Hu Jiu dived into the deep pit. Before he could even see the full picture of the Bronze Tree, he immediately took action, cutting its roots and tearing apart its metallic bark.
Sizzle--
One of the Bronze Tree's roots had been severed, and a glossy fluorescent light shimmered at the break, filling the space with a strong Supernatural atmosphere.
If a normal human were within the range of this aura, they would probably die within seconds.
Hu Jiu used his pen as a knife, his hand moving swiftly and decisively to continue cutting through the Bronze Ancient Tree. He vaguely heard the cry of a baby, not with his ears, but the sound entered his mind directly.
In an instant, a violent and Supernatural aura spread. The bottom of the pit seemed to have been hollowed out by insects, revealing a huge, unfathomable cavity.
Hu Jiu could not see the bottom of the pit with his naked eye. Influenced by Supernatural forces, this place was more terrifying than the legendary Hell. The spatial structure was chaotic and even gravity had changed.
Hu Jiu tentatively touched the severed tree root. Just then, several branches, bare and leafless, quickly emerged from the numerous holes in the deep pit wall, showing hostility towards Hu Jiu.
Quickly dodging the sudden attack from the branches, Hu Jiu hovered in mid-air, carefully observing the Bronze Tree and making some preliminary, incomplete deductions.
As one of the nearly "Omnipotence" pieces of the puzzle, Bronze Tree and Ghost Book went in two different directions of evolution, but they arrived at the same destination: they both used some kind of method to distort reality.
The Bronze Tree seemed to possess a simple self-awareness. As Hu Jiu relentlessly attacked it, a sinister and terrifying will suddenly rose from the bottom of the pit, and several enormous shadows pounced towards Hu Jiu.
It began its counterattack.
Hu Jiu saw some "monster" below charging at full speed. Accompanied by a piercing, angry screech, a rotting corpse ran up and lunged at Hu Jiu, baring its fangs and claws.
The next second, a pitch-black skull leaped up from below, trying to grab Hu Jiu.
Immediately afterwards, a dense mass of rotting corpses, skeletons, and the roots and branches of the Bronze Tree launched an attack.
Hu Jiu directly entered a state of ethereal transformation. A large number of Supernatural derivatives were caught by the flying Hanging Rope and stained by the splashing Filthy Water, and were quickly destroyed.
The Bronze Tree, codenamed [Wish Fulfillment], is probably capable of creating strange and wonderful things out of thin air. However, it may lack intelligence and rely solely on instinct to produce a bunch of unoriginal contraptions.
He casually snapped off a few branches, but in the blink of an eye, the branches spread out like tentacles, perhaps trying to capture Hu Jiu.
Hu Jiu didn't foolishly get entangled with a branch. Time was limited, and he didn't know if the Bronze Tree had a "core" or anything like that. Actually, he really wanted to draw a door here and transfer the entire Bronze Tree to the alternate dimension created by the Supernatural.
As long as Hu Jiu keeps the Bronze Tree confined to his territory, he can do whatever he wants with it.
The biggest problem right now is that the Bronze Tree is a bit too big.
Hu Jiu had visited the Headquarters' containment chamber before. The containment chamber of [Wish Fulfillment] was indeed very large, but it was nowhere near as large as the Bronze Ancient Tree that was now displaying its size. The ancient tree had only revealed a small part of its size, yet it was enough to fill that containment chamber.
"Perhaps the branches and roots appearing before us are not the original form of the Bronze Tree, but merely derivatives," Hu Jiu thought to himself.
Hu Jiu continued moving towards the bottom of the pit, and soon felt an unusual, Supernatural power surging up.
The two directions were reversed, and for a moment, Hu Jiu seemed to lose his sense of direction, unable to tell whether he was going up or down.
Sharp branches attacked again like iron thorns, and black liquid spurted from the broken ends of the branches. Suddenly, gaping maws filled with sharp teeth and claws opened on the flexible tree roots that resembled tentacles, ready to bite Hu Jiu.
Hu Jiu, in his ethereal state, was unharmed. The Bronze Ancient Tree seemed very angry, and the space itself trembled at that moment, its violent roots and branches lashing out indiscriminately.
Sensing the ancient tree's anger, Hu Jiu gradually smiled. This tree's abilities were indeed powerful, but to maximize its potential, "thought" was needed. Without thought, how could Wish Fulfillment?
If there were a Ghost Tamer here who could rudimentarily control the Bronze Tree, Hu Jiu probably wouldn't have a 30% chance of winning. Unfortunately, there's only the Bronze Tree itself here, and its low-level instinctive consciousness is simply unable to unleash the power of "Wish Fulfillment"!
