CHAPTER 93: MIND HEX (2)

Looking at those words, he felt his mind free— all the chains restraining his memories breaking. His eyes gleamed with a fierce light.

"How could I forget to leave?"

"How could I forget there is life beyond this jungle, this settlement?" As this realization dawned upon him, a shearing pain surged through his head, forcing Harry to fight back.

The mental pressure kept increasing, but he felt he could bear it a little longer.

"Was it immunity from previous attempts or not, he didn’t know."

He used Shadow Step, teleporting 15 meters every time, his mind still breaking. It felt as if he was in a continuous battle with his own consciousness.

As time passed, he began losing strings of his memories. They were being engulfed by a shroud of darkness that Harry couldn’t see through. He was losing access to them.

First, the memory of what he wrote on the paper vanished, followed by the recollection of his previous escape attempt. Then the memory of seeing the root of the tree in his dantian disappeared.

Harry knew this was all happening because of the tree. It wasn’t a normal tree—it was a beast that fed upon the cultivation of those bound to it. Harry was sure it couldn’t kill him outright, or it would have already, given how much he was resisting.

He was wise enough to know he couldn’t win against this beast’s mental abilities. Thus, he couldn’t hope to hold on to all his memories and still win a battle of wits.

So, he focused on only one thing.

"Escape."

If Harry had tried to hold on to all his memories, he would have lost sight of his goal—escape.

Under immense pressure, with his mind almost crumbling, a resolve kept igniting in his heart.

"Escape."

He reached the edges of the settlement. Without looking back, he continued to glide in shadow, intent on running.

But then, as he approached outer periphery he saw more than a hundred students stood against him. Their eyes were hollow, as if they weren’t in control of their own minds.

Harry tried to pass through them in the shadow form, but the ground ignited in flames, forcing him out.

As he stepped outside, he felt the pressure on his mind beginning to dwindle.

"So, this is your limit," Harry muttered. His memories still hadn’t returned, but to attack these people—who looked as good as dead—he didn’t need memories or a reason.

The tree had limits too. Controlling almost a hundred students must have drained its abilities. That was likely why it couldn’t maintain the same mental pressure on Harry, whose individual mental fortitude was stronger than that of all the students combined.

The reason for this was his soul cultivation, which was synonymous with mental cultivation.

Harry was using as much energy as he could to fortify his mental resistance.

He couldn’t take help from Wolfie, since there was a chance the tree could also control it and turn it against him.

Wolfie wasn’t under a forced soul contract, which meant if it attacked Harry, he could kill it—but there was nothing preventing it from trying to kill him.

Either way, it was a loss for Harry. So he rejected the idea.

A large tank full of red water with a slight black tint poured onto the ground.

Harry was thinking of using blood as weapon but not everything went according to his plans.

Flames flared up, vaporizing the blood. Then the temperature dropped rapidly, trying to freeze the remaining blood. Water rippled across the ground, trying to cleanse it. Several different elements clashed, countering anything Harry could plan.

Harry first showed disbelief, then calmness. The uncoordinated attacks made it clear: the controller didn’t have absolute control over them and likely wouldn’t for long.

The ice and water were fighting against the fire.

Harry poured essence into his Hemostasis skill. Controlling the blood, a wall thicker than steel rose before him.

Next, shadows rippled, growing colder as they manifested into reality. Another wall rose beside the first.

Harry knew these two weren’t ideal as barriers, but in the end, he used the final nail in the coffin:

An invisible barrier—one specialized in blocking.

Without looking back, he used the shadows again. Each step carried him 15 meters forward. He knew escape was hard on this side, so he decided to try the other.

Although the mental attack had lessened, it hadn’t vanished. He was still susceptible to forgetting. That’s why he didn’t try to complicate things.

But Harry had underestimated the beast’s intelligence. As he rushed to the other side, a full-fledged mental attack struck—but this time, Harry was ready.

His soul, his Qi—every form of energy he had—worked together to fortify his mental defenses. He looked around. The students now acted normal, as if nothing had happened.

Then a loud roar came from them. All of them looked lost—but this time, they didn’t attack.

Their faces flushed with emotion, as if they had realized something.

"Oh my... run!" roars echoed through the settlement.

The mental hex broke over the students. Some, already near the edges of the settlement, ran out the moment they realized what had been happening.

But on the other side, Harry’s eyes were vacant.

All his prevention went in vain.

The students who had been running stopped in their tracks. Barely ten students had made it out before everything settled again.

Harry realized he had been running fast—but where was he going?

His mind felt exhausted, as if it had fought a psychological war.

But he couldn’t remember anything.

"Wait, what happened since morning?" Harry tried to recall, but nothing came to mind.

Sighing heavily, he returned to his room.

Outside the settlement, ten or so students looked back at the large compound.

"What was that?" Olivia asked, her heartbeat racing.

"That cursed tree—we were trapped," another man replied, trying to piece things together.

"How the hell did I lose two levels of my cultivation?" another student exclaimed.

Olivia ignored the noise. Her memories had returned. She remembered the moment the mind hex broke for about half a minute. She was just lucky enough to be on the outer edges of the tree’s influence.

She was curious—what could have caused the break?

She had also lost about a level of cultivation in those days, and that thought made her grim.

She looked into her dantian and saw a blue root.

She noticed it only now.

"I never saw it before," Olivia thought. Since her memories had returned, she would have remembered if she’d discovered the root earlier and then forgotten.

It was changing—maybe that was why she noticed it now.

The blue color was fading. It shifted from dark blue to light blue, then from blue to light brown, and finally to dark brown.

In the span of two minutes, the root had transformed from blue to brown.