Chapter 203 - Getting to the Root of It

Foul Giant Prince slammed down his enormous battle axe in fury and demanded, "Who among you can tell me, what exactly is this Corruption Tide all about, hmm?"The Corruption Tide appeared menacing, seemingly beneficial to the Foul Giants.

But having experienced it a few times, they knew this was just an illusion; when the tide rose, it would also fall.

When the Corruption Tide receded, much of the corruption in the roots would fade, rendering their many days of effort in vain.

The Dragon Oak in the Spring Bud Forest was simply too massive, so massive that despite their efforts spanning four or five years, they had only managed to corrupt three of its roots without even reaching the main body.

Moreover, the corruption was becoming increasingly difficult, as the surrounding prey, which they used as sacrifices, was almost exhausted.

The Foul Giants and Cyclopses shrunk their shoulders and hung their heads, wishing they could squeeze their huge bodies into crevices to hide from sight.

No one could answer the Foul Giant Prince; this issue had only arisen in the last couple of tendays, and in recent days it became more frequent. They had never seen such a phenomenon before, so how could they respond?

Compared to the previous minor disturbances, this Corruption Tide was lasting an exceptionally long time, showing no signs of ebbing and growing more intense instead, with more, thicker, and longer tendrils of black mist reaching out.

These tendrils of black mist were in their final throes; when the Corruption Tide subsided, most of them would disintegrate and vanish.

Seeing no one dared to speak up, the fury in the Foul Giant Prince’s enormous evil eye threatened to erupt and scorch whoever it turned towards, before finally settling on a relatively small Foul Giant, he shouted, "Felisk, you are my Necromancer Shaman, and you have been leading the corruption rituals. Shouldn’t you have an explanation for this situation, hmm?"

The Foul Giant singled out was not only relatively small, but his skin was also a deathly gray, adorned with decorations made of skulls, especially the necklace around his neck which was made from at least twenty to thirty Yaling heads, and in his hand was a huge vine whip.

Foul Giants neither worship deities nor inherit spells, and they have no bloodlines to awaken.

As inheritors of primitive dark power, Necromancer Shamans are the only spellcasters among them and have always been revered and ranked only below the Foul Giant Prince himself.

Felisk, the called-out Necromancer Shaman, knew there was no escape and braced himself to say, "The Corruption Tide would not erupt by itself for no reason; this has never happened before. If this is occurring, there’s only one explanation, someone is trying to resist or even expel our corruption."

"Are you doubting my intelligence? Do you think I can’t even see such a simple thing?" The Foul Giant Prince was extremely dissatisfied with this explanation, and his voice rose even louder, "What I want to know is, who is resisting? Who is expelling? How exactly are they doing it? Do you even understand how important it is for His Majesty to corrupt the Giant Dragon Tree? If we fail, when His Majesty demands accountability, everyone here will become new material for the corruption!"

As the Foul Giant Prince spoke, he pounded his enormous battle axe, making it thunder against the ground, leaving a shallow pit.

Felisk knew that if he uttered the words ’I don’t know’ at this moment, the next second might find him hurled into the Corruption Tide by the irascible Prince Elton to personally investigate the problem.

After racking his brains for several seconds, he answered, "Could this have something to do with the outpost corruption sub-base that was overrun? I can no longer sense the state of corruption there; it’s possible it has been completely cleansed. The situation there was witnessed by Celtwen himself; he should have the clearest understanding."

"Perhaps." The Foul Giant Prince seemed somewhat satisfied with this explanation and turned his enormous evil eye to another Foul Giant.

If Gaven were here, he would have recognized this Foul Giant’s identity in an instant. It was the same one who had briefly clashed with them last time, nearly falling victim to Susie’s instant chain of traps.

At this moment, Celtwen was mentally sending all of Felisk’s blood relatives a cordial greeting, cursing this sly and vile creature for diverting disaster elsewhere.

The problem is, if you can’t hold on, I’m even less capable.

It’s true I had a brief encounter with the enemy, but I was buried in a trap before I could get a clear look. If I hadn’t run fast, I would have been buried alive in that tunnel.

And this was all a fortnight ago, what does it have to do with the Corruption Tide?

Even if there were a connection, he wouldn’t know the reason, would he?

Celtwen’s sweat was pouring down as he tried desperately to think of a way to flee, not to mention whether he could squeeze through; even if he did, he didn’t think he could outrun Prince Elton, whose legs were the least deformed among them and was known as the fastest of the Foul Giants.

"I think this matter is definitely related to those Yaling bastards on the surface," Celtwen finally grunted out an obvious conclusion after much strain.

"How can it not be related?" This was the final bit of patience that the Foul Giant Prince had left; his unevenly sized gigantic teeth were already clacking with impatience.

In a moment of desperation, Celtwen had a flash of insight and exclaimed, "The fall of our outpost must have exposed our attempt to corrupt the Giant Dragon Tree. It’s highly probable that the Yaling Lord took targeted action, possibly mobilizing the Giant Dragon Tree’s own strength for a counterattack. Yes, that must be it! Only the Giant Dragon Tree could have such powerful strength to resist our corruption!"

