My Demon Friends-Chapter 453 - 449 Lord Dumpling Is Not a Child

The world outside the window was expansive. In the distance, across a stretch of grass, lay a dark green expanse resembling a primeval forest, yet it was filled with fantastical colors.

Why call them fantastical colors? Zhou Li didn’t know how else to describe it. Clearly, such scenery couldn’t be found in the human world, and he was momentarily spellbound by the view.

If one had to describe it... it was a forest much like a modern city.

This comparison seemed somewhat odd. People often describe modern cities as forests—forests of steel and concrete—because of the tall buildings and skyscrapers.

Here, however, it was quite the opposite.

Huge trees of all kinds grew scattered or densely across the land. Each one was so massive that its enormity was unmistakable even from a distance. Some even resembled blades of grass, yet they were unbelievably huge—so large it defied common sense. Zhou Li had never seen such large trees. Not even the Wangtian Trees he’d seen in Banna or the millennia-old trees in tropical rainforests on TV could compare. Here, a tree growing twenty or thirty stories tall was nothing out of the ordinary; many towered one or two hundred meters.

The slightly larger ones resembled small hills from afar.

What was most peculiar was that their branches were especially wide—wide enough for people to walk on—with houses sporadically built upon them. Some branches even connected to form an aerial road network, making the entire city appear as a single, unified entity.

Especially from this high vantage point, looking out at the entire primeval forest, the roads made from branches, the houses nestled in the trees, and the Demons moving about—appearing tiny due to the great distance—the feeling was truly fantastical.

The high-rise buildings constructed of steel and concrete in the human world were completely replaced by these trees here.

That’s why Zhou Li said it was the opposite of a steel forest.

"Eh?"

Zhou Li silently stepped forward two paces to the window. Pushing it open, he leaned out to look around.

"Phew..."

He let out a sigh of relief.

Although the room they were in was also in a tree, and this tree wasn’t small, it certainly wasn’t as large or tall as West Mountain. After all, West Mountain even had a cable car ropeway.

Hong Ran’s light laughter came from behind him; she had obviously read his mind.

Zhou Li’s face turned slightly red, and he felt somewhat embarrassed.

"It’s so beautiful here..." Zhou Li said, concealing his embarrassment.

"I think so too."

Hong Ran walked up beside Zhou Li, standing shoulder to shoulder with him, and fully opened the window. A gentle breeze slipped quietly inside, filling the office.

Where did this wind come from? Zhou Li wondered. Why can I feel the wind but not a change in temperature?

To avoid the discomfort of pondering unanswerable questions, Zhou Li decided not to dwell on it and instead quietly looked down below.

He soon saw more details.

The forest wasn’t only filled with towering plants. There were also many small flowers and grasses, similar in size to those in the real world but different in appearance. They grew not only on the ground but also on the trunks and branches of ancient trees. Some tree trunks had windows, and some branches and the ground featured basic infrastructure, like what appeared to be either street lamps or lamp-like plants. Zhou Li thought they looked like street lamps, so he decided they were.

Demons resembling the Ladybug Monster, large enough to carry people, swiftly shuttled across the ground or in mid-air.

It was quite novel, a sense of another civilization.

Hong Ran stood beside him, explaining gently and calmly, "The Old Land World wasn’t originally like this. It transformed after arriving here, adapting to your planet. None of this existed before, and neither did we look this way.

"Then it was mutually influenced by your world, gradually altering its appearance. Just like your world now has Spiritual Power and humans endowed with it, it also began to nurture some new life forms, some things with characteristics of Earth." A strand of Hong Ran’s hair became unruly in the breeze. She tucked it behind her ear. "I remember, before our slumber in the last era, there were no trees this large. Our Will of the World must have cultivated them to match the high-rise buildings constructed by modern humans."

"Why?"

"Take a closer look."

"Oh..."

Zhou Li looked with curiosity.

Below was a very large pit. It didn’t harbor any giant trees, only shallow, mottled grass, like a sunken prairie.

The trees on the opposite side of the large pit were much denser.

The trees on the right were sparser.

At the narrowest point of the pit, he even saw a huge tree root emerging from the ground. It was straight as an arrow and connected both sides of the pit. It might have been several meters wide, enough for two cars to pass. Demons walked across the root, heading to the other side.

"Dian Lake..."

"Clever."

Hong Ran affirmed, "The Old Land World synchronizes with Earth. Although it’s not an exact match, they are generally similar. It’s been this way since we arrived.

"If one day Earth’s crust moves and creates a new canyon, the Old Land World wouldn’t suddenly sprout one. Instead, it would slowly synchronize, and a new canyon or a large pit would eventually appear.

"Therefore, when we travel between the Old Land World and Earth, the probability of arriving in the heart of a mountain or deep underground is very low."

"Doesn’t that still mean there’s a probability?"

"We have our ways of sensing it."

"Oh... Human constructions are also synchronized."

Zhou Li remembered that West Mountain District, the city center, lay directly across from West Mountain. To the right was Chenggong District, the college town, where buildings were much sparser.

"That’s right," Hong Ran nodded. "That was the Will of the World acting on its own accord, or perhaps it miscalculated. We didn’t instruct it to do that when we first moved here."

"It could be because the buildings are too large."

"That’s probably it."

"But there are still many differences." Zhou Li recalled that there weren’t many tall buildings at the foot of West Mountain, opposite the college town. Yet, here below them, there were many towering trees. Moreover, the Bamboo Garden on Earth was behind West Mountain; it didn’t have a view of Dian Lake and wasn’t very high up.

"Of course, its power isn’t that great," Hong Ran said with a smile. "And we keep making trouble for it."

"Still, it’s magical."

"Want to go out for a walk?" Hong Ran casually put her hand on Zhou Li’s shoulder. "How about I take you out for a stroll?"

"Great!"

Zhou Li could hardly wait.

This tree was probably over twenty meters tall. In this world, that would be considered quite short, but it covered a large area and was situated on high ground. Outside their room, a tree branch meandered downwards, its surface like a staircase, allowing them to walk down.

Zhou Li couldn’t help but wonder: How did Demons climb trees that were over a hundred meters tall? Was there something akin to an elevator? Surely they didn’t go to the human world, sneak onto an elevator to reach the desired height, and then find a suitable place to return to the Old Land World every time they needed to go up, right?

As he was wildly speculating, they reached the ground.

The ground looked like rock yet felt both hard and soft, its surface covered with colorful moss.

CRUNCH.

There was a slight noise when stepping on it.

Tuanzi’s voice rang out near his ear, "At night, this ground lights up when you step on it!"

"Really?"

"Yes! It only dims after you’ve walked over it!"

"I see..."

Zhou Li tried to picture the scene. No wonder Huai Xu said this place resembled the world from Avatar, he thought.

Tuanzi turned and hugged him, stealthily glancing at Hong Ran walking beside them. He continued his role as a little tour guide in a soft voice, "At night, many Bright Bugs will fly all over, each holding a little lantern."

"Do they really have little lanterns?"

"Yes! You’ll see them tonight," Tuanzi said earnestly. "In the past, Your Highness often took Lord Dumpling to catch Bright Bugs in the grass and on the trees. We’d catch lots and lots, filling our little pouches.

"Then we’d give them food and shelter and play with them. When their little lanterns dimmed, we’d let them go. They’d repair their lanterns among these flowers, and then we’d catch them again."

"It seems to be true."

Zhou Li paused, then a smile spread across his face.

So, Lord Dumpling’s descriptions of the fireflies had been true after all. Zhou Li had thought it was just the naive talk of a child.