CHAPTER 186: CHAPTER 182: BENEATH THE ANCIENT TREE

Wang Wu, upon hearing this, immediately glanced at Elder Song, then at the withered old tree a hundred meters away, and his heart skipped a beat. Could it be that Wolf Bu’er, embarrassed and enraged, was planning to silence him?

That shouldn’t be the case, though.

But why was there still this nagging feeling of unease?

Could it be he’s planning to take me by force?

This is his domain here—a Third-Grade Great Demon, three small towns, as wealthy as a nation, a true ancient clan of a thousand years. Perhaps he should just go along with it.

Work hard, become a bootlicker, and then have a little wolf pup in the future... Wait, what are you thinking? That’s nonsense!

Wang Wu cursed himself a thousand times over, failing to be a bootlicker back on his home planet Earth, only to play one again after transmigrating into this Cultivation Realm. What a wasted transmigration that would be.

Never give in!

At that moment, Wang Wu had already made up his mind.

Shooting another glance at the wooden-faced Elder Song, he strode boldly forward, prepared to fight at any moment.

Hmm, why is there no reaction?

Even as Wang Wu arrived at the foot of the withered tree, all was calm, and behind the tree, a door had opened, revealing a winding passage of steps.

Dust and dead leaves covered it, telling a tale of long abandonment.

Wang Wu turned back for another look, and Elder Song still stood there with a strange smile. Ah, this sight was terrifying!

Nevertheless, his Level 16 Danger Perception didn’t react at all, so he steeled himself and walked in, following the downward stair path, layer after layer.

He had no idea how deep the trunk of this old tree was, but Wang Wu cautiously made his way down for nearly an hour before finally reaching the bottom.

Wow, at least ten thousand meters deep.

Truly worthy of a Subspecies Ancient Tree.

The space below was somewhat large, but the layout felt oddly familiar.

Indeed, Grandpa Tree’s branch heart looked just like this.

The heart at the center, roots spreading around; Wang Wu dared not act rashly but maintained his 15+1 Passive Concealment. Speaking of, his current Passive Concealment could already evade the Insight of a Third-Grade Great Demon at a certain distance. Coupled with the concealment effect of the Hundred-Change Ruyi Demon Leaf and the effect of Level 3 Grass and Wood Affinity, his concealment was actually quite strong.

Even if there were traps down here or any risks, he could manage not to alert them.

As long as he didn’t accidentally trigger any mechanisms.

After all, he was growing more certain that Wolf Bu’er was unlikely to commit murder to silence him, but the possibility of taking him by force stood at 99%.

However, this underground space was indeed extremely quiet, and his Level 16 Danger Perception offered no feedback.

This led him to self-doubt: Could it be that his Level 16 Passive Concealment was so outstanding that the dangerous targets couldn’t find him, hence Danger Perception wouldn’t trigger?

Pretty sucky situation!

"Forget it! Meeting you, Wolf Bu’er, is my bad luck. Why can’t you learn from Yuan Bupu and be a master of playing dumb? Is being a die-hard fan of Xiong Shiliu really that appealing?"

Wang Wu ranted again, and then, without hesitation, he attempted once more to engrave Passive Concealment onto the third Acupoint Opening Demon Pill!

Yes, not engraving anything else.

Facing a Demonic Clan existing for thousands of years, could he increase his strength enough in a short time to engage Third-Grade masters in a head-on fight?

Could he possibly arrogantly shout, "Thirty years east of the river, thirty years west of the river, don’t bully the poor youth"?

One little finger from them could crush him.

And yet, such matters seemed only natural to them; they weren’t killing him. If he’d just humble himself a bit and become a bootlicker, what would be the harm?

So Wang Wu could only choose to avoid—they say discretion is the better part of valor—flee as fast as possible.

Of course, he was just trying to see if it would work; if it didn’t, then so be it.

As it turned out, upon engraving, it was successful.

Very smoothly.

The moment it was successfully engraved, his Passive Concealment elevated to 15+2, equivalent to Level 17 Passive Concealment.

And besides, due to the enhancement of two Acupoint Opening Demon Pill-fueled Passive Concealments, he gained an entirely new, more powerful Talent Effect.

"When utilizing the Inner Breathing Technique, circulating Blood Qi throughout, and fully activating both Acupoint Opening Demon Pills, your Passive Concealment Talent will temporarily increase by 2 levels beyond the original, effective for three days."

——

Such a simple sentence, yet it almost brought Wang Wu to tears; if this wasn’t a sense of security, what was?

15+4, equating to Level 19 Passive Concealment.

Given that there’s no comprehensive explanation in the attribute bar, even Bear Mother hasn’t managed to raise Passive Concealment to Level 19.

If not, there would definitely be a heap of detailed gain-and-loss descriptions.

Fantastic!

Security +100!

Next,

Wang Wu thought for a moment and cautiously continued forward; he’s already here, he might as well see what trick Wolf Bu’er had up his sleeve, no?

But the thick roots around, their surfaces showed no signs of decay.

As for the center, that should be the Tree Heart, looking pitch black, as if bound by layers of chains. Could this be how the Lang Family enslaved Elder Song and forced him into servitude?

