"Of course, is my word, Geliwusi, unreliable?"
On the thick, giant tree, the features of a face, whose outlines were no longer discernible, twitched slightly, as if revealing a smile once more.
And Geliwusi's voice came from both heaven and earth:
"It seems you don't trust me enough, old friend."
"Hmph, believe a two-faced bastard like you? I'd be dead long ago!"
Despite the impending attack, Sailesi still had the mind to talk to Geliwusi.
As High Tier individuals, and temporarily connected by the resin of the Clear Void Pine, exchanging a few words was naturally a matter of moments.
Sailesi's confidence was no less than at the beginning, and Geliwusi didn't expect to make Sailesi surrender on the spot with a "Iron Maiden" bear hug.
The cardinal, whose body was trapped, made a grasping motion with his left hand, seemingly grabbing the collar of one of his trusted Stained Ones. His right hand, which was embedded in the tree bark, twisted forcefully and was instantly severed at the wrist.
He pushed off with his foot and flew backward, pulling the Stained Ones were struggling to resist back to his side like yo-yos.
After a rotation to dissipate the force, the several Stained Ones archbishops stood still again and assumed a fighting stance once more.
Opposite them, the huge wound on Geliwusi's body, Incarnation the Clear Void Pine, was slowly healing.
Outnumbered, the situation didn't seem to favor Geliwusi; in fact, it was even more advantageous for him.
At Sailesi's silent call, a large number of Holy City residents who should have gone to the city walls to resist the Soul Returner began to gather here instead.
Those people were already deeply trapped in the illusion woven by Sailesi. All beings that Sailesi defined as enemies would become monsters that they feared in their hearts.
Fear breeds courage, and this courage, which should have been used to fight the real enemy, thus drove them toward the giant tree that Geliwusi had become.
Tens of thousands of people, Incarnation into a torrent, surged into the vast, empty square of the Holy City, each of them covered in countless spider lilies.
The moment the crowd surged into the square, Geliwusi felt a mental shock, which Fragility his connection with the root system of the Clear Void Pine left by Luxiusi.
However, at this moment he remembered another sentence:
The world is based on Psionic Energy, and all paths ultimately require the study of Psionic Energy.
Thinking of this, Geliwusi couldn't help but sigh softly to himself:
The Tree God's teachings were indeed correct, but... how come Sailesi is so powerful?
This has already strayed from the realm of primarily studying plants, hasn't it? Many people would certainly believe he's a Psionic Energy of manipulating people.
Despite wave after wave of mental attacks, Geliwusi remained completely unfazed.
"Fifty thousand? One hundred thousand?"
Having inherited Luxiusi's lineage, he sensed his surroundings and laughed again:
" Sailesi, you're underestimating me! You think you can take me down with so few men?"
The arrogant voice echoed in all directions, but this time, Sailesi did not respond to his provocation.
The Fallen Cardinal's pupils had now transformed into the shape of spider lilies; one eye looked at reality, while the other focused on the illusory world he had created.
Between reality and illusion, Sailesi seems to Incarnation into Grand Duke Adelaide, a vampire who has begun to enjoy her retirement.
In both worlds, his gaze simultaneously locked onto the giant tree whose diameter had expanded to twenty meters:
"Target of attack."
His emotionless voice resonated in the hearts of everyone who was bewitched.
At that moment, the square fell into a brief silence, followed by a deafening roar of battle cries.
Civilians, Holy Crusaders, priests, bishops...
Under Sailesi's call and rallying cry, everyone launched an attack on Geliwusi.
Sailesi stepped back slightly into the crowd and turned to walk towards the north city wall.
The battlefields there are far more brutal, and you are needed there even more.
"Want to kill me? Then come at me!"
Geliwusi roared to the sky, and the enormous, Clear Void Pine grew even taller, with a massive amount of resin spraying outwards from the center of the giant tree.
The group at the forefront stepped onto the resin, which was so sticky it almost bound the two together, and their bodies immediately leaned forward due to inertia.
The instant their flesh touched the resin, all the illusions woven by Sailesi vanished in an instant.
Before they could even think about why they were lying on the ground, the first group of people rescued from the illusion immediately realized the danger they were in.
They activated their symbiotic plants as quickly as possible, attempting to increase their chances of survival in a stampede of this scale.
Geliwusi controlled the omnipresent root system, carefully breaking through the rammed earth layer of the Holy City's ground, and with all his might temporarily gathered these people underground before they were trampled to death.
Even so, he could not attend to everyone's needs, and could only first save the civilians who were almost powerless to drive the symbiotic plants.
As for the misled Holy Crusaders and priests...
Let me endure this setback for now; consider it atonement for my depraved behavior.
Geliwusi knew that people were dying every moment, but this was the limit of what he could do.
Having been given this critical mission, his plan was not perfect, but if he wanted to stop Sailesi, he had to be patient at this moment!
Stepping over layers of their companions, the first wave of those who launched their fearless charge were about to touch the tree trunk of Geliwusi.
Just then, the pine tree, which had been Clear Void Pine for some time, shook its body again, spraying out a second wave of resin, covering those who had rushed close with it once more.
Before they could even react after waking up from the illusion, the bewitched crowd on the third level surged forward.
And so, with the Clear Void Pine in the Incarnation Geliwusi as the center, the cardinal seemed to have begun to create a mille-feuille dessert made from human flesh.
A layer of humans, a layer of resin, then another layer of humans, then another layer of resin... and the two sides were briefly locked in a stalemate.
But Geliwusi knew this wasn't a long-term solution; his efforts to gather and rescue people were far less effective than Sailesi's efforts to bring in reinforcements.
But it's still just a little bit short, just a little bit short!
Having once again repelled the Middle Tier under Sailesi who had entered a berserk state, Geliwusi had finally waited for the opportunity he needed!
In an instant, countless seeds that were originally attached to the branches of the Clear Void Pine tree took root and sprouted, and the place where they took root was the huge pine tree trunk.
A large amount of nutrients were drained away, and clumps of greenish-blue spherical plants of varying sizes appeared among the branches of the Clear Void Pine.
The Psionic Energy surged as if being sucked, and a massive amount of tiny seeds, like black rain, rained down on the tens of thousands of humans who had already been stacked in more than a dozen layers.
At the same time, as the giant Clear Void Pine weakened, all its resin lost its stickiness in an instant.
Tiny black raindrops fell on the Symbiotic Tree on people's bodies, landing among those inconspicuous branches.
However, the next moment, the seeds stuck firmly to the spot and began to sprout and grow at a speed visible to the naked eye, almost growing into fist-sized spheres before anyone could even utter a sound.
In less than ten seconds, the black rain pulled tens of thousands of people out of the illusion, and even planted some strange plant on their bodies.
In the distance, Sailesi sensed a huge hole appearing in his illusory world.
He abruptly turned his head and glared angrily at the Clear Void Pine pine tree in which Geliwusi Incarnation.
To be precise, he was looking at a spherical plant on a branch at the very top of the giant tree.
"You... parasite!"
Sailesi roared in fury, but Geliwusi's voice came from the small clump of plants:
"I've said it many times, it's not a parasite, it's my symbiotic plant--"
" Symbiotic Mistletoe ".