Spirit Pact Hundred Scenes Record

Chapter 23 Whispers of the Forest

The fissure in the ore vein was like a greedy giant mouth, swallowing up light and sound.

The moment Karen stepped into the darkness, she felt as if the entire world had been muted. It wasn't absolute silence—the faint cracking sounds of crystal growth echoed from deep underground, the hollow echoes of water droplets falling into a pool echoed in the distance, and the soft tinkling of air rubbing against the crystal surface—but these sounds seemed to come through a thick pane of glass, indistinct and distant.

The real change occurs at the psionic level.

Outside, the psionic energy in the Emerald Forest, though chaotic, was at least "flowing," like a pot of boiling soup—chaotic yet full of life. But here, inside the mine, the psionic energy became... "viscous." Like solidified syrup, like heavy silt, every movement, every breath felt like traversing a viscous energy slurry, creating immense resistance.

Even more terrifying is the "sound".

It is not sound in the auditory sense, but a cacophony of countless psionic thoughts that directly affect consciousness.

Karen's spirit runes on his wrist flared up like a thermometer suddenly thrown into boiling water. The newly sprouted, star-like branches all lit up, passively and greedily absorbing the torrent of information from his surroundings. Before he could shut down his senses, countless fragments of shattered consciousness rained down on him like hailstones.

"...Pain...The roots are rotting...Black blood is flowing..."

It was an ancient, slow thought, emanating from the rock face itself—no, from some ancient lichen or moss community growing in the crevices of the rock. Their roots, deep within the rock, were the first to come into contact with the black crystals spreading from the core of the vein, and were being slowly eroded and transformed.

"...Escape...We must escape...The nest has been stained black...The children are crying..."

A sharper, more panicked thought. Small spirits emerging from the depths of the rock crevices, perhaps creatures like crystal-shelled rats or moss lizards. They nest in the mineral veins, but now their home has been invaded by pollution. Instinct drives them to flee, but the exits have been blocked by black crystals, leaving them only to wander desperately in the labyrinth.

"...Cold...So cold...Where is the light...?"

A faint, almost fading thought. It came from the crystal clusters that had not yet been completely eroded. They were originally the "nerve endings" of the mineral vein, transmitting the psychic pulses from the depths of the earth, but now they were enveloped and isolated by black crystals, like people buried alive, slowly suffocating in the darkness.

These thoughts were chaotic, overlapping and intertwined, some clear, some blurry, but all permeated with the same emotion: pain. Pure, inescapable pain.

Karen stumbled, grabbing the cold, crystalline rock wall to keep from falling. A warm rush of heat shot through his nose—the shock of excessive information input. He gritted his teeth, forcing himself to concentrate, building a makeshift "filter barrier" that allowed only the strongest, most crucial thoughts to pass through.

Even so, the noisy whispers continued to buzz like background noise.

"Hold on," Leah's voice rang in her ears, filled with worry. She steadied Karen's arm, her other hand already gripping the dagger, her green eyes scanning the darkness warily. "Your runes... are glowing."

Karen looked down. The silver markings on his wrist were indeed glowing, but not with the bright light of active activation; rather, they emitted a faint, pulsating fluorescence, like the bioluminescence of deep-sea fish. The structure of the markings became clearer, the newly formed branches like fine roots, throbbing slightly in rhythm with his heartbeat.

They are "learning." They are recording the psionic characteristics of this polluted environment and adjusting their own resonant frequencies to adapt to the viscous energy slurry.

This is both evolution and a burden.

"Follow me." The shadow's voice resounded directly in their consciousness, as calm as a stroll in one's own garden. The black cat walked in front, its dark paws making no sound as they trod on the ground covered with fine crystalline powder. Its eyes shone like two small lamps in the darkness, silver specks slowly rotating, as if observing, analyzing, and memorizing the complex path.

They proceeded along a naturally formed, sloping crystalline tunnel. The tunnel walls were translucent, embedded with clusters of crystals of varying sizes; some still emitted a faint iridescent glow, while others were completely covered in black crystals, like necrotic blood vessels. The air was damp and cold, carrying a strong mineral odor and a cloying, rotten smell.

The deeper you go, the louder the whispers become.

Karen began to be able to distinguish more of the textures of "sound":

The trees' agonizing groans—not from a single tree, but from the entire forest's network of roots, a collective lament transmitted through underground rock veins. Their roots, spreading through the soil above the mineral veins, were the first to absorb the contaminated groundwater and are now undergoing a slow, systemic necrosis. The pain is profound, slow, and inescapable, like watching one's own limbs rot away inch by inch.

The panicked urge to flee of small animals—rats, lizards, beetles, moths… all creatures living on the periphery and in the shallow layers of the mineral vein were fleeing frantically. But their “path” was clearly visible on the psionic level: countless tiny, trembling specks of thought, like swarms of frightened fireflies, rushed and crashed through the labyrinthine tunnels and crevices, most of them hitting dead ends or being blocked by suddenly growing black crystals, ultimately extinguished in despair.

The Lament of Flowing Groundwater—The Emerald Forest is rich in groundwater resources, with countless underground rivers and springs winding through the rock strata. Now, these waters carry black, polluting energy, injecting themselves into the entire forest's circulatory system like poison. The water's intent is ethereal and sorrowful; it has no wisdom, only the most basic instincts of "existence" and "flow," yet it can sense itself becoming "tainted," bringing death to everything it nourishes.

