Several tall buildings stood around the square, housing numerous firing points for the town. This was the choke point through which any visiting team had to pass to enter the town proper.
The town did not yet require outsiders to disarm here, which meant conflicts were frequent. At this moment, personnel stationed above glanced down from time to time, ready to open fire without hesitation if any trouble arose.
When Chen Chuan walked into the center of the square, quite a few people noticed him. Right away, they felt there was something unusual about him, as he stood out starkly from the surrounding pedestrians.
Yet he was only one person, carrying nothing more than a single suitcase, with no firearms or other weapons in sight. Since he was merely standing in an open area, the guards were not overly alarmed at first, only giving him a few extra glances.
However, when he raised his fist and a distinct glow burst forth from it, someone immediately realized something was wrong. But just as they were about to shout a warning, a blinding haze of white light suddenly flooded their vision.
Everyone was rendered unable to open their eyes. A split second later, a deafening, muffled boom roared in their ears, making their heads and internal organs vibrate along with the shockwave. At the same time, the ground heaved like ocean waves. Unable to keep their balance, people scrambled for whatever was near them to steady themselves.
Only after the commotion subsided did these people stagger back to their feet, shaking their heads. When they looked outside, their eyes turned completely blank with shock.
Many of the glass windows on the surrounding buildings had shattered. The few pedestrians in the square had all tumbled to the ground. A massive plume of dust and smoke rolled up into the sky, billowing outward in every direction.
And there in the center, the figure in the smock remained standing. Before him lay an enormous crater, from within which wisps of light could be seen shimmering.
Chen Chuan stood at the edge of the pit, gazing downward. A thin layer of milky-white mist drifted below, beneath which twisted, spiraling boughs and branches wound together, specks of light gleaming where they coiled.
His gaze deepened.
*Found you.*
With that thing exposed, he felt successive signs of dematerialization rippling through his Second Self. Coming wave after wave, the fading was far stronger than what he had experienced in the simulated scene.
The surrounding people stared at him in utter horror. After a long while, someone finally reacted, shrieking in a voice laden with sheer terror, "Fire!"
One among them seemed to know better and hurriedly called out, "Wait, don't—"
But his voice was instantly swallowed by gunfire. Countless bullets rained toward Chen Chuan from all around. Yet in the very next instant, the sight before them stunned everyone: the moment any bullet entered within dozens of meters of his body, it abruptly slowed.
Countless rounds seemed to meet immense resistance, crawling forward sluggishly and drawing streaks through the air. As the lead rounds decelerated, more continued to pour in behind them. After strafing for a solid half-minute, everyone could only stare in dazed silence.
A dense swarm of bullets hovered in midair, mingled with fragments of gravel and dirt, suspended around the solitary figure standing in the center.
Chen Chuan did not even bother paying attention to the barrage. He was looking downward.
Affixed to the True Form Tree were human brains. Theoretically speaking, these brains were still alive; although they were no longer whole human beings, they still retained a rudimentary level of consciousness.
Before coming here, he had considered taking control of the tree first upon finding it, then looking for a way to deal with it, since obliterating these consciousnesses was tantamount to killing these people once and for all.
Yet he now realized matters were not that simple. For just as he smashed through the ground earlier, before he had even released his biological field, he felt a naked surge of malice emanate from the tree. The thing seemed ravenous for his own brain.
He immediately asked aloud, "Hongfu, can you tell what state those brain tissues are in?"
The red scarf around his neck shifted slightly, and Hongfu's voice sounded by his ear. "The conscious activity within the biological brains is moving rapidly along a set guiding frequency. Preliminary analysis indicates that those consciousnesses are endlessly repeating their entire journey from life to death."
Chen Chuan fell silent for a moment before speaking. "In other words, they're reliving everything they went through in life over and over?"
"You could say that. Such stimulation provides this tree with a special kind of mental nourishment, fostering its growth. Individuals with intense emotions and innate talent yield even greater nourishment. Furthermore, the number of biological brains suspended from its branches has increased by one-third compared to the simulated scene."
Chen Chuan stared at the heads hanging from the branches. Aside from a few fanatics who had willingly joined, most had been deceived or coerced.
Among them were brains of fighters purchased by Assistant Ling and his associates, students killed in arena rings, street vagrants like Xiaoman's older brother, talented children who had been trafficked, and quite a few students Instructor Wu had once taken under his wing.
