Chapter 486: Chapter 287 Cutting the Tree, Cutting the Tree of Life_1
Before Ange could react, a tall figure rushed over. His longsword pointed at the vine; a surge of vigorous energy abruptly exploded, grinding the vine to dust.
The Giant Dragon Hunter, Gailard, caught up with him unscathed, cloaked in his fighting spirit. Swinging his longsword, he bulldozed his way through like a heavy-duty war chariot.
Without looking back, Gailard plunged into the white fog. Soon, a series of screams arose from within.
This Gailard, who earlier claimed he couldn’t get through, actually meant he couldn’t get through while leading others.
Ange followed and quickly spotted the creatures emitting the screams – giant mantis bug monsters. They looked remarkably similar to the ones they had encountered underground in Dark City, only much larger.
However, they were all now decapitated, their bodies torn apart, bloody and mangled.
Thousands of insects swarmed over the remains, gnawing ravenously but their own bodies sprouted a plethora of white fungi. As they bit, one by one, they collapsed.
They finally arrived at the foot of the Tree of Life after dashing through the white fog.
Gailard held his longsword upside down, looking up at the Tree of Life. He saw that the trunk of the Tree of Life was now wrapped in black, metallic-looking vines.
The vines emerged from the ground, coiling around the trunk of the Tree of Life, climbing with all their might. They wound around the tree more and more, tightly. The position of the tree stump was almost completely enveloped by these vines.
Ange sensed a strange thought coming from these vines.
The Insect God Mattis?
Ange pulled out a bag of insecticide, forcefully throwing it onto the vine. The outer packaging burst open, scattering the powdery insecticide onto the vine.
Mattis’ consciousness fell on Ange, then on the area where the insecticide had fallen. Its emotion seemed a bit lost.
It seemed... ineffective.
“Leave me be, save the forest.” The voice of the Tree of Life echoed in the air, slow and languid as if in conversation.
Negris quickly asked, “Old Tree, how are you doing? Are you okay? How can we remove this thing from you?”
The Tree of Life’s leisurely voice responded: “I cannot be saved. I was careless, thinking it was just a parasitic vine. There are so many things living on me, I didn’t pay attention. Unbeknownst to me, it has fused with my trunk, using a strange insect to parasitize all the insects on me.”
“Ah, who would have thought that the insects crawling on me daily were being parasitized. You reminded me. After I examined them, I realized it was too late. All the parasitized creatures have become its spawners, instantly exploding with billions of bugs.”
“I enveloped a range of a hundred kilometers in diameter with a barrier. They can’t escape for now, but don’t let them spread out, or they’ll devour the whole forest.”
Negris took a sharp intake of breath: “Hiss, a boundary of a hundred kilometers? But shouldn’t you take care of yourself first? Without you, there would be no Elf Forest.”
A boundary is good enough if it could house three or five people. The Farm Barrier is already very top-level construction, but it only has a range of a few thousand acres. The Tree of Life casually creates a barrier with a hundred-kilometer radius?
What’s the acreage equivalent of a hundred-kilometer radius?
Such a massive boundary, supported just by the Tree of Life’s power, but even such enormous power could not eliminate the bugs infesting it. Unbeknownst to anyone, Mattis’ vine has already fused with the Tree of Life.
This fusion was happening quietly. The Tree of Life couldn’t possibly constantly monitor the changes in its body. There were too many organisms that relied on it to survive, from fungi to insects to elves, billions of individuals. How could it notice a single parasitic vine?