Chapter 80: Demonization and the Ancient Tree

The formation in the sky rapidly took shape.

Before all the Jade City defense forces could react, it unleashed a beam of light brimming with evil aura.

It fell straight onto the Jade Locust Tree.

Like ink dropped into water, this tree, which looked like jade, rapidly turned black, its branches collapsed, and its leaves fell away completely.

It had already become a scene of withering, on the verge of death.

"Evacuate the crowd!"

Harris ran over in a hurry, his face grim.

Looking around, everyone was people fleeing in panic.

The evil demonic power would squeeze out the positive side of their hearts, causing them to panic and lose control.

Harris immediately knew this was an attack by evil forces on Jade City.

"Get the mages here! All of them!"

He quickly ordered the squad members beside him.

Every profession has its specialists; these rough soldiers couldn't handle such things, they needed mages to deal with it.

As fast as the words were spoken, the formation dyed the sky black.

The falling pillar of light stopped immediately.

"Is it over?"

Watching the formation in the sky gradually dissipate, Harris truly couldn't judge the situation at that moment.

For now, only the Jade Great Tree showed signs of withering.

Boom!

The ground suddenly trembled violently.

Cracks rapidly appeared on the brick ground at the base of the Jade Banyan Tree, and it began to bulge upward.

One, two, three, four!

Bang!

Four massive segmented legs burst from the earth, planting themselves firmly on the solid ground.

Then they pushed up fiercely, lifting the entire Jade Tree trunk along with them.

The root system at the base snapped layer by layer, exposing clumps of large soil at the bottom.

And those segmented legs were actually growing on the Jade Tree itself!

As the clumps of soil at the bottom fell away, revealing a huge circular mouth lined with serrated teeth, only then did everyone realize.

The holy tree that had once dispelled disasters and solved problems had transformed into a ferocious demon beast!

Within the Jade Domain.

Rod felt no change in the outside world whatsoever.

The promotion encountered almost no difficulties; everything flowed naturally.

His spiritual accumulation rose smoothly by a large margin, and the strength of his body increased significantly once again.

If before, breaking a sixth-tier spell shield required Rod to rely on spiritual techniques of 【Five Flashes】 level or higher.

With his current spiritual strength, it probably wouldn't be that much effort anymore.

Adding the spiritual techniques 【Rampage】 and 【Sigh of Resentment Shakes the Heavens】, Rod began to wonder if he had already become invincible below the seventh tier.

"I heard that when mages promote within a domain, new knowledge floods into their minds."

They might also comprehend some special authority from the domain.

But since their tier isn't high enough, they can only perceive it very vaguely.

Rod didn't know if this news was true or false.

Anyway, he had received absolutely no information.

Mana is, after all, optimized spiritual energy; perhaps it aligns with the will of heaven, who knows.

That is also why mages always hold a higher status.

After waiting for nearly ten minutes, there was still no movement inside the domain.

"Didn't they say that after reaching the sixth tier, the domain would automatically push people out?"

Rod felt something was wrong.

His expression calmed, and he released his perception.

A distance of only three hundred meters seemed particularly meager within the boundless domain.

Fortunately, 【Tree's Blessing】 still continuously transmitted the spiritual energy of trees, serving as a guide for him.

Rod did not linger in place; he slid through the air like swimming, heading toward the source of the spiritual energy.

Later feeling it was too slow, he used 【Repulsion Technique】 to push himself and fly.

About half an hour later.

He saw a tree trunk in the distance with no visible beginning or end.

The brown trunk was not conspicuous in the air filled with light green spiritual energy, especially since it was so thin compared to its length.

If not for Rod's intuition, it would have looked more like a rope connecting heaven and earth.

Although neither the sky nor the earth could be seen, of course.

Another half hour passed.

Rod finally touched this tree trunk.

He gently stroked the fine bark on it.

"If this doesn't work, I might as well just use 【Spatial Tree Walk】 to escape."

The thought had barely landed.

He noticed that the bonus from 【Tree's Blessing】 had changed.

【Current Tree: Tongtian Pagoda (Partial)】

【Amplification Skill:???】

【Details:????, one of the crafting materials of Tongtian Pagoda, in the???? era????????】

"Huh?"

All question marks?

Rod frowned; this was the first time he'd encountered something like this.

Just as he was puzzling over it.

A gentle, soft female voice sounded beside him.

"Mr., could you not touch so hard?"

Rod got a fright.

There wasn't a single soul beside him—where had the voice come from?

It could only be this tree called Tongtian Pagoda.

He turned his head to look.

Sure enough, a woman's face had appeared on the trunk.

Unlike the women commonly seen on the continent, this face had a more Eastern style, looking pitifully lovely and very gentle.

He had heard Lily mention affinity before, and had guessed that domains might have their own consciousness.

But seeing it with his own eyes still startled him.

"You're the domain?"

The words slipped out of Rod's mouth.

The woman's face paused for a moment, then nodded.

"By your human understanding, yes. Sorry, it's been a very long time since anyone touched me."

"Is there any other way to understand it?"

"I am one of the crafting materials of Tongtian Pagoda. To keep me vital, the humans of the First Era opened up this space. For me, it's just a temporary dwelling."

Ah.

Rod felt he might have stumbled onto something high-level.

Also, what was the First Era?

Rod, who knew nothing of the continent's history, quickly gave up thinking about it.

"Sounds like you've been here a long time. Poor thing."

A trace of tenderness entered the woman's eyes as she looked at Rod.

"Thank you for your concern. It's actually not that long—it's not even half my age. Actually, you may keep touching me; I like your palm."

Rod knew this was the effect of 【Tree's Blessing】; trees had an especially high affinity toward him.

He laid his hand on it and gently stroked.

The woman immediately let out soft little moans of "mm" and "ha."

"."

After a brief mutual introduction, he learned that this Young Lady was a kind of ancient tree called Firmament, and she had given herself a name: Eva.

Strangely, this was clearly a tree species with an exact name.

Yet what 【Tree's Blessing】 displayed was the three words "Tongtian Pagoda."

Rod guessed that Eva was a Firmament ancient tree that had already been felled, and after being processed as building material, she had lost her name.

"Miss Eva, may I ask you something?"

He asked while giving the ancient tree's tree-soul a massage:

"Since I've already advanced successfully, why hasn't it sent me back to the present world?"

"Oh ah ha, that's because the transmission medium has mutated. Harder."

"Medium?"

"It's that little Emerald friend over here—scratch right here."

Rod's expression changed.

The Emerald Jade Banyan had withered?

He immediately knew something had changed in Emerald Jade City!

"Hm? You're very worried?"

Eva's expression of enjoyment stopped, turning serious.

"Yes, Miss Eva, I still have to get back."

"The one who should be worried is me, Mr. Rod. That mutated Emerald tree that's good at transmission is opening a passage connecting to the Abyss. They're coming for me."

The Abyss?

Rod knew of this.

It was the territory of the demon species deep underground.

"Then why are you so leisurely letting me scratch your back for you..."

Rod was a little helpless.

Clearly, Emerald Jade City was under attack by the demon species.

Who would have thought Eva would actually smile gently,

"That's because I've already found a way to deal with them, Mr. Rod. Have you ever tried mating with an ancient sky tree?"

(End of chapter)