Chapter 3253: The Desire of the Tree

There was originally no wind in the "Tombstone Wasteland", but after reaching the bottom of the 【Corpse Tree】, a bone-chilling cold wind blew. The shriveled hound corpse embedded in the tree asked:

"Did you meet Sir Foul-Smelling Corpse?"

"What? That guy is really a sir?"

Xia De thought that even the carriage's self-introduction was fake.

"This is the kingdom of the Grave King, is it not reasonable for there to be a sir?"

The hoarse voice had a very aged feeling. It was indeed very familiar with this world:

"However, there is no need to worry that you will offend it. The nobles in this land of the dead are not rare. What is truly rare is a living person like you."

The hound's face wriggled on the tree trunk, so the whole tree was rustling. The breath of death surged, and even Xia De felt very uncomfortable. After all, he was a living person, so he didn't say much more afterward, but went straight to the point:

"Then according to our agreement last time, I brought a method that can liberate you and complete your master's wish."

The little hound's soul jumped up and down under the tree, and the shriveled hound head on the tree trunk nodded:

"Liberate my soul, suppress this tree, and I will give you what you want."

Xia De then took out the box containing the 【Benevolent Doctor's Injection Needle】. The silver fine needle reflected the blue light above his head. This relic could be brought to this time and space, which itself meant that the hound must have mastered key information.

Danister's "three-step" plan was very simple: extract spirit, strip the soul, and crush the tree.

The first step was to use the relic in Xia De's hand to extract the huge amount of spirit produced by the corpse tree through corpse transformation. The key to this step was to let the soul in the tree suppress the 【Corpse Tree】's instinctive resistance.

He simply introduced his plan to the hound, and the latter also guaranteed that it would try its best to control the tree not to resist under the condition that the spirit was extracted.

So the next thing was simple. Xia De came to the tree trunk of the corpse tree, and then inserted the fine silver needle into the tree trunk, the position was roughly on the side of the hound's head.

The relic entered the relic, but it only made the 【Corpse Tree】's crown continue to rustle. One of the shriveled corpses hanging under the tree crown trembled violently, but soon returned to calm.

The little hound's soul circled around Xia De and the tree trunk happily, and the soft "Woof~" sound added a bit of vitality to this dead world.

Xia De then rolled up the sleeve of his left hand, and after preparing mentally, he pressed his left index finger toward the other end of the needle until it pierced his skin. This was also the requirement for using this poet-level relic.

According to Old John, who sold the relic at the time, the relic's efficiency in converting spirit was very low. But after the silver needle glowed slightly, Xia De clearly felt that the surging spirit was rapidly entering his body from the other end of the silver needle.

The spirit filtered by the relic had become quite slight because of the relic's characteristics, but even so, the whispering elements contacted by this way of extracting spirit were still quite astonishing. 【Benevolent Doctor's Injection Needle】 was actually used to extract the spirit of Ringed Shushis to weaken enemies. People who conducted containment experiments dared not easily attempt to extract the spirit of relics directly.

"Will I therefore obtain the 'Tree' Spirit Rune?"

Xia De was still thinking about the "Miracle-Tree" Spirit Rune he abandoned to accompany Chloe for six more hours by the ice lake last time. Of course, if he could really obtain "Tree" this time, then it would definitely be of the whispering type.

And although he had a very high resistance to various elements, and his resistance to the supernatural mental pollution of relics was astonishing, as more and more huge spirit entered his body through 【Benevolent Doctor's Injection Needle】, he gradually felt the wrongness of his body and spirit.

But it wasn't just him who felt uncomfortable at this moment. The massive stripping of spirit caused the instinct of the 【Corpse Tree】 to begin to play a role, wanting to eliminate the "thief" close at hand through its own power, and the tired soul embedded in the tree had to firmly suppress this instinct of the 【Corpse Tree】.

The initial suppression was still easy, but as the speed of spirit loss became faster and faster, that old soul couldn't suppress it anymore.

So with the sound of "Woof~", the little hound's soul jumping at Xia De's feet gently rubbed against the tree. The soul power it gave its mother was negligible, but it gave that mother a reason to continue to persist.

The prompt 【Outsider, you have contacted "Whisper"】 appeared every five seconds. At this time, Xia De had no ability to care about the hound's soul. The characteristics of 【Benevolent Doctor's Injection Needle】 were that the longer the extraction time and the faster the extraction speed, the better. Although this caused it to be completely useless in actual combat, it also caused the accumulation of whispering elements in his soul and body to grow exponentially in the current situation.

