In the dead of night, everyone was asleep except for those on watch. Xu Dongyou, likely due to the exhaustion of the past few days, had unknowingly fallen asleep.
The others didn’t have the heart to wake him up.
After all, Xu Dongyou had been working incredibly hard recently. In just a few days since arriving here, he had noticeably lost weight, making him appear even more delicate and ethereal, as if a gust of wind could blow him away.
“Let him sleep a little longer. We’ll wake him in two hours. Nothing’s going to happen in such a short time,” said one of the handlers.
The other person nodded in agreement.
The person hiding in the shadows, overhearing this conversation, finally felt relieved. They quietly concealed themselves further and quickly disappeared.
Moments later, Xu Dongyou opened his eyes and immediately sent a message to the director.
The director, without delay, used his ability to cloak himself and two others in complete concealment. They followed the suspect to the vicinity of the evil tree and caught the person in the act of sabotaging the traps.
With both physical and testimonial evidence, the director and his team wasted no time. They seized the opportunity to apprehend the traitor before further damage could be done, quickly fixing the trap that had barely been tampered with. They then returned to the camp.
Throughout this, the captured handler knew his betrayal had been fully exposed. His face turned pale with panic, though he soon calmed down. This sudden composure made the director even more cautious, prompting him to reinforce his control over the handler with additional safeguards.
Upon returning to camp, the traitorous handler saw all the other handlers, whom he had intended to put to sleep, as well as Xu Dongyou, standing there in good health. It was then that he realized his cover had likely been blown long before this moment.
But he couldn’t understand how he had been exposed.
“Why? I thought I hid myself so well. How did you find out—” The handler stopped abruptly, suddenly turning to Xu Dongyou. “It was you! It was you, wasn’t it?”
For years, he had hidden his identity flawlessly and shouldn’t have been discovered. The only one who could have sensed something amiss was Xu Dongyou. His heightened senses were nearly supernatural as if they were a cheat code. It must have been during the spider monster’s defeat that Xu Dongyou had detected his killing intent.
Realizing this, he fell silent, filled with hatred toward Xu Dongyou and regret for letting his guard down and exposing his intent.
But it was too late now.
Especially now that he was caught. With the gravity of his crime, it was clear that once his secrets were uncovered, death would be inevitable.
The traitorous handler’s face instantly turned ashen. With difficulty, he spoke to the director, “I’m willing to confess everything. If I confess fully, could you spare my life? Even if it means erasing my memories, that’s fine.”
The director showed no sign of anger, instead smiling calmly. “I’ll do my best to file a report to the higher-ups, but I can’t guarantee what decision they’ll make. However, you should start by voluntarily confessing everything and show some sincerity.”
The director then ordered the other handlers to step aside, leaving only a few high-ranking core members and Xu Dongyou.
This traitor, named Liang Shankai, had worked in the agency for seven to eight years and was part of the third squad. Known for his smooth and diplomatic ways, his spiritual energy had always been somewhat lacking, and he hadn’t made much progress over the years. Despite this, his eagerness to learn and growing combat skills allowed him to challenge stronger opponents, despite his weaker spiritual energy.
This flexibility and adaptability were why the agency had chosen him to participate in this mission.
However, they never expected him to betray humanity, intending to harm all the handlers. Reflecting on the mysterious death earlier, the director began to suspect that Liang Shankai might have been connected to that individual or even part of the same organization.
Since they couldn’t learn anything from the deceased mysterious person, they had to rely on this handler, the only one alive who knew the truth, to extract valuable information.
Although they could use a truth-telling charm to dig out all his secrets, there was always the risk of missing something, like hidden aces. It would be better if Liang Shankai cooperated voluntarily.
The director warned, “Remember to confess everything, or I won’t be able to fight for your chance to live, and your family will bear the shame because of you.”
That last sentence made Liang Shankai’s face alternate between pale and flushed. After a long pause, he nodded. “I understand. I’ll confess everything.”
Though he said this, his heart was still full of unwillingness.
Liang Shankai then began to reveal all that he knew. It turned out that he had only been approached by the mysterious person two months ago. This person encouraged him to join the secret organization of Gatekeepers, asking Liang Shankai to cooperate with them from within and help gather resentful spirit pearls to bring to this place, allowing the evil spirit tree to cultivate more resentful spirits.
As for why Liang Shankai agreed to work with the Gatekeepers, the reason was simple: his power had plateaued and even the agency couldn’t help him break through.
