"Master."
Reilo approached the Old Monster from behind, his eyes filled with a focused thirst for knowledge. He glanced at the withered, dying Fear Tree, then at the petrified specimen of the shattered insect nest.
"Um?"
The Old Monster seemed to have nothing to do.
He was constantly poking at a mutated Bear Head on the trunk of the Fear Tree with his black fingernails.
With each poke from the black fingernails, the Bear Head would howl in agony, roaring angrily at the Old Monster Old Monster and relentlessly trying to devour its arm.
The Old Monster seemed to relish the monstrous specimen's wailing, its constant attempts to retaliate futile, and its enjoyment of the transformation from anger to terror and despair.
The eerie laughter continued.
Reilo took a deep breath and said, "Are these parasites the culprits behind the mutation of the Fear Tree?"
The two, one big and one small, with dead fish eyes, glanced at the parasite specimen that Reilo was examining.
"These are Blood Fear Bug, the spreaders of Nightfall pollution. They are at the very bottom of the Night's Veil Land food chain, yet they can infect creatures outside the Night's Veil Land, gradually turning them into deformed walking corpses."
The Old Monster explained.
Amidst the horrified gazes of the mercenaries, Reilo and the Old Monster stood together and began dissecting the heads parasitizing the branches of the strange tree.
The cruel and bloody experiment made the young mercenaries swallow hard, their eyelids twitching uncontrollably.
About sixty heads of various kinds hung from the trunk of the Terror Tree like fruits, serving as research specimens for their terrifying appearance. The stronger their vitality and the more fiercely they resisted, the more they aroused the Old Monster's interest, and the sinister and excited laughter continued.
Reilo also entered into this frenzied and exciting research process, gradually experiencing the pleasure of scholars spreading terror.
In the process of rational learning and exploring knowledge, let these so-called powerful and terrifying creatures feel the terror of a true scholar, and what true terror really is.
It's an indescribable feeling of excitement!
Reilo discovered a large number of rice-grain-sized parasites.
These parasites live densely in the brain.
Under a magnifying glass.
These parasites are between 0.1cm and 0.2cm in length, with their heads accounting for two-thirds of their body length. Their mouths are suckers, and Reilo can see the fine teeth inside the suckers. Their bodies are largely degenerate, consisting only of some soft tentacles.
What caught Reilo's attention was that on the top of this parasite's head was a small, peculiar tentacle that seemed to emanate a spiritual light.
Reilo remembered a specimen in his collection.
It was a mutated giant toad that was killed by Miya, the All-Analysis Eye, in the first level of the Sun and Moon Magic Eye Pyramid. The giant toad possessed a very powerful illusionary ability, which originated from the strange tentacles on its head.
At this moment, the distinctive tentacles atop the heads of these microscopic parasites seem to bear a striking resemblance to this specimen.
The first level of the Sun and Moon Magic Eye Pyramid was clearly a space created by the Gulan Fairies after studying certain powers of the Blood-Derived. Therefore, the creatures inside also share similarities with the creatures of the Night.
"Master, do you mean we haven't reached the contaminated area yet?"
The dissection of the Old Monster's black fingernails was like an art form.
While Reilo was studying these parasites, the Old Monster had actually dissected the bear monster's brain completely, which was enveloped in a layer of dark mist in his palm, and he was admiring it with great interest.
That's about it for the beginning.
While observing the Bear Head and brain, the Old Monster replied, "Those mutated Blood Demon Flowers have already acquired some characteristics of the Blood Eye Tree. Ignore those Blood Demon Flowers and find the source of the mutation. Once you find the traces of the Blood Demon, immediately activate the Summoning Spell. I will arrive as soon as possible, and it would be best if we could wipe them all out in one fell swoop!"
"Knew!"
Reilo probed, "Was the legendary Fear Tree of the Thorn Forest also caused by these Blood Fear Bug?"
"This happened two or three thousand years ago. At that time, scholars were just beginning to emerge and could only obtain some information from foreign texts and temple hymns. Those records did not contain any strictly regulated data from scholars, making it difficult to know the specific truth at that time."
The rise of scholars is a recent phenomenon, only a few hundred years old. At the end of the medieval period, two or three thousand years ago, even the X Mask organization of scholars had not yet appeared.
I thought about it.
Reilo took out the tentacles of the mutated giant toad from the first level of the Sun and Moon Magic Eye Pyramid.
"Huh, what's this?"
Corleon was studying the bear brain, turned his head. With his keener insight into specimens, he was surprised but then began to observe and study them with great interest.
"Show me."
A moment later.
This tentacle was used as the control core by the Old Monster. Enveloped in the eerie light of its palm, it controlled the Blood Fear Bug in the Terror Fear Tree, causing them all to crawl out of the tree.
