Stuffed to Death
After the bronze aura Integration the shadow, Lu Li felt nothing. He opened the attribute panel, but the evaluation remained unchanged. Lu Li patted his head, and that inexplicable thing from before reappeared. He couldn't tell its shape, color, or size, but Lu Li could feel it; something like that had appeared in his mind.
The thing swallowed all the patterns that had entered Lu Li's mind with a slurp, and then spat them all out after a while. The patterns didn't change much, but Lu Li found that he could now understand them.
The patterns are few, but they contain a lot of information, most of which records an ancient worship ritual, and the object of worship is a huge ancient tree, which is also the prototype of this Bronze Tree.
The information states that this ancient tree connects heaven and earth; climbing the tree allows one to see the world of gods, and each fruit of the tree is a world in itself, inhabited by countless living beings.
Then there are methods for traveling to other worlds through rituals and worship of the ancient tree. It even states that one can reach the world of gods by ascending through the ancient tree. The information records that this enormous ancient tree that connects the worlds is called: Jianmu.
"Jianmu?" Upon hearing this name, Lu Li began searching his memories. He eventually found the term in a memory of a history class. The history teacher was an old professor who taught at the Second Middle School only out of interest and would occasionally tell his students some ancient legends.
The term "Jianmu" was mentioned in a legend he told. The Yue Kingdom was a large country, but it had only been established for a hundred years. Before that, it was plagued by war for many years, which interrupted many cultural traditions. In recent years, in order to replenish its cultural heritage, a large-scale archaeological project was launched, and some relics were unearthed, including some records about Buddhism. A documentary was also made, which made people understand that there was a bald-headed profession called monk before the Common Era.
When the old professor was still in good health, he participated in several archaeological projects. The legend about Jianmu is that in ancient times, the world was divided. Some unearthed Buddhist scriptures also mention that there is a world in a flower, describing the existence of infinite worlds. Jianmu is a kind of passage. It is believed to be a divine tree that connects infinite worlds. Climbing Jianmu is the path for people to return to the gods.
Some unearthed Western texts seem to contain legends about Jianmu, but the old professor didn't tell Lu Li and the others about these things. He only mentioned that in the West Jianmu is also known as the World Tree or the Kabbalah Tree of Life.
Lu Li inexplicably recalled the temple in the "Puppet Thread Defense" instance. Buddhism had become extinct in ancient times, and even the few surviving temples were listed as national first-class historical sites. Lu Li had only learned about monks and temples through documentaries. Could that instance be from ancient times?
"Could the Masked Man be people from ancient times?" Lu Li shook his head with a smile. How could that be? Apart from the masks and other factors, the Masked Man are not much different from people in modern society. It's just that their political system is a Western city-state alliance.
Lu Li put aside those useless thoughts and began to look at the Bronze Tree in front of him. Lu Li found that the information in his mind was really useful. The Bronze Tree was made in imitation of Jianmu. Although it did not have the legendary ability of Jianmu to reach the heavens and the earth, it also had the function of connecting different spaces.
The fruits on the Bronze Tree are actually miniature versions of other spaces; each fruit is a space in itself. Lu Li turned around, found Beast Species shaped like a bison, hunted it down, gouged out its eyes, and then hunted down a Giant Serpent and brought it to the Bronze Tree.
He placed the Giant Serpent and the bull's eyes under the Bronze Tree. This time, the fleshy wall was not absorbed. Lu Li began to act according to the ritual in his mind, naturally chanting ancient prayers while his hands continued to operate.
A hole was cut open between the Giant Serpent's eyebrows, and a bull's eye was placed on it. As the prayer continued, the hole miraculously healed, and the snake woke up, its three eyes looking at Lu Li. It slowly climbed onto Bronze Tree and coiled around its roots.
After Lu Li finished reciting a prayer, he picked up another bull's eye and swallowed it in one gulp. The three-eyed Giant Serpent instantly rose upwards, turning bronze, as if it were about to ascend to heaven by leaning against the Bronze Tree.
"There is a tree, with green leaves and purple stems, black flowers and yellow fruit, named Jianmu. It is a hundred ren tall without branches, with nine jujubes above and nine jujubes below. Its fruit is like hemp, and its leaves are like awns. It howls and passes by. It was created by the Yellow Emperor." After Lu Li finished reading the last paragraph of the prayer, he suddenly noticed the last four words: created by the Yellow Emperor.
"This Bronze Tree was built by the King in Yellow...?" Before he could think further, the effects of the ritual had already appeared. The forty fruits on the Bronze Tree revealed a real scene—forty spaces.
"This is inside another Marine Species creature's belly, the Nurse is there, this is the space I am in, this largest one is the Morgue, this smaller one is in a hospital operating room, and this one is in some underground experimental site?" Lu Li's brain was working at lightning speed.
The Bronze Three-Eyed Snake slowly bent down and opened its mouth. Lu Li knew that time was running out, so he took out the Claw Ghost mask, summoned nine Claw Ghost, and threw them into the Bronze Three-Eyed Snake. They then turned into black smoke and went to another space.
Lu Li put away the Shadow Mask, leaped towards the snake's mouth, and transformed into a streak of light. The Bronze Three-Eyed Snake closed its mouth and slowly turned into bronze, Integration the Bronze Tree and becoming some stripes on the base of the Bronze Tree.
Lu Li's movement disrupted a certain balance. The Bronze Tree emitted a dazzling light, and the fruits on it began to sway. The Bronze Fruit representing the internal space of this Marine Species fell to the ground and cracked open. In the outside world, this Marine Species suddenly became agitated, and the space inside its body began to collapse and shrink.
Previously, the belly of this Marine Species creature was a self-contained space, incredibly large, inhabited by a large number of Beast Species derivatives. As the space collapsed and shrank, the Bronze Tree absorbed the power that overflowed from the collapse, but the shrinking space caused the creatures and air inside to begin to compress.
It cried out in anguish and despair, but to no avail. It had consumed far too much, several times larger than its own size. Now, the space was collapsing and shrinking, the creatures and air inside were crammed together under the spatial barrier, but the space had completely collapsed, and the spatial barrier no longer existed.
The Marine Species creature was blasted into pieces by the rebound force of the compressed object. A large amount of blood mist exploded and formed a terrifying blood storm. Several other Marine Species creatures nearby were also blown away and fell to the ground, suffering extremely serious injuries. The Gluttony Marine Species creature died from Gluttony.
Outside the Morgue, on Professor Liao's computer, the data was fluctuating drastically. The spatial parameters showed that a space was inexplicably breaking down. He and the female doctor exchanged a glance and looked towards the Morgue.