Chapter 726
Ren Xue
"No..." Tang Wulin roared and actually took a step in that direction.
Just then, Qian Renxue bit her tongue, the sharp pain keeping her awake. She grabbed Tang Wulin's arm and pressed her other hand against his forehead, holy fire surging into his brow: "Wake up!"
Tang Wulin shuddered, the confusion in his eyes instantly vanishing. He looked in that direction again, but there was no Gu Yuena, only an exceptionally thick Soul-Devouring Tree. A human face on the trunk wore a strange, triumphant smile. And hanging from the branches of that tree were dozens of desiccated corpses, some still in the postures of their struggles in life.
"I'm sorry." Cold sweat beaded on Tang Wulin's forehead. "I almost..."
“It’s normal to fall for it the first time.” Dai Chengfeng’s voice came, and he had already drawn his sword at some point, cautiously looking around. “The Soul-Devouring Tree’s illusion attacks the deepest obsessions and fears in one’s heart. I almost saw my sister too…”
Before he could finish speaking, Dai Chengfeng's expression suddenly froze.
Directly in front of him, a little girl in a white dress peeked out from behind a tree and called out timidly, "Brother... why did it take you so long to pick me up?"
Dai Chengfeng's sword dropped an inch.
"Chengfeng!" Bibi Dong shouted, but Dai Chengfeng's eyes had become empty as he walked step by step toward the little girl.
Qian Renxue was about to make a move when Bibi Dong stopped her, saying, "I'll do it."
She walked up to Dai Chengfeng, not calling his name, not trying to wake him, but instead delivering a sharp chop to the back of his neck. Dai Chengfeng's body went limp, and he fell forward. Bibi Dong caught him and helped him to a tree—deliberately avoiding trees with faces visible.
“Simple and brutal, but effective,” Bibi Dong said calmly. “In the Forest of Fallen Gods, the most dangerous thing is not the direct attack of the Soul-Devouring Trees, but the illusions they create. Once you become addicted, your soul will be slowly extracted, and you will eventually become one of those dried-up corpses hanging on the trees.”
"Then what do we do?" Qian Renxue looked around, feeling the whispers growing louder and louder, and more and more figures appearing and disappearing among the trees. She saw her deceased grandfather, Qian Daoliu, her younger self, and even... another Qian Renxue, that dark version of herself, consumed by hatred.
"Close off your five senses, trust only each other." Tang Wulin had recovered. The Golden Dragon Spear was planted in the ground, and a golden domain unfolded around him—the Golden Dragon Rampage Domain. Within this domain, all mental interference would be suppressed by the dragon's might. "My domain can temporarily resist illusions, but it consumes a lot of energy. We must speed up."
Dai Chengfeng quickly regained consciousness. He touched the back of his neck and said with a wry smile, "Thank you. It seems that my guilt towards Mu Bai is deeper than I imagined."
“Keep moving,” Bibi Dong said. “We’ve attracted attention, and a real attack will come soon.”
They regrouped, and this time Tang Wulin kept the Golden Dragon's Berserk Domain to a minimum, just enough to cover the four of them. The whispers and phantoms twisted and dissipated at the edge of the domain, but more and more Soul-Devouring Trees began to "awaken." The faces on the tree trunks opened their empty "eyes," and the branches moved without wind, emitting a teeth-grinding grating sound.
After walking for about half an hour, the path suddenly came to an end.
Ahead lay an open space, but the scene was far more horrifying than the dense forest. In the center of the open space grew a colossal, unimaginably enormous Soul-Eating Tree. Its trunk was over twenty meters in diameter, its height piercing the unseen darkness above, its canopy stretching out in all directions, obscuring the entire sky. And most terrifying of all, the trunk of this giant tree was densely covered with thousands upon thousands of human faces.
These faces were no longer blurred, but clearly discernible, their expressions vivid. There were men and women, old and young; some were calm, some in pain, some angry, some desperate. They were all speaking, thousands upon thousands of voices merging into a chaotic, incomprehensible buzz. At the base of the giant tree, mountains of bones lay piled up. Some were still covered in tattered divine armor, some held broken divine artifacts in their hands—clearly, all were divine-level powerhouses who had once trespassed upon this place.
“Tree King.” Dai Chengfeng’s face turned pale. “According to records, there are seven such Tree Kings in the Forest of Fallen Gods, each guarding a region. We… are not very lucky.”
“It’s not luck.” Bibi Dong stared at a face on the trunk of the Tree King—a face different from the others. It did not participate in the surrounding whispers, but quietly “watched” them, with even a faint smile on its lips.
“It’s waiting for us,” Bibi Dong said. “Or rather, it’s waiting for ‘me’.”
"What?" Qian Renxue looked at her.
Bibi Dong didn't explain, but instead took a step forward, leaving Tang Wulin's domain. Almost the instant she stepped out of the domain, the smiling face on the Tree King's trunk suddenly spoke.
The voice was gentle and pleasant, carrying a nostalgic sense of familiarity.
"Rakshasa, you're finally back."
Qian Renxue, Tang Wulin, and Dai Chengfeng all looked at Bibi Dong. Bibi Dong stood there, her expression unchanged, only her eyes turned icy cold.
"Do you recognize it?" Qian Renxue asked.
“I know it.” Bibi Dong’s answer was brief and heavy, “or rather, I know ‘a part’ of it.”
The face on the Tree King smiled, and its features began to change, gradually becoming clearer—it was a handsome male face, blond and blue-eyed, with a gentle expression, but with a madness accumulated over ten thousand years in its eyes.
"Long time no see, my dear... collaborator," the face said, its voice echoing across the open field. "Thirteen thousand years have passed. I thought you had long since perished in the outside world. I never expected you to return, and... bring such interesting guests."
"Who is he?" Tang Wulin asked in a deep voice, the Golden Dragon Spear already pointed at the Tree King.
“He is both a prisoner of this forest and its guardian.” Bibi Dong’s voice was calm, but Qian Renxue could hear the suppressed emotions within it. “Thirteen thousand years ago, during the war between the God Realm and the Abyss, a god betrayed us. He opened the barriers of the God Realm, allowing the Abyss to advance unimpeded. After the war, he was judged by the gods, his soul was stripped away, his body was sealed, and his consciousness was imprisoned here, merging with the Soul-Devouring Tree King, forever suffering the torment of having his soul devoured by countless dead souls.”
The face burst into laughter, a laugh filled with mockery and madness: "Betrayal? Rakshasa, it's utterly ironic to hear that word from your mouth. I wasn't the only one who proposed 'cooperation' with the Abyss back then. You, and your good teacher, weren't you also involved in that plan? Otherwise, why do you think you were able to find the path to the Divine Tomb so easily? Who gave you the map in your hand?"
Bibi Dong's hand clenched slightly.
Qian Renxue looked at her in disbelief: "Mother, is what he said true?" (End of Chapter)