Chapter 203: Another Encounter with the God Queen, Information Gap
Generally speaking, plants symbolize vitality and are not associated with death.
However, in the world of cultivators, this isn't a hard and fast rule.
Some cultivators specialize in studying the relationship between plants and death, resulting in the creation of many strange creatures.
For example, the Corpse Vine Demonic Palace Rose and the Death Flower Plague Vine Sphere.
This faction is known as the Rottenwood Council.
The Rottenwood Council is a faction that leans toward the dark side. Its members comprise cultivators who specialize in plants and the domain of necromancy. Their methods are extremely radical, and their reputation in the cultivation world is no better than that of the Bloodfiend Gloomy Throne.
However, the overall strength of the Rottenwood Council is much weaker than that of the Bloodfiend Gloomy Throne, barely making it into the second-tier ranks of wizard forces.
Unique to the Rottenwood Council is the Deathwood Tree, also known as the Dark Demon Tree.
Cultivators of the Rottenwood Council will plant a Deathwood Tree in every invaded world. It serves as both a guardian base and an anchor point for that world.
Long ago, when he encountered the Corpse Vine Demonic Palace Rose and the Death Flower Plague Vine Sphere—these necromantic plants—Su Nan vaguely guessed that the trial area, the Black Forest, was likely a legacy left behind by the Rottenwood Council. Now, witnessing the Deathwood Tree confirmed this suspicion.
"No wonder the environment here is so gloomy; it turns out that the Rottenwood Council is behind it all," Su Nan muttered, his eyes scanning the towering black tree before him.
Whirr!
The branches and leaves of the Deathwood Tree suddenly trembled. Then, a low, hoarse voice, reminiscent of an aged man, reverberated through the air.
"Congratulations, lucky cultivator, on passing the trial of the Black Forest."
The voice appeared to emanate from all directions, as if it were coming from within the Deathwood Tree itself.
"As a reward, you will receive the Seed of Rot: Thousand Tree Essence."
A long, black tree branch extended from the dense canopy, reaching out toward Su Nan. It resembled a piece of wood pried from the trunk, its surface adorned with intricate tree patterns, and a small, egg-sized piece embedded at the end.
Despite its diminutive size, Su Nan could clearly sense the majestic energy contained within.
A glimmer of light flashed in his eyes.
This was Thousand Tree Essence, a crystalline substance formed from the condensed essence of a species of magical tree that had matured for over a thousand years. It held vast and gentle energy, which could be absorbed without refinement or purification, greatly enhancing Spiritual Condensation. It was highly sought after by Level One Wizards.
Just this small piece of Thousand Tree Essence could increase his Spiritual Condensation by at least 10%.
Due to the extremely harsh conditions required for its formation—not only did it need a magical tree species, but it also had to have grown for over a thousand years—Thousand Tree Essence was quite rare.
Even for the Deadwood Council, which specialized in plant-related matters, the annual output of Thousand Tree Essence seldom exceeded double digits.
Su Nan had not anticipated that the Deadwood Council would leave Thousand Tree Essence in the Black Forest as a reward for those who passed the test.
And since it was a reward, did that mean there was more than one piece of Thousand Tree Essence?
Such a generous offering didn’t seem to align with the style of the Darkness camp.
Su Nan’s eyes flickered slightly. He calmly took the Thousand Tree Essence, pretending to place it in his Space Ring, but actually storing it in his Magic Cube.
When he saw the text displayed by the Magic Cube, a look of understanding flashed in his eyes, and he secretly sneered.
As expected, it was just as he had guessed.
"Alright, Wizard, you can leave now," the deep voice of the Dark Demon Tree sounded again. "The Black Forest is about to close and won’t appear again for another twenty years. I hope to see you then."
"You probably don’t wish for that," Su Nan replied meaningfully.
"...What do you mean by that?"
"The literal meaning."
As the words fell, Su Nan suddenly flicked his hand, and two Thunder Burst Engraved Gems flew from his grasp, transforming into dazzling, violent lightning that fiercely struck the Dark Demon Tree.
At the same time, a small and exquisite spearhead landed in Su Nan's palm. As he closed his five fingers around it, a deep, dark light burst forth, quickly transforming into a pitch-black spear.
Chi!
The spear shot out, turning into a black streak of light that pierced through the void like lightning, hurtling toward the Dark Demon Tree.
Whirring, whirring!
A massive surge of Liquid Metal erupted from Su Nan's body, coalescing in the void into silver sharp cones that shimmered with cold light. The cones were so densely packed they nearly obscured the sky, sweeping out like a violent storm.
