62: Phantom Magic Tree

Monsters have a strong sense of territory.

After clearing out the tide of cockroaches, Xu Le didn't see a single blade of grass or a tree.

The entire way was barren and deathly silent.

It took him two hours of walking before he finally left the cockroaches' territory.

Looking at the map on his phone, he had completed about one-third of the mission.

To complete one-third of a two-month mission so quickly, it was clear that this task was originally intended for newcomers to wear down the cockroaches through a war of attrition.

The difficulty of killing the cockroaches wasn't very high, and killing them slowly wouldn't cause a Cockroach Lord to appear. It could be said to be safe, testing only one's patience.

He continued forward.

A dense forest appeared.

Could an ordinary forest survive in a Fallen Zone?

Xu Le was somewhat skeptical.

Just as he was about to command the Little Yellow Chicken to explore, the Little Silly Crow had already flown ahead and was circling in the air.

Using the "Raven Emissary" talent, Xu Le could observe the forest through the eyes of the raven.

He spent seven or eight minutes checking the entire forest, but found nothing with the naked eye.

The Little Silly Crow even cast the "Light of Punishment" skill on a tree. A terrifying black light flashed past, but the tree it touched showed no reaction.

Mind Link!

His Spirit attribute was now over ten thousand points; with him as the center, everything within a ten-thousand-meter radius was within his range of perception.

He focused all his attention on that forest, but still couldn't find a connection point.

"Could this really be an ordinary forest?"

"Is there some treasure inside that helped this forest maintain its sanity and prevented it from turning into monsters?"

Xu Le thought about it; this forest was also part of his mission. Bold due to his high skill level, he walked straight in to investigate.

In the dense forest, all the trees began to wave their branches and lash out at Xu Le.

-1.

-1.

-1... The dense attacks didn't deal much damage and weren't painful; they were all just a single point of forced damage.

Several vines extended from the forest, binding his limbs and dragging him toward a giant tree that would take three people to encircle.

More and denser vines coiled around him, preparing to enjoy a feast.

"So it's you!"

Xu Le struggled with force, snapping all the vines that bound him.

Ow~

A groan of pain seemed to come from the giant tree behind him. Xu Le drew his demon slaying blade and began to hack at it.

With his current Strength of over eleven thousand, every slash dealt tens of thousands of damage.

Coupled with the "Monkey Spirit" blessing triggered by luck, a phantom followed behind every slash.

Two slashes landed almost simultaneously, cutting the giant tree in half at the waist, and black blood spilled all over the ground.

There was no experience point notification.

It's not dead yet!

Xu Le continued to swing his blade, and the giant tree was easily chopped into several segments, just like an ordinary tree.

Is it really dead?

No!

No experience points dropped, and even if it were truly dead, the attributes would remain; the corpse wouldn't be so easily cut.

He used the [Divine Eye] to scan the trees in front of him, but they were all just ordinary trees.

"Was I just caught in an illusion?"

As Xu Le thought this, several vines bound him once more, and he finally saw the monster's true form.

[Phantom Demonic Tree]

[Rank] Level 45

[HP] 36,000/36,000

[MP] 58,000/62,000

[Strength] 620

[Agility] 300

[Physique] 1,450

[Spirit] 3,800

[Talent] Demonic Qi Contamination 5, Parasitism

[Skills] Vine Entanglement, Soul-Confusing Formation, Whiplash, Life Drain, Wood Thorn, Wood Prison, Life Purification... There were many skills, but most were flashy and impractical. Only the Soul-Confusing Formation was somewhat effective at trapping people, similar to walking in circles.

However, its talent was very strong—or more accurately, exceptionally disgusting.

[Parasitism] With its powerful Spirit attribute, it will automatically parasitize a nearby creature after its Physical Body dies.

As long as it dies, it will parasitize a neighboring creature, which is equivalent to hacking at it for nothing.

Theoretically, even he himself was within the range of Parasitism.

"Set it on fire! Burn this forest down."

Xu Le made a prompt decision and directly ordered the Little Yellow Chicken to cast Meteor Fire Rain and Flame Shockwave everywhere. Before long, the entire forest began to burn.

Now that the forest was in a Fallen Zone, being contaminated by Devilish Qi day and night, it was destined to become a monster.

Better to set it ablaze early to prevent it from parasitizing continuously.

With its home base being burned, the Phantom Demonic Tree was clearly enraged.

It threw out various skills as if they cost nothing.

Wood Prison, Wood Thorn, Whiplash, Vine Entanglement... but they were completely useless.

Xu Le didn't even need to act himself; his subordinates, the Little Yellow Chicken and the Little Dog, could easily handle these.

The most valiant one was still the Little Silly Crow.

Seeing the opponent dare to attack its god, it rushed forward to fight desperately, trading injury for injury.

After its health dropped by half, it immediately used the "One Into Myriad" skill. Over three hundred date-sized little ravens, like insects, nimbly dodged attack after attack and flew onto the tree to peck away.

After recovering to full health in a few moments, they merged back together. Once it returned to its original form, its own health was also fully restored.

Xu Le was speechless; he had never thought it could be played like this.

As the fire blazed, the Little Yellow Chicken and its Clones created thousands of fire sources in the forest, completely incinerating a vast area of mountain forest from afar.

The Phantom Demonic Tree had been killed over ten times, and there were no more trees nearby for it to parasitize.

It turned its gaze toward Xu Le and his contracted beasts.

When it saw the Little Peach Tree, its eyes lit up.

Although the Little Peach Tree hadn't used any skills or shown any offensive capabilities before, the fact that its surroundings were full of vitality and rich in magic power (due to the Spiritual Domain effect) made it clear that it was extraordinary.

As its body was destroyed once more, the Phantom Demonic Tree opened its eyes again, only to find it had become the body of the Little Peach Tree.

Before it could use any skills, it felt that it couldn't control the body at all; even its consciousness couldn't move.

Was it a trap?

Before it could feel any regret, its consciousness plunged completely into darkness.

[EXP +1,688,600]

Getting over a million experience points from a Level 45 monster could be considered a huge profit, but considering the time and effort spent, it felt like this amount of experience was barely enough to fill the gaps between his teeth.

Xu Le looked at the Little Peach Tree: "What did you get?"

The Little Peach Tree waved a branch, and Xu Le felt his body become much lighter, but he didn't feel anything more after that.

He directly checked the Little Peach Tree's panel:

[Race] Jade Pool Immortal Coil (SSS-Rank)

[Rank] Level 55

[Strength] 280

[Agility] 280

[Physique] 4,480

[Spirit] 560

[Equipment] None

[Talent] Heaven and Earth Spiritual Root

[Skills]

1. Spiritual Domain (Passive) 2. Spiritual Shield (Passive) 3. Flying Leaf 4. Falling Flower 5. Fruit Gestation 6. True Fruit

7. Life Purification

Consumes 300 MP to remove low-to-mid-level negative status effects from the target. (Poison, Bleeding, Stun, Blindness, Demonic Qi Contamination, etc.)

8. Wood Prison

Consumes 180 MP to turn roots into a cage to imprison the target.

9. Wood Thorn

Consumes 120 MP to turn a root into a sharp Wood Thorn.

Xu Le glanced at it and didn't care much.

Knowing Little Peach's personality, he estimated that aside from "Life Purification," he would likely never see the other skills in this lifetime.

Should he change its name to Little Cowardly Tree?

Dismissing the thought, Xu Le flapped his ugly black wings and flew toward the last piece of land in his mission.