They won the Holy Grail War, but this turned out to be the Virtual Tree Universe.

Chapter 223 Undying Star Core - Illusion
In Dan Lei's eyes, the punch from the Illusionary Envoy level was nothing but a hollow display.

The difference between Commander-level and Commander-level is greater than the difference between a 200-pound ordinary fat otaku and a Star-level expert.

Huanlong's punch was at the initial level of the Commander, which was slightly inferior to those of the ten people like Shixin, who only had one-tenth of the Commander's strength.

Danlei can now use nearly a quarter of Skarakkabaz's power; he doesn't even need to dodge attacks of that level.

Dan Lei directly invoked Xiao Huanlong's Envoy-level Destruction Path power, combined with his own Hunting Path power, and the Envoy-level Echoes Intertwined: Core Collapse Directly Possessed Him.

Then, Dan Lei neither dodged nor avoided, and without even using his sword, he met Huan Long's fist head-on with a punch.

The moment the two sides made contact, the force of the core collapsing instantly struck Huanlong's fist, and the entire fist, like a volcanic eruption, instantly turned red and then exploded into pieces.

Dan Lei, on the other hand, didn't even change position in the air.

Of course, Dan Lei was not unharmed in the actual collision.

The impact of the Illusionary Fist broke Dan Lei's wrist, and the Hunting Force also electrocuted Dan Lei's arm until he lost all feeling.

However, Dan Lei could repair this level of injury simply by instantly using the power of destiny.

So after the collision, Danlei seemed to have won against Huanlong without sustaining any injuries.

Fortunately, Huanlong's current Jianmu physical body is not ordinary. Even though he cannot use the abundant power, the Jianmu's inherent regenerative ability is still there.

Just like in the game, the train recovers completely the first time it fights the Abundant Deer, no matter how many times it fights the Deer. Now, the Illusory Body lost its hand, but it grew back in less than a second.

Therefore, Huanlong was able to strike Danlei again with his backhand.

However, this time Dan Lei, having ascertained Huanlong's current skill level, used a sword.

Huanlong created a wooden body for himself, inadvertently giving himself a weakness to fire. It would be a shame not to take advantage of it.

Therefore, the Immortal-Slaying Sword struck again, a flash of flame, and the Illusion Dragon's retaliatory hand was cut off once more.

Meanwhile, the Starry Sky Train crew also recovered from their maniacal laughter.

Xing jumped up again and slammed the stick into Huanlong's right knee.

This time, Huanlong had a physical form, and amidst the flying wood chips, his right knee was smashed with a hole.

Walter and Danheng immediately followed up with an attack.

Dozens of void severing barriers struck Huanlong's damaged knee as Xing used the reaction force to jump backward, deepening the wound.

Then a blue dragon-shaped water column smashed through Huanlong's right knee.

Because all the hatred was focused on Dan Lei, Huanlong completely ignored the train crew when they attacked.

After all, a wooden body doesn't feel pain.

However, with his right leg broken, Huanlong was naturally unable to stand. He tried to strike Danlei again but failed, and fell to his right side.

Falling in battle is not good news.

Dan Lei held the Immortal-Slaying Sword level, and with a ceremonious shout of "Heavenly Fire! Unsheath!"

In conjunction with the collapse of the core area, which has been upgraded to the Commander level, the Flame Giant Blade, which caused the destruction of Liuyun Ferry when it clashed with Jingliu, reappeared in an enhanced version.

With a swift slash from Dan Lei, Huanlong's head was severed, and his head and neck were immediately set ablaze, threatening to incinerate his body completely.

However, Huanlong is not so easy to deal with.

Just like how Dan Lei's bloodline potential was unleashed under the high pressure of the [Suihuang] origin.

The continuous attacks also facilitated the fusion of the power of destruction of the Illusionary Omen and the power of abundance of the Jianmu Tree.

For someone made entirely of wood, losing a head is no different than losing a piece of wood.

Huanlong's head turned to wood the moment it hit the ground, so it didn't affect anything at all.

Her voice came again from Huanlong's fallen body.
"My esteemed benefactors, I had no desire to fight you, so why are you helping this villain Dan Lei to bully me?"

You must understand, attempting to destroy this noble body born from the Jianmu tree is no easy task.

As he spoke, Huanlong's body instantly unleashed terrifying destructive lightning power, indiscriminately attacking everything around him.

The Starry Sky Train crew could not directly withstand this Envoy-level attack and could only dodge it.

As the first bolt of lightning swept across the train, Xinghe, March 7th, Danheng, and Walter, in two separate groups, instinctively dodged the attack to the left and right.

However, Danheng and Walter were experienced in combat, and their instinctive reaction was to hide in places with dense roots.

In this way, the roots of the Jianmu tree can be used to resist the indiscriminate lightning attacks of the Illusionary One.

Ke Xing and March 7th did not have this awareness.

The two girls dodged into an open space, and faced with the thunder and lightning raining down from the sky, they were quite fearless.

Xing immediately unleashed his Flame Spear, while March 7th donned a shield and hid behind him, attempting to withstand the attack head-on.