Hu Jiu immediately activated the Ghost Domain, Mirage invaded reality. A terrifying Supernatural aura raged. This was probably the first time he had used his full strength. The entire space was eroded by illusion, and there were faint signs of it turning from real to illusory.
The spatial distortion was even more severe than before, with door after door appearing, and a powerful attraction continuously devouring the roots and branches of the Bronze Tree.
"This ability to create doors out of thin air isn't just for teleportation; it can also be used for attack and defense with ease." As Hu Jiu continued to delve deeper, many branches of the Bronze Tree were moved, and he also pinpointed the location of the main body of this Vengeful Ghost Puzzle.
The enormous ancient tree form is merely the surface appearance of this tree; its true form is hidden in an extremely secret location. If the true body cannot be found, no matter how many Supernatural are collected on the surface, it will be useless—like water without a source.
Hu Jiu, riding the Ghost Domain, frantically searched the deep pit. Soon, Hu Jiu saw an unusual Supernatural fluctuation at the center of this chaotic space at the bottom of the pit.
It seemed to be a separate, Supernatural space where the Bronze Tree itself was hiding.
The space was narrow and dark, with dim light, and a tall Bronze Tree stood there.
"Finally found you..."
Compared to the ferocious, enormous, and highly aggressive branches outside, the Bronze Tree itself is not very large. Its exterior is jet black with a metallic sheen. If you look closely, you will occasionally see the color of its bark as a curtain of stars, as if there are unusual substances floating on its surface like mist.
The tree's roots were deeply embedded in the earth beneath its feet, and its thick branches were bare, without a single leaf, twisting and intertwining like the limbs of an arthropod.
Although the Bronze Tree was extremely quiet at the moment, Hu Jiu did not make any rash contact. Instead, he first tried to launch an attack Hanging Rope.
But before the Hanging Rope even got close to the Bronze Tree, Hu Jiu immediately felt the space around him being pulled and deformed by a force, becoming crooked and disoriented, and the distance between him and the tree quickly increased.
The feeling was very strange, as if there was a stationary building in front of him. He hadn't moved, and the building hadn't moved either, but the distance between them was getting farther and farther away.
"This space might be the Ghost Domain of the ancient tree, where it can change its position at will..." Hu Jiu watched the ancient tree drift further and further away. The distance was too great, making it difficult for his attacks to accurately hit the ancient tree.
Worse still, the Ghost Tamer team outside is constantly devouring the ancient tree's Supernatural. It seems that in order to resist the Purple-Gold Alms Bowl, the ancient tree's Ghost Domain is compressing inward, and the space is beginning to collapse, as if it wants to shrink itself into a point, hide, or escape.
Hu Jiu, of course, couldn't let it slip away. He squinted and quickly wrote a few lines on the Ghost Book with his Ghost Pen.
Boom--
A vast power was released, so immense and abundant that it almost filled the ancient tree's Ghost Domain, sweeping everything away like a tidal wave.
The Bronze Ancient Tree was violently impacted. A few seconds later, the tree emitted an indescribable, ear-piercing roar, as if the end of the world was playing music. The roar carried unfathomable Supernatural power and retaliated against Hu Jiu.
Hu Jiu became intangible, ignoring the ancient tree's counterattack, and continued to increase his output.
The Bronze Tree seemed to instinctively sense the danger; Supernatural power rippled across its surface, and soon a gigantic humanoid monster materialized out of thin air.
The monster had no facial features; its face was just a dark outline, which was extremely intimidating.
Hu Jiu calmly faced the enemy, ignoring the monster, and with a flourish of his pen, wrote down the binding and curse upon the Bronze Ancient Tree.
As the ancient tree's movements grew increasingly sluggish, in a moment of crisis, it transformed, desperately resisting. Strange mouths unknowingly sprouted from its metallic trunk, black saliva dripping from their corners, accompanied by mournful howls.
Hu Jiu pressed his advantage, and streams of Supernatural power seemed to materialize as they bombarded the ancient tree's body.
The ancient tree became withered and lifeless.
"It's time to end this." Hu Jiu curled the corners of his mouth, thinking he had won.
But the next second, the ancient tree suddenly stood upright, and an incredibly terrifying supernatural Supernatural suddenly attacked Hu Jiu.
"What?!" Hu Jiu was shocked for a moment. How could the ancient tree suddenly have such a powerful burst of energy?
It wasn't particularly beyond expectations, considering the Bronze Ancient Tree was ridiculously terrifying.
Hu Jiu took a deep breath and stared at the ancient tree in the distance. Countless wounds appeared on its trunk, but they were rapidly healing. From a distance, it looked like countless cracked mouths wriggling, and the newly grown branches resembled strange outlines formed by tentacles.
