A mage's journey begins with a battle mage.

Chapter 117 The Man-Eating Tree

Inside the laboratory, a tree made entirely of flesh and blood was twisting its body in a bizarre manner.

Its branches, as if alive, lashed out and whipped everything around them.

"Experiment 191, failure."

Jiang Shuzhou remained expressionless; he was used to it.

The knowledge base of the Gospel of Flesh and Blood contains very little of this kind of highly functional knowledge about creation; the vast majority of it consists of creatures used for combat.

This also meant that Jiang Shuzhou was able to refer to relevant knowledge when he first created Butcher Frog.

Later, when Jiang Shuzhou intended to create flesh and blood that could grow and reproduce on its own, the knowledge of the Flesh and Blood Gospel could no longer help him.

However, Jiang Shuzhou still managed to create it.

It's just that some of it is neither here nor there.

Experiment 191 is a strange tree composed of blood and bone, which has the characteristic of self-growth and can reproduce itself after absorbing certain nutrients, producing offspring.

Furthermore, it possesses the ability to attack autonomously and hunt on its own.

It sounds good, but that's not what Jiang Shuzhou wants.

First of all, there's the feed conversion ratio. Since it can't photosynthesize, the growth of No. 191 depends entirely on the nutrients in the soil, resulting in an alarmingly low feed conversion ratio. Now, its only function is to recycle waste.

Jiang Shuzhou dumped a large amount of waste flesh and blood in front of No. 191.

Number 191 did not attack Jiang Shuzhou, otherwise it might have had to be reworked.

Number 191 carefully rolled up the discarded flesh and blood with its own branches and stored it under its roots as fertilizer.

Seeing this, Jiang Shuzhou nodded slightly.

That's good, but it still needs improvement.

"Go and stay in the soil outside."

Order No. 191 to move the tree roots outside, and Jiang Shuzhou began observation.

Tree roots were pulled from the pile of discarded flesh and blood, and then No. 191 began to roll up large pieces of discarded flesh and blood with branches, doing so with each branch.

From a distance, it looks like it has borne fruit.

Immediately, No. 191 ran out of the laboratory at an extremely fast speed and found an open space at the laboratory entrance to take root.

"Perhaps this thing could be used as a tool for positional warfare."

Seeing No. 191's actions, Jiang Shuzhou suddenly changed his mind.

Looking at it another way, number 191 is not bad.

Cross out the failure symbol for item 191 from the notebook.

Jiang Shuzhou gave it a very fitting name.

"Let's call you the Man-Eating Tree."

From then on, the king of positional warfare, the man-eating tree, was born.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

Five days later.

Hayes looked at the laboratory on the back hill and felt that something was wrong, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it.

"When did the lord plant the tree?"

Looking at the row of oddly shaped trees in the distance, Hayes understood. He hadn't expected his lord to have such a hobby as planting trees.

Hayes secretly made a mental note of it and planned to invite Jiang Shuzhou to plant trees together when he had time, so that they could get in touch and he could make progress faster.

Why is this tree moving?

However, as Hayes moved forward, his extraordinary eyesight made him realize something was wrong.

"What is that...?"

As they got closer to Jiang Shuzhou's laboratory, Hayes finally saw it.

It was a red tree made of flesh and blood, its branches whipping wildly through the air like whips.

Despite being mentally prepared, Hayes was still taken aback by what his lord had done.

Is this something a normal person would do?

As Hayes approached, the man-eating tree spotted him, and a branch suddenly lashed out at him.

"bump!"

Hayes nimbly dodged the attack and then prepared to counterattack.

"What are you doing?"

"We're all on the same side, all brothers, let's not fight!"

Jiang Shuzhou's voice came from inside the laboratory.

I don't want to be friends with this kind of person.

Hayes looked at the man-eating tree in front of him and felt a chill run down his spine.

However, the man-eating tree was quite humane, gently smoothing out the wrinkles in Hayes' clothes with its branches and patting him reassuringly.

"Don't just stand there, come in and report on your work."

Hearing Jiang Shuzhou's voice, Hayes finally snapped out of his daze and quickly crossed the road.

Inside the laboratory, unlike Hayes's imagined world filled with flesh and blood, there were no other flesh and blood creatures except for a large frog.

The laboratory was filled with a large number of dolls.

"Is there anything... you can help me with?"

Intermittent sounds emanated from the puppets, which were simultaneously cleaning the laboratory in an extremely bizarre and distorted manner.

"Hays, I'm here."

"Pour me a cup of tea."

Jiang Shuzhou leaned back lazily in his chair, while the puppet beside him brewed tea for him.

"My lord, we have discovered the whereabouts of the Abyss Order."

"Explain in detail."

"That's right. Just three days ago, the Abyss Order attacked a village in Walton. The entire village was razed to the ground, and everyone was sacrificed."

"Where are those people?"

"They've already fled, but according to reliable sources, the Abyss Order seems to have headed to the Ovi Empire."

Angelo Walton was truly a waste; what did he say about such a large territory?

What guarantees the safety of Jiang Shuzhou and others' territory?

What's happening now?

"That's good news."

Next, after finishing the most important matter, Hayes began to report on the training of the lord's personal guard.

The lord's personal guard recruited a total of 850 people, some of whom were former guards. They have now been reorganized and assigned to various squads.

"There's one more small thing."

Hayes said, pulling a letter from his pocket.

"This is a letter from Guts to you."

Jiang Shuzhou took the letter and began to read it.

After watching for only a short while, Jiang Shuzhou let out a cold laugh.

"Now you know to beg me?"

The main content of the letter is about Griffith.

He was kidnapped by a nobleman of the Ovi Empire for some unknown reason and imprisoned in a dungeon.

Gus hoped that Jiang Shuzhou could intervene and persuade the nobles to release Griffiths.

Jiang Shuzhou had no intention of helping.

They were just employer and mercenary, hoping that Jiang Shuzhou would use his connections and influence to save Griffith.

is it possible?

"Write a letter to refuse."

Hayes nodded in understanding.

"But you don't have to go too far. You can tell him that if he can find something that interests me."

"That's something we can still discuss."

Hayes agreed and got up to leave.

The man-eating tree outside the door swayed its branches in the wind again, like burning flames.

"Perhaps, darkness is already upon us."

For no apparent reason, Jiang Shuzhou thought of that prophecy.

"It's time to put the training of the Elemental Forge on the agenda."