Chapter 262: Broken

It didn't take long for Lu Mian, Franca, and Anthony to approach the "Shadow Tree," being within Susanna's ability range.

One had exhausted his occult smelling salts, his whole body wrapped in crimson flames, his skin numb, but his flesh was still continuously producing pain; one had a light posture, constantly changing positions, occasionally smelling the metal small bottle in her palm, making sneezing sounds; one used the "Psychiatrist"'s "Pacify" ability to calm his emotions and desires.

Located in the virtualized canopy, Susanna Mattise, who was only four or five meters from the ground, hummed, her eyes reflecting Franca, who was wearing a lady's shirt and light-colored breeches.

Franca suddenly produced strong fear.

But this fear didn't come from the outside, wasn't abnormally amplified, but stemmed from her cognition of the current situation, from her desire to live.

Susanna Mattise, who was combined with that strange giant tree, couldn't be treated simply as a Sequence 5, but should be seen as a weakened Sequence 4 without an incomplete mythical creature form!

Franca felt that she, Lu Mian, and that intelligence peddler would be solved by such a Susanna Mattise in a short time.

Save yourself before saving others!

Even though the sneezing sounds were continuous, Franca stopped her steps, unable to suppress her desire to live.

She had a struggling expression, wanting to escape, but also feeling that she shouldn't abandon her teammates.

Susanna Mattise's emerald eyes looked toward Anthony Reid again.

This intelligence peddler, whose emotions and desires were in a stable state, suddenly sneezed, feeling the familiar fear surge up from the bottom of his heart.

A "Spectator" with serious psychological defects is really too easy to deal with… Anthony Reid clearly recognized his situation but was powerless to resist.

He sighed helplessly. After "Pacify" failed, he found a corner nearby, covered his head, and was occupied by fear in body and mind, shivering.

Susanna Mattise quickly solved Lu Mian's two teammates, making them unable to provide help in a short time.

She then cast her gaze toward Lu Mian, who was less than ten meters away from the "Shadow Tree."

As an evil spirit, she had her own extreme and persistent nature that she couldn't overcome. She still wanted to catch this sacrifice.

Although this ritual had caused a great stir and several Saints and even Angels had rushed to stop it, making success unlikely, the "Shadow Tree" couldn't be destroyed, and even the damage it received wouldn't be too heavy. Unless the "Eternal Blazing Sun" or the "God of Steam and Machinery" were willing to let the millions of people living in Trier be buried with it, letting more serious problems underground be exposed, otherwise, if this time didn't succeed, there would be a next time, and if the next time didn't succeed, there would be a next next time.

As long as the sacrifice perfectly sealing an Angel was under her control, she could try again in no time!

Therefore, Susanna Mattise, this evil spirit, still wanted to capture Lu Mian alive.

In an instant, Lu Mian also slowed his pace, his mind filled with the same kind of thoughts:

"I can't die, I can't die. If I die, there will be no hope for Aurore to be resurrected…

"I have to live, figure out the truth of the Cordu Village disaster, figure out why Aurore believed in Fate…

"These people have nothing to do with me. If they die, they die. In this world, aren't there enough people dying every day? Can I manage them all?

"…"

Lu Mian ran slower and slower, his expression twisting.

The crimson flames on his body surface were still burning, still making him feel pain, suffering stimulation, and maintaining a certain degree of sobriety.

But the more sober a person is, the more they want to live.

This time, Susanna's influence on his desires didn't fail again.

This "Fallen Tree Spirit" let the "Shadow Tree" hang down a large number of vines, branches, and trunks, sealing Lu Mian in a circle with a radius of less than ten meters, turning this place into a "primitive forest" with an amazing density of plants.

Those tree roots, those vines, those branches all grew one wet, light-colored flower after another. They sprayed anesthetic gas without smell, wanting to turn this area into a kingdom of sleep.

Such a scene made Lu Mian's desire to live and his other intentions reach an agreement instantly:

Only by continuing forward, only by killing Susanna Mattise, could he get rid of the current situation and survive!

Lu Mian ran again, condensing semi-illusory crimson fire crows behind him, letting them circle and fly toward Susanna Mattise, who was only four meters from the ground.

He didn't think this could harm that "Fallen Tree Spirit." After all, Susanna Mattise was combined with the "Shadow Tree," had strong defense and vitality, and on the other hand, she wasn't brainless and didn't know how to dodge attacks and use extraordinary abilities to protect herself.

Lu Mian's purpose was just to hope to briefly interrupt Susanna Mattise's gaze, letting her be unable to provoke another desire in him immediately.

This time, the crimson fire crows were no longer unable to approach the virtualized canopy. They passed through the weakened barrier and whistled toward Susanna Mattise's body.

One layer after another of brownish-green vines and branches wrapped around Susanna Mattise, wrapping her like a wooden ball, leaving only a pair of emerald eyes that could look at the outside world.

Amidst the *boom, boom* sounds, those vines and branches were constantly blown up, and new ones came to fill the gaps.

At the same time, for Lu Mian, the distance of less than ten meters was a matter of the blink of an eye.

