New concept of the mysterious way to ascend to immortality

Chapter 270 Asking Questions
After confirming that the 'anesthetic aura' emanating from the large tree had no effect on him, the Tiger Demon slowly strolled over to the wooden tree face that could speak and call for help, and began to examine it carefully.

The closer it looks, the less it can tell whether the wooden face is a person or a plant.

If you say it's a 'Buddha's face' that grew from a polluted tree, it's so vivid and detailed that it looks like it was transformed from a living person; if you say it's transformed from a human, it's all wood inside and out, without a trace of flesh and blood, more like a tree tumor that has become a spirit.

"eccentric!"

"Save me! Please save me..."

"Huh? They've even come up with new lines! Old man, can you recognize me?"

The tiger demon was astonished to find that this face seemed to sense it and slightly adjusted its orientation. It turned its pair of black, empty eye sockets toward it and uttered new lines. Was it as if consciousness existed within this face?

"Help……"

Faced with the tiger demon's questioning, the face remained expressionless, continuing its plea for help without answering. Clearly, it lacked spirituality and wisdom.

Out of curiosity and a mischievous impulse, the tiger demon raised its right paw and with a gentle swipe, tore open the bark of the tree, flipping the wooden face to the left.

With a crisp 'snap!', the thick, human-faced tree bark, like a mask, was ripped off completely. It hung suspended in mid-air, clinging to the slightest connection on the left.

Beneath the bark, an unexpected scene unfolded. When it peeled away the 'tree face,' a 'wooden skull' of remarkably similar in size to a human skull was revealed. It wasn't made of flesh and blood, but the woody plant fiber traces closely resembled the muscle fibers of a human face.

It's as if a real 'human head' was once embedded in a tree seed, and over time, the wood replaced it. Eventually, the flesh, bones, and organ structures of the human head all disappeared, replaced by a 1:1 wooden structure, becoming a highly sophisticated 'wood'.

Not only that, the tiger demon swung its claws again, tearing open the bark at the throat of the 'tree face', revealing a 1:1 replica of the 'wooden throat structure' underneath. This tree face, or more accurately, the 'wooden head' beneath it, uses this 'plant throat' to produce sound.

At this moment, the faceless 'wooden head' had slightly turned its direction, looking at the tiger demon and crying out for help: "Save me...save me!"

"Damn, this is kind of creepy!"

Seeing this scene, which wasn't bloody but inexplicably made it bristle, the Tiger Demon couldn't help but complain about how bizarre and eccentric this [Spirit Star] was. It thought that by associating with [local pollution], it could adapt and integrate.

Reality, however, taught him that even a small tree in the mountains with relatively low pollution levels could cause him both physical and psychological discomfort.

Click!

The mischievous tiger demon once again pried open the skull of 'Skinned Wood'. It felt incredibly hard; its density and strength even surpassed that of a human skull. Yet, it still couldn't withstand the tiger demon's sharp claws, its skull being sliced ​​open to reveal an empty cranial cavity.

"Forehead……"

The wooden head, its skull pried open but remaining unmoved, cried out for help. The Tiger Demon didn't know whether to praise its dedication or its sheer fright.

Tiger Demon: "Take this thing to a haunted house, and it'll definitely be a hit!"

Snake: "Big Brother, I'm increasingly convinced that he couldn't have grown from this tree; he must have been a human in his previous life!"

Tiger Demon agreed, adding, "First, let's confirm one thing: it has no pain. Second, it truly has no brain, and therefore no intelligence. Third, it seems this thing was deliberately left behind by the tree? Finally, the skull cavity is empty; there's no 'Buddha cocoon' as expected, so it shouldn't be Buddhist contamination."

Snake: "It looks a bit like the [Skull Servant] of the [School of Wisdom], but not quite. I can't quite put my finger on why?"

Tiger Demon, however, pointed out the problem: "It's too low-grade. Compared to the [Skull Servo], this 'Wooden Skull' is too rudimentary and inferior, like a poor imitation. At the same time, it's highly consistent with a human skull, which is quite precise."

After studying the tree face for a while, he even considered whether to dig it out of the trunk.

Tiger Demon and Snake Snake both believed that 'Tree Face' was likely a human with limited 'supernatural power' in life. After death, for some unknown reason, he merged with the tree. His physical body was absorbed as nutrients, but the tree preserved his complete head and vocal organs, which were gradually replaced by the tree's 'plant tissue' until they became one, indistinguishable, and still able to make sounds to attract prey.

The tiger demon unleashed a vast expanse of shadow, seeping downwards along the roots of the great tree. It soon discovered all sorts of animal skeletons, none of which could be completely digested.

These bones are incomplete, with only the strongest fragments remaining. They contain 'aggregated pollution' that even a large tree cannot digest, making them low-grade relics.

