming from Pupu and Woolf's bodies. Moreover, within a few seconds, they realized that a restrictive force seemed to spread along the vine and surrounded them as well.
Not only Pupu and Wolf were being pulled, but this force seemed to be trying to drag Bai Yi and the rest inside as well.
Everyone resisted against this pull unwaveringly, and fortunately this force didn't seem to be as strong as it was on Pupu and Woolf's bodies, so they could still resist it for the moment.
"Grab hold of the ground, don't let this force pull you into the air!" Bai Yi shouted. Actually, without needing Bai Yi to tell them, all of them had sensed that this power wasn't especially great, probably equaling about one ton of force on each person's body. If they could keep their feet on the ground, they could resist it easily. However, if they were pulled into the air, then it would be another story.
"Meow!" The moment Bai Yi finished speaking, the weakest member of the team, Chinchilla, released a pitiful cry, and its body was pulled into the air, flying into the city. Although Chinchilla swung its claws at the ground to get a grip, it only managed to leave a few deep marks on the ground.
"Damn it!" Bai Yi cursed and relaxed his body, abruptly rushing forward along with the force and catching up with Chinchilla in an instant. However, after Bai Yi grabbed hold of Chinchilla, he realized that this huge force had already lifted his body in the air and wouldn't let him touch the ground. Without touching the ground, not even Woolf would be able to use much of his strength.
"Bai Yi!" The rest of them immediately shouted as they saw the figures of Bai Yi and Chinchilla flying into the city. However, in the next moment all of them revealed looks of surprise.
Bai Yi completely gave up on struggling. Carrying Chinchilla, he relaxed his body and even closed his eyes. At this moment, countless dark, crystal-like, and thin threads left his body continuously, forming a pair of magnificent wings behind his back.