Chapter 367: The Bottle Opener

The story has already reached its end, and the firelight by the hearth has dimmed.

Du Zhengyi roused himself from the age of legends, gazing at the mist-covered surface of Piaomiao Lake. The chill from the temperate forest crept onto his skin along with the mist rising from the water. The Highland Mage remained silent at the right moment; the others had wandered off somewhere, and this side of the lake, near the forest, was quiet and far from the bustle of the world. He was like a lone traveler...

He severed his train of thought, swallowed the cold and hard sensations, and once again skillfully flash-froze his emotions, forcing himself to face the problem itself.

His other set of emotions tightened. Like a soldier, he rapidly synthesized the information to make the most critical judgment. "Mage Hashi, it is temporarily unimportant who is directing this from behind the scenes. You said the things you guard are filled with a Curse; if the other party does not know this information, then that is also unimportant. Regardless of who sent a seed here, this seed must be related to the thing underground; there must be an inevitable connection between the two. The plant is merely a tool; the thing underground is the target. In other words, the plant is the bottle opener, and the thing underground is the wine in the bottle."

"But a plant is just a plant, not a tamed Psychic Beast. How could they use a plant to achieve their goal?" Mage Hashi said.

"It is too simple," Du Zhengyi said. He suddenly lowered his head to look at his feet. "Plants can only grow simply, and the methods behind them will not be too complex. The greatest characteristic of this type of plant is that it will seek out and devour energy. Once we discover this trait of it, we will inevitably clear away all energy in the upper space. Once the energy for upward growth no longer exists, the roots will plunge deep into the ground; they will spontaneously seek out the treasures underground. Mage Hashi, as long as there are Energy Crystals in the composition of the things you guard, there will definitely be residual energy."

The color of Mage Hashi's face had already changed slightly. "I cannot be certain..."

"They have already become certain," Du Zhengyi said in a low voice.

"We should..." Mage Hashi said hurriedly.

"It is too late," Du Zhengyi said. He began to listen intently, listening to the sounds coming from deep underground, while saying, "I have heard that the underground parts of plants grow faster than the parts above ground; the roots are often even more massive than the parts above the surface."

"Yes," Mage Hashi admitted, his face turning somewhat pale.

The underground roots of a plant are usually larger than the parts exposed to the outside. Imagining the roots of a towering ancient tree extending underground on a similar or even larger scale is already hard to believe. Now, facing a plant that is growing crazily and almost filling the entire grand building, having to imagine its roots growing underground is simply a maddening and desperate thing.

And soon, Du Zhengyi did not need to bother expanding his range of exploration. All the Mages heard an ominous sound of a subterranean collapse, as if the leg bone of a giant sleeping deep underground had suddenly snapped, producing a sound that was dull and teeth-grinding.

Du Zhengyi took a deep breath, as if he had made up his mind. He flashed into the Subspace and rapidly approached the area that was collapsing. His feet landed on the shaking foundation; the tree wall near the corridor swayed its branches as if in an invisible gale. An earthquake seemed to be right before his eyes.

His current position was near a corridor of the swastika-shaped building. Du Zhengyi remembered that this was the very corridor where Luo Qi had seen a figure.

Through the Highland Mage's Seal, Du Zhengyi saw that the building on the inner side had already collapsed, and the collapsed area was still expanding. Because of the existence of the Seal, it actually prevented the building materials from the collapse from rolling outward. The tangled, growing plants were snapped by the roof beams and torn to shreds. Behind that pile of rubble, which had now turned into trash, Du Zhengyi saw a figure flash by.

He did not see clearly who that person was. With no time to think, Du Zhengyi used a higher-priority Secret Language to shut down a section of the Barrier. He passed through the gap in the middle of the Barrier and entered the pile of debris that had originally been a bedroom.

The ground was still shaking. The plant had destroyed the lower building structure, which was simultaneously equivalent to opening a passage to the underground. Du Zhengyi nimbly passed through, following the route of that figure, and jumped into a deep pit created by the ground collapse. According to the style of the Highland Mages, even if one could go down here, it would certainly have relied on rail transport. Now that everything had come to a standstill, there was simply no other way to go except to jump down directly.