Honestly, given their defensive capabilities, they wouldn't necessarily die from simply enduring the attack.

Aside from anything else, the Star's ability to protect its destiny is like having a cheat code.

If you try to withstand the Illusionary Lightning head-on, you'll probably only get about 60-70% shocked; you shouldn't die.

However, Danlei wouldn't just watch his allies turn into roast chickens.

Seeing how fierce the two were, he rushed in front of them without saying a word, stepping on the sword box, switched to the Immortal Execution Sword, used lightning to fight lightning, and slashed through the attack aimed at them with one sword.

After finishing, he grabbed the two men by the waist, flew them to the base of a huge Jianmu tree, and put them down, saying...
"Ladies, could you please not be so reckless?"

They dare to withstand even envoy-level attacks head-on.

Are you planning to serve Huanlong a dish of grilled beauties?

Upon hearing Dan Lei's words, March 7th immediately scratched the back of his head in embarrassment and said...

"Hehe, it's just that I didn't get to a safe place in time."

Since there's no way to avoid it, we have no choice but to fight.

Actually, what March 7th said wasn't wrong, so Danlei didn't lecture him much, but instead gave him some instructions.

"March 7th, your mobility is low, so in the upcoming battles, try to stay in areas with complex terrain and fight guerrilla warfare."

Star, your Flame Lance Charge can be used as a high-speed movement skill.

You're already familiar with switching your life path during an attack, so I don't need to teach you. Just be careful from now on.

After saying that, Danlei took off again and rushed towards Huanlong.

While Danlei was rescuing people and talking, Huanlong's head and right leg had already regrown.

Moreover, she seems to have skipped the second phase of the game and gone straight into the third phase.

Seeing Dan Lei rushing towards him, Huan Long, who was getting up, slammed his hand on the ground, and countless golden and black lotus flowers instantly sprouted from the ground with Huan Long at the center.

These lotus flowers perfectly recreate the effects from the game, or rather, they are an enhanced version.

The golden lotus contains the abundant power of Jianmu, and it slowly absorbs the life force of the surrounding life to replenish Huanlong.

Just like when they fought at the Workshop, the black lotus spreads a corrosive, destructive power over one's destiny.

At this moment, after these lotus flowers grow, they are no longer confined to the ground, but float around Huanlong's body, protecting Huanlong in all directions.

Moreover, the round fan that Huanlong holds in the game has also been recreated by her. Although it still has a strong wooden feel, at least she has a weapon now.

With weapons in hand, Huanlong launched a full-scale counterattack.

With a wave of his fan, the destructive power of the wind and rain was unleashed.

The damage is not significant, but the person who can play it will lose their balance and become unable to see.

In the air, Danlei felt as if he had plunged into turbulence, which greatly affected the stability of his flight.

At this point, if Huanlong were to unleash a destructive lightning strike on Danlei, the hit rate would be much higher.

Although its power is far less than in its prime, Danlei can block it head-on.

But after a while, Danlei inevitably made mistakes.

Moreover, there are so many lotus flowers around that you might not notice the weakening effect of the lotus flowers and end up losing the game.

Therefore, Dan Lei could only keep his distance and use the speed and spatial abilities of the Zhuxian Sword to harass Huanlong. With Dan Lei in this situation, the Starry Sky Train crew was even more helpless against Huanlong.

The water dragon of Danheng was blocked by a large number of lotus flowers in the air.

Although a single impact from the water dragon could easily destroy more than a dozen lotus flowers, the speed at which Huanlong generated lotus flowers was much faster than the speed at which Danheng destroyed them.

Walter also considered using a large simulated black hole to destroy all the lotus flowers on the field in one go.

But having learned its lesson once, Huanlong refused to allow the simulated black hole to form.

As soon as Walter activates his ability, the base point of the simulated black hole is generated, and a bolt of destructive lightning strikes, interrupting its formation.

The lotus flowers on the ground were cleared relatively smoothly.

Xing followed Danlei's advice and used the Flame Spear Charge as a basic attack.

The person transformed into a fiery drill, running back and forth at high speed to plow the land, clearing away many of the various lotus flowers on the ground.

As for March 7th, all she can do now is cheer for the Star Shield.

Upon seeing this, Dan Lei immediately sensed something was wrong. Huanlong's strength had declined so significantly, yet the total amount and intensity of the power she was currently mobilizing were increasing, which was highly unusual.

This cannot be explained simply by increased body integration.

Huanlong lacks the power of harmony and balance. The path of destruction and the path of abundance can only be initially integrated at the moment. Overall, they are still in the stage of mutually hindering each other.

However, now both energy sources can be used, unlike before when they couldn't be used at all.

Therefore, after circling around Huanlong, Danlei discovered the blind spot.

That root system that connected her and Jianmu when it was born from Huanlong Jianmu's body.

Clearly, Huanlong can now directly obtain energy from Jianmu through this root system.

The current energy of Jianmu comes from the star's core.

The star core is also suspected to be a product of the Destruction Fate lineage.

Therefore, the loop is closed.

Huanlong hasn't used his own power yet, or rather, he hasn't used much of his own power.

