Of course, Jason didn't stop when he managed to lose the earth elementals. While they aren't the sharpest knife in the drawer, they do have the ability to earth glide. So not seeing them doesn't mean they aren't there. Though admittedly, most of the time they just use the ability to get as deep underground as possible and then zone out. Mindless immortals don't tend to be the most active of beings.

Even just an overly extended lifespan tends to cause people to take things slow. The classic portrayal of elves is a good example of this. Long life, low effort. Of course, this isn't true for every long-lived person, but the trend holds true over all.

Jason has even seen it in his fellow players. While their actual lifespan is still only 100 some years without a ton of money, NeoRealm running at five times the speed of irl means most people can safely have almost half a millennium. Though these effects are less obvious here.

In Jason's last life, cultivators who got far enough really displayed this sort of lethargy. This is partly because their actual biological lifespan is being increased, but also because they temper their minds. His fellow players are still mostly base human minds, even if they are experiencing so many years. Cultivators, on the other hand, have the red dust as it were, beaten out of them.

Jason stops. It was an interesting thing to ponder, but now in front of him is potentially dangerous. More of the cliff has fallen down just ahead and as he looks to the left, the terrain on top of this area doesn't look all that hospitable.

While Jason had mostly ignored it, only the area directly next to the cliff has living plants, likely getting moisture from the swamp below. Further out though is in some ways worse than cursed wasteland way back from when he started. Instead of sand, the land is covered in dead grass and blackened trees without a leaf in sight.

Whatever caused this area to rise up wasn't kind to the environment. In fact, the more he sees of the barren area, the more Jason believes this wasn't natural. Sort of a silly as with the System around, there are very few events that could be called natural.

This, however, manages to break that veil. Worse, it wasn't like the other wasteland that Jason had experienced, and not just because of the environment. That first wasteland was active. Kind of like how despite most people's beliefs, a desert actually has a lot of life in it, the wasteland by the rabbit plains was alive. Sure, it was mostly alive with horrific escaped experiments, but alive nonetheless.

This area? This plateau? There was nothing alive.

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Not a single monster or plant. No insects or birds. There is only a small rim of greenery and the closer Jason looks at that, it cuts off a little too sharply as well. The plants aren't spreading inward.

The fallen cliff ahead? It too cut off a little too sharply. A bunch of the cliff face had fallen and yet it formed a sharp line following the dead area. This meant either traveling through the wasteland or braving earth elementals.

Though at least this better explains why there are so many. At first Jason had ideas of the earth elementals under the swamp moving away from the influx of water energies. Now, while he does still think that might contribute, clearly this wasteland is where most of them came from, which is quite the accomplishment.

Earth elementals don't need living things to survive. They can hang out in a solid rock with nothing else and live till the rock itself is worn away around it.

This realization is what makes up his mind in the end. If even the earth elementals can't stand whatever is going on in there, Jason knows he wouldn't fare much better. More likely, he would fare a lot worse.

So Jason begins his journey across another collapsed area. Easier because he doesn't have to climb up, but made harder because the distance he needs to cover is at least twice as much. Though the earth elemental's repulsion from the wasteland was greater than what he first thought.

While a handful of elementals did attack him, overall Jason manages to pass to the other side mostly unhindered. Then as days pass this repeats itself again and again.

Never more than five earth elementals near the top, but not always easy to spot. Even just a small chunk of rock sticking out of the ground could be the tip of the iceberg to a much larger earth elemental. Besides that, when he tried to use his energy to detect what rocks were elementals, while he could detect them, they would instantly wake up and try to attack him. So a bit self-defeating.

More time passes and the scene to Jason's left doesn't change a single bit. This is worse than anything else about it. The dead trees always appear to be in the same position compared to him. Only the dead grass next to the living grass seemed to move, but on closer inspection that is just the living grass moving in the wind.

The more he looked at it, the more disturbed he was. Then he recognized the warning signs. Something in the wasteland was messing with his head.

Once again, Jason has come across something that shouldn't be possible. This one was more subtle, but still there. Though it was so subtle that he wasn't really sure of the source.

It could be the wasteland itself. The area looked special enough to have a mental suppression effect. On the other hand, it could be the System purposefully suppressing the area. If the other wasteland was the result of a mad scientist, this one could be the result of someone at the peak or having just broken through.

Either would make sense and Jason wasn't planning on looking into it further. He was just going to make sure to not look in that direction as he makes the best time he can to the next area.

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