Monsters Die When Killed-Chapter 54 - 30: Embryonic Fruit

July 28, 2014. 7:00 AM.

The day begins with a meal, a rule that applies to both people and plants.

To be honest, judging by the writhing reaction of the Wisdom Tree Essence Soul in his Soul Space, it seemed rather unwilling when Su Zhou watered it with pickle juice.

"It’s so picky."

But Su Zhou, the cold and heartless watering machine, couldn’t be bothered with that. He first turned to water the potted garlic, ginger, and scallions with the Wood Spirit Liquid-laced pickle juice before coming back to water the tree. Passing through the living room, he complained loudly, "Yara, didn’t you say the Divine Tree was easy to raise? How can it not even handle pickle juice?"

Yara, who was in the living room watching the morning news, had no desire to respond and instead simply turned up the TV volume.

Su Zhou wasn’t too bothered by this. His Soul was connected to the Wisdom Tree’s Essence Soul, and although it kept writhing, the feeling of ’hungry, hungry, hungry, hungry’ it transmitted was clearly diminishing. It seemed to be drinking quite happily after all.

’So the "this sucks... wait, this is amazing" rule applies to everything, huh?’

Of course, Su Zhou wasn’t a total Demon. After pouring the pickle juice, he took out the Wood Centipede’s Spiritual Blood and, without a second thought, emptied a bag of it in. SPLASH!

[BLISS]

"...?"

At first, Su Zhou thought he was having an Auditory Hallucination, but the echo in his Soul wouldn’t lie. Seeing the leaves and branches of the Wisdom Tree Pot Plant seem to stretch out a little, he thought for a moment, then poured in another bag of Spiritual Blood.

[BLIIISS~]

Sure enough, Su Zhou found he’d heard the word ’BLISS’ again!

This immediately struck him as fun. Without another word, Su Zhou poured in the remaining two bags of Spiritual Blood. A total of four liters of Spiritual Blood had now been poured into the pot, yet there was no sign of it overflowing. The corrosive Spiritual Blood, which gave off a sweet, coppery smell, didn’t even singe a single leaf. Instead, it was absorbed completely!

With all four liters of Spiritual Blood absorbed, the trunk of the Wisdom Tree Pot Plant began to shimmer with light!

A pure white brilliance shot out from the cracks in the bark. The sacred light spread along the veins of its branches and leaves, vaporizing into strange wisps of azure mist that gave off an ancient, distant feeling. Su Zhou keenly sensed a trace of Divinity within the azure mist. This Divinity both clashed and merged with the Wisdom Tree’s own sacred light—a testament to the fact that the strong can plunder everything from the weak.

’The Wood Centipede must have been the Beloved of some kind of Divine Tree,’ he thought. ’And from the looks of it, different Divine Woods are competitors? Seems like they can’t get along.’

The thought vanished as quickly as it came. Seeing the Wisdom Tree Pot Plant’s branches and leaves, which were now clearly much lusher, Su Zhou was thrilled. He immediately took out the bag of Wood Spirit Liquid, set aside a portion for the Centipede Egg Soup, and cheerfully poured all the rest in.

[GOOD!]

This time, what Su Zhou heard in his mind wasn’t just simple happiness, but a strong sense of anticipation and approval. He could also see that as the Wood Spirit Liquid, rich with Wood Attribute Spiritual Qi, soaked into the soil and was absorbed by the Wisdom Tree sapling, faint, pure white lines—both holy and pure—appeared all over its body!

Then, all the lines began to converge. The glowing patterns gathered on two sides of a branch, condensing at the tips to form the tiny buds of two fruits!

"They’re growing!"

Looking at the two tiny buds, each two sizes smaller than his pinky fingernail, Su Zhou’s heart filled with the pure and simple joy of a Transcendent. To be honest, he’d felt a pang of regret when pouring out the Wood Spirit Liquid. After all, he had only gotten one bag for killing an entire Evil Demon. If the Wisdom Tree hadn’t reacted after being watered with it, he would have thrown a fit!

Thankfully, the Wisdom Tree sapling wasn’t so high-maintenance. Although the fruit hadn’t fully formed yet, at least the Spiritual Liquid irrigation was working. The progress bar was going up.

"No matter the task, as long as there’s a progress bar, I’ll get it done!"

He patted the Wisdom Tree sapling, then poked the Wisdom Tree Essence Soul in his Soul Space, provoking an unhappy wriggle. Content, Su Zhou got up and left, ready to go to sleep.

The battle with the Wood Centipede had been brief but intense, consuming a great deal of his mental energy, but the rewards had also been immense.

’Once Qiming has the materials ready, I can start preparing for the Awakening Orbit.’

