"It looks trip is going to be a bust."
Ren Mian spoke up, "Generally, these widely circulated rumors are deliberately released by someone with an agenda. There are only two purposes: either they want to use other teams to weaken the Stone Scythe Giant Demon and reap the benefits themselves, or there’s no Stone Scythe Giant Demon at all. The person spreading the rumors just wants to lure enemies out of Olympia and ambush them in secret."
Ji Xinghuo couldn’t help but think, since Sister Ren got the news a few days earlier than everyone else, could it be targeting her?
Ren Mian seemed to guess what was on Ji Xinghuo’s mind and shook her head, "If it’s the second possibility, the target isn’t us."
"Why?" Ji Xinghuo asked.
"My enemies wouldn’t use such a troublesome method, they would take action directly in Olympia," Ren Mian said calmly.
Ji Xinghuo was startled.
What kind of place was Olympia?
In the Asia-Pacific Community alone, there were at least thirty Legendary Mutants permanently stationed there. The general in charge of defending Olympia, Huo Keji, was a Heavenly King Level Mutant with the moniker "Champion Marquis"!
Those daring to take direct action in Olympia must at least be Legendary Mutants, right?
And it’s "they", not just one!
Chi Zhonglin and Jiangnan Caiyi were also shocked by the information revealed in Ren Mian’s words, looking at each other in dismay. Chi Zhonglin’s voice was a bit hoarse, "Sister Ren, who are your enemies?"
"I’d rather not tell you for now," Ren Mian’s tone was very relaxed and confident, "Don’t worry, it has nothing to do with you."
Ji Xinghuo felt a sense of relief.
He trusted Ren Mian, but he also trusted himself. He constantly had his magnetic field sensing on and hadn’t detected anyone tracking or spying on them.
"Sister Ren, should we continue searching for the Stone Scythe Giant Demon?" Chi Zhonglin asked.
"Of course, we continue," Ren Mian analyzed, "It’s more likely that someone wants to benefit from the work of others. If we are lucky, maybe we could take the lead. However, if the situation doesn’t seem right, we’ll retreat immediately and return to Olympia."
In the following days, the team kept wandering in Peak Valley.
But other than encountering a few Alien Species, they didn’t find the Stone Scythe Giant Demon. Instead, they ran into several other Hunting Teams, from both the Asia-Pacific Community and other countries’ mutants.
More and more people were getting the message.
Ren Mian decided to search for a few more days before going back, not wanting to waste more time.
Ji Xinghuo suddenly stopped and looked up at the sky.
A gigantic rock was floating in the air, irregularly shaped like a jagged potato, wide horizontally and short vertically, more than a hundred meters at its broadest part. It was covered with trees and weeds, with vines hanging from the edges and the whole rock gently swaying with the wind, casting a large shadow below.
This was a small Floating Mountain.
There were many Floating Mountains in the Thousand Peak Abyss Forest, the largest being tens of thousands of meters wide, and medium-sized ones stretching over thousands of meters. They were all occupied by the Sky Feather Royal Court and converted into cities, with more than a thousand in total.
The remaining Floating Mountains were rather small, scattered all over the place.
There were many such small Floating Mountains in Peak Valley, but they were all small. Some of them were anchored to the ground with thick vines, which the Stone Scythe Demon herds would climb to claim the mountains as their own.
However, this one had no master.
It wasn’t connected to the ground and its position kept shifting.
"Xinghuo, what are you looking at it for?" Zhonglin looked up.
This Floating Mountain didn’t seem to have anything special about it. They had encountered several larger ones over the past few days with nothing remarkable to discover.
"There’s something on it," Ji Xinghuo pointed, unsure, "But I don’t know what it is..."
His magnetic field sensing revealed a natural cave on the side of the Floating Mountain, hidden by a large expanse of plants and vines.
The magnetic field in the cave was strange; the lines of magnetism formed a very regular vortex, unlike a biological magnetic field, yet seemingly alive.
Ji Xinghuo had never seen such a thing and couldn’t discern it clearly.
Upon hearing this, Zhonglin’s eyes lit up, as he had come to trust Ji Xinghuo’s perceptions greatly. If Ji Xinghuo said that there was something good, then it was highly likely to be true.
"Let’s go up and take a look!"
Ren Mian nodded in agreement.
However, looking at the Floating Mountain over three hundred meters off the ground, they felt somewhat challenged. None of them could fly, so how would they get up there?
"Let me give it a try," Ji Xinghuo quickly thought of a solution.
He took out a nano-rope and chose the heaviest arrow to tie one end of the rope to the tail securely.
The nano-rope was very thin and light, extending over a thousand meters, definitely long enough.
The problem was shooting the arrow up onto the Floating Mountain and making it stick—that would be difficult.
Ji Xinghuo didn’t shoot directly below the Floating Mountain but instead went over two hundred meters away. This reduced the effect of gravity, allowing the arrow to travel farther. He aimed diagonally upwards, his eyes looking up with a slight flash in his pupils, activating Myriad Phenomena.
The arrowhead moved back and forth as if searching for a suitable shooting point.
Suddenly, he let the arrow fly.
The arrow soared, dragging the long nano-rope behind like a tail. As it climbed higher, the rope’s speed rapidly decreased.
"It’s going to fail, but we can try a few more times," Chi Zhonglin followed the path of the arrow, which obviously wouldn’t reach the body of the Floating Mountain and was already falling.
The next second, he froze.
The arrow entangled perfectly with a vine hanging from the mountain.
Ji Xinghuo grabbed the nano-rope with both hands and skilfully shook it, immediately entwining it with the vine. After a few hard tugs, it was very secure.
"That worked?" Chi Zhonglin was dumbfounded.
Ji Xinghuo carried the nano-rope back to directly below the Floating Mountain and said, "I’ll go up first."