199: Chapter 199 Dead Tree Comes Back to Life

The pink mist dispersed.

The black shadow revealed its full form.

A towering giant tree.

Its canopy pierced deep into the pale, rusty powder, with branches half withered and black, and half covered in symbiotic rust.

The black wood side was covered in dry cracks, while the rusty iron side had metallic veins slowly rising and falling.

Lin Ye and Zhao Mengmeng stopped beneath the tree roots.

Both of their conditions were nearly exhausted.

Zhao Mengmeng's cracked lips had three bleeding gashes; as soon as blood appeared, it was drained into black scabs by the bone rust powder in the air.

Lin Ye's clothes on his back were stuck to his flesh, and the Dark Weaver bracer on his right arm had been caked into a hard shell by the white powder.

Having just carved a bloody path out of the crocodile swarm, every breath tugged at wounds all over his body.

There was no moisture in the air.

It was parched.

The powder drilled straight into their nasal cavities, tracheae, and wounds.

Zhao Mengmeng leaned on her broken bronze rod, her body swaying by half an inch.

"I see three heads on you right now."

Lin Ye supported himself against the tree root with one hand, his voice dry, hoarse, and grating.

"That just means my presence is strong."

Zhao Mengmeng forced herself to lift her eyelids.

"If you keep spouting nonsense, I'll beat you to death with my rod first."

Inside the Great Xia Live Stream, the frenzy had faded, and the screen was filled with high-pressure tension.

[Oh no, they've reached their physiological limits.]

[Their lips are cracked like that, and this godforsaken place even absorbs water—it's not giving them a way to live!]

[The crocodiles didn't kill them, don't let them die of dehydration!]

Lin Ye looked up.

His left hand's fingers gripped the tree bark.

The black wood side was extremely brittle, crumbling at the slightest touch.

The rusty iron side was incredibly hard, with white bone powder filling its texture.

Zhao Mengmeng swallowed a mouthful of dry saliva, a stinging pain radiating from her throat.

"Can this tree be gnawed on?"

"We'll see if it gives us any face."

Lin Ye opened and closed his Left Eye.

On his retina, the giant tree's outline faded.

A grayish-red light covered most of the trunk, full of corrosion and rust toxin.

But deep underground, inside a thick tree root, a cluster of eerie green light glowed steadily.

It was tightly wrapped by three layers of rust shells.

Lin Ye closed his eyes, cutting off his vision.

"There's something under the roots."

Zhao Mengmeng picked up the broken bronze rod.

"Dig?"

"Hack."

The horizontal saber left its sheath.

The blade slashed diagonally at the rust shell.

Clang!

Sparks flew.

The first strike only opened half an inch; the rusty iron skin far exceeded ordinary steel plate.

Zhao Mengmeng gripped her rod tightly.

"The blade will roll."

"If it rolls, I'll just use the edge to grind it slowly."

Lin Ye exerted force from his wrist, slashing a second time along the metallic grain.

With the second strike, the rust shell cracked.

With the third, he cut through the black wood layer.

A faint, fresh grassy fragrance seeped out through the crack.

Zhao Mengmeng's shriveled Adam's apple bobbed twice rapidly.

"Smells like water!"

Lin Ye didn't move.

He took a brief scan with his Left Eye.

Deep in the crack, the green light was clear and pure, without any gray-spotted pollution.

He reached back to pull out a beast bone shard, using his blade to carve it into a shallow basin.

He then added another strike along the bottom of the crack.

Translucent, gel-like tree sap surged out, emitting a cool chill.

He filled the bone scoop.

Lin Ye pushed the beast bone toward Zhao Mengmeng.

"Hold a mouthful, make sure it's not poisonous, then swallow."

Zhao Mengmeng took the bone scoop, her hands shaking so much she almost spilled the water.

It was extremely cool upon entering her mouth.

The sap melted against her parched tongue, forcibly pulling open her stuck throat.

It wasn't fishy; it was slightly sweet.

She tilted her head back and gulped down most of the scoop of tree sap.

The purifying crystal core in her inner pocket felt slightly cool, dispelling the last bit of dizziness caused by dehydration.

Lin Ye filled a second scoop.

He took two sips, then poured the remaining sap into his broken water skin.

Zhao Mengmeng wiped her mouth.

"You call that drinking water?"

"It's enough to moisten my throat."

Lin Ye tightened the cap of the water skin.

"If we have to run later, the sloshing sound of water in our stomachs might attract monsters."

