Guardians

Translator: Cinder Translations

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"We got lost shortly after we entered."

"Perhaps it's normal for you to get lost, but as long as you follow my brother, you'll never lose your way. At the very least, you can always return the same way."

She seemed to have thought of something, and her expression turned unpleasant. "My brother's way of thinking is different from ordinary people. He is used to numbering people or things. When he's in the forest, he keeps numbering directions, locations, and any noteworthy things around him," she paused and glanced at Jiang Cheng, saying, "It's not the kind of sequential numbering starting from 1 that you'd imagine, as for what it is…"

"Let me interrupt," Jiang Cheng said, "I'm not interested in your brother's abilities. I just want to know about the forest."

Su Xiaoxiao nodded. "I don't know how to describe this forest to you. In short, it's not something we can comprehend. My brother seems to understand it, but unfortunately, his way of expressing it is limited."

"I only know that he keeps emphasizing one thing," Su Xiaoxiao suddenly sat up straight, and her whole demeanor changed, becoming solemn. "He says this forest... is alive."

"The forest... is alive?" The Fatty blinked in confusion.

He inexplicably recalled the black mist he saw in the forest's gap earlier. It was like quicksand, drawing attention with a single glance, making it impossible to look away, and the more you looked, the deeper you sank.

"That's right," Su Xiaoxiao seemed worried that Jiang Cheng wouldn't understand, glancing toward the forest behind and then quickly returning her gaze. "At least in my brother's understanding, when he encounters the same tree at different times, he assigns it a different number."

Jiang Cheng leaned against a rock, his eyes still focused on the forest. "Are you saying that in your brother's perception, this tree is no longer the same tree he encountered before?"

"Exactly."

"Then how about in your perception?" the Fatty asked. "Is there any change in the tree?"

"No."

"How did you get those injuries?" Jiang Cheng suddenly asked.

Upon hearing this question, Su Xiaoxiao's body trembled slightly, but she controlled herself well, quickly returning to normal.

"We got lost in the forest and eventually found a place..." She paused suddenly at this point. Jiang Cheng didn't rush her; he knew she wasn't unwilling to speak, but was searching for the right word.

"A shrine?" Su Xiaoxiao looked up.

The Fatty was stunned for a moment, and after reacting, he thought to himself, "We're asking you, not the other way around. How would we know what strange things you found in the forest?"

"Just describe what you saw," Jiang Cheng comforted her.

"It was a large, circular stone platform, about 10 meters in diameter," Su Xiaoxiao recalled. "It was pure white, and the area around it was filled with graves."

Jiang Cheng thought for a moment, then said, "As far as I know, no tribe has the custom of building graves for sacrifices. They only take the heads of the leaders or nobles from enemy tribes."

"Let me finish," Su Xiaoxiao said without any sign of dissatisfaction. She was simply too nervous, so nervous that she didn't want to bring up this experience. "The large stone platform was surrounded by graves, but it was covered with all kinds of bones."

She carefully swallowed, "There were human bones, and… there were bones from various creatures."

Jiang Cheng looked at her, clearly sensing the fear in her heart, and he understood that it wasn't just the graves and bones that frightened her. She had definitely discovered something else.

Especially her choice of words.

"Various creatures," why not "various animals"? This phrasing seemed more like something a normal person would use.

"What did you see in the pile of bones?" Jiang Cheng asked quietly.

Su Xiaoxiao seemed surprised by the directness of Jiang Cheng's question. She suddenly looked up, her trembling eyes locking onto his, as if searching for some hint in his gaze.

But clearly, she failed.

In Jiang Cheng's eyes, only her own reflection could be seen.

"I don't know what they were, but they definitely weren't creatures that belong to our world," Su Xiaoxiao said with a tremor in her voice. "They were bizarre, some looked like frogs or lizards, but much larger than normal, 2 meters... no, they were probably 3 meters tall, even bigger, and some of them had wings on their backs!"

Remembering the sight, Su Xiaoxiao's face turned pale, the last trace of color draining from her face. "They looked like they came from billions of years ago..."

Jiang Cheng was silent for a while before speaking, "Believe me, there were no such creatures billions of years ago."

Su Xiaoxiao was probably too agitated, which triggered her lung injury, causing her to cough violently. However, just as she was about to continue, to describe the most eerie and terrifying part, she noticed Jiang Cheng slightly straighten his posture.

It was an indescribable feeling. In that brief moment, it was as if she saw the shadow of something on Jiang Cheng's body, but what was it? Or perhaps, who was it?

The strange sense of familiarity was fleeting, but Su Xiaoxiao never doubted her instincts, just as she never doubted her brother's judgment.

"If I'm not mistaken, those things you mentioned, on the altar..." Jiang Cheng exhaled and then turned his face back to normal. "They've come back to life, right?" he asked gently.

The Fatty froze.

Su Xiaoxiao was surprised, but she didn't lose her composure because she understood that Jiang Cheng must have seen the injuries on her brother, especially the gunshot wound on his back.

"Aside from those creatures you mentioned, the people on the altar also came back to life," Jiang Cheng said. "Some of them had guns. It was them who shot your brother."

"Yes."

The Fatty, who had been mentally frozen, finally began to connect the dots. "You mean... those guys who had turned into bones are back to life?"

"And they shot your brother with guns?!"

"Yes," Su Xiaoxiao appeared to be answering the Fatty's question, but her attention never left Jiang Cheng. There was something special about him, something that drew her in.

It was a sense of familiarity.

"I think you've guessed it too," Su Xiaoxiao said, "Those people were the same teammates who came ashore with the old woman."

"But for some reason, they died in the forest. Their bones were placed on the altar. Then, at some opportunity, the things on the altar came to life, and then..."

Su Xiaoxiao didn't finish her sentence. After all, there was no need to explain further to the man in front of her.

This seemed like some kind of automatic defense mechanism of the forest, or even the island. Once outsiders enter, the altar in the forest is activated, and then... it's time for the resurrected "weapons" to kill.

And the "visitors" who are killed are incorporated into this defense system, becoming new "guards."

This theory wasn't hard for the Fatty to understand, but the hard part was believing it.

Could such a facility really exist?

Didn't the doctor say this was a shadow of the real world?

If it's a shadow, that means there's a place like this in the real world, and that place also has an altar.

An altar... piled with countless bones.

This can't be possible.

(End of the Chapter)

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Read (NS) ahead on (pa treon . com / CinderTL) – Chapter 278.

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Translated 4 Series, 1.65K+ Chapters and 2.01M+ Words.