The lone wolf of Freyrdrand

: Big Tree

Lothar walked around a dead tree and helplessly looked at the little girl who was playing with the dead vine as a swing: “Okay, you’ve been playing for a long time, it’s time to go.”

“I’m tired.” The little girl turned her head and said.

“Don’t lie, the undead will not be tired.”

“I don’t want to go anymore!” the little girl gasped, shaking her limbs all over the place, “I thought that following you would meet a lot of living creatures, and then I could kill them for fun, but in the end, except for that stinky guy I didn’t see a single living thing! He still has the bottle of stinky water! I don’t even want to go near him!”

“So you followed me for this purpose…” Lothar held his forehead. After spending so many days together, he thought he knew this little girl more or less, but he didn’t expect her to still have a bad temper.

Lothar suddenly thought of Syndra, although Syndra and the little girl had different tempers, Syndra only hated Ionia extremely, and had no hostility towards people in other places, just indifference, while the little girl simply They take pleasure in killing, but it is undeniable that they have bad tempers.

“Is the mind of little girls so hard to guess…” Lothar thought of the little girls he had met, besides a mysterious girl with colorful hair, there was also a ninja girl from Ionia. The most popular one was Ai Xi when she was a child, but he remembered that Ai Xi was very gentle when she was a child, and she didn’t have a stubborn temper at all. “The gap between people is really big.”

The little girl glared at Lothar: “I always feel that you are scolding me in your heart.”

“Your delusion.” Lothar pressed the little girl’s head, “Okay, don’t flop around, you’ll see your panties.”

“I didn’t wear them.”

“I’m not interested in wearing it or not.”

“cut.”

Half coaxing and half deceiving finally let the little girl continue on the road. Lothar observed the island. The black fog is not very thick, and the number of undead is much less than other places in Shadow Island. It takes a long time to see one Lonely ghosts drift aimlessly.

But like all the other dead, the ghost would call out Lothar’s name as soon as he saw him, as if he was longing for something.

Lothar ignored these ghosts. They were dead with only a trace of soul left, and they couldn’t communicate at all.

“The dead…leave…” Lothar was suddenly blocked by a tree branch.

Lothar looked around and saw that it was actually a tree talking.

This tree looked completely indistinguishable from the surrounding things, and it didn’t show any breath of life. Lothar thought it was an ordinary dead tree, but he didn’t expect it to be alive.

Lothar has seen a lot of trees that can move and speak human language in Ionia, but they are only found in places where natural magic is abundant. It is really surprising that a dead place like Shadow Island can also exist.

“I’m not dead.” Lothar said, “I’m still alive, but my soul has left my body.”

The trunk twisted, and Lothar saw the shape of a human face on the bark.

“Wow, Treant! Well…” The little girl had a disgusted expression on her face. She seemed to want to say something dirty, but Lothar covered her mouth and couldn’t say it.

The tree man twisted his body and stood up crunchingly. The tree man was very tall, three times the height of Lothar. He scratched his chin with a branch like his arm, and looked at Lothar strangely: “It’s not the dead It’s strange that I don’t feel any life force in you.”

“My name is Lothar. Although I don’t have a body now.” Lothar introduced himself, “But I really haven’t died.”

“Hmm…” The tree man was still not quite sure, “You really don’t sound like a dead person… But I still can’t let you go into the woods.”

“why?”

“I am the guardian of this dry forest.” The tree man said, “My name is Zhimu. The tree entrusted me to guard this place. I cannot let you in.”

“Big tree…” The “helper” that Yorick told Lothar was just a big tree, “I came here to meet the big tree, can you take me to see him? ”

Zhimu’s expression became even more strange: “You want to see him? No… No… Dashu hates the dead very much, you will be shot to death by him… No, you are already dead…”

“I’ve already said that I’m not a dead person.” Lothar found that the tree man’s brain didn’t seem to be very bright. “It’s fine if I don’t go in. Can you ask him to come out to see me?”

Zhimu kept scratching his bark, as if he was thinking very intensely. After a long time, he finally nodded: “Okay, I can take you in, but you need to know three things.”

“you say.”

“First.” Zhimu stretched out a branch that looked like a finger, “After entering, you are not allowed to touch any trees, flowers or grass, and you are not allowed to get close.”

“Are you afraid that we will hurt them?” Lothar nodded, “Yes.”

“Second.” Zhimu stretched out his second finger, “Dashu will be in a bad mood when he sees you, so you can’t stimulate him.”

