A Psychiatrist's Bizarre Game Journey / Dream of the Mist

Seeing the group running so fast, the elven man frowned slightly and pointed at them. Then, a series of teleportation arrays shot out from his fingertips without stopping. As his fingers adjusted their angle, they basically covered the entire small area where Zhou Ke'er and the others were.

At the same time, he also added some kind of invisibility spell to these teleportation arrays, so Zhou Ke'er and the others didn't see the overwhelming teleportation arrays pressing down on them at all.

By the time they noticed, they were suddenly overcome with dizziness, and in the blink of an eye, they found themselves transported to an unknown location.

Zhou Ke'er then realized that they had been tricked by that elf man, who was truly lacking in sportsmanship!

Subconsciously looking around, they found the environment to be dark and damp, filled with the smell of wood. It looked like a small cave, not very large, even narrow, just enough to accommodate Zhou Ke'er and Hong He. Even the other warriors who had come with them were nowhere to be found.

It's obvious that the reason is that the teleportation array that Zhou Ke'er and Hong He were hung on to was different from the one that the heroes were hung on to.

He reached out and touched the hollow wall. It felt like wood. He tapped it and found that it wasn't hollow at all; in fact, it seemed quite solid.

Zhou Ke'er had a bad feeling—oh no, could she have been built into the ancient tree of elves? This might be a tree hole in the ancient tree that is specially used to store nutrients?

Zhou Ke'er dared not use teleportation recklessly. His teleportation was a short-distance teleportation, which could teleport without knowing the specific terrain around him. But if he was really inside a tree, at least he had a place to stand now. If he teleported rashly, he might really be "built into a tree"!

The flamingo brandished its scythe and slammed it down on the tree wall, but was instantly bounced off without leaving a trace.

Physical attacks don't seem to be very effective.

Zhou Ke'er narrowed her eyes and tried to unleash a magic energy piercing cannon—but it was directly absorbed by the tree wall and disappeared without a trace.

Good grief, this energy attack is basically just providing nutrients to this tree...

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626. Imprisonment

Zhou Ke'er's expression turned slightly grave. This sudden event was indeed beyond his expectations. Coupled with the fact that this prison was immune to both physical and magical damage, he had been caught off guard and found himself in dire straits.

However, while this tree wall can absorb magical energy, what about spiritual energy or malevolent forces? Can it still absorb them?

Just as Zhou Ke'er was about to try again, she saw Honghe strike the blade of the Grim Reaper's Scythe against the tree wall and shout, "Alohomora!"

Immediately, the spot on the tree wall that had been struck suddenly twisted, and then it actually split open from the middle outwards, revealing a small hole large enough for one person to pass through.

"Good heavens, this is...."

Zhou Ke'er looked at Honghe in surprise, wondering if this guy had secretly gone to some academy that required crashing into walls and taking a train to get there.

"Opening spell - Arahurst open."

Honghe explained, "There is a market in the main city that specializes in selling low-level practical skills. We had accumulated a lot of sanity points that we didn't know where to spend them, so a few days ago I went to prepare some skills or items that we might need in an emergency, just in case."

Ah, Zhou Ke'er really didn't know about this. As soon as he arrived in the main city, he was busy being dragged by Long Aotian to explore the secret realm. He hadn't even learned about the situation in the main city yet.

Flamingo peered into the opened hole, squinting as she said, "Just as I thought... the walls behind these trees are all solid. Even if you use an opening spell to create a small opening, you'll still end up in a confined, cramped space."

Zhou Ke'er stroked her chin: "Since this was all within your expectations, I suppose you already had a solution in mind, right?"

Honghe stared at Zhou Ke'er with dead fish eyes, then pointed to the cave entrance: "This skill will end as soon as we pass through this cave. And this place will continuously devour the magical energy attached to this skill, so the actual time might be even shorter—meaning that within a second or two after we pass through this cave, the space that was created will return to normal and recombine. So we can only keep casting the Opening Gate Spell and keep rushing forward until we reach the outermost edge, otherwise we'll really be built into this thing."

"Then what are we waiting for? Let's run!"

Zhou Ke'er immediately nodded.

Honghe glanced helplessly at Zhou Ke'er, squinted and sighed, "But there's one crucial point—how far is it from here to the outside, and do I have enough mana to cast spells all the way there? If we don't figure this out before we start, we might end up stuck in this hellhole."

"Pshaw! It's just a lack of mana, right? That's easy—can casting this skill only consume mana, or can other forms of energy also be used?"

Zhou Ke'er waved her hand in reply.

"I remember the skill description didn't explicitly require it to be mana-based; it only mentioned consuming energy. But I haven't tried it..."

The flamingo answered expressionlessly.

After asking the question, Zhou Ke'er shrugged indifferently: "Never mind, it's fine. Magic energy is magic energy, it's the same. Here, put this on."

