Chapter 350 - 350 207

Words : 1252 Updated : Oct 7th, 2025

350: 207. Fragile Humanity 350: 207. Fragile Humanity “They won’t find me easily anymore.” Anna’s whisper reached Lu Li’s ears. Lu Li’s nod was lost in the jolting of the carriage. He turned his head towards Barton, who seemed as if nothing had happened before, “Is there anything you need to warn me about Elm Forest?” Barton said, “Respect the forest. They despise those who do not respect them.” “They might already be dead.” Barton continued, “That principle applies everywhere.” “Anything else?” Barton added another sentence, “Be careful not to fall, there’s no place there to change your clothes.” It seemed he could not think of anything else to warn Lu Li about. Half an hour later, the carriage arrived at Elm Street. As the ancient texts were taken away, the street had returned to its previous state; under the curtain of rain, there were few pedestrians. Only a few houses had police tape outside, and faint figures were visible guarding them from either the shop windows across the street or behind the windows of the houses. These sealed houses were the ones identified by Lu Li as infected, and they had not yet been dealt with. Barton was also looking at the street outside the carriage window, even though the wind and rain soaking through his thin clothes. Soon, the carriage stopped at the end of the street. Lu Li, covered in a raincoat, paid the fare and, opening his umbrella, stepped down from the carriage. Behind him, Barton, also in a raincoat, was helped down by the coachman; the wooden stick under his right trouser leg tapped on the bluestone pavement as he surveyed the street shrouded in rain, remarking, “The last time I was here was seven or eight years ago.” Jojo had told him over the phone that Barton had retired back then—because he had lost his right leg. “So you mean to say you haven’t been here since you became disabled.” In the cold heavy rain, Lu Li’s words sounded somewhat harsh. Barton didn’t mind, after all, in his “Shaloff” neighborhood, everyone called him Limping Barton. The word ‘disabled’ sounds milder than ‘limping.’ “After suffering torment in one place for over twenty years and then losing a leg there, do you suddenly think at some point, ‘I miss that place, I want to go back and see it’?” Barton scoffed sarcastically, heading towards the end of the street some dozen meters away. “Still, there are some fond memories here.” —Pop— The ground was no longer the neatly paved bluestone path; a muddy dirt road mixed with rainwater replaced it. Barton, unawares, stumbled, steadied himself, then, raising his hand to Lu Li behind him who remained indifferent, said, “Don’t help me... I’ve walked every path here hundreds of times; it was just an accident.” But afterwards, indeed, Barton had no more falls or slips. He was truly familiar with this forest, though the heavy torrential rain limited visibility to a few meters and the muddy ground made it hard to distinguish the dirt paths from the wilderness, he still managed to find a relatively easy path, enabling them to smoothly enter the forest ahead. After following Barton for a while, Lu Li began to see the silhouettes of trees appearing around them. Like the ones seen elsewhere, they appeared as if shedding their green leaves and enduring winter, lifeless, with only bare branches on the trunks. The silhouettes of trees becoming increasingly visible through the surrounding rain curtain, Lu Li paused and looked back; the rain falling between the sky and the earth obscured the road they had come by. At some point, Lu Li began to feel an uncomfortable emotion pervading his heart. Barton changed direction abruptly in front, turning at a right angle, and under Lu Li’s watchful eye, walked towards an elm tree with a thick root system. It was taller and sturdier than any of the elm trees Lu Li had seen on his way, but it didn’t have a single leaf, its brown-gray trunk carrying the dim color of life nearing its end. Barton stopped seven or eight meters away from the Tree King, standing in the rain and feeling something, murmuring, “They are wailing in despair because life irretrievably fades away...” An old lumberjack, turning into a charlatan, speaking nonsense, was indeed laughable, but when Lu Li empathized, it was no longer a joke. Sorrow pervaded the entire forest, so pure in its emotion that it seemed to draw one into an inescapable melancholy. There was no malice, no indescribable oppression, no cold aura. Just like Barton had said, this forest only expressed its feelings. “I feel a bit unwell...” Anna whispered in Lu Li’s ear, feeling something tugging gently at his clothes. “Because this forest is grieving,” Lu Li replied. He truly understood why Barton was so certain the forest had only emotions, not consciousness. It never intended to harm anyone, it simply reacted emotionally to everything external, and those lumberjacks and loggers who had died were merely frail humans unable to withstand the burst of pain and sorrow from the forest in that instant. Barton stepped back, his cheek creased with gullies, wet with tears or perhaps just rainwater, “The mood of the forest is a bit off... Follow me, do not get close to those Tree Kings.” “What happens if we get close?” Lu Li asked. He needed to know all the potential dangers here. “It depends on your willpower. If it’s a bit weak, you might end up like that unlucky fellow there.” Barton nodded towards a direction not far off. There too, a Tree King grew, with a pile of disarticulated skeletons stacked beside its trunk, and a pair of overalls’ suspenders hanging from a branch above. The skull of the skeleton was half-buried in the mud, hollow eyes staring at the sky. Corresponding to this was an axe embedded in the trunk of the Tree King. A long time ago, the unfortunate logger, while chopping down the Tree King, was overwhelmed by the forest’s emotions and used the suspender on his overalls to hang himself from the tree. They meant no harm to humans, but humans died because of their own frailty. Reflecting on this, Lu Li was caught in thought, and he couldn’t help but continue pondering along these lines. Perhaps some entities aren’t malevolent toward humanity but simply cannot be endured by frail humans as they are; even an attempt to understand them could drive one into madness? Lu Li felt that he was nearing some indescribable truth. Barton continued to lead the way ahead, sometimes stopping to discern the direction before moving on. The shadows of trees grew denser; they had truly entered the Elm Forest. The recent hurricane had also ravaged this forest, with fallen dead trees everywhere, making the already muddy mountain path even more difficult to navigate. Twenty minutes later, Lu Li asked Barton, who was changing directions again, “How far is the cliff from Elm Street?” “About twelve or thirteen miles. With our pace, it would take us almost two more hours,” Barton answered, slightly out of breath. He seemed alright; his past manual labor had equipped him with plenty of strength to spare. Lu Li nodded and continued to silently follow Barton, walking in the quiet Elm Forest filled only with the sound of rain.

Chapter 350 - 350 207

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