Chapter 2901

The dilapidated house became clear as the "curtain" was slowly drawn back. Even though this was his seventh time setting foot here, Xia De still hadn't fully adapted to the environment.

He rubbed his forehead and stood in place for a while before looking up at his surroundings with a sigh. He glanced at the sofa covered in a white cloth, and thinking of how he held Adele's hand every time he left, he didn't know whether he should feel expectant or melancholy.

It was just like facing a brilliant story: he both looked forward to the reading experience ahead and lamented the emptiness that would inevitably follow once the reading was finished.

The door, which was stuck in the doorframe due to severe deformation, was pushed open by Xia De with force, and the wind and sand that rushed in made him squint his eyes.

The dim yellow sky remained unchanged from before, and Xia De even suspected that every time he came here, it was the exact same moment in time. But thinking that the very concept of time didn't exist here, he didn't bother to explore such a meaningless topic.

He glanced at the black sun on the horizon, from which lines of fire were dripping, and took out Adele's pocket watch:

"Adele Isabella."

He pronounced the name with standard pronunciation, and when he looked down at his feet, the string of white runes engraved on the square's paving stones, which were rolling with gravel, were indeed glowing faintly.

It was just that this time was different from the past. In the past, after he spoke the name, the semi-transparent lady would always lift her skirt and stand up, but this time, no figure appeared within that patch of light.

Xia De waited in surprise for a while, then cleared his throat and recited it again:

"Adele Isabella!"

The string of runes continued to glow, yet the familiar figure still did not appear. Xia De closed his eyes and sensed the fire seal he had left on Adele's forehead the last time he left. The fire seal still existed, though it was impossible to determine its specific location due to the distortion of space-time, but this at least indicated that Adele was still alive:

"Has something happened?"

He wasn't in the mood to confront any powerful enemies right now. Worried about the lady living here alone, he shouted at the glowing runes on the ground once more:

"Adele! Isabella!"

Whether it was because his loud voice really worked, the light emitted by the runes became chaotic for a moment, and then Adele's phantom appeared.

She didn't lift her skirt to stand up slowly and become solid; she was completely transparent:

"I've run into some trouble!"

A panicked expression appeared on her face, and then her figure vanished. No matter how loudly Xia De called out again, the blonde lady did not reappear.

【Outsider, you have felt a call. Do you wish to respond to the call?】

Fortunately, "She" asked during Xia De's anxious attempts, and Xia De immediately asked:

"What call? Am I not unable to leave the St. Deran Square area?"

【Whether a projection counts as leaving St. Deran Square is hard to say.】

"Respond to the call."

Everything went black, as if someone had grabbed his arm and sent him flying into the sky. But his vision soon recovered, and Adele immediately fell into Xia De's arms. Beneath their feet, the name "Xia De Su Lun Hamilton" was flickering with silvery-white light.

The sky above was still dim yellow, but the surroundings were no longer the half-collapsed square Xia De was familiar with. This seemed to be a massive circular pit, the area of which was not inferior to the square he had just left. The surface of the pit walls was made of black soil and unknown black roots that danced like tentacles.

The ground at the bottom of the pit was paved with rectangular black bricks, and piles of bones were scattered in every corner of the pit. Along the edge of the pit were various altars and offering tables of different styles, decorated with common and uncommon religious ornaments and ritual supplies.

The yellow sand falling from the sky strangely vanished for the most part before hitting the bottom, so the bricks on the floor were covered only by a thin layer of yellow sand.

At this moment, Xia De was holding Adele and standing on the edge of the pit, while in the center of the pit, a massive black tree whose canopy covered half the sky lashed out dozens of black vines toward Adele's back.

There was no green on the tree's canopy, and skeletons hung from the withered branches. Its roots didn't penetrate the soil at all; the strangely shaped roots were covered in dense white vesicles that made them appear even thicker. If Xia De wasn't mistaken, those vesicles clearly contained...

"Hm? Not Paradox Worms?"

He held Adele and jumped upward, using "Lagley's Leap" to avoid the lashing vines. The vines shattered the altar behind them with a loud crash, leaving massive craters in the solid side wall of the pit.

"Evil object of the apocalypse - Curse-Eroding Great Tree!"

The pale-faced lady in his arms explained to Xia De:

"This is one of the most dangerous evil objects to arrive after the apocalypse. No one knows its origin.

