As the group ventured deeper into the forest, the layer of decaying leaves grew thicker.
At first, it was only a thin layer.
Further ahead, the ground was almost entirely devoid of soil, covered only by overlapping layers of dark brown leaves that resembled the shed skin of some rotting creature.
Rena walked at the very front, her boots sinking into the decaying leaves before she quickly pulled them back out.
She cast a downward glance.
Beneath the decaying leaves, a few slender flower stems lay hidden.
During the day, the buds remained tightly closed, their grayish-white outer casings nestled among the petioles. Their edges bore a hint of pale blue, a color so faint it almost blended in with the mold spots.
Had she not harvested so many plants in her past life, she likely would have mistaken them for ordinary wild flowers.
Mist-Slumber Flowers.
It was a very common nocturnal flower in the forest.
In her past life, people always said that Mist-Slumber Flowers caused hallucinations, but that wasn't entirely accurate.
They didn't conjure non-existent things out of thin air; they merely induced drowsiness, slowed a person's reactions, and cast a misty shroud over their eyes and ears.
The effect wasn't particularly strong.
For those with high mental strength, the effect was even weaker.
However, if one had been traveling all day, was physically exhausted, and had kept their mind constantly tense—coupled with the natural drowsiness that came with a forest night—then it would be more than enough.
She had told everyone earlier in the day that the small blue-and-white flowers caused hallucinations precisely to make them voluntarily avoid the patches, preventing anyone from recognizing the Mist-Slumber Flowers.
Rena brushed the decaying leaves back with her fingertips and stood up as if she had discovered nothing.
She saw Xu Zhiheng walking at the head of the Descenders' group, still maintaining that warm and reliable demeanor.
Zhou Yi followed close beside him, casting occasional glances at the local mercenaries' weapons and backpacks, his eyes darting faster than a rodent's.
Su Xiaoman avoided the black mud beneath her feet with disgust, yet she still had to pretend she didn't mind to avoid looking too delicate.
Han Jin walked at the very back, as quiet as a dead branch fallen in the shadows.
The most terrifying thing about someone who enjoyed torturing the weak was not their cruelty, but their ability to remain clear-headed after committing such acts.
And this clear-headedness was often a manifestation of extreme self-interest and pure indifference.
Yu Lingye quickly decided on her target.
Therefore, tonight, he would be the first.
Rena looked up at the sky.
The canopy of branches interlaced overhead, slicing the setting sun into a few scattered rays of dim yellow light that fell into the mist and were quickly swallowed up.
“Stop.”
She suddenly spoke.
Damon's hand raising his shield paused. “What is it?”
Rena looked at the thickening mist ahead and said,
“It's getting dark. We'll rest here tonight.”
Zhou Yi frowned immediately. “We've barely walked at all. Weren't we supposed to find the treant before the sun set?”
Rena glanced at him.
“No one is stopping you. You can go by yourself.”
Zhou Yi opened his mouth to argue, but Xu Zhiheng pulled him back and smiled, trying to smooth things over.
“Miss Rena, could we walk a bit further? There are too many decaying leaves here. What if there's something underneath...”
“Further ahead is a sinkhole area,” Rena interrupted. “The black mud is deeper, and there are more tree roots. If you walk in there at night and misstep, you might only be half a corpse by the time we drag you out.”
Zhou Yi, who had just been questioning her, stiffened.
Ryan sneered at him. “Did you hear that? If you're not afraid of ending up in halves, feel free to walk ahead on your own.”
Damon slammed his shield onto the ground.
“Alright, we'll camp here.”
Reece swept his gaze over their surroundings and said in a low voice, “There's bedrock nearby. It won't be easy for tree roots to burst through from below.”
Severn raised a hand to gauge the wind direction.
“The mist rises from below. The campfire shouldn't be too large tonight, or it will attract things.”
The local mercenaries settled the matter in just a few sentences.
Xu Zhiheng felt a bit slighted, but he quickly smoothed his expression back to normal.
“Since you all are so experienced, we'll follow your arrangements.”
Zhou Yi's lips twitched, but in the end, he kept his mouth shut.
As the two groups set up camp together, the atmosphere grew more foul than the stench of the decaying leaves.
Once the campfire was lit, Damon and Ryan first had a round of arguments over who would keep watch.
The Descenders were also unwilling to be scheduled for the last shifts.
Zhou Yi remarked sarcastically, “Who knows if you lot will pull some tricks after we fall asleep.”
Damon sneered. “We don't pull tricks. We'll just throw you out to feed the wolves out in the open.”
Su Xiaoman turned pale. “How can you talk like that?”
Ryan raised an eyebrow. “How else should we talk? Thank you for forcing your way in, thank you for preparing to snatch our loot, thank you for being a pain in the ass?”
Su Xiaoman bit her lip, looking incredibly aggrieved as if she were on the verge of tears.
Unfortunately, the local mercenaries present were not the gullible suitors she kept on her hook.
Damon even rolled his eyes and went back to his own business.
Xu Zhiheng finally spoke up. “Alright, stop arguing. We can take shifts for the watch. One person from our side, one from yours. That's fair.”
Damon immediately replied, “Why on earth should we trust you?”
Zhou Yi retorted, “You think we trust you?”
Another bickering broke out around the campfire.
Listening to their pointless bickering, Rena tossed a damp branch into the fire.
She said flatly, “I'll take the first watch.”
Milo, who had been hanging his head, immediately looked up upon hearing this.
“I'll take the first watch too.”
Several gazes landed on him at once.
Damon frowned. “You?”
“I'm an Apprentice Scout. I'm more familiar with keeping watch than any of you.”
As he said this, even he felt a lack of confidence.
But he had to keep an eye on Rena.
He was afraid that if he closed his eyes, the next time he opened them, something else would be missing.
One less person, one less piece of the truth, or the loss of his final chance to prove he hadn't been lying.
Rena looked up at him, entirely unbothered.
“If you want to keep tabs on me, just do it. No need to sound so high and mighty.”
Having his thoughts laid bare, Milo's expression soured even further.
Kolo sat near a tree root not far away, the large weapon wrapped in black cloth resting across her knees.
She didn't join the bickering, merely watching everyone in silence.
One of her hands rested near her weapon, as if she could spring into battle at any moment.
She belonged to neither the local mercenaries nor the Descenders.
On this trip, she was being paid by Milo.
Milo wanted her to prove whether there was something wrong with Rena, not to demand justice for anyone.
Moreover, this kind of bickering held no meaning in her eyes.
In the world of the beastkin, might made right.
What troubled her slightly, however, was a very faint, sweet fragrance that began to drift up from the pile of decaying leaves.
Kolo's nose twitched slightly, and she quickly shallowed her breathing.
The scent was like a damp mist, slowly clouding her sense of smell.
She could no longer clearly distinguish the scent on Rena, nor could she tell what that bothersome scent actually was.
She couldn't describe the feeling.
It was like a thin needle buried in the grass, or thorns hidden beneath blooming flowers.
In a daze, Kolo suddenly remembered her grandfather.
She had been young then, having just learned to distinguish the scents left behind by prey, and always believed her nose was sharp enough to sniff out anything.
But her grandfather had tapped her head with a twig.
“True danger is never an evil that bares its fangs and claws.”
“Loud hostility is easy to dodge, and silent disguises are hard to guard against. But the most fatal things are often hidden beneath the cleanest, most peaceful facades.”
At this moment, the elusive sweet fragrance and this eerie, incomprehensible peace perfectly proved her grandfather's words.
It was in the dark, where there were no winds or waves, that the abyss devouring human hearts was most likely to hide.
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