The Gentleman at the End

Chapter 89: Chapter 88: Rules and High Walls (Asking for First Subscription on Release)

Yi Chen had always been observing the so-called acting head, Willmer,

whether in speech or behavior, and even the look in his eyes under various circumstances, all conveyed a sense of powerlessness.

This sense of powerlessness, he had seen too much in the Orphanage when he was alive,

many peers, after receiving special education and recognizing the true face of the Orphanage, would slowly have their clear eyes eroded by a lightless substance symbolizing “powerlessness”,

until it completely took over and evolved into “Despair”.

“These gentlemen themselves are not lacking in quality, yet they have no courage to explore further… the situation in the forest is indeed worse than imagined.

I estimate that the two teams lost within the forest are the main forces of the Black Eye stronghold.

They might still be alive; if we can find them during the exploration, we should be able to obtain more information, greatly reducing the investigation time.”

Yi Chen quickly browsed through all the information provided by the stronghold within a minute,

As the acting head said, the information was pitifully scant, lacking even details about the situation in Shebolt Village, the degree of Grayification, and its impact, let alone matters regarding the Church.

There were only a few investigation reports about the Plant Control High Wall,

which were enough to show that no Investigator who entered inside the tree wall had come out, unable to bring out any effective information.

However, there were a few points worth noting about the Plant Control High Wall information.

“Infinite Growth”, “Baby’s Cry”, “Blood-like Tree Juice”

Yi Chen noted these keywords,

then he proceeded to review the rules concerning Shebolt Village,

These “Rules” were written by high-rank gentlemen with foreknowledge abilities from Zion City, specifically tailored for certain regions,

as long as these rules are followed in daily life, the likelihood of contracting diseases can be greatly reduced.

The content is as follows:

≮Residents of the village in Jose Valley shall follow these rules in daily life to ensure your safety≯

1. When villagers hunt in the forest area and the prey (mammalian animals) is found to be pregnant, please release it immediately.

If the pregnant prey is already dead, burn it on the spot and bury the ashes under the nearest tree.

Remember, each tree is allowed to be buried under once at most.

2. Domestic animals in the village must be strictly divided by gender, and breeding should only be chosen in the winter each year.

If livestock becomes pregnant in an inappropriate season, or conceives without contact with the opposite sex, please deal with it in the same manner as Rule 1.

*Villagers also need to follow Rule 2.

3. If you find animals with characteristics of other creatures in the forest or your own breeding area (e.g., cows with rabbit ears, pigs with sheep horns), they must be immediately put to death, burned, and buried.

4. Each village has only one well, located at the center of the village; all drinking water in the village must come from this well, and drinking water from unknown sources is forbidden.

5. All fruits, mushrooms, and other edible plants picked from the forest must be washed with well water before eating; fungi especially need to be cooked.

It is strictly forbidden to pick fruits from trees where a burned body has been buried, and mushrooms growing nearby are also not to be harvested.

6. Before midnight, ensure that there is light in every home, such as a torch, fireplace, or kerosene lamp, etc.; if you need to go out, you also need to carry a lighting device. @@novelbin@@

When passing by animal pens during the early morning, if you hear strange noises, do not respond; walk away immediately.

If you see a creature without a light source greeting you, immediately hide back in your room and lock the doors and windows.

7. Once a villager is found not following the above rules and showing actions clearly different from normal, expel them from the village at the earliest opportunity. If necessary, proceed as with Rule 3.

…

Looking at these rather strange rules, Yi Chen was reminded of Easton Cemetery.

“As long as you live according to these rules, there is a great chance to avoid the invasion of Pathological.”

This was also the fundamental reason why many human towns and villages still existed more than three hundred years after the world had entered the “Disease Era”.

The situation in Shebolt Village worsening in the short term was certainly not due to a coincidence made by the villagers.

It was more likely the intervention of the newborn church that caused the villagers to stray from the Rule and even led them to actively defy it, resulting in the complete loss of control here.”

While walking through the woods,

Even before reaching the high wall structure made of trees,

Yi Chen could still feel the anomaly in the woods, an eerie sensation as if something was watching him.

Moreover, as a “Vegetarian,” he had no interest in the vegetation in the woods and could smell a physiological stench emanating from the lower end of the bark.

The closer they got to the center of the woods, the more intense the stink became, forcing Yi Chen to put on his homemade plant mask again.

After several kilometers of trekking through the woods, they finally arrived at the [High Wall] that enclosed the heart of the forest.

The magnitude of shock from a close observation far surpassed the view from the cliff, even generating a kind of biological instinct of awe.

It seemed that under a highly unified command, thick and gigantic trunks were arranged orderly with less than ten centimeters between them, forming layers of walls whose thickness was unpredictable and height reached nearly a hundred meters.

The wildly growing branches and dense leaves at the top blocked out all the scant sunlight, casting everything into darkness.

Based on the existing information,

these tree trunks were unburnable. Once they sensed the temperature of flames, the trunks would secrete a large amount of thick, sticky juice to cover and extinguish them.

If the trunks were physically damaged, they would also rapidly regenerate with the help of surrounding trunks.

Therefore,

The first challenge they faced was “transcending the tree wall”.

Since the incident had occurred two weeks ago, the tree wall had been growing outward continuously, and its thickness had already exceeded a hundred meters… It was very likely that they would get trapped while crossing the tree wall.

This was also the main reason why the gentlemen in the stronghold had lost the courage to explore.

And there was another key point, just as recorded.

The two standing in front of the tree wall high up heard a very faint ‘baby’s cry’.

When Yi Chen touched the surface of the tree wall, the sound was immediately amplified several times… It seemed as if the baby’s cry was coming from inside the trunk, paired with the dark forest surroundings, it sent a chill down the spine.

Jin, curious, also touched the trunk’s surface.

“Oh? There really is a child crying, is it the effect of Grayification? Let me blow a path directly to the inside, what do you think?”

In between words,

streams of red energy, in the form of filaments, transferred from Jin’s fingertips into the trunk, forming a Red Lotus-like pattern on the surface of the trunk, ready to explode at any moment.

Snap!

Yi Chen, however, gently stretched out his hand, placing it on the back of Jin’s hand, very gently stopping this action.

“Jin, there is no need to waste energy on this, and we do not know the exact thickness of the tree wall, such an explosion would unnecessarily consume your energy… let me do it.”

Yi Chen spoke very tactfully. In reality, what he was most concerned about was ‘alarming the enemy’. A direct explosion like Jin’s could potentially draw out all the dangers inside.

Click~unlocking the suitcase clasps,

he took out a pair of white gloves, painted with green Arrays,

and put them on, gently tugging on the edges of the gloves with his index finger and thumb to make them fit perfectly on his wrists.

As he lightly placed the palms of his left and right hands on the surface of adjacent trunks, the Array on the back of the gloves lit up with a bright green light.

With an Intelligence Attribute reaching [5], combined with the Casting Gloves made from the Gentleman’s Skin, Yi Chen could directly manipulate such a tree wall structure.

“Plant Control”

The robust tree trunks began to expand and the space between them gradually widened until it was large enough for a person to pass through.