It existed before the apocalypse. People first noticed it because of its powerful time-curse power, but soon people discovered that those 'cursed ones' suffering from various time curses could find complete release by repenting and committing suicide under this strange tree. In the era of the apocalypse, this was the supreme happiness.

Now, the corpses on the trunk and in the vesicles on the roots are the remains left behind by those cursed ones. But gradually, this great tree absorbed more and more time curses..."

Adele couldn't continue, because a beam of white light, thicker than the trunk itself, shot from the canopy toward the two in the air. Xia De summoned the "Night Curtain Seal" to block it, but an instinctive sense of crisis made him dodge at the very last moment.

The crystalline white light pierced through the ink-colored shield, and the two fell from the sky. When Adele helped Xia De up amidst the sand and dust, she was shocked to find that his entire left arm had turned into a crystal-like substance with iridescent light.

Adele, with her messy hair, was about to cry, but the layer of crystallization faded at a speed visible to the naked eye. This wasn't difficult for Xia De; he had turned into a crystal entirely in the story, but he had managed to change back in the end—this was a story recorded on the bark of the World Tree and was recognized by the world.

"Before I understand what temperance is, I will likely always have a high resistance to this kind of eternal crystal."

Xia De said, then rolled to the side while holding Adele, dodging a horizontal sweep of black rays. Xia De didn't know what those rays were, but they didn't seem to be the power of time or the tree anymore; they were the power of death.

Although the dodge was clumsy, Xia De finally managed to avoid it. Adele, curled up in his arms, continued:

"The tree originally had a very powerful time curse, but for some reason, it wouldn't actively harm people. But in the era after the apocalypse, it absorbed too many time curses that didn't belong to it, turning into a terrifying evil object that combined a cursed tree, deathly resentment, and unstable time power.

Although many similar evil objects exist in this era, only this one is the most special. It shouldn't even be placed together with other time-cursed trees."

"Was the original location where this tree was discovered Karas Mountain?"

Xia De asked while slashing a beam of moonlight forward. Adele was puzzled by the question, but she didn't know the answer either.

Although Xia De felt he knew the origin of this tree—the sense of familiarity was too hard to ignore—now was not the time to exchange information.

Xia De felt that he definitely couldn't win this time. Without an orderly environment similar to the "arena" created by the Tree Father in St. Deran Square, he, at the Eighth Ring, was far from a match for such terrifying evil objects existing in the apocalypse.

Although he was a projection and his senses weren't complete, he couldn't fully feel the horror outside the "City of the Apocalypse," but that didn't prevent him from knowing how powerful this "Curse-Eroding Great Tree" was. Just now, a casual strike from the tree shattered the "Night Curtain Seal," and Xia De knew it was time to leave:

"Fortunately, I learned how to fly recently."

The moonlight he slashed hit the trunk of the tree, not even leaving a white mark. As Xia De held Adele and soared into the sky, hundreds of vines reached upward, only to collide head-on with the "Chaos Residue" Xia De threw.

The holy silver moonlight didn't have a significant effect on the tree, but the power the nun had realized from death was exceptionally effective. The explosion effectively formed an obstacle, and taking advantage of the vines being blocked by the flames, Xia De held Adele and wanted to charge directly out of the pit's opening, only to be stopped by Adele, who saw through his plan:

"Don't go up! The opening is a chaotic time flow. Once we enter, we could end up anywhere."

If it weren't for the fact that they couldn't get out, she wouldn't have been injured like this even if she couldn't beat the tree:

"This pit is an underground tomb church where people spontaneously worshipped the tree. There should be a secret passage leading to the outside world. In a moment..."

"A chaotic time flow, is it? No matter, I learned a new method recently."

Saying this, Xia De reached into his pocket, only to be surprised to find that the perfume bottle in his pocket was gone.

【Since when did you hear that a projection can project relics?】

"She" asked with a laugh, and Adele knew what he was going to do just by watching his movements. The semi-divine witch, who had recovered slightly, didn't speak again but wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him.

This wasn't a simple kiss, and the current situation of fleeing for their lives wasn't suitable for a passionate embrace either. Just like when Adele once gave Xia De new power with a single kiss, in this kiss, Xia De also felt surging spiritual power entering his body.

The vines that had shaken off the flames continued their pursuit, and thus they met that crystalline light. ===== CHAPTER 2902 =====