"Uh, well..." After hearing Richard's words, Tinwood's expression immediately became rather awkward. Having his little scheme exposed, he could not help feeling embarrassed.
After a moment of silence, he let out a breath and finally admitted frankly, "Fine, I'll tell the truth. Yes, I want the thing in your hand."
"What use is this thing to you?"
"If I'm not mistaken, the thing in your hand should be a remnant of that creature's life essence, highly condensed essence similar to my tree core, except it does not possess the ability to revive. If I consume it, I can convert part of its remaining life essence for my own use and obtain some of its abilities."
"Some of its abilities?" Richard asked. "Does that mean you can create all kinds of creatures like it did?"
"I could already do that." Tinwood said, "I am the Tree of Wisdom, the Source of the Forest, the immortal guardian. I can create life myself—you saw it back in the Barren Forest. It's just that... I never placed much value on that ability. Later, after you confined me in Eden Garden, that ability had no room to be used. On top of that, I wanted to increase my defensive power, so I consolidated my source power and adjusted the direction of my abilities' development. You know the result—I became extremely sturdy, nearly immortal, but my ability to create life was greatly weakened as well.
"Now, however, after fighting this Super-Breeding Species, I've realized that the ability to create creatures is still quite useful. Used properly, it can be astonishing. So, I want to use its remaining source power to regain that ability, while also recovering from the injuries I sustained in battle."
Wasn't this like resetting a game character's skill points in an Earth game...