After about half an hourglass period.
"Master, we've successfully taken control of it!"
Reilo's voice was filled with joy and excitement.
"Hehehehe, the creatures of the Night's Veil Land are truly fascinating. It seems I'll have to find a chance to visit again after I'm done with my current affairs. No wonder that old fellow has been away all this time."
Reilo didn't know who the Old Monster was referring to, but it was clearly one of the top scholars of the Grand Duchy.
Rumble rumble rumble rumble.
The Old Monster stroked the Fear Tree as if it were a pet, and murmured, "It's so beautiful."
Reilo's eyes were glazed over, and he couldn't help but reach out and stroke the Fear Tree.
"Yes! The spiritual resonance of countless tiny Blood Fear Bug has actually controlled such a massive outer shell, as if constructing a honeycomb of the spiritual world. It's truly beautiful."
hiss...
The mercenaries watched as Reilo and the Old Monster displayed expressions of enjoyment and ecstasy, caressing the sticky surface of the terrifying tree. Their eyelids twitched violently, and they couldn't help but gasp, staring at the two monsters.
beauty?
These two guys actually described this strange tree covered in heads as beautiful?!
The mercenaries then looked behind the two, at Nedrina, whose face was pale.
Seeing that she wasn't like those two monsters, they breathed a sigh of relief.
Corleon handed the control root in his hand to Reilo.
"I burned its life force, which can only last for about three days. It should be of some help to you. Once you find traces of the Blood Demon, activate the Summoning Spell immediately. However, be careful not to get eaten. If you can't hold on, summon it earlier."
"Knew."
Reilo took the root controller encased in the amber crystal.
As his Mental Power surged into the amber, Reilo instantly gained a completely new understanding of this terrifying tree, as if he were controlling his own Eye of the Sun with complete ease.
Several mercenaries were still there when Reilo smiled and said, "Since we've met here, shall we go together?"
Well?
The mercenaries exchanged glances, their captain's face grim.
"This place is far too dangerous. We've decided to abandon this mission and stop exploring. The bounty for this mission is simply beyond the reach of a small mercenary group like ours!"
Before coming, everyone had vowed to do their utmost and fight with all their might; otherwise, they wouldn't have stood up even after the female archer was caught by the Fear Tree.
But.
After encountering the two magicians and witnessing their horrifying actions, the group realized that this mission was far more than just a matter of courage.
Reilo then looked at the female mage Nedrinas behind him.
Although the female mage looked a bit older than Reilo, around twenty-eight or twenty-nine years old, she was instinctively treating Reilo as an Old Monster out of fear, and acted as if she were a junior.
"I'm very sorry, but this mission is far beyond our capabilities."
"All right."
Reilo sighed, said nothing more, and looked at the Old Monster again.
"Master, wait for my news."
"Hehe, go ahead. After completing this mission, you can work at my biological specimen research institute. I get along very well with you, little guy. I don't have any experimental assistants yet, so you can be my assistant."
"Good!"
Reilo readily agreed, and with the Fear Tree behind him, resolutely stepped into the thick, pale red mist ahead.
The fog resembled wisps of smoke, barely perceptible, reducing visibility to only a few hundred meters.
This feels like another world.
In stark contrast to the Natural Law of the Hengduan Mountains, even the sunlight seemed veiled in a blood-red hue, dim and gloomy.
Quack quack quack.
A Blood Raven let out a hoarse cry.
Looking out, Reilo saw that the branches of the cliff several hundred meters away were densely packed with Blood Raven, numbering at least several thousand, too many to count.
Who knows how much more lies hidden deep within the fog?
"Why are there so many?"
With a cautious expression, Reilo, along with the terrifying tree behind him, moved far away from the cliff.
hiss!
A moment later.
A dozen meters away from Reilo, a mutated giant lizard suddenly opened its chrysanthemum-like mouth and spat out a jet of blood filled with a foul stench.
After the <1024 Nights> Guardian Shield blocked the blood arrow, the blood arrow seemed to come alive, wriggling incessantly on the surface of the <1024 Nights> Guardian Shield.