Swish--
The sound of the pen tip gliding across the paper filled the air.
A terrifying suction force also emanated from the outside, coming from the Purple-Gold Alms Bowl of the Ghost Tamer team.
Unbeknownst to them, the Bronze Ancient Tree stopped moving and ceased all activity, as if it were a lifeless object.
The allure of the Purple-Gold Alms Bowl uprooted the Bronze Tree, and Hu Jiu hurriedly grabbed it. He had put in so much effort, not to let others come looking for peaches.
Then he wrote another sentence on the Ghost Book, and the tall Bronze Tree rapidly shrank in size, gradually turning into the shape of a sapling. Hu Jiu stuffed it into Golden Container, and a door appeared out of thin air, through which the Golden Container was placed.
The door disappeared, Hu Jiu finally breathed a sigh of relief, leaning against the ground, panting.
I haven't felt this tired in a long time.
Outside the deep pit, the Ghost Tamer holding the Purple-Gold Alms Bowl breathed a sigh of relief, finally managing to contain this special and vengeful Fierce Ghost.
"It feels a bit too easy," the vice-captain murmured to himself.
"Perhaps this Wooden Fish and this bowl are powerful enough that even the Bronze Tree couldn't withstand them," a team member said, a serene and Buddhist smile on his face, as if he might utter "Amitabha" at any moment.
The vice-captain didn't say anything more. The Wooden Fish and the Purple-Gold Alms Bowl were indeed powerful, but the side effects were extremely serious. Unless absolutely necessary and under suitable conditions, Headquarters would never use these two items.
Using it in ancient tombs, at least there's no need to worry about it harming civil affairs.
The Ghost Tamer team collected all the Supernatural Items in Golden Container, then collectively descended into the deep pit to carefully examine them, determined to recover all remaining supernatural Supernatural from the Bronze Tree.
"Who goes there!" one of the team members suddenly shouted into the air.
Vice Captain: "What's going on?"
Teammate: "Captain, do you remember what I said before, that something unknown sank to the bottom of the pit, and just now it swept past us and left."
The vice-captain's expression was grave. "Our mission is to contain the Bronze Tree. We don't need to worry about anything else. There are many anomalies in this ancient tomb; we can't possibly deal with them all."
Hu Jiu left the deep pit. Having successfully contained the Bronze Tree, he considered this trip quite fruitful. He relaxed considerably and wasn't particularly interested in the subsequent exploration tasks. His mind was preoccupied with figuring out how to control the Bronze Tree, and whether the side effects of controlling it would kill him. After all, it was a Wish Fulfillment; what if he overthought things...?
I took out my phone and started taking pictures of the scenery inside the ancient tomb. Didn't Headquarters say that explorers needed to submit relevant data about the tomb? I might as well just use video footage to fill the gaps.
After wandering around for two days, Hu Jiu did not take in any new vengeful Fierce Ghosts or Supernatural Items. He chose to go to safe places, after all, he needed to maintain his best condition. After the exploration mission of the ancient tomb was completed, he immediately began to control the Bronze Ancient Tree.
Along the way, Hu Jiu occasionally encountered other Ghost Tamers. Most of them nodded and greeted each other, or even ignored each other. Only one person saw him and immediately chased after him.
It's Su Jingtang.
She was in terrible condition, disheveled, her clothes stained with blood and torn in many places, covered in dust, and her face was deathly pale.
Upon seeing Hu Jiu, Su Jingtang's eyes lit up. Hu Jiu had initially thought she was shamelessly seeking protection, but it turned out her true purpose was to consult Hu Jiu about a problem.
"Hu Jiu, do you know someone named Su Jinghang?" Su Jingtang stared intently at Hu Jiu's face.
Hu Jiu was confused for a few seconds, "Su Jinghang? He does seem familiar~"
Su Jingtang hurriedly added, "He's my brother, the head of Yuzhou City. He died mysteriously, burdened with a host of crimes after his death. I don't believe he would collude with illegal organizations! I checked the files; my brother died in a Supernatural incident in Yuzhou. You were involved in that incident. Can you tell me what exactly happened back then?"
Su Jingtang seemed very agitated. Hu Jiu remembered Yue Moumou, the impressive Ghost Tamer. He had disappeared and faked his death in Longevity Village, and later secretly returned to Yuzhou City. When he was controlling a new Fierce Ghost, he accidentally lost control. In the end, he brought the Fierce Ghost under control and shifted all the blame for the casualties caused by the Fierce Ghost's loss of control onto others.
That unfortunate scapegoat is named Su Jinghang!