ATFBETIBM 176.1

**Content warning: This chapter contains descriptions of animal deaths.***

At the end of the tunnel was a winding diamond path. The area’s layout was similar to that of the Survival Zone, where there was a huge diamond slate overhead.

Beyond the diamond path was a large forest of thorny roses.

From a distance, the thorny roses, which do not fit in with the surrounding area, were unusually bright and dazzling, like a sea of red.

There was no other sound in the tunnel behind him, and based on the speed the other two were going, it will take a while for them to exit.

Without waiting for them, Bai Lixin continued on his way.

As he passed through the winding diamond path and drew nearer to the forest of thorny roses, the expression in Bai Lixin’s eyes grew gloomy.

The “roses” in front of him were not roses at all, but birds pierced by thorns.

The forest of thorns grew wildly, and on each of the thorns was a bird that was pierced.

Blood flowed from the wounds, staining the white feathers red.

Thorn by thorn, the area was densely packed.

From a distance, the birds looked like large, bright roses.

The appearance of these birds was no different from that of those in the cave, and after a rough count, Bai Lixin estimated that there were hundreds of thousands of bird corpses in this dense thorn forest.

Some of them had their eyes closed, as if they were sleeping quietly inside.

Some had their heads tilted up, their pointed beaks slightly open, as if they were singing.

There was a fairy tale about a thornbill that flew on and on since birth until it found the thorn forest and flew through it without hesitation.

The sharp thorns pierced its body, and as the blood drained from it, it sang a final song until its last breath.

This fairy tale has since been interpreted in many ways, some of which are about love in the thorny forest, where the thorn bird was replaced by a man and woman who are desperate to be with each other, regardless of their lives.

Others say that the thorny forest represents freedom, faith, ideals, etc.

But whatever the fairy tale may be, Bai Lixin has never seen such a tragic sight in reality.

As knowledgeable as he was, he just stood frozen in place, unable to describe the shock in his heart with words.

From the moment he realized the roses were birds, his shock had not dissipated.

He was shocked by the persistence of these unknown white birds who pecked at the mountain year after year at the price of their lives and by the tragedy of these birds who gave their lives to the thorn forest without any repercussions.

Even with hundreds of thousands of corpses in front of him, he did not feel afraid, but a raging heat rose in his chest, almost engulfing his entire being.

This thorny forest was so dense that there was no way to get through it, and only with the help of the corpses could he pass.

Bai Lixin paid his respects to these birds before taking a deep breath and jumping onto the thorn bush.

As soon as he jumped up, a huge suction force suddenly came up from the side, and Bai Lixin’s body immediately fell back.

Fortunately, he managed to hold on to the birds’ bodies so that he did not get stuck in the thorny bush below.

He looked at his hands in surprise and tried to clench them into fists.

It was surprising that all his strength had disappeared in this thorny forest.

Not only did this forest have a strong suction pressure, but it also had the power to nullify all abilities.

No wonder the birds had been impaled here.

To reach the innermost area of Diamond Mountain, they had to pass through the thorny forest and kept getting impaled on the thorns. These birds kept struggling through it with the help of the corpses of their predecessors.

Bai Lixin took a deep breath and carefully walked through the thorns.

He did not run this time because of the effects of hyper gravity and because he did not want to desecrate these tragic birds.

It took him five hours to walk out of this vast forest of thorns.

The moment he passed through the thorny forest, the feeling of hyper gravity disappeared from his body.

It was four o’clock in the afternoon, and Bai Lixin noticed that the “sun” overhead had no intention of setting.

The light remained unchanged.

When he looked behind him, he saw two small dots at the end of the path he had come from. It was Zhao Nan and Chi Yan. As they were too far away, he did not wait for the two men but chose to continue.

Ahead of him was another winding diamond path, and half an hour later, when he crossed it, he once again stopped in his tracks.

In front of him was supposed to be a sea, but the waters were filled with countless bird skeletons. The endless sea had become a flatland that was now a sea of skeletons.

* Jingwei tried to reclaim the land, but what she failed to do, these unknown white birds had done.

*The idiom refers to a story about the youngest daughter of Emperor Yan Shennong, who drowned in the East China Sea. She turned into a Jinwei bird and, as revenge, tried to reclaim the sea by filling it with sticks and stones.

If the previous scene was described as shocking, then this scene left him unable to find any adjectives.

At the far end, the hazy and blurred diamond mountains were already in sight, and it was only a matter of crossing this “sea”.