A large amount of sleeping gas eroded to his side, first burned and evaporated by the crimson flames on his body surface, then neutralized by the smell of scorched flesh, with only a little drilling into Lu Mian's nose.

This made his thoughts become a bit slow, his head a bit dizzy, but it didn't affect his actions for the time being.

Lu Mian, borrowing the momentum, stepped on the surface of the brownish-green trunk with his left and right feet alternately, quickly climbing up two or three meters, and then jumped high, looking toward Susanna Mattise with a condescending posture.

Behind him, a huge fireball was slowly condensing. His eyes reflected that wooden brownish-green ball, reflected Susanna Mattise's emerald eyes.

He seemed to want to carry the huge fireball and smash his own body toward the canopy, smashing open that wooden plant ball.

Such a posture and such a choice had obvious performance components, because Lu Mian's performance desire had been quietly stimulated by Susanna Mattise, and even the continuous pain could only suppress a little.

Susanna Mattise revealed a smile, letting the surface of the plant ball wrapping her suddenly extend one sharp brownish-green tree trunk after another, just like a hedgehog opening all its spikes, just waiting for the enemy to lunge over voluntarily and pierce him!

Once the prey was seriously injured by this, the vines and branches forming the ball would roll outward, completely controlling the prey.

Along with the slow condensation of the huge fireball, Lu Mian began to fall.

But he didn't lunge toward Susanna Mattise, staying at the same height as the other party.

He still didn't launch an attack, continuing to fall downward. Susanna Mattise, who hadn't waited for him to step into the trap voluntarily, had her gaze stained with a bit of confusion.

Not until falling below the canopy did Lu Mian have new actions.

The huge fireball, which hadn't fully condensed, exploded, pushing his back and making him crash into the trunk of the "Shadow Tree" like a cannonball.

His left hand raised the "Fallen Mercury" full of cracks.

He hadn't set Susanna Mattise, who had free movement and Sequence 5 gifts, as his target from the beginning. That would likely have no harvest and instead put himself in a huge crisis.

What he hoped for from beginning to end was just to give the "Shadow Tree" a stab—a stab from "Fallen Mercury"!

Without Termiboros's enhancement, "Fallen Mercury" definitely couldn't exchange the fate of that brownish-green giant tree, but Lu Mian was certain that Susanna Mattise was combined with the "Shadow Tree" to a certain extent. "Fallen Tree Spirit," as the name implies, there must be a tree first, then a tree spirit.

This point not only came from Lu Mian's own observation but also from Franca's speculation, and Susanna Mattise's own admission and performance.

In other words, after "Fallen Mercury" stabbed the "Shadow Tree," in the case of being unable to exchange its fate, it was highly likely that it could exchange the fate of Susanna Mattise, who was combined with it!

Lu Mian's various performances just now were to paralyze Susanna Mattise, avoiding her stopping him from approaching the "Shadow Tree," avoiding her not letting himself condense the fireball as a driving force.

And the performance desire provoked by Susanna Mattise just let Lu Mian play more convincingly.

Performance, although it would waste time and miss opportunities, could also cover up the real purpose!

*Pop! * Lu Mian, together with "Fallen Mercury," crashed into the brownish-green trunk. This crashed him into broken ribs and cracked wrists, and his whole body became bloody due to the explosion just now and the current collision, but it successfully let that silver-black short blade pierce through the first layer of bark and stab into the second layer.

As Lu Mian had expected, he didn't "see" the torrent of scenes carrying heavy history, but sensed the mercury-colored illusory long river belonging to Susanna Mattise.

The next second, he had desires provoked again, and at the virtualized canopy, one tree trunk javelin after another fell down.

Lu Mian took the opportunity to loosen his left palm holding the silver-black short blade, leaving the follow-up to "Fallen Mercury" to handle.

He suddenly fell to the ground, borrowing the sobriety brought by pain, and rolled, avoiding the tree trunk javelins that were inserted into the ground.

Susanna Mattise, after realizing Lu Mian's real purpose, was both annoyed, angry, and a bit afraid.

The role that silver-black short blade had played before left a deep impression on her.

But she wasn't too worried about her own safety either, because she, who was combined with the "Shadow Tree," was very difficult to be killed even if she encountered a Saint. She was just afraid of suffering serious injuries because of this, losing the opportunity to capture the prey again.

Just then, "Fallen Mercury" *crack* shattered, splitting into pieces of silver-black fragments, falling silently to the ground.

It had been tortured for a long time and could no longer support it.

But its damage also made the fate exchange, which should have taken a few minutes to complete, end in advance, because it didn't pry any fate from Susanna Mattise, just simply gave the fate stored in the blade body to the other party.

Normally, this couldn't be achieved because "Fallen

Su Shanna Ma Disi froze instantly, and purple-tinted flames erupted from the surface of her body.

The "Fallen Mercury" had given her the fate of "a section of the 'Shadow Tree' trunk being burned through by invisible underground fire," and as she was equivalent to a trunk of the "Shadow Tree," she naturally could not escape this fate!

A short second later, the purple-tinted flames turned invisible, and Su Shanna Ma Disi turned into ashes with a look of disbelief and inability to accept reality.

A tree trunk ignited with a thud, snapped, and fell downward.

(End of chapter)