Chương 321: Secrets Of The Dark Aether Swamp.

There was a sense of detachment in Liu Shu's mind right now. After saying those words, she felt relieved, and accepting those feelings made her feel satisfied. However, simultaneously, her choice with Fiera remained stuck in her head. Her core felt somewhat stuffed, as if cotton was blocking an airway.

'... Why? Aren't I a World Tree? Even if unique, I am still a being that encompasses too much to care for all and each individual.' She couldn't shake the feeling that her inaction went against what she had been learning. Yet, she made such a decision. When the moment to intervene came, she stayed still. Feeling that she wanted to vent, Liu Shu summoned several thorns and sent her flying toward a deserted place. The feelings of love she had discovered muddied, becoming swallowed by her feelings of confusion.

Her thoughts about the Sylvans slowly evaporated as Fiera's smiling face flashed in her mind.

'It is just another death. Why is it affecting me so much?' She didn't know. Liu Shu didn't comprehend that her individuality and innate nature were clashing, making her feel stifled. A strange sense of rush spread around her. Her mind was in turmoil as many thoughts and situations crossed her mind.

"Liu Shu?" A noble and gentle voice uttered her name, and looking over, she saw Verdantia looking toward her main body with furrowed eyebrows.

"What's wrong? I can feel that you are agitated." Liu Shu didn't know, but with her conflicting mind, the aura around her had become turbulent. Those with sharp senses quickly noticed, which led Verdantia to speak up. Noticing her current state, Liu Shu relaxed and took a metaphorical deep breath. Her roots and branches stretched, and then, she allowed her body to go limp.

"Don't worry, Verdantia. I was pondering about a few things and couldn't get an answer. I even feel like I made a mistake at a crucial point, but… I can't understand why I have this feeling." Verdantia heard the internal struggle in her tone, but she didn't push for answers. Instead, she smiled and commented.

"If you want anything, remember that we are here. Don't be shy to ask and share your thoughts, okay?" Looking at her bright smile, Liu Shu felt some of the clouds in her heart dissipate. She still was not satisfied with her current state, but it was better than nothing.

'What a weird episode.' The World Tree looked toward the Dark Aether Swamp with strange curiosity.

'Did the aura in here affect me? It can't be, right? I am touching it with just a few roots, nothing significant. I could even cut those off if something went awry.' She stopped her deep thoughts for now and continued expanding through the Dark Aether Swamp. Her progress stagnated as she advanced, finding it more difficult to move through places where other beings wouldn't attack her. She was not afraid, but she didn't want to cause a chain reaction that led to the entire forest attacking her.

If what happened in Lakeborn Forest occurred here, she could only advance for a few hundred meters before being stopped by the swamp's vegetation. After spreading her roots for a large patch of forest, Liu Shu paused.

'Hm? What's this aura?' Her aura carried a hint of curiosity and wariness. During the last three weeks, while she had met several creatures that were hard to ignore, the swamp had not taken her as an enemy and allowed her roots to expand silently. Some stronger vegetation even moved their roots and coiled around hers like curious children, wondering what type of plant she was and why she was there. Liu Shu dealt with them gently. She didn't slaughter them indiscriminately.

She just pushed them aside with other roots or outright ignored them. Those she ignored would branch out in three paths. They either clinged much more closely, leading to Liu Shu untangling them with other roots; lost interest in her and stopped clinging around her; or they found her as a threat and attacked her, leading to Liu Shu's incapacitation. To incapacitate a plant creature, damaging its roots was one of the few non-radical options.

After dealing with them for a long time, Liu Shu concluded that the vast majority of plant creatures here had a much simpler intelligence than any other forest she had visited. She didn't have much experience yet, and her view was rather narrow, but combining her own experiences and the books she had read, she could attribute this to the lack of pure energy in the ground. However, that fact was about to change.

The second she approached the aura she felt, Liu Shu knew that she had arrived at the inner area of the swamp. The <Dark Aether Swamp> was divided into three sections by Explorers. The outer layer, where only <Second Energy Cycle> Explorers and above could venture. The inner layer, where only Level 40 and above should think of venturing. Finally, the core layer. In the Core Layer, all cities and powers had set the restriction to <Third Energy Cycle> powerhouses and above.

Below that, you would not be granted a proper right to visit. Of course, one could go regardless, but the chances of returning alive for those who disobeyed in this regard were slim. So low, in fact, that Explorers didn't even venture into the inner layer for fear of the monsters in the core layer venturing out on an unlucky day. The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement. In comparison, the Wall Forest was much less threatening to cross.

But it was as dangerous as the Dark Aether Swamp if one wanted to create something in it. The thing that made the Wall Forest ungovernable was its sheer size. A continental spanning forest was dangerous because the creatures living in it would sometimes migrate from south to north or vice versa, creating fearsome beast tides. Liu Shu hesitated to venture further.

