Chapter 1076: Essence Crystal of the Black Tree

Edited by Aelryinth

“Space scrolls, tsk tsk, the tournament is pretty generous huh? I bet not many students have such life-preserving stuff,” Zhao Manyan exclaimed.

“Are they like, really, really expensive?” Mo Fan had to ask.

“It’s not a problem of how much they cost, but how many of them are produced! There aren’t many Space Mages that can produce them, and even fewer are under the command of private organizations,” Zhao Manyan said.

“Since everyone is forced to split up, let’s try our best to regroup once we are in there. Otherwise, we won’t even have a chance even if we find something precious,” Jiang Yu spoke up.

Every member of the national team was taking part in the treasure hunt, since each team was allowed to have ten representatives. Thus, there were one hundred and sixty participants in total, representing sixteen countries.

After the rules were clarified, the students made their way into the Space Magic Formation.

Since the members of every team were going to split up, they were asked to enter the formation at different times, too. Interestingly, Mo Fan was somehow drawn out very early among the students, and he was the first member of the Chinese team to enter the formation.

Mo Fan was fairly curious about where the formation would bring him. Was it a confined space, or was it a special place that Italy had prepared for the tournament? However, since the Hunter Union was in charge of the second round, they would be putting the participants’ ability to survive in the wild to the test!

It was important for a Mage to learn how to survive in the wild, since demon creatures were the biggest enemy of mankind. The competition between students did not really matter much. Only those who won against demon creatures, and survived under terrible conditions in the wild, would truly emerge as the true experts of the world!

—

As soon as Mo Fan stepped into the formation, he immediately sensed the space around him spinning and twisting.

Fortunately, it was not Mo Fan’s first time traveling through space. He calmly closed his eyes, just so he would not get sick from the turbulence of the flow.

With a shudder, Mo Fan vanished from right in front of everyone between some space ripples within the blink of an eye.

The chaotic flow of space struck him. However, since Mo Fan was a Space Mage himself, he knew how to handle the situation, and could stop himself from losing too much of his energy.

The process did not last long. When Mo Fan opened his eyes, the stadium had already disappeared. He could no longer see Venice’s sky, or the crowd of spectators…

The muddy, gray sky was twisting in a weird way, like a giant painting looming over his head. It felt surreal.

The ground was uneven, with jagged rocks and steep mountains. He also saw a black forest, a river with its water flowing in the wrong direction, and a valley with some eerie cries…

Mo Fan looked around him and had an indescribably strange feeling.

Even though he could see mountains, water, and the sky in his surroundings, it felt like something that an illogical painter had put together indifferently. It felt nothing like nature!

“It must be some kind of a unique space!” Mo Fan was not unfamiliar with strange spaces.

The world he had ended up in under the Dark Abyss was oddly uncomfortable, too. To his relief, there was only a slight disharmony in the sky; it was not made of corpses like the one in the Dark Abyss!

Curtains of corpses in the sky… whenever Mo Fan recalled the sight in the Dark Abyss, he still had lingering fears.

Every confined space would have its boundary. If he could find a tall spot, he might be able to see the end of the space. It was unlikely that the organizer would pick a vast, boundless space as the venue, since not only would they have to struggle to look after every participant, they would have trouble controlling what was happening inside the space, too!

Mo Fan heard the cries of eagles above him. He lifted his gaze and saw an eagle circling around a hundred meters up in the sky.

“So those are the unmanned drones with surveillance cameras?” Mo Fan gave the eagle a wide smile.

The Observer Eagles were a kind of tool that the military often used. Similar to the Wicked Eye Copper Mirror, these Observer Eagles were able to transmit everything they saw to a device via Light Magic.

Since the whole world was watching the tournament, it did not make sense if the treasure hunt only involved the students running around in a confined space. The Observer Eagles were the best tools to broadcast what was happening in the space, allowing the people outside to watch the splendid performances of the students!

The Observer Eagles had been waiting in their positions for a long time. They were tailing every student to capture everything that happened, while looking after their safety.

When Mo Fan saw a number of Observer Eagles flying in the sky, he could not help but have a thought: Shouldn’t the treasure hunt be given a name, like, Running Mage?

{TL Note: A reference to a popular variety show from Korea, Running Man, NOT the Schwarzenegger movie.}

However, it was a tournament after all, and even though the environment did resemble wilderness, it went without saying that the organizer had basically set up everything artificially. The only question was how many demon creatures were residing in the space, since they were most likely the only threat to the participants!

Mo Fan looked around him, but he could not tell where he was supposed to go.

The advisors specifically told them to regroup with the others as soon as possible, to increase their odds of finding and securing treasure. It did not make sense for the organizer to drop the loot right in the middle of nowhere…

Unfortunately, Mo Fan had no idea where his teammates were. He had no choice but to roam aimlessly.

