“I've found some incredible things!”
Qimeng strode over to a stone platform in a few quick steps. Turning on her radar-like dynamic vision, she locked onto two beautifully crafted wooden boxes.
High-ranking demon crystals!
And they were two high-quality 【black magic stones】!
Snap, snap.
Without even a fraction of a second's hesitation!
Qimeng snatched them up and stuffed them into her pockets, moving so fast her hands left afterimages in the air!
“Eh...?”
Standing nearby, Yinzhi was dumbfounded on the spot. Her brain temporarily short-circuited, and she couldn't help but cry out.
“W-Wait a minute! Lady Qimeng?! What are you doing??”
“Nothing,” Qimeng replied with a straight face, her tone utterly matter-of-fact. “Just taking some self-defense tools for a beautiful girl's night out.”
“Who uses high-ranking magic stones as self-defense tools?!”
Yinzhi stomped her feet in anxiety, like an ant on a hot pan.
“Please don't touch the things here!”
“All the collections here are meticulously cataloged by the Chief! If she finds anything missing, she will definitely bring down a world of trouble on you!”
However, Qimeng merely snickered, not taking the warning seriously at all.
She reached out and grabbed a large sack made of some unknown magical beast's hide nearby.
Then, she began stuffing every treasure that caught her eye into it without any restraint.
“Come on, I've already devoured all four of your tribe's Sacred Spirits. Could there be anything more troublesome than that? As the saying goes, once you have too many lice, they don't itch, and when you have too many debts, you stop worrying~”
“The Sacred Spirits! I can still think of a way to find more for the tribe from the outside! But this... you're stripping our tribe clean!!”
Qimeng had absolutely no intention of stopping.
Yinzhi finally snapped. Throwing all her dignity as a Spirit Maiden out the window, she clutched her head and cried, pointing at Qimeng's bandit-like sack that was already bursting at the seams.
“This is a highly dangerous criminal act that deserves its own dedicated page on a wanted poster, hey!!”
“Yeah, yeah, don't sweat the details.”
As she spoke, Qimeng slipped a secret medicine that could massively boost physical strength, the 【Ancient Tree Thousand-Year Marrow】, and a defense-piercing flying blade, the 【Gale Cleaver】, into her sack.
These peerless treasures, which would trigger bloody wars in the outside world, were stuffed into her sack in one go, as if they were cheap cabbages from a grocery market.
“It's all over. The Wood Elf tribe's thousands of years of accumulated treasures are being emptied right before my eyes by this black-haired demon king.”
“I will definitely be nailed to the pillar of historical shame by the Elders.”
Seeing that trying to stop her was futile, Yinzhi slumped to her knees, looking like a grayed-out, burnt-out statue.
However, the Wood Elf girl quickly forced herself to calm down.
Since she couldn't stop this black-haired demon king, the top priority now was to find a foolproof way out before the surface guards caught up!
Clinging to this belief, Yinzhi began desperately rummaging through the ancient bookshelves nearby that recorded miscellaneous records and routes.
As long as she could find a way to leave, she wouldn't stay in the tribe for a moment longer!
“Ah! Found it! Look at this!!”
With a squeal of delight, Yinzhi suddenly pulled a scroll covered in green runes from a hidden compartment, almost jumping for joy.
“This is the true inheritance scroll for the 【Hidden Gate Spell】! The invisible barrier protecting the outskirts of the Wood Elf tribe was constructed using this very spell. Once I learn it, we can bypass the blockade outside and open a gate to leave directly!”
“Oh? The Hidden Gate Spell?”
Hearing that they could escape, Qimeng paused her free shopping.
“Mhm! I have my mother's lineage inheritance, so I should be able to figure it out in a short time! Lady Qimeng, please give me a moment. I will definitely get us out safely!”
Shaking off her earlier depression, Yinzhi's eyes shone with a firm sense of purpose.
Looking at the Wood Elf girl's sparkling eyes, Qimeng gave her a big thumbs-up.
This was truly too considerate.
Voluntarily staying behind to channel a spell... wasn't that basically handing over a massive chunk of free looting time on a silver platter?
“Since you put it that way...”
Qimeng put her hands on her hips, assuming the reliable posture of a powerful expert with a straight face.
“I'll leave this to you then, vassal Yinzhi. As your master, I will take full responsibility for keeping watch. Study in peace!”
“Lady Qimeng! Alright, I definitely won't let your trust down!”
Utterly moved, Yinzhi immediately sat down on the floor with the scroll, plunging into a state of last-minute cramming.
“Good, good. Take your time and study hard~”
Qimeng humored Yinzhi while quietly turning around.
Seeing that Yinzhi was already deeply immersed in the ocean of academia, she immediately began rummaging through the secret spell scrolls stored nearby.
It had to be said that the treasures of this Mother Tree were indeed formidable.
The original spell of Heavy Forest Bind, which could drag enemies into a forest hell; the secret Vein Pattern Ritual, which could see through the aptitude and growth limit of all Sacred Spirit magical plants at a glance;
and even the contract spell that carved spirit marks, the Natural Spirit Mark—all of them were prominently present.
However, what caught Qimeng's eye the most was a forbidden scroll sealed inside a crystal case: 【Giant Divine Tree: Great Death Burial】.
It was a Wood-attributed forbidden spell rumored to summon an ancient divine tree that could blot out the sun, condensing thousands of giant wooden hands to destroy everything!
Its unique concept and terrifying power reminded Qimeng of a certain cheat-like ultimate move from an anime in her previous life, Deep Forest Emergence.
As expected of the deeply founded Wood Elf tribe.
Even though her current strength was not enough to cast a forbidden spell, just printing it in her mind as free reference material made her feel incredibly satisfied.
“You study hard here. I'll go keep watch over there to make sure no one disturbs you.”
Qimeng turned back and patted Yinzhi on the shoulder, putting on the air of a reliable big sister.
Then, with light steps, she slipped into the room on the other side of the Incubation Room and began another round of searching.
She thought she had already looted most of the valuable items, but when Qimeng walked into the depths and reached a massive broken root of the Mother Tree...
She made a new discovery.
Grafted onto the main roots of the withered Mother Tree were actually two small magical plants emitting a green glow.
Looking closely, each of them had a two-layered leaf vein pattern.
These were two small Sacred Spirits.
They were likely Sacred Spirit seeds that the tribe's Elders had secretly cultivated here using the remaining nutrients after the Mother Tree withered.
“Hmm? Are these spare snacks prepared for me?”
That familiar hunger surged within Qimeng again. Since they were here, she had no choice but to eat them.
“It seems like you're attracting me, so I won't stand on ceremony.”
She looked left and right, confirming that Yinzhi was scratching her head in the distance, buried in the complex runes of the Hidden Gate Spell, completely oblivious to what was happening here.
“Devour All Things, let's dig in!”
In an instant, white roots erupted from her palm like a predatory spiderweb, wrapping tightly around the two small Sacred Spirits.
Rate on N.U.
