Sifa rapidly blinked and activated Spirit Vision.
He immediately saw a blurry, incomplete aura beneath the tree. From its outline, it was not hard to tell that it belonged to a person. Yet this person's aura was entangled with the tree's roots, making it look as if the tree had grown out of his body.
Sifa looked around again and found no other suspicious auras or spirits. Only then did he carefully approach and brush aside the leaves on the ground. Moments later, a face appeared before his eyes.
It was a man in his forties, looking like a resident of the island. His eyes were closed, and he seemed unable to move his body. He could only speak. "Who's there? Please save me. I've been here for many days already. I'm worried about Shari. Oh, she's my wife."
"Wait a moment," Sifa said in a low voice.
He continued clearing away the leaves nearby. Gradually, he uncovered the man's body, but the moment he saw the middle-aged man's current state, Sifa knew that he would never be able to return home.
Half of the man's body was buried in the soil beneath the tree. He wore island-style clothes, but both his clothes and body were only partially intact. The rest appeared to have already been decomposed by bacteria or microorganisms.
The middle-aged man in the soil was missing an arm. Tree roots had pierced into his chest, his abdomen was split open, and grayish-white intestines were stuck together with the roots. Both his legs had vanished below the knees, and roots emerged from his knees, connecting him to the nearby tree.
He had been "planted" in the ground, and his body had become a source of nutrients for the tree. Yet for some unknown reason, the middle-aged man before