When system cheat becomes rampant!

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"Is it nightfall already?" Long Guocheng looked at his watch, "It's only three o'clock in the afternoon."

Xiang Beifei raised his head, speaking seriously, "In many areas of the wilderness beyond our lands, there is no absolute day and night, something isn't quite right."

The wilderness outside was notoriously peculiar, with many regions having weather and seasons completely different from Jiuzhou. Estimating the times of sunset and sunrise in the wilderness based on Jiuzhou's timing simply wouldn't work.

They had studied specific knowledge about areas inhabited by desolate beasts, like the snowfield they encountered earlier where darkness lasted only an hour, or the desert they passed yesterday where it never got dark. Such terrains were documented in books, all explored and confirmed by pioneers of the past. Discover stories at empire

However, this withered forest was something they had never seen before, and there were no records of it in any books.

As they pondered, the sky suddenly turned dark, as if hastening its pace, as though someone instantly turned off the lights, plunging the entire withered forest into complete darkness in an instant.

With the darkness, their visibility was greatly reduced, and most importantly, even from the air, they could no longer see where the trees emitted a faint green glow.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

After sight of the forest was lost, the sound of thunder became incredibly clear; though the purple lightning seemed tens of thousands of miles away, it also seemed as if it was exploding right by one's ear, very sharp and distinct.

A dim light emitted from Long Guocheng, with a white candle held in his hand. On the candle, instead of a flame, there was a bizarre eyeball.

But it was this eyeball that seemed to illuminate the surroundings for about twenty meters.

"If you can't see, look at the candle; it will help you see better in the darkness," Long Guocheng said.

"Won't lighting up in this darkness make us an easy target?" Di Sheng asked.

"No, only those I allow can supplement their vision with my candle. Outsiders can't see it, not even the desolate beasts."

This was one of Long Guocheng's more unique abilities, called [Witnessed by All]

In darkness, anyone's vision would be severely obstructed, but not Long Guocheng's. He had awakened the [Spotlight] system, often collecting others' gazes, possessing extremely powerful eyesight, capable of transforming sight into light.

The ability [Witnessed by All] meant that Long Guocheng stored the attention value he collected in the eyeball candle, and when others looked at this candle, they were essentially borrowing Long Guocheng's sight. This way, when looking into the darkness, they too could see clearly.

During training sessions in the past, they used Long Guocheng's eyeball candle for illumination at night.

But even with [Witnessed by All], visibility wasn't too far. Long Guocheng's candle could only illuminate about twenty meters in the darkness, still unable to reveal the traces of trees glowing faintly green.

"So do we continue forward or..." Cheng Xin'an asked Xiang Beifei.

The sudden onset of darkness made it difficult to decide whether to move on or retreat.

Rustle! Rustle! Rustle!

An inexplicable breeze seemed to come from nowhere, making the trees once again start to rustle strangely, even the ones underfoot appeared to be swaying.

Oooooh—

Oooooh—

A faint moaning sound rose again, particularly frightening in the nighttime.

Crack!

A strange noise suddenly came from the left, as if something had fallen down, hitting the trees and causing leaves to rustle loudly.

"What's that sound?"

Long Guocheng looked to the left, where his vision was the best. Others, because of the distance, could only see vague shapes, even with [Witnessed by All], not being able to get a full picture.

"There's a gap in the trees over there, as if a tree has vanished," Long Guocheng said, staring intently into the darkness.

"Should we go check it out?" Ma Ziqian asked.

On the side, Cheng Xin'an spoke, "It's not wise to check it out at this time."

The situation was already appearing quite strange, with visibility too poor, and in the darkness, it was hard to tell what might be out there.If they rashly went to investigate and trouble befell them, it would be even worse.

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They also agreed with Cheng Xin'an's words and were about to move in the direction away from the sound, but then another eerie "rustle" came from there!

"It seems like another tree has fallen," Long Guocheng said oddly.

Rustle!

Rustle!

Several sounds followed in quick succession all around them, as if something were chopping down trees. The trees fell very fast, and the sounds did not come from the same direction, nor could the direction be determined.

Now they could not make up their minds and all turned to look at Xiang Beifei.

"Let's check it out," Xiang Beifei said.

With no way out in sight, it wasn't safe to keep going without figuring out what was happening.

Just as a sound echoed from behind them, closer this time, they cautiously began to move towards it. Soon, they saw the crown of a tree suddenly fall, leaving a gap where it used to be.

Soaring above the gap and looking down, they quickly found themselves in shock.

The fallen tree had disappeared!

"Was there a tree here just now?" Di Sheng asked in a low voice.

"Yes," Li Zimu nodded.

Everyone had clearly seen the tree fall. Logically, even if it fell, it should have hit other trees, but the surrounding trees all looked normal without any signs of being struck.

Xiang Beifei carefully descended to the ground below and at that spot, there was a conspicuously fresh pit, as if someone had forcibly yanked out the tree.

But where was the tree that had been pulled out?

Xiang Beifei could not be sure, but soon he spotted a footprint near the pit, still very fresh, clearly made after the tree had been pulled out.

It was a human footprint!

Xiang Beifei felt something was amiss.

"What's the situation?" Li Zimu and the others followed him down.

"The tree is gone," Xiang Beifei reported.

"The tree is gone?"

They quickly noticed the pit and looked astonished.

How could a tree simply vanish into thin air?

In the dark forest, the situation seemed especially bizarre. The night breeze rustled the leaves, and the sound grew clearer and clearer. For some reason, everyone suddenly felt as if something lurked in the darkness, waiting to strike.

"This is strange. The trees here seem to be regaining their greenness," Xi Keyao whispered.

They all looked around and then realized something was off.

The withered trees in the forest had looked like deadwood before, only starting to regain their greenness when they came within about a meter of them. Now, however, the distant withered trees seemed to be slowly coming back to life, some from their roots, becoming moist, and others were beginning to hold up their leaves.

The dry branches and leaves were slowly turning green. The process wasn't as fast as before, but it still seemed very eerie. Moreover, their proximity no longer seemed to directly green the trees, as if their passing no longer had much effect on them.

"The pattern on this tree looks quite peculiar."

Xi Keyao examined the locust tree closest to her, puzzled. The trunk had yellow scars, those dry blemishes gradually plumping up with moisture, forming a distinct outline.

This outline was strange, with two jagged lines slowly protruding. Whether due to increasing hydration or some other reason, these lines even became more defined.

Xi Keyao felt her vision was fading fast. She quickly glanced at Long Guocheng's "Witnessed by All" to replenish her sight before focusing on the tree again.

However, just as she shifted her gaze back, the two lines on the trunk suddenly opened up, becoming a pair of dry, yellow-green eyes staring intently at Xi Keyao.