These thoughts intertwined, forming a vast, painful network that enveloped the entire mining area.

Karen felt a wave of nausea. Not physically, but mentally. He felt like he was standing naked in a never-ending storm of screams and cries, with nowhere to hide.

Just then, Xiguang in her arms moved.

The cub peeked more out of the backpack, its golden fur emitting a faint but pure and warm glow in the darkness. It nuzzled Karen's chin with its head, then conveyed a clear and steady message:

I am here.

It wasn't language, but a warm, fuzzy sense of presence, like a campfire on a cold winter night, like a safe haven in a storm. At the same time, Xiguang began to actively release light energy—not an aggressive outburst, but like breathing, flowing gently and continuously, flowing through his connection with Karen and into his spirit runes.

Golden light energy and silver resonance energy fused together.

In an instant, the cacophony of whispers in Karen's mind was silenced. Like wearing earmuffs, the painful thoughts remained, but became distant and blurred, no longer directly assaulting his sanity. The radiant energy of the Dawn formed a thin, warm shield, enveloping his mind and resisting the erosion of negative external thoughts.

Karen stroked Xiguang's head gratefully. The cub purred contentedly, but the message it conveyed was earnest: protect Karen.

They continued their investigation.

The tunnel began to branch, becoming as complex as a maze. Some paths were blocked by collapsed crystals, while others led to bottomless shafts or dead ends filled with sharp crystal clusters. The guidance of the shadow became crucial—it seemed to know the structure of the place inside and out, always choosing a path without hesitation at the forks, and even giving advance warnings: "The left path has a trap in thirty steps; the crystal structure is unstable."

Once, they passed through a narrow passage, the rock walls on either side covered with honeycomb-like black crystals. Karen sensed a faint life force within those crystals through her spiritual runes, like some kind of insect eggs. Shadow immediately warned, "Don't touch them, don't linger. Those are the nests of 'Crystallized Parasites,' disturbing them will attract the mother."

They quickened their pace, hearing a faint, scratching sound behind them, like glass rubbing together, but nothing came after them.

As they ventured deeper, the environment became even more bizarre.

The tunnel walls began to "grow." Not plants, but black crystals, like living things, slowly squeezed out and extended from the cracks in the rock, forming twisted structures like blood vessels or nerve bundles. A dark red glow flowed across the surface of these structures, pulsating rhythmically, like the internal organs of some giant creature.

The air became thicker, making breathing difficult. The spiritual runes on Karen's wrist glowed more brightly, and the tips of the newly formed branches began to emit a faint silver light, opposite to the frequency of the black crystal's spiritual energy—this was the "resistance" or "immunity" that the spiritual runes spontaneously generated after adapting to the environment.

The protection of the Radiant Light began to show its price. The cub's golden fur dimmed slightly, and its breathing became a little rapid. Maintaining the light energy shield was quite costly, especially in an environment that suppressed light energy.

"Almost there." Shadow suddenly stopped and crouched on a raised, relatively clean crystal platform. It turned to look into the depths of the tunnel, the light in its silver eyes sharpening. "The edge of the core area of ​​the mine is just ahead. But there's a 'gatekeeper'."

Karen and Leah stopped as well. Leah had already drawn her dagger, and the Wind Whisper Spirit Vein formed a weak airflow shield around them. Although its effectiveness was greatly reduced in this viscous environment, it could at least serve as a warning of sudden attacks.

"The gatekeeper?" Karen lowered her voice, focusing her spiritual vision forward.

The tunnel widens about fifty meters ahead, forming a natural domed hall. In the center of the hall stands a huge, ancient tree with roots that penetrate directly into the crystal vein.

The tree appeared half-dead. Its trunk was over three meters in diameter, its bark rough and cracked, from which a black, viscous, asphalt-like liquid seeped. Most of its branches and leaves were withered, and the few remaining leaves were scorched yellow with curled edges. But what was most striking was its root system—thick roots coiled and burrowed into the crystal veins below like giant pythons, and on the surface of the veins, black crystals were spreading upwards along the roots, already eroding the base of the trunk.

The trees' suffering reached its peak here.

Karen could "hear" its continuous, low moans, no longer broken, but coherent, intelligent wailing:

"...Humans...are they here to plunder again...?"

This thought wasn't directed at them, but rather it was an inherent impression of the concept of "humanity" that the tree itself constantly emanated. Clearly, it had seen many intruders over the years, and none of them had ended well.

The shadowy voice echoed in Karen's mind: "Elder Tree, one of the oldest inhabitants of the Emerald Forest. Its roots are symbiotic with the mineral veins, allowing it to sense the health of the entire forest. It's dying now, but not yet completely controlled by the pollution. If you can gain its trust..."

The black cat paused.

"...Perhaps we can learn more about the truth."

Karen took a deep breath and lifted Xiguang completely out of the backpack. Although exhausted, the cub stood on the ground, head raised, its amber eyes reflecting the massive, desolate silhouette of the ancient tree in the distance.

He looked at Leah, and the red-haired girl nodded, lowering her short sword slightly to indicate that she would not attack first.

Then, Karen stepped into the hall and walked toward the ancient tree that was dying.

He raised his hands, palms facing outward, indicating that he was unarmed. At the same time, he transmitted his clearest and most benevolent thoughts through spiritual runes:

"We are not here to plunder."

"We're here to help treat the pollution."