Vol. 3 Chapter 24: Bursting from Gluttony

Chapter 24: Bursting from Gluttony

After the bronze aura merged with his shadow, Lu Li felt nothing unusual. Checking his attribute panel, he saw no changes in his assessment. He tapped his head, and that inexplicable presence reappeared—an undefined, shapeless, colorless, and sizeless thing that he could nevertheless perceive in his mind.

This entity swallowed the inscriptions that had imprinted themselves in Lu Li's mind, only to regurgitate them moments later. The inscriptions remained unchanged, but Lu Li now found he could understand them.

The inscriptions were few, but they conveyed significant information. Most of the content described an ancient ritual of worship centered around a gigantic, ancient tree—the original model for the bronze tree before him.

According to the inscriptions, this ancient tree had the power to connect heaven and earth. Climbing it would allow one to see the realm of the gods, with each fruit on the tree representing a world teeming with life.

The information also detailed the rituals needed to worship the tree and travel to other worlds through it. The inscriptions even mentioned that by ascending the tree, one could reach the realm of the gods. This colossal, world-connecting tree was called "Jianmu."

"Jianmu?" The name triggered a memory in Lu Li's mind. During a history class, an old professor had recounted ancient legends. The old professor had participated in several archaeological projects and once shared a legend about Jianmu with his students. 

In ancient times, the world was fragmented, and some Buddhist scriptures spoke of countless worlds, each represented by a flower. Jianmu was said to be a conduit connecting these infinite worlds. Climbing Jianmu was a path from humanity back to divinity.

Western texts also had similar legends about Jianmu, referring to it as the World Tree or the Kabbalah Tree of Life. Lu Li remembered these tales, thinking back to the temple in the Puppet Guardian instance. Buddhism had long since vanished, its temples now national heritage sites. He had only learned about monks and temples through documentaries, leading him to wonder if that instance was set in ancient times.

"Could the masked people be ancient humans?" Lu Li laughed at the absurdity. The masked people's society resembled the modern world, except for the masks and a Western-style city-state alliance system.

Setting aside these idle thoughts, Lu Li focused on the bronze tree before him. The information in his mind proved useful. The bronze tree was a replica of Jianmu. Though it lacked Jianmu's celestial reach, it still connected different spaces.

Each fruit on the bronze tree represented a miniature space. Lu Li turned to find a buffalo-like beast type, killed it, and gouged out its eyes before bringing a giant snake to the bronze tree.

Placing the snake and buffalo eyes at the tree's base, the flesh wall did not absorb them this time. Following the ritual steps in his mind, Lu Li chanted ancient prayers and performed specific actions.

He cut open the snake's brow, placed a buffalo eye inside, and watched as the wound miraculously healed. The snake awoke, now with three eyes, and gazed at Lu Li before coiling around the tree's roots.

After finishing the prayers, Lu Li swallowed another buffalo eye. The three-eyed snake turned bronze and ascended the tree as if climbing to the heavens.

"A tree with green leaves and purple stems, dark flowers and yellow fruits, known as Jianmu. A hundred feet with no branches, nine points above, nine points below. Its fruits are as plentiful as hemp, its leaves as sharp as awns. The Great Howling passes through, created by the Yellow Emperor." As Lu Li completed the final prayer, he noticed the last four words: created by the Yellow Emperor.

"Was this bronze tree built by the Yellow... Yellow-robed King?" Before he could ponder further, the ritual took effect. The forty fruits on the tree revealed their true forms—forty spaces.

"That one leads to another ocean type's stomach with the nurse inside. This one is my current space. The largest one is the morgue. That smaller one is in a hospital operating room, and another is in an underground lab?" Lu Li's mind raced.

The bronze three-eyed snake lowered its head and opened its mouth. Realizing time was short, Lu Li summoned nine claw ghosts with the claw ghost mask and sent them into the snake's mouth, turning them into black smoke to another space.

Stowing the shadow mask, Lu Li leapt into the snake's mouth, becoming a streak of light. The bronze snake closed its mouth and gradually merged into the tree, becoming part of its base.

Lu Li's passage disrupted some balance, causing the bronze tree to glow brightly and its fruits to sway. The fruit representing the ocean type's space fell and shattered. The ocean type outside grew agitated as its internal space collapsed.

The ocean type, once containing a vast space filled with countless beast-type spawn, now found that space shrinking. The collapsing space compressed its contents. Despite its frantic, pained cries, nothing could reverse the process. It had consumed far more than its own body size, and now the compressed creatures and air pushed against it.

With the internal space gone, the ocean type exploded from the pressure, scattering a bloody storm. Nearby ocean types were thrown and severely injured, the gluttonous creature dying from its own excess.

Outside the morgue, Professor Liao watched the data on his computer spike as a space inexplicably ruptured. He exchanged a glance with the female doctor, both looking toward the morgue.