Chapter 397: Chapter 396: Fragrance Fades, Jade Perishes
“To demonstrate sincerity, there’s a rule in the Blood Moon trial; one cannot bring any weapons or magic items into it. You must enter the forest barefoot and dressed in plain clothes. You need to be mentally prepared,” Kolebas continued.
Jenny nodded slightly; she hadn’t considered backing out, but she had to listen to Ivan’s opinion.
“What if other candidate Holy Daughters gang up on Jenny? Two fists can’t defeat four hands, and that would put Jenny in danger,” Ivan said, frowning slightly.
He was aware that Jenny usually didn’t use weapons during combat, which actually gave her an advantage under such rules, but she couldn’t withstand others coming prepared.
No enemy should be underestimated, especially not the deeply-rooted Dark Night Elves.
“See those trees in the forest? They are the dormant Tree Guardians, also the Divine Soldiers bathed in the divine light. When the crimson life-sucking force field appears, some of them will inevitably awaken. Their perception is extremely keen, able to sense the amount of divine grace a candidate Holy Daughter possesses, and then protect her. As the designated choice of the Mother Goddess, when Jenny steps into the forest, Divine Soldiers will surely respond,” Kolebas said with certainty.
…
However, she did not reveal that in the records of past Blood Moon trials, the Tree Guardians who responded to candidate Holy Daughters were very few. In her opinion, Jenny was different from others.
Besides, Kolebas was well aware of Jenny’s strength, as were the other candidate Holy Daughters.
“Is that so?” Ivan turned to look back at Meg, who understood his thoughts and firmly nodded in agreement.
“Foreign Tree Guardians are not allowed in.”
“I know.”
Ivan just wanted to confirm the existence of the Tree Guardians, unaware that such a force was hidden within the Dark Night Elves’ forest. It seemed endless at a glance.
Such ancient races are truly terrifying.
He then looked at the coming fierce Matriarchs, who didn’t take Kolabas’s words to heart and seemed to be holding back their laughter, making it clear that the Tree Guardians were not easily summoned.
Ivan and Jenny exchanged glances, swapped opinions, and then he said no more.
“High Priest, I am willing to participate in the Blood Moon trial,” Jenny finally voiced her decision.
“Okay, after the Blood Moon trial concludes, I’ll go and settle this account with them for you,” Kolebas said openly.
“High Priest, we cannot pretend we didn’t hear that; you—” on the other side, Hausmora, hearing this, suddenly got upset and started to argue.
“Hausmora, since you’re conducting the Blood Moon trial, hurry up and stop with the nonsense.” Her words were forcefully interrupted by Lulu xia, who then loudly asked all the candidate Holy Daughters:
“I ask you once more, the Blood Moon trial is a matter of life and death, are you sure you want to participate?”
“Confirmed,” the first to respond was Yolanda of the Blood Bow Tribe.
“I am sure,” Sang Fu from the Black Fox Tribe.
“I too am willing to offer my life as a sacrifice to add a glimmer of glory for the Holy Daughter.”
“——”
Hearing the chairman’s words, respondents flooded in, nearly half of the original candidate Holy Daughters, totaling twenty-six people from various tribes.
At that moment, the honor of the temple was utterly lost.
Seeing this scene, Kolebas tightly clenched the Gray Shadow Staff in her hand, her knuckles cracking under the pressure, indicating her inner unrest.
“You all agree then, letting them participate in the Blood Moon trial, no trouble afterward?” Lulu xia asked again, addressing the various tribe Matriarchs.
“Of course.”
“Agreed.”
This matter was, after all, pushed by the Matriarchs of the tribes, so naturally, they would not object.
After finishing the inquiries, Lulu xia publicly announced the start of the Blood Moon trial, urging the candidate Holy Daughters to quickly step into the Dark Moon Forbidden Forest.
Realizing her position made her a target, Jenny handed a Space Ring to Ivan and then dashed into the forest ahead of others.
The rest, unwilling to be left behind, each stepped into the forest.
In just two or three minutes, the Dark Moon Forbidden Forest had gained numerous graceful figures, and the exterior gained an additional barrier. The Dark Moon Well also transformed, the gently crescent inside changing swiftly from a dark hue to a crimson hue.
In a blink, a blood moon formed.
Crimson light burst from the well, spreading in all directions, covering the nearby forest, the sky, and the earth, enveloping all the candidate Holy Daughters within.
That crimson light was undoubtedly the crimson life-sucking force field.
Under the crimson illumination, that part of the forest seemed to turn into a slaughterhouse.