'Inner region should have something strong enough that it might detect my roots, right? I wonder if I will encounter something that benefits me…' After struggling for a little while, she pushed forward. She could wait to reach a slightly higher level, but she didn't really want to. Underground, Liu Shu's roots advanced while creating complicated net patterns to maintain the energy efficiency of Liu Shu's perfect Energy Cycles.

Some roots even merged with each other, divided, or multiplied and changed directions to make sure that they would keep that perfect efficiency. Her roots, as if they had a mind of their own, moved with lots of precision down to an individual section. Eventually, she found something that she didn't expect. Or, to be more precise, that thing found her.

"Oh? Does someone dare to move deep enough into my domain for me to notice? How nice of you to give this old lady some entertainment." Before Liu Shu realized it, a pair of swift roots moved like lightning bolts through the clouds and latched onto Liu Shu's.

'H-Huh? So fast!'

"Hello~, little one. I see that you've become too curious, eh?"

"Um…" Feeling the raspy roots coiling around her own and tightening with enough strength to make her feel pain, Liu Shu was stunned.

"This, um... Who are you?"

"You are asking me?" The other plant creature chuckled.

"It should be me asking and getting answers, don't you think, little one? A mischievous World Tree trying to enter my domain and expand, reaching as far as the inner layer of my domain… You have no manners, eh? How about a Root-touch first the next time you try to spread this far~?" Liu Shu felt slightly intimidated by the roots of this creature. They had more strength than her own, which left her somewhat speechless.

Even when Liu Shu had managed to cross the 100% Physique Refinement benchmark, and her <Physique> stat approached 6000 points, the roots coiled around her were too tough for her to shrug off.

"Hm~. Is this little one mute? Or do you only speak in Tree Language? If you only speak in that, we can. It has been several centuries since I met another World Tree, so destroying you straight away is a bit of a shame."

"Another… You are a World Tree?" The other party laughed faintly.

"Well, I was one. Now, I am a corrupted vessel left behind to rot by those who vowed to protect me. Tsk, tsk, at least their blood managed to fertilize my forest enough, so it was not that useless for me to once trust those people." The corrupted World Tree chuckled.

"Well, I don't care about unimportant matters~. You are… quite tasty, eh?" Liu Shu felt a sharp pain as one of the other World Tree's roots tightened and cracked one of her own, making some of her sap spill out. However, the Corrupted World Tree didn't feel delight when Liu Shu's bloodsap touched it. Instead, it grumbled and retreated.

"You… You have an innate purification capability in your own blood." Her tone changed from playful to cold and disdainful.

"Disgusting." Liu Shu asked, curious.

"You are the World tree controlling the Dark Aether Swamp, right?"

"Heh. Why should I answer you, disgusting plant? Retreat before I get angrier. I don't want to stain my soil with your disgusting sap!" Speechlessness filled Liu Shu when the tree rubbing herself on her abruptly became sneering and unpleasant. Still, insisting would do nothing good for her. This World Tree has proved to be stronger than herself. She was helpless in terms of defense and her ability to fight it. As she retreated her roots, for now, thoughts crossed her mind.

'So, a World Tree controls the Dark Aether Swamp. Do other powers know about this? It doesn't feel like so. After all, its body is probably located right at the heart of the swamp. From what I've heard, there has not been a precedent of someone traveling to the center of it. As she was retreating, Liu Shu checked on her roots. Those that had been touched by that World Tree were difficult to move. Some of them had broken under the other World Tree's impressive strength.

Additionally, a few others had been tainted with a strange corrosive coating that was trying to dissolve her bark. Thankfully, her own self-regeneration and <Cerulean Bloodsap> counteracted it.

"Hm… I should inform the others." Her sight shifted, and she found Flor sprawling in Ignatia's nest, her head nestled between the prominent mountains of the Ant Queen.

"Flor, Ignatia, I discovered something interesting!" Flor didn't even bother answering. Ignatia chuckled and gently caressed Flor's back with her fingers.

"What did you find, love?"

"There is a World Tree in the center of the Dark Aether Swamp that's stronger than me!" Flor opened her eyes and sighed.

"Another ridiculous thing to the list of Liu Shu's given facts." Ignatia laughed loudly and asked.

"What's your plan? Do you want to provoke it?"

"Huh?" Liu Shu pouted.

"I want to expand, but I am not silly enough to provoke someone much stronger than me! Moreover, what if she can send a bunch of beasts from the inner layers to attack us? We might be trampled to the ground…" The <Dark Aether Swamp>'s threat was higher than that of the <Terragore>. And the <Terragore>'s threat was already too much to deal with at the moment, stalling them with defensive tactics until they grew enough. Flor closed her eyes again and muttered.

"Since it is like that, just ignore it. The <Dark Aether Swamp> has not grown much for who knows how many years. Nothing will change there even if we don't pay attention to it for a few years." Ignatia hummed and looked down at the Flower Fairy. Flor blinked twice and asked.

"What's wrong?" Ignatia smiled.

"Now that you've said that, I feel that you've jinxed it."

"..."