The vines were still spreading.
They crawled across the entire camp, from the base of the ruins to the edge of the perimeter, and from the campfires to the mud where the magical beasts lay. Every bit of vegetation within ten square kilometers responded simultaneously.
Countless new shoots sprouted from the roots of shrubs charred by war, growing into thick branches within a few breaths.
Wild grass, once bent under the weight of corpses, grew frantically, their leaf edges becoming as sharp as knives, letting out faint whistles as they sliced through the air.
Three seconds.
The ten-square-kilometer Deep Forest Emergence had taken shape.
Every vine found its place, weaving into an airtight wall of vegetation around the camp's perimeter.
The vine wall stood ten meters high, its surface shimmering with emerald runic patterns, sealing the entire camp beneath it.
The commotion within the camp gradually subsided.
The shacks had all collapsed, the campfires were crushed by vines, and the emaciated magical beasts were strangled in the mud, their limbs and necks tightly bound.
The wails and moans of the wounded vanished, replaced by a deathly silence.
Only four Amons warriors remained alive.
Vines coiled around their limbs, dragging them from various corners of the camp and tossing them onto the open ground in front of the ruins.
The four fell onto the ground of mixed rubble and dirt, their bodies covered in blood and mud, their pale green skin marred by abrasions and bruises.
Ethan stepped down from the ruins.
He walked up to the four and stood still.
Vines erupted from beneath his feet, hoisting an Amons strongman into the air.
The man's limbs were pulled in four directions by the vines, his joints letting out strained creaks.
His chest heaved violently, and his war tattoos distorted with the twitching of his muscles.
“Where is the World Tree?”
The strongman clenched his teeth, saying nothing.
His amber eyes glared fixedly at Ethan, the whites bloodshot.
Ethan raised his right hand, and emerald light surged from his palm, condensing into a thumb-sized seed. The seed was dark green, its surface flowing with intricate patterns.
With a flick of his finger, the seed landed precisely in the wound of the warrior's severed arm.
The moment the seed entered the body, it began to grow wildly. Roots burst from the seed casing, burrowing into the necrotic muscle fibers and spreading upward along the blood vessels. The warrior's body jerked tight as the muscles at the wound site writhed violently; green roots could be seen under the skin extending toward his shoulder.
The roots bored into the gaps in the bone, prying open the periosteum and expanding within the marrow cavity. The warrior let out a raspy scream, his amber eyes bulging. The roots continued upward, passing through the shoulder blade and branching beneath the collarbone—one burrowing into a lung lobe, another coiling around the outer membrane of the heart.
Vines branched off from the roots, burrowing into the warrior's abdominal cavity, coiling around the liver and tightening around the intestines. The warrior's screams turned into dry heaves as pale green blood poured from the corners of his mouth. His limbs convulsed frantically, making the vines creak under the tension.
Ten seconds later, the seed had grown into a complete vine system inside him.
Vines burst from his eye sockets, ear canals, and mouth, weaving into a lush green cocoon around his head.
【Life Energy +31. Current Life Energy: 2,424,261.】
Ethan casually tossed the corpse aside, and the vines coiled around the second warrior.
“In which direction is the World Tree?”
The strongman spat in Ethan's face. Before the pale green saliva could reach Ethan, it was blocked by a flying leaf.
Ethan spread the fingers of his right hand. Vines as thin as hair extended from his fingertips like the tentacles of a living creature, writhing slowly in the air.
Those vines were translucent emerald, their internal flow of energy particles clearly visible.
The vines coiled around the strongman's left toes.
They bored through the gaps in the nails, into the soft tissue beneath the nail beds, and into the marrow cavities of the phalanges. The man's body jolted as his toes swelled at a visible rate, the skin stretched transparent from within, revealing the vines moving beneath.
Crack.
The first toe bone shattered.
The vines wrapped around the bone fragments and continued toward the foot.
Crack.
Crack.
Crack.
One toe bone after another shattered. Every time a vine entered a joint, it would shred the surrounding ligaments and cartilage.
The strongman's foot was already deformed, his skin bulging with over a dozen small lumps, each hiding a writhing vine.
The vines reached the ankle and began to climb up the lower leg. They bored into the interosseous membrane between the tibia and fibula, forcing the two bones apart. The agonizing pain of the bones separating sent the man into full-body spasms; his teeth chattered loudly, yet he refused to utter a single word.
Ethan hooked his finger. Vines burst out from the man's calf, bringing with them shredded meat and pale green blood. They bored back in and erupted from another spot. After repeating this seventeen times, the man's left lower leg had become a sieve, with blood seeping simultaneously from hundreds of tiny holes.
【Life Energy +29. Current Life Energy: 2,424,290.】
The vines released the mangled corpse of the second warrior, tossing it aside carelessly.
Vines erupted from the ground, coiling around the waist of the third warrior and hoisting him into the air.
This warrior was different from the previous two.
There was no rage in his eyes, only a cold, hard silence.
He didn't even struggle, simply hanging there from the vines, looking down at Ethan.
“Heh, you've got backbone. I like the resilient ones best.”
Light condensed in his palm, transforming into countless hair-thin filaments of light.
The light filaments extended from his palm, drifting slowly in the air, their ends curling slightly like living tentacles.
The light filaments coiled around the warrior's right arm.
They began wrapping from his fingertips, spreading against the surface of the skin, passing the wrist, climbing the forearm, and coiling around the elbow joint.
Everywhere the light filaments passed, fine green patterns emerged on the skin's surface, extending along the path of the blood vessels toward the shoulder.
The warrior looked down at the patterns, his lips moving as he whispered a prayer.
The light filaments continued to spread.
They bored into the warrior's skin, passing through the dermis, bypassing muscle fibers, and traveling between the fascia and bone.
Wherever they went, blood vessels were stripped from the bone, and nerves were picked out one by one, coiled around the light filaments.
The warrior's right arm began to twitch violently, muscles jumping uncontrollably beneath the skin. His fingers splayed and then clenched tight, nails digging into his palm as pale green blood dripped from between his fingers.
The light filaments reached the collarbone and began to branch.
One part climbed up the cervical spine, while the other followed the collarbone deep into the chest cavity.
The warrior finally clenched his teeth.
Veins bulged on his neck, his jaw muscles tight as stone, and his amber eyes protruded from their sockets, the whites filled with bloodshot veins.
Those light filaments showed through the skin of his neck, sketching a dense network of green patterns on the surface like an expanding spiderweb.
The light filaments climbed onto the skull.
They bored through the foramen magnum, spreading within the cranial cavity, bypassing the meninges to press against the surface of the brain.
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