In that instant, Su Nan unleashed his three strongest trump cards simultaneously, launching a relentless assault on the Dark Demon Tree.
Caught off guard by the sudden attack, the Dark Demon Tree was unable to mount a proper defense. It could only command its Root Branch to emerge from the ground and tree canopy, rapidly weaving together to form a thick net of vines before it.
But in the next moment, the vine net was torn apart and shattered by the incoming lightning, disintegrating into ashes that scattered into the air!
Almost immediately, the black streak of light pierced through its trunk!
With the violent and raging black lightning erupting, a shocking hole appeared in the center of the Dark Demon Tree's massive trunk.
Through the hole, one could see the scorched wood inside, faintly emitting smoke, and the scenery behind the tree.
Before it could recover, the silver Metal Storm swept over it, accompanied by a series of continuous chi, chi sounds as it tore gashes into the trunk!
After a flurry of fierce attacks, the Dark Demon Tree was left covered in wounds, letting out a miserable and piercing cry.
Whoosh!
Violet Demon Fire suddenly ignited at the center of its trunk, rapidly spreading throughout its entire body. The silver sharp cones that came into contact with the flames were instantly vaporized into nothingness.
"Wizard!"
The Dark Demon Tree finally found enough strength to voice an angry question, as countless black branches emerged from its canopy, aimed at Su Nan like venomous snakes.
"Why did you attack me?"
“Even now, you still want to play pretend?” Su Nan chuckled, his gaze sweeping over the Purple Demon Fire enveloping the Dark Demon Tree.
Silence.
After a long pause, the Dark Demon Tree finally spoke, but this time the voice that emerged was no longer low and hoarse; it had transformed into a melodious and mature female voice. “How did you discover it?”
The voice was strikingly familiar. Although Su Nan had only heard it once, he remembered it vividly. It was none other than the female voice he had encountered after defeating the Demispider Godspawn three years ago—the voice of the Dark Elf's protector, the Spider Goddess.
“You can guess,” Su Nan replied calmly.
According to the Magic Cube's display, that piece of Thousand Tree Essence was indeed genuine, but something had been added—a terrifying Spider Venom! If he absorbed the Thousand Tree Essence without precaution, the Spider Venom would inevitably enter his body, corroding and damaging his flesh and soul.
Su Nan could easily guess who was behind this. Similar tactics had been employed more than once. Hearing Su Nan's words, the Spider Goddess was not angry; instead, she appeared thoughtful.
"It was my mistake. When I saw that you weren't affected by the Soul Toxin I left behind, I should have guessed that you possessed the ability to detect poison. I should have used a more covert method.”
Su Nan's expression remained impassive, but inwardly he sneered. With the Magic Cube present, no matter what tricks the Spider Goddess employed, they would all be rendered futile. Even without the Magic Cube, he wouldn't fall for her schemes.
He had already suspected that the Spider Goddess might be involved in the Black Forest matter, and seeing the Thousand Tree Essence left behind by the Deadwood Council in such an unreasonable manner had only deepened his suspicion. He would never absorb that Thousand Tree Essence recklessly.
The Spider Goddess's failure lay in her underestimating how well he understood the Deadwood Council. The disparity in information guaranteed that her conspiracy was doomed to fail.
"You seem to have quite a few secrets," the Spider Goddess remarked, her tone laced with interest. "I'm surprised that someone like you could still be found among the wizards of the current Starlight Continent. I'm starting to find you a bit interesting."
"But I have no interest in you," Su Nan said, his expression indifferent. "Gods should stay within their own Divine Kingdom. Isn’t that vast enough to satisfy you? Whether in the past, present, or future, the Starlight Continent is not a place you can meddle with."
"Spider Goddess, you seem to know me quite well," her voice paused slightly, a hint of curiosity emerging. "I'm becoming more intrigued by your origins."
"You can return and ponder that at your leisure."
Spider Goddess chuckled lightly, a flirtatious lilt in her voice.
"Young Wizard, I concede defeat this time. As a reward for your victory, this Tree Body is yours to keep."
"I look forward to the day we meet again. I hope you can bring me more surprises then."
As the Spider Goddess's voice faded, the Purple Demon Fire that enveloped the Dark Demon Tree gradually dimmed.
By the time her last words fell, the final wisp of flame had extinguished.
The divine aura that belonged to her vanished completely from the massive Tree Body.
