Chapter 843: Chapter 542: Mirage Shadow in the Forest_1
In the lush green forest, hidden within a thick branch of a towering tree, there was a nest made of feathers and twigs.
Inside it, a dozen fledgling orioles extended their not yet fully developed necks, eagerly chirping as if waiting for the female bird to feed them.
The brilliant sunlight, passing through the gaps of dense leaves, cast upon these colorful little creatures, forming small patches of light, making their feathers even more dazzling.
However, what their eager soft cries enticed was not the female bird with food, but an unfeeling hunter who planned to feast on them.
Accompanied by a rustling crawling sound.
A giant black spider, at least a meter long, was already perched on the trunk above the nest and approached the fledglings slowly.
At this moment, whether it was the venom that began to secrete profusely from the giant spider’s large pincers, or the reflections of the little orioles in the eight single eyes aligned neatly on its head. This content belongs to novelFɪre.net
All signs showed that the giant spider was poised and ready to hunt.
However, the young orioles, still naive, had no sense of alertness, and instead, their hunger made them chirp even more cheerfully.
Right as the giant spider, ready to strike, fully outstretched its pincers and set its eight hairy legs in motion.
Down by the tree, a series of hurried footsteps caught the giant spider’s attention once again.
After a brief moment, the slender figure of a frail young girl, only about twelve or thirteen, appeared in the huge head and all eight eyes of the spider.
She was dressed in rather ordinary hemp clothes.
At the moment, she gripped a thin wooden stick tightly in one hand, carried a small basket in the other, and duly bent, carefully moved forward through the forest.
From her pale face and cautious movements, she was clearly very tense.
“Pastor Grandpa in the village said that the four-leaf clover to cure my father’s illness is in this forest, I can’t be afraid!”
The frail girl’s starry eyes cautiously scanned the surrounding bushes.
Muttering to herself, she said, “But even the hunters of this village don’t dare to enter this forest. They say there are scary demon beasts living here. I’m so thin, so I must be hard to chew on, right? The demon beasts shouldn’t regard me as prey.”
Despite comforting herself verbally, she could not help but swallow saliva, and her waxen little face grew even paler.
Suddenly, she seemed to sense something and looked up at where the giant spider was.
However, since the giant spider had already changed its position, silently crawling to the trunk on her rear side.
The startled girl saw nothing and could only turn her attention back to the surrounding dense bushes, fearing some demon beast might suddenly pounce upon her.
“I’m not afraid. My father told me that our family were descendants of Loren Kingdom’s royal family, once protectors of this land. Why should I be afraid of mere demon beasts?”
At this point, the girl tightly gripped the wooden stick in her hand, her panicked face filled with determination once more.
Just then, the lurking giant spider seized the opportunity, leaped off the trunk, and launched an attack from behind on the unsuspecting girl!
In a split second, the venomous pincers of the giant spider nearly approached the girl’s ivory nape.
An invisible energy arrow shot out rapidly at that instant.
With a muffled thud, the giant spider in mid-air was abruptly nailed to a thick trunk nearby, like a tattered black cloth sack, before slowly falling to the ground.
Only a puddle of strongly corrosive, viscous spider fluid remained on the tree bark, emitting faint wisps of blue smoke.As all of this happened in the blink of an eye, the forest returned to its usual tranquility.
It goes without saying that the one who made the move was Serena Clark, who was by Leo Ray’s side.
After advancing to the level of a Tier 4 Powerhouse, she had mastered the technique of casting energy crossbow bolts.
However, the strange incidents were just beginning.
It wasn’t until Leo Ray and his companions approached the skinny girl carrying a basket that the situation became clear.
She seemed utterly oblivious, her eyes filled with caution and panic, aimlessly scanning her surroundings.
Even the lifeless Black Steel Spider, with its legs upturned not far away, went entirely unnoticed by her.
As for Leo Ray and the others, they didn’t say a word, just quietly observing the girl before them.
“My Lord, this Mirage Shadow is quite realistic; I didn’t expect that even the Black Steel Spider would be deceived,” Scarlett said, adjusting her pointy witch’s hat and bowing to Leo Ray. “If it were an ordinary person, they would really think that there was a living person standing here!”
“That’s right. It can be considered a rare encounter to see a Mirage Shadow here that only occurs once in a century,” said another.
Upon hearing this, Leo Ray raised his eyebrows slightly.
He had already learned about Mirage Shadows before.
Its formation mechanism was almost the same as that of the Mirage, both unique natural phenomena in this world of swords and magic.
In plain terms, it could project the image of another place randomly onto another location, and it could only be generated under extremely rare circumstances.
The only difference was that the Mirage projected everything in an area, including people and various landscapes, while the Mirage Shadow projected only a single person.
In addition, it’s worth mentioning that both shared one more similarity.
The projected images sometimes represented scenes happening in real-time, and sometimes they showed scenes from the past.
Just as Leo Ray thought about this,
The skinny girl carrying the basket in front of him slowly began to fade until she eventually disappeared completely before everyone’s eyes.
“I hope that this poor girl has found the four-leaf clover that can save her father,” said Bianca White, her fluffy ears twitching ever so slightly. “After all, her appearance indirectly saved a nest of hungry baby orioles.”
“Let’s hope so,” Leo Ray said thoughtfully as he gestured to his subordinates to continue moving forward. “However, I can’t help but feel that I’ve seen that girl somewhere before.”
“Oh? I don’t have any recollection of her,” said Ariel Watson, who pondered for a long time before ultimately shaking her head in confusion.
Immediately after, she seemed to think of something and added, “The girl just mentioned that she was a descendant of the Loren Kingdom’s Royal Family. I have to say, that is quite a coincidence.”
As Ariel finished speaking, the group arrived at a section of ruined walls and ramparts within the dense forest.
Needless to say, this was the ancient site of the Loren Kingdom they had visited the day before, located beside the Pine Sound Range.
“Alright, let’s begin our operation,” Leo Ray nodded to his subordinates, gazing around at the desolate scene full of historical significance.