Chapter 125: The Fear Arena

"I'll go alone. You should have a way to pull me back, right?"

"With your mental resistance, you're just a useless rock in the Fear Arena. Even without any special measures, you'll be excreted within a few days."

Having said that.

Lady Kali placed some spell components on the ground and drew a magic array.

"Don't compare me to a lump of dung."

Rod said helplessly.

"I want to go too."

Tally and Vivian leaned over, both looking at their master.

"Do you think this is a picnic? Just go whenever you want? Get out of the way!"

Lady Kali gave them no face and scolded them directly.

"Master~~"

Rod indeed had no intention of taking her.

He gently patted the succubus's head.

The elf drew an array on a crystal as well; this would serve as the medium for Rod to return to reality.

On the Tu Ren Zu Fa side, spell components were also laid out, and they began chanting the incantation.

Threads of mana began to act upon Rod, but all were repelled.

"Mr. Rod, please open your mind. Your mental resistance is too strong."

He said with difficulty.

A short while later.

The array at the spot emitted a glow of mana.

Rod briefly opened his mind, successfully entering a state of astral projection.

And when he opened his eyes.

He found the environment around him had changed drastically.

In the pitch-black sky, two gray-white moons, one large and one small, hung high.

They illuminated the slope ahead, revealing land paved with gray bones, with streams of fresh blood flowing through the gaps between the bones.

As if this were the only color in the White World.

Rod noticed he was wearing only simple cloth clothes; all his equipment had vanished.

That made sense, after all, this was a mental world.

"So this is the Fear Arena?"

Watching the mist slowly rise and the white-haired skull at his feet, Rod felt almost no fear.

He stepped forward toward the slope.

Crunch, crunch, crushing countless bones underfoot.

He could even see chunks of gold on the ground, including two polished gold discs and a gold rod, which he had accidentally stepped on and broken.

He had chatted with Lady Kali before; she told him that even in the vast stars, gold was considered a precious material.

Speaking of which.

Since sharing the 【Negative Emotion Devouring】 skill, Rod had gradually become able to perceive others' emotions.

However, the types were few and very vague.

Emotion perception is a native skill of demons; it is said to require a special organ to achieve, or perhaps he simply lacks this skill.

The perceivable emotions are seven: Lust, Greed, Gluttony, Sloth, Wrath, Envy, and Pride, corresponding exactly to the Seven Deadly Sins.

Currently, Lust is the most abundant, contributed almost entirely by Vivian, totaling 32 points.

Interestingly, Tally does not release these.

She seems wrapped in a thin film, digesting all negative emotions herself.

The additional ability regarding Lust is also interesting.

【Additional Skill: Mirage Web】

【Details: A web composed of desire, trapping the target in endless temptation and illusions. Those with Gao Chao skill can perceive and manipulate others' emotions and desires through this web.】

Rod currently cannot perform it with great precision; he can only simply trap the released target in an illusion.

As for what the opponent sees or fears, he knows nothing about it.

But in the Fear Arena, it is one of the few weapons he can use besides his super-strong mental resistance.

Besides that, Naulin's Resentful Fire is also within the usable range.

Climbing the slope.

The view opened up considerably.

"The place straight ahead looks like a ruined graveyard; to the left is a plant garden? And a bunch of giant snails. To the right, uh, could that be a giant dragon?"

Rod squinted, focusing his vision.

He discovered it was a bone dragon.

Many barnacle-like parasites attached to its gray-white bones.

Why would a bone dragon appear in a world of the mental dimension?

After all, a bone dragon is a magical creature created by a lich or necromancer from a dead giant dragon; even if a dragon soul remains, the mental projection would still reflect its original living form.

Which giant dragon could endure and accept becoming a skeleton?

In short, such an unnatural thing

is not to be trifled with.

Fortunately, the direction of 【Heart Tide Resonance】 wasn't over there.

Rod sprinted toward the plant garden.

In no time at all.

He reached the edge.

Only his footsteps hesitated.

"Mm, can they even survive in a place like this?"

He hadn't noticed from afar; only now, up close, did he see it.

The garden before him was filled with black-green spores; the pool at its center held a yellow-green slurry of filth; along the edges, countless sickly, mutated plants had grown eyeballs and tentacles, scattering spores while writhing their limbs as if in courtship.

The giant snail patrolling the garden was another strange thing.

Its massive, spiral-patterned gastropod shell alone stood twice Rod's height.

The body beneath the shell didn't move by slithering; instead, from large to small, six pairs of hoofed legs had grown on either side.

Its head bore a mouth half the size of its skull, lined with rows of yellow teeth, constantly exhaling a yellow plague.

"Not spiritual energy, nor magical power?"

Rod could sense the creature constantly shedding pathogens, using them as nutrients to feed the garden's plants.

His gaze swept to a sickly, withered tree not far away.

With a creak, every eyeball on the trunk swiveled to look at him in unison.

It made Rod's hair stand on end.

"So then, can 【Tree's Blessing】 be put to use here?"

The pupils of the eyeballs rotated once, and a puff of green mist sprayed out at Rod.

【The Blood Marrow Tree has expressed affection and initiated a mating invitation. Accept?】

"No no no no no no!!!"

Rod clicked frantically.

I said it before — never again with the trees.

The green mist enveloped him, causing not the slightest harm.

【Gained the special status 'Plague Botanical Garden Pass.'】

【Poison Resistance increased, Mental Resistance increased, Insight into the 'Plague' domain increased, Insight into the 'Regeneration' domain increased】

"Vivian, I just love you to death."

Rod sighed the words.

Then he swaggered boldly into the Plague Botanical Garden.

Sure enough, the plants showed him not the slightest hostility.

What's more, when the giant snail spotted him, it lowered its head slightly, signifying its submission.

And from the thought-waves it transmitted, one could tell it called Rod the 'Great Cultivator' and hoped he would ride upon its shell.

Clearly, these not-very-bright little creatures had mistaken him for someone else.

Rod certainly wasn't going to set them straight.

"Brother Snail, I'm looking for four people — three humans and one dog-person. I don't know if you've seen them."

The giant snail was first alarmed by Rod's form of address, then indicated it had indeed seen such a group.

It said they were currently undergoing employee training in the Skull Rose section.

"Employee training..."

Rod was a little too drained to even complain.

He asked the giant snail to help find them, and the other party naturally expressed alarm once more before agreeing.

It seemed this 'Great Cultivator' held no small status within this garden.

Meanwhile.

In the Voodoo Rose section.

Sharon and three young apprentice mages were watching the 'Gardener's' lesson with utter terror.

Their faces had already taken on a poisoned green, and the spores proliferating in their throats kept blocking the air they breathed.

This was clearly the spiritual dimension, yet these plagues could bypass the flesh and act directly upon their souls.

The Gardener was still humanoid in form.

They stood nearly three meters tall; massive tumors spread wildly across their torso, piling up like clumps of fat drooping exaggeratedly downward, making them look like giant, obese creatures.

(End of chapter)