188: Chapter 188 The original body of Qinggang Eater Vine

In an instant, a green light swept across the entire Corrupted area.

Under the influence of the green light, massive amounts of the Power of Corruption were sucked into the sky.

As the Power of Corruption was affected, the strength of the Green Steel Devouring Strange Vine began to decline.

Seeing this, the Jade-Colored Light-Treading Fox's four white hooves trod out a path of white light; with a gentle swipe of its sharp claws, large sections of vines were severed.

After all, this was the Green Steel Devouring Strange Vine's territory; having suffered such a violent attack, the flower buds within it spewed out a large amount of neurotoxic gas.

The Jade-Colored Light-Treading Fox clearly did not dare to withstand the toxic gas head-on and could only use its speed to evade, but this undoubtedly narrowed its range of motion.

A large number of vines burst out from underground and began to attack the Jade-Colored Light-Treading Fox.

Taking advantage of the Green Steel Devouring Strange Vine's attention being focused on the Jade-Colored Light-Treading Fox, Nie Ning, who was outside the array, controlled the Jerky Bear Head hiding within to approach the plant's core with the Corruption Spirit.

Due to the influence of the array, the Jerky Bear Head's speed was not particularly fast.

This resulted in the Green Steel Devouring Strange Vine detecting the Jerky Bear Head and sending a large mass of vines to attack it.

Fortunately, as a soul of corruption, the Jerky Bear Head had extremely high resistance to attacks like toxic gas.

Coupled with the god-tier escape skill Shadow Shuttle, it quickly bypassed the vines and approached the core area.

Similar to other places, the surroundings were filled with large black trees eroded by the Power of Corruption.

Near those black trees stood a small tree about three meters tall, covered in black flowers with white fruits growing at the top.

And that was precisely the main body of the Green Steel Devouring Strange Vine!

The fruit at its top was called the Hundred-Split Fruit, a transcendent treasure that could enhance blood energy and physical defense.

However, now that the fruit was tainted by the Power of Corruption, normal creatures could no longer consume it.

After locking onto the position of the Green Steel Devouring Strange Vine's main body, the Jerky Bear Head dropped three array plates around the small tree.

Nie Ning, sensing from the outside that the array plates were in place, immediately controlled the Life Transmutation Array to activate them.

Instantly, a pillar of cyan light enveloped the small tree.

Sensing something was wrong, the vines began to frantically attack the cyan pillar of light.

Nie Ning felt a great deal of pressure on his Spiritual Power and took out several pills from his ring to restore mana and Spiritual Power, swallowing them down.

He then took out a mid-grade magic crystal to maintain the normal operation of the array.

With the Green Steel Devouring Strange Vine's main body trapped by the array, energy representing life was subsequently injected into it.

The original black flowers began to turn into a normal yellow, while the leaves turned emerald green.

However, when the transformation was halfway through, the power of the Life Transmutation Array was restricted, causing the Green Steel Devouring Strange Vine's main body to become half full of spring-like vitality and the other half deathly still.

"Can it only go this far?"

Nie Ning murmured in a low voice, his eyes seemingly able to penetrate the forest to see that small tree.

The more the Power of Corruption was suppressed, the higher the chance for the Corruption Spirit to seize the body.

But Nie Ning's power was limited after all; even relying on the power of the array, he could not fully suppress this special territorial plant.

Just the Power of Corruption in this area alone was something even ten Sludge Monsters couldn't compare to.

Furthermore, as time passed, Nie Ning faintly felt a counterattack from the Power of Corruption.

Seeing this, Nie Ning no longer hesitated.

Since he had already come this far, he had to try regardless of success or failure!

The Jerky Bear Head took out the small sphere containing the Corruption Spirit.

As the Blade of Corrosion slashed down, the sphere was instantly split in two, followed by a blurry, fluorescent humanoid spirit flying out.

Having completed its mission, the Jerky Bear Head used Shadow Shuttle to leave the area.

Under the control of the Life Transmutation Array, the Corruption Spirit merged into the small tree like a streak of light and shadow.

At this moment, the small tree began to undergo changes, the color of its body constantly switching back and forth between black and emerald green.

The vines that had been attacking frantically went still, stopping in place as if suddenly frozen in time.

Seeing this, the Jade-Colored Light-Treading Fox retreated step by step toward the barrier with some suspicion.

But before the Jade-Colored Light-Treading Fox could get far, the vines began to attack everything around them haphazardly, as if they had gone mad.

A large number of towering trees collapsed, and the Jade-Colored Light-Treading Fox, caught in the crossfire, could only do its best to dodge.

However, the flower buds within seemed to have lost control, continuously spewing mental neurotoxin unconsciously.

Even though the Jade-Colored Light-Treading Fox was very strong, it was still a bit lacking compared to this kind of territorial transcendent plant.

After inhaling a small amount of the mental neurotoxin, the Jade-Colored Light-Treading Fox felt groggy, and even the mana in its body showed signs of losing control.

And in that brief delay, a large number of vines swept up and bound one of the Jade-Colored Light-Treading Fox's front legs.

The Jade-Colored Light-Treading Fox struggled violently; seeing that it could not break free, it spat a beam of white light from its mouth, which pierced through a large number of vines.

But there were simply too many vines; once restricted by them, nothing but endless attacks awaited it.

...

As time ticked away, five hours passed in the blink of an eye.

By now, Nie Ning's face was deathly pale and covered in sweat.

Controlling two arrays was still too demanding on his management skills.

Even with the help of magic crystals and pills, five hours of mental exhaustion was too severe; this was no longer something that could be made up for by pills alone.

"Why isn't it done yet? Didn't it say it wouldn't take long!"

Nie Ning gritted his teeth and held on while complaining about the contents of the notebook.

He couldn't help but feel that perhaps he shouldn't have believed what was written in the notebook.

After all, it was something that hadn't been tested; even though he had replicated it one-to-one, various uncertainties meant the success rate of this plan wasn't as high as imagined.

Furthermore, he had just finished scolding Dylan, only to turn around and mimic Dylan by challenging high-difficulty operations.

Of course, at least he wasn't harming people; his goal was to protect the local ecological environment.

Moreover, according to his hypothesis, plant-based intelligence was generally not high, requiring long ages to grow their spirituality.

This meant the Green Steel Devouring Strange Vine's power did not come from its soul but relied entirely on the strength of its main body.

Therefore, when merging with the Corruption Spirit, it should have been simpler, as the Corruption Spirit was clearly stronger in terms of spirituality than the Green Steel Devouring Strange Vine.

But after so much time, that Jade-Colored Light-Treading Fox was almost beaten to death, yet the transformation was still not complete.

For some reason, Nie Ning always felt something was wrong and seriously doubted if there was an issue with the plan itself.

And he had paid quite a price this time.

He had consumed many rare materials, even using materials meant for making the god-forbidden ring.

If it didn't succeed, then this time he would truly have lost everything.

Additionally, he had conveniently lured a Tier 4 mutated beast over.

Besides using it to draw fire, he was incredibly greedy for the flesh of this Jade-Colored Light-Treading Fox.

After all, skills that involved walking with light were very rare; he might be able to use such a flashy skill in the future.

...