Chapter 51: Honglan of the Little Monkey Sect

Just moments ago, a gentle breeze was blowing, but in the blink of an eye, a super powerful gale swept through, howling ferociously. The force was so great that, given Catherine’s current physical state, she felt her footing was unsteady. On this bank of the Thanatos River, vegetation was sparse; now, exposed fragments of stone and yellow earth were whipped up by the wind, obscuring the sky and sun. Coupled with the black clouds overhead, the daylight grew increasingly dim, reducing visibility to a bare minimum. Following behind Ling Mo for about an hour, Catherine finally couldn’t hold back her question:

“Master! Are you sure we should keep going in weather like this?”

Ling Mo didn’t turn around. “I’m certain. Don’t be fooled by the strong wind—it’s inconvenient, but not truly dangerous. When the storm ends, that’s when the real dangers of the Monster Rainforest will show themselves.”

“The real dangers? Isn’t the Monster Rainforest dangerous enough already?”

“You think that a few so-called high-level monsters, along with swarms of disorganized mid- and low-level beasts, are enough for this rainforest to be called one of the continent’s Eight Deadliest Regions? As far as I know, a mage legion led by a Saint of Magic can flatten a mountain in an instant with their floating arcane city, right? With such power, why have the most important nations on the continent unanimously decided not to develop the Monster Rainforest? The location is prime; if they could open a single road through it, the significance and benefits would be epoch-making.”

Seeing Catherine deep in thought, Ling Mo smiled mysteriously. “Soon, you’ll glimpse the tip of the iceberg of this secret. Excited?”

“I am excited…” Catherine answered, conflicted. “But is it really okay for such core secrets to be exposed to the public? Won’t my livestream get shut down?”

“Just keep streaming. If it gets shut down, deal with it then.”

“Right!” Catherine thought it over and grinned mischievously. She spoke to the Magic-Eye Elf, “Everyone in the livestream, you’re about to witness national secrets! No, continental secrets! Maybe the next second, this channel will be banned, so treasure it while you can—send your gifts now!”

“Viewer ‘Archmage Loves Potatoes’ rewarded the streamer with ten Explosive Fireballs! Message: ‘You just started and already ask for gifts? I’ve never seen someone so shameless!’”

“Viewer ‘**** Heroine’ rewarded the streamer with fifteen Explosive Fireballs! Message: ‘Streamer, make the Magic-Eye Elf rotate slowly! The scenery there is spectacular!’”

“The last time I saw wind this strong was at the Drake Strait—waves were blown up to over a hundred meters high!”

“Keep bragging! If you keep it up, your house will fly a hundred meters high! You think I’ve never been to the Drake Strait?”

“You haven’t seen it, so you’re calling me a liar? I agree with the previous comment—I’ve seen waves that high myself! The worst part was, there were chunks of ice mixed in!”

“Enough about the Drake Strait! Focus and learn!”

“Wow, streamer, make the Magic-Eye Elf stop rotating! That last shot was amazing!”

“Yes, yes! Switch back! Boss, change the angle!”

“Change the angle! Aim at the sky~!”

“Aim at the sky +1”

“Aim at the sky +2”

“Aim at the sky +…”

Catherine quickly noticed the barrage of comments demanding she switch the view to the sky. She looked up in confusion and suddenly realized the gloomy, gray sky had completely transformed! The boundless black clouds above had begun to take on a purplish hue, and at their center appeared a gigantic hole—a perfectly round aperture rimmed with a warm, sunset-like red glow. Looking up through the hole, she did not see the usual blue sky, but instead a night sky, pitch black as ink! In that dense darkness, over a hundred stars sparkled, dazzlingly clear and brilliant. Catherine swore she had never seen such radiant stars in the night sky!

The gale continued to howl, the shape and position of the black clouds constantly shifting, but no matter how they changed, the central hole remained utterly motionless, maintaining its unnervingly perfect circle.

The stars shone ever brighter, their brilliance growing intense. Staring upward, Catherine found it easy to imagine their light melding into a single sheet. She shook her head, trying to clear her mind, and when she looked up again, she noticed that a large moon had appeared at the center of the hundred stars!

