Chapter 640 – Flora and Tia

Over the course of several months, the newly planted mutant Tree of Life grew at an astonishing rate, its branches stretching wide and its leaves flourishing until, in the blink of an eye, it had reached the same size as the previous mutant Tree of Life.

When a single unripe fruit emerged from the dense canopy, the entire tree’s growth seemed to hit a pause button.

It no longer grew taller, nor did it expand its canopy. Only the surging power of life and wood elemental force formed an emerald-green halo within the crown, pulsing and flickering like breathing.

That thumb-sized green fruit gradually grew larger under the constant wash of the power of life and wood elemental force.

The egg baby, through her daily bouncing, had also demonstrated the impressive hardness of her shell, and had since broken free of the Dunmu cradle’s confines. Sylph’s entire plantation had become her playground.

At first, the increasingly round egg baby would simply laze against the tree roots for naps, showing no interest whatsoever in the fruit hanging above her head.

Until one morning when dawn was just breaking, Sylph pressed her palm against the trunk, closed her eyes, and listened for a long while before suddenly breaking into a delighted smile.

She carefully cradled the egg baby, floated gracefully up into the depths of the canopy, and pointed to the plump green fruit, speaking softly:

“Flora, your little sister Tiana is inside here! If she grows quickly, she might even be able to attend the Witch Academy in the same year as you!”

Morning dew dripped from the tips of her hair, refracting into rainbow-colored spots of light on the fruit’s surface.

Flora immediately grew restless inside her shell. She wriggled free of Sylph’s embrace and rolled over to the branch where the fruit hung, gently nuzzling the still-unripe fruit with her warm eggshell: “Little sister, Tia~”

When she sensed a faint pulse of life emanating from within the fruit, the egg baby bounced excitedly among the branches, shaking the entire tree until its leaves rustled.

From then on, every morning you could see the luminous white egg baby wedged between the forking branches, stubbornly inching her way toward the fruit.

What made them laugh and cry at the same time was the day they discovered Flora had somehow gotten hold of an animated vine, wrapped it around herself, and was trying to “smuggle” the fruit from the branch down to the cushion-lined Dunmu cradle.

After being stopped, the egg baby sulked and piled up a small mountain of dandelions at the base of the tree, burying herself inside it as a nest.

After Sylph told her that her little sister hadn’t finished growing yet and couldn’t leave the tree, Flora set up home right beneath it.

Whenever Sylph came to check on the fruit’s condition each day, she would also infuse Flora with some mana to speed up her hatching progress.

A few more months passed, and the fruit on the second mutant Tree of Life had also turned pure white.

After Sylph plucked it, the power of life around the tree vanished.

Vasida emerged from the earth beside the tree: “Just now, all of its roots died. There’s no vitality left in them.”

“It seems its massive root system really was meant to nourish the fruit. Once the fruit ripened, the roots died. Whatever grows back will just be normal roots.”

Mo Lan cast a tree-speaking spell. The mutant Tree of Life that had been able to respond to her just moments ago now showed no reaction at all to her magic.

It had completely become a tree without spirit, without any gathering of the power of life.

But the egg that Sylph had plucked was brimming with spirit and the power of life.

They used Heart Speech on the egg.

“Flora! Flora!”

Vasida asked curiously, “When Tiana calls ‘Flora’—does she mean Sylph or Flora?”

“Big sister! Big sister!” Tiana squirmed slightly. On the grass, Flora was already bouncing higher than their waists: “Tia! Little sister!”

The moment Sylph gently set Tiana down beside Flora, the two round white eggs couldn’t wait to press up against each other.

Flora excitedly rocked her shell, gently bumping the newcomer “little sister” with her top. Tiana’s shell immediately glowed with a faint pink halo in response.

Before Sylph could even reach out to steady them, the two eggs were already rolling away in a game of chase.

Flora spun happily in circles up ahead while Tiana swayed somewhat clumsily from side to side as she followed behind, leaving a winding trail across the soft grass. Before long, they had rolled right into the nearby woods.

The Sorceresses hurriedly mounted their brooms and flew after them.

Flora would sometimes deliberately slow down to let her little sister catch up, and sometimes mischievously change direction without warning, drawing soft “thunk thunk” sounds from Tiana’s shell, as if protesting her big sister’s pranks.

Sunlight filtered through the gaps between the leaves, casting dappled patterns of light and shadow on the rolling eggshells.

The two eggs rolled across a lawn covered in small daisies, startling several blue-winged butterflies that had been feeding, and finally came to a stop with a soft “pop” as they both got wedged in a hollow in front of a bush, their shells covered in glistening dewdrops and tiny flower petals.

Flora playfully rocked from side to side, causing Tiana to sway gently along with her, and together they scuffed out two round little hollows in the soft earth.

When Mo Lan and the others read the two egg babies’ thoughts, all they heard were baby-voiced messages like “Big sister wants cuddles,” “Tia, faster faster,” “Flora, spin spin,” and so on.

Vasida couldn’t help pressing her hand to her forehead: “Well, that’s that. Now that Flora has a playmate, we’ve all fallen out of favor.”

Sylph’s emerald eyes brimmed with grievance: “Tiana hasn’t even called me Mama yet!”

“She hasn’t called me Auntie either,” said Lilith. “And I’ve been going to talk to Tiana every single day!”

Just as they were talking, the two egg babies who had been playing themselves silly suddenly sank into a rain-softened mud puddle with a squelch.

They squirmed in a panic, their snow-white shells speckled with mud, looking for all the world like two glutinous rice balls coated in chocolate shell—and they were sinking deeper.

“Mama!” “Auntie!” “Help!”

The tearful mental cries burst out all at once, startling the Sorceresses hovering in the sky into landing immediately.

Vasida raised both hands, and the dark brown sludge rose into the air as if lifted by invisible hands, forming a cluster of rolling mud bubbles suspended in midair.

Sylph seized the moment to dart forward, scooping both mud-covered egg babies into her arms in one swift motion, instantly streaking her skirt with muddy trails.

Mo Lan, with quick eyes and quicker hands, snapped her fingers. The glow of a Cleaning spell flashed, and in an instant both eggs and Sylph were restored to a spotless, gleaming state—every trace of mud gone.

Lilith put on a deliberately stern face, curled her finger, and rapped each egg baby once with a “thunk thunk”: “So now you know how to call for Auntie?”

Flora’s shell immediately turned red, and she squirmed restlessly in Sylph’s arms: “Red Auntie is mean!”

Seeing this, Tiana copied her big sister, her own shell flushing scarlet: “Meanie!”

Lilith’s expression froze instantly, her outstretched finger hanging stiffly in midair.

Vasida couldn’t hold back and burst out laughing with a snort, and the floating mud bubbles splattered back down to the ground with a series of soft plops.