Chapter 67: Chapter 67: The Second Angel Envoy: Human-faced Tree
As Su Han's contract orders were issued, the second page of the Book of Blood Spirit turned, and a red glow appeared from the book, engulfing the corpse of the Human-faced Tree within it.
It wasn't just the nearly seven-meter trunk of the main body, but also those scattered, larger vine branches: the red light almost illuminated the entire parking lot.
"Everyone, be on alert, take out the Lamp Tree Crystals, and be careful of monster ambushes,"
Zhu Xiong's expression was grave, fearing someone might disturb Su Han's contract.
He and Gan Xinglei protected Su Han from left and right, while Ye Kailing had the others spread out around the parking lot, keeping Su Han and the Human-faced Tree in the very center.
The contract for the second Angel Envoy was slower than the first. Su Han concentrated his mind, carefully perceiving the entire contracting process.
He could feel that he was gradually establishing a connection with the Human-faced Tree, perceiving its presence, and threads of reciprocating energy began to flow into his body.
His body was becoming further enhanced: strength, speed, reaction... his senses and the ability to perceive the active Spiritual Energy around him were all strengthening.
Bai Qilan's guess seemed to be right; this energy that appeared due to mutation was indeed somewhat related to the mind.
Su Han could feel this active force through his own mind. His body's enhancement, contract forming, and monster's advancement all revolved around Spiritual Energy.
However, before he could perceive more carefully in this state, the contract was already complete. The Human-faced Tree turned entirely into red light and vanished into the Book of Blood Spirit like a wisp of smoke.
The red light gradually receded, converging onto Su Han's body, and then slowly dissipated.
Su Han opened his eyes, and everyone's gaze focused on him. They involuntarily held their breath, and no one dared to ask questions first.
Su Han revealed a smile and said, "The contract was successful."
As his voice fell, the red light gathered behind him, and the towering Human-faced Tree gradually emerged.
Standing over seven meters tall with thick, pitch-black branches, rough as iron and exuding an air of somber twilight, its extending branches twisted, leaves sparse, seemingly stained with ink like moths symbolizing death temporarily resting on the branches. The vines drooped from the branches, numbering over a hundred, gently swaying, turning like serpents, cold and frightening.
Yet, what sent chills down one's spine was a twisted human face that simply grew on the trunk, blood-red eyes staring ahead, eerie and cold.
Angel Envoy: Human-faced Tree
Rank: Second Order Low Grade
Skills: [Fast-growing Vines]
The Human-faced Tree didn't have many skills; just one. But it was this single skill that made it incredibly difficult to deal with.
The multitude of vines gave it many advantages in close combat: entanglement control and vine attack methods far surpassed common monsters.
The extension of the vines also made several dozen to hundreds of meters around it its territory, deterring ordinary monsters from approaching.
'This skill is not bad, but the shortcomings still need to be compensated for.'
Su Han looked at the panel thoughtfully. He wasn't too worried about supplementing weaknesses because as long as he could fuse materials, there would always be a chance to choose suitable Fusion materials to make up for the shortcomings.
Compared to these, the significant increase in strength from having another Angel Envoy was the most important thing.
"Old Zhu,"
"What's up?"
Su Han looked at Zhu Xiong and said, "Take some people and clean up the remaining buildings to see if there are any survivors."
Zhu Xiong nodded and said, "Got it, I'll go now."
Zhu Xiong led people directly towards the nearby buildings. Su Han did not follow; the Human-faced Tree extended its branch-like hand, lifted him, and placed him onto itself.
Su Han controlled the Human-faced Tree, patrolling around the Happiness Community.
The community was very silent, and even the growling of monsters couldn't be heard through the fog.
Before Su Han and his group had arrived, the Human-faced Tree, as the 'lord' of the area, had already swept other monsters from the place. Explore stories on m,v l'e-m|p y r
Arriving next to the parking lot by building 10, Su Han looked over and saw vehicles scattered and parked everywhere, battered car windows, dented frames, and some cars were completely overturned.
The parking lot had clearly seen a fierce battle, and although the black bloodstains covered the entire area, no corpses were to be seen.
With the Human-faced Tree present, all corpses would become its sustenance.
"More than 20 cars, the metal isn't insignificant, let's try to adapt first."
Su Han controlled the Human-faced Tree which then used the Fast-growing Vines skill. The vines quickly extended outward, wrapping around an overturned car.
