Chapter 917: Chapter 915: The Enquiry of the Giant Tree
This time, the rift was particularly large, measuring over ten meters long and nearly a meter wide.
Emerging from the rift was a vine, though its diameter was several dozen centimeters, and its length reached several dozen meters. Its entire body was a dark purple-black, with many root-like structures on its surface. The densest areas of these “roots” had pitch-black, wart-like protrusions resembling eyes.
The vine looked very much like the tentacles of a terrifying ancient god from the world of Cthulhu.
The vine swung violently, forcibly pulling Richard and the other two into its attack range. An invisible force field was released, causing Richard and the others to be uncontrollably drawn in, requiring immense power to resist.
Clearly, unless the three could deal with this vine, it would be difficult to break free and pursue the escaping informant as they had before.
They exchanged glances, understanding this fact, and quickly reached a consensus.
Heluo’s body trembled, and a halo of reddish-brown gas burst from her pores. The gas gathered and solidified into multiple bodies of Heluo.
Like a shadow clone technique, in a moment, dozens of Heluos appeared at the scene.
Dozens of Heluos hovered in mid-air, raising their hands in unison to aim at the vine.
“Whoosh!”
Dozens of high-energy reactive red beams shot out, hitting the same spot on the vine accurately—an area slightly below the middle, a protrusion.
“Boom!”
With a loud explosion, the vine was blasted open, creating a massive hole, and a large amount of dark green sap sprayed in all directions, emitting a pungent stench as it hit the ground.
The attack seemed to injure the vine considerably, as it emitted a scream from the depths of the rift, signaling its pain.
Yet the vine didn’t retreat; it lashed out again, shattering several of Heluo’s images, forcing Heluo to flicker and dodge, then turned its attack towards Bobbobovic.
Bobbobovic watched, his eyes widening slightly, and with no fear, he reached into his pocket and retrieved a grass-green potion once more.
This potion was deeper in color and higher in dosage compared to the last one. Bobbobovic uncorked it and gulped it down.
Visibly, Bobbobovic’s originally pale green skin turned dark green, his hair and eyebrows turning green as well, transforming him into a being almost entirely made from plants.
But that wasn’t all. After his entire body was dyed green, Bobbobovic’s spine erupted with a crackling sound, suddenly shooting up a notch, with two shoulders bulging and both arms extending.
“Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!”
At the tips of his elongated arms, ten fingers rapidly sprouted long, slender nails, each five to six centimeters long, appearing silver-gray and glinting with a metallic sheen.
The attacking vine was already upon him, and Bobbobovic met it with glaring eyes, gripping its surface with force, deeply embedding his nails beneath its skin. Then he unleashed a burst of strength, tearing off a chunk weighing dozens of pounds.
Beneath the rift, the vine emitted another screech.
Following the screech, the vine seemed angered. Its root-like areas grew rampant, frantically reaching for everything around. Meanwhile, the eye-like parts oozed dark red fluid and began to open slowly—like real eyes.
Richard watched, waved his hand, and numerous light points emerged and converged to form three Langdonick’s Spears in front of him.
He raised his hand and struck down forcefully, sending the three glowing spears whistling forward, two piercing the lower part of the vine and the other striking the eye that was about to open.
Three tiny circular holes formed, and after a brief delay, each erupted with dazzling light.
Each beam of light was a projection of an accompanying long spear, summoning projections of no less than thirty thousand accompanying spears to attack the vine at that moment.
“Sss!”
The part of the vine beneath the rift released an excruciating howl, the surface part starting to melt bit by bit under the intense light. Finally, in a burst of pure white light, it evaporated and vanished completely.
The vine was dealt with.
Yet for the first time, Richard and the others didn’t look pleased. The reason was simple; glancing around, they realized that the escaping informant had already vanished without a trace, taking advantage of the situation.
“It seems that the real culprit behind the Silent Forest highly values the informant. To ensure the informant returns with the information, there are more arrangements in place than we imagined,” Richard said.
“So what do we do now?” Bobbobovic asked, “Keep going deeper?”
“The informant is lost; we can’t find the culprit by taking shortcuts. To find them, we have no choice but to keep going deeper,” Heluo said, looking at Richard for confirmation, “Isn’t that right, Wizard Richard?”
“Pretty much,” Richard nodded, “Let’s go.”
“Hmm.” Richard, Bobbobovic, and Heluo left together.
…
About half an hour after Richard and the others left, the escaping informant arrived before a giant tree in the Silent Forest.
Upon closer look, it was clear that the so-called informant was nothing more than a skinny monkey riding a grey wolf.
The monkey made the grey wolf stop, jumped to the ground, and prostrated itself beside the ancient tree, letting out strange “squeak, squeak, squeak” sounds.
“Crack, crack, crack!”
In response to the monkey’s calls, the ancient tree seemed to awaken from slumber, its bark contorting to reveal a blurred human face. Among its features was a basin-sized tree hole, seemingly bottomless—its mouth.
“Whoo, whoo, whoo…”
Dust-laden gusts blew from the tree hole, the air around swirling as if the ancient tree were speaking.
Upon hearing this, the monkey became even more excited, chattering on and gesticulating frantically, trying to explain.
The face on the trunk slowly morphed, and after listening for a while, it seemed to grow impatient, a branch drooping down, swiftly wrapping around the monkey and tossing it directly into its mouth.
“Squeak!”
The monkey let out a fearful shriek, but it only cried once before vanishing into the bottomless tree hole.
“Whoosh—”
Once more, wind blew from the tree hole, now carrying a rich metallic tang.
The face on the trunk appeared contemplative, as though comprehending something, yet still held some doubt, its eyes turning toward the grey wolf the monkey had been riding.
The grey wolf sensed danger, its body hunching, limbs charging with energy, ready to flee. Having undergone multiple mutations as a demonized creature, its speed was remarkable; once it started, nothing could catch up.
But before it could spring into action, with a “snap,” it collapsed to the ground.
Looking, one could see numerous slender, tender green grasses sprouting around it, tangling like fine threads around its body.
One or two wouldn’t matter much, and even a dozen only took some effort to break free, but when their numbers reached thousands, they could topple a giant beast, let alone a mutated demonized grey wolf known for speed, not strength.
Enveloped by numerous grasses, the grey wolf was held firmly to the ground, opening its mouth in a cry of terror.
But as soon as it opened its mouth, countless grass strands rushed in, jostling for entry into its throat.
“Gag, gag, gag!”
The grey wolf struggled violently.
…