"Hehehe, hehehehe! This is so interesting! This is actually a mental resonance transfer organ! Look, this head has come back to life!"
As the remaining blood ticks within the Fear Tree gathered inside this head, and as Reilo and the Old Monster excitedly observed, a large amount of viscous, foul-smelling liquid surged into the withered, twisted mercenary's head, and he miraculously regained his 'life'.
"Master, is this thing equivalent to a queen bee in a beehive?"
"It seems that's most likely the case. Hehehe, let's observe its thought process first and see if we can control it through communication."
On the terrifying tree trunk, the mercenary's head opened its eyes.
His eyes darted around 360 degrees like an insect's before finally settling on Corleon and Reilo, a cruel and wicked smile playing on his lips.
"My mom loves me so much, and you'll all become a part of her body too, hehehehe."
The Old Monster and Reilo looked at the head, but both revealed an even more sinister cruelty.
"It seems his soul and consciousness have been completely lost; we can only control him through other methods."
The Old Monster pulled out Dissection Table and experimental tools, a dense array of scalpels, pipe wrenches, and test tubes.
"Yes, yes, little one, just stay in this excited state. The process of burning your life force might hurt a little in a bit, but just bear with it. And please, don't cry, hehehehe."
Not long after.
"No, no, it hurts, waaaaah, I'm going to tell my mom, waaaah, let me go..."
Several mercenaries watched as Reilo and the Old Monster dissected and studied the terrifying tree as if no one else was around, severing off twisted heads one by one, and began various inhumane experiments. Their eyelids twitched wildly, and their faces turned ugly.
The female mage in the mercenary squad wasn't particularly strong.
She followed behind the two of them, watching the whole thing without saying a word, clearly acting as a humble junior seeking their guidance.
She watched as this monster, who had been terrifying in front of everyone just moments before, suddenly began to wail and beg for mercy under the scalpels of these two unfamiliar scholars. Her soul was filled with instinctive fear as she watched them conduct various cruel experiments. After the initial shock and trepidation, a sense of inferiority and gloom began to rise within her.
These two are the true scholars!
And he himself was merely a magician.
When I was studying at the academy, I was obsessed with attending various social balls, fighting endlessly for family titles and fame, and secretly feeling proud of a few dresses and perfumes. It wasn't until three years later, when I failed the graduation exam, that I finally understood the difference between a magician and a scholar that my mentor had mentioned.
My mentor once said that there are three levels of scholars.
The first level is the magician.
Magicians are merely those who wield superficial academic power, nobles who use scholarship as a status symbol, and those who use their magical identity to better enjoy life.
The second level is the explorer.
These explorers found their own fields of academic expertise, and they became the backbone of humanity's exploration of the Tree of Truth.
In the knowledge reserves of major Academy of Natural Sciences, their academic papers account for more than 90%. Only one or two out of every hundred students achieve this level of expertise; these are merely the early stages of a scholar's journey.
The third level is that of a true scholar.
They were immersed in the joy of exploring truth and knowledge, obsessed with the pursuit of the unknown, and made the life of a scholar's exploration their entire life. Apart from exploring truth and knowledge, they were almost useless and had no hobbies.
There is no real fear before them, for they are the Creators of fear!
They made all the monstrous creatures that claimed to be the embodiment of fear feel what true fear is. Even other human beings, before becoming true scholars, would be shocked and terrified by the scholars' madness and fanaticism!
They are the leaders of their time.
The birth of each such scholar is a treasure of human academic knowledge. They have almost raised the academic knowledge foundation of their respective fields to a new level. In fact, the three Pioneer have elevated the foundation of truth for scholars as a whole to a new stage!
Unfortunately, there are too few true scholars.
The vast majority of so-called scholars are just magicians.
Just like the world, the vast majority are mediocre, indulging in their own pleasures.
She never quite understood what her mentor meant by a true scholar.
Could there really be such a person in the world?
Judging from my mentor's words, it seems that this kind of scholar is no longer human. How could a human being be so different from other humans because of knowledge and habits?
Even now, she seemed to see in these two people what her mentor was referring to.
We are both scholars, and both human beings.
But at this moment, she felt a chill run down her spine at the content of their conversation, the experimental process, and their way of thinking!
Chapter Two comes a little later, about half an hour later.
There are always typos at the end of each chapter, and I still find them even after checking several times. Thanks to the reminders from fellow readers, I correct them every day, day after day. I can't even spot them when I check them myself anymore. Thank you everyone!
Haha, it's like playing a game of spot the difference.
I hope everyone can leave comments in each chapter, and check in on parts that interest you. That would be a form of support. I read the comments every day, but I don't really like to talk much.