The Gentleman at the End

Chapter 90: Chapter 89 Trees and Nutrients (2nd Update)

The passage through the towering wall of trees was surprisingly smooth, except for the cries of a baby, there was nothing else to disturb them.

As they delved deeper, Yi Chen became more adept, needing only to extend one hand forward to make the tree trunks in front of him move aside on their own.

Moreover, during this process, Yi Chen gradually noticed the differences in these high-wall trees,

The sap flowing in the trunks indeed mixed with a hint of blood, directly related to nutrients absorbed by their roots… It was such peculiar nutrients that enabled them to form such abnormally high walls of hundreds of meters.

As for Jin, he seemed as leisurely as if he were on vacation, following behind with even some spare time to chat.

“I didn’t expect you to be so good at controlling plants… are you planning to open a clinic in the future?”

“I don’t have such plans for now.”

“You’d best not have such plans in the future either; clinics are merely tools for the organization to bind talents.

Like me, minimizing contact with Zion as much as possible, once Zion’s value is depleted, I will leave this place. Will you join me then?”

“Focus on the task at hand, Jin.”

“Boring man.”

They threaded through the tree walls for over three hundred meters and finally peeled back the innermost layer of trunks.

What greeted the two of them was neither a paradisiacal hideaway nor any relief from the clouds and sunshine… instead, they arrived in an even darker, lightless inner area.

The tops of the nearly hundred-meters-tall walls of trees grew in an equally abnormal fashion, dense, interwoven, and overlaid.

Innumerable branches and leaves formed a ‘cover,’ enveloping everything inside the high walls.

There was also a mist composed of particles from grayification, filling the gaps between the leaves and preventing any speck of sunlight from entering, creating an absolutely dark enclosed area.

Ordinary people walking through such a forest for a few minutes would feel claustrophobia crawling over them like a reptile.

Yi Chen lowered his head to observe the grayification aura flowing around his shoes, its concentration comparable to that of the Twilight Clinic, already at a later stage… yet here, the covered area was larger, and the affected region deeper.

Beings akin to the IV-drip Doctor or bandaged nurse, labeled as non-normality patients, might appear.

Under the effect of grayification,

The trees growing in the inner areas no longer stood tall but grew wildly and twisted at bizarre angles,

The tree branches, like human arms, were covered with dark, dull leaves that seemed as skin adhered to and even embedded in the branches, looking quite eerie.

Some trees, spurred by grayification, appeared extra ‘obese’; their middles swelled unbearably,

A thick light green fluid incessantly oozed out, eventually seeping back into the soil to become nutrients once again.

Moreover,

The bark of the trees and the ground around them bore numerous and densely packed fungi.

Among these, some larger fungi had tops that opened like mouths, capable of breathing like humans… each movement exhaled spores that deepened the effects of grayification, promoting the mutation phenomenon in the forest.

These floating gray spores also further obscured the vision, even limiting the reach of a kerosene lamp’s light to about ten meters.

Thanks to the presence of Little Grape, Yi Chen’s visual range could still be doubled.

Suddenly Little Grape telepathically communicated: “Very potent~ This place isn’t much better than the Twilight Clinic, William, you must be careful. If you’re unlucky and encounter an Open Source patient, someone could really die.”

“Don’t curse, I’ll be careful.”

Yi Chen stepped over to a tree that was oozing pathological fluids, putting his palm on the bark to feel the specifics inside.

“Hmm? A tumor?”

Underneath the bark were indeed reddish cancerous masses, exactly such tumor structures causing the trunk to swell and ooze.

Moreover, the surface of the tumors was connected by vascular bundle structures for fluid transportation, leading towards the base of the tree.

“It seems to be connected to something at the bottom end.”

Who knew,

Jin followed over, directly sampling the dense juice with her finger, tasting it on her tongue.

“There’s a taste of blood and flesh! Indeed related to the roots? Let’s see what the situation is.”

Without any discussion with Yi Chen,

Jin hugged the trunk with both arms, red filaments spreading across her arms… Using explosive power, she forcibly pulled the tree out of the ground.

Yi Chen did not stop her but watched the roots intently.

The sight that met his eyes made his eyebrows furrow, feeling discomfort.

The roots of the pulled-out tree, numerous plump, slippery tree roots were twisting on their own and rather than calling them roots, they were more like octopus tentacles.

The living roots were quite active, even trying to reverse and dig into Jin’s arms, but unfortunately, they weren’t long enough… @@novelbin@@

“What exactly are these roots sucking on?”

Yi Chen moved the kerosene lamp to the entrance of the hole in the ground and peered down into the depths.

A drop of cold sweat spilled over from his forehead,

Within his field of vision, a “juvenile” creature that could not be categorized by current biological standards was buried underneath,

with limbs similar to those of humans, but of varying lengths, and structures like hooves and pads.

Its body was covered with black fur, had nascent horns like those of a lamb, and a nose like that of a pig.

It was coiled up like a mosquito coil, curled up at the very bottom,

and the eyes boring through its body opened and closed with the juvenile’s breathing, seemingly wanting to have roots penetrate into it.

Just then,

the juvenile’s eyes suddenly opened,

Its pupils shaped like a ‘hyphen’, staring at the Peeping Tom above,

Its distorted mouth opened and closed, emitting strange cries, seemingly in pain due to the lack of roots.

“This guy is not just nourishment but maintains a ‘symbiotic relationship’ with the trees, mutually providing the nutrients they need.

Jin, put the tree back for now, let’s not startle the grass snake; our exploration has only just begun.”

However.

Jin’s fingers gently rubbed together,

a simple Red Lotus woven from blood threads pinched at his fingertips,

As his fingers released, the Red Lotus drifted, landing on the strange juvenile’s body.

Rooting in the body surface,

the red threads invaded,

spreading throughout the body,

Pop!

The juvenile exploded like a bomb, its blood and flesh vaporized.

Not long after,

the tree that was pulled out of the ground started to wither from the roots, aging and dying in less than five minutes.

“This poor fellow, ‘death’ is the best gift~ Don’t you think my method is quite gentlemanly, William?”

…

At the same moment.

In a hidden and completely “grayified” chamber deep in the forest,

an elderly man wearing religious garments and a bishop’s crown inlaid with gold and green plant patterns awoke from his seat.

As he slowly raised his wrinkly, emaciated hand,

a figure in a black ecclesiastical robe emerged from the darkness, kneeling before him.

“Lord Bishop, what are your commands?”

“We have a visitor…”

“Do they continue to send us nourishment? These humans are indeed generous.”

“This time it’s different… Let the inferior villagers receive them first, test their abilities; if necessary, we can initiate the test.

Our plan is still in progress; we must act cautiously, Theodore.”

“Yes.”

The man called Theodore quickly retreated into the shadows, disappearing.

The bishop, having woken from his long sitting, seemed uncomfortable with his body, wanting to adjust his sitting posture.

After he laboriously shifted his body,

he reached out and lifted his ecclesiastical robe, revealing a fat belly full of wrinkles,

Strangely,

a similarly wrinkled umbilical cord extended from the bishop’s navel, the other end connected to his seat.

Seemingly anchoring him there,

and as if utilizing the transfer function of the umbilical cord, continuously drawing nutrients from beneath the seat.

Through the gap under the seat, one could faintly smell the stench of decay.