The Puchi was lifted into the air by roots, mycelial tentacles hanging limply in complete submission.
Its two short legs occasionally twitched unconsciously. Otherwise it stayed perfectly still, playing the part of a “clueless wild magical beast” to perfection.
The old elf on the other side still hadn’t grasped the gravity of the situation and continued struggling.
Again and again he tried to gather mana inside his body, but each time the roots around him quivered slightly, instantly scattering the power he had painstakingly accumulated.
After several failed attempts, the motion tugged at his wounds. Another trickle of blood spilled from the corner of his mouth.
“This level of control… just who are you?” Ilos’s voice carried suppressed pain.
The faint rustle of trampled grass and flowers came from the darkness. Then soft points of light appeared among the sea of blooms.
Before the elf and the Puchi appeared a… tumbleweed made of interwoven roots, vines, and branches?
At the center of the spherical mass of plant matter was a faintly glowing structure that resembled an eye.
This was no physical body; merely a consciousness projection of some existence within this special abyssal space.
Then a voice rang directly in Ilos’s and Lin Jun’s minds. “First you burn my roots, then you mess around in my consciousness, and now you ask who I am?”
The voice was pleasant, like wind through leaves.
“The Sacred Tree?” Ilos stared in disbelief at the tumbleweed. “Impossible! The Sacred Tree cannot possibly have full self-awareness! No record in any literature mentions this!”
The tumbleweed leisurely rolled half a circle through the flowers. “Well, in the past there has never been uninvited guests as clever as you two sneaking in.”
Lin Jun felt the Sacred Tree was surprisingly chatty; it was actually willing to explain things to Ilos.
The next moment, a thin branch stabbed out from Ilos’s remaining wrist, severing tendons. Staff and Heartwood of Genesis fell, vanishing into the flowers below.
“The Heartwood of Genesis isn’t meant to be used like that. And you…” The tumbleweed slowly rolled in front of the Puchi. Its glowing “eye” seemed to study it for a long while, yet said nothing.
On the other side, Ilos refused to accept defeat. Hoarsely he shouted, “If you truly are the Sacred Tree, why stop me? You must know of the Ark Plan! The harm done to you was an accident. Everything I’ve done is merely to continue that plan!”
“The Ark Plan?” The Sacred Tree’s attention was indeed drawn back. It rolled in front of Ilos, light flickering. “Then tell me, what exactly is this ‘Ark Plan’ you speak of?”
The tumbleweed’s tone carried a hint of amusement. Even Lin Jun, watching from the side, immediately sensed that Ilos’s version of the plan was fundamentally mistaken.
Sure enough, after Ilos laid out his grand vision, “using the dungeon as an ark to withstand the mist, then analyzing the mist from that base to find the ultimate solution,” the Sacred Tree showed no joy at finding a kindred spirit.
Several slender branches extended from the tumbleweed, wrapping around Ilos’s head until he was completely encased.
After a while, the Sacred Tree seemed to understand something. “Multiple Wills LV10… so you’ve been contaminated by information.”
“What information contamination? What nonsense are you spouting?” Ilos struggled within the branches.
“The Ark Plan did exist, but it has nothing to do with what you described, and it failed long ago. As for you…” The Sacred Tree’s voice carried a trace of pity. “You’re just another pitiful fool who tried to analyze the abyss and got your mind overwritten by chaotic information.”
“No… impossible!” Ilos’s voice shook with agitation. “Are you saying the crisis of the mist destroying the world is also fake?”
“That part isn’t fake, but there’s no need to worry about it!” The Sacred Tree said lightly, as if stating common sense. “Because… it’s hopeless, you know!”
???
“What does ‘hopeless’ mean?” Lin Jun couldn’t hold back. He had only been here three years; how was the world already doomed?
“Your voice is awful.” The Sacred Tree remarked disdainfully.
Damn it!
If not for the LV99 boss in front of him, Lin Jun would have exploded!
“Hopeless is hopeless. Using the dungeon, performing sacrifices, massacres; none of it matters. All that effort just makes everyone struggle uglily a little longer. Might as well take a nice nap.” A branch gently stroked the Puchi’s soft cap.
Just when Lin Jun thought he was about to be wrapped up too and was considering self-destructing, the branch withdrew, leaving only: “You’re the same.”
Same what?
The roots binding them suddenly released. The Puchi fell “puchi” onto the soft grass.
On the other side, Ilos knelt on the ground, utterly lost, seemingly unable to accept the truth he had just heard.
He suddenly lunged forward, snatched the Heartwood of Genesis from the ground, and roared at the tumbleweed. “You’re lying! You’re not the Sacred Tree! You just want me to give up the Ark Plan!”
In his madness, Ilos actually activated the artifact, pouring massive life energy into it.
But unlike when the Elven King used it, this energy all condensed at the tip, forming a dangerous destructive beam.
Using the Heartwood of Genesis to attack the Sacred Tree itself? Lin Jun watched Ilos like he was an idiot.
Sure enough, the artifact fizzled the next moment.
“Of course you won’t believe me,” the Sacred Tree said calmly. “To you, that corrupted information has already become truth.”
Branches began wrapping around Ilos from his ankles upward, but this time it wasn’t simple binding.
Wherever they touched, his body rapidly lignified. Skin gradually took on bark texture.
In the final moment before completely turning into a tree, this elf, rapidly aged from pouring out life energy, could only weep and beg for an answer:
“Tell me… please tell me… you just wanted to stop me! All those sacrifices… it can’t all have been for…”
But the Sacred Tree clearly had no intention of giving him deathbed comfort. It simply watched him fully transform into a small tree.
Only the Puchi and the tumbleweed remained in the space.
Lin Jun glanced at the wooden Ilos, then at the tumbleweed, and asked proactively, “Are you going to finish me off too?”
“What would be the point of cutting off one or two of your tentacles?”
The cannon-fodder Puchi lifted the voice Puchi and rubbed its tentacles as it approached. “Sacred Tree boss, you… know something, don’t you?”
(End of Chapter)
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