The girl blinked.
But there was not a hint of surprise in her eyes.
Instead, she smiled sweetly, as if she had been waiting for Meng Chao to expose her true colors.
Suddenly, she leaped and jumped off the cliff.
Meng Chao narrowed his eyes and jumped down as well. He tried to activate his maglev power so that he could catch up to the mysterious girl even though he had moved later.
The world around them changed. It was as if even the law of gravity was controlled by the girl. The two of them slowly floated into the forest.
The girl disappeared in front of them.
Only rustling sounds could be heard from the densely packed branches.
Spirit flames burned around Meng Chao, and he burned a path through the dense forest.
Countless branches and vines hissed and retreated like scorched snakes, revealing a colorful, crystalline, and beautiful tree at the end of the path.
It was like a glowing jellyfish living in a dark, primitive forest.
Countless branches that were as soft as willow branches danced like tentacles.
It also looked like a coral carved out of crystal. The colorful polyps were still alive and squirming about in a strange manner.
This form was very similar to the wisdom tree at the center of Peach Blossom Town.
But its body had shrunk by a large margin. It was only the height of a person, and it looked small and exquisite. It did not look like a natural creation on this planet.
Perhaps this was the true form of the wisdom tree.
Meng Chao was wary and asked in a low voice, "Just what are you?!"
A bell-like laughter came from the core of the wisdom tree.
Then, a green wave formed by lichens, moss, mushrooms, and flowers spread out from the roots and enveloped the trunk.
A girl's face appeared in the green wave. Traces of an ancient spirit could be seen on her face, but she looked exactly the same as the bubble messenger Jin Qianxi.
"I'm not lying to you," the girl said with a smile.
The girl smiled. "I'm Gulin, Jin Qianxi, and the Wisdom Tree. Of course, if you insist on calling me the monster mastermind, I won't object. Aside from that, I'm … Peach Blossom Town itself."
"Peach Blossom Town?"
Meng Chao's eyebrows shot up.
"As a matter of fact, I don't know what I am, where I come from, or where I'm going.
"Perhaps you'll be able to tell me the answer. This is the main reason why I went through so much trouble to invite you into my world.
"You're special, Meng Chao. It's not just because you stopped the White Spirit, Earthquake, Demonic Abyss Eye, and Vortex one after another. More importantly, I can sense a very familiar and friendly presence from you. I'm guessing that it's something you left behind when you were exploring and testing the ancient ruins, right?
"Meng Chao, you're the same as me. There's no need for us to fight each other."
"Same kind?"
Meng Chao huffed coldly.
If this person was really Jin Qianxi, or if the mastermind of the monster had absorbed a part of Jin Qianxi and evolved it …
Then, since Jin Qianxi was one of the earliest explorers of the ancient ruins in Dragon City, she could be considered the same as Meng Chao, a veteran tester.
But Meng Chao would not treat it as the near-perfect human girl that Battle God Lei Zongchao and Underground Emperor Jin Wanhao spoke of. No matter how much darkness and torture she suffered, she never gave up on pursuing the bright and beautiful things.
"As for my origins, where should I begin? You have to know that even I myself am muddle-headed and muddle-headed. I only remember that in my earliest memories, I was merely an insignificant sprout in the depths of the forest …"
As the wisdom tree spoke, it used a tentacle that shone with a green light to tap the ground between it and Meng Chao.
The ground instantly turned crystalline, as if a 3D screen that had fused perfectly with the world around it had appeared.
On the screen was a small sprout. It stubbornly dug its way out of the ground.
It was like a weed that could be seen everywhere.
But it was softer and more transparent than normal weeds. It looked like it contained thick and sticky spinal fluid or brain tissue fluid.
Inside the body that shone with a faint green light were countless red threads. They looked like a complicated neural network that spread to each sprout.
This form made it seem like a fungus — Blood Flower.
But it was ten thousand times more exquisite, beautiful, and mysterious than normal Blood Flowers.
"In the beginning, I was very weak. Rainstorms could drown me, the sun could burn me to death, and the roots of towering trees could coil around me brutally and violently in an attempt to snatch away all my nutrients so that I would starve to death. Forget about wolves, tigers, and leopards, even pests could easily devour me."
As the wisdom tree spoke, all sorts of sound and visual effects appeared above the small plant. They simulated the effects of wind, rain, sun, and rain.
It could be seen that in the beginning, it had indeed lived a very helpless and embarrassing life. At its most miserable time, six of the nine tender sprouts that were entwined with blood traces had fallen, and the other three had been eaten away by snakes, insects, rats, and ants. Only a single seedling was still connected to the root, shivering in the cold wind.
