Kerry's death was actually unrelated to Old William? Then who killed her? Jiang BaiYan was even more puzzled and couldn't help asking, "What happened afterward?"
"I went to the woods to look for people - got lost - so many trees - I didn't know - that cave - the white cave..." Old William mumbled incoherently in fragments of dreams, his words slurred, "Why did I go there? Oh right, it was the owl - such a huge owl..."
Strange memories surfaced in his mind.
Old William saw his teenage self. Back then, he was an athlete on the football team, the spotlight of the school, popular among girls.
Kerry was tall and beautiful, admired by many boys, and he had put in great efforts and sweet-talked endlessly before managing to coax her into becoming his girlfriend.
However, Kerry was too arrogant.
She was not like other girls, always circling around him. His friends always mocked him, saying he couldn't subdue Kerry, and she was probably cheating with other men behind his back.
He was so angry, and bet with them that no matter what he said, Kerry would obey.
Back then, he had connections with some punks, selling stuff from across the border in school. A few days ago, his uncle the cop seemed to have noticed, warning him a few times implicitly.
He definitely didn't want to be caught by his uncle, but if he took the goods without paying, his life would be at risk. He simply asked Kerry to help him deliver the money.
The meeting place was in the forest.
He didn't know why, but the cops rarely patrolled that side of the woods, so it was safe. But no matter how he persuaded, Kerry refused to agree.
"There is something in those woods that gives me the creeps," she would always say.
But William paid no heed at all, feeling only anger.
He had already spread the word that if Kerry didn't obey, he would become a laughing stock for life. So he threatened Kerry - if she didn't go, she'd have to wait around to collect his corpse.
Kerry gave in.
She went to the woods at dusk.
Night fell, but William still did not see Kerry return. He got dead drunk from his friends' mockery. It was only the next day that he heard Kerry had not gone home.
The first day, he was unworried, thinking she had hidden away out of spite. But on the second day, third day... she really went missing.
Reed charged in, furious, looking as if he wanted to punch William to death. Not daring to mention it was his fault, he stubbornly denied knowing anything.
Luckily he had been at the bar that night with many witnesses to prove his innocence, otherwise Reed might have really shot him dead.
But there was still something else worrying him apart from this.
The money.
The money was with Kerry. He had no way of gathering up thousands of dollars for the time being. But the other party wouldn't care if the money was with his girlfriend or if she was dead. At least they would chop off both his arms.
He had to get the money back no matter what.
He couldn't search the woods in broad daylight, or risk being found out. On the tenth night after Kerry's disappearance, he entered the woods alone, looking for both Kerry and the money.
Then, his life was completely changed.
What exactly happened that night?
His mind turned hazy. He only vaguely recalled a few scenes - he got lost, and walking on, suddenly saw a cave with faint sounds coming from within.
Next... he walked in... calling Kerry's name...
Echoing sounds, flashing red lights, memories shattering into fragments, skipping and stuttering.
His vision spun violently and he fell over - he tripped over something - his leg, jutting out at a weird angle, feathers, brown feathers with yellow speckles.
Looking up, an enormous owl looking down at him condescendingly.
"Ah---!!" Old William let out a bloodcurdling shriek.
The next moment, he suddenly broke free of his drug-induced stupor. His eyes bulged out of their sockets as he glared dead at Jiang BaiYan.
Jiang BaiYan turned and fled.
"Ghost stories always say someone drowned to death, becoming a water ghost trapped in the river, having to pull people down before they can be free." In the underground space, Jian Jing directly spilled all of Qi Tian's secrets, "You tricked me, were you planning to make me your substitute ghost?"
Qi Tian gave a cold laugh, bluntly admitting: "So what if I was?"
He was very confident in his own methods, exchanging lives being his specialty. As long as he trapped her here, he would be able to escape and return to his original life.
But Jian Jing also held a card up her sleeve.
"If you want to harm me, I will certainly fight you to the death. By that time, neither of us will be able to leave." She activated her Trust card to make her argument more convincing. "How about we cooperate first to deal with it, then settle accounts afterward?"
Instead of answering, he tossed the question back. "How do you plan to deal with it?"
Jian Jing pretended to ponder: "It's afraid of fire. How about we burn it down with fire?"
"You think I haven't tried before?" Qi Tian sneered disdainfully. "Back then my fire burned down so many places, merely weakening it."
Jian Jing suggested again: "Then how about □□? I don't believe that for just a tree, even □□ can't blast it to death."
Qi Tian's facial muscles twitched: "A waste of resources! This is truly an immortal tree. Just its astounding regenerative abilities would be a miracle in the history of human medicine!"
Jian Jing scoffed.
What Qi Tian wanted was only to break free of the Giant Tree's control, not destroy it. He coveted its abilities, hoping that once the issue was resolved, he could profit hugely by bringing it out to the outside world.
He absolutely could not be allowed to succeed.
"It seems we cannot come to an agreement." Jian Jing stalled for time while continuously calling for the system in her heart.
There was no □□ in her storage space. It had to be drawn now.
System, draw a card!
The scene before her blinked erratically, like a computer screen lagging.
System, draw card!!
[System: ******]
Flashes of fragmented scenes rushed past, seemingly returning to the white cave from before.
System, hurry and draw card!!!