For them to endlessly relive their lives also meant that the agony preceding their deaths played out again and again without end.
He asked, "Hongfu, was there any truth to what Ling Jianxing claimed back then?"
"Only if the mental power of an active conscious entity is introduced to calibrate it would there be a slight possibility of success—and even then, only within its current life stage."
Chen Chuan said coldly, "Understood."
He looked toward the center of the canopy. An exceptionally strong biological field resided there, exuding a powerful consciousness. He could sense faint mental ripples flowing toward it from the surrounding heads; that appeared to be the true core of this tree.
Considering what had transpired, there was no doubt that it had formed a new self, possessing a will of its own and giving rise to intense, humanlike desires. It was no longer a symbiotic organism in the pure sense; it was an outright demon tree.
This process had likely started not long ago, perhaps less than half a year—which meant it probably began after Ling Jianxing was eliminated.
Perhaps Ling Jianxing had not originally intended this, or perhaps there was some method to suppress it. But none of that mattered now. He could not allow this thing to go on living.
At that moment, a series of explosions and whistlings rang out from the surroundings. Gun crews in the town had begun shelling his position.
Yet this, too, proved futile against him. The moment the artillery shells entered his biological field, they slowed as if plunging into water. Even when they exploded an instant later, the shrapnel expanded only briefly before diffusing outward at a crawl, with only occasional flashes of fire flickering within.
Moreover, the guns were quickly silenced, followed by the crackle of gunfire from the distance. Someone had clearly sabotaged them—likely Baomi's mercenary team coordinating their support.
Paying no heed to any of it, he set down the suitcase in his hand, ripped off the smock covering him, and lifted the Xuejun Saber.
The True Form Tree seemed to sense danger now as well. It began to tremble, projecting massive waves of mental power that washed over him in an apparent attempt to compel him to change his mind.
Yet substantial as this mental power was in scale, it fell far short in quality. Trying to move him with it was like attempting to shake solid jade with thin mist—utterly ineffective due to the fundamental difference in their tiers of existence.
Seeing that this had failed, the branches shook, followed by rustling sounds. From beneath the boughs and foliage crawled beetles of various sizes, just like the ones seen outside earlier, their wings vibrating as they flew upward toward him.
Chen Chuan stood motionless. A glint flickered in his eyes. In an instant, an invisible force surged outward like a gust of wind. Within a radius of over a thousand meters centered on him, everyone rolled their eyes back and collapsed to the ground.
The airborne insects abruptly lost all power, plunging from midair in unison. Those that had not yet taken flight toppled onto their backs where they were, their limbs twitching incessantly.
Taking hold of the Xuejun Saber, he flicked it downward. The scabbard shot free, flying far below until it embedded into the soil with a ringing clang. He stepped forward and dropped from above, landing squarely atop a thick bough down below, the scarf around his neck trailing a vivid streak of red behind him.
After steadying himself, he looked toward the source of the most violent mental fluctuations and walked toward it step by step. Twisting boughs writhed from all directions, trying to block his path.
Yet under the suppression of his field, no sooner had they lifted than they drooped right back down. As he moved forward, it was as if an invisible hand were parting them, and the tangled boughs peeled away layer after layer on their own.
Before long, he reached the mental core, and its true appearance was laid bare: an object resembling a head formed from intertwined blood-red branches, glowing with a pale red light within.
This was the vessel of the tree's entire consciousness and essence—the "True Form Tree" in the truest sense. Even if its outer body was destroyed, so long as this core survived and escaped, it could regrow anew using any human settlement as its foundation.
It would endlessly hunt down the brains of nearby humans, deriving the nourishment needed to fuel its growth and evolution.
As he arrived before it, the thing shuddered violently. In that instant, the heads enfolded by branches shook as well, and all manner of voices arose around him. Countless people seemed to be shouting curses, pleas, and accusations—among which voices of familiar acquaintances could faintly be heard.
Chen Chuan was completely unmoved. Reaching out, he lightly brushed the snowy blade of the Xuejun Saber, and a shimmering radiance immediately floated across its surface. Gripping the hilt with both hands, he took a step forward and thrust the blade straight into it!
...
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Chapter 876