Chapter 100 Secret Box: Eat quickly! Old Tree: Destroy it quickly!
That roar didn't travel through the air or eardrums at all.
It was like a red-hot steel needle that pierced deep into Zhou Jue's brain and then stirred violently!
"Buzz—!"
Zhou Jue's vision went black, and she almost collapsed to her knees. She felt as if her soul had been roared half an inch away from her body, only to be forcibly pulled back by a tremendous force.
Excruciating pain!
The indescribable pain spread from the mental level to every part of my body!
"Thump!"
Cheng Gan reacted even more strongly than her. The instant the roar rang out, she felt as if she had been struck by an invisible hammer. She fell to one knee, using the butt of her pistol to brace herself against the ground, preventing herself from collapsing completely. Her face turned deathly pale, veins bulged on her forehead, and a trickle of blood even seeped from the corner of her mouth.
This was merely the aftershock of the sound, yet it had already caused internal injuries to the battle-hardened special forces ace!
"Xiao Jue!" Cheng Gan gritted his teeth and squeezed out the two words, then reached out to pull Zhou Jue back.
But before she could move, the ground beneath their feet began to tremble violently!
This wasn't the side-to-side shaking of an earthquake, but rather a kind of... wriggling that seemed to have come alive!
The soil beneath their feet, the decaying leaves, seemed to have transformed into the skin of some enormous creature, breathing with each rise and fall!
"Hold on tight!" Cheng Gan shouted, grabbing Zhou Jue's arm with one hand and digging his other hand into the exposed roots of a nearby tree.
The surrounding scenery is undergoing bizarre and wonderful changes.
Those ancient, towering trees that had been quietly growing now seemed like drunkards, wildly twisting their branches. Countless vines, like awakened giant pythons, weaved and lashed through the forest, making a crackling sound as they cut through the air!
The damp, earthy smell in the air was being replaced by a nauseating, strange odor.
"It's awake."
Old Tree's hoarse voice echoed in Zhou Jue and Cheng Gan's confused minds, carrying a sense of helplessness, "See? I didn't lie to you."
"Look, look at this commotion. Our ancestor has woken up and is stretching. We, his descendants, are going to suffer along with him."
Its body, its trunk made of tree roots and vines, remained as steady as Mount Tai amidst the violent tremors, completely still. It was as if the earth beneath its feet was one with it.
"Where...where is it?" Zhou Jue asked with difficulty, enduring the stinging pain in his mind.
She could feel a surge of consciousness from the Starry Sky Box within her sea of consciousness, which suddenly became frenzied. Although normal communication was impossible, the almost manic hunger surged through her consciousness wave after wave.
Eat...eat it...
Delicious... Highly nutritious...
[Devour...it...]
On one hand, there was the instinctive greed for space; on the other hand, there was the old tree's warning to "destroy it." These two completely opposite thoughts were fighting wildly in her mind, giving her a splitting headache.
"Where?" The old tree seemed to hum, "It's everywhere, and yet nowhere. This entire forest is its body. Every inch of soil you step on, every leaf you see, could be its eyes, its ears."
"However, the place it most wants to go right now is your place."
The two swirling green light patterns on the old tree turned towards Zhou Jue.
"The scent of your 'kin' on you is like the sun in the night, or a spring in the desert to it. It comes here just by the scent."
"It wants to eat you. Or rather, it wants to taste the smell of that 'iron lump' on you, and then eat you."
Zhou Jue's heart sank to the bottom.
She had no doubt about the old tree's words. She could clearly feel a gaze filled with endless malice and greed piercing through the layers of trees, locking onto her!
That's not seeing with your eyes, but a higher-dimensional perception.
"roar--!"
Another roar rang out!
This time, the sound was even closer!
With this roar, a huge ancient tree, as thick as five or six people could hug, suddenly made a strange "crackling" sound not far in front of Zhou Jue and Cheng Gan.
To the astonishment of the two men, a huge gash suddenly split open in the trunk of the tree!
