Chapter 113: Foundational Tree Entity

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A faint red trace appeared in the air, and the Swift Phoenix Blade in Ye Bai’s hand began to glow a deep crimson. Instantly, the temperature in the corridor seemed to rise by several degrees, as thumb-sized red “flowers” materialized in the atmosphere.

“Hum~.” The fire-elemental power within Ye Bai concentrated; the Swift Phoenix Blade emitted a light chime, and the Fire Bodhi manifested in an instant.

One by one, the Fire Bodhi “flowers” shot into the bodies of the liquid-core puppets that had rushed out of the ward. The highly compressed fire-elemental energy seemed capable of incinerating everything in existence. The puppets, which had not yet managed to attack, resembled human-shaped fireworks, their entire bodies radiating a blinding red light before shriveling up, turning to ashes in an instant.

The tendrils crawling along the hospital walls showed no intent to attack them; they acted more like “scavengers,” removing the liquid cores from the puppet bodies after Ye Bai and his companions destroyed them.

Though the puppets crowded the corridor, those without elemental power posed little threat; they couldn’t even damage the hospital walls.

Ye Bai stood at the front, fending off attacks, while Cao Xiaoseng and Yao Ling guarded against sudden assaults from the vines on the walls. The three steadily advanced, gradually ascending to the higher floors of the hospital.

“Do you feel anything strange?” Ye Bai asked as he sliced through a liquid-core puppet with the Swift Phoenix Blade. The vines absorbed the liquid core and slithered past Ye Bai.

“What’s wrong?” Yao Ling scanned their surroundings but found no other monsters; she assumed Ye Bai sensed a new threat.

“Do you feel like we’re just unpaid laborers, working for the tree? The puppets that come out in droves don’t really threaten the tree—it seems these liquid-core puppets are just walking to their deaths.”

Though Ye Bai didn’t understand the tree’s motives, the intelligence brain’s data suggested a powerful energy form was gathering within the hospital.

Cao Xiaoseng observed the vines writhing on the walls. At first, they were no thicker than an arm, but now they had grown as thick as buckets. He had tried attacking the vines but to no avail.

The finger guards severed the vines extending from the walls, which immediately turned into gray solids, only to be replaced by new vines sprouting from the walls.

“It seems the tree is using us to kill these puppets,” Cao Xiaoseng said uncertainly, unable to make sense of the tree’s logic.

After all, whether liquid crystal or liquid core puppets, they were vessels cultivated by the tree to provide nutrients and energy. Even if the tree wanted to reclaim them, it wouldn’t need to use us to eliminate its own puppets.

More puppets emerged continuously from the wards. The higher they ascended, the fewer human puppets appeared, replaced mostly by mutated beast puppets. It was hard to imagine so many puppets inside the wards.

Ye Bai and the others had investigated the wards; the walls seemed to be breeding bodies or passageways, constantly spawning puppets. When they tried to attack, the walls reverted to normal, making it impossible to trace the puppets’ origin.

“We can’t go any higher,” Ye Bai said, surveying the hospital and locating its main structural supports.

“If we tear down the entire hospital, I don’t believe it won’t reveal something,” Ye Bai gestured to Cao Xiaoseng to break the main supports from another direction with him.

“Ling’er, you go out first and watch for any changes outside,” Ye Bai instructed Yao Ling.

Yao Ling turned toward the corpse-ridden hospital, a nagging feeling that something was amiss.

Just as she stepped outside, a thunderous crash echoed. The intelligence brain displayed a sudden surge of fire and earth elemental power, and the entire hospital collapsed.

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“Ling’er, did you notice anything?” Ye Bai and Cao Xiaoseng emerged from the ruins, looking at Yao Ling, whose expression was a mix of worry and unease.

Yao Ling shook her head, her gaze fixed on the ruins. “What did I miss?” she kept asking herself.

“Gurgle, gurgle.”

Suddenly, the sound of flowing water came from beneath the ruins. Black liquid oozed out from the cracks, melting all the rubble. Seeing this, Yao Ling finally understood what she had overlooked.

“The reason it’s called a tree-body is because you don’t know if you’re outside or inside the body of the tree. The tree can assimilate mutated beasts and humans of lower evolutionary rank, blending them in without altering their appearance.”

Yao Ling looked around. “Could this be inside the tree’s body?” The growth-stage tree-body of their clan was only part of the tree’s body; Yao Ling had never seen a complete tree-body.

“Xiaoseng, Ye Bai,” Yao Ling whispered to the two, trying to steady herself, admitting her guess had frightened her.

