Chapter 256: The Heaviness of History

Franca held the "Judgment" card and whispered in Hermes:

"Requesting Judgment!"

That seemingly ordinary Tarot card didn't have any changes, but just a few seconds later, the Golden Rooster Hotel appeared to shake significantly.

The brownish-green tree branches and blue-green vines covering the surface of this building retreated quite a bit, as if fearing something.

This made the scene outside the window that Franca saw become much more, seeing that piece of sky connected with the virtualized canopy. The clouds were like encountering a hurricane, blown to surge in the same direction.

With the change of wind direction, countless white clouds formed a huge vortex, hanging down toward the ground, stretching into a giant sword of airflow that connected heaven and earth.

The giant sword fell, and a figure stood steadily in the center of Chaos Street.

That was a woman with yellow hair reaching her shoulders, wearing a traditional grayish-white knight's practice suit.

She was over one meter fifty tall, with exquisite features and soft eyebrows, but she had a majesty that made people submit and obey.

The Chaos Street where she stood no longer had its usual scene. The surrounding buildings, the not-too-spacious roads, and the peddlers and pedestrians collectively trapped in various desires were separated into sections, scattered in a strange wilderness, mixed with other streets.

Between them were a large number of gnarled tree roots drilled out from underground. This was distributed outward layer by layer with that brownish-green giant tree as the center. The closer to the middle, the denser it was.

It was precisely because of the existence of that strange wilderness that the streets occupied by the giant tree were not discovered to be abnormal by people from the outside!

Seeing the arrival of the short but majestic yellow-haired lady, Franca breathed a sigh of relief.

She held the "Judgment" and "Two of Cups" cards and said sincerely:

"Praise the Fool!

"Praise Lady 'Judgment'!"

The yellow-haired lady known as Lady "Judgment" looked toward the side of the brownish-green giant tree as soon as she landed. There, a cradle-style dark red convertible carriage had stopped at some point. Responsible for pulling the carriage were two tall creatures with sheep horns, pitch-black bodies, burning dark flames, and suspected to be devils.

Sitting in the carriage was a woman wearing a light-colored veil. She was wearing a loose white robe, her abdomen slightly protruding, and her whole body was full of substantial maternal brilliance.

"Lady Moon"!

The strange wilderness was her "Other Shore World"!

"Lady Moon"… you really crawled out of the rat hole… The yellow-haired lady named "Judgment" had her eyes instantly virtualized, as if they were dyed with a golden color.

Through this, she saw the various extraordinary powers intertwined with the woman on the carriage. They existed in different colors and states.

"Deprive!" A solemn voice spat out from the mouth of Lady "Judgment".

That was an Ancient Hermes word.

Along with the simple movement of her right hand, "Lady Moon"'s ability to breed and gestate for creatures of different genders and species was temporarily deprived.

Immediately afterward, Lady "Judgment" leaned forward, pushed out her palm, and declared again in Ancient Hermes:

"Exile!"

With a *whoosh* sound, invisible and majestic power rolled into a terrifying hurricane, whistling to the front of "Lady Moon".

They ignored distance, as if they were generated at the carriage's position.

The ruddy lips faintly visible under "Lady Moon"'s veil suddenly opened, taking a deep breath inward.

That exaggerated hurricane, which seemed capable of pulling up the entire building, found a vent in the airtight container and rushed into "Lady Moon"'s mouth, pouring into her body.

In just one second, the hurricane dissipated without a trace, all swallowed by "Lady Moon".

She carried a strong maternal brilliance, stretched out her right hand, and touched her protruding belly as if to soothe it.

…………

Inside that world where the blue sky and white clouds were like oil paintings and the ground was full of gnarled tree roots.

Lu Mian saw Susanna Mattise in the canopy position. After making eye contact with her, he immediately let semi-illusory crimson fire crows condense around him again.

Those fire crows circled and flew toward the high sky, but they couldn't reach the virtualized canopy no matter what, only able to get close but unable to make contact.

They fell onto the brownish-green trunk, burning out scorched black traces one after another.

Seeing this, Lu Mian hurriedly changed his attack target.

He had discovered before that fire could cause a certain amount of damage to this strange thing called the "Shadow Tree"!

One crimson fireball after another condensed and boomed toward the branches of the giant tree, but it only scorched them and failed to achieve more obvious effects.

Lu Mian temporarily stopped his actions. While Susanna Mattise was busy with something and Xia Ludi Calvino hadn't recovered from the burns just now and was suspected to have hidden in some illusory scene, he let the crimson flames in his palm condense layer by layer, finally turning into a scorching white sphere the size of a fist.

*Boom! *

The explosion sound brought by the scorching white fireball was several times stronger than before. However, the "Shadow Tree" didn't even lose a piece of skin, only a larger range of scorching black and the slight inward curling of a light-colored giant flower proved that the scorching white flame flow was not an illusion.

Lu Mian's expression was solemn. He spent some time letting a spear made of scorching white flames appear in his palm.

