The tree heart space was just a monotonous darkness.

As soon as Saul entered, he felt dampness and oppression.

As if he had been buried alive deep in underground soil.

But the gentle touch brought by the Inverted Tree seed quickly relieved his discomfort.

If Saul could completely devour the tree seed instead of simply carrying it on his body, he might even come to like this dark and quiet feeling.

Unfortunately, the tree seed was prepared for Little Algae.

After adapting to this place, Saul looked up ahead and saw Bethstana, who only had half a face that was still human.

That is, the expressionless wizard Beth he had once seen in the dean’s office at Bayton Academy.

The current Beth was still expressionless, except she had no other body parts besides that expressionless face.

Her body had completely transformed into tree branches and had grown many, many densely packed tiny rootlets that were dizzying to look at.

Some of these rootlets hung high, others drooped straight down.

These rootlets and branches clustered around Bethstana’s head at the center.

“Wizard Saul, when you came to Caugust City back then, Bayton Academy received you warmly and provided you with much help. Yet now you repay me like this!”

Bethstana’s voice showed no fluctuation, but her words were already full of anger.

Saul sneered coldly. “Stop pretending, Wizard Bethstana. If I had been subdued by Dean Pond in the outside world, you would probably have been very happy to use me as nourishment to maintain your spirit body, wouldn’t you?”

Saul looked Bethstana up and down, left and right, then suddenly shook his head.

“Actually, I originally came here wanting to make a deal with you. But now it seems you don’t even have the basic qualifications to make a deal.”

Saul directly abandoned Bethstana and flew to the unconscious Shaya’s side.

At this moment, Shaya was holding the tooth of the bone monster Saul had brought back from the Chaos Realm. He had already been contaminated by the radiation from it, and his spirit body was beginning to transform into an evil spirit.

Saul took the tooth from Shaya’s fingertips, pressed it back into his left palm, and sealed the pollution on it.

Then his right hand transformed into a tentacle again, directly slapping Shaya’s face, while his left hand made a light cut, actually separating Shaya’s head and body directly.

After the separation of head and body, Shaya’s body completely mutated within a breath, becoming a sphere with an uneven surface.

Except for the color, it really did resemble the moon somewhat.

But this moon quickly began to deform, with its surface rising and falling, finally growing spike after spike.

A perfectly good moon had actually donned a hedgehog’s skin.

Saul quickly discovered characteristics like “sharpness” and “harm” on this unconscious evil spirit mass.

If ordinary people or wizard apprentices accidentally touched this evil spirit, unhealable wounds would appear on their bodies, causing them to bleed painfully until death.

However, before Saul, who was already third-rank, this evil spirit formed from part of Shaya’s mutated spirit body wasn’t impressive enough.

Saul transferred Shaya’s head to his left hand, then the tentacle his right hand had become instantly expanded, becoming enormously large. Like an octopus extending all its tentacles and opening its mouth wide, it directly swallowed the spiked ball.

Sharpness and harm had no effect at all—the tentacle directly absorbed it like jelly.

After devouring it, the spirit body and pollution were separated within the tentacle.

The spirit body was spat out again, while the pollution was retained at the tentacle’s tip, finally torn off by Saul and stored in isolation.

Saul reattached the clean spirit body to Shaya’s neck.

However, the clean spirit body was like chewed cake—no longer in its original exquisite form.

The spirit body part of Shaya’s body had become a mass of chaotic soft mud.

Saul pinched it a couple of times and found it hard to restore to its original shape, so he decided to let Shaya handle it himself later.

After receiving Saul’s treatment, Shaya’s stagnant consciousness finally began to operate.

When he opened his eyes again, the first thing he found unbelievable was Bethstana behind Saul.

“How did you do it? You actually completely separated the pollution from the spirit body?”

Saul dragged Shaya closer to Bethstana while secretly being alert for her final resistance.

“I deal with the dead quite a bit and have seen many souls. For instance, I can now see that your sacrifice didn’t achieve the expected results.”

The closer Saul got to Bethstana, the more he could see that her condition wasn’t normal.

Bethstana blinked once, and her eyelashes stuck up messily like withered branches.

“Yes, it was exactly that tooth you gave Shaya.”

Bethstana’s voice remained without waves, even though she was discussing her own demise.

“I originally thought I hadn’t come into contact with the pollution on that tooth and was still mocking Shaya’s mutual destruction as too reckless. I never imagined that the truly foolish one was myself.”

“From the moment this tooth was exposed to the outside, it began secretly emitting pollution that I couldn’t detect or resist!”

Her face tilted up slightly, as if wanting to look at the sky, but there was only darkness overhead and rootlets swaying constantly due to her movement.

“I sacrificed everyone in the city, but every time I absorbed a spirit body, the pollution on me would worsen. I can already feel its pollution pervading my rootlets and branches. The abundant spirit body power only makes me feel extremely weak, as if I’ve lost all strength.”

Saul freed one hand to support his chin. “You’re being so detailed—are you stalling for time?”

Bethstana’s eyes suddenly widened, looking at Saul in disbelief.

“No need to praise me.” Saul waved his hand.

“Hehehe…” Bethstana, who had shown no emotional fluctuation, suddenly began laughing loudly. “So what if you discovered it? I’ve already sealed the tree heart space. Even if you’re third-rank, you can’t break open the cage I’ve formed with my life! Since I can’t resurrect, then you should all die here to keep me company!”

The tree heart space suddenly brightened, as if instantly switching from night to day.

Around Saul, as far as the eye could see, there were countless, endless tree branches and roots.

Somehow, they had already filled the entire tree heart space, forming a cage with no visible boundaries.

“Only spirit bodies can enter the tree heart space. Your body is still outside. No matter how powerful you are, a body that has lost its soul can be slowly worn down by the Inverted Tree. Afterward, you’ll be trapped here forever, slowly dissipating bit by bit after I die!”

Bethstana seemed to have given up on resurrection, putting all her strength into confining Saul in the tree heart space’s imprisonment.

Saul tried to sense his body, but the densely packed branches and rootlets made the entire space seem disconnected from the world.

Saul’s face showed no panic. After thinking for a moment, he actually continued approaching Beth with Shaya.

The distance between them gradually shortened—ten meters, five meters… one meter.

Finally, Saul only needed to raise his hand to touch Beth’s face.

That remaining piece of facial skin.

“Actually, I still have a way to survive.” Saul really did raise his hand, his fingertip almost touching her nose.

“That is to replace you, become the core of the Inverted Tree, establish a connection with it, and turn it into my locator. Equivalent to becoming another you.”

A trace of panic flashed across Bethstana’s face.

However, before she could refute anything, she saw Saul suddenly lower his head and couldn’t help laughing.

“Hehe, hehehe, hahaha…”

“What are you laughing at?”

“I’m laughing… your acting is really terrible!” Saul instantly restrained his laughter. “Actually, your real purpose in sealing the tree heart space is to make me voluntarily replace you as the Inverted Tree’s core, right?”

Bethstana was stunned, opened her mouth, but didn’t know what to say.

Saul tilted his head. “Whether you want me to also suffer what you’ve suffered, or simply hope that after you die from pollution, I can replace you and let the Inverted Tree continue living… oh, your eyes tell me it’s the latter…”

“If that’s the case, then it’s even easier to handle.” Saul’s right fingertip suddenly became a gray semi-transparent tentacle. “I’ll give you a second path. Shall we make a deal?”

(End of Chapter)

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