"If the guidance isn’t wrong, the place we’re standing right now is the Erald Forest."
Ye Bai answered the paper figurine with a strange expression.
After activating the branch of the World Tree, a fog-covered exploration map appeared in her consciousness—a red dot marking her location and a green dot marking the destination. Right now, in Ye Bai’s vision, the green and red dots overlapped.
In other words, Ye Bai’s current location was the Erald Forest.
But… looking at the barren land around her, there wasn’t the slightest trace of anything that could be called a "forest," let alone the legendary Erald Forest, ho to the high elves.
Moreover, this was the spot Kraken had teleported her to. Did Kraken know this was the Erald Forest? Had she chosen this place because of the World Tree branch? Or was there so other reason?
As the forr pet of the God King, Kraken might be immature in mind, but her obsession with "eating fireballs" suggested the God King had left behind more than a few contingencies.
But if this really was the Erald Forest, why did it look like this?
"Is it because of the war with the Infernal Clan?" Ye Bai turned to the paper figurine.
She recalled the information he had once provided about the Erald Forest—how the records described "magma scorching the erald, and the forest losing its forr peace."
"According to the records, the war lasted a long ti. In the end, the Infernal Clan retreated, the Erald Forest closed, but the war left behind permanent gates that could never be erased." The paper figurine paused. "But what’s strange is… I don’t sense any traces of an Infernal gate here."
"Exactly." Ye Bai found this odd as well.
It was strange that the place was barren yet showed no obvious signs of destruction—no forest, no scorched earth from war, no lingering Infernal energy. It was just like most of the desolate, lonely landscapes she’d encountered in the Divine Realm.
The paper figurine mused, "Could it be that after the Erald Forest closed, it moved? Moved here?"
"That’s not impossible…" Ye Bai murmured.
The paper figurine wasn’t wrong—the Erald Forest could move. More accurately, its entrance could shift.
In the lore, the Erald Forest was a magical woodland born from the World Tree, ho to the high elves, one of the Divine Realm’s most powerful races. It had a unique spatial nature—its entrance could appear in the depths of any forest, and even its internal layout was ever-changing.
If the elves willed it, they could relocate the entrance. But thinking this over, Ye Bai hesitated. "But as far as I rember… the Erald Forest can only manifest in a forest bio."
In her mory of the ga’s chanics, the Erald Forest was hardcoded to only generate in forest terrain.
But she wasn’t entirely sure her knowledge still applied. This was a fully imrsive, reality-altering version of Infinite Worlds. She only knew the original lore—this Divine Realm had evolved on its own, and discrepancies were possible.
Instead of arguing, the paper figurine seed to have an epiphany. "Ah, so there must be so hidden factor we’re unaware of."
Ye Bai gave a wry smile. "Or maybe my mory is just wrong…"
For a mont, she wondered if she’d influenced the paper figurine too much by having him teach classes to Bai Ye City’s professionals. Had he started adopting her "the Lord is always right" attitude?
Then again, recalling their past interactions, he might have been the first to say "Lady Bai Ye is correct"—probably just to trick her into accepting quests.
The paper figurine didn’t press the issue, steering back to the main topic. "Whatever the reason, perhaps we should find a way to verify it first."
"Right." His suggestion pulled Ye Bai back on track.
She decided to test the simplest, most straightforward thod to confirm whether this was truly the Erald Forest marked on her map—
Ye Bai looked around for Autofis, intending to ride him and scout the area while checking if the map’s marker had shifted.
But when she looked up, she spotted Autofis standing motionless a few hundred ters away, head lowered as if intently studying sothing.
Had he found sothing unusual?
Ye Bai’s eyes brightened. Autofis had always seed ordinary but was full of surprises—maybe he’d already noticed sothing out of place.
She quickened her pace toward him, but even when she was within ten ters, Autofis remained completely still.
Normally, he’d at least react when she approached.
Then she noticed it—right in front of Autofis was a dried-up, yellowish-brown plant. He seed utterly absorbed in staring at it.
Frowning, Ye Bai grew wary of the withered plant.
But the mont she got close enough to see Autofis’ face clearly, she froze.
The gray donkey stood before the plant, eyes glazed over, nostrils faintly puffing out… snores.
If Ye Bai’s understanding of Autofis wasn’t mistaken, the reason he hadn’t moved wasn’t because he was observing anything—it was because he’d fallen asleep.
So she used [Insight] on the plant.
[Withered Unknown Plant]
Grade: Crude
Condition: Wilted
Description: A common withered plant
"……"
Confirming the plant wasn’t so anomalous creature or poisonous specin, Ye Bai sighed in exasperation. A complete false alarm.