The massive spirit accumulated in the body was gradually transformed into pure "Moon Fire" and flowed along his whole body with the blood to help him maintain his sanity. But even so, when the auditory and visual hallucinations were strong to a certain extent, Xia De still saw stories that did not belong to this era in a trance.

That was a long, long time ago. The kingdom that suffered from the plague suffered a great disaster, so the king spent money to buy a magical small sapling from a mystic. People planted the sapling in the center of the city and catalyzed the strange "Tree of Life" by burying a large number of corpses infected with the plague as fertilizer into the mud.

The Tree of Life, which possessed a large amount of life energy, was enough to make any dying person recover, enough to achieve limb regeneration, and enough to make those infected with the plague regain their health. People celebrated the brand-new hope that the "Tree of Life" brought to the kingdom, but gradually people discovered that this tree could not only cure diseases, but also allow mortals to obtain a longer lifespan through its life energy.

So the seeds of sin sprouted in people's hearts, but the kingdom after the plague ended could still get a steady stream of corpses, and the increasingly strong and healthy citizens were also happy to follow the king to participate in wars and killings again and again.

The "Tree of Life" got more nourishment, but no one knew that it also became more hungry because of this. Finally, one day, when the "nourishment" supplied by the kingdom was not enough to satisfy its huge appetite, the "Tree of Life" stretched out its roots and vines toward those citizens who had absorbed too much of its life energy.

And a long time later, when the mystic who had kindly sold the wonderful small sapling to help the kingdom visited this place again, he was surprised to find that the original rich plains had turned into a desert. And in the dead city in the desert, only a lush blue tree remained in the center, as well as countless corpses hanging under the tree.

The illusion ended completely here, like a dream, and the actual outside time did not pass much. This dream about greed and sin, gifts and prices seemed to be the true origin of the 【Corpse Tree】, but it was also possible that it was just a picture that the tree wanted Xia De to see.

But in any case, under the scouring of such a huge amount of whispering elements, Xia De, who saw the strange picture, of course would not have no harvest. Besides feeling hungry for no reason, he also gained brand-new power:

【Outsider, you have listened to the whisper of the "Corpse Tree".】

【Your strange spell - Gluttonous Food has been sublimated, and the new effects are as follows: You can choose 3 types of food to improve.】

【Outsider, your "Gluttony" sin has increased.】

"Hmm? Isn't it related to the tree? How did it become gluttony?"

【You have obtained a new strange spell - Kiss of Hunger: Through a kiss, greatly strengthen the emotions of a certain individual and enhance the desires of a certain individual. Corresponds to the 【Tree Kiss】 Spirit Rune.】

"Hmm? What kind of hellish strange spell is this? This effect seems a bit wrong... It looks like it should be put into the 【Pink Book】 like 【Witch's Joy】, right?"

In fact, there really is such a strange spell in the 【Pink Book】, specifically used to play the role of tiao/qing. Xia De was even more puzzled, and then suddenly realized one thing:

"I didn't obtain the 【Tree】 Spirit Rune, wouldn't it be because I already have 【Tree Kiss】?"

He felt the more massive spirit pouring into his body, very puzzled why watching someone else's story finally led to the increase of his "gluttony" sin. He clearly watched that story from the perspective of a bystander, and it wasn't him who "ate" that kingdom.

【Because you permanently acquired a part of the "Corpse Tree", you inherited part of its "sin".】

"She" smiled gently:

【Just like, after you ate the flesh and blood of "Desire", you officially contacted sin.】

Xia De was even more puzzled:

"If I really acquired a part of this tree, shouldn't I be given some power related to this tree? That kiss is too much, right? If it wasn't in the dead kingdom of the Fifth Era, I would even suspect that the current situation is a trap of the mermaid."

【Wait a moment.】

"She" still smiled lightly and melodiously, and as more spirit poured into Xia De's body, the power belonging to "Tree" took shape:

【Outsider, you have obtained the strange spell "Photosynthesis": Absorbing external light can slowly heal wounds and significantly restore physical strength, and slightly restore your own spirit. Corresponds to the 【Witch's Light】 Spirit Rune.】

Iluna had also used this strange spell (Chapter 1475), but it was a pity that Xia De didn't have the 【Sun】 Spirit Rune, so it still corresponded to 【Witch's Light】.

"However, you gave me 'Photosynthesis', but you still didn't give me 【Tree】?"

Xia De asked in his heart, but didn't get an answer, and then he noticed another thing:

"Wait a minute, absorbing light is enough? How do I remember that this strange spell can only absorb the light of the sun?"

(End of Chapter) ===== CHAPTER 3254 =====