Chapter 1608 — 1608: V.A.N.

While Lex rested in his Recovery pod, and oversaw Obsidian, Little Blue, Fenrir and Malfoy had secretly entered the jungle.

The periphery of the jungle was pretty easy to get through. Fenrir's stealth worked perfectly, and with Little Blue guiding the way towards the call he was getting from Mr. and Mrs. Big-fat-guy, they avoided many obstacles.

Yet that was only the periphery. After crossing about 10,057 walmarts worth of distance, the jungle started to become thicker, not only in vegetation, but in the number of insects and vital energies as well.

It was as if everything in this jungle was specifically designed to carry as much vitality as possible - so much so that each insect was like a walking tonic. Fenrir licked his lips and resisted the urge to hunt himself a small snack.

This was not the time or place - especially because each creature now was much stronger. Although Lex's cultivation pulled up Fenrir's, the pup was nowhere near the peak of the Earth Immortal realm. Even though his personal strength and numerous bloodline abilities afforded him combat power above his level, he could do nothing against hundreds or thousands of immortal insects. Not everyone was broken like Lex or Z.

The truth was, the dangers of the jungle were not limited to the insects alone. Even the trees felt threatening to Fenrir, forcing him to behave, and don an expression of seriousness that even convinced Malfoy that the evil twin wasn't plotting anything.

But sometimes, one did not need to plot anything for something to go awry. After crossing another 12 Mount Eversts worth of distance, Fenrir's stealth began losing its effectiveness. There was something in the air that nullified his divine ability, and made the three of them visible.

After that, they had to be much more careful and mindful with their approach. Fortunately, that's where Malfoy was able to help out. He was much more skilled in conventional stealth techniques than the other two, and guided them to move through the shadows, touching not even the ground, yet leaving behind not even passing wind as they ventured ever deeper into the forest.

But when they crossed 17 Big Ben's worth of distance, Malfoy began to frown. He was good at stealth and scouting, but their journey was too smooth, so much so that his skill and ability could not justify it.

He looked once more towards Fenrir, wondering if the evil twin had a deeper plot that he had missed. Yet his loyalty test told him that the twin was still loyal, and had not acted to betray them, so he turned his attention back to the forest.

They could not afford a single mistake.

Soon, the jungle stopped making sense and it was difficult to even know what they were supposed to be hiding from. At some point, without them realizing, the ground had turned upside down, aligned with the sky. Where the ground was supposed to be was a blend of colors, all different shades of green.

Trees grew from the air and the dirt floated in patches. Bedrock and deeper layers of soil were gathered together in the shape of more trees, and fruits walked around like busy citizens of a flourishing city.

A haze covered the three, clouding their minds, not to intoxicate them, but to protect their fragile minds from cracking as they entered into a zone of fragmented reality, where the fundamental building blocks - the eight ruling laws of the universe - did not work properly.

This specific zone, the zone where laws ceased working properly and reality was so fragmented that a proper working mind would break upon encountering it, was a protective barrier dividing the outer forest from the true depths of the forest.

The trio, being in a hazy state, never realized when they entered it, and similarly never realized when they exited it. Their memories were perfectly cut out so that they had no recollection of the experience, nor did their spirits detect the anomaly.

All they knew was that one moment they were searching through the ever increasingly dangerous forest, and the next moment they had reached their destination.

An unusually shaped hill, covered in pure white grass, appeared in front of them, and the call that Little Blue was hearing was coming from within.

"This is much too easy," Malfoy warned, his experience warning against easy victories. "This has to be some kind of trap."

Fenrir turned and looked at the hill with an odd expression. To him, it didn't look much like a trap. Rather, as he observed the white hill as a whole, it looked more like a large van to him.

Just as Fenrir had that thought, a vertical line appeared within the hill, and a rectangular portion of the hill was slowly pushed outwards, before sliding off to the side, revealing a long, darkened corridor.

A sweet, almost alluring voice whispered in Little Blue's ears.

"Do you want something yummy?" the voice asked. "I have just the thing for you. All you need to do is enter the Verdant Ascending Nest (V.A.N.) and I'll give it to you."

Little Blue was tempted. Little Blue was really tempted, but it knew better than to just wander off randomly while it was still outside the Inn. Little Blue looked at Fenrir pleadingly, as if asking permission to go inside the V.A.N.

Fenrir sniffed the air, and used many of its bloodline techniques to detect any danger. Yet it detected nothing. He turned to look at Malfoy, but the mercenary was extremely doubtful.

"I think we should turn back and report our findings," Malfoy said.

No sooner had he said that, that a powerful force emerged from the opening in the V.A.N. and grabbed ahold of the three, pulling them in.

The force also had some kind of spirit dampening effect, causing them to react too slowly, or else they might have been able to resist. The next thing they knew, they had been pulled in, and the opening closed in behind them.

Yet, just as they crossed the opening boundary of the V.A.N. a secret, spiritual link Lex had left on the three of them was extracted from their bodies and left behind - severing Lex's ability to detect what was happening with them.