Judging from its appearance, this plant has deceived, poisoned, and digested countless animals and lost souls throughout its growth. In the neighboring immortal universe, it would be considered a tree demon.

As for this wooden human head, it is the core of the entire plant!

Based on the extraordinary knowledge he had gathered during this period, the [Spirit Planet] encompasses the [Spirit Realm Layer, Astral Realm Layer, and Foam Layer] and is inhabited by extraordinary beings with human-level intelligence. Apart from extraterrestrial immigrants from the [Outer Universe], they are mostly related to humans, and there are very few examples of advanced intelligence that evolved from purely 'animals'.

To put it another way, if you see a sheep-shaped monster or a cow-shaped monster that speaks human language, instead of guessing it's a transformation of a sheep or cow, it's more accurate to guess that humans, after being 'contaminated,' lost control and degenerated into beast-like forms, and then steadily reproduced, forming a monster race.

Similarly, many half-human, half-beast, mythical creatures are not necessarily the product of 'animals + pollution and erosion', but are more likely the result of human beings losing control and twisting them, such as the 'magical giant insects' that are very common in the underground world.

If it was an evolution of animals, then it was a strange mix of animals and plants that devoured and digested humans, took over the important organ of the skull, inherited a higher mode of thinking, and thus evolved.

However, 'intelligent species' formed from animal mutations often lack hereditary abilities and are difficult to replicate. Those unique 'monsters' or 'intelligent monsters' are usually transformed from animals or plants. For example, this large tree before them, in the tiger demon's eyes, has the potential to continue accumulating pollution and evolving into a unique 'mini-boss.' This is because it perfectly absorbed a 'powerful being,' inheriting their [skull], making them indistinguishable from each other.

The snake shook its skull with a regretful tone: "What a pity... it has no brain, evolution failed!"

The tiger demon tilted its head and looked at the empty skull cavity where it had torn off its face and pried open its skull. Suddenly, a brilliant idea struck it!

"Since your head is empty and you are beyond redemption, then I will bestow upon you a brain. How will you respond then?! Snake, bring me an eggplant!"

Fellow Daoist Yujingzi exclaimed, "Little Brain is here!"

Then it opened its mouth and spat out a "brain eggplant," which it placed into the "empty skull" of the wooden head.

Long before Yuan Zhu entered the [Feathered World], he had processed a batch of [Eggplant Spirit Heads] and refined nearly a hundred [Eggplant Brain CPUs] in one go. He was quite well-off, which allowed him to cultivate five hybrid beastmen into a knock-off version of the [Tomato (Gourd) Five Brothers].

Now, another fresh [Brain Eggplant CPU] has been delivered to it without warning. The 'miniature. gyrate brain eggplant', about the size of an infant's fist, has just fallen into the cranial cavity and has already taken root, spreading out dense 'black capillary roots' that penetrate the wooden skull and quickly shuttle through the 'vascular system' pre-reserved inside the 'wooden head'.

This tacit cooperation is like a renovation team entering a bare house and discovering that water, electricity, and gas lines have already been pre-installed in the walls and floors.

As the [Brain Eggplant] rapidly took root and spread, the Tiger Demon felt that the empty and lifeless [human head] was slowly gathering new 'polluting fluctuations' and gradually awakening.

The tiger demon's heart leaped with joy, sensing an interesting change. So it raised its paw to press the 'wooden skull' back down, and then stuck the suspended 'tree face' back on as well.

In its perception, those [brain-eggplant.roots (capillaries)] rapidly glued the fractured 'skull' back together. Roots emerging from the 'wooden muscle tissue' of the face also stitched and intertwined the 'tree bark' with the 'wooden skull'.

"what!"

The tree-face opened its mouth and let out a mournful wail: "I...save me! Don't die! Live, live on! Wood Transformation, the wondrous method of stealing heads..."

This wooden skull, or rather this large tree, seems to store fragments of information about the 'deceased' from their lifetime. These intense obsessions are captured, absorbed, and attempted to be read by the [Brain Eggplant CPU].

The fragments of information successfully read by [Brain Eggplant (Datafied Soul Program)] were now being shouted out by [Tree Face]. In addition, there were large sections of gibberish, which were incomprehensible.

Snake began diligently translating the gibberish in the [Brain Eggplant], constantly extracting valuable fragments of information, and then concluded: "Interesting, this tree was intentionally modified by this 'Wooden Head'. In his previous life, he was a [Rain Academy] student who accidentally entered the [Misty Mountains]... no, he was a student who violated the [Rain Academy] rules and secretly went into the mountains to find rare materials."