“Understood.” Lothar had learned from Yorick that the big tree seemed to be very irritable, so he was not surprised. “What about the third one?”

“The third…” Zhimu raised his third finger halfway, and he thought carefully, “Eh… there is no third, only two.”

“It seems that he is indeed not very smart…” Lothar thought to himself.

The little girl seemed to want to swear a few bad words, but Lothar tightly covered her mouth with one hand, and hugged her waist with the other hand, even if she punched, kicked or even bit her, she would not let go. Tree, Lothar can’t let the little girl make trouble.

“Why did you tie up your companion?” Zhim pulled the root out of the soil and began to lead Lothar the way, looking at Lothar’s behavior strangely.

“Oh, she likes this.” Lothar lied casually.

“That’s it.” Zhim easily believed it, and a smile appeared on his rough bark face, “You two have such a good relationship.”

“Yes.” Lothar said expressionlessly.

“Ugh!” The little girl was still struggling fiercely.

Zhimu brought Losa into the dead forest. Although he told him not to get close to the living plants, Losa didn’t see any living plants along the way. Most of them were dead trees with only half of them left. Zhimu also has some leaves growing on top of his head.

The little girl calmed down for the time being. She is actually not a very strong undead, and it is impossible for her to break away from Lothar, whose necromantic magic is getting stronger and stronger. However, her eyeballs kept moving around, obviously still thinking about what to do. thing.

Lothar moved his nose slightly, and he smelled a breath of life.

In the depths of the dry forest, there is a very strong old tree.

Zhimu walked up to Gushu and said softly, “Dashu, there are humans who want to see you.”

The ancient tree turned around slowly.

Lothar saw an angry face.

The layers of bark made his face extremely distorted and hideous. He pulled out his hand that was buried in the ground, and yelled at Zhimu: “Zhimu! I asked you to guard the forest! How could you let humans in? ! Still a dead man!”

Zhimu was trembling with fright, the leaves on his head were fluttering, he was a baby at best in front of the giant ancient tree: “Sorry… the big tree… I… I…”

Zhim was obviously terrified. He wasn’t very good at talking, let alone now.

The old tree’s anger calmed down a bit, and his thick tree hands gently cared for the leaves on Zhimu’s head, trying his best to make his voice sound gentle: “I’m sorry, Zhimu, I shouldn’t have yelled at you, don’t be afraid…”

After appeasing Zhimu for a while, Gu Shu turned his gaze to Lothar, with undisguised contempt and hatred in his eyes: “Dead man! Get out of my forest!”

The voice of the ancient tree was very loud, and it didn’t seem to be an ordinary voice. It had the power to shatter the soul. For the first time, Lothar felt pain in the spirit state, just because he heard the roar of the ancient tree.

The little girl he was holding couldn’t bear it even more, her eyes turned white and she almost fainted.

“Only death is eternal.” Lothar chanted a spell in Ochen language, and the black mist put a protective cover on his body and the little girl’s body, preventing the roar of the ancient tree from hurting them.

“Mage” Gu Shu’s expression became even more angry. He didn’t even want to warn him now, and the huge tree hand slammed down on Lothar viciously.

It stands to reason that Lothar and the little girl in the spirit state would not be afraid of this kind of physical attack, but Lothar still felt a strange magical power on the ancient tree, which seemed to restrain the dead very much.

Losa quickly threw the little girl out, but he was hit by Gu Shu’s hand.

The little girl was confused by the roar, and now she slowly came to her senses. Seeing Lothar’s body disappear under the giant hand of the ancient tree, she exclaimed, “Little brother!”

The little girl flew to the tree’s hand and wanted to kick it away: “You bastard trash tree! If my little brother is gone, you will pay me!”

Gu Shu looked at the little girl in amazement. He had hardly seen a dead person give priority to saving others.

But the old tree’s resentment towards the dead was not so easy to dissipate. He raised the tree’s hand, intending to wipe out the little girl as well.

“I can’t see that you really care about me.” Lothar’s voice appeared on the spot.

The ancient tree was taken aback, and its hands were hanging in the air.

“Wow! You bad brother!” The little girl kicked Lothar on the head, “If you lose Karthus, you will scold me to death! He won’t give me candy in the future!”

“Is that why you were worried about me?” Lothar grabbed the little girl’s bare feet and hung her upside down. “Fortunately, I was still touched at that moment.”

“Who wants you to be moved! Let me go! “The little girl tugged at her skirt to keep it from sliding down.

