Chapter 158 A Misunderstanding in the Forest

"You've probably noticed it by now, right?" After walking through the dense forest for a while, Mad-Eye, who was leading the way, suddenly muttered, not knowing who he was talking to.

"Just keep walking, we know what's up," Nesaru, who was following him, replied smoothly two seconds later, then subtly turned his head back and gave Garlic Head and the others a look.

Garlic Head understood and immediately slowed his pace, waiting for the pirates beside him to pass, and slowly walked to Blackbeard's side.

"Captain," Garlic Head had just called out when Blackbeard said directly, "It's fine, if you encounter any situation, you can act according to the circumstances, and report afterwards."

"Yes," Garlic Head heard this, respectfully acknowledged, and then hurried back up.

To others, the conversation of these guys may have seemed a bit disjointed and inexplicable, but those involved were very clear that they were discussing the same thing – there were definitely other people in this forest.

Broken branches, rocks that had been turned over on both sides of the road, traces of dragging heavy objects, etc. From the various traces left in the forest, it could be inferred that recently, a large group of people should have been collecting various materials in this forest and moving them to a certain place.

Although it was not known whether they wanted to hoard supplies or manufacture some kind of facility, in either case… the possibility that this group of people was still within the bounds of Chemo Island was very high.

In other words… the pirates, as "latecomers," could encounter these unknown people at any time and even come into conflict.

…………

Buzzing—

A bad situation occurred five minutes later.

Accompanied by a strange muffled sound, Mad-Eye stopped.

"It's a magic array." Mad-Eye was calm, even if he was handcuffed at the moment and his combat power was limited, he still had the demeanor of a captain.

"Don't move." Nesaru quickly saw that Mad-Eye's right foot had stepped into the edge of a huge magic array, so he hurriedly spread his arms and stopped his companions behind him; the entire pirate expedition also stagnated.

"Hmph…" Mad-Eye sneered, raised the handcuffs on his hands, "Do you think I dare to move around in my current state?"

Nesaru ignored him and just glanced at the woods on the left and right, then stepped forward to check the magic array.

At this time, the triggered magic array was emitting a faint light and constantly emitting a soft "buzzing" sound; if you looked closely, you could see some rune light streams flowing linearly in the air directly above the magic array, and on the ground, there were also clearer light patterns floating.

Nesaru looked out along the edge of the magic array and found that the curvature of the edge was very small, extending very far… From this, it could be seen that the magic array covered a very large area in front.

"Can you understand it?" Mad-Eye saw Nesaru's focused expression and was slightly expectant.

"No, I don't understand at all." Nesaru didn't beat around the bush and gave a very honest answer.

"Then what are you pretending to look at?" Mad-Eye didn't stand on ceremony with him, even if he had become a prisoner, he would say what he wanted and scold as he pleased.

"Heh… it's normal to take a look." Before Nesaru could reply, Feng Bujue's voice rang out, "It's like those people whose engines blow up, even though they don't understand any mechanical principles, they will prop up the hood and stand there looking at it for a long time… as if looking at it can fix the car."

As he spoke, Brother Jue had walked up from behind.

Mad-Eye turned his head to look at him and snorted, "Hmph… look at your leisurely attitude of talking about everything else, I suppose you can understand it, right?"

"Of course I can." Feng Bujue replied.

In fact, Feng Bujue could really "understand" this magic array this time; even if he didn't use the data perspective to perform "hard analysis," he could understand the principles behind it.

Because…

"This is one of the sensing magic arrays of the Illusory Demon Church." As Brother Jue spoke, he had already walked to Mad-Eye's side, and without warning, he suddenly patted Mad-Eye's back.

Mad-Eye was caught off guard by this sudden move and staggered forward a few steps, entering the magic array.

"What are you doing?" Mad-Eye, who had regained his footing, suddenly turned his head and shouted at Brother Jue.

"I'm just using action to tell you that this magic array doesn't have any offensive capabilities." Feng Bujue replied calmly.

