Synthetic Wizard

Whoosh!

Purple demon fire suddenly ignited from the center of its tree trunk, rapidly spreading throughout the entire tree body and the crown. The silver spikes touching these flames were instantly vaporized completely.

“Wizard!”

The Dark Demon Tree finally had enough strength to let out an angry question, with countless black branches emerging from its crown, aiming at Sunan like venomous snakes.

“Why are you attacking me?”

“Are you still pretending at this point?”

Sunan sneered, his gaze sweeping over the purple demon fire on the Dark Demon Tree.

Silence!

After a good while, the Dark Demon Tree slowly spoke again. This time, the voice was no longer deep and hoarse, but rather a melodious, mature female voice.

“How did you find out?”

The voice was remarkably familiar.

Even though he had only heard it once, Sunan still remembered it vividly.

It was exactly the voice that had appeared next to his ear three years ago after he killed the half-arachnid Divine Favor.

It belonged to the protector of the Dark Elves—the Spider Goddess Queen!

“You guess,” Sunan said calmly.

In the display of the cube, the piece of Thousand Tree Essence was indeed genuine, but there was something added inside—some kind of terrifying spider poison!

Once he absorbed the Thousand Tree Essence without any precautions, the spider poison would naturally enter his body, corroding and corrupting his flesh and soul.

Sunan could easily guess who had manipulated it all with just a thought.

Such a method was not the first time.

Hearing Sunan’s words, the Spider Goddess Queen did not get angry, but rather appeared thoughtful.

“It was my mistake.”

“Upon seeing that you were not affected by the soul toxin I left behind, I should have guessed that you had the ability to detect toxins, and should have used a more concealed method.”

Sunan’s expression remained calm, but he sneered internally.

With the cube, no matter how many methods the Spider Goddess Queen changed, it would be a waste of effort.

Even without the cube, he wouldn’t have fallen for the Spider Goddess Queen’s scheme.

He already suspected the Spider Goddess Queen might have meddled in the Dark Forest, and now seeing the Withered Wood Council leaving the Thousand Tree Essence unreasonably, he had long been suspicious and would never recklessly absorb that piece of Thousand Tree Essence.

The Spider Goddess Queen failed because she didn’t know how well he understood the Withered Wood Council.

The difference in information doomed the Spider Goddess Queen’s plot to failure.

“You seem to be hiding quite a few secrets.”

The tone of the Spider Goddess Queen carried a hint of interest.

“I’m quite surprised that a wizard like you still appears on the Starlight Continent nowadays.”

“I’ve started to become a bit interested in you.”

“But I’m not interested in you,” Sunan said indifferently. “Divine spirits should stay in their own Divine Kingdom. Isn’t the Deep Pit Magic Net vast enough to satisfy you? Whether in the past, present, or future, the Starlight Continent is not a place for you to intervene.”

“… You seem to know me well?” The Spider Goddess Queen’s voice paused slightly. “I’m getting more curious about your origin,”

“You can go back and think slowly.”

The Spider Goddess Queen chuckled, a hint of enchantment in her voice.

“Young wizard, I lost this time. As a reward for your victory over me, I’ll leave this tree body to you.”

“I look forward to the day we meet again in the future, and hope you can bring me some more surprises by then.”

As the voice of the Spider Goddess Queen faded, the purple demon fire on the Dark Demon Tree gradually weakened.

By the time the last word fell, the final wisp of flame extinguished as well.

The aura belonging to the divine spirit vanished completely from the massive tree body.

Realizing her complete failure and inability to turn the tables, the cunning Goddess Queen decisively admitted defeat and left, placing her hopes for revenge on the future.

Sunan responded with a chuckle.

Indeed, he would most likely meet the Spider Goddess Queen again in the future, but that would definitely not be the scenario she was hoping for.

In his memory, the future ambush by wizards against the Spider Goddess Queen would end in a disastrous failure, but that was without his intervention.

If he could act as the opportunist, it might not be the same.