“Little Roach, it’s your showtime! Help daddy see if there’s anything good around here!” Mo Fan murmured to the pendant on his chest.

The Little Loach Pendant did not glow, implying that there was nothing that had caught its attention nearby.

Ever since Little Loach had devoured the Eternal Wicked Lotus, it had yet to react to anything that Mo Fan stumbled into.

Mo Fan realized he was expecting too much from Little Loach. He had no choice but to search for the loot himself.

Before Mo Fan knew it, he had entered a forest with distorted black trees. Glancing at the ghastly trees, Mo Fan asked Little Flame Belle again, “Are you sure that your little mummy is inside?”

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“Ling!-” Little Flame Belle nodded.

Little Flame Belle had acknowledged Xinxia as her mummy first, meaning that Mu Ningxue had somehow become the little mummy.

However, Little Flame Belle was not really fond of Mu Ningxue’s icy aura, so she rarely went close to Mu Ningxue. That being said, she was still extremely sensitive to it, and was able to sense it from far away.

If Little Flame Belle said that Mu Ningxue was inside the forest, she was most likely right!

Once Mo Fan found Mu Ningxue, he would be more relaxed wandering around!

–

—

“Strange, the forest doesn’t seem to be huge, but why do I feel like I won’t be able to leave it after coming in here…” Mo Fan had been moving forward for some time, yet he realized that he was still in the black forest.

He was surrounded by the wilted, twisting trees with empty branches. There was a strong evil presence, too.

Aas (

Mo Fan was confident that he was not trapped in some kind of a maze, as he could easily tell such a thing with his Shadow Element.

If the forest was not a maze, the only possibility left was the black forest was a compressed zone. It did not seem to cover a great area from the distance, but it was actually quite huge once he stepped into it. It was unlikely that he would reach the end in a short period…

——

A cold wind with some frost came from the distance. Even without Little Flame Belle’s help, Mo Fan could easily recognize Mu Ningxue’s aura. She was right ahead!

Mo Fan turned into a shadow and wove through the trees rapidly. He finally saw Mu Ningxue, who was wearing a long robe, at a place where the trees seemed much thicker.

“Xuexue… mmm, why are you trapped between the trees?” Mo Fan stood on an old trunk and asked with a confused look.

Mu Ningxue was surrounded by frozen trees circling her like a prison, entrapping her in the middle.

“Look out, the trees can move!” Mu Ningxue warned him sharply.

Before Mo Fan realized what was happening, he saw two sharp branches stabbing at him; it turned out that the tree he was standing on was attacking him!

Mo Fan immediately jumped into the air, but before he could adjust his stance, he saw a huge branch swiping at him, knocking him

flying.

Mo Fan rolled a few times on the ground. His bones were hurting from the impact.

Luckily, his body was rather sturdy. Any other Mage would have a few broken bones by now!

“Damn it!” Mo Fan turned around and saw the trees that had attacked him had already uprooted themselves from the ground. They moved with their wriggling roots, their branches were their weapons. Some were thin and long, like claws, while some were as sharp as spears!

“I’ll burn them all with fire!” Mo Fan snapped furiously.

“They are just too many of them. Don’t panic, you’re only going to attract more of these Black Tree Spirits!” Mu Ningxue advised hm.

“What shall I do then? I can’t just let them smack me around like table tennis,” Mo Fan protested.

“There’s a Commander-level Black Tree Spirit, and it’s carrying an Essence Crystal in its tree hole. The organizer must have placed it there,” Mu Ningxue said.

{TL Note: Used to be Fundamental Crystal, but I think Essence Crystal sounds better.}

“Essence Crystal! That’s some good stuff!” Mo Fan’s eyes glittered.

Mo Fan happened to find an Essence Crystal in the canyon filled with the Forbidden Moon Rock Demons. It was worth two to three hundred million!

Mo Fan did not expect that Mu Ningxue had already found such valuable loot when he came looking for her.

“Do you need my help? Or you can deal with it yourself?” Mo Fan asked.

“Let’s do it together and get it done; the others might have found other treasures, too,” Mu Ningxue replied.

“Your Ice is better at dealing with the underlings, I’ll handle the boss…” Mo Fan split the tasks with Mu Ningxue.

Mu Ningxue’s Ice Element had wide coverage, so she could handle the enormous number of Black Tree Spirits better. Besides, if they did not get rid of the army of Black Tree Spirits, they had no hope of reaching their Commander!

Creator’s Thought

I found it funny that only Space Mages under private organizations would make the Scrolls, turning Advanced/Super Level awesome Space mages into production machines for cash. Hah!

Remember the cash is 7:1

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