As she spoke, Zhou Ke'er produced a necklace-like ornament and handed it to Honghe—this was the reward he received after the settlement of the [The Chapter of Stealing Heaven] module: [Silk Dore's Energy Storage Crystal]

You don't even need to review the item description; you can tell what it's for just by looking at the item name.

With Zhou Ke'er, a bug-level mana regeneration monster with lightning speed, constantly providing energy to the flamingo through the energy storage crystal, even if this ancient elven tree is as big as the entire city of Light, it's enough to stretch from one end of the Arahur Cave to the other.

With that, there was nothing else to worry about. Honghe and Zhou Ke'er quickly crawled into the open hole, and then a series of shouts of "Alohomora" rang out.

I don't know how long I ran, but then I heard a familiar "pop" sound, and what appeared before me was no longer a dark void, but a sliver of light – I had finally escaped!

Thankfully, the energy storage crystals provided energy replenishment for such a long journey; otherwise, we would have been embedded into the tree. This made Zhou Ke'er marvel at just how large this ancient elven tree was—was it really as big as a city?

Zhou Ke'er and Hong He quickly jumped out of the hole one after the other, and then collapsed to the ground, panting heavily.

This stretch of road was practically equivalent to sprinting around the city at full speed; no normal person could possibly handle it. Zhou Ke'er was somewhat better off because of the enhanced physical abilities she possessed, but Hong He had to resort to using the Faceless One's Mask halfway through, even running until the Mask's duration ended. In the end, he was so exhausted that he couldn't run anymore and had to be carried on Zhou Ke'er's shoulders.

"ah!"

Just then, a small gasp of surprise rang out from the side.

Zhou Ke'er immediately sprang to her feet, quickly scanning her surroundings. She had been so exhausted that she had let her guard down and forgotten to be vigilant—that was so wrong of her.

But this place was also similar to a solitary confinement cell, except that the furnishings here were much more elaborate than the empty space where Zhou Ke'er had been before.

This is a house that's only half-built, because the other half is directly attached to the ancient elven tree. To describe it in words, it would be something like this:

Trees

Wall of people

Wall, door, wall

At the end of the tree, there was a neatly arranged offering table and lanterns. A richly dressed girl with slightly pointed ears was kneeling on a cushion in front of the offering table, looking at Zhou Ke'er and Honghe with surprise, wondering what was going on.

"I'm too tired to move. You take care of things here. I need to rest."

Honghe lay sprawled on the ground, too tired to move, and lazily spoke to Zhou Ke'er.

Zhou Ke'er helplessly shrugged, then turned to look at the girl and asked without hesitation, "Who are you? What are you doing here?"

The girl, whether startled or not, was stunned and answered instinctively, "I...I am Chelsea, the second daughter of Duke Istara of the Grand Duchy of Fuya. I was chosen this month as an offering to the Ancient Tree of Elves, and I am here praying and receiving baptism."

Zhou Ke'er was stunned upon hearing this, and even the Red Crane, who was lying on the ground pretending to be dead, couldn't help but raise its head: "You mean... you are a tribute? A duke's second daughter as a tribute?"

Although the state of the Grand Duchy of Fuya was already evident from the previous incident where the elven man threatened to sacrifice the entire army of the Grand Duchy of Fuya, even the heroes, witnessing this situation firsthand was still quite shocking.

The girl named Chelsea nodded blankly, a hint of melancholy in her voice: "Yes...yes. To be able to dedicate this body to the Sacred Tree is my...honor..."

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627. Do you want to live?

Upon hearing this, Zhou Ke'er narrowed her eyes and exchanged a glance with Honghe without making a sound.

"Glory? Why do you think that?"

Zhou Ke'er then pressed on with more questions.

In Zhou Ke'er's eyes, the truth was not like that at all—if she really thought that way, she shouldn't be acting like this now, but should have called people to arrest Zhou Ke'er and Honghe, these heretics who escaped from the ancient tree of elves, long ago.

If she viewed death as an honor, then of course she would be even less likely to be afraid of Zhou Ke'er and Honghe.

Judging from her current appearance, Chelsea probably figured she was going to die soon anyway, so she didn't care about anyone escaping from the ancient elven tree. She answered her questions casually and didn't even bother to call for help—maybe she was even harboring the thought, "Why were they able to escape from the ancient elven tree? If they can, maybe I can too?"

After all, this guy is a high-ranking nobleman; he doesn't seem like the kind of person who would willingly sacrifice his life for his devout faith.

Chelsea paused for a moment upon hearing Zhou Ke'er's question, then hesitated before answering, "Because... my sacrifice was to restore the energy of the Ancient Elf Tree. Once it's restored, it can open a path to the Elf Forest... Returning to the Elf Forest is the long-cherished wish of everyone in our Grand Duchy of Fuya..."