That wasn't a slit cleaved open by an axe, but rather... a slit that looked exactly like an eye!
A huge, blood-red eye, filled with countless wildly spinning pupils, opened on the tree trunk!
That eye was fixed on Zhou Jue, filled with tyranny, madness, and an indescribable pain.
"Squeak—"
The branches of the ancient tree began to twist and deform like arms, their ends becoming extremely sharp, like spears!
"Watch out!" Cheng Gan shoved Zhou Jue away.
"call out!"
A spear-like branch, with a piercing shriek that seemed to tear through the air, stabbed fiercely into the spot where the two had just stood, disappearing completely into the ground, leaving only its tip trembling slightly!
If this were to pierce someone's skin, it would be a truly chilling experience!
"See?" The old tree's voice was devoid of any emotion, as if he were narrating a farce that had nothing to do with him.
“This is what has been ‘given’. It is no longer a tree; it is now an eye and a hand of the ‘Heart of Life’.”
“They will keep popping up. As long as the ‘Heart of Life’ doesn’t die, they can’t be eradicated. Even if you cut it down into firewood, it can grow back from the ground in the next second.”
Zhou Jue's heart sank.
Can't they be eradicated?
How can we fight like this?
"The only way," the old tree's voice said, like a final judgment, "is now, immediately! Use your little box, facing its body, and...swallow it!"
"I can help you pinpoint its core location, and I can hold off these smaller fry for a little while. But not long, at most... one minute!"
"In one minute, it will be able to completely lock your 'key' and even isolate your spatial abilities. At that point, you won't even have a way to destroy it!"
"Little girl, make your decision!"
The old tree's voice, like a heavy hammer, struck Zhou Jue's heart again and again.
"It's about eating it, gambling on whether I'll go mad along with it, and dragging this continent, and even this world, down with me."
"Destroy it, endure the temporary loss, and exchange it for a clean future."
"Choose!"
Zhou Jue bit his lip hard, the sweet and metallic taste of blood filling his mouth.
Her brain was working at lightning speed.
Devour?
The risk is too great! The system is currently undergoing an upgrade and its status is unstable. If the space is indeed contaminated, she will become a mobile source of pollution, turning wherever she goes into a place of madness. She cannot bear this responsibility!
But...give up?
That's the "source of life on the planet"! Even if it's polluted, the energy it contains is absolutely unimaginable! As long as it can be successfully purified...
No! There's no time to purify her!
"Sister Cheng Gan!" Zhou Jue suddenly looked at Cheng Gan.
Cheng Gan did not ask her how she wanted to choose.
She simply looked at Zhou Jue with her sharp and determined eyes and said in a deep voice, "Whatever decision you make, I'll be with you!"
Without the slightest hesitation.
This is unconditional trust between comrades-in-arms!
Zhou Jue's eyes suddenly welled up with tears.
She took a deep breath, and at that moment, she forcefully suppressed all her hesitation, greed, and fear!
She is a selfish person.
But her selfishness has its limits!
"Senior Old Tree!" Zhou Jue's consciousness transformed into a resolute thought and was transmitted: "What should I do!"
"good!"
For the first time, the old tree's voice carried a hint of approval.
"Sink your mind into that 'key'! Don't think about devouring, but think about 'decomposing', 'erasing', and 'returning to nothingness'!"
"I will project the coordinates of the 'Heart of Life' into your consciousness! You just need to lock onto it, and then... activate your 'key'!"
"Remember, you only have one chance!"
As soon as he finished speaking, the old tree’s massive body trembled violently!
The emerald green light source on its chest suddenly burst forth with dazzling brilliance!
"Buzz—!"
A gentle yet powerful life energy, centered on the old tree, swept outwards in all directions!
The wildly twisting trees and the vines that snaked like giant pythons all froze upon contact with the green light, as if a pause button had been pressed.
The huge, blood-red eye also closed in pain.
"I can only suppress them for ten breaths!"
"Now!"
The roar of the old tree exploded in Zhou Jue's mind!
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