Chapter 199: Flower of Flesh and Blood
"You're an illusion created by that Mushroom Man? You weren't devoured by the Abyss?"
Lin Ye frowned as he asked.
"Although I'm controlled by it, I'm an illusion generated by your mental energy. Since you're not dead, I naturally won't disappear."
Zhao Yong replied.
"I was thinking of Little Ye, so why did you transform into him?"
This was what puzzled Lin Ye the most.
"...Now that the Mushroom Man is gone, I don't dare to take that form anymore. Otherwise I'd probably die horribly. As for appearance, I thought becoming a man would make communication easier. What form would you like to see?"
Zhao Yong instantly transformed into Zhou Wen.
"Appearance doesn't matter. So what now? Are you going to fight me for control of this body?"
Lin Ye attempted to carve Severing runes on Zhou Wen's body. "Don't! I just came out for some fresh air. I can't control your body anyway—ultimately I'm just an illusion. If this weren't the mental realm, I couldn't even manifest. If you don't want to see me, I'll disappear right now."
Zhou Wen sidestepped to avoid the Severing runes.
"Forget it. Can you control rune concepts?"
Lin Ye decided to give him a chance.
"I can't, but I can help you control them. I'm a pure spiritual entity. Since you can use runes, we could cooperate."
Zhou Wen bowed slightly and extended his right hand toward Lin Ye.
"Holding hands with a man feels a bit strange."
Lin Ye naturally extended his left hand.
"This way it won't be strange, big brother."
Alice grasped Lin Ye's left hand.
The moment he made contact with Alice, Lin Ye truly experienced the mental realm.
It felt like he wasn't holding Alice's hand, but an entire spiritual world.
Previously, he had only stood outside this world peering in, completely out of place in this bizarre, kaleidoscopic reality.
But now everything was completely different.
"...That troublemaker Mia. I thought it was my intelligence that was lacking, but it turns out it was hardware limitations. Rune concepts simply aren't something humans can control."
Lin Ye held Alice's hand and vanished from the spot, appearing directly before the High Priest.
"How did you escape? What is this? A spiritual entity?"
The High Priest had now completely merged with the flesh and blood tree, its branches hung with the desiccated corpses of nearby residents.
"No matter. I've completed taking root. Now you can't escape anymore. I'll turn you into a Pure White Lifeform and offer you to the deity."
Tendrils of flesh and blood roots shot up from underground, moving so fast that Lin Ye couldn't dodge them through speed alone.
But those roots struck nothing, because Lin Ye had already moved to stand before the High Priest.
"I refuse to believe you can maintain this speed indefinitely!"
The High Priest continuously manipulated the flesh and blood roots to thrust toward Lin Ye. A single touch would allow those flesh plants to take root and grow within his body.
Yet they simply couldn't connect.
Lin Ye moved like a fragile illusion that would shatter at the slightest touch, continuously teleporting around the area. He didn't attack the High Priest, merely calmly evaded its assaults.
"You can't possibly be this fast! I understand now! This is an illusion!"
The High Priest ceased its movements and began carefully sensing its surroundings with mental energy, attempting to locate the real Lin Ye who was using illusion magic on it.
"Get a grip. I'm not an illusion."
Lin Ye walked hand-in-hand with Alice to stand before the flesh and blood tree. He could only control one rune concept at a time, and now was the perfect opportunity to deal with the High Priest. Normally he would have already attacked, but today he wanted to try a different approach.
"Impossible! Right! As long as I can destroy this mental realm, the illusions will fail!"
The High Priest began conducting a ritual. If it could connect to the Emerald Capital, destroying a small portion of the mental world would be effortless.
"Collapse."
Lin Ye spoke.
And so the ritual collapsed.
"This is... the power of rules... You've become a deity... No... impossible... Second rank... Even with a divine seat... you shouldn't be able to accomplish such things..."
The High Priest muttered to itself.
"Of course I couldn't do these things in the material world. But this is the mental realm—matter overturned, spirit supreme. Here, I am the rules. You should come out to meet me properly. That's basic etiquette. Sever."
Before Lin Ye's words faded, the massive flesh and blood tree was cleanly sliced in half, revealing the High Priest hidden within.
"This is illusion, all illusion. Don't believe it. As long as I don't believe, it doesn't exist..."
The High Priest kept its eyes closed, relying solely on mental energy to perceive its surroundings. But no matter how carefully it sensed, it couldn't detect anything amiss.
"You disappoint me greatly, burying your head in the sand like an ostrich. I could kill you right now, but you don't deserve such an easy death. So go mad instead—entertain me before you die. Berserk."
The High Priest's eyes snapped open wide. Its body began twisting and contorting as nearby flesh and blood roots stabbed into its form, spreading and growing within its body until they finally tore it completely apart, blossoming into a vivid flower of flesh and blood.
The mind was the first to go mad, but the body couldn't escape either.
The madness spread from the High Priest into the flesh and blood tree, then from the tree to the very ends of the root system.
"Go on now. Share your roots with every one of your friends, just like you shared the Purification Potion. Don't miss a single one. This is what your deity truly desires."
Lin Ye spoke softly before the flower of flesh and blood.
"Deity... desires... outcome..."
The flesh flower emitted sound.
"Yes, the deity wants results. Now you may communicate with your deity."
Lin Ye smiled and vanished from the spot, reappearing inside the sports car in the distance. Victoria's mental energy detection method proved quite useful.
"Teacher! Are you alright! That tree grew up from below just now, those tendrils were grabbing at everyone, we had no choice but to flee..."
Li Shiyan explained.
"Wow, was that teleportation?"
Song Qian stared in astonishment at Lin Ye who had suddenly appeared in the passenger seat.
"You should have fled earlier instead of waiting for that tree to grow. This isn't teleportation—it's spatial manipulation. I learned it while driving the bus. That bus could move between different Planes, while I can only manage simple spatial displacement in the mental realm."
Lin Ye explained to the two students.
"Teacher, what should we do now? That tree is beyond our capability to handle."
Li Shiyan asked.
"No, I've already dealt with that tree. But there's still some trash in the city that needs cleaning up. The seeds have been planted, and now we only need to wait for the flowers to bloom."
Lin Ye accepted the paper documents from the driver with pleasant anticipation—the information from the laptop.
They marked the specific locations of the cult strongholds, which were spread throughout every corner of the city, even beyond the city walls.
Just as Lin Ye was reviewing the documents, the entire city began to tremble. Countless flesh and blood roots shot up from underground, stabbing into everyone connected to the Purification Potion, taking root within their bodies and bearing fruit, blossoming into flowers of flesh and blood.
Naturally some struggled and resisted, but no one could defy the will of the deity.