Instead, it extracts the power of abundance and the destructive power of the star core directly through the Jianmu tree.

An Annihilation Lord, using the power of the Star Core in conjunction with his own destiny power, can naturally unleash a standard Commander-level attack.

It can also replenish itself by utilizing its terrifying energy reserves, the principles of which are unclear.

Therefore, the current Huanlong is not the Undying Jianmu Huanlong, but the Undying Star Core Huanlong.

Now that the problem has been identified, things are much easier to handle.

Severing the connection between Huanlong and Jianmu is actually unrealistic.

This is the Mysterious Root Cave of the Jianmu Tree; it has nothing but Jianmu roots everywhere.

Since Huanlong's current body is made of Jianmu wood, she can restore her connection with Jianmu wood by simply sticking to a root of Jianmu wood.

Unless Danlei himself destroys all the roots of the Jianmu trees here.

That's obviously impossible. Dan Lei has the ability to do this; he could simply burn the Jianmu tree. Huanlong's Jianmu tree body is just a pile of firewood.

So Danlei shouted loudly.

"Star! You have a star core inside you, so you should be able to sense the location of another star core."

Find the star's core and seal it away!

Huanlong's current power comes from the Star Core. Once the Star Core is sealed, she will immediately revert to her original form!

Danlei deliberately spoke loudly, his purpose being to see Huanlong's reaction.

Since Huanlong's current power comes from the star core, which is only Danlei's guess, it's better to test it out to avoid wasting effort.

Sure enough, Huanlong fell for it.

It's no secret that stars have cores.

It is perfectly reasonable for that star to sense other star cores.

Of course, the one present who could pinpoint the existence of the star core was Walter.

The Star Train and the Star Core are mortal enemies. The Star Tracks are blocked by the Star Core, and the first thing the Star Train needs to do is find the Star Core.

Therefore, the Starry Sky Train used the research data on stellar nuclei from the Black Tower to develop instruments that can detect the energy of stellar nuclei.

If this instrument is to search on a planet, it may be necessary to gradually narrow down the search area by gathering information before scanning.

But now that they're all in the same cave as the star core, at such a close distance, Walter plans to build a machine to detect the fluctuations in the star core, so finding the star core shouldn't be too difficult.

After all, the Dragon Masters just threw the Star Core into the cave and left it there, so there's unlikely to be any protective measures around it.

Huanlong was unaware that Xing had never shown any sensitivity to the star's core.

So, when Danlei said that, the hatred that had been building up instantly shifted.

Huanlong unleashed the [Mysterious Root Transformation] technique directly at Xing, sending countless wooden spikes from the ground in an attempt to kill Xing.

However, Dan Lei swooped down, pulled Xing behind him, and stepped onto the sword box to enter the air.

In this way, the two people with the most hatred in Huanlong's eyes ended up together.

To avoid being led astray by the star, Dan Lei flew directly to find the star core.

Huanlong is really going all out here.

Lightning, gale, wooden needles—countless attacks hurtled towards Dan Lei.

The goal was simple: to never let Danlei and Xing out of his sight.

Danlei was very cooperative, performing various stunts in the air, seemingly trying to shake off Huanlong and find the Star Core.

However, Huanlong didn't notice that Walter had already silently disappeared.

Furthermore, Dan Lei secretly lent him the Immortal Slayer Sword to prevent Walter from being unable to cut through the roots of the Jianmu tree when the road to the Star Core was blocked.

After Walter obtained the Immortal Slayer Sword, he naturally knew that Dan Lei's words to Xinghou were meant for him.

So, taking advantage of Xing attracting Huanlong's attention, he went straight to seal the star core.

Danheng silently joined up with March 7 and began to use the water dragon in a wide-ranging manner, with the aim of making Huanlong aware that the train crew was still attacking him.

Even on March 7th, ice arrows were condensed to apply ice to Huanlong, increasing his perception.

And so, the battle entered a tense and exciting tug-of-war.

About ten minutes later, Huanlong, who was unleashing a storm of attacks, suddenly felt his body go empty.

His body was suddenly drained, and all his attacks froze for a moment.

Upon seeing this, Dan Lei knew that Walter had succeeded.

He was quite skilled at sealing star cores; finding a star core and cutting off its external energy output was a piece of cake for him.

However, Huanlong had a great time during those ten minutes, and Danlei's "running away with his head in his hands" gave her a great sense of satisfaction.

So they didn't even realize that their backup energy had been depleted.

Thus, the firepower output exceeding his own capabilities instantly drained him dry.

At this moment, Huanlong's Jianmu body was in a state of withered wood, its energy completely drained.

Not to mention the protection of life-bound energy, even the energy within the body is in an extremely low state.

The hidden dangers of destruction and abundance, which were originally suppressed by the energy of the star core, suddenly erupted.

This causes its body color to suddenly change from black to yellow.

Danlei, adopting a "take advantage of your weakness" attitude, stopped bothering with any fancy tricks.

Skarakabaz's soul was released by Danlei, and a pyrolysis death ray instantly pierced through Huanlong from head to arm, instantly detonating the complex energy within his body.

(End of this chapter)