“Hey, you really didn’t wear it.”

“go to hell!”

“You…why didn’t you dissipate…” Gu Shu looked down at Lothar and said in a deep voice.

Lothar grabbed the other bare foot of the little girl that kept kicking towards his face, and he looked at the ancient tree: “The source of your strength is the water of life, right?”

The ancient tree frowned.

“The water of life has a strong restraint effect on the dead. The blow you just made should be able to destroy most of the dead.” Lothar said, “But I am not the dead, I am just a soul that has left the body.”

The ancient tree stared at Lothar for a long time, then scolded: “So what! You are a human mage! You are the chief culprit for all these tragedies!”

“Are you talking about the great changes in Shadow Island?” Lothar said, “I have only been on the island for a short period of time, and I have not participated in that incident at all.”

“Humans can’t be trusted!” Gu Shu gritted his teeth. Although he didn’t have any teeth, the bark made a terrible creaking sound. “My children and I lived well on the island! It’s because of the curse of the black mist.” ! All the children died! No more children will be born! It’s all the fault of humanity!”

“The child you mentioned, do you mean that one?” Lothar pointed behind the ancient tree.

There, there was a small piece of soil piled up with dead leaves, with a very young seedling on it.

“You don’t want to hurt my child!” Gu Shu stood in front of the right and looked at Lothar angrily.

“I didn’t want to hurt you.” Lothar said, “But the condition of that seedling seems to be very bad. Is it dying?”

Lothar’s words pierced Gu Shu’s pain, his face became extremely distorted again, and even Zhimu, who had been quiet by the side, lowered his head sadly.

“It is the only seedling we have found on the island for a hundred years. When we found it, none of its brothers and sisters survived, and it was the only one left.” Zhimu walked to the seedling, knelt down and cared for it with his hands. Looking at it, “We have thought of many ways to make it alive, but we can only keep it from dying, but it is almost at the limit.”

The little girl wanted to float over to look at the seedlings, but was stopped by an ancient tree. He obviously didn’t want any dead people to get close to his child.

Losa looked at the ancient tree strangely: “You should have the water of life in your body, right? Why can’t you keep it alive?”

The ancient tree’s warning to Lothar has not disappeared, but he has not attacked Lothar again for the time being: “It’s not your fault! The water of life was originally an oasis flowing underground in the archipelago, and it is inexhaustible. , but that damned black mist has ruined everything, and the spring has dried up! There is not even a little water of life left!”

“The big tree and I are among the few who survived.” Zhimu also explained, “Because we lived old enough, the water of life has completely fused with our tree sap, so we can live to this day, but other immature children At once……”

“Then can’t you nourish it with your sap?” Lothar asked again.

“I know, I know!” The little girl rushed to talk, “You must be reluctant to part with your own sap! I understand, I understand, who likes to benefit others at the expense of oneself?”

“As long as the children can survive, I am willing to die a thousand times!” The ancient tree said in a hostile manner, “But the concentration of our water of life in sap is not enough for the children to absorb, so we must have pure water of life. ”

Lothar thought for a while, and it seemed that the only way to eliminate the ancient tree’s hostility towards him was to help him revive the dying seedling.

If Lothar’s body is still there, it shouldn’t be difficult. Except for necromancer magic, every kind of magic Lothar has learned has powerful healing and life force, but unfortunately he can’t use it now.

But Lothar knew one more thing.

“I came to you because I hope you can do me a favor.” Lothar explained his reason for coming.

“I won’t help humans.” The hatred in Gu Shu’s eyes didn’t subside a bit.

“I know where the spring of the water of life is.” Lothar said, “If the water of life on this island has not been completely exhausted, only that place can exist.”

Gu Shu stared at Lothar for a long time: “Why should I trust you?”

“I hope you can go to that place with me.” Lothar said, “As a matter of sincerity, I can help you get the water of life first, and then ask you to help me.”

“I don’t believe in human rhetoric.”

“But no one can save your child except me.”

Zhimu touched the ancient tree lightly, and the ancient tree turned its head to look at the seedling that Zhimu was caring for. It really couldn’t hold on any longer. It was impossible for such a fragile life to survive on the Shadow Island.

“If you dare to lie to me.” The ancient tree stared at Lothar, “Even if I run off a few of my roots, I will chase you endlessly! Until there is no dross left in your soul!”

“Deal.” Lothar said.

Section 253

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Every heart is like a garden, waiting for a big tree to take root!

—— Zhimu