A gust of wind blew by, carrying a hint of saltiness in the humid air.
You could even hear the sound of the waves in your ears!
"Thereâs nothing more to say here, bro, you have that tool to store living things, right? Hurry and collect this person, weâre heading back immediately."
Xu Ying suddenly became tense and grabbed Xu Xinâs arm.
"Wha..."
"Quick! Do as I say! Iâll explain later!"
Xu Yingâs tone made Xu Xin instinctively tense up. He immediately collected the man lying on the ground into his bracelet, and then a purple-black vortex appeared beneath their feet.
In the last moment before falling into the vortex, Xu Xin seemed to see a light flash on the world tree above them.
Next, the two appeared directly near Shi Wanyunâs treehouse, a hundred meters away.
"What happened?" Xu Xin rubbed his increasingly dizzy head and immediately inquired.
Xu Ying breathed a sigh of relief: "Phew~ weâre lucky we ran fast; otherwise, we wouldâve died there!"
"Hmm...? Explain!" Xu Xinâs voice deepened.
"Whyâs your tone suddenly so harsh?" Xu Ying shrank her neck, "The weapon on that world tree had already locked onto us, in a few seconds at night, we wouldâve been evaporated."
...Locked on by the world treeâs weapon?
Xu Xin immediately thought of the light that had just flashed past.
Oh gosh, was that the world treeâs weapon firing!
"But thankfully, we brought that guy back, quite a haul!" Xu Ying cracked her slender fingers, making a crisp sound. "Watch me make him spill everything he knows!"
However, Xu Xin was still doubtful about the world tree and that piece of the sea: "Over there..."
"No need to worry, Iâve been there. If you want to go, we can go anytime." Xu Ying smiled, "But not now, itâs too dangerous now."
"No, what I mean is, the world tree we just saw doesnât belong to that guy, right?"
Xu Xin turned his bracelet and pondered.
"You mentioned before, itâs at least six or seven hundred kilometers from here to the seashore, and the world treeâs influence range doesnât exceed five hundred kilometers." Xu Xin looked eastward, "That world tree is right by the sea, so close to the shore, even the nearest coast, six or seven hundred kilometers away, wouldnât reach here, right?"
"Bro, youâre really smart!" Xu Ying gave Xu Xin a thumbs up.
"Donât joke around." Xu Xin skillfully patted her head, "Whatâs really going on?"
"Uh... indeed, that world tree isnât the local world tree." Xu Ying thought and explained, "Thatâs a defensive world tree by the sea, used by those alien invaders to prevent the mutated giant beasts from the sea from landing, equivalent to a marine defense line."
The ocean is a world that even alien invaders cannot conquer.
Itâs normal for them to prevent any creatures from the sea that might land.
"Hehe, we suffered big losses in this respect before. Ah, I mean, in that space-time, when we were still interacting deceitfully under the alien invadersâ rule, back then, beasts capable of landing appeared from the sea." Xu Ying explained.
"...But," Xu Xin was a bit puzzled, turned his bracelet, "why did this person appear there?"
"Why not just ask him directly?" Xu Ying looked at Xu Xinâs bracelet, her smile slightly... sinister.
...
"Are we really not able to go back anymore..." Lou FeiâEr leaned against a thick tree trunk, twisted like a braid, looked up at the cloudless sky, and sighed, "Where on earth is this place..."
"Thereâre lots of bugs on the tree behind you," Jin Yue reminded, looking tired.
"Huh?" Lou FeiâEr jumped away from the trunk and looked back.
She saw tiny ants-sized bugs crawling out of the spiral gaps in the tree trunk.
And the moment Lou FeiâErâs back left the trunk, these bugs stopped moving and all crawled back into the gaps.
In three seconds, the trunk was clean again.
Lou FeiâEr felt a chill run through her: "Are these bugs after me..."
"Better not touch anything here, everything is bizarre in this place."
Shi Wanyun said while squishing an unknown long bug that was about to climb onto her shoe.
"...So, where do we go now?" Lou FeiâEr looked in all directions, "Whatâs the situation here exactly..."
Around them was a...
An endless sandy sea.
Only a few isolated trees, growing twisted like braids, stood bizarrely in this desert, slightly reducing its desolation.