Reilo had already obtained a similar specimen on the first level of the Magic Eye Pyramid.
A branch of the terrifying tree stretched out from behind and suddenly grabbed the mutated giant lizard.
Terrified screams...
Soon, a mutated giant lizard's head appeared on a branch of the terrifying tree, its chrysanthemum-like mouth howling incessantly.
"A bizarre evolutionary process."
Reilo looked at the new head that had appeared on the Terror Tree, as if it had grown a new fruit, and was still somewhat unaccustomed to the evolutionary methods of these creatures from the Night's Veil Land.
keep going.
Not long after.
A dense croaking sound and the sounds of fierce fighting came from ahead.
Cautiously, Reilo approached and finally made a discovery.
" Sky Knight?"
Hundreds of Blood Raven, like a hurricane, circled around a giant flying bird.
"After entering this place, I felt like an outsider in this ecosystem; everything here wanted to devour me."
Reilo, of course, had no reason to worry about this powerful Sky Knight.
I noticed something.
Reilo lowered his head and slowly held up a bloodsucking worm with dark green, deep red, and light yellow stripes in front of him to examine it.
It ignored the remaining defenses of the Black Dragon Pattern Robe, pierced through Reilo 'Reilo skin, and began to draw blood from him.
Unfortunately, Reilo's blood contained a highly corrosive toxin, and Reilo only discovered the worm after it died.
"Dangerous thing."
Place it in a glass preservation container.
All the creatures around were drawn to the Sky Knight, and taking this opportunity, they hurriedly continued forward, gradually moving away from the battle area, and saw in the distance a dense forest of countless blood-red Giant Flower, each as tall as a person.
"These Blood Demon Flowers seem to be much larger than described in the specimen guide."
The Giant Flower kept wriggling.
These polluted and mutated creatures have become part of the Night's Veil Land ecosystem, a world completely different from the human living environment of the Starveil Land.
Quack quack quack!
A burst of blood mist suddenly spewed out from the constantly writhing Blood Demon Flower.
A Blood Raven with a wingspan of half a meter flew out with a strange cry. Although it was similar to the Blood Raven specimen on the first floor of the Magic Eye Pyramid, it had far fewer malignant tumors on its body and looked more normal and pure.
"Nest?"
Immediately afterwards, a dozen or so Blood Raven flew in from a distance.
Reilo could even see the human corpses and limbs that these Blood Raven had carried away!
These Blood Raven plunged straight down from the sky into the various blood demon flowers, whose wriggling speed seemed to increase several times over.
After a while...
Upon closer inspection, Reilo noticed that each of the Blood Demon Flowers had actually spat out two Blood Raven!
"These Blood Demon Flowers are the mother nests of Blood Raven, or rather... the way creatures of the Night's Veil Land reproduce is completely different from that of the creatures of the Starveil Land?"
Reilo realized something.
These Blood Raven were actually bred from plants of the Night's Veil Land!
The plants of the Night's Veil Land also use this as a means of evolution. After collecting food, they breed more and more Blood Raven to obtain more and more food, constantly transforming the environment here into the survival environment of the Night's Veil Land and eliminating creatures full of natural vitality.
"They are transforming the natural environment! These Blood Raven are the foundation of the Night's Veil Land ecosystem, at the very bottom of the food chain. Only by establishing a stable food chain at the bottom can higher-level creatures be nurtured."
Reilo took a deep breath.
"It's only been less than two years!"
"If these creatures of the night have such an aggressive advantage over the natural life forms of the Starveil Land, then why has the Starveil Land's ecosystem remained independent and not been taken over by these creatures of the night?"
Reilo's thoughts became increasingly delved into the matter.
"The ecosystem of the Starveil Land boasts a rich diversity of species, while these creatures of the Nightfall seem to share a common theme: blood and fear. They appear dangerous and powerful, but they are certainly restrained by some aspect of the Starry Sky Lands ecosystem. This is how the two ecosystems maintain their significant differences and independence."
Following the Old Monster's earlier instructions, Reilo's mission was not to investigate the origin of the Blood Demon Flower's mutation, but to find traces of the Blood Demon and continue forward.