As for Chu Feng, he truly could not hear a word the Queen was saying. He had genuinely been affected by the Divine Tree's phantom mist.
Right now, his face was blank, his mind filled with nothing but question marks.
He had no idea why he had suddenly appeared here, nor did he know where this place was. His memories were muddled, without a single coherent thought running through his head.
Everything around him, to Chu Feng, felt like a half-remembered dream.
"Feng'er."
Just then, a voice suddenly rang out.
Hearing that voice, Chu Feng's spirit jolted awake, as if every worry clouding his mind had been swept away in an instant.
All the questions, all the troubles — none of it mattered anymore. Because this voice, it was one Chu Feng knew so well. It was the voice of his father.
"Father, is that you?"
As he spoke, Chu Feng flew swiftly toward the direction from which his father's voice had come.
"Father!!!"
At last, Chu Feng laid eyes on his father. It was indeed his own father, Chu Xuanyuan.
But the look on Chu Feng's face was one of pure panic.
Chu Xuanyuan stood not far from him, yet his entire body was drenched in blood, gravely wounded — he looked like a man on the verge of death, impossibly weak.
"Father."
Chu Feng roared and charged toward Chu Xuanyuan, and Chu Xuanyuan collapsed weakly into his arms.
"Feng'er, run. Don't worry about me — get out of here now." Chu Xuanyuan said to him in a feeble voice.
ROAR—
And while Chu Xuanyuan was speaking, Chu Feng could clearly hear a deafening yet strangely eerie roar, rolling in from the direction his father had come from.
At the same time, Chu Feng sensed an aura of terrifying power.
That aura was too horrifying — it was the kind of presence that Chu Feng simply had no way of resisting.
"Damn it."
Sensing that things had gone terribly wrong, Chu Feng grabbed his father and fled toward the distance at full speed.
But no matter how far he ran, there was nothing but white mist in every direction.
And behind him, that mysterious and terrifying aura kept closing in, drawing nearer and nearer with every passing moment.
"Feng'er, put me down. It's coming for me."
"Just put me down, put me down, and save yourself." Chu Feng's father said.
"No, Father. I won't leave you behind. If we run, we run together. If we die, we die together." Chu Feng said with iron resolve.
And after those words left his lips, the mist surrounding him actually began to dissipate. Chu Feng realized that he was surrounded by a vast range of mountains.
On the rocky walls of these mountains, characters were carved from top to bottom. The writing was strange, yet Chu Feng felt as though he could read it.
"Feng'er, read them — read the characters on the wall." Chu Xuanyuan urged.
Hearing his father's words, Chu Feng had no time to think. He opened his mouth and began to recite. He had no idea what he was reading, but the words came out of him as naturally as breathing.
And as those characters left his lips, they began to emit a radiant golden light.
AWOO—
In the next instant, the mysterious being behind Chu Feng let out a miserable, anguished howl.
In that moment, Chu Feng suddenly realized — these characters had the power to suppress the monstrous creature behind him.
Under these circumstances, Chu Feng was not about to waste time overthinking. Without a second thought, he kept reciting the characters carved into the mountain walls, one after another.
But Chu Feng also discovered that each character could only be read once. If he repeated it, it would no longer emit that golden glow.
And as long as there was no glow, the mysterious creature would no longer be afraid.
That meant Chu Feng had no choice but to keep moving, reciting different characters from different walls.