[I buried myself inside the trunk. Once you take my remains out of this damned place, I will naturally tell you...]
"..."
When Ethan saw the last sentence, he was speechless.
He knew it. Usually when some "kind person" leaves you a message containing an important secret, either they have bad intentions or they want something.
But actually, Ethan wasn't that afraid of people wanting something.
Because people who want something usually tell the truth. It was probably based on the principle of equal exchange.
Instead, he was more wary of people who wanted nothing.
Because those kinds of people, you never know whether what they're saying is true or false.
"Lord, those spores are drifting over."
"There are so many!"
Everyone looked into the distance and cried out.
Ethan raised his head and looked ahead. A huge mass of red spores was flying toward the Desert Tree. It was as if the Desert Tree had some special attraction to them. Those thousands, or perhaps tens of thousands, of spores, no matter what direction they had originally come from, were all gathering toward the Desert Tree.
"So many!"
Ethan took a deep breath.
If there were only a hundred or a thousand spores, or even if they were a bit bigger, it would be manageable.
But these spores were too small. Hitting them was already difficult enough. Trying to destroy all of them in such numbers was simply too hard.
"Lord, that arrow... that arrow that can split."
Bird One suddenly remembered Ethan's secret weapon.
Ethan's eyes immediately lit up, "That's right! The Tycoon Arrow!"
The so-called secret message had disrupted his train of thought just now. His mind had been completely occupied with going down to retrieve the corpse and seeing what the person had left behind.
He had completely forgotten that he possessed a way to deal with a large group of spores.
Whoosh!
An arrow shot out.
Countless arrows immediately began splitting off from the main arrow.
But there were simply too many spores. The Tycoon Arrow kept dividing and dividing, yet it was still splitting apart and couldn't even begin shooting down the spores.
And the split arrows he had fired, due to excessive division actually began turning transparent.
It seemed as if they could disappear at any moment.
"Uh..."
Ethan was stunned on the spot.
This was the first time he had discovered that the Tycoon Arrow had such a flaw.
When the number of enemies became too great and exceeded the arrow's limit, the Tycoon Arrow would completely collapse from over-splitting.
"Why aren't the split arrows working?"
Bird One and the others were shocked.
They watched as Ethan fired several Tycoon Arrows, only for every one of them to vanish after splitting too many times. All of them were stunned.
Meanwhile, Ethan frowned as he looked at the spores drawing closer and closer.
If all of them exploded at the same time, taking the bird people and escaping the center of the blast wouldn't be a problem.
But the main issue was that the Desert Tree couldn't be moved.
When the spores crashed into it and burst apart, they would definitely tear the Desert Tree to pieces. Then they might end up exactly as that person had said earlier, trapped here forever.
After all, they could no longer find the spatial gate they had used to enter this damned place.
Even his prompt hadn't pointed out a way to leave.
It was very possible that it had been a one-way portal.
There was only a way in.
And if you wanted to leave, you would have to fulfill a specific objective first.
"Bird One, Bird Two, Bird Three, listen."
At this critical moment, Ethan could only choose to trust them.
"Go down the tree. Find a section where the bark looks newer. Dig it open and bring me the corpse inside. Hurry."
"I'll hold back these spores!"
"Yes, Lord."
The bird people responded.
Although Daji hadn't received an order from Ethan, she still followed them down to dig out the corpse.
As for Harriet, she no longer dared to hold anything back.
Because she understood clearly.
If all those spores really gathered around the Desert Tree, there was absolutely no way she could escape with Charlie using her own abilities.
So now her only option was to hope that Ethan had a solution.
Whoosh!
Harriet slashed with her blade.
Her sword energy was strong, but it was still far behind Ethan's.
The strike merely blew countless spores to both sides. It didn't even inflict any real damage.
And not long after being scattered, the spores gathered together again.
Watching this scene, Ethan's brows tightened.
Because he noticed, these spores seemed to have evolved.
If someone didn't look closely, they might not see it.
But Ethan's eyesight was sharp.
He could tell that the spores had grown tiny fuzzy hairs. This allowed them to avoid exploding when they bumped into each other.
However, Harriet's sword energy had just given him an idea.
Maybe brute force was useless against this thing.
Maybe a clever approach was needed instead.
There was no need to destroy them.
Perhaps he could try... Blowing them away.
"Wind-Enchanted Arrow!"
Since obtaining other skills, Ethan had rarely used wind and fire arrows.
But perhaps against something this unusual, wind was the real gift.
Whoosh!
The Wind Arrow shot toward the spores at incredible speed.
A tornado immediately formed in midair, sweeping countless spores into it and carrying them in the direction Ethan intended.
Whoosh!
Ethan fired another Fire Arrow.
The next moment, the Fire Arrow raced toward the Wind Arrow.
Then it rushed into the tornado and directly ignited a fire tornado.
But...
Whooo~
Whooo! Whooo!
The wind roared loudly, and the flames burned fiercely.
Yet Ethan didn't hear any explosions coming from within the tornado.
This made him frown.
Because it meant... the spores inside the tornado hadn't exploded.
'Are these spores fireproof?'
'That doesn't seem possible, does it?'
'Does a firecracker need fire resistance?'
Whoosh!
Ethan didn't want to guess.
He immediately fired another Fire Arrow.
This time he wasn't aiming at the fire tornado.
Instead, he shot at another cluster of spores approaching from elsewhere.
The next moment, the Fire Arrow struck a tiny spore and exploded instantly.
The blazing flames of arrow spread out.
This time, wthout the fire tornado blocking his view, Ethan finally saw clearly.
The spores had each lit up with a yellow protective barrier, isolating the flames outside.
At that moment, they looked more like tiny lanterns floating in the air.
Touch one, and it would explode.
But whether it was natural wind or natural fire, neither could harm them in the slightest.
They were unbelievably powerful.