Chapter 428 – Someone in the Forest

Normally, when a blackdeath tree seed was placed in water, it would initially float on the surface, then continuously release bubbles as it slowly sank.

Once it settled to the bottom, it meant the seed had drunk its fill, was fully activated, and was ready to be planted.

But this mutant blackdeath tree seed sank straight to the bottom the moment it was placed in the Crystal bottle, without producing a single bubble.

That alone would have been strange enough, but the Death Force on its surface was also continuously dissipating.

This was a mutant seed of a blackdeath tree! Death Force was to it what lifeblood was to a living thing.

“This is bad!” Sylph hurriedly fished the seed out, but it was already too late — the Death Force on the seed had become extremely faint.

However, before she could pronounce the seed dead, she noticed that its pitch-black outer shell seemed to have cracked open in several fine seams, revealing a color that was black tinged with green.

Sylph couldn’t help but lean in for a closer look. “Am I seeing things? Is that… wood elemental force?”

Mo Lan, Lilith, and Vasida crowded in for a look as well.

“It does seem like it, but it doesn’t look like pure wood elemental force — there’s Death Force too?” Vasida said uncertainly.

“Not just Death Force — there seems to be another energy very similar to wood elemental force.” Lilith rubbed her chin, trying to recall where she had seen this kind of energy before.

“It’s the power of life. Wood elemental force has always been the elemental force closest to the power of life,” Mo Lan said, channeling her mana to convert a cluster of the power of life for them to compare against.

She had been consistently practicing Healing Magic and had extensive exposure to the power of life, so she recognized it immediately.

Although the power of life looked very similar to wood elemental force under Witch Sight, the power of life was far more dynamic, carrying an additional sense of vibrant vitality.

With the comparison, they could see much more clearly now.

“Wood elemental force is actually acting as a buffer, fusing the power of life and Death Force together?”

Sylph rubbed the seed coat. The outer layer — pitch-black and rough — had softened after soaking in water, and it peeled away with a gentle rub, revealing the round, smooth-skinned seed inside.

The seed was black with a green undertone, looking like a fine piece of dark jade. Within it, wood elemental force, the power of life, and Death Force intertwined, each woven into the other.

“What an interesting seed. I’ve never seen the power of life and Death Force appearing simultaneously in the same plant!” Vasida said.

Sylph probed it with her Hybrid mana. “It’s still alive!”

She tried using the germination spell on it, and the seed quickly split open, sprouting two leaf buds — one green, one black.

They were identical in shape to blackdeath tree sprouts, except that blackdeath tree sprouts were pure black, while these were one green and one black.

The black bud was wreathed in Death Force, the green one in the power of life, and wood elemental force concentrated at the base of the sprout.

Sylph planted the little sprout in a planting pot, then nourished it with Hybrid Magic just as she always did when cultivating mutant plants.

After barely a minute of nourishing, she sensed she had reached the little sprout’s tolerance limit and withdrew her power.

By now, the sprout had stretched and grown a bit from its initial size.

The two bud tips — one black, one green — had developed into two small antenna-like twigs.

Vasida gently poked one of the twigs. It was rock-hard. “As expected of a blackdeath tree — even from infancy, it doesn’t grow a single leaf!”

“The thing is, with it being half black and half green like this, there’s no telling what kind of mutation it’s actually produced,” Lilith said.

Mo Lan tried using Tree Friend and a heart-communion technique to listen for the little twig’s voice, but heard nothing at all.

“Sylph, can’t you communicate with the mutant plants you cultivate? Can you communicate with it now and get some information?” Mo Lan asked.

“Not yet. It’s too small — its spirit isn’t developed enough to form a consciousness that can be perceived,” Sylph said. “Once it grows a bit more, it should be fine.”

The mutant blackdeath tree seed had been quite the diversion. By the time Mo Lan and the others turned their attention back to the battlefield below, the skeleton squad and zombie squad had already settled their contest.

“My mama’s zombie dead-servants won!” Vasida cheered.

The cloth markers on this zombie squad happened to be red.

“The zombies won — we should be able to scavenge some skeletal remains, right?” Lilith said happily.

After all, if you stripped the flesh from zombie arms and legs, the bones were still usable as skeleton parts. But skeleton arms and legs were of little use to zombies.

Just as she said this, the surviving zombie dead-servants first picked through the remains of their fallen comrades, swapping out any body parts that weren’t working well for them. Then they gathered up every last bit of scattered corpse material from the ground, bundled it all up, and dragged it away.

Whether it had flesh on it or not — not a scrap was wasted.

They even took the worn-out parts they had swapped off themselves.

All that remained on the ground were bits of rotten flesh too small to pick up, which were quickly devoured by the forest’s insects.

Lilith, who had been hoping to scavenge some corpse material scraps: “…”

“Well, nothing left to scavenge now. Let’s just head north!” Mo Lan said.

Over the past few days, they had observed plenty of undead creatures.

At first, Mo Lan had found the white bones and rotting flesh on the undead somewhat repulsive. But after watching them for so long, she had begun to appreciate a certain structural beauty in these undead creatures’ bodies.

All she needed was to acquire some corpse materials, and she could personally craft a humanoid dead-servant.

The flying carpet continued northward, stopping and starting along the way. Several days later, high above the northern reaches of the Black Forest, Mo Lan, Lilith, Vasida, and Sylph stood on the carpet gazing toward the north.

By now they were very close to the edge of the Black Forest. The necromantic energy here had thinned considerably, and only a few undead creatures wandered about — all of them strays that had drifted over from elsewhere. None of the resting grounds were located in this area.

“That over there must be Mino Town in the Kingdom of Watson, right?” Vasida said, looking at the rooftops peeking through the distant blue sky and green wooded hills.

Lilith checked against the map. “According to the map, it should be.”

“That’s definitely it. The white pointed rooftops are the hallmark of the Kingdom of Watson’s Temples of the God of Light. That should be Mino Town’s Temple,” Mo Lan said.

“How do you even know something like that?” Sylph asked in surprise.

“I saw a temple building similar to that one in Lady Traci’s Mo-Pic book, 《Architectural Treasury of Valen》.”

As she spoke, Mo Lan used the Pathseeking Spell again to divine the location of the corpse materials.

“Lilith, fly about a thousand meters further in that direction and we should be close,” Mo Lan said, pointing to a spot slightly east of due north.

Lilith steered the flying carpet in that direction.

The necromantic energy here was even thinner. During the day when sunlight was strong, it could pierce through the gray haze and filter down into the forest.

Even the blackdeath trees grew noticeably scrawnier here, and there were no undead creatures to be seen.

But at this point, none of them were paying attention to undead creatures. All their eyes were fixed on a single spot in the forest.

There was someone in the forest. A living person.

But one who was not far from death.