Chapter 49 - Exploring the Great Mountain

Autumn deepened, and temperatures began to drop continuously while daylight decreased day by day. The trees in the forest had almost all shed their green, appearing a dull yellow from afar, like an age-old photograph.At the same time, leaves began to fall in large numbers, covering the forest floor and creating a golden road that was breathtakingly beautiful and mesmerizing.

Pandora often sat or stood on a small hill, expressionlessly staring at the forest for long stretches of time, lost in thought.

Richard did not lose himself in it like Pandora. He was very aware that all seemingly beautiful scenes were merely basic physiological changes. For instance, changes in temperature and light inhibited chlorophyll synthesis in the leaves, reducing chlorophyll levels while increasing levels of xanthophyll and carotene, turning them yellow. Additionally, an increase in the plant hormones abscisic acid and ethylene led to leaf fall.

The same logic was unknown to the forest animals, but they too were not mesmerized by the autumn hues. To them, the autumn scenery held no aesthetic appeal, their concerns more about the reduction in food due to dropping temperatures, which led to a survival crisis.

Autumn was here, would winter be far behind?

Winter posed a great survival test for all forest creatures. Under these conditions, whether herbivores or carnivores, all began to grow restless…

Thus, the date for the Beast Tide came once more.

It was night.

The full moon hung high in the sky, casting a greyish silver light that seemed to lay a thin veil over the earth.

Looking closely, one could see under this veil dense clusters of black shadows, these were frenzied animals furiously attacking each other, biting and clawing marks into one another.

Not far from the small hill where the Black Castle stood, a giant mountain over a hundred meters tall loomed with steep walls and a flat peak, looking somewhat like a black tombstone half-buried in the soil. The animals fighting on it were the most frenzied, most glowing red-eyed, fearlessly and madly ripping each other apart, even in death not letting go of their adversary’s body.

Suddenly, from inside this mountain, waves of invisible spiritual power rapidly spread, sweeping through half of the forest.

The already frenzied animals suddenly became more enraged, more ferocious, more bloodthirsty, completely losing their sanity to become Blood Flesh Puppets dominated by the spiritual waves. Under some kind of guidance, they started sweeping outward from the mountain, ready to flatten everything around, eliminating all obstacles.

This guidance was so strong that it involved tens, hundreds, thousands, even tens of thousands of animals, transforming into a frenzied army of beasts roaring as they marched in all directions.

The silence of the small hill where the Black Castle stood did not last long, as rustling noises soon began to emanate from the foot of the mountain.

In the clearing in front of the castle, Pandora glanced at Gregory.

In his human form, Gregory confidently said, “Don’t worry, I’ll show them who’s boss.” With those words, his body rapidly enlarged, and in the blink of an eye, he transformed from a middle-aged man into a giant dragon more than ten meters long, spreading its wings and soaring with a roar.

Pandora, expressionless, uttered a sound, “Scare!”

Scare? What did that mean?

Gregory thought—he had noticed that recently Pandora particularly liked to use this syllable to express meaning, but it was very difficult to understand what specifically she meant. Most of the time, it required leveraging the context, Pandora’s mood, and a bit of mysticism to figure it out.

After thinking for a long while, Gregory still couldn’t guess whether Pandora was expressing satisfaction or dissatisfaction. Confused, he flew into the air and clearly saw a mass of frenzied animals rushing up from below the hill.

“Forget it, I’ll stop thinking. I will just deal with the matter at hand. Last time I nearly messed up, and if I don’t do well this time, I might really get beaten. Sigh!” Gregory thought wearily, and the next moment, he opened his mouth and a blast of flames shot out.

“Whoosh!”

With an exhaling sound, flames almost materialized, striking down like a huge red saber, ruthlessly slicing through the black tide of frenzied animals below the hill. Wherever it went, there were continuous screams followed by immediate annihilation.

When power becomes an absolute oppression, even great numbers lose their meaning.

Gregory began his slaughter, his cold, merciless slaughter, and then… his boring slaughter, sighing as he killed, daydreaming as he killed.

“Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!”

The flames continuously poured down, eliminating group after group of frenzied animals, but there were always more to fill their places, endlessly rushing forward.

“Looks like it’s going to be a busy night.” Gregory yawned, unable to help himself, and another burst of flame shot out, “Whoosh!”

“Sigh, why did I choose to live here in the first place? Wouldn’t it be better to move somewhere else? Whoosh!”

“And where have all the other dragons hidden? I haven’t seen a shadow of another dragon for so long. Otherwise, calling a few more dragons over to help, chatting while spewing fire, wouldn’t be so boring. Whoosh!”

“According to Pandora, that guy called Richard said he could use this Beast Tide to figure out its origin and solve it once and for all. I wonder if that’s true or not. Whoosh!”

In the Black Castle, within a room on the first floor.

Richard was sitting cross-legged on a wooden bed, having entered deep meditation. His body trembled, and his consciousness rapidly emerged from his body.

The consciousness ascended, breaking through the top of the castle to reach mid-air, where Richard saw Gregory muttering to himself as he breathed fire.

Down in the castle’s courtyard, Pandora stood with an icy expression, watching all around. Spotting a few who had escaped to the hilltop, she immediately leaped over and smashed them with a punch. Then, looking up, she shouted unsatisfactorily at Gregory, telling him he had made another mistake.

Gregory grumbled and started to intensify the slaughter.

Watching for a moment, Richard shook his head, not forgetting his main task. He controlled his consciousness to fly towards the nearby large mountain. During the flight, he deliberately wrapped his spiritual power around his body to prevent it from being eroded by the strange spiritual power fluctuations inside the mountain.

Soon, Richard’s consciousness arrived at the mountain surface, discovering a blood-soaked scene; the ground seemed as if it had been drenched in fresh blood, one could only imagine how many animals had fought and bled here previously.

Glancing over the animal corpses scattered everywhere, Richard controlled his consciousness to start sinking, gradually merging into the soil below.