"You brought the Spirit Medicine you purchased, preparing to find a natural location rich in Life Energy to concoct medicine."

"By a stroke of fate, you found a place perfectly suited for concocting medicine."

"However, the place was strange. Cyan Treasure and Benny were both captivated by the sight of the great, starlit tree, and they lost their reason."

"Seeing this tree and this scene, you finally realized that was Evil Qi."

As Gu Ming turned to look at the tree, he noticed out of the corner of his eye that the system’s plot text was rapidly refreshing.

When both Pet Beasts began acting abnormally, he immediately used the system text to determine that the situation was dire.

’Evil Qi?’

’Is this tree a Demon Fiend? A Tree Demon?’

Judging by the tree’s appearance alone, tiny flecks of starlight flowed across every leaf, transforming the surrounding mist into a starlit vista.

Anyone who didn’t know better would think they had stumbled upon true Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures.

"Don’t move! Don’t eat a Spiritual Object whose properties haven’t been tested!" Gu Ming reached out, holding back Cyan Treasure and Benny, the Dumb Flower.

But the two Pet Beasts were completely bewitched. Their noses were filled with the fragrant aroma, and their Spiritual Wills had crumbled.

Even with Gu Ming holding them back, they refused to stop. It was as if a voice in their minds was constantly tempting them: ’Forward, eat it, eat it, and you will gain the Power of Evolution.’

The fragrance was so strong that even Ah Kun, the Water Element pet, and Mouse Treasure, the Earth Element pet, began to stir restlessly. Their eyes turned red, and their stomachs started to growl.

Wang Teng hadn’t yet sensed the severity of the situation. He only perceived through Benny that the tree’s Essence of Life was exceptional—a super-potent tonic for a Grass Element Pet. It was so potent that it didn’t even need to be mixed with any other medicines to be neutralized; it could be consumed directly to grow stronger.

But Wang Teng had overlooked one thing.

If a Spirit Medicine was truly so potent, yet easy to digest and required no secondary processing, it was definitely not something a One-star Pet Beast could handle.

Its true Star Level had to be far beyond the Realms of the two Pet Beasts.

Gu Ming saw that the Pet Beasts by his side were no longer listening to him, all of them starting to walk toward the tree.

Even without fully grasping the wariness and fear that future Beastmasters held for Demon Fiends, Gu Ming knew he had to act.

Anyone else trying to stop the Pet Beasts could only physically hold them and try to calm them down.

But Gu Ming could use his Sword of Spiritual Sense to sever their mental connection to the outside world.

Even a momentary disconnection would be enough to let them temporarily regain their clarity.

As for how long that clarity would last, that depended on how powerful this Tree Demon before them was.

With a single mental command, Gu Ming vibrated the Divine Sense Sword Body being nurtured in his Sea of Consciousness.

He had already used this Sword Body several times during the day, and to be honest, he hadn’t rested much. The Sword Body was currently in a dim, lusterless state.

Gu Ming shouldn’t have used it, but to restore his Pet Beasts’ clarity, he had no choice but to unleash his Sea of Consciousness Sword Qi, sweeping it across the four pets beside him in an instant.

VMM!

"Snap out of it!"

"That’s not an edible Spirit Medicine, it’s a Tree Demon! A living Demon Fiend!"

The moment Gu Ming used his Sword Qi, he felt his Sea of Consciousness being instantly drained.

’As I thought, I’ve used my Divine Sense too many times today.’

’Having only just cultivated my Divine Sense, I haven’t had time to consolidate and stabilize it. This was a bit reckless.’

The fanatical look in the two Pet Beasts’ eyes faded, and they heard Gu Ming’s voice.

Cyan Treasure hesitated. ’Those Spirit Leaves on the tree look so tempting,’ it thought. ’Can I really not eat them?’

Benny the Dumb Flower’s roots were dug into the ground. In its moment of clarity, it sensed the movements of all the Spirit Trees within a hundred-meter radius.

Besides the great, starlit tree before them, there was an even more massive Root Network underground. The root tendrils were entirely black, and each one acted like a bloodsucker, constantly absorbing Life Energy from the ground, pulsing and throbbing ceaselessly.

