"Little A, what's the temperature here?" Shen Muyu asked, looking at the scenic area gate in front of her with the words "Huangshan Scenic Area" printed on it.
"32 degrees."
That doesn't make sense!
Just an hour ago, the outside was a barren wasteland with an average temperature of 60 or 70 degrees Celsius. There's no reason why it would suddenly turn into this.
Shen Muyu extended his mental energy, and even at its limit, he couldn't detect anything amiss.
However, this is the biggest problem: there is not a trace of living creatures or zombies here, even though there are hundreds of cars parked in the parking lot inside the gate.
"Xiao A, let's drive on, let's get away from here." Shen Muyu said with a frown. Anyway, we can skip this scenic spot with this road, there's no need to risk going in.
"Yes, Master." Little A immediately drove forward, while Shen Muyu used his mental power to observe the surrounding situation.
"Master, there's no road ahead." Little A's tone had never been so serious.
How could there be no road? Shen Muyu suddenly opened her eyes, but the road in front of her was indeed blocked by a mountain, disappearing abruptly.
"Little A, drive slowly, and stop if you feel any impact," Shen Muyu said softly. In her mental world, this was a path, so why was there no path when she opened her eyes?
Little A crashed into the mountain ahead at a snail's pace of ten miles per hour.
Bang!
The car had a close encounter with the mountain, but fortunately the speed was not fast and there was not much of a feeling.
Shen Muyu closed his eyes and released his mental energy again, but he still saw a path in front of him, as if he was trapped by something.
"Little A, let's go back." Shen Muyu felt that the situation would most likely be the same, but they had to try anyway.
Bang!
The road they came from was also blocked by a mountain that suddenly appeared. Although Xiao A drove cautiously, it was still impossible to avoid it. The mountain only became visible after they crashed into it.
Shen Muyu and Da Bai were both wearing seatbelts, so they only leaned forward slightly, while Zhan Yi took a few steps forward.
"Sigh, Little A, let's go into the scenic area," Shen Muyu said with a sigh.
Now, only that scenic area between the two mountains is accessible; the rest is either mountains or fences. The troublemakers must be inside; we can't just stay trapped here.
Xiao A went back the way she came and carefully drove in after seeing the entrance to the scenic area.
"Congratulations on entering the special area. If you successfully complete the mission, the reward mileage will be reduced by 600 kilometers."
"A special area? 600 kilometers would take Little A eight or nine hours to drive there in a panic. Now we don't have to rush so much." Shen Muyu muttered to herself as she observed the surrounding scenery. She had originally been worried that wasting too much time here would affect the progress.
Because the road conditions were varied and there were always small groups of zombies coming to add obstacles, the travel speed wasn't very fast, but the 600 kilometers was still quite manageable.
"Xiao A, try to see if you can still leave." Shen Muyu saw that the surrounding scenery had not changed, so he asked Xiao A to exit and try.
"Master, there's a resistance preventing us from getting out." Little A accelerated at the entrance of the scenic area, but the resistance increased with it, as if an invisible hand was pressing down on the car.
"I guess I won't be able to get out without clearing the level, but how do I clear it? They didn't even give me a condition!" Shen Muyu sighed and closed her eyes again. She planned to use her mental power to investigate again to see if there was anything different.
"Holy crap!" Shen Muyu was startled by the surrounding scenery as soon as she released her mental energy. She quickly opened her eyes, but to the naked eye, it still looked peaceful and serene, a far cry from what her mental energy detected.
Slowly exhaling, Shen Muyu fell silent again, his spiritual energy slowly spreading out.
"Which of these two worlds is real? Why is it like this?"
At this moment, Shen Muyu's mental world was filled with gloom, and the entire scenic area was shrouded in mist. Looking up, a red crescent moon hung in the sky, making the surroundings look as if stained with blood.
As the spiritual energy spread outward, the once still, emerald green grass began to sway in the red light.
boom!
Just as Shen Muyu was carefully probing, a flower with a strange smile appeared in Shen Muyu's "eyes," and then a wisp of black energy floated over along with her spiritual power.
Shen Muyu immediately separated a strand of energy to try and envelop the black energy, but the two exploded when they collided.
The scattered black energy continued to surge forward, and Shen Muyu's speed in severing his mental energy was far slower than it.
Fortunately, the bracelet on her wrist emitted a white light barrier that completely caught the black energy, and then they both disappeared.
This was the first time Shen Muyu had seen the entire workings of the guardian bracelet, but there was no time to think about that now; recharging the bracelet was the priority.
Shen Muyu did not extend his mental power again, but carefully recalled the strange flower from before.
The colors are very vibrant. Although there is only one flower, the petals are multicolored, which is somewhat out of place with the dark surrounding environment. Moreover, the stamen in the center is a somewhat blurred human face. It is not clear, but you can intuitively feel that it is smiling.
If I had to describe it, it's somewhat like a half-finished human face sculpture sculpted by a glowing hand; it has all the facial features, but it doesn't look very realistic.
"Try another way." After making up her mind, Shen Muyu changed direction again, but was interrupted by a flower halfway through.
"I can't try anymore." Shen Muyu stopped after reinforcing the bracelet. She needed to conserve some energy; she couldn't just use it all up at the very beginning.
"Master, someone is coming," Little A suddenly reminded.
"Oh?" Without using his mental power, Shen Muyu opened the screen and zoomed in. Sure enough, two people holding fire hammers were running towards them quickly.
Shen Muyu used his mental power to "see" again, and sure enough, the two people were not inside. It seemed like they were from two different worlds, but he didn't know which one was real.
Shen Muyu left the car where it was and didn't move, but the two people probably sensed something was wrong and ran over.
"There are people inside," a rather thin-looking woman whispered. Shen Muyu couldn't hear her at first, but Xiao A relayed the message.
"Looks like another unlucky one. Let's hurry over there and ignore her." The bearded man next to him glanced at her and immediately pulled the woman away.
"Wait a minute." Shen Muyu put on his mood glasses and called out to the two of them.
But the bearded man ignored her and pulled the woman, who was about to turn around, to keep running forward.
"Little A, go after them," Shen Muyu said as she put on her raincoat. It was a bit hot, but it was safe.