Zhou Ke'er couldn't help but laugh out loud: "So that's the reason... I thought you knew—that they wanted to use all the troops and people of the Grand Duchy of Fuya'er as nourishment for the ancient elven tree. I originally thought you nobles were the beneficiaries, but I didn't expect you to be the same. So whose interests are you really in?"

Chelsea stared wide-eyed in disbelief at Zhou Ke'er, her eyes wide with astonishment. "What are you saying? How is this possible? Sacrificing all the people and the army? This is absurd! This is destroying the country! How could we possibly destroy our own country?"

“This isn’t just me making things up. You should know your country’s hero, Fiore, right?”

Zhou Ke'er narrowed her eyes, her face convincingly showing anger and sorrow. She clenched her fists and gritted her teeth, saying, "He and we were originally on the front lines of the human-demon war, and we were close friends. Just recently, your king suddenly sent an envoy, demanding that he lead all the armies of the Grand Duchy of Fuya to withdraw from the human alliance and return to the capital."

How could Fiore possibly agree to such an absurd approach? He immediately declared, "When a general is in the field, he may disobey orders," and insisted that the king's request would only be considered after all the demons had been defeated.

Unexpectedly, in a fit of anger, the king descended upon the messenger and attacked the hero Fiore. Together with an unknown elven man, they unleashed a powerful teleportation spell upon the entire camp, transporting us all here... inside the ancient elven tree! If we hadn't had some hidden strengths that allowed us to barely escape, we would have long since become nourishment for the tree!

Chelsea was completely stunned by what she heard – whether it was "the king demanding to withdraw from the human alliance and retreat the entire army", "the king descending like a god at the slightest disagreement", or "the elven man who can unleash super-level magic", all of them were violently impacting her worldview.

She clearly didn't want to believe it, but Zhou Ke'er spoke so convincingly, and with her very genuine expression, it was as if she had really experienced such a thing, which made her very convincing.

Chelsea collapsed to the ground, her eyes vacant, muttering to herself, "How could this be... The people were sacrificed... The army was sacrificed too, what was the point of our sacrifice? Was it just to bring the elves back to the Central Continent that we had to sacrifice our entire nation? How could this be... Glory!"

Flamingo added casually, "This is just a dirty conspiracy. It seems the elves aren't such a noble race after all."

Chelsea stared blankly at the flamingo, feeling a strange sense of relief rising within her despite the fact that she had suffered a major blow.

Zhou Ke'er slowly walked up to her, squatted down, and extended her hand. "So, after knowing all this... do you still want to die for it, or... do you want to live?"

Chelsea tilted her head slightly, looking at Zhou Ke'er's outstretched hand. For some reason, she swallowed hard, stood there stunned for a while, and then reached out and tightly grasped Zhou Ke'er's hand: "I...I want to live!"

"very good."

Zhou Ke'er smiled and pulled her up. "Remember what you just said—by the way, as a tribute, when are you going to sacrifice yourself?"

Chelsea quickly replied, "Tomorrow."

Zhou Ke'er pondered for a moment, then nodded and said, "In that case, you can stay here for now, as if nothing has happened. We need to find a place to stay first—we'll come find you when the time is right."

As she spoke, Zhou Ke'er activated the concealment array on the item that the hero Swold had given her, reached out and took Red Crane's hand, and together they concealed their figures.

Seeing that Zhou Ke'er and the other girl had suddenly disappeared, Chelsea quickly asked, "Do you need me to help you find a place to stay?"

Without turning her head, Zhou Ke'er replied, "No need, we have people to meet us."

Seeing Chelsea nod repeatedly, Zhou Ke'er secretly pulled Honghe away from the place.

After leaving the area, Flamingo observed her surroundings and muttered to herself, "They turned them so easily?"

Zhou Ke'er couldn't help but chuckle, replying in a low voice, "How could that be? That guy is obviously suspicious; he was just trying to appease her. She was probably just putting on an act to go along with what we were saying."

"Will you come looking for her again later?"

Red Crane continued to ask.

Zhou Ke'er looked at Honghe strangely: "Of course not, why are you asking such a stupid question—what if she has set a trap? Wouldn't it be like walking into a trap if we went over there? I actually hope she has set a trap, so that at least some of the obstacles will be useless."

Honghe raised an eyebrow: "But what if she's not faking it? What if she really has been turned by you?"

Zhou Ke'er looked at Honghe in surprise, as if she were seeing her for the first time: "Goodness, you actually think about these things? Okay, for the sake of our close relationship—even if she really was turned by me, so be it. Did I really have to go to find her just because I said I was going to? What does it matter to me whether she's waiting for me or not?"

The flamingo let out a soft chuckle and said in a monotone voice, "You're so naughty. I like it so much."

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628. Are kings, nobles, generals, and ministers born with a special destiny?