Bai Ting was startled by the words, then thought back carefully, realizing that Chen Bugu had indeed never said that the exit was in the tree.
Bai Ting only remembered that on the night they first entered this forest, Chen Bugu had said that the key to leaving this forest was in this tree.
However, as Bai Ting looked out, hundreds of meters ahead were gnarled tree roots, tumbling in the soil, dense and intertwined, where could an exit be seen?
Therefore, he subconsciously assumed that the exit should be in the tree.
“Follow me.”
Chen Bugu led the way, either ducking, climbing, or leaping, constantly moving through the undulating tree roots, and everyone else could only follow his back, continuing forward.
When they encountered places that were truly impassable, Chen Bugu would pull out his Wind Gale Dagger and chop down the obstructing tree roots with several strikes, clearing them all away.
Wang Bin had wanted to use fire, but the surface of the tree roots was parasitic with lichen and moss-like plants, making them unusually damp, so even blue flames couldn't Ignite them.
Fortunately, the Rapid Wind Dagger had already become a green weapon at the hands of Yan Kuan.
The starfall crystal, successfully purified by Lin Lin, had become the key to equipment enhancement in the fat man’s hands.
Using a starfall crystal about half the size of a fist as material, Yan Kuan, with Wang Bin’s help, spent three days refining and purifying this ore, and finally completed the enhancement of the Rapid Wind Dagger with the star artisan stone hammer.
The Wind Gale Dagger, now glowing faintly green, had the following information:
“Rapid Wind Dagger: Green-grade weapon, Strength +10, Speed +12, with attached skill ‘Gale Thrust’.”
“Gale Thrust: The wielder of the Wind Gale Dagger can transform into a swift wind, instantly traversing 15 meters to deliver a thrust. Spirit power required: 10; Skill cooldown: 45 seconds.”
The Wind Gale Dagger was enhanced from a white weapon to a green weapon, and its base Strength and Speed attributes changed.
However, what surprised Chen Bugu the most was the “Gale Thrust” skill; although the spirit power consumption increased, the skill’s cooldown time decreased by 15 seconds.
Moreover, after becoming a green weapon, the Rapid Wind Dagger became even sharper, cutting through these tree roots was far less strenuous than Lin Xiaoxiao’s Cold Iron Dart.
Lin Xiaoxiao controlled four Cold Steel Flying Daggers to spin at high speed; the cutting force from the rotation should have surpassed a simple slash, but the truth was her daggers struggled to cut through these tree roots, like a dull knife cutting meat, and her spirit power rapidly depleted as well.
Lin Xiaoxiao simply gave up; she turned and walked over to Yan Kuan.
“Kuan Ge, I have something to ask of you~”
Lin Xiaoxiao’s tone suddenly became gentle, even a little coquettish, making Yan Kuan’s hair stand on end and goosebumps appear all over his body.
“No, Xiao Xiao, just say what you need.”
“Help me enhance my flying daggers, anyway, Chen Bugu’s dagger is already enhanced.”
“I can, but you’ll have to ask Chen Bugu for the starfall crystal yourself.”
Yan Kuan certainly wouldn’t refuse; after inheriting the Great Earth Blacksmith, he was eager to hammer a few more weapons to practice.
“You don’t have any more starfall crystals?”
“No, Chen Bugu only gave me that small piece.”
“Hmph, that stingy guy.”
“Oh, right, you also have to wait.”
“Wait for what?”
Seeing that asking Yan Kuan was useless, Lin Xiaoxiao’s tone immediately returned to normal.
“Wait until I finish enhancing Lin Lin’s bone staff; she already gave me her starfall crystal.”
“Huh? Where did Lin Lin get a starfall crystal?”
“Chen Bugu gave it to her, of course. See how gentle Lin Lin is, unlike you.”
Lin Xiaoxiao lightly kicked Yan Kuan.
“You dead fatty, who’s not gentle?”
“Whoever kicked me, that’s who I’m talking about…”
While Yan Kuan and Lin Xiaoxiao were bickering, the tree roots in front of Chen Bugu grew progressively thicker and larger, like countless prehistoric giant pythons coiling and intertwining before him, winding upwards towards the sky.
Even with his Wind Gale Dagger fully inserted, Chen Bugu could not pierce through the tree roots.
On another note, he found that as they drew closer, the tree roots’ toughness and hardness continuously increased, and it took him considerable effort to pull the dagger back out of the tree roots.
At this moment, from their perspective, they could vaguely see through the gaps in these root systems that the main body of Soaring Sky Tree was not far from them.
Chen Bugu put away his dagger, using his hands and feet to nimbly climb to the top of these giant tree roots, then turned back and shouted to the others.
“Alright, we’ve arrived.”
Old Liu activated Floating, quickly flew up, and then froze in place.
Bai Ting, Yan Kuan, and the others also hurried up and stood beside Chen Bugu.
“Gulp~”
Someone swallowed, though it was unclear who, but it accurately expressed everyone’s feelings at that moment.
From beneath their feet, a clear dividing line appeared; behind them was a dense sea of tree roots, but in front of them was a bottomless abyss.
All the root systems, upon reaching this point, seemed to have encountered some uncontrollable force, uniformly caving forward, connecting to the bottomless abyss.
They had walked all this way with little change in terrain, yet now it was as if they suddenly stood at the edge of a cliff, gazing at the path beneath their feet leading into boundless darkness.
And looking up, across an abyss dozens of meters deep, the towering giant tree on the opposite side seemed to be planted within an even larger pit.
After Old Liu regained his senses, he quickly floated out and soon arrived before the Soaring Sky Tree.
He stroked the giant tree before him; the trunk was surprisingly smooth, with no discernible patterns.
Or perhaps Old Liu was too small, so he stood within one of its patterns without realizing it at all.
Old Liu continued to fly, trying to discern something from this tree, but all that met his eyes was the boundless, dark brown tree trunk.
He felt like Sun Wukong trapped under the Five Fingers Mountain, no matter how he flew, he couldn’t escape.
Old Liu was somewhat distraught, but his remaining rationality prevented him from going further up; he began to turn back and saw Chen Bugu waving at him.
He returned to the others, not speaking, but Bai Ting and the others knew from his expression that he had found nothing.
“Chen Bugu, didn’t you say there was an exit once we got here?”
“Is this giant abyss in front of us what you mean by the exit?”
Wang Bin said, lighting a fireball and throwing it into the abyss before him.
The fireball rapidly fell, swallowed by the darkness, until at some point it hit something, bursting into a small spark, but it was too far away for anyone to see clearly.
“Yes, this is the exit. Anyone in this forest, as long as they walk towards this tree, will inevitably come to the vicinity of the Soaring Sky Tree and then see this giant abyss.”
Chen Bugu pointed to the massive tree wall in front of them, indicating to everyone.
“Am I supposed to search for my family along this ‘cliff’?”
Old Liu’s face was filled with confusion; this cliff encircled the giant tree, and the giant tree was boundless; if it were truly so, it would be like searching for a needle in a haystack.
“No, you don’t have to. It will be easier to find once we go down.”
Chen Bugu pointed to the massive abyss before them.
“Go down?”
“Yes, go down.”