The two trekked through the mountains, searching for the spot where Xilutaiya had awakened in her memories.
As their journey progressed, a growing sense of familiarity washed over Xilutaiya. She could even catch the faint scent of withered leaves in the air.
"There should have been a wolf carcass right here." Xilutaiya halted, her gaze settling on a clearing amidst the shade of the trees.
Unfortunately, there was no sign of a wolf carcass now, not even skeletal remains.
*Could another beast have dragged it off?* she could not help but wonder. Slowly, she stepped toward the clearing.
Just then, a curious sensation seemed to pull at her. As Xilutaiya moved forward, she felt as though she were wading along the bottom of some body of water; everything around her wavered and warped. Yet the tactile sensation beneath her boots and the tree trunk brushing her hand reassured her that the earth had not shaken, nor had any mishap occurred.
***
On that snowless afternoon, the sky remained overcast. Taliel trailed behind Xilutaiya, watching her walk toward the clearing.
A sudden, bizarre tremor made Taliel wonder if her eyes were playing tricks on her. She rubbed them, but when she opened them again, Xilutaiya, who had just been right ahead, was nowhere to be seen.
On the other side, Xilutaiya stepped past the clearing. Guided by the tug of that peculiar sensation, she pressed forward step by step toward the forest.
Beyond her awareness, Taliel called out from behind, but the girl's shouts were mere silent gestures without a trace of sound, as though the two stood in entirely different worlds.
Xilutaiya kept walking. The moment she passed through the forest clearing, it felt as though she had stepped ashore: the wavering and distortion in her vision vanished instantly, and her mind cleared. Looking around, she discovered that the entire world had changed.
Above hung an extraordinarily dim sky. The clouds pressed down so low and thick they seemed almost ready to crush the earth, and through narrow rifts between them, faint slivers of light filtered down upon a grayish-white world.
Indeed, this was a world nearly drained of all color—no vibrant hues, only black, white, and shades of gray.
Xilutaiya lowered her hood, resting one hand against a nearby trunk as she turned repeatedly to survey her surroundings.
*Is this still the mountain forest I was just in?* she thought, taking in the dramatic transformation before her.
Though the slopes rolled in the same contours, the trees in the forest were warped to varying degrees, looking remarkably eerie and grotesque. Furthermore, at the bases of the trunks, she spotted numerous mushrooms—varieties that were exceedingly rare, some even said to be extinct.
Some were deep purple flecked with white snow patterns; others resembled wrinkled red parasols unfurling layer upon layer; still others gleamed a faint, eerie blue, their caps pulsing like dim starlight.
Even without drawing near, she could sense the attribute power emanating from them. A few had even condensed complete first-order attributes.
*The Nightmare attribute,* she noted silently, gazing at the snow-flecked, deep purple mushroom before turning her eyes to the next.
*The Blood Law attribute…* To her surprise, she actually found the Blood Law attribute on a mushroom. Could the attributes of fungi truly be so broad and accommodating?
And more importantly, these mushrooms possessed *color*—a striking departure from everything else around them.
Where she stood, the terrain matched the path she had taken to get here, yet the trees on the mountain were completely different. The soil underfoot, the grass, and even the sky overhead had transformed entirely, almost like…
The same land in a different era!
A flurry of questions flooded Xilutaiya's mind, but this was no time to ponder their causes. She had to find a way back to Taliel, back to the normal world she had just left.
This was a world of supernatural phenomena, a realm steeped in legends and lore. Thrust into this bizarre, altered environment, Xilutaiya instantly recalled the tales she had heard:
Children lost in the mountains on snowy nights who stepped through a door into a fairy garden, or the wondrous banquets witnessed in dreams.
Various fairy tales depicted worlds starkly different from reality. Perhaps such places truly existed, beyond the comprehension of ordinary folk. Much like the witches Taliel had mentioned not long ago, there was likely some power that kept such strange worlds separate from reality—and just moments ago, she had unwittingly crossed that boundary.
Leaning against the tree, Xilutaiya gathered her thoughts, gradually soothing her earlier unease until she regained her composure.
She lightly touched her brow with a finger, then focused her attention into her eyes to gaze into the distance.
In that instant, her vision seemed to pierce straight through the grayish-white forest, peering far beyond.
Indeed… it was a grayish-white world, but not entirely so.
Scattered across this desolate expanse were pockets of color, drifting like vibrant bubbles. Wherever these bubbles existed, plant life flourished with greater vigor, their forms growing even more twisted.
*I should try walking a bit first,* she told herself.
Drawing the short sword from beneath her cloak and gripping it firmly, Xilutaiya stepped forward, preparing to leave the colored bubble she currently occupied and venture into the grayish-white world.
Yet the moment her foot crossed into that gray domain, a bizarre twisting sensation shot up from the tip of her toes, as though her left foot had caught in running factory machinery, about to be ground into pulp.
Excruciating pain surged through her entire body in an instant. Almost instinctively, she channeled the Emerald Honey attribute within her, struggling to break free.
The Emerald Honey attribute spread over her body, and the moment it reached her ankle, the distorting force was rectified, the pain gradually subsiding.
Pulling her foot back, Xilutaiya bent down and cradled her left foot to soothe the lingering ache. Worried that she might have sprained it and would be unable to walk, she pressed and rubbed it anxiously.
Yet it felt like an illusion. Such intense agony had left no mark upon her foot; even when she inspected herself with Appraisal Eye, she appeared perfectly sound and healthy.
Her worries easing slightly, Xilutaiya stood once more.
This time, having learned her lesson, she coated her fingertip with the power of the Emerald Honey attribute and carefully reached out to touch the grayish-white world. As her finger dipped into that gray expanse, a peculiar phenomenon unfolded: the color of Emerald Honey canceled out the gray-white of the world, and a strange chill spread across her skin.
In other words, by employing the Emerald Honey attribute, she could neutralize the pain of entering the grayish-white world and traverse it in relative safety.
However, this neutralization consumed her Emerald Honey attribute power. If she failed to reach the next colored bubble before her reserves ran dry, would she be twisted and crushed by this gray-white world?
Having thought this through, Xilutaiya stepped back and surveyed her surroundings, locating the nearest colored bubble. It lay merely fifty meters away.
Fifty meters… could she hold out that long? No, she still needed to test it.
Over the next half hour, Xilutaiya tested thrusting her entire arm into the grayish-white world, then half her body, and finally stepping in completely.
Stepping fully into the grayish-white world brought an utterly distinct physical sensation, akin to standing motionless beneath still water. All sound fell away, and her senses could scarcely extend outward. Moreover, as long as she remained perfectly still, the Emerald Honey attribute within her was not consumed at all.
The scene once again reminded her of painting—of brushes and pigments.
The world was like blank paper, she was the brush, and the attribute power she wielded was the paint. Moving the brush inevitably consumed paint, leaving a mark upon the paper; but if the brush stayed still, no paint was lost.
Having grasped the basic rules of this realm, Xilutaiya's heart settled, and she began her true exploration.
Chapter 71