The snow with tree-like cracks on the periphery is more than a hundred meters from the treehouse, and the cracks are very subtle, making them hard to see from the treehouse windows, but they can be easily seen using the control panel.
"Xu Xin! Those patterns are lighting up, glowing red!" Lou Fei’Er exclaimed, "Those really are blood patterns!"
"I see them." Xu Xin also watched the change nervously.
He directly initiated a voice call to Ma Hongwei: "What’s the situation on your end?"
"Snow up to a hundred meters around the treehouse has cracked, and it’s emitting a red glow from underneath!" Ma Hongwei spoke quickly, his tone heavy, "It feels like something is about to emerge from the snow layer!"
It seems like the situation on their side is similar, with an approximate hundred-meter safety zone surrounding the treehouse.
"If you can’t hold on, contact me immediately."
He couldn’t let anything happen to Ma Hongwei. Of course, Ma Hongwei with his mutation ability, now out of his weakened state, could be revived after a fatal injury, so Xu Xin wasn’t too concerned.
After ending the call, Xu Xin continued to observe the disturbances around the treehouse.
Lou Fei’Er, who heard Ma Hongwei’s words, furrowed her brow slightly: "Does his treehouse have nearly a hundred meters of non-glowing cracks around it?"
"What’s up? What are you trying to say?" Content originally comes from novel-fire.net
"My parasitic treehouse is located about a hundred meters from the main treehouse, but..." she pointed to the control panel, "That treehouse hasn’t been affected by the anomalies around it."
She maneuvered the control panel, shifting the screen over there so Xu Xin could see clearly.
Sure enough, the snow layer near her parasitic treehouse was covered with glowing red cracks, reflecting the cracks appearing from Xu Xin’s main treehouse, unrelated to her parasitic treehouse.
"Could it be because of the survivors?" Lou Fei’Er speculated, "Only a treehouse with survivors gets some form of protection?"
A treehouse with survivors would have some protected area where no blood patterns appear, looking like it was safeguarded.
"Or it might be the opposite." Xu Xin narrowed his eyes at the increasingly bright blood patterns on the ground, "Maybe treehouses without survivors aren’t targets for attack, thus directly ignored."
The treehouse was surrounded on all sides by increasingly bright blood patterns, while Lou Fei’Er didn’t know where to aim the control panel, her hand swiping back and forth to survey the situation.
Suddenly, from the direction of the lake, came a faint "crack" sound.
Not good! It’s the sound of cracking ice!
He immediately rushed to the window, looking out at the completely frozen lake.
The lake’s surface appeared very calm, but the subtle sound of ice layer cracking was caught by Xu Xin’s exceptionally keen hearing.
On the brain’s map, countless red dots slowly illuminated from the lake.
Then, the thick ice surface on the lake started to tremble, with cracking sounds "crack crack" echoing from different places, and the ice overall slowly turning white, seemingly about to breach.
However, to Xu Xin’s slight relief, none of these red dots were intensely bright. Judging by brightness, their strength seemed only slightly stronger than common beasts, level at best as low-tier mutated creatures, not yet mid-tier.
At least for now, the Lake Giant Python hadn’t appeared.
"Hmm?!" Just as he was about to relax, he was startled by a movement on the map.
A prominent red dot suddenly appeared in the Hilly Resource Zone three kilometers from his treehouse!
Not gradually emerging, but abruptly appearing with brightness akin to the Lake Giant Python and the creek-bottom crocodile!
He quickly dashed to another window, looking towards the Hilly Resource Zone.
Over there, the entire mountain was blanketed in snow.
What’s chilling to Xu Xin was that even at this distance, he could see the dense Red Mist shrouding the hilltops around the Hilly Resource Zone!
The Red Mist has appeared again!
Regarding the inside of the Hilly Resource Zone, he couldn’t see from here.
Xu Xin took a deep breath.
A mutation had occurred, and the giant beasts had once again appeared!
He knew little about the giant beasts, only that they had different factions, and even those hostile to the survivors wouldn’t attack them during the first phase.
Like the Lake Giant Python, and the Blood Pattern Giant appearing near the altar, they hadn’t launched any attacks, instead turning away, growling and intimidating him with apparent frustration.
According to the giant’s message, he could pretty much guess the origin of these giant beasts.
The pythons seemed unaffected by blood patterns—pure blood beasts, while Blood Pattern Giants seemed affected by both elements, somewhat resembling the underground monsters.
Yet, giants were humanoid, and humanoid creatures likely retained some high intelligence.
Maybe it’s related to them still being on the surface, not allocated underground.
Regarding the altar, he previously assumed it was a giant’s creation, a device meant to awaken them.
And those Blood Pattern Giants were its people, tasked with guarding the altar.
But it seems now, perhaps not.
Because he had already taken the core of the giant’s head, yet anomalies persisted, suggesting that giants and Red Mist should be opposed, and these Red Mist phenomena were strongly linked to blood pattern creatures.