Chapter 2944: Self-Purification

"That tree can absorb time curses? Why don't we retreat further? It won't take the initiative to attack you, will it?"

Xia De asked with great worry. What the sorceress described was clearly the characteristics of the "Curse-Eating Giant Tree" that Adele had told Xia De about, not the most dangerous tree after the apocalypse, but an ordinary... actually, it was also difficult to describe the evil object as "ordinary."

"It's okay. I can feel that the tree is just absorbing. It itself shouldn't be able to move. My performance just now was only because the curse in my body had a reaction to the power of that tree."

She closed her eyes, and then, to Xia De's surprise, she plunged into his arms. Xia De hurriedly hugged her. The water-avoidance spell failed again, and the rainwater flowed along her dangling hair by her ears onto Xia De's shoulder. Xia De hurriedly hugged her and walked to the starting point of the path.

It took her a long time to open her eyes again:

"After we met just now, you told me that you found the 'paradox bug breeding factory' locally. Actually, you have been paying attention to paradox bugs, but you ignored another thing."

"What did I ignore?"

"Time-cursed people. Paradox bugs and time curses are not equivalent. Even if paradox bugs are stripped away, time curses still exist."

Xia De leaned against the big tree, and she leaned against Xia De's chest. Although this posture looked ambiguous, neither of them wanted to let go.

"Xia De, since the bugs accumulated in the Vista woodlands for tens of thousands of years can become a disaster, then why haven't the time-cursed people of these tens of thousands of years affected this land?"

She seemed to understand many things all of a sudden:

"The moment I saw that big tree just now, I felt like I saw the entire story of this place for eighteen hundred years in the Sixth Era.

Even if time curses dissipate due to the departure of the soul, the curse power must still remain in the bones. Now this question can be answered. This forest has a 'self-purification' function. The time-cursed people will have their curse power absorbed by this tree, so the curse is concentrated and stored, and the earth is kept clean because of this."

"But I bet that these people absolutely did not all come here voluntarily."

Xia De said softly, and the black-haired lady leaned against Xia De's chest and trembled slightly:

"But in order for the curse not to accumulate under the earth, these are necessary sacrifices. The Time Transit Station raises and handles paradox bugs that appear due to time travel, and similar giant trees handle time curses that appear due to time travel—this is a perfect closed loop."

Perhaps this was some kind of conspiracy, perhaps it was the resonance between tree and tree triggered by the fate of her becoming a similar existence in the future. In short, Helena Carter saw the entire history of this tree, and she even described it to Xia De like this:

"Most of the time-cursed people in this city eventually end up at this tree. The tree will not actively call them, but when all their historical missions up and down the long river of time are completed, they will appear here for various reasons.

When they come to this place and see this big tree like we do, they will walk under the tree like souls looking at their final demise, and then let the tree vines hang them up."

Xia De hugged her tightly:

"I will not let you walk under the tree."

"I won't be like that, because my fate has destined me to become an equivalent existence. Everything is already clear. This is the mission bestowed upon me by fate. Become a Curse-Eating Giant Tree, absorb the power of time curses as much as possible, until I can no longer bear it..."

Her tone was erratic, almost like making a prophecy, but what she said was something Xia De had already witnessed.

"Regarding your future, that is something I need to worry about. You don't need to think about it. But this tree here will eventually be unable to hold on. If this tree turns into an evil object in the future, why have I never heard of it thirty years later?"

Xia De asked softly. The lady in his arms, soaked through, looked up at him. Although she and Miss Danister had no blood relationship, the two had almost the same rose-red eyes:

"I have seen it all. A stronger existence will absorb this tree after it can no longer absorb more curses. This kind of thing only happens once every three hundred years. The Curse-Eating Giant Tree is an evil object born to absorb curses. Even if it weren't for the fact that the final end of the tree must be turning into a more terrifying thing, the Curse-Eating Giant Tree shouldn't even be called an evil object."

She turned her head slightly, looking toward the giant tree in the rain:

"The absorption of curses also takes many, many years. Even if the person you are looking for disappeared more than a year and a half ago, he should still be here now. Go find him, Xia De. Let me rest here for a while.

So many things have happened in the Vista woodlands, I think I am already a bit tired."

Standing on tiptoe slightly, she took the initiative to kiss Xia De. This action was so natural, as if this scene should have appeared at this very moment.