"After entering the mountains, he used his homemade equipment to fight against the mental pollution and erosion of the 'mist'. But as time went by, the defensive effect began to decline, and at the same time, he heard a lot of 'poisonous knowledge' and eventually got lost. During his time lost, he wandered around and came here. His mental state was already very poor. Knowing that he could not escape alive, he had a bold idea."

"The Art of Transformation of Wood" is a secret technique for achieving longevity that he heard about. It involves 'skinning a living person' and grafting them into a large tree, using the tree bark to wrap the original skin, receiving nourishment from the plant, and sharing a long life with the tree... As for the "Masterful Method of Stealing Heads," it is basic knowledge promoted by the [School of Wisdom]. It allows one to remove their own head without dying, refine it into a life-bound [Servant], and then steal another person's head and graft it onto their own neck."

Tiger Demon found it very interesting, then paused, "Wait a minute, 'The Wonderful Method of Stealing Heads,' the 'Thief Clan' that Zhou Chu mentioned! She warned Mengxi not to embark on the evil path of thievery! How did it become the foundational knowledge of the 'School of Knowledge'?"

Snake responded, "This tree-faced human head has existed for who knows how many years. The time he entered the mountains must have been decades or even hundreds of years ago. At that time, the [School of Knowledge] was still in [Rain Courtyard], before it moved to Taixi City. So, the 'Head-Stealing Technique' may not have been listed as a 'forbidden evil art' yet, and could be considered a basic course?"

Tiger Demon complained, "Back then, Rain Academy was so open-minded, teaching 'Dark Magic' instead of 'Defense Against the Dark Arts'?"

Snake: "Pretty much! Before this guy died, his mind had been corrupted by 'Contaminated Knowledge'. But he also knew that he would likely bleed to death before successfully 'peeling and transforming'. So he combined the 'Head Stealing Technique' with the 'Transformation Evil Technique', chose this big tree, planted his head in it, and shared the plant's lifespan."

"At first, its head could still function normally. But as time went by, it began to lose its humanity, and the pollution and erosion continued to intensify, eventually turning it into a living dead. Then it completely lost its soul consciousness, and its brain atrophied and disappeared, leaving only a large amount of 'remnants' that, in the form of pollution, permeated and spread throughout the entire tree, being gradually worn away."

"Now that we've installed the [Brain Eggplant CPU], plus that tiny bit of 'plant attribute' compatibility, we've successfully activated the already wooden 'skull' and collected a small amount of 'lingering information' after death. This is all thanks to the [Chang Gui Divine Power]'s compatibility with the 'Yellow Spring Aura'."

According to Snake's explanation, the [Brain Eggplant CPU], as a byproduct of the [Chang Gui Refining], also carries a bit of the 'underworld (Yellow Springs/Death) attribute,' which is just right to collect and interpret the 'residual souls and resentments' left in the big tree.

Upon hearing this, the tiger demon couldn't help but feel somewhat disappointed: "So, its intelligence still isn't enough to answer questions, is that right?"

The 'polluted creatures' captured in the mountains are all mentally challenged and unable to communicate. Perhaps mammals are relatively intelligent and can barely communicate with humans. But the 'mammals' it (the tiger demon) captured were all deeply corrupted by the [polluted energy]. Even if they hadn't become demonic, they were all twisted and insane, their brains burned out, and they weren't quite normal.

Snake: "Communication and answering questions are impossible now. However, over the years, this tree has attracted, seduced, and devoured many 'polluted creatures' from the mountains. When these animals were digested and absorbed, some 'memory images' were preserved. This should be the residual instincts left behind before the [wood] completely died."

In Snake's view, [Wood] did not die suddenly, but rather survived for a period of time by polluting the knowledge of "Yi Wood Transformation". Before its complete death, it had merged with this tree in the form of 'sharing a human head', seized control, and lived a carefree life for a while.

After its second transformation, it actively modified this ordinary tree. It began a new cultivation tree life in the form of a 'human head + tree', and came up with 'sounding for help, numbing aura' and other strange methods.

Unfortunately, this golden age didn't last long; the hidden dangers of 'polluting knowledge' were too numerous. This great tree didn't even have time to transform before it began to degenerate. But its remaining instincts persisted in relentlessly digesting and absorbing various 'polluting organisms,' extracting their essence, and even harvesting fragments of souls…

Now, by reading these 'animal memory fragments,' the snake quickly marked several areas in the nearby 'Misty Mountains' that were suspected of containing 'super predators' or 'high-energy polluted spiritual lands.'

The snake was overjoyed and quickly created a tattered map, which it then sent to its king: "Congratulations, Your Majesty! You're only one step away from establishing your own kingdom! Let's go look at houses and locations now!"

The tiger demon was equally delighted, and with another claw, it pried open the now-fused tree face; then with another claw, it lifted the skull, dug out its own brain CPU, and said with satisfaction, "Let's go!"

(End of this chapter)