Chapter 419 – Blackdeath Trees

Chapter 419 – Blackdeath Trees

“It’s the psychic intimidation of the blackdeath trees. Don’t keep staring at them!”

Sylph explained, “Even ordinary blackdeath trees are magical plants. Through their terrifying appearance and the Death Force surrounding them, they can shake your resolve, drown you in fear, and make you subconsciously walk toward what feels like a safer place.”

“But that so-called safe place is just a psychic suggestion planted by the blackdeath trees. If you actually go there, you’d be walking right into the embrace of an Animated Blackdeath Tree.”

“!!!” Vasida hastily averted her gaze. “So it’s a trap!”

Mo Lan cast Mind Ward on everyone, boosting their defenses against psychic attacks.

“Much better now! The blackdeath trees just look a bit odd, that’s all,” Vasida said.

“Lilith, try flying in that direction!” Sylph pointed the way.

Vasida looked over. “Isn’t that the place I just said felt safer? It’s a trap!”

“I want to go find an Animated Blackdeath Tree and collect some seeds or other branch samples,” Sylph said.

“I also need some blackdeath tree and Animated Blackdeath Tree samples as card-crafting materials,” Mo Lan added.

Blackdeath trees and Animated Blackdeath Trees were absolutely the most iconic specialty products of the entire Black Forest.

In all of the Continent of Valen, only the Black Forest had blackdeath trees and Animated Blackdeath Trees.

Having come all this way, they had to collect at least some.

Ever since she had activated the material upload function in the Witch Management Card, the Book of Cards had received many material samples uploaded by witches, and the Card Marketplace had been updated with many new material cards.

However, since presumably no witches lived in the Black Forest, materials from blackdeath trees and Animated Blackdeath Trees still hadn’t been uploaded by anyone.

“Everyone get ready! I’m changing direction!” After Lilith’s announcement, she steered the flying carpet toward where Sylph had pointed.

But after flying for quite a while, they hadn’t spotted any tree that looked different from the rest.

Vasida had been on high alert for some time, yet no Animated Blackdeath Tree appeared. “When an Animated Blackdeath Tree isn’t moving, it looks the same as an ordinary blackdeath tree. If we don’t show ourselves, can we even find one?”

“Plants with higher sentience and plants with lower sentience react slightly differently to wood-element magic,” Mo Lan said.

The moment she finished speaking, Sylph said, “Found one! It should be this tree right here.”

Vasida looked over curiously, opening her Witch Sight to maximum. Her eyes widened involuntarily. “How can you tell it’s an Animated Blackdeath Tree?”

No matter how she looked at it, it seemed no different from the other trees around it.

“It just responded to my Path Clearing a tiny bit slower than the other blackdeath trees, as if it hesitated for a moment. It should be a more sentient Animated Blackdeath Tree!” Sylph said.

“Let’s test it with raw meat and we’ll know for sure,” Mo Lan said.

Lilith first flew the carpet to a spot beyond this blackdeath tree’s reach, and then Mo Lan used Teleportation to send a piece of raw meat in between the tree’s branches.

The sudden appearance of the scent of flesh and blood immediately caught the blackdeath tree’s attention. Its branches instantly stabbed into the raw meat with lethal precision, squeezing it tight.

The other branches, finding no target, flailed wildly at the surrounding air. Only after a good while did they gradually settle down, and the tree returned to its original motionless blackdeath tree form.

That small piece of raw meat had already been crushed and buried beneath the tree.

Vasida watched with a look of alarm. “It really is one!”

“Vasida, next Sylph and I will use Vine Sorcery together to control the surrounding ordinary blackdeath trees and bind the Animated Blackdeath Tree. Can you use earth-element magic to sever and dig out its root system?” Mo Lan said.

Every part of an Animated Blackdeath Tree, from top to bottom, was a useful magical material. Mo Lan wanted an entire Animated Blackdeath Tree as card-crafting material.

“No problem!” Vasida said.

Mo Lan looked toward Lilith.

“I know, I’ll keep the carpet steady. If anything goes wrong, we run immediately,” Lilith said.

Mo Lan nodded, and she and Sylph began casting simultaneously, each taking charge of the blackdeath trees on one side.

The ordinary blackdeath trees, lacking any real sentience, couldn’t resist the control of Vine Sorcery at all. Their branches rapidly elongated and grew tough, reaching out to bind the Animated Blackdeath Tree.

The Animated Blackdeath Tree sensed something was wrong, but unlike Lilith’s Vampire Vine, its roots hadn’t been animated. It couldn’t uproot itself to flee — only its branches and trunk could move.

But a single tree was no match for the surrounding forest. Mo Lan and Sylph together controlled the branches of a good twenty or so trees. The Animated Blackdeath Tree struggled for less than a minute before it was trussed up like a Rice Dumpling Corpse.

Vasida immediately cast Earth-Turning Spell on the ground where the Animated Blackdeath Tree grew.

Mo Lan wanted the tree’s full body of materials, and Sylph wanted its seeds — neither had any intention of keeping this tree planted.

Roots that ran too far or too deep, Vasida simply severed. She preserved only the main root system around the tree, and soon the entire tree was flipped up, roots and all.

Even while bound, the Animated Blackdeath Tree had been thrashing madly without pause, but the instant its roots left the soil, it weakened dramatically.

Mo Lan and Sylph withdrew the branches binding it, yet it could no longer flail and crush the air around it the way it had before.

After a little while, the Animated Blackdeath Tree could barely move at all.

Mo Lan cut away the knots at each bend of the Animated Blackdeath Tree’s branches one by one and handed them to Sylph.

These were the seeds of the Animated Blackdeath Tree.

“That’s enough!” Sylph packed the seeds into a wooden box, keeping only one, which she soaked in water inside a small bottle.

Animated Blackdeath Tree knots had to be soaked in water first to activate before they could be coaxed into sprouting.

The rest of the Animated Blackdeath Tree, Mo Lan fed to the Book of Cards in its entirety.

Soon the Card Marketplace would have cards like {Animated Blackdeath Tree Branch}, {Animated Blackdeath Tree Sap}, {Animated Blackdeath Tree Root}, {Animated Blackdeath Tree Seed}, and more.

“Hold on, let me grab an ordinary blackdeath tree too!”

Ordinary blackdeath trees weren’t as formidable as Animated Blackdeath Trees, but their materials had their own merits.

The Death Force in them was weaker than in Animated Blackdeath Trees, which actually allowed it to interact and fuse with other materials, giving it broader applications. It wasn’t limited to just dark-element and necromantic casters.

Animated Blackdeath Tree materials, on the other hand, were dominated by Death Force no matter what they were used for. They were only suitable for dark-element and necromantic casters, or could only be used as poison ingredients.

Mo Lan used the Earth-Turning Spell herself to dig up an ordinary blackdeath tree, expanding her collection of card-crafting materials.

Witches who were already en route to the Black Forest saw the newly listed blackdeath tree series material cards and were beside themselves with regret. “Still a step too late. What a loss!”

After nursing their heartache for a moment, they quickly changed direction and went off searching for other materials they commonly used.

Mo Lan had absolutely no idea that her material upload function alone had stirred up who knows how many witches holed up in the Wilds. Many of them had not only uploaded their own collections but had also begun scouring the entire Mainland for materials.