Bai Lixin was not in a hurry this time though. He wanted to explore and find answers to some questions.

He kneeled and picked up a bird’s skull from one of the many skeletons and examined it.

He looked at it intently, as if he could see the bird’s life through the bones.

Bai Lixin stared at the bird’s skull for several minutes, so much so that his eyes began to glaze over, before letting go and turning his head to pick up another skull for observation.

From the skeletons around, he was basically certain that these were the same birds as those in the diamond mountains and the thorn forest before.

For some reason, he suddenly developed a great interest in this bird species.

What kind of birds were these that could fill the sea with their bodies, use their bodies to step through the thorny forest, and then finally peck through an entire diamond mountain with their beaks?

Do these birds have a name? What were they called? Where did they come from?

Was this a genetic instinct imprinted in their blood, or did they have some other purpose?

Bai Lixin was lost in thought, and his fingers unconsciously caressed the skull.

All of a sudden, he looked startled, and he looked down at the skull in his arms in surprise.

His fingertips caressed the skull carefully, and as if he had discovered something, he picked up the skull from earlier and looked at it again.

After comparing the two, he released them at the same time and grabbed a third from the ground.

He repeated this hundreds of times before he finally seemed to find the answer, and the skeletons were carefully placed back in the pile.

When he looked at the skeletons in front of him again, his pupils showed a complex look that could not be described in words.

Above his head was a crystal clear diamond slate, and the sunlight was shining from nowhere. Bai Lixin let out a long breath and slowly stood up before continuing to move forward.

Only, his eyes changed this time, from the initial curiosity to an unusual determination.

As he walked, Bai Lixin looked down at the skeletons at his feet.

Every time he passed by a place where the skeletons were ‘cluttered’, he would also stop and bend down to set them right.

The time on the taskbar kept moving, and as the numbers slowly jumped to 00:00:01, he had entered the next day

He had been walking in this sea of skeletons for more than ten hours, but he did not feel the least bit tired.

He couldn’t see Chi Yan and Zhao Nan behind him, so it is estimated that these two were still trapped in the thorny forest.

But with those bird corpses as a shield, the two of them should not have any problem coming here, it was just a matter of how long it took.

The area was extremely quiet, there was no sea breeze, no sea birds, just the “click-click-click” of Bai Lixin’s feet on the bones and his light breathing.

It was another 24 hours before he saw the end of the sea and the end of those Diamond Mountains.

He could not count the number of skeletons he saw on the shore.

They were stacked one on top of the other, one right next to the other, layer upon layer. Even his eyes were dazzled.

With another soft sigh, Bai Lixin moved on.

In front of him was the next Diamond Mountain, which he once felt was unattainable. He had felt its loftiness from a distance.

But even if it were taller, it would only be a paper tiger in front of Bai Lixin, for a tunnel had been carved out of the Diamond Mountain in front of him, and Bai Lixin could pass through the narrow tunnel without much effort.

The tunnel was still filled with countless bird corpses, but these had become fossils, and the fossils were placed at both ends of the path, as if they were the silent guardians of the tunnel.

Bai Lixin paused for a moment to look at the fossils before moving on.

As he moved on, the light could no longer shine through the diamonds. After walking for about half an hour, the tunnel before him became dark.

He run for a day and night before he finally saw a light ahead.

After another hour, he finally left the tunnel.

The moment the blazing light came, he vaguely saw the figure of a man appear before him.

The light stung his eyes, and Bai Lixin smiled to himself as he closed them consciously.

Was he missing someone to the point of seeing hallucinations?

However, a firm yet warm embrace told him that it was not a hallucination.

Bai Lixin froze, wanting to open his stinging eyes to look up at the man’s figure when that person’s slightly calloused hand was placed on the back of his head.

Bai Lixin heard the man sigh and a familiar saying: “It’s been a long time.”

In that instant, the blood in Bai Lixin’s entire body seemed to start boiling.

His fingers were a little stiff and tense from excitement, and he buried his head in the man’s broad chest. He clenched the other man’s sleeve and, in a small, choked voice, said, “Mmm.”

The man’s voice sounded hoarse as he chuckled, and he gently patted Bai Lixin’s back, soothing this little beast that rarely showed a fragile expression.

The two just maintained this posture, one not letting go and the other not wanting to leave.

Neither said anything, but each understood the other.

No words were needed, not even a look.