"But the pressure of survival soon stimulated me, and I awakened to my abilities. More accurately speaking, I awakened to myself," the wisdom tree continued.
"At some unknown point of time, I suddenly realized that I could sense the world around me, and I could sense the emotions and thoughts of the plants, birds, and animals around me.
"No, that's not the right way to put it. Most of the plants, birds, and beasts don't have a lot of emotions and thoughts even if they absorb enough spirit energy and evolve into monsters or etherealized plants.
"Their brains, if they really have thinking organs with dense nerves, are usually grayish-white and chaotic. No matter how much they explore it, they can't find anything interesting. It's really boring.
"But no matter what, I can indeed use my abilities to share the senses and memories of the plants, snakes, insects, rats, ants, jackals, wolves, tigers, and leopards. I can see what they see, hear what they hear, and touch what they touch.
"It's as if my world has expanded thousands of times in an instant, and I'm the master of the world around me. No, I'm the forest you call Hidden Fog Desolate Region!"
The sprout formed by light and shadows in front of the wisdom tree and Meng Chao released thin and long red threads. They were like thin nerves that connected all the plants together.
The snakes, insects, rats, and ants that had swallowed its tender shoots also grew clumps of red silk. When they returned to their respective nests, these invisible red silk drilled out of their seven orifices and spread to the bodies of other snakes, insects, rats, and ants.
It was as if a vast neural network was spreading, expanding, and multiplying endlessly.
"Of course, in the beginning, Minecraft wasn't big. Using human standards, it was only around a circular area of eight meters, or at most, around ten meters. I could only sense the carbon-based life forms within a circular area of ten meters. Beyond that, I couldn't see or hear anything, "the wisdom tree continued.
"But even a short sensory distance of ten meters was a great help to me. Through the senses of the plants, pests, and pests, I could find the places where spirit energy was the most abundant, so that my roots could grow toward the small crystal mines. I could also find the tall trees with lush branches and use their crowns as shields to block the cruelest storm and the scorching sun.
"I could also transfer all my spirit energy to the ground before the hungry pests invaded me to create the illusion that the sprout had withered and decayed. I could also release the most pungent stench so that they would lose interest in me."
Within the translucent light and shadow, the small tender sprout really did wither and turn yellow in an instant. It rotted and turned into a pitch-black ball, even releasing wisps of black gas.
If it were not for the fact that they were extremely hungry, even pests would not have developed an appetite for such a thing.
"With my amazing senses, I survived misfortune and grew up. My size and the range of my senses kept expanding. Soon, I could see and hear the world twenty meters away, thirty meters away, fifty meters away, and even one hundred meters away."
The small sprout in the semi-transparent shadow looked as if it was stretching its back, and more sprouts grew out of it.
The blood vessels that surrounded the sprout also split into thousands of threads and surged into the world around it. They connected with all the life forms in the area in an unbelievable manner.
"I don't know how long this process took. It was something that happened a long time ago. Perhaps it was one year, or maybe it was one hundred years?"
The wisdom tree continued. "In any case, when my sensory range expanded to around one hundred meters, I ran into the greatest danger I've ever faced since I was born. A scavenger-type monster I've never seen before noticed me, and it didn't seem to mind the stench I released. In fact, it seemed to be very interested in it, and its appetite seemed to have increased."
In the semi-transparent shadow, a monster that looked like the amalgamation of a lizard and an anteater appeared.
Based on the rotting flesh embedded in the gaps between its teeth and scales, it must have crawled into the cavities of large monsters and feasted on their rotten organs.
Even if it was just a shadow, Meng Chao felt like he could smell the stench coming from it, and it was as thick as a hammer.
When the wisdom tree pretended to be withered and rotten, the scavenger-type monster did not stay away from it. Instead, great interest shone in its red eyes.
Like a toad, it shot out its tongue, which was like a whip, and tore off a sprout from the wisdom tree. Then, it put it in its mouth and ate it with relish.
When it noticed that it tasted surprisingly good and was filled with spirit energy and nutrients, it decided to pounce on the wisdom tree and uproot it.
The wisdom tree shuddered violently and used its soft sprout to hit the scavenger-type monster.
But scavenger-type monsters often crawled into the carcasses of large monsters.
To fight against the acid and poison in large monsters, their scales also had great defense, so the newly born wisdom tree could not chase it away with its jellyfish-like tentacles.
When the wisdom tree's sprout was about to be completely torn apart by the scavenger-type monster …
Even its roots were about to be plucked out of the ground by its sharp claws.
The wisdom tree suddenly shuddered as if it had been electrocuted. More than one hundred red threads that looked like nerves shot out of its body and pierced the scavenger-type monster's head like lightning.
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