Magical Girl's Knight Brother

Chapter 153 Climbing the Tree of Life

It wasn't until she personally began climbing the Tree of Life that Tang Zijun truly realized how magnificent this tree, hailed as a divine tree, was.

Boom boom boom! !

The engine of the Langya roared merrily as Tang Zijun gripped the handlebars tightly, the entire vehicle climbing straight up at a vertical angle.

The surface of the Tree of Life is not particularly smooth. Due to the effects of wind and frost over the years and the constant drying of the bark, the outer bark of the Tree of Life is as pitted and uneven as a rock wall, which also provides Langya with an environment that increases friction for its movement.

Of course, even without this friction, Langya can still travel against gravity. As a motorcycle from a reversed world, its existence cannot be calculated according to the norms of reality.

Tan Zhixin wrapped her arms around Tang Zijun's waist, pressing her cheek against his back. She hadn't intended to hold him so tightly, but the bumpy ride along the way was beyond her expectations.

Just look at Xiaoqing; her upper body is hanging from Tan Zhixin's neck, while her lower body sways wildly behind the car like a ribbon, completely unable to control her body.

Tang Zijun kept her eyes on the road ahead, controlling the steering wheel while using the Langya's headlights to observe the scene ahead.

After the boundary of the secret realm shattered, the Tree of Life itself was also affected. After the group climbed to a certain height, the forest of Huailing became the scenery under their feet and continued to shrink. This also meant that the group had truly entered the depths of the secret realm of the Tree Crown Royal City.

As the altitude increased, the surrounding fog thinned slightly, but the sky remained pitch black, appearing deathly still.

Langya whistled and twisted its body, bypassing a huge crack that resembled a canyon. Tang Zijun couldn't judge how big or deep the crack was; he merely brushed past its edge, as if he were peering into an abyss.

The previous guess was correct: the shattered spatial fragments had gone out of control and had now all turned into sharp and enormous blades, turning towards the Tree of Life, the 'culprit'.

A viscous purple liquid flowed from the deep, vast crack, which looked like the sap of the Tree of Life, but also like poisonous blood corrupted by some evil force.

A putrid stench assaulted his nostrils, and Tang Zijun frowned slightly. He could already sense that the life force in this area was dying out, and these spatial fragments had completely distorted the body of the Tree of Life.

They are like piranhas; each fragment can ferociously tear off a piece of flesh from the Tree of Life and then banish it into the boundless spatial turbulence, where it will be completely annihilated.

"Hyacinth, are we on the right track?"

Having once again bypassed a deep, abyss-like rift, Tang Zijun called out loudly to the little flower fairy hiding in Mr. Qingnang's arms behind her.

Hearing the noise, Hyacinth struggled to climb out. Even she was somewhat overwhelmed by the hurricane-force winds generated at this speed.

Fortunately, Tang Zijun blocked most of the strong wind. She carefully climbed onto Tang Zijun's shoulder, looked around, and nodded.

"The route forward is fine. The branches of the Tree of Life are mainly concentrated at the top, so there is no risk of getting lost at the current height."

Upon hearing this, Tang Zijun also silently calmed down.

Driving on the surface of a towering tree with a diameter of over four kilometers, Tang Zijun's biggest worry was getting lost. After all, in this distorted space, a slight misstep could send one onto another path.

In the dim and dark environment, Tang Zijun could not see the surroundings clearly. With visibility of less than 100 meters, if she accidentally drove onto the wrong tree branch, she would waste a lot of time.

The tree bark stretched upwards in front of her, seemingly without end. Tang Zijun tried to listen for any unusual sounds around her, but all she heard was deathly silence, with only the constant howling of the wind.

The higher you go, the more scars you see on the bark. Tang Zijun even saw many holes that had been deliberately chiseled out, the sap that had been secreted inside long since dried up and turned into a hard, gelatinous substance.

Looking at the huge, somewhat purplish-red crystalline structure, even Tang Zijun couldn't help but secretly marvel.

Although he had seen many strange and wonderful things in the reverse world back then, this was the first time he had ever seen such a scene.

If the sap from such a large tree were to accidentally fall into the real world, then the story of "a giraffe inside amber" would no longer be a joke.

"I think I sensed the aura of a heretic demon, very faintly," Tan Zhixin said, gently patting Tang Zijun's thigh.

“I smelled it too, but I didn’t hear anything unusual. Even if there were traces of heretics or strange beasts here before, they are no longer here.”