Lying in bed, the back of his head just about to touch the pillow, Su Zhou thought, ’After my Awakening, there will be a lot of things I can do, whether it’s exorcising the Evil Spirits from Aunt Wen and Qiming, or forging a new weapon... Haaa~’

He was asleep.

It was a habit of Su Zhou’s: asleep the moment his head hit the pillow, leaving all fatigue behind.

Meanwhile, in front of the living room TV, Yara was intently browsing the news from all over, not even skipping the international news channel. The Snake Spirit processed and analyzed every detail, cross-referencing it with the information it already possessed.

After a long time, it turned off the television and began to think, its expression serious.

"This world... is so different from what I imagined."

Looking up at the ceiling, Yara’s gaze seemed to pierce through the concrete and the sky, reaching into the High Heaven beyond. Its voice was a whisper only it could hear. "This inexplicable information disturbance... it’s a complete hodgepodge. How could a normal world be like this? Where in the Void is this world? Why can’t I recognize it at all?!"

"What happened in the Void during all the years we were Sealed?"

"The Sealing Sect... the Celestial God Seal... the truth..."

When Su Zhou woke up, five hours had passed.

"Perfect, 12:10 PM. Time to wash up and get some lunch."

Checking the time, the boy, feeling hungry again, got out of bed looking refreshed. He then discovered Yara perched on his left ear, also asleep.

This made him subconsciously slow his movements a little.

The TV in the living room was still on, now playing the Hongcheng local noon news. Turning the volume down a bit, Su Zhou listened to the current events while brushing his teeth in the bathroom.

Then, he heard a few rather familiar stories.

At 4:00 AM today, a large-scale gas leak occurred in the residential area around Gan River Second Road. Local Patrols and fire departments were dispatched urgently, safely evacuating 461 citizens. Repair crews are currently conducting emergency repairs.

A seventh victim has emerged in the major 719 serial killer case. Local police state they have found a key clue and will soon apprehend the culprit to close the case, urging residents not to panic.

Hongcheng has been selected as this year’s Best Green City...

’Looks like the authorities have found the Wood Centipede Evil Demon’s corpse and nest,’ he mused. ’And this whole "Best Green City" award—is that the troublesome reason all these Wood Attribute Demon Fiends are showing up?’

It all sounded like very normal news, but Su Zhou, who knew the real story, understood the truth behind these official reports. Realizing his battle might have affected innocent people, he scratched his head in frustration. ’Fighting in the city really does affect other people,’ he thought, ’but if I hadn’t killed the Evil Demon as soon as possible, it would have harmed even more... My judgment might have been a bit off, but I had to do it.’

Su Zhou could still remember the corpses in the sewers, used to cultivate the Black Moss. No one wants to be snatched away by a giant insect in the dead of night, only to rot in filthy sewage.

But even when doing the right thing, one should always strive to do it in a ’more right’ way. This was Su Zhou’s creed.

Fortunately, while Su Zhou was friendly and helpful, he wasn’t one to get bogged down by pointless worries. He opened the fridge, ate eight slices of bread and drank a carton of milk (for a total of 960 Calories), got dressed, then snatched up the phone and called his best friend.

"Hey, Qiming? It’s Su Zhou! I’m ready..."

「Meanwhile, at the Hongcheng Academy First Affiliated Hospital.」

In a hidden, completely sealed, large-scale underground sterile room, a total of thirty-four Physicians with the rank of professor or associate professor were waiting.

"Didn’t they say it might not be sent over for another week or two?"

"According to the news, the target was unexpectedly exposed last night and was killed by a special operations team that rushed to the scene."

"I heard this target is completely different from the mutated beasts we’ve seen before, like the Two-headed Serpent or the human-faced fish. This one is a true Demon that has fully completed its Awakening..."

Physicians who were familiar with each other were quietly discussing topics that would seem incredible to the outside world. It sounded less like rigorous medicine and more like a collection of Kaidan and Anomalies.

"Did I miss an episode, or an entire TV series...?"

The scene made Su’s Mother, Ning Shiyu, who was here for the first time, feel a sense of dislocation, as if she’d stumbled into one of the urban legends her son was always watching.

But soon, the legend was no longer a legend.

Because as a specially reinforced, refrigerated transport truck entered the hospital’s underground parking garage, the assembled professors and directors, standing ready, were about to welcome their first-ever dissection subject with the "Extraordinary" prefix into the massive and specially fortified operating theater.

It was a Wood Centipede, pinned from head to tail by seven massive Rune Iron Nails. Yet, through the use of numerous Secret Techniques, its body was still being kept biologically active.