Chapter Fifteen: The Dead Zone

Two days had passed since Tinali left after visiting a friend. With nothing else to do, Lin Feng had thoroughly wiped out all the monster camps in the nearby rainforest.

The refinement progress of his Dexterity attribute had reached level 4, and Lin Feng felt his control over his body had become remarkably exaggerated. Crossing a narrow plank bridge was now trivial; if he returned to his previous life, he could probably dominate any acrobatics audition with ease.

Naturally, the most noticeable change was his improved reaction speed—like upgrading from a 2G network to a seamless 5G connection.

Staring at the myriad battle attributes on his body, Lin Feng estimated that if a fight broke out, his combat ability would be extraordinarily powerful. As for Xiaobai, given Lin Feng’s steady and unflappable nature, he intended to keep it as a well-behaved mascot with little presence—just eating and sleeping daily. At least, that was his plan.

Seeing that his level no longer increased, Lin Feng breathed a sigh of relief. He knew this was because the Grass God, unable to pull him into the dream realm, had chosen to give up for the time being.

After all, the true form of Nahida was still within the Pure Good Palace, and aside from some Ranaruo who avoided human settlements, she had no one to command.

Feeling increasingly sympathetic toward the Grass God, Lin Feng decided to meet her before leaving Sumeru to see if he could help. After all, his level had soared from 19 to 36, and the Grass God and her statue had played a vital role in that progress.

As usual, after breakfast, Lin Feng chose to enter the rainforest to complete his daily patrol.

“Help! Is there anyone who can help me?”

To his surprise, not long after entering the rainforest, Lin Feng heard a cry for help.

Assisting stranded travelers was part of a ranger’s duty, so Lin Feng swiftly headed in the direction of the voice.

“I’m Lin Feng, the ranger here. Sir, please calm down. What happened?”

Revealing his identity immediately, Lin Feng saw the source of the call—a middle-aged Liyue merchant dressed in a long robe with jet-black hair.

“Oh, young man, please hurry and help!”

“My daughter, my daughter was taken by monsters—”

The distraught merchant kept repeating these words in a panic.

“Please calm down!” Lin Feng released some elemental energy, infused with a hint of dreamlike grass element, successfully helping the flustered merchant regain some composure.

“In which direction? What distinguishing features? What kind of monster took her?”

Knowing this wasn’t the time for idle chatter, Lin Feng asked the now calmer merchant a few crucial questions as briefly as possible.

“Just ahead on this path!”

The middle-aged man realized the urgency and quickly explained the situation.

“About half an hour ago, the two of us were driving a horse-drawn cart past a dark forest when suddenly a group of mechanical monsters emitting black smoke burst out. The packhorses carrying us got spooked and ran off in different directions!”

“My daughter is from Liyue and about your age. Please, you must bring her back!”

“I—I can give you the entire caravan’s wealth. Please save Xiaolu!”

“I—I’m begging you on my knees!”

As the merchant was about to kneel, Lin Feng reached out and grabbed his arm to stop him.

“No need for that. We can discuss rewards later. I’m also from Liyue, sir. You’re making me age prematurely like this. I will do my best to bring your daughter back. Please stay put; I’ll come back for some official record-keeping.”

After understanding the situation, Lin Feng felt it was somewhat troublesome. He instructed the merchant not to wander off and rushed into the rainforest at full speed.

From the merchant’s description, they had probably encountered a “Dead Zone” in the rainforest. Though it seemed they’d only passed through the edge—otherwise, the merchant wouldn’t have escaped.

However, his daughter likely followed the frightened packhorse deeper into the Dead Zone.

Having studied under Tinali for some time, Lin Feng had updated knowledge about Dead Zones.

First, such phenomena weren’t common in reality and rarely appeared on the edges of rainforests.

Second, Dead Zones were extremely dangerous for ordinary people. Even ignoring the shadow monsters inside, merely staying within one would steadily drain life force. Staying over half an hour could be fatal; only those with a Divine Eye could resist longer.

Clearing a Dead Zone required attacking its tendrils with grass-elemental power. After defeating all the shadow monsters, the exposed core—the Dead Zone tumor—could be destroyed.

Recalling this information, Lin Feng estimated the merchant’s daughter had been inside the Dead Zone for about half an hour. His heart sank, and he quickened his pace.

He silently prayed that the monsters within wouldn’t be overwhelmingly strong.

The strongest creatures in the Dead Zone were often projections from the ley lines. If they were low-level fungi beasts, clearing the zone wouldn’t be difficult. But if unlucky, they might encounter high-level relic dragon beasts, hilichurl chiefs, and other dangerous monsters.

As Lin Feng pressed forward, he noticed the light around him dimming. The sky and forest emanated an ominous purplish-red glow. The once buzzing insects and chirping birds had vanished, leaving a deathly silence in the air.

They had reached the Dead Zone.

A chill ran through Lin Feng as he felt the corrupting, ominous power surrounding him. A wave of deep-seated revulsion surged in his mind—this was a force opposed to all life.

Just upon entering the Dead Zone, Lin Feng sensed imminent danger. Agilely, he leapt sideways and backwards, evading an incoming laser beam. Turning around, he faced the attackers.

Three mechanical constructs resembling centipedes with triangular heads gleamed with light, clearly charging their next attack.

“Entangle!” “Ground Spikes!”

Without holding back, Lin Feng launched a full-strength attack with entangling vines and ground spikes.

After training, the vines had grown as thick as an adult’s waist. They sprouted from all directions, wrapping around the centipede-like constructs. Dense yet sturdy wooden spikes erupted from beneath, stabbing the bound relic automatons.

“Hmm?!”

Lin Feng was somewhat incredulous. Though the relic automatons were entangled and took damage from the wooden spikes, they still managed to move.

The relic automatons blasted the surrounding vines with lasers, spinning their elongated bodies like drills, burrowing into the soil, and disappearing underground.

Having experienced this many times in the game, Lin Feng quickly jumped away.

The next moment, the three relic automatons burst from the very spot where Lin Feng had stood. They unleashed indiscriminate laser attacks that lit up the dim environment like miniature suns. The intense heat even scorched the surrounding air, emitting a burnt odor.

“Perfect opportunity!”

Familiar with their mechanics, Lin Feng didn’t rush to evade the terrifying assault. Instead, he condensed pure grass-element energy into sharp arrows and fired at the exposed cores of the three relic constructs from afar.

“Sizzle...”

An intermittent crackling sound came from the relic automatons as orange-yellow electric arcs wrapped around their bodies, rendering them temporarily paralyzed.

Seizing the chance, Lin Feng compressed the grass element in the environment and hurled a maximum-output grass elemental bomb at the center of the three constructs.

“Boom!”

The constructs trembled and turned to black ashes, vanishing into the air.