Hyacinth didn't seem surprised; she simply explained with a grim expression, "We're heading straight for the royal city, which is exactly the route those monsters took when they launched their attack. The aura must have been left behind at that time."

Hearing this, Tan Zhixin frowned deeply. "With such a large number of alien beasts launching a joint attack, Sir Skeleton must have some beings under his command who can control these beasts."

"Why do you say that?" Tang Zijun asked casually.

"Although the alien beasts are biological weapons cultivated by the heretical demons, they are essentially an uncontrollable group of ferocious beasts. Once those monsters hatch, they will frantically attack all living things around them, including other alien beasts."

This was the first time Tang Zijun had ever heard of such a mechanism, and then Tan Zhixin continued to explain.

"They were created for destruction, and the destruction caused by irrational madmen is often immeasurable. So, in this situation, the fact that Sir Skeleton could control the beast army to launch an attack means he must have the means to control the beasts. Otherwise, his beast army should have killed each other as soon as they assembled." Tang Zijun narrowed her eyes slightly.

No wonder magical girls and demonic beings haven't been exposed to ordinary people for so long. Based on Tang Zijun's initial guess, if demonic beings possessed powerful weapons like alien beasts, they could easily cause huge panic by simply throwing a few into a city.

Now it seems I underestimated them; they weren't unwilling, but rather unable.

According to Tan Zhixin's explanation, Tang Zijun also gained a general understanding of the role of the alien beasts as biological weapons. These monsters are meant to be hunted, and they will spontaneously seek out the strongest energy fluctuations within a certain range to hunt them.

Originally, this was a weapon specifically designed to hunt magical girls, because the magic power within a magical girl is like a bright light in the darkness for the monsters.

However, if two alien beasts were thrown into a city that wasn't very big, the most likely outcome would be that they would start fighting each other before the magical girl even arrived, because they sensed each other's strong energy fluctuations.

Tan Zhixin bit her lip lightly. "It seems that Sir Skull has been preparing for this moment for far too long. If this power were to be applied to the real world, the entire magical girl community would probably be shaken."

“But that also proves how important this operation is, doesn’t it?” Tang Zijun smiled. “Hold on tight, I’m going to speed up.”

Boom boom boom! !
The roar of Langya began to intensify, and the speed at which everyone climbed increased to another level. They roared and tore through the air, shooting straight towards the sky like rockets.

Just then, a sense of crisis suddenly surged into Tang Zijun's heart, and Langya seemed to sense something as well, becoming restless.

He suddenly turned his head and looked up into the air, only to see a huge black shadow flash by in the mist and disappear into the darkness.

"What's wrong?!" Noticing Tang Zijun's sudden action, Hyacinth subconsciously shrank her neck.

But Tang Zijun didn't have time to respond to her. He hesitated for a moment before speaking to Mr. Qingnang behind him.

Can you ride a motorcycle?

"What?"

Tan Zhixin was momentarily stunned.

"Ride a motorcycle." Tang Zijun repeated. "You'll be driving. Don't worry, it's okay if you can't. Just hold on tight so you don't get thrown off. Langya will control the direction."

"But."

Just as Tan Zhixin was about to say something, she saw a flash of silver light in Tang Zijun's left hand, and a delicate and beautiful shotgun appeared in his hand.

With one hand gripping the handle, Tang Zijun turned around, raised the shotgun high, and fired a shot into the mist in mid-air.

boom! !

A loud bang was followed by a burst of flames.

Less than two breaths later, a painful cry came from the darkness, accompanied by the sound of flapping wings.

Now, both Tan Zhixin and Hyacinth knew what had happened.

"You guys go up first, I'll cover you."

Tang Zijun knew very well that if she didn't find a way to deal with this strange flying bird, she wouldn't be able to drive properly on this journey.

"Then what are you going to do?" Hyacinth's eyes widened.

Tang Zijun tilted her head. "Don't forget, I can travel through the Reverse World. I can sense Langya's location. You guys go first. I'll deal with this guy and then find a way to catch up with you."

Without giving Hyacinth a chance to react, Tang Zijun kicked off with both legs and instantly flew out, disappearing into the darkness.

At that moment, Tan Zhixin quickly leaned out and gripped the handlebars of the Langya bicycle with difficulty, moving from the back seat to the driver's seat.

"Chirp chirp chirp—!!!"

Before she could even steady herself, she heard a piercing eagle cry behind her.

The sound was extremely close, feeling as if it were less than a meter behind me.

Tan Zhixin turned around in surprise, only to see a huge shadow in the darkness struggling to fall downwards, as if it had been attacked.

(End of this chapter)