Chương 84: The Great Sky Stone

At the foot of Mount Helion, a treasure-hunting team was walking up the slope.

"Hey, do you think we'll find it? The legendary Great Sky Stone?" A bearded man spoke excitedly to his teammate.

"What are you thinking? I'd be satisfied if we found some gold."

"Exactly. And the mountain has been getting strange lately. Several people were drained into dried corpses. What if Princess Anna's ghost is real?" One of the team members clearly sounded worried. The leader gave a dismissive laugh.

"That's their own fault. They had no skill and still dared go deep. We'll just circle the outer area. Even if Princess Anna's ghost appears, it won't have anything to do with us. No one outside has been attacked, right?" This world was full of strange things. They had even seen people with supernatural abilities before. Even if there really was a ghost, that was not impossible. No risk, no reward. If they never gambled, they could never make serious money.

As long as they kept the risk under control and avoided going too deep, they should be fine. They had survived this way for years.

"Right, right. I heard John's group found a pearl necklace near the outside yesterday. If we're lucky, our haul won't be worse than the people inside." The only woman in the group agreed completely. Money mattered, but life mattered more.

"Wait." The oldest man at the front, whose temples were already gray, suddenly growled. His eyes swept the surroundings with alertness. The leader lowered his voice.

"What is it, Hank?" Hank was the most experienced treasure hunter in the team. Thanks to his warnings, they had avoided danger more than once. Everyone trusted him. If he reacted like this, he must have noticed something.

"There is..." Before Hank could finish, a black shadow burst from the ground. It pierced straight through his chest. Then the shadow moved like a snake, striking the others with terrifying precision and stringing them together one after another.

"No... how... we're outside..." The leader looked down in disbelief at the black root piercing his chest. Their full, living bodies slowly shriveled. In the end, they became dried corpses. The same thing was happening to other teams in the outer area. Not only there. Even halfway up the mountain, where only stronger treasure hunters and Nen users had dared to go, the same disaster had begun.

"Damn it! Have these roots gone insane today? Why are there so many more than before?" Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. The speaker was the same young man who had mocked the camouflaged group at the mountain foot. At the moment, he was cursing while using a heavy machete to cut through a root.

"Enough, Rock. Stop complaining. Something abnormal is happening today. We should withdraw." A man in a black robe struck a root down with an aura-covered fist.

"Withdraw?" Rock snapped back excitedly.

"If something is changing, maybe the Great Sky Stone is about to appear. If we land this job, we won't need to work for the rest of our lives." The black-robed man's face showed obvious hesitation. Rock's mention of the Great Sky Stone fed his greed. If everyone else retreated, perhaps they really could be the ones to obtain it. That moment of hesitation cost both of them their chance to leave. The next instant, more than twenty black roots lunged at them from every direction.

"We're dead..." Reality shattered their dream. On the other side, deep within the forest, Aren and Biscuit moved quickly between the trees. Hum. After using Limitless Technique to twist apart another wave of roots, Aren looked at Biscuit.

"How is it? Are we close?" Biscuit's expression had turned serious.

"We should be. Listen. The screams on the mountain are getting more frequent. That means it is getting anxious. It probably realizes it cannot do anything to us, so it has started gathering life force faster and concentrating its power." The two moved several hundred meters farther. The screams that had filled the forest began to disappear. Either the scavengers had all fled, or everyone who entered the mountain had already been eaten. Rumble.

The moment they stepped into a certain area, the entire mountain seemed to tremble. The ground beneath them cracked open. Countless black roots crawled up through the fissures like worms.

"Here it comes!" Biscuit shouted. Her body began transforming. Rip. Dense muscle stretched her once-loose clothes tight. The small hooded cape over her shoulders tore apart entirely. In an instant, Biscuit completed the transformation from soft little girl to invincible muscular woman. Aren's expression stiffened slightly.

"What is that look?" Biscuit snapped, glaring at him.

"I told you I was forty-four. Keep staring and I'll punch you." The black roots looked frightening, but each individual root was actually weak. Biscuit was not too worried. Fortunately, this thing had only awakened a few days ago and had not absorbed too much vitality yet. After eight hundred years, most of its power had already worn away. If the typhoon had not opened the seal, it might have quietly died in another few years.

"Stop getting distracted," Biscuit said.

"It is coming. Just like we agreed, draw its attention as much as possible. I'll kill it." Thick aura erupted from her body and gathered on her fist. Ko. Biscuit punched downward. The light of her Nen flashed through the cracks in the earth. The already damaged ground suffered a devastating impact. The whole area was blasted into rubble. Judging by raw destructive power alone, her punch was comparable to, if not stronger than, Uvogin's future Big Bang Impact. Screech.

A shrill cry like a banshee's scream came from underground. Biscuit had guessed correctly. The main body was here. Seeing Biscuit act, Aren began moving as well. The black roots that had not been caught in the blast started to counterattack Biscuit. But the moment Aren moved, they instinctively turned toward the food source they craved most. They surged toward him, ignoring the person who had just heavily injured them.

"Wah! Master, the black roots are coming again." Seeing thousands of roots rush over like a dark tide, Neon could not help shrinking into Aren's arms.

"It's fine. They can't even touch Master's clothes." Facing the black flood, Aren smiled. Hum. Spatial ripples spread across his entire body. No matter how the black roots struggled, they could not cross the short distance of three or four centimeters. The feast they longed for was right in front of them, yet completely out of reach. Unable to pierce through, the roots began wrapping around Aren instead. If they could not stab him, they would crush him. The idea was fine. Reality was not.

Inside the cocoon of roots, Aren merely turned his fingers. Every root wrapped around him burst apart at once, exploding into black fragments. Limitless Technique: Reversal.

"Hey, Biscuit. Are you done yet?" Aren had destroyed countless roots already, but they seemed endless. One wave had just exploded when another black tide surged toward him. His patience was starting to thin.

"Al-most-there." Biscuit spoke through clenched teeth while smashing another Ko-enhanced punch downward. Screech. The unknown thing underground screamed again. Biscuit judged the feedback from the sound and shouted to Aren, "Two more punches. Three at most. I can reach it. Keep drawing its attention. It just awakened, so it doesn't seem very smart." Just like she said, the thing was not especially intelligent. Aren pulled, and the roots chased. Biscuit punched once. Twice. Three times.

On the third strike, she finally opened a hollow in the ground.

"Done!" Biscuit shouted with excitement.

'Great Sky Stone, here I come.' The black roots realized what had happened and tried to turn back toward Biscuit. Unfortunately, they had already entered Aren's control range.

"You came all the way to me and still think you can leave? Try it." Aren instantly understood what the thing wanted to do. With a reversal of direction, he crushed the roots surrounding him into pieces.

"Biscuit, hurry up and kill it."

"I know." As she answered, Biscuit flashed into the hollow. The first thing she saw was a dried female corpse. Countless black vines stretched from its body into the soil. The black roots all originated here. Sensing a living person enter, the female corpse suddenly opened its eyes. Its resentful gaze locked onto Biscuit.