As he spoke, Mad-Eye belatedly lowered his head to look at himself, and he indeed had not suffered any harm.

"Then you should come in yourself! Why push me?" Mad-Eye was still a little depressed, so he added.

"That's what I'm saying… What if I misjudged? It's better for you to die than for me to die." Feng Bujue proved with his actions… that arguing with him would only make you more and more depressed.

Mad-Eye heard this, his beard was blowing and his eyes were glaring, and his anger value was visibly rising.

Feng Bujue didn't want to continue teasing this upright prisoner on this topic, so he quickly changed the subject, "To put it bluntly, this is like a thin string with bells on it, mainly used to notify the array caster… that someone has entered the range of the magic array."

"How do you know so clearly?" Mad-Eye asked again.

Brother Jue shrugged, "I once had Taliom, who is responsible for this area, show me and explain the graphics and functions of all the Illusory Demon Church's conventional magic arrays, which are not particularly many… about a hundred or so, and most of them have certain patterns, and I can draw some of them."

"Listening to you… do you have a relationship with the Illusory Demon Church?" Mad-Eye asked tentatively.

"I do have one." Feng Bujue said, he himself also walked into the magic array, and gave Nesaru a look, meaning they could continue moving forward, "However, that kind of relationship… may not be reliable at a critical moment."

Nesaru received his instructions and signaled the people behind to follow, so the team started moving again.

"Hmph… mutual exploitation, is it?" Mad-Eye also stepped forward again, walking and asking.

"More or less," Feng Bujue said, "My philosophy is that as long as there is no absolute conflict in principle, people can cooperate when their interests align."

"Heh… it sounds like Blackbeard and you are in this kind of relationship now." Mad-Eye was also a seasoned person and immediately stated the truth.

"That's none of your concern." Feng Bujue did not react too much to this and calmly replied, "Right now, you should first try to survive in this situation."

As the two were talking, the thirty-person pirate expedition had already entered the range of the magic array.

From this point on, Feng Bujue left his original position and came to the front of the team, almost walking side by side with Mad-Eye.

Because of his relationship with the Illusory Demon Church, it would definitely save a lot of trouble for him to "show his face" in front.

That's right, but…

…………

In an increasingly tense atmosphere, the team advanced for another ten minutes; just as the surrounding forest was becoming denser, the change… happened.

Whoosh—

"Be careful!" By the time Nesaru shouted this, a magic arrow had already arrived.

This arrow was shot from the woods in front of the crowd, and without deviation, it went straight for Feng Bujue's face.

Brother Jue was not flustered. With his reaction speed and the help of zero-time difference calculation, there were countless ways to dodge an attack of this speed; however, in order to prevent the Mad-Eye beside him, whose combat power was limited, from being affected, Brother Jue very cautiously used [Lingxi Finger] and directly clamped the magic arrow.

"I say…" As the magic arrow dissipated, Feng Bujue had already turned his head and said loudly to the woods, "Take a good look before you act, you should recognize me, right?"

After he finished speaking, he waited for a few seconds, but the only response he got was silence.

"What's wrong?" Brother Jue saw that the attacker did not react and continued, "Do you think I'm an imposter and you're not sure?"

But after the second sentence was asked, there was still no movement in the woods.

At this moment, Feng Bujue vaguely sensed something…

"Retreat!" A second later, Brother Jue's expression changed, and he turned his head and shouted at the pirates behind him.

Unfortunately, his shout was a bit late.

Almost at the same time as he uttered the word "retreat," a burst of strong light erupted from the rear of the team, shooting straight into the sky.

Violent light energy erupted from the ground like a volcanic eruption, forming a cylindrical pillar of light that soared into the sky and rapidly expanded, inflicting a terrifying indiscriminate blow on everything in the area.

After the light explosion, from a high-altitude view of the North Island, it could be seen… that a perfect circular gap had been blasted out of the island, and the boiling seawater in the gap was still emitting billowing smoke.