The anomalies that once brought fear to humanity now suffer the sa bitter fate.
The root tendrils sprawling like serpents entangle the Earth Dwellers who failed to escape, crushing them against the rock walls, turning them into mulch to modestly nourish the tree’s body. The tree’s body recklessly grows, tearing through the rock layers, bursting out of the old sewers, and bloating to block passageways, reaching all the way up to the Swamp a hundred ters above.
The branches spread here, extending along the oval edge of the Swamp, while the tree’s body continues to thicken, consuming the last vestiges of humanity, completing its mission—forming a solid tree body hundreds of ters thick to protect the monarch.
The tree body embedded underground resembles a short, sturdy plant lifting a cal-colored egg.
Enclosed by thick walls, Lu Li opened his eyes. The protective tree body gradually beca transparent with the tint of the Dreamwalker, revealing the scene of anthill-like caverns outside the tree wall: anomalies from the old sewers surged towards them due to the aura, while the Earth Dwellers, still dazed from the mutation, attempted to stop it, but they were like a breakwater in a hurricane, with the seawall breached by a tsunami, and terrifying waves flooding the town.
A peculiar horn blared suddenly in the depths of the cavern, halting the surging tide of anomalies steadfastly headed for Lu Li, making them linger in place, while the anomalies able to see through delusions were also blocked in the cavern.
The Earth Dwellers activated their Holy Artifact.
But perhaps realizing they could neither capture the culprit nor drive away the anomalies, and with the treasury losing the Holy Artifact’s protection, they rushed into the increasingly transparent depths of the rock wall, transporting heaps of Strange Currency and goods stacked like mountains from dozens of warehouses.
Lu Li had no interest in distinguishing the goods, but rchant Anthony might be among them, and the Strange Currency was exactly what the Land of Light needed.
The invisible Dreamwalker enveloped all the warehouses, then suddenly vanished amidst the stunned Earth Dwellers.
Dozens of kiloters away in a secret underground, Lu Li abandoned the warehouses here, leaving behind a rchant’s Eye.
Among the many descriptions of the Earth Dwellers, greed was a label they could not erase. When the amassed wealth vanished before their eyes, they plunged into predictable madness—
But as the Earth Dwellers with blood-red eyes charged towards Lu Li, they had to face the hundreds of ters thick solid tree wall and the frenzied anomalies themselves.
"Whoever you are... you shouldn’t do this."
The reverberating horn was mixed with sharp and angry lant, "Leave here, surrender the wealth, and you still have a chance to die... not tornted by us!!!"
Lu Li ignored the feeble threats from the Earth Dwellers’ Trading Company and focused on the anomalies intruding into the Earth Dwellers’ nest, along with a group of Earth Dwellers gathered by the Elder of the Earth Dwellers.
The Earth Dwellers didn’t know Lu Li was watching them. They gathered in the subterranean cavern, drawing a foreboding array, praying to repel the Dreamwalker’s power.
Lu Li allowed them to summon an unspeakable entity. The more determined they were, the more horrific the price they paid.
If Lu Li simply fled everywhere, it would be impossible to deal with all the Earth Dwellers.
And at this mont, Lu Li noticed an Elder of the Earth Dwellers sneak out of the cavern. The Dreamwalker followed it, tunneling into the root-laden, much emptier old sewer, passing through places the Dreamwalker couldn’t taint, arriving at the Worm Station.
The Elder of the Earth Dwellers was seeking help from the worms, commissioning it to dig a tunnel to the tree core.
"Don’t help them."
Lu Li’s voice echoed in the worms’ minds. Recognizing Lu Li, they refused the Elder of the Earth Dwellers. And before the Elder could find other assistants to cause trouble, a pair of pale hands quietly erged from behind, snapping its neck.
Gurgle...
The worms split their mouths, devouring the Elder of the Earth Dwellers frugally.
Turning attention away, the Earth Dwellers were still summoning, with so collapsing into pools of blood, sacrificing their lives.
Lu Li let them summon power, intending to wipe out the Earth Dwellers here.
Like a labyrinth, so anomalies had drawn near in the cavern, but they couldn’t do anything to the rock-hard tree body.
But among them, so non-corporeal anomalies could easily penetrate the tree wall.
From the tree’s core, Lu Li began to descend, dropping to the sa depth as the summoning array, continuing to observe the anomalies following their spread.
And just as they were about to rush into the ritual cavern, the Earth Dwellers inside suddenly scread and scattered in all directions.
The summoning seed to have failed, naly, they had called forth an uncontrollable terrifying entity.
Gray mist quietly erged at the center of the array, tendril-like mist strands ensnaring the fleeing Earth Dwellers, engulfing them. After devouring all the Earth Dwellers in the cavern, the gray mist, as if tangible, began to spread along the cavern towards Lu Li’s location.
Anomalies from the old sewers were also gradually eroding; the pollution released upon nearing made it difficult for even the Dreamwalker to defend against, except that humanity increased Lu Li’s resistance, leaving him almost unaffected.
The gray mist spreading from the cavern disregarded alignnt, consuming everything it encountered along the way.
The screams from the erosion made Lu Li hear the anomalies’ na for it: Gray Mist Mother.
Incorporeal anomalies broke into the tree body again, tearing the Dreamwalker apart. Before it could approach, Lu Li slipped into the Inner World.
The dead silent, colorless Inner World was left with only occasional flickering shadows wandering in the cavern; however, the Gray Mist Mother’s original position revealed a bloated monster cramd into the cavern.
The shrouding gray mist receded in the Inner World, and its flesh surface was covered with warts, which, upon closer inspection, were layers upon layers of countless grape-like dangling heads.
Those devoured by the Gray Mist Mother would beco a part of it.
As Lu Li observed the Gray Mist Mother’s true form, the Gray Mist Mother also noticed him.
"Co... child... return to mother’s embrace..."
The murmur-like whisper lingered at the ear.
Lu Li remained unmoved until a thunderous roar exploded beside his ear—
"Wake up!!!"
Lu Li stood on the edge of the tree body, almost leaving the tree wall.
At so point, the Gray Mist Mother had dragged him into an illusion.
Lu Li noticed the being that awakened him, resembling a human-shaped silhouette curled up inside an embryo, hidden in an underground cavity, with steam surging around it.
"A familiar scent... is it you?" The steam silhouette recognized Lu Li, "Do you need help?"
"You need help."
Lu Li shook his head, giving the steam contour, which had once devoured human mories and was confused about whether it was human or anomaly, 100 units of humanity.
"Continue to fight, but your battlefield is not here."
Shifting the gaze back to the turbid nest writhing outside the thick wall, Lu Li sent the steam contour to the distant dream edge.
Looking back at the waves of surging anomalies and the mist after the Gray Mist Mother erosion eventually,
there should still be so survivors in the Earth Dwellers’ Trading Company.
But those should be left to the Land of Light to handle.
Lu Li’s soul slowly ascended, amidst the unwilling wails, drifting from the tree body to the Swamp’s edge.
Like an egg under light, one could glimpse the dim yellow behind the eggshell.
It was the Swamp that silently and invisibly destroyed Midnight City that was the true culprit.
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