Colors instantly kaleidoscoped. Twisted beams of light flashed chaotically in her mind. Her head abruptly grew heavier as her temples throbbed and her stomach roiled violently. Under such acute discomfort, the Giant Idol's hallucinations faded away frame by frame.
A feeling of weightlessness came over her.
Jian Jing realized she was actually hung upside down from the tree trunk, with soft and flexible branches tightly coiled around her body, like a sundew plant that had caught an insect. Yuck!
She shook her head to make herself more sober.
Now she could finally see the system notification clearly.
[System: Please choose card draw method]
Jian Jing: Ordinary card
[Drawing card (Courage value x2)]
[Draw complete]
[Name: Cluster □□-Bomb (3/3)]
[Content: Potent □□, extremely powerful, limited to only this mission's use]
[Note: This special □□ can expend 5x2 special value points to remote detonation]
Jian Jing was overjoyed.
Reaching behind, she took out her hidden dagger and severed the roots coiled around her body. Without the hallucinations empowering them, these roots were merely ordinary plants no matter their toughness.
Her body plunged downward. She tucked into a roll to dispel the impact, smoothly placing a bomb against the tree trunk.
"Don't even think about running!" Qi Tian's enraged roar sounded.
Raising her head, Jian Jing saw that unlike her, Qi Tian was not trapped on the trunk by roots. Rather, half his body was "swallowed" by the tree.
His lower body was submerged in the amber-colored substance the tree secreted. At first glance, it resembled a giant parasite fused to the tree trunk.
This way, it seemed the tree had obtained a measure of the creature's intellect, or perhaps, man and tree had achieved some bizarre symbiosis.
The roots began to twist wildly.
Jian Jing turned and fled, expending special contribution points to activate the first bomb's timer.
Tick tick tick...
Qi Tian saw the countdown on the timer clearly, pupils contracting violently. The amber substance started melting, like heating chocolate, gradually becoming a semi-liquid.
His body slid smoothly downward.
Countdown: 00:01
Too late!
In his panic, all he could do was pile layers of roots before him as shield against assault.
The next moment, the bomb detonated.
Vast energy gushed forth, flames roared up, setting the tree roots alight. They swiftly lost vitality, becoming dried up and brittle charcoal that whispered and rustled as it fell.
Although afraid of fire, they were extremely resilient. Hidden behind them, Qi Tian narrowly escaped disaster. The shockwaves merely left his ears ringing, filled with a muffled buzz.
"Cough." He spat out blood, gaze ominous.
At this point in time, if one still did not know the allure of the tree roots' scent to living creatures who ingested them, becoming completely helpless addicts unable to resist the Giant Tree's emitted aroma, that would be truly foolish.
He was an exception.
Because what he ate was not tree roots, but fruit.
The initial blaze burned away the disguises in the forest, and ordinary trees died. The root systems that survived the great fire led to this white cavern.
When it was weak, Qi Tian plucked the fruit that was protected tightly by aerial roots.
After ingesting it, his skin that had been damaged by the fire regrew, and the new skin fused seamlessly with the old, leaving no visible scars.
His aging body, worn by the passage of time, was restored to its peak condition in his twenties.
Those who have never grown old do not understand the preciousness of youth.
However, if one left Dusk Town for 24 hours, strange changes would occur in their body - accelerated heartbeat, cloudy mind, limp and sore limbs. If they did not return to the forest within 36 hours, they would lose their senses, even their life.
Qi Tian had once been discovered unconscious in a gas station restroom. Fortunately, the person who found him drove in the direction of Dusk Town, otherwise he might have ended up a lunatic, locked away permanently in a mental asylum.
Qi Tian was unwilling to be controlled by a single tree.
He spent ten years finally finding a way to break free.
The effects of the fruit and roots were different. The fruit was the "child" of the tree, extremely potent in efficacy - it could make one young again, heal any injury instantly, yet also made one utterly dependent on the giant tree. The roots were less so, like the tail of a gecko that could be severed without harm, hence the dependence was weaker too.
As long as he spat out the fruit for someone else to consume and take his place as the giant tree's target, while keeping a certain amount of roots that he ingested daily to maintain his youth, it would work.
The only tricky part was that not everyone could swallow the fruit.
He had captured a homeless man, an injured woman, but they perished immediately after eating the fruit.
Qi Tian guessed that the giant tree had special requirements towards the host it parasitized. Not just anyone would do.
Women were better than men.
The young better than the old. The strong better than the weak.
He had attempted to find a suitable target among the youths in Dusk Town, but most of them had left for the cities. Those remaining were difficult to handle.
Waiting and waiting, until finally - Jian Jing appeared.
She was an outside traveler and would not be missed here. She was young and fit, and had disrupted his plans, making her an ideal scapegoat to replace him.
Qi Tian slowly got to his feet, and took out a talisman and a tuft of hair.
The talisman contained her date and time of birth that he easily looked up online since she was famous. The hair was cut off her surreptitiously during dinner.
To a grandmaster of witchcraft, these two items were sufficient.
Your life will take the place of mine!
Muttering incantations, he lit the talisman which suddenly combusted, but what burned was not the yellow paper, but the vermilion ink characters.
The flames writhed oddly into black runes.
Then extinguished themselves.
On the section with her date of birth.
Qi Tian was extremely shocked. "How is this possible? She's dead?!"