That strange blackness gave Benny an unimaginable sensation of life being plundered.

Yet the Spirit Tree on the surface appeared so gentle, serene, and exuded an aroma that was irresistible to other plants.

Wang Teng simultaneously perceived the information from Benny and found the scene incredibly disjointed. He had the distinct feeling of heaven on the surface and hell down below.

"Damn it, Gu Ming was right! Let’s get out of here!" Wang Teng shouted.

Wang Teng grabbed Benny, trying to drag it away, but in the blink of an eye, the Dumb Flower was once again overcome by the pollen filling the air. It became ravenous and difficult to control again.

"What do we do, what do we do... That’s it!"

In his panic, Wang Teng remembered an emergency procedure his tutor had taught him and quickly looked up to call for help.

"Proctors! Can you hear me? Help us! Get us out of here!"

The Thousand-eyed Wind Bird hadn’t noticed anything unusual about the Starlight Spirit Tree before.

It was only when Gu Ming sent out his Sword Qi, stimulating the Thousand-eyed Wind Bird with the sharp edge of Old Deng’s Health Sword Array, that it perceived the strangeness of this place.

Even though the perception lasted only an instant, the information was transmitted to the monitoring area and noticed by the proctors.

Thanks to him being ranked first in the entire province.

Many teachers were currently observing Gu Ming.

Less than two seconds after the report of the anomaly in the herb garden came in, the proctors directed the Thousand-eyed Wind Bird to carry out a rescue, grabbing Gu Ming’s group and their Pet Beasts and pulling them out of the garden.

Perhaps because Gu Ming’s group had seen through the deception, the entity within the herb garden was alerted.

From beneath the calm soil of the herb garden, a dull, throbbing sound emerged, like the heartbeat of an ancient python.

When the first black root broke through the ground, it was coated in a viscous, dark purple slime, its tendril-like branches writhing madly in the air.

Immediately after, the earth split as if cleaved by a giant axe, and countless roots burst forth. Each one was as thick as a bucket, and their surfaces were covered in the contorted faces of various beasts.

Gu Ming was in the air, held by the Thousand-eyed Wind Bird, watching as the ground below cracked and shattered. Endless black roots tore the entire herb garden’s surface to shreds, as if a world of trees had descended.

The tree’s aura was no longer disguised. It shed its facade, revealing an extremely distinct, dark presence.

This was the Demon Tree.

The starlit leaves from before now all developed black edges. The mist grew darker and darker, and the other Spirit Trees in the area quickly withered.

Gu Ming had no time to mourn the loss of the herb garden he had just secured. After seeing this scene, he only felt a deep-seated terror, a chill that made his hands and feet go cold and his scalp tingle with fear.

On the newly emerged black trunk, flowers of five colors—red, yellow, blue, green, and white—bloomed simultaneously.

Never mind the yellow, blue, green, and white flowers; they hadn’t blossomed yet.

The brilliant red flower, however, was half-open, and from the cracks in its bud flowed steaming hot, fresh blood.

That was from the local Spirit Beasts of the herb garden. So they had all been turned into nutrients.

Thinking back carefully, Gu Ming was suddenly struck by a horrifying realization.

When they had entered the herb garden, it had been completely quiet, with no other sounds at all.

He had mistaken it for the tranquility of the night, but it turned out he had been in the garden all along, his mind influenced, causing him to overlook the suspicious fact that there were no living creatures in the herb garden.

The black roots intertwined into a spiderweb-like network, slowly devouring the entire valley.

What surged from the cracks in the ground was not soil, but clumps of black mist.

The mist coalesced into thousands of arms, lifting the five flower buds and stretching them toward the sky.

Lu You looked down at the scene below and was so frightened she couldn’t even scream.

She saw the herb garden, torn apart by the roots, looking like a shattered jigsaw puzzle.

When the last bit of green in the herb garden was devoured...

The five flowers simultaneously let out a piercing shriek like a baby’s cry. The red petals opened completely, revealing the throbbing core within the stamen.

It was a Star wrapped in flesh and blood. Each time it flickered, the Spiritual Qi between heaven and earth trembled.

At that moment, the herb garden transformed into a demonic altar, and the black roots were the fiendish claws holding it aloft.