Just as she was about to call out to him, Autofis’ snoring stopped. His dull eyes suddenly regained focus.
"Slurp… Hee-haw!"
Awake now, Autofis licked his lips before braying at Ye Bai, as if still savoring whatever delicacy he’d been dreaming about.
Resigned, Ye Bai fed him a loaf of bread and climbed onto his back.
"Let’s head over there and check."
As she mounted Autofis, she glanced at the map again—the green and red dots still overlapped. The Erald Forest was a vast area, so at this scale, the markers might just be too close to distinguish.
So Ye Bai decided to choose a straight direction to move a bit farther for observation.
"Ah-uh!" Autofis, having eaten the bread, was quite cooperative. Carrying Ye Bai on its back, it galloped across the desolate wilderness.
The extraordinary nature of this 'magical donkey' was once again on full display. Despite Ye Bai sitting on it with remarkable stability and the speed appearing deceptively slow, a comparison with the previously spotted plant revealed just how far it had traveled in such a short ti. Within a few breaths, the plant had vanished from sight.
Finally, after Autofis had run exuberantly for a full twenty minutes, Ye Bai signaled it to stop.
At this distance, even the largest map scale would show a noticeable difference.
However, when Ye Bai activated the Life Tree Branch again, her brows furrowed.
"Still... no change."
On the guiding map, the red dot representing Ye Bai and the green dot marking the destination remained perfectly overlapped, just as before.
The paper-cut character's expression shifted to one of bewildernt, forming a '0.0' shape: "After moving this far, are we still within the bounds of the Erald Forest?"
Ye Bai nodded. After confirming Autofis was still in good condition, she tried another direction, this ti covering an even greater distance until Autofis was panting slightly from exertion.
Yet the result was the sa—the red and green dots overlapped, indicating Ye Bai was right at the destination.
Ye Bai dismounted from Autofis. If physical movent wasn't yielding any progress, further attempts seed pointless.
She held up the Life Tree Branch, examining it closely. "This branch can't possibly be faulty..."
"It's not faulty. This is indeed a genuine Life Tree Branch," the paper-cut character replied from its perch on a leaf, its cheeks now marked with two suspicious diagonal lines.
"..." Ye Bai set the branch down, though she couldn't quite fathom why this two-dinsional being also suffered from social anxiety.
Still, the properties of the item [Key to the Divine King's Treasure 1] confird its authenticity—after all, only the real thing could harm the Infernal Demon God. If the triggering item wasn't the issue, then the problem must lie with the destination itself.
"Moving this far without any change suggests the Erald Forest's area is vast enough that even such a distance remains within its bounds, like the depths of the ocean...?" Ye Bai mused. "But the Erald Forest shouldn't be this large, and there's no trace of anything unusual around here."
The paper-cut character chid in, "There's another possibility—the Erald Forest might be mobile. Could it be...?"
At that, Ye Bai and the paper-cut character spoke in unison: "Is the Erald Forest moving along with us?"
But if the forest was moving in sync, where would its entrance be?
The two fell into thought once more.
After a mont, the paper-cut character had an idea. "Perhaps we should look for a forest, or sothing conceptually related to it."
Ye Bai paused, a flicker of inspiration brushing her mind, though it slipped away upon closer scrutiny. And—
"A forest might not be the only condition..."
As she spoke, Ye Bai instinctively scanned her surroundings.
The barren wasteland was dotted only with withered plants, let alone a forest. anwhile, Autofis, perhaps exhausted, had sprawled flat on the ground, eyes shut, snoring loudly.
This guy really loves sleeping... Ye Bai's half-ford smile suddenly froze as she grasped the elusive inspiration.
"Autofis wasn't originally this fond of sleeping... I think I get it now!"
The paper-cut character's gaze followed Ye Bai's toward the deeply slumbering Autofis. "You an...?"
"The dream realm." Ye Bai pulled out a soft mat from her backpack, laid it out, and reclined into a sleeping posture. "The entrance to the Erald Forest can only be accessed after falling asleep."
In the world of [Boundless Realms], putting a character to sleep is a simple matter—just a bit of conscious control is enough, as the system recognizes the [Sleeping State], regardless of the player's actual awareness.
Thus, shortly after lying down, Ye Bai's character 'fell asleep.'
...
"Crunch, crunch..."
The scene shifted abruptly, accompanied by the sound of sothing munching on plants.
Lifting her head, Ye Bai found herself surrounded by lush greenery. A gray donkey was busily gnawing on a juicy-looking yellow fruit hanging from a nearby branch.
Reviews
All reviews (0)