Maybe he could give the Spider Goddess Queen another ’surprise’!

Focusing his mind for a while and confirming that the Spider Goddess Queen indeed had given up and left, Sunan then approached the Dark Demon Tree.

The Dark Demon Tree had the function of a space anchor and could serve as a spatial passage for planar travel.

The Withered Wood Council left the Dark Demon Tree in the Dark Forest probably with the intention to send people into the Starlight Continent ahead of other Wizard Influences as soon as the planar barriers of the Starlight Continent were almost repaired, using the Dark Demon Tree as a springboard to seize the opportunity.

However, later, the Spider Goddess Queen discovered the Dark Forest and took over, utilizing the functionality of the Dark Demon Tree’s space anchor to open a rift and infiltrate divine power, leading to the subsequent events in Magic Spider City.

In other words, by destroying the Dark Demon Tree, it was equivalent to severing the channel for the Spider Goddess Queen to infiltrate the Starlight Continent.

Before the planar barriers were restored, she could no longer intervene in the Starlight Continent.

If it weren’t for Sunan’s surprise attack severely injuring the Dark Demon Tree, the Spider Goddess Queen certainly wouldn’t have given up so easily, and there would have been a fierce battle between them.

Sunan caressed the rough surface of the Dark Demon Tree, sensing the rich residual divine energy inside, with a smile forming on his face.

This Dark Demon Tree was already dead long ago.

The piece of Thousand Tree Essence probably was the essence it condensed after its death.

The dead tree body had been transformed and altered by the Spider Goddess Queen into a tool for transmitting divine power, hence a large amount of divine energy remained inside.

The Spider Goddess Queen didn’t really intend to leave this tree body as a reward for him; she simply couldn’t retrieve the divine energy inside immediately and gave up reluctantly.

The so-called reward was merely a face-saving statement.

Regardless, it was ultimately a good thing for Sunan.

With so much divine energy, his Spiritual Refinement Level could reach a new leap of growth.

Rumble!

A sudden deafening commotion came from afar.

Sunan snapped out of his delight and immediately soared into the sky, gazing into the distance.

At the end of the sky, vast visible distortions filled every inch of space in the void, slowly yet steadily advancing, devouring everything.

Massive trees crumbled and shattered within the distortions, vanishing into nothingness.

“Is space collapsing?”

Sunan frowned and glanced at the Dark Demon Tree, quickly understanding.

The core of the Dark Forest was likely the Dark Demon Tree.

Its death led to the natural collapse of the Dark Forest.

Previously, the Spider Goddess Queen maintained the stability of this space, but now her retreat made the space difficult to sustain.

Sunan felt a slight pity.

He originally thought about incorporating the Dark Forest as well, but it seemed impossible now.

“Oh well, the environment of the Dark Forest already limited its use, so letting it go is fine.”

Shaking his head, Sunan collected his thoughts and began exploring around, searching for resource storage points in the Dark Forest.

However, either the resources had long been taken by the Spider Goddess Queen, or the Withered Wood Council never left resources behind, as he found nothing after a long search.

“Did the Withered Wood Council never intend to cultivate Wizard Apprentices, using this place purely as a space anchor?”

Sunan was somewhat disappointed, but thinking of the Thousand Tree Essence and the tree body containing divine energy, his mood improved a bit.

With those two things, at least this trip wasn’t wasted.

Seeing the space collapse rapidly spreading towards this area, Sunan no longer hesitated and immediately collected the tree body.

Thanks to having the cube, otherwise, he wouldn’t have been able to take away such a massive tree body.

Sunan guessed that the Spider Goddess Queen must have thought of this too; leaving the tree body was also a way to let him experience the frustration of wanting something within sight but out of reach.

It just showed that the Spider Goddess Queen wasn’t someone to take a loss willingly.

Activating the Black Key, Sunan’s figure then disappeared into the air.

Soon after, the vast void distortions surged like a tide, engulfing the last bit of space.