Zhao Mengmeng snatched the bone scoop, filled it up, and shoved it right back against his chest.

"Drink it all! Otherwise, I'll bang the basin right now to attract a flying dragon!"

Lin Ye took the bone scoop.

"That trick with the basin only works on scrap collectors on Blue Star."

He gulped it down in three mouthfuls, and the burning pain in his throat subsided.

Zhao Mengmeng, having recovered some strength, took the bronze rod and casually tapped another protruding tree root nearby.

Hiss!

The tree root, struck, immediately sprayed out high-pressure grayish-white dust.

Three black pits were instantly corroded onto the surface of the bronze rod.

Zhao Mengmeng quickly pulled her hand back.

Lin Ye held his saber.

"Hit the wrong one, and we'll be eating at our own funeral feast."

The voices of doubt in the overseas barrage comments stopped abruptly.

After replenishing their water, Lin Ye squatted down.

The tip of his saber pried open the rusty mud at the base of the tree root.

Several large, iron-ball-like fruits rolled out from the mud layer.

Their shells were deathly gray and covered in rust.

Zhao Mengmeng stepped back half a step.

"This thing looks like it'll explode."

"Having PTSD after just blowing up the insect nest?"

Lin Ye opened his Left Eye wide.

He picked out three that glowed with green light and swept the rest, which had black and gray dead spots, back into the mud with the blade.

"Why bury them back?"

"Eating them will make you rust."

He struck with the back of his blade.

Crack.

The cleanest shell split open, revealing milky white flesh.

It was full of juice, with a faint, salty, fishy taste.

Lin Ye gouged out a small piece and smeared it on the back of his hand.

He cut it in half with the blade and handed it to Zhao Mengmeng.

As the fruit flesh entered her stomach, the salt was replenished, and her limbs finally began to warm up.

Lin Ye didn't rush to finish eating.

He gouged out the flesh of the other two intact fruits, wrapped them tightly in thick beast skin, and stuffed them into the safest compartment at the very bottom of his backpack.

The dark gold dragon bone nail was there.

The grain seeds were there.

After doing all this, he finally stuffed the remaining half into his mouth.

Zhao Mengmeng licked the fruit juice from her lips.

"I'm alive."

As soon as the words left her lips, the pink mist overhead rolled violently!

The entire giant tree shuddered.

A massive shadow cut through the pale sky and bore down directly onto the canopy.

Zhao Mengmeng's eyes widened abruptly.

Lin Ye pressed his thumb down to kill the light source of the star-flow gold bead on his saber hilt, grabbed the back of her neck, and pressed her into the hollow depression beneath the tree roots.

As soon as the two of them pressed against the cave wall, a gale surged into the ground.

A sharp claw, three meters long, descended from the sky and slammed heavily into the black wood above their heads.

Five terrifying, half-foot-deep cracks opened up, and wood chips rained down.

The light screen in Lin Ye's right eye flared red.

[Wind-Erosion Flying Dragon]

Every flap of its bone wings stirred up a vortex of dust from the Iron Swamp.

The rust powder poured wildly through the gaps in the cave entrance.

Lin Ye flipped his wrist and pulled over a piece of tattered beast skin, covering the zipper of his backpack.

He wouldn't let a single grain of water-absorbing rust powder contaminate the Great Xia national destiny supplies.

Zhao Mengmeng pressed tightly against him.

She didn't shrink back but turned sideways, using the back of her armor to block the gale blowing in from outside.

The foul wind exhaled from the giant nostrils swept wildly along the tree roots.

The flying dragon smelled the scent of the cut tree sap.

Its sharp claws scraped against the bark, searching inch by inch for the opening to its food.

The grating sound of scratching vibrated just half a meter above their heads.

Lin Ye stared intently at the crack above.

The six main threads of the Dark Weaver were in a ready-to-fire state.

He lowered his center of gravity, preparing to push Zhao Mengmeng into the underground crevice the moment the bark was ripped away.

Time ticked by.

Five minutes later, the flying dragon lost its patience, let out a sharp screech, and flapped its wings, stirring up a gale as it departed.

The white powder settled once again.

Zhao Mengmeng exhaled a large mouthful of turbid air that tasted of earth.

"Things that fly, things that crawl, things that steal water—is this godforsaken place designed specifically to wipe us out?"

Lin Ye pulled the beast skin away from his backpack opening.

He leaned against the cave wall.

He moved his fingers away from the hilt of his horizontal saber and let them hang naturally.

"If you have the energy to curse now, save it for running away."