The three moons of the Noyafa Continent varied slightly in color, but all were shades of pale white. Yet the moon before her was not only several times larger than the others, its color was a strange, deep blue—as profound as the ocean itself.

Catherine was deeply shaken by this magnificent sight; she and countless viewers in her livestream were entranced by the beauty of the starlight, until Ling Mo’s voice sounded beside her, full of awe:

“Sometimes I wonder if you’re the Chosen One—or rather, the Chosen Woman. Storms like this are common in the Monster Rainforest, but seeing the fourth moon is rare. In all my years here, I’ve only seen it three times, counting this one.”

Catherine snapped out of her reverie, pointed at the sky, and stammered, “The fourth moon? How can there be a fourth moon? I thought there were only three on the continent?”

“As far as I know, the fact that Noyafa has four moons isn’t a secret among the continent’s upper echelons. In the past century, even those with limited connections have been able to hear about it. But the conditions for the fourth moon to appear are so stringent, and its impact on everyday life is so minimal, that no one bothers to update common knowledge.” Ling Mo stopped walking, instead leading Catherine to sit atop a high earthen mound. He pointed skyward and said, “The fourth moon is called ‘Nemus,’ meaning ‘illusory reality’ in ancient tongue. It doesn’t affect most places, but when it appears, many things in the Monster Rainforest that are usually mere illusions gain some degree of physical reality and manifest in this world.”

“Illusions? What kinds?” Catherine was nervous, rubbing her goosebump-covered skin, shivering as she exclaimed, “Hiss~~~! It’s so cold! Why did it suddenly get so cold?”

“The wind has stopped,” Ling Mo replied, addressing her question obliquely. He stopped gazing at the sky and pointed at the empty ground ahead. “Keep your eyes on it. Blink and you might miss something extraordinary.”

Hearing this, Catherine focused her gaze forward. At some point, the raging wind had vanished; the air was utterly still. In the blue moonlight and starlight, the ground began to shimmer with a faint mist, covering a modest area. The mist’s ‘expansion’ seemed slow, but in the next instant it spread everywhere, creating a dreamlike landscape. From all directions came faint laughter—sometimes like the whispers of girls in the next room, sometimes like the playful shouts of neighborhood children returning home.

She couldn’t locate the source of the sounds and wondered if she was hallucinating. She lowered her head to clean her ears, and when she looked up again, she saw that all around her, pairs of green grasses were embracing and spinning in dance!

These grasses weren’t tall; their stems were thick at the base and thin above, growing four narrow, symmetrical leaves. The two drooping leaves resembled human legs moving in dance, while the two upright leaves intertwined with another grass, looking much like lovers in a close embrace.

She felt as if she were seeing ghosts—grass dancing! Was this illusion really so convincing?

Catherine rubbed her eyes, hoping to see more clearly. Instead, when she lowered her hands, the dancing grasses hadn’t disappeared; instead, even more ‘companions’ had appeared! Lines of humanoid flowers marched by, laughing and playing.

These flowers were about ten centimeters tall, shaped much like humans, complete with arms, legs, and facial features. Their large, jet-black eyes held a strange allure. Each wore a huge purple hat, and, most peculiarly, between their pale purple legs dangled a tiny, wiggling appendage, which swung comically as they bounced along—making them appear even more absurd.

Apparently noticing Catherine’s gaze, the dancing wildflowers halted their play and marched together onto the open ground before her, forming a neat square formation. Led by a slightly taller flower, they all gazed up at the towering Catherine, smiling warmly, then bowed in unison, presenting their large purple ‘hats’ to her.

Seeing these bizarre little flowers and grasses behave so politely, Catherine felt an overwhelming sense of unreality. In the next moment, the hats of the humanoid flowers split open and fell away, forming tiny ‘lotus platforms.’ The flowers then stood upside down on their platforms, tumbling, dancing, and leaping in endless variety, like a human circus troupe—especially comical with their swinging appendages, amusingly grotesque.

(P.S. Forgot to mention, there will be a second chapter today! The author is polishing the details and will post it soon. Brothers, send your votes—at least cheer up the author stuck at home during the holidays!)