Chapter 93: Chapter 93

She used her “Eye of Nature” to carefully inspect this patch of land.

The dead saplings were truly dead, devoid of any natural energy. The lone surviving sapling looked healthy to the naked eye, but through her Eye of Nature, she saw no flow of natural energy—instead, there was a black energy coursing through it.

It was sickening and repulsive.

“Disgusting, repulsive?”

Mu Ying was momentarily confused, but quickly realized this sense of revulsion was likely due to the Eye of Nature. It wasn’t so much that she herself hated it, but rather that her eyes were telling her that nature itself abhorred this thing.

She took a few steps back, and a massive Scythe of Balance appeared in her hands. She activated its creature-detection ability.

“Gantias Demon Tree Seedling: An evil plant formed after being tainted by the blood essence of the vampire Gantias. It grows by spreading a dark plague that erodes natural energy, producing Withered Monster Seeds. It is extremely resilient—just a single root fragment can sprout anew, making it very difficult to kill by ordinary means…”

Judging by the detection results, this was definitely no good thing. The previous patch of withered forest was probably caused by this very sapling!

Mu Ying didn’t hesitate any longer—she’d use this as an opportunity to test the power of the Scythe of Balance.

The huge scythe seemed like overkill for a sapling barely as thick as a finger, but when it actually struck, the effect was anything but ordinary.

The sapling seemed to have its life force instantly drained, withering rapidly—just like the plants it had previously corrupted.

Yet the sapling remained upright, and a bead of bright red blood oozed from the tip of its dried branch.

She checked again with the Eye of Nature—the repulsive black aura was gone. It seemed the Scythe of Balance truly was the nemesis of such things.

[You have purified a Gantias Demon Tree Seedling. Gained: 50 class experience, 1 completely withered Gantias Demon Tree Seedling, 1 Vampire Blood Essence, 1 root with faint vitality.]

From the amount of class experience, it was clear how dangerous the Gantias Demon Tree was. Although Mu Ying hadn’t struggled much, if someone didn’t know what they were dealing with and lacked the Scythe of Balance to purify it, they might not be able to kill it completely.

After all, even a raging fire hadn’t killed the demon tree before—it had survived, sprouted anew, and gone undetected by her.

If she hadn’t planned to replant this area, she probably wouldn’t have discovered anything unusual.

Following the adventure log’s prompts, Mu Ying collected the red blood bead in a glass vial, then carefully dug up the entire sapling, finally finding a segment of root with faint natural energy.

These adventure log drops could be examined using the item identification function.

[Withered Gantias Demon Tree Seedling: Druids who abandon nature can use this to change class to Witherer, gaining power by destroying trees.]

[Vampire Blood Essence: Absorbing this essence will transform you into a vampire.]

[Root with Faint Vitality: A root split from the original Gantias Demon Tree, now purified to its most basic state.]

“So, this is basically a Witherer class-change item, a vampire bloodline item, and a root with unknown use?”

Even Mu Ying hadn’t expected that such an unremarkable, dried-up sapling and its oozing blood bead would have these effects.

In an online game, this would be a hidden class and a rare race!

After a brief moment of excitement, Mu Ying calmed down. She was well aware that, while the so-called apocalypse wore the skin of a game, it was very much reality.

Witherer—abandoning nature and gaining power by destroying trees—didn’t sound like a proper class at all. If anything, it was the ultimate villain, the bane of nature.

Although the requirements for this class were stricter and it was rarer than Druid, reality was different from games—rarer didn’t mean better.

On the contrary, the more widespread a class system was, the more people had tested and proven it.

She’d have to be out of her mind to abandon a good path and wade into such treacherous waters.

So, the withered Gantias Demon Tree Seedling was useless to her, and she couldn’t let it fall into the wrong hands either. After all, Witherers were clearly the mortal enemies of Druids.

As for the vampire blood essence, she wasn’t sure if this world’s vampires were the same as those she knew, but from the information detected from the Gantias Demon Tree, vampires weren’t exactly nature’s favorites either.

After all, the Gantias Demon Tree had only come into being after being tainted by the blood of the vampire Gantias.

Mu Ying already possessed two bloodlines, both long-lived and attuned to nature. The vampire bloodline probably wouldn’t be very compatible with her.

Besides, even if it was, she had no desire to become a sun-fearing race—no matter how powerful it was.

Ever since mastering her wolf transformation, she’d fallen in love with basking in the sun."

"All in all, these items were probably just chicken feed to Muying. She’d ask Grandpa Shaum about them after returning to the territory before deciding what to do, especially with that still-living tree root.

By now, she had fully accomplished the purpose of this trip. It was time to head back.

On the way here, Muying had flown alone on her broomstick, reaching her destination in just an hour or two.

But on the way back, she glanced behind her—six adult wolves and eight wolf pups, all looking at her expectantly.

Ever since the wolves realized that Shiyin wouldn’t be returning for a while, they had decided to follow Muying.

“Awooo!” Let’s go!

Muying led the way, with four adult wolves flanking her, Da Hui and A Qing bringing up the rear, and the wolf pups safely in the middle.

As they ran through the forest, they would stop every so often to use their keen sense of smell and hearing to check their direction and scout for nearby creatures.

If they encountered a troublesome large beast, they’d carefully detour around it. If they came across herds of herbivores, they’d grab some meat to fill their bellies.

Wolves are extremely resilient to hunger; a single meal can sustain them for a long time.

So Muying and her group didn’t need to hunt often.

Once again, standing downwind, she sniffed the air, her wolfish face wrinkling up.

“Awo?” What’s that awful smell? Like someone who hasn’t bathed in ages… It’s so familiar. Where have I smelled this before?

She searched her memory for the scent, and suddenly her eyes lit up. “Goblins!”

When she first encountered goblins, Muying had thought they were pitifully poor—not only did they have little money, but their gear was all tattered.

But after that group of goblins ran off, the next creatures she ran into—ghouls, wither monsters—were not only harder to deal with, but also completely penniless. Suddenly, those poor goblins seemed kind of cute.

Too bad she had no idea where they’d gone.

Muying signaled for a hunt and cautiously followed the scent.

She soon arrived outside a large cave. The entrance was wide, surrounded by sharpened wooden stakes, leaving only a two-meter-wide opening.

There were two watchtowers at the entrance, each with a goblin archer dozing atop.

The cave sloped downward, making it impossible to see inside, but from the thick stench alone, it was clear there were plenty of goblins within.

With the wolf pups in tow, a frontal assault wasn’t the best idea.

Muying’s eyes gleamed. For a cave like this, wouldn’t a rolling fireball be perfect?