"That makes a lot of sense,"

Prince Elton’s praise allowed Celtwen to breathe a sigh of relief, having successfully bluffed his way through the ordeal.

However, he had not anticipated that in the next second, the Foul Giant Prince’s massive war axe would appear in front of him.

Celtwen instinctively raised his deformed giant arm to protect himself.

With a crack, the massive arm could not withstand the overwhelming force of the giant war axe and was smashed out of shape, sending Celtwen staggering back a dozen or so steps.

The other Foul Giants around him had long since cleared out the moment he caught the Prince’s attention.

Several black mist tentacles, drawn by the commotion, swiftly entwined Celtwen in a tight wrap.

As Celtwen struggled with all his might to free himself from the black mist tentacles, he bellowed, "Why? I had clearly found the root of the problem!"

Prince Elton roared in a rage, "You have the nerve to ask me why? Such an important matter, why didn’t you think of it sooner? To speak only now? You have already delayed our grand scheme. Letting you go in to investigate was the greatest mercy I could show. Go inside and see exactly what’s happening. In a moment, I will have Felisk pull you out of the corruption!"

After hearing Prince Elton’s words, Celtwen stopped struggling and a sycophantic smile spread across his ugly face, "Your Highness, if you need me to investigate, just say so, there’s no need to rush me, I’ll take the initiative to go!"

Celtwen knew he had no chance of escaping the corrupting tentacles; it would be better to put his hope in the Necromancer Shaman. They needed him to bring back information, so they would certainly revive him. He just needed to wander inside, feel out what was resisting the Corruption Power, and that would be enough.

When Celtwen gave up resistance, the corruption tendrils absorbed his essence more easily, forcibly dragging his soul out of his body.

The body, devoid of soul consciousness, collapsed thunderously to the ground.

Celtwen only felt a blur before his eyes, as the scenery dramatically transformed.

He looked at his own body while observing his surroundings. Was this what corruption looked like?

How come it seemed so much like reality?

From not too far away, came the sound of roaring and shouting.

Was there a battle here?

Celtwen was startled and instinctively moved toward the commotion.

He had not forgotten his mission, for if he failed to complete his task, even if the Necromancer Shaman revived him, he could be sent back the very next second, a not uncommon occurrence.

"It’s him!" Celtwen recognized the man leading the group, the same one he had briefly encountered at the outpost.

It was this bastard who nearly got him killed last time. Now that they had run into each other again, he wondered where the man could run to.

Wielding his massive arms, Celtwen, furious, strode aggressively toward him.

But after just a few steps, he abruptly halted.

The situation on the battlefield was evidently not right.

The two Foul Giants advancing forward seemed to be sleepwalking, pausing after every step or two, with their roars coming out haltingly, clearly under someone else’s forceful control.

One Foul Giant was being relentlessly clawed and gnawed at by a Zuo Lang smaller in size, its body dissolving into black mist, hardly keeping together anymore.

When Celtwen spotted Gaven and his party, they naturally saw him as well.

Immediately, Gaven felt a sense of urgency.

They were already struggling to handle three Foul Giants, beset by constant dangers. Anna had just been smashed by one of the Foul Giants; the soul shield she had just equipped was shattered, and she dared not advance further.

The safest way to deal with such an enemy was still to do as Stelina did, not giving them a chance to attack at all.

Gaven shouted, "Andrew, ’Gnaw’!"

A Psychic Bullet struck the Foul Giant, putting it into a rigid state.

Ow!

The Dog Demon howled, its gaping maw at its widest, suctioning wildly at the neck of the Foul Giant it had been clawing at for a while.

Massive amounts of black mist uncontrollably spiraled into the Dog Demon’s mouth.

The Foul Giant was already at the end of its tether and couldn’t withstand the Dog Demon’s supernatural ability. With a mournful howl, even the Giant’s soul was devoured.

Ow!

The Dog Demon couldn’t help but howl again, this time out of excitement.

With the Foul Giant’s soul digested, not only did its size swell substantially, but its Life Dice also improved by one.

For it, the Foul Giants were indeed nourishment of the highest order.

If it could swallow the remaining three, each would boost its Life Dice by one more.

Growth through devouring powerful souls was where the Dog Demon truly shined. The most update n0vels are published on ɴovᴇl(F)ɪre.ɴet

Elated, the Dog Demon charged towards the nearest Foul Giant.

"Let’s take down the one that just appeared first," Gaven said without a second thought.

Instinctively, he felt that there was something off about the newly emerged Foul Giant.

He had been in and out of the combat zone several times, and had only ever encountered these three Foul Giants.

Now, as they were embroiled in a crucial moment of battle, another one appeared out of nowhere, a situation that seemed suspicious, especially since this Foul Giant looked eerily familiar, much like the one who had escaped from Susie before.

Celtwen’s swift retreat only confirmed that suspicion.

Gaven immediately adjusted his tactics, chasing after Celtwen while instructing, "Leave those two to you, hold them off, and try to buy me a minute. If you can’t hold on, retreat strategically first."

Bang!

Celtwen felt as if something had exploded inside his head, his form involuntarily stumbling. At that moment, he finally understood why the movements of those two clansmen looked so strange.