Chapter 267: Return and Infection

Splash—

A humanoid figure gleaming with steel light darted out from Sharon's spell satchel, blocking the swing range of the 【Dedicated Body Sword】.

This was a magical puppet designed to automatically protect its master.

Clang!!!

Sparks flew!

A metallic collision erupted with a cracking sound.

"Oh?"

The sword did not cut through, but this steel guardian could not withstand Rod's strength at all; it was knocked flying far away in the direction of the sword's swing.

With a thud, it crashed into the ground yet still did not stop, dragging out a long scratch mark before twisting its limbs to a sudden halt.

And 'Sharon', seizing the opening created by blocking that strike, used 【Spatial Shift】 to appear beside that dark red staff, quickly stopped her casting, and snatched back the spell satchel.

She immediately activated 【Spatial Shift】 again, intending to leave at once.

However, a figure moving so fast it blurred suddenly appeared behind her.

She widened her eyes in shock.

The speed was too great; she could only cancel 【Spatial Shift】, switch to casting a spell shield, and pull a spellbook from her satchel.

She rapidly activated the seventh-tier spell 【Wall of Eyes】 stored within the magical item.

【Wall of Eyes】 is a barrier composed of eyeballs; it possesses high physical resistance, and any creature touching the wall is affected by 【Monster Stasis】.

For the following 10 minutes, the wall can directly devour the immobilized creatures, making it capable of both offense and defense.

This spell is exceptionally effective against Spiritual Warriors; many warriors who believed they could win by getting close have fallen here.

"A Spiritual Warrior who hasn't even reached the seventh tier..."

Rip—

A sword light descended!

This meat wall, packed with eyeballs and the favorite of dense patients, split in two!

'Sharon' saw the effect of 【Monster Stasis】 penetrate into the tall figure's body, only to be instantly negated by his powerful constitution.

Without even pausing the sword wind, he directly tore her seventh-tier mage's spell shield apart.

"What monster?!?!"

A sixth-tier peak Spiritual Warrior's plain slash broke a seventh-tier spell, and the sword wind tore the spell shield apart!

What kind of fantasy thing is this!?

Rod's expression was cold.

He raised a hand and pointed.

"Amel! If you're going to die, die cleanly!"

The illusion effect of 【Mirage Net】 instantly drilled into 'Sharon's' mind.

Since the last time Amel was killed, it was discovered that this Plague Mage's mental resistance was not high.

As expected, the opponent was immediately affected.

Her entire body stiffened, and a look of confusion appeared on her face.

Rod increased the consumption of Lust points, actively editing the content of the Illusory Realm into scenes of him and Sharon together.

"Sharon! Remember who you are!"

It was clear that Sharon was being influenced by Amel's memories.

The Dog-kin girl had claimed she had deconstructed the memories, but it now seemed there were still some hidden moves she did not know about.

At such a moment, strengthening one's own memory images is very helpful in battles of spiritual consciousness.

【Blood Marrow Tree warns you: The Botanical Garden Gardener has discovered the struggle and is returning to the Botanical Garden; flee immediately!】

"Annoying!"

Editing the Illusory Realm has a drawback: it requires spending a large amount of concentration.

Fighting simultaneously while splitting one's focus is something Rod's current concentration cannot achieve.

He turned his head to look.

Several green Plague Beasts making baby-like cries jumped onto the Blood Marrow Tree like monkeys; as soon as they saw him and Sharon, they began banging gongs and drums with a dong-dong-dong sound.

Rod slashed out a 【Scream Wave】, instantly splitting it in two.

The Blood Marrow Tree below was drenched in foul-smelling green blood; it was not angry at all, but instead cheered and hopped, using vines to stuff the corpse into the large mouth on its trunk and chew voraciously.

The commotion had already been made.

Immediately, a rumbling vibration came.

Without looking, one knew this was the situation of a large force returning to the fold.

Dragging a half-crippled person here to fight was not a solution!

"Damn it!"

Rod had to stop weaving the illusion of 【Mirage Net】, stepped forward, and grabbed Sharon by the scruff.

He bent his legs and suddenly exploded with power.

Boom!!!

The brick-paved ground of the Botanical Garden instantly exploded, with gravel and soil debris expanding outward along with a shockwave.

Rod's figure had already leaped into the air, tracing a parabola across the gray-white sky.

In his Yu Guang, he could see a large mass of green Plague Beasts and over a dozen giant Gardeners charging from the ground, their momentum fierce like a giant wave.

Besides that, all the trees of the entire Botanical Garden waved their vines, waving at him from afar as if conveying feelings of longing and reluctance to part.

"What's going on?! Why was 【High-Level Invisibility】 discovered?!"

Bald Andulu's whole body reeked of a foul stench as he bared his teeth and spoke.

The five of them cast flight spells of varying degrees on themselves, skimming low over the ground in midair.

Behind them, green plague beasts piled up in layers like a great wave, accompanied by continuous, frequent tremors.

Even their roars were as massive and all-encompassing as an earthquake's rumble.

"It might not be that we were spotted—maybe it's just the unconscious reaction of the plants there. Baldy, you stink to high heaven! Use some cleaning spell!"

Glasses-wearing Wilson cursed.

The three junior sisters flying a bit slower behind all pinched their noses and pulled away from Andulu in disgust.

One rather attentive junior sister noticed something and cried out in alarm: "Senior Andulu, there's a patch of blood blisters growing on your face!"

"Huh?"

Andulu reacted as if half a beat slow, turned his head, and hurled an 【Bing Feng Fa】 right into the plague beast horde.

The ice-crystal-formed spell orb flew out, exploded with a bang, freezing a patch of enemies, but the densely packed beast swarm quickly filled the gap back in.

"What are you bothering with them for?! Clean and heal yourself, you idiot."

Wilson froze for a moment, then hurriedly flung a detection spell over.

"Domain-level plague? Holy shit!"

Hearing this, the three junior sisters behind also turned pale with fright and hurriedly pulled even more distance from him.

Andulu hurriedly explained:

"I used an 【Isolation Protection Bubble】! It's fine!"

"Why the hell didn't you say something when you realized you'd been hit?!"

"It's fine, it's fine, I can handle it, just give me some time."

"Give you what time? There's a huge horde behind us right now—huh? The guys behind are retreating?"

He turned to look.

Sure enough, the plague beast swarm had stopped the pursuit and was heading back to its nest instead.

No one understood why, but having escaped the calamity, they all heaved a sigh of relief.

Andulu and Wilson were two newly-advanced seventh-tier; their realms were inherently unstable, and crossing dimensional latitudes would inevitably subject them to a certain suppressive force.

The amount of suppressive force depended on the crossing ritual's type and complexity.

In the current environment of the Dread Realm, Sharon's ritual would reduce spiritual or magical accumulation by 30% and increase physical burden by 50%.

The two of them, however, used the standard formation array provided by the academy—normally that meant a 15% reduction in magical accumulation and a 65% increase in physical burden.

For mages, this was no big deal—let the physical burden be, one 【Iron Lungs】 cast and they wouldn't feel a thing; mages didn't make their living off that anyway.

But the problem was that the Dread Realm had now undergone a major change.

(End of chapter)