From the pitch-black vines, dark silk threads began to secret continuously, then wrapped around the metal, bit by bit starting to fuse.
The speed of the fusion was much slower than Su Han had anticipated, and it was unclear whether it was due to individual reasons or compatibility factors—it took over ten minutes for the metal of the first vehicle to be completely fused.
"10% fusion degree," Su Han frowned slightly, "This parking lot is probably only enough for one fusion."
With a thought, he controlled more vines from the Human-faced Tree to spread out, winding around car after car, then extending dark silk threads to begin fusing the metal.
However, clearly the speed of metal fusion wouldn't increase by much regardless of the number of vines.
After two whole hours, the metal of over twenty vehicles was finally fused clean.
[LV1 Ordinary Metal Fusion complete, skill Metallic Quality obtained]
With the fusion complete, the aura of the Human-faced Tree suddenly strengthened, its thick trunk growing taller, shooting up to over eight meters, branches extending, and both trunk and vines exhibiting a metallic sheen within the pitch-black darkness.
Moved by curiosity, Su Han paid close attention to this new skill, and his eyes lit up, "Does this mean my body now contains metallic substances?"
Metallic Quality, although not an active skill like Iron Skin forming protective layers akin to iron plates, was a passive skill directly amplifying the Human-faced Tree itself.
Originally, the Human-faced Tree was a monster made of a combination of wood and flesh; its vines and branches, though tough, were of a woody nature and its interior even softer, made of flesh.
But now, whether its woody body or its fleshy body, both had additional metallic elements mixed in. Even though it hadn't developed an iron body, both strength and toughness had substantially increased.
If the Spider Warrior were to use Pu knives to strike again, it likely wouldn't be able to sever the vines as easily as before.
Moreover, most importantly, a trunk that had become metallic was undoubtedly far more resistant to fire and high temperatures.
A Human-faced Tree that fears flames and one that doesn't are simply not on the same level.
Sensing the changes in the Human-faced Tree, footsteps soon approached, as Zhu Xiong and the others arrived with Lamp Tree Crystals.
"How's the situation?"
Zhu Xiong shook his head, his voice low, "Not good at all. Buildings four, five and six are all gone, without a single body left behind. They were probably eaten by that thing. Buildings one, two, and three are deserted, just corpses and monsters, all killed."
He looked up at Su Han in the Human-faced Tree and asked, "Do you want those monsters' corpses?"
After a brief contemplation, Su Han said, "Take me over there."
With a thought, the Human-faced Tree lifted Zhu Xiong and the others onto its branches, each one swaying unsteadily, hastily grabbing onto the branches, their hearts hairy with fear.
They couldn't help thinking, 'This monster is even more terrifying than the Spider Warrior; just being up here is a challenge ordinary people can't handle.'
As the Human-faced Tree carried them over, Su Han continued to ask, "What about the rest of the buildings?"
"Building seven goes without saying, we rescued seven people from building eight, building nine..."
Zhu Xiong's expression darkened as he talked about building nine, "I left no survivors in building nine. There were some scumbags messing with women, driving them mad."
A flicker of cold light passed through Su Han's eyes, but his expression remained calm. He wasn't surprised that such people would appear the longer the apocalypse went on.
"And building ten?"
"No survivors, they might have run away."
In the midst of the conversation, the Human-faced Tree arrived beneath building three, and with a thought from Su Han, countless vines from the Human-faced Tree spread towards every floor.
The corpses of monsters were almost all piled in the corridors, and with an extension of a vine, they were already touched.
In just a few minutes, the corpses of the monsters were pulled back by the vines, hanging under the branches in a somewhat eerie fashion.
Aside from Su Han, the others lying on the tree turned somewhat pale, their expressions strange.
They felt as if they were 'fellow passengers' with these corpses.
Following the same process to clear the buildings of monsters, Su Han and his group finally returned to building seven.
Ye Kailing was comforting the rescued people, and the arrival of the Human-faced Tree startled them, but they were soon reassured.
After stuffing the monster corpses into one of the truck trailers, everyone descended one after another, boarding the trucks and jeeps to start heading back.
The vehicles slowly made their way through the fog, with the light from Lamp Tree Crystals illuminating the streets. They hadn't left Happiness Community for long when suddenly the last truck quietly turned on its hazard lights.
Zhu Xiong's expression tensed, and Su Han looked at Zhu Xiong, asking, "What's wrong?"
Zhu Xiong spoke gravely, "Old Guo is signaling. There might be trouble at the back."