After her consciousness faced total failure without a chance to turn the tide, this cunning Goddess decisively accepted defeat and withdrew, placing her hopes for revenge in the future.
Su Nan scoffed inwardly at that.
He would likely encounter the Spider Goddess again, but it certainly would not be under the circumstances she anticipated.
In his memories, the future ambush orchestrated by the Wizard against the Spider Goddess ended in miserable failure, but that was without his interference.
If he could come up with a clever strategy, things might be quite different.
Perhaps he could deliver another "surprise" to the Spider Goddess!
After concentrating for a while and confirming that she had indeed given up and left, Su Nan finally approached the Dark Demon Tree.
The Dark Demon Tree functioned as a spatial anchor point and could also serve as a passage for plane travel.
The reason the Deadwood Council left the Dark Demon Tree in the Black Forest was likely so that when the Dimensional Barrier of the Starlight Continent was nearly fully restored, they could use it as a springboard to send someone into the Starlight Continent ahead of the other Wizard factions, seizing the initiative.
It was just that later the Spider Goddess discovered the Black Forest, and like a cuckoo taking over a nest, she turned around, using the Dark Demon Tree's spatial anchor points to open a gap and infiltrate divine power, which then led to the events that followed in Spider City.
In other words, as long as the Dark Demon Tree is destroyed, it would effectively sever the channels for the Spider Goddess to infiltrate the Starlight Continent.
Before the Dimensional Barrier is repaired, she will no longer be able to interfere with the Starlight Continent.
If Su Nan hadn’t launched a surprise attack that severely damaged the Dark Demon Tree, the Spider Goddess would certainly not have given up so easily, and a fierce battle between the two would have been inevitable.
Su Nan stroked the rough surface of the Dark Demon Tree, sensing the dense divine energy remaining inside, a smile appearing on his face.
This Dark Demon Tree was already dead.
That piece of Thousand Tree Essence was most likely the essence condensed after its demise.
The tree body had long been transformed and modified by the Spider Goddess into a tool for transporting divine power, and as a result, a large amount of divine energy remained within.
The Spider Goddess didn’t truly intend to leave this tree body as a reward for him; it was simply that she couldn’t withdraw the divine energy inside for the time being and was left with no choice but to abandon it.
The so-called reward was merely a face-saving gesture.
Either way, this was beneficial for Su Nan.
With so much divine energy, his spiritual condensation could experience another leap in growth.
Boom!
A deafening sound suddenly erupted from the distance.
Su Nan shook off his moment of joy and immediately soared into the sky, gazing into the distance.
At the edge of the horizon, large areas of visible distortion filled every inch of space, slowly but steadily advancing and continuously devouring everything in its path.
Huge trees cracked and shattered within the distortion, vanishing into nothingness.
“Space is collapsing?”
Su Nan frowned, glanced at the Dark Demon Tree, and after a moment of thought, he began to understand.
The core of the Black Forest was most likely the Dark Demon Tree.
Its death had led to the natural collapse of the Black Forest.
It was just that the Spider Goddess had maintained the stability of this space before, but now that she had withdrawn, sustaining the space had become increasingly difficult.
Su Nan felt a twinge of regret.
He had originally hoped to claim Black Forest for himself, but that now seemed impossible.
"Oh well, the limitations of Black Forest's environment make it less useful anyway, so letting it go isn't a significant loss."
Shaking his head, Su Nan collected his thoughts and began searching the area for the location where Black Forest's resources were stored.
However, whether the resources had already been taken by the Spider Goddess or the Deadwood Council had left nothing behind, his search produced no results after some time.
"Could it be that the Deadwood Council never intended to cultivate a Wizard Apprentice at all and simply used this place as a mere space anchor point?"
Su Nan felt some disappointment, but thinking of the Thousand Tree Essence and the Tree Body infused with divine energy lifted his spirits.
With these two items in hand, this trip was at least not a complete waste.
Noticing that the collapse of the space was about to reach this area, Su Nan wasted no time and immediately took the Tree Body.
Fortunately, he possessed the Magic Cube; otherwise, he wouldn't have been able to carry away such a massive Tree Body.
Su Nan suspected that the Spider Goddess had anticipated this as well, leaving the Tree Body behind to allow him the frustration of seeing it but not being able to take it.
It could only be said that this Spider Goddess was not one to willingly accept a disadvantage.
Activating the Black Key, Su Nan then vanished into the air.
Before long, large swathes of void twisted like tides, sweeping over and engulfing the last traces of the space.
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