The kiss in the rain had a damp taste, and the midsummer rain itself represented vitality and vigor. She hugged Xia De's neck, and Xia De's hand also rested on her waist. The passionate kiss in this uninhabited forest was silent, because this rain covered all traces for them.

Looking closely at the tree now, it was still a bit different from the giant tree Xia De saw in 1854. The canopy covered a larger area of the woodland, and the trunk was also taller and thicker.

It was not easy to find a specific person among thousands of corpses, especially since everyone here was no different except for their appearance.

Xia De could only fly up himself to confirm their appearances one by one. It took a full half-hour, and it was almost dusk when he finally found Anthony Winslett, who was silent.

Flora's uncle should be 14 years old now, and this person who traveled from 1844 was 39 years old.

Xia De was worried about disturbing this giant tree, so he didn't touch him directly, but carefully sensed him at close range. There was no heartbeat, the blood in the blood vessels was of course no longer flowing, and his mental power was close to zero, but because of the vitality injected by the vines, he was still not dead.

If he kept hanging here, he could even achieve decades of agelessness. Only at the moment when all the curses in his body were sucked clean, that was the moment of his death—the curse was closely connected to the soul, and losing the curse was equivalent to the soul shattering.

Therefore, offering the curse to the Curse-Eating Giant Tree was not a way to get rid of the time curse, and the cursed people in the apocalyptic era only obtained peace through this method.

"Didn't you save him?"

The sorceress in the forest saw Xia De come back empty-handed and asked with some surprise.

Xia De shook his head:

"I don't want to fight this tree right now, and I haven't figured out how to arrange him if I really save him. He doesn't belong to this time and space, and of course, he doesn't belong to the 1854 I am in. Even if I send him back to the 1844 he originally belonged to, this is inconsistent with the history I know—he remained missing until my era, and even ordinary divination couldn't find him.

But what I can be sure of is that in 1854, he was still in a special state of survival."

The last sentence was what Luvia said when she performed a special divination.

The sorceress, whose mental state had recovered a bit, then said:

"Let me go and communicate with that tree. I can persuade it to help you keep Anthony Winslett and let him maintain this state of suspended animation. When it's 1854, you just need to find a way to find this tree again, and you can rescue Winslett. It's just that his time curse will still exist by then."

This was indeed the best method. It both maintained the "missing state" of Flora's uncle and achieved the purpose that ordinary divination could not locate him. The only small problem was that Flora's uncle should be 47 years old in 1854 and wouldn't be as young as the 37-year-old hanging on the tree. But if the age difference in appearance was only eight or nine years, it could actually be explained by being very good at maintenance.

"But can you really get close to that tree?"

Xia De asked worriedly:

"I came to find this person mainly to know the secrets hidden in him. Now most things are known, and I don't want to let you take risks for him."

Even Flora would agree with Xia De's view. Although it was a bit sorry for Anthony Winslett to say so, he was only a minor character in this story, and whether he lived or died was actually not very important.

"It's okay. Just now it was only because of seeing that big tree for the first time that caused the problem. It should be fine now. In fact, I feel that I have a wonderful connection with it. It... probably regards me as the same kind."

She reached out her hand to Xia De:

"Can you support me over there? I also want to communicate with it. This tree also has its own story. It's just that the story... has already ended now."

She could walk on her own now, so in fact, she was holding hands with Xia De and walking forward along the path again. When pushing aside the grass and walking toward the clearing, Xia De was still a bit worried, but seeing the black-haired sorceress only hesitate for a short while, he felt a little relieved.

Dusk ended, and night had arrived, but there was no sign of the rain stopping. The sparse starlight and moonlight made the "corpses" swaying in the rain even more terrifying than at dusk, and this eerie atmosphere was no less than visiting an uninhabited cemetery on a foggy night.

Xia De didn't go to disturb Flora's uncle again, but bypassed the largest chair with the black-haired sorceress and came to the trunk behind the chair.

In Xia De's slightly worried expression, Helena Carter placed her left palm on the trunk, while her right hand was still held by Xia De.

Nothing happened for the first few seconds, but soon, the emerald green light symbolizing nature and life and the gray-white light symbolizing death and curse lit up on the dark brown bark at the same time.

That touch of light wrapped around the black-haired sorceress's hand, so she closed her eyes, and the thirteenth-ring life ring behind her also automatically appeared at this moment. ===== CHAPTER 2945 =====