9 days before the Ruler's Abode's entrance.
36th of Trian Month, Trian Ruins.
In one of the many small sectors in the valley leading to the Ruler's Abode.
It was dawn, and the two suns' early rays were about to reach the ground.
But then, a colossal tree shook violently and morphed.
Its numerous branches turned slender but tough. The tree shook and the branches that were protruding at different angles from the tree were now aligned horizontally at equidistance from each other.
Then, the leaves on the branches expanded. Then these leaves came into contact with other leaves and without any issue, they joined.
The branches grew longer and longer while the leaves also expanded.
Before the suns' rays could reach the ground, they encountered a giant umbrella spanning several miles.
It was the tree's doing.
But it didn't stop there.
The sunlight was absorbed by the leaves and a purple light shone onto the area under the umbrella.
This purple light covered a small part of the river and a large part of the flowerbeds growing along the river bank.
When this purple light touched the flowers, they shook violently.
"…What was that?" Varian muttered under his breath as purple light shone on him.
The moment he came into contact with it, he understood that it wasn't just light.
From the overflowing prana, it was a product of the giant umbrella tree.
And the reason it'd release this mysterious prana—
Varian titled his head to the side.
A thin cut appeared on his cheek before it started bleeding.
'…That was awfully close.' Varian's guard rose and his mental sense scanned his surroundings.
The purple light continued to shine on the flowers as the tree blocked the—
"Huh?"
Varian turned around and raised his brow.
Everything he could see, even for dozens of miles had turned purple.
Raising his head, he frowned. The umbrella seemed to stretch into the horizon as it covered every area he could see.
'There is a problem.' Varian clenched his fists.
Whoosh!
Air was sliced apart as another small object shot at him with a terrifying speed.
Despite covering almost a few dozen miles around him, Varian's mental sense couldn't detect where the object came from nor he could detect what the object was.
'But why?!'
Perhaps the attack came from outside his range, but what about identifying the object?
Varian sidestepped and avoided the object, but the sleeves of his right hand were cut.
But the same question kept ringing in Varian's mind.
'Even when it's so close, why can't my mental sense detect the object?'
It was impossible to do so, unless—
Varian's eyes widened and his psychic power spread out.
Then, like a mirror cracking, the world cracked and broke apart.
In the blink of an eye, Varian found himself back in the state where the umbrella tree was only able to cover a few miles.
Naturally, the purple light too only spread for a few miles.
Whoosh!
Before he could think further, the sound of rough air reached him.
Varian turned to the side and avoided the attack. But this time, his mental sense was able to accurately discern the object.
It was…a flower petal.
'I guessed it!' Varian's eyes shifted to the thousands of flowers under the purple light.
He kicked the ground and reached the flowers in the blink of an eye.
Zaap!
A spherical lightning bomb appeared in his hand and as he was about to smash them to smithereens, the world shook.
The purple world turned white and Varian found himself in a space of endless white.
'Illusions!'
Those flowers weren't morphers, but psychics. They were bringing him to an illusory world so that his guard in real life would drop and they could—
Whoosh!
Varian rolled to the right and avoided an object that was about to pierce his throat.
As expected, once inside this illusion, he couldn't detect the attacks.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
Varian was forced to rely on his instincts and physical senses to trace the attack in reality while being in an illusion.
Several cuts appeared on his body. Even with his Plantae form, they healed slowly.
The petals were poisoned. While his plantae form withstood the poison in small amounts, once it exceeded a threshold, he'd be overwhelmed.
'This can't go on.' Varian narrowed his eyes and his psychic power blocked off his mind.
The world crumbled again and he found himself far away from the flowers.
Varian's mental sense quickly segregated the flower types.
One was psychic flowers.
The other was plantae morphers—they attacked him with those poisonous petals.
'Can I just teleport…?' Varian channeled the space power and locked the area right above the psychic flowers.
But.
'Huh?' When he teleported, it was to a location even further from the psychic flowers.
Those psychic flowers… were really messing with his sense of direction.
Varian clicked his tongue and turned to the Plantae flowers.
A lightning spear began to form, but before it could materialize, the mental attacks from psychic flowers stuck him and the spear dissipated.
'Fuck!'
Whoosh! Whoosh!
Without delay, the poisonous petals followed.
Ten more minutes passed and Varian's expression turned gloomy.
He tried getting out of this place—by just sprinting away or even by teleporting—but nothing seemed to work.
The psychic flowers managed to manipulate him despite his best defenses.
To be honest, it was weird.
Despite outnumbering him, they were all level 7. So, how did they just bypass his mental barrier?
Varian's brain churned as he searched for the answer.
As the poisonous petals left more and more marks on his body, his plantae path found it harder and harder to suppress the poison.
The psychic plants continued to drag or at least, tried dragging him into the illusion.
But thankfully, he resisted the illusions.
However, with each second, he found it harder and harder to destroy the plants.
'Dying under this purple light, fuck it!' He thought and suddenly froze.
With a fierce killing intent, he looked up at the sky.
The tree umbrella was giving off the purple light, the majority of which fell on the flowers.
"Yes!"
Varian sprinted to the flowers and like every other time, the world twisted and started to turn white.
Then.
Boom!
Varian kicked the ground and jumped to the other side.
The illusion worlds disappeared, and the psychic pressure stagnated as if it found his action shocked them.
Varian flew a few hundred meters high and reached the giant umbrella tree.