He threw the spear toward the brownish-green giant tree, seeing it poke a needle-point-sized hole in the scorched bark, then disintegrate into flame flows, scattering to different positions of the tree.

Seeing this scene, Lu Mian's heart tightened, and he remembered a sentence his sister Aurore liked to use to describe others overestimating their own strength to the point of making unrealistic moves:

"Like an ant wanting to shake a big tree."

The urgency, restlessness, and fear in his heart made Lu Mian wave his fists.

His fists were covered with crimson flames.

Along with every strike he made against the brownish-green giant tree, a wisp of fire seeped into it.

"Fire Injection!"

Lu Mian wanted to avoid the hard outer skin of the "Shadow Tree" and directly damage its heart.

*Pop, pop, pop! *

Lu Mian's flame fists landed densely on the trunk of the brownish-green giant tree, as if wanting to pour all the flames accumulated in his body into it.

*Pop, pop, pop. * After a round of crazy attacks, he retracted his fists and took a step back.

*Boom, boom, boom! *

A dull explosion sounded inside the trunk. That piece of bark, which was already scorched black, finally fell off with the firelight.

It suddenly virtualized, becoming hazy, as if a beautiful dream from the past had been illuminated by a match.

Lu Mian was dazed for a moment, as if he had become the man in the beautiful dream, in the middle of intense physical combat with a beautiful lady in a gorgeous long skirt who had only lifted her hem.

That strange feeling was so clear, as if it were substance, making Lu Mian feel as if he had experienced it himself.

Suddenly, his ankle hurt, and he instantly sobered up, seeing a large number of branches and vines extending over from somewhere beside him. Part of them had already wrapped around his feet layer by layer, and the thorns, after persistent efforts, finally pierced through the blood-colored robe, entered his skin, and absorbed his blood.

Lu Mian let out a hum, and crimson flames emerged from his body, forming a flamboyant flame cloak outside the flesh robe he was wearing.

Amidst the crackling sound, those branches and vines were all lit up, burning fiercely, quickly turning into withered branches and ashes.

Lu Mian took the opportunity to escape, jumped to the side, and cast his gaze toward the wound he had just created.

What entered his eyes was still brownish-green bark, only it was slightly recessed compared to the surroundings.

Under the bark was still bark!

Lu Mian's pupils dilated sharply, having a rough guess about the current situation:

The "Shadow Tree" was nourished by countless abnormal desires in Trier for one or two thousand years. Each piece of its bark might correspond to certain human activities in a certain period of time. They were superimposed layer by layer, having both the heaviness of history and the subtlety of human nature.

Simply put, if Lu Mian wanted to destroy this "Shadow Tree," what he had to face were the countless desires accumulated over these one or two thousand years, and he had just used all his strength to destroy one of them—one out of hundreds of millions, billions, or even hundreds of billions.

How can this still be fought!

Only then did Lu Mian realize the abnormality of his behavior just now:

He had actually been attacking the "Shadow Tree" there the whole time, instead of looking for a way to help himself leave.

After making eye contact with Susanna Mattise, he had been occupied by fear, restlessness, urgency, and other emotions!

No wonder Susanna Mattise let me act, no wonder Xia Ludi Calvino didn't come out to block me despite her injuries… Lu Mian, although he had been guarding against the "Fallen Tree Spirit" and the "Actor" triggering his desires and emotions, still suffered influence without knowing it.

He raised his head again, looking toward the high place, seeing Susanna Mattise, wrapped in blue-green long hair, constantly changing positions in the virtualized canopy, chanting strange incantations, while Xia Ludi Calvino had resumed her previous actions, walking from one illusory scene to another with the posture of a stroll, her clothing, hairstyle, and makeup on her face all changing according to different era backgrounds. This seemed to be more than just for performance needs.

As Lu Mian's thoughts turned, he suddenly felt dizzy, only feeling his strength passing away rapidly.

He hadn't experienced this before, but he had made several people feel it.

Drug, that kind of drug from the "Society of Bliss"!

Lu Mian, who was good at observing the environment, quickly took out occult smelling salts while locking his gaze on the large number of light-colored giant flowers on the brownish-green giant tree.

He suspected that the gas that made people unconscious was released by them!

*Achoo! *

Amidst the sneezing sound, Lu Mian turned his body, intending to distance himself from the "Shadow Tree."

And at this time, Mr. K still hadn't appeared.

The next second, tree roots drilled out crazily from underground, forming a wooden fence more than ten meters high around the brownish-green giant tree, blocking Lu Mian's path of escape.

Lu Mian stopped, turned around, and saw that on the trunk, branches, and many roots of the "Shadow Tree," countless cracks appeared. Some of them grew wet, light-colored flowers, and some themselves seemed like dark, deep giant mouths flowing with mucus, quickly extending toward this side.

After staring for a second, Lu Mian, who had nowhere to escape, curled his lips.

He suddenly stretched out his right hand, pressed his left chest, and said in a mocking tone:

"Termiboros, they really look down on you, actually wanting to use you as a sacrifice."

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 257 =====