“What is it, Ling’er?” Ye Bai asked, turning to face the still-transforming ruins, startling Yao Ling.

“Did you figure something out?” Ye Bai guessed from the situation.

“Yes.” Yao Ling nodded, then glanced at Cao Xiaoseng, whose eyes held worry, before calming herself and saying, “Where do you think we are right now?”

She refrained from sharing her full suspicion, fearing they might not accept it immediately.

“Isn’t this the Mink District Guard Station?” Ye Bai checked the coordinates on his intelligence brain and asked.

“Yes, the Mink District Guard Station,” Yao Ling responded. “But I mean, are we really standing on the guard station’s land, or are we inside the tree’s body?”

“You’re saying that since entering the guard station, we’ve actually been inside the tree’s body?” Cao Xiaoseng looked at the black liquid flowing from the ruins.

“Don’t you think those puppets are like armored antibodies? We shatter them, then the tree absorbs them to strengthen itself. The vines on the walls act like blood vessels, transporting the black blood underground.”

Yao Ling pointed to the black liquid and added, “We might have angered the tree.”

The collapsed hospital resembled a severed artery, with black liquid continuously oozing out, staining all the bricks and rubble.

Suddenly, the ground of the entire guard station began to tremble, and a sharp wind howled from outside.

Ye Bai looked out, astonished. The vines originally growing on the guard station’s exterior walls had thickened, and the vines that had merely drifted above the station now appeared as countless black shadows filling the view.

The vines swayed through the air, tearing the atmosphere with constant, eerie sounds.

“What should we do now?” Ye Bai asked Yao Ling. Among the three, only Yao Ling had prior contact with the tree-body. Remaining at the ruins meant missing the best opportunity; Ye Bai wanted to take the initiative.

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Yao Ling racked her brain, recalling all the information their clan elders had taught her about the tree-body—from initial encounters to its destruction—but none seemed applicable now. The tree-body they had once destroyed was at the growth stage, and the hunter was a master-level warrior who overwhelmed it completely.

She wasn’t sure if her clan elders knew their current situation, but she was certain the master-level warrior had never ventured inside the tree-body.

“I don’t know, but Ling’er thinks it’s best we leave now,” Yao Ling replied.

The best-case scenario when trapped is to escape with one’s body intact. Though no immediate change had occurred, the vines on the outer walls told a grim story.

“Gurgle, gurgle.”

The black liquid gurgled again, and dark green vines emerged from beneath the ruins. Almost black in color, they were about the thickness of a forearm but appeared immensely powerful. Every ten centimeters or so, a green crystal glowed clearly in the night.

“Is that a liquid core?!” Ye Bai’s intelligence brain buzzed. Looking down, he saw that wood-elemental power around them had surged dramatically, with earth-elemental energy also rising significantly.

According to the intelligence brain, the peak of the wood-elemental power surpassed even Ye Bai’s own fire-elemental peak. “It should be advanced entry-level. Whether it can reach peak entry-level, we don’t know yet. Let’s move.”

Without hesitation, Ye Bai urged Yao Ling and Cao Xiaoseng to flee toward the guard station’s perimeter.

The dark green vines fused the ruins together like liquid, yet seemed to possess their own will, gradually molding the debris into a gray-green giant beneath the night sky.

At the moment these black vines appeared, alarms sounded at the Arya Monitoring Center in the Verdant Forest Capital.

“Report.”

The white-haired elder, over 150 years old, had spent his first hundred years in battle. After a severe brain injury in a mutant war, his cerebral domain was lost, and his elemental power slowly faded. Fifty years had quietly passed; once a master-level warrior, he now barely possessed entry-level elemental power. If not for his strong constitution, he would have long since passed on.

“Proceed,” the elder said calmly, his century of experience having tempered him to equanimity. Yet his stubborn heart still wished to serve humanity one last time.

“What’s happening?” The subordinate, anxious but respectful, held back and allowed the elder to inquire.

“Report: Arya just detected a peak growth-level energy burst at the Mink District Guard Station in Yang City. Only foundation-level star-core warriors have been stationed there.”

“Yang City? Mink District Guard Station?” The elder, now “retired,” worked at the Arya Information Center in Verdant Forest Capital.

“That’s the place where everyone disappeared a few days ago. Didn’t we dispatch teams to investigate? The highest threat was foundation-level tree-bodies. The task was already assigned to the two major academies. How could there be a peak growth-level energy burst?”

The elder muttered to himself, then after a moment, connected his intelligence brain to another location.