Chapter 189 Trees and Forests
The Mu En amplifies the intensity of the energy.
He had experience with this when blessing Fallingstar Beast in another world, because the creature's body was too powerful, and ordinary Blessed Dew could only complete part of the blessing.
It later gleaned a lot of Golden Rune from the tree roots before finally completing its stage of advancement, and is now about to molt and enter its next form.
This experiment to transform the Ohmu is even more important, and he doesn't want to have to do it again.
The golden cocoon of light lasted for about three minutes before dissipating, revealing the Ohmu inside, shaking its head and looking confused by the newfound power within it.
It seems that because it is a living being of flesh and blood, rather than an elemental being composed of Law of Gravity and rock like the Rock Niuniu, the Ohmu did not undergo any special morphological changes.
The only change visible to the naked eye appeared in its compound eyes.
Between the two rows of deep, ocean-blue compound eyes, a gradient of pale gold quietly emerges, flowing slightly with the changing angle of light, making its eyes look as magnificent as finely polished opals.
Mu En carefully examined the blessed Ohmu and found it to be much more "ordinary" than he had expected.
Judging from its size, this Ohmu is almost out of its juvenile stage. In the original story, the Ohmu larva that Nausicaä saved when she was a child was only the size of a palm.
The only explanation is that it had only recently hatched from the artificial incubator and had not yet fully adapted to its own body.
After being blessed, the Ohmu's power level was comparable to that of a slightly stronger Golden Folk, but it was no match for the Fallingstar Beast, which had directly reached the Knight Level upon receiving the blessing.
However, Mu En was not in a hurry. His real focus was on creating links and learning more about the Ohmu. So far, everything seemed to be going smoothly.
He focused his consciousness and attempted to communicate directly with the Ohmu.
Just as he was smoothly creating a connection through the Blessing Link, an unexpected incident occurred.
The perspective that should have been connected to the individual and received through the senses of the Blessed did not appear. Instead, what suddenly appeared before him was a vast and boundless spiritual space, so expansive that it surpassed Mu En's imagination.
This space is very difficult to describe in terms of its specific appearance. If I had to describe it, it would be like walking on an underwater grassland covered with lush seaweed.
Countless translucent, tentacle-like filaments of light, stretching upwards from the darkness, danced slowly in the invisible ocean currents, each one like an optical fiber, conveying and flowing different images, perceptions, and emotions.
Mu En tried to focus his attention on one of them, and sure enough, what appeared before him was the scene of Sea of Corruption, a giant forest of fungi standing in the clear lake water, and the owner of his vision—
A Ohmu is swimming leisurely in the water.
He released the seaweed and touched another one.
The perspective shifts, Ohmu travels through the forest, tearing apart the woody insect food tree in front of it with its tentacles and mouthparts before stuffing it into its mouth.
Switching perspectives again, he saw another viewpoint, another Sea of Corruption.
Each seaweed is a Ohmu, and each filament of light is a consciousness.
"As expected, it's the Ohmu's mental network----"
Mu En understood, but at the same time, she was also surprised.
To his surprise, the Ohmu swarm was not the Gestalt consciousness he had imagined, a unified whole devoid of self; rather, it was more like—more like the Blessed under his command.
Each Blessed is connected to the Erdtree, a central hub, and their people can also exchange consciousness with each other, much like this "underwater grassland" before them.
The only difference is that this ocean does not have a "controller" that transcends all individuals.
But—is it really not true?
As this thought emerged from Mu En's consciousness, the entire ocean of her mind suddenly became lively.
[This bug is so strange.]
[Idiot, that's not a worm. What worm looks like that?]
He looks so strong----
Curiosity, surprise, confusion—a flood of simple yet clear thoughts washed over them. Mu En, this completely different outsider, quickly caught the attention of the Ohmu. As more Ohmu joined, the commotion gradually escalated into a clamor, which in turn continued to expand wildly, forming a terrifying mental Storm.
And Mu En stood right in the eye of the Storm.
Compared to the liquid ocean composed of pure spiritual energy, Mu En's Rune soul is as heavy and stable as metal, and the superiority of the Golden Rune is still evident here.
As the Storm reached its limit, all individual consciousnesses seemed to reach a tacit understanding, the entire ocean instantly froze, and a vast, collective will began to coalesce and take shape.
Hello, my fellow human.
The voice came from all directions; it was a voice that sounded almost like that of a human woman.
Mu En observed the presence before him with great interest.
Having observed the entire process, he noticed that it wasn't the entity before him that controlled the Ohmu, but rather that the scattered Ohmu individuals actively condensed their consciousness and thoughts into this "unified interface" for external communication.
For humans, this is an unimaginable group relationship. The current Ohmu is more like the "Insect Race" in Mu En's mind, a race where all things are one.
"The same kind? You call me the same kind?"
"Yes. Trees and forests are of the same kind, of course." The will of the Ohmu replied matter-of-factly.
Mu En found this argument quite amusing.
"You can see my true form? And why do you call yourself a forest?"
According to her conversation with Nausicaä, she had seen Mu En's "soul essence" during their first meeting.
However, none of the other psychics or Blessed who came after her saw the giant tree projection she described.
[Why couldn't you tell? You didn't hide your existence, and neither did we.] The other person seemed puzzled by Mu En's doubts.
Mu En was silent for a moment, then realized that the problem might lie in his way of "observing".
As a former human being, he has always used his accustomed mode of perception to analyze all things, first observing and analyzing, and then trying to construct a concrete image that he can understand.
Now, he needs to try a different approach.
Mu En suppressed his strong analytical intent and instead attempted pure "mental perception," resonating with this ocean of consciousness.
Sure enough, the scene before me changed.
The outline of the vast collective consciousness formed by the convergence of "ocean currents" gradually became clear, and he saw the essence of the other party's soul.
Seawater is not seawater.
Those were countless intertwined mycelia extending infinitely to the horizon.
Seaweed is no longer seaweed.
Those were the nerves of countless giant arthropods, each nerve projecting fine threads that intertwined tightly with the surrounding hyphae, inseparable from one another.
The "seabed" below is even more vast—
Those are the stems of giant fungi, rising from the mycelial network like thick cables or signal towers, making this giant network, which connects everything, even tighter.
She's right, it is a forest.
Every plant and every insect is connected to each other on this network, interdependent, and exchanging information and nutrients.
Compared to the "ocean" he had just seen, the entity now before him was hundreds or thousands of times larger; it was a life form that covered almost the entire planet.
Sea of Corruption.