Highly possible.

As Wang Wu mused, he moved around and came full circle back to the stairway entrance, this underground space still silent as ever.

There’s no mechanism here, and certainly no danger.

Whew!

Looks like the problem lies here, his Concealment effect is too strong.

Thinking of this, he pulled out the Broken Sword from his Storage Pouch and flung it forward with a loud clang.

Yet, the surroundings remained silent.

Oh dear, this is tricky!

Wang Wu gritted his teeth and, while fully prepared, directly deactivated Passive Concealment. This time, danger surely would reveal itself, right?

One second, two seconds, three seconds!

The surroundings were still quiet.

He ran over, retrieved the Broken Sword, activated his Lifebound Demon Soldiers, unleashed Red Flame Spiritual Qi, shouted and made faces, even farted...

Alright, it was a false alarm.

Seems he really was judging others by his own measure of petty reasoning.

Next, he started to work seriously. The rotten tree roots, though hard to recognize, were no issue since he had the Companion Demon Vine, right?

He gave an order to release the Companion Demon Vine Tentacles. If the tentacles found something delicious, it must be a healthy tree root; if they found it extraordinarily tasty, then without a doubt, it was a rotten tree root.

He had no need to use his Lifebound Demon Soldiers; he just grabbed the Broken Sword and wildly chopped at the tree roots, and indeed, the effect was remarkably good.

Especially now that his Power had reached 74 points, a single swing could cut nearly a meter deep.

However, after cutting it open, Wang Wu discovered that the so-called rotten tree roots were actually those with hollow insides, probably long since eaten out by something, leaving the valuable heartwood gone.

Just as he thought of this, a shadow of unease passed through his mind, seeming like a crisis was coming.

No time to think it over, Wang Wu leaped backward more than twenty meters in one jump; with his agility now at 73 points, his reaction speed was incredibly fast.

Almost simultaneously, the spot he had just vacated was hit by three shots of black poison, instantly corroding a large pit there.

Such strong corrosiveness.

Instead of panic, Wang Wu was elated, forcefully pushing himself forward like a bullet, tunneling into the tree root passage, and locked onto a target ahead. Even though in the next moment, three more shots of black poison spewed toward him.

But Wang Wu completely ignored it, charged through the poison, seized the thing, and forcibly yanked it out.

Good heavens, what is this thing?

Slick and flexible like intestines, pulling out one section brought out a whole bunch?

Why does it feel like a pork tapeworm?

In an instant, this thing reversed and wound around him, spewing more poison, was it truly so fearless of death?

Wang Wu immediately activated Ice Spiritual Qi, instantly turning into frost, freezing the thing for a moment, then wildly swung the Broken Sword, chopping it into pieces.

That’s it?

Too easy.

Wang Wu was disdainful; from beginning to end, this thing hadn’t even caused him the slightest harm, including poison damage.

Next, he climbed up the tree root passage to inspect the spot where he had yanked the thing out. It was a branch path.

Hmm, there was a slight fragrance of grass and wood, and it was a bit slippery, seemingly some liquid flowing in from another area.

So Wang Wu made an effort and arduously crawled through until he could go no further, as there was no path ahead.

And here, the grass and wood fragrance was even stronger, with some liquid steadily dripping down.

He hesitated for a second.

Yet he couldn’t resist some instinct, stuck out his tongue and licked it, and in the next second, he almost exploded on the spot, it was too delicious, was this honey?

Or concentrated essence of ancient tree vegetation?

Just one drop, giving him a 400-point boost in Satiety and 400 points in Spiritual Qi.

It’s as good as a Rapid-Growth Spirit Fruit.

Then what was there to talk about, come on, let’s have fun!

Wang Wu happily accepted all of it, drinking all the liquid wasn’t enough; he even gnawed on the Tree Heart, hmm, a bit chewy, but still delicious!

Unknowingly, he had eaten his way into a big pit.

"Wait, isn’t this dereliction of duty?"

When the Satiety in the attribute bar explosively surpassed 20,000+, and Spiritual Qi reached 20,000+, Wang Wu finally came to his senses, a feeling of guilt spreading all over. He, after all, was a bear with morals, ideals, bottom lines, and principles.

"Burp!"

Letting out a full burp, he shed tears of repentance, he was stuck, couldn’t get out.

Luckily, it wasn’t a big problem.

Wang Wu silently opened the attribute bar, and without further ado, consumed 12,500 points of Spiritual Qi, enhancing the Passive Concealment, raising it to 15+1, with the specific effect still improved, probably a 10% increase.

Besides that, there were a few more new descriptions.

"You can unconditionally evade any Insight Divine Techniques or similar reconnaissance arrays and scouting treasures of all Human Race, Demon Race, and Spirit Monsters of Fourth Grade and below."

"When being targeted by higher tier Insight Daoist Divine Techniques exceeding Fourth Grade, unless you are tied in place and the distance between you and the target is less than 10 meters, a perception judgment will be triggered 100% of the time."

"Once the judgment is triggered, regardless of success or failure, you will successfully conceal 50% of your own information. If the judgment fails, you will lose 50% of your own information; if it succeeds, you will escape the lock."