He had watched others, who weren’t as hardworking as him, surpass him simply because they had more spiritual energy. His resentment grew with each passing day.
The Gatekeepers, however, had a way to help him increase his spiritual energy, but it came with a price. He had to assist them in collecting resentful spirit pearls from the corpses gathered by the agency.
Resentful spirit pearls don’t appear out of thin air. They require a specific spell and a seed to cultivate. This is why the corpses collected by the agency didn’t have any pearls at all.
After handing over the resentful spirit pearls to the Gatekeepers, they provided him with a magical item that enhanced his spiritual energy. Liang Shankai soon discovered that the Gatekeepers were extraordinarily powerful. He attempted to make contact with them and learned a highly secretive piece of information:
How to become a Gatekeeper.
“But I cannot tell you the specific method unless you promise to spare my life. Of course, you can use the truth-telling talisman on me, but you won’t be able to get the information on how to become a Gatekeeper. I have made a curse with the mysterious person—if I reveal this secret, I will die immediately.”
This was why Liang Shankai still had some confidence even after being discovered.
The director’s face darkened. After much thought, he said, “I will report everything you’ve said to the higher-ups, but for now, I need you to explain one thing: What was your purpose in dismantling the traps? You should know that these resentful spirits cannot harm us.”
Liang Shankai remained silent. “I will only explain that once you guarantee my survival. Don’t think you can use the truth-telling talisman to extract this information. I would rather die than reveal it.”
Unable to get any more information from Liang Shankai and with his lack of cooperation, keeping him there served no purpose. The director decided to have a few handlers escort him away to prevent any potential sabotage.
The director then called everyone together and said, “Tomorrow, we will continue advancing toward the tree. I will arrange for an excavator to start digging nearby. We need to explore the heart buried underground.”
The director had previously discussed this with others and, after analysis by Elder Chen, it was agreed that the heart buried underground was a crucial element in eliminating the evil tree. Therefore, they needed to dig it up and investigate.
Moreover, since the number of resentful spirits on the tree had dwindled, it was time to speed up the process.
The next day arrived quickly and everyone began their tasks. The traps were advanced another hundred meters and everyone was prepared for a potential counterattack from the evil tree. However, to their surprise, the tree remained silent.
The director ordered everyone to continue advancing.
When they reached fifty meters, the evil tree finally reacted. The branches stirred and the spirits hanging from the tree grew darker, eventually turning black.
Even without Xu Dongyou’s input, everyone could sense an unprecedented aura of power from these spirits. Clearly, the evil tree was becoming restless. It shook its branches again, causing the three spirits to sway and fall toward everyone. The traps designed to contain the spirits held up for less than a minute before giving way.
During this time, everyone began attacking the spirits, but they were unable to inflict any real damage on the evil tree.
No one panicked; instead, they looked to the director for guidance.
The director waved his hand decisively. “Deploy the weapons.”
These weapons were different from the ones used previously; they were embedded with sealing stones capable of damaging the resentful spirits and also carried some suppressive power.
As expected, this attack successfully harmed the spirits and ultimately sealed them.
At that moment, everyone finally breathed a sigh of relief. Surely, this time, the evil spirit tree had no more retaliatory power, right? They continued their advance while the ground was dug to a depth of one hundred meters. They soon uncovered what appeared to be a heart made of flesh, looking extremely grotesque.
A putrid odor immediately filled the air. The heart, red in color, was pulsing with black blood, evoking images of monstrous flesh.
An unsettling realization dawned upon them.
Suddenly, a branch-like appendage shot out from the heart, rapidly penetrating one of the handlers’ hearts and draining their blood, causing them to collapse.
The incident happened too quickly for anyone to react. Xu Dongyou seized the opportunity to activate his heightened senses, swiftly maneuvering his knife to sever the root of the tree branch.
The severed root immediately ceased movement.
The tree trunks of the evil tree began to shake violently and the ground started to heave, with countless roots emerging and attacking the group.
Everyone’s faces turned pale with horror.
Realizing that the tree had other forms of attack, they were relieved that the previously set traps were effective in holding off the tree trunks. They quickly adapted and launched their counterattacks.
The roots attacked at a rapid pace but had relatively low defensive power. With the traps in place, the group’s attacks soon inflicted severe damage on the evil tree, severing all of its roots.
The heart continued to throb beneath the earth, beating heavily with a rhythmic thud.
Everyone was parched and their hearts raced as the atmosphere grew increasingly oppressive.
Xu Dongyou, with his heightened senses activated, sensed an unprecedented level of impending danger!