“Ah!”
Someone exclaimed, feeling something unusual in their body that caused their power to drain rapidly.
“These fools, I told them not to bring magic items, yet they dared to hope for luck,” Kolebas said coldly, immediately figuring out what had happened.
Some Matriarchs reacted, quickly signaling to those inside the forest.
The candidate Holy Daughters who had hidden magic items also realized the situation and hastened to take out and discard these items. The intense discomfort slowly dissipated, leaving only a series of faces filled with lingering fears.
“Ah— you ambushed!”
The next second, one of the pretty faces turned deathly pale when a peculiar root pierced through her body, taking her life.
It turned out that Jenny, not far from her, had chosen the perfect moment to strike while her mind was unstable.
After the death of this Dark Night Elf, her body, lying on the ground, began to rapidly dissolve under the effect of a blood-colored light and soon vanished completely, transforming into a brilliant blood-colored light that entered Jenny’s body.
A strange power accumulated inside Jenny, nourishing her body, making it possible for her to cultivate the “Shadow Holy Wings” that she previously couldn’t.
The others witnessed this scene and truly understood the essence of the Blood Moon Trial.
“Let’s go together, kill this outsider first,” Yolanda and Sang Fu exchanged glances with others, quickly forming a silent agreement to eliminate the most threatening person first.
It must be said that the words “Chosen by the Mother God” put immense pressure on them, allowing them to temporarily ignore potential sneak attacks from those around them.
The Dark Night Elves mainly cultivated the power of shadows, but their methods varied.
Some transformed it into Spell attacks, others conjured Longswords or Longbows with their bare hands, some manifested armor or dark beasts, and there were those whose arms turned into four or whose backs sprouted wings. There were even those who transformed entirely into shadows, amongst other methods.
Various techniques blossomed in the Forbidden Forest, causing many High Priest Mothers outside the forest to nod incessantly, quite satisfied with their progeny.
Ivan also saw it clearly, they used special elemental runes as a medium in their techniques, similar to the Thunderclan, probably having their own inherent abilities, although they seemed somewhat inadequate in front of Jenny.
He felt somewhat reassured.
“Swoosh swoosh swoosh.”
In the Forbidden Forest, Jenny was not reckless; first, utilizing her speed, she quickly retreated a distance and circled around the Dark Moon Well with the others, waiting for the other Holy Daughter substitutes to scatter before revealing her fangs.
Numerous Pan Iron Roots scattered, hard and fast, tearing through the air towards the others.
Pan Iron Root, being indestructible and imbued with the power of the earth, had the effect of shattering armor, immediately displaying its lethal edge, bringing disaster to the Holy Daughter substitutes daring to get close.
Neither their offensive nor their defensive methods went unpierced.
The Pan Iron Roots continued targeting the Holy Daughter substitutes themselves, swiftly claiming the lives of five, leaving twenty-one remaining in the Forbidden Forest.
“Boom.”
However, this move by Jenny gave those further behind a chance, various attacks enveloped the area, with energy violent enough to explode with a loud ‘boom’, momentarily submerging where Jenny was.
On closer inspection, Jenny’s whereabouts were unknown, and it was unsure if she had been obliterated by the violent energy into ash.
In response, some showed unusual reactions, ambushing the nearby Holy Daughter substitutes, numerous in count, but only one was caught unawares and died instantly.
Twenty remained.
“Stop!”
“She isn’t dead yet. She escaped underground. Haven’t you noticed the lack of force feedback?”
Yolanda was the first to sense something was amiss and hastily called out to stop others from fighting each other, revealing a harsh reality.
This prompted the other Holy Daughter substitutes to slowly cease fighting, but blood had already been shed among them, planting seeds of distrust that could not be easily overlooked again.
Yolanda knew this as well but felt helpless.
“The same words again, we must eliminate that terrifying foreign woman first, otherwise, we stand no chance of becoming the Holy Daughter,” she stressed solemnly.
The others reacted differently but seemed to tacitly accept this proposition.
Before they could start searching for that foreign woman, sounds emanated frequently from the surrounding Forbidden Forest, and a withered tree blackened with rot began to shake, followed by another, and then a third and fourth—
In an instant, as if dead trees bloomed in spring, many strong Tree Guardians awakened.
“Does anyone of you have some special summons?”
Yolanda’s expression turned particularly unsightly.
Hearing her question, this time, the other Holy Daughter substitutes responded even quicker, all thinking of something, unanimously giving negative answers.
“