"I only remember that I used to be a big tree, yes, the largest one, the one we used to build our treehouse."

"When I was stimulated by the Demonic Qi to awaken and become a mutant plant, I became the Dominator of this forest. At that time, the entire forest was filled with trees, wild beasts, insects, and birds, we depended on each other in this forest with no external interference, no conflict or slaughter, everything was fine."

"But when the Demon Realm's Gate opened in an instant, everything changed..."

As Ling spoke, her eyes became a bit dazed.

"I still remember when the Demon Realm's Gate opened, a very large Demon Fiend flew in from the east. It wasn't particularly strong, but its body was surrounded by terrifying poison. It passed by here and discovered the small ecological circle hidden within this forest."

"The battle started. With the power I had at the time, combined with the assistance of the mutant life forms in the entire forest, it was easy to take down that Demon Fiend, but after it died, it self-destructed its body, its flesh containing intense poison splattered around, then spread... The poison began to spread, but we were powerless against it."

"Watching the virus infect every life form in the forest, feeling the life disappearing, the animals wailing, the plants withering, I too slowly walked to the end of life, and after poisoning us, the virus continued to spread..."

"I don't know how much time passed before, already dead, I inexplicably woke up and found that the essence of my life had changed."

"Once just a big tree, now a bizarre life form with all the trees in the entire forest as the body..."

At this point, Ling sighed.

"After I awoke, the trees sprouted anew, dead woods caught spring, under my will, the entire forest regrew. Everything here, except for the little animals as before, is exactly the same. Meanwhile, mother gave me a task, to purify the virus spreading in this area."

"It sounds simple, but the specific details inside, I don't understand either. According to my guess, it may be that our mother detected the hidden crisis in the spread of the virus, hence giving me a mission and power to resolve the threat."

After saying this, Ling remained silent for a long time, finally nodded affirmatively.

"It should be like this, I should belong to Earth's will's self-protection mechanism, similar in cause to the emergence of the divine beast species, although the essence of life and what we're good at differ, the source should be the same."

Carmille nodded, seemingly understanding, and then looked at the vast forest.

The forest is spectacular and magnificent, the surging aura of life contained within it has already amazed Carmille more than once.

Although the mission is the same and the origin is the same, this amalgamated consciousness entity formed by countless lives, no matter how you look at it, seems a grade above the divine beast species...

Moreover, having witnessed Ling's actions, Carmille understands better, compared to ordinary divine beast species, the power of this group consciousness entity is indeed a cut above—aside from the poor mobility.

"By the way, Sister Ling, do you think there will be other life forms like you emerging on Earth? Look, you're a Wood Spirit, maybe there will also be Mountain Spirits, River Spirits, Wind Spirits, even Sea Spirits, maybe the entire insect swarm will unite into an Insect Spirit?"

Ling smiled and nodded: "Certainly there will be! As long as there are threats that cannot be solved by normal means, Earth mother will surely inspire the appropriate solution, you must understand, the confrontation with the Demon Tribe is not a duel between individuals, but a contest between Earth and the Demon Realm!"

"Compared to the wills of the two big worlds, we individuals are far, far inferior..."

Carmille seemed thoughtful, however, Ling suddenly turned to look outside, where the concentration of Demonic Qi sharply rose, the sudden surge even made the whole forest rustle.

"The Level Lock broke..."

A murmur came from Ling's mouth, but it didn't catch Carmille's attention, this little girl is currently immersed in the background story of Ling, babbling about "thigh", "draw more pictures" and other random phrases.

Seeing this scene, Ling chuckled and shook her head.

No matter, as the Wood Spirit and the amalgamated consciousness entity of the whole forest, even if the demon plague surges, Ling is confident to guard this place, to make this land a peaceful sanctuary, a paradise outside the world.

...

"Delicious, delicious..."

In the cave of the New Hope Assembly Place, Luo Luo was gulping down the "Nectar of Jade Dew", its delicacy made Luo Luo forget about work, forget about the battle about to occur above, forget about the abrupt surge of Demonic Qi in the air, even forget about just advancing to Level 2 mutant beast.

Of course, with Luo Luo's aptitude, advancing from Level 1 to Level 2, really has nothing to pay attention to—unsurprisingly, from Level 1 to Level 2, Luo Luo simply didn't awaken any new skills, not even F-Class skills...

Talent has become the new, more ruthless class order, morphing into a towering mountain that low-talent mutant beasts can never overcome, mercilessly cutting off their upward path!

Under normal circumstances, Luo Luo might feel a couple of sighs, but now, compared to the "syrup" flowing down the wall, such small matters are simply not worth any of Luo Luo's effort!

"Mine, mine! Don't grab!"

"The strongest Ant" Blackhead twisted its strong body, squeezed Luo Luo away in an instant, then single-handedly monopolized the small puddle below.

"Tch..."

Luo Luo snorted coldly, watching the moist moisture on the wall and the surrounding kin attracted by the delicacy, its two antennae collided with each other, then issued one last command in life...

"Dig, dig up, everyone gets a share!"

At this moment, Luo Luo was high-spirited, commanding the ant colony, looking quite the general—except a bit low on intelligence.

Upon hearing Luo Luo's command, the ant colony had long been impatient, a swarming army of ants flooded the wall, then not very sharp mouthparts laboriously moved one particle of soil after another, attempting to break through the barrier between the cave and the subterranean River.

As the ant colony dug deeper and deeper, the humidity increased, until at one point, a tiny stream suddenly appeared on the wall.

It is said that a thousand-mile dam collapses at an ant hole, when the breach appeared in that instant, the situation inevitably reversed.

Pale green liquid shot out from the wall's fissure, then under the hydraulic pressure, using the tiny breach as the breakthrough point, quickly expanded the breach size.

Instantly, the dam burst!

Torrential green river water inundated into the cave, yet at this moment Luo Luo shouted in cheer.

"Eat! Eat! Everyone come, come!"

Simple thinking logic, good stuff should be shared, coupled with the Plague already impairing Luo Luo's reason, facing the cave about to be submerged, Luo Luo simply ignored the danger at arm's length, only seeing the Nectar of Jade Dew in front.

River water containing the Plague surged out, engulfed the ant colony, drowned Luo Luo, and even submerged the hardy Blackhead—in the last moments of life, these small creatures had no struggle as life faded, instead filled with the craving for syrup and the greed for delicacies!

The ants twitched their bodies, yet their mouthparts still opened and closed, greedily sucking the celestial brew nearby, until the end of life, with a strange thought of "I regret not eating more before dying" in their simple minds...

An eerie scene.

The fragile flame of life was completely drowned by the river water...

Not even needing the Plague to erupt, just the simple soaking of river water caused these drug-high ants to all perish.

An hour later, dead bodies were everywhere, more tragically, this scene of tragedy deep within the cave didn't attract any attention at all.

Because above, even Wen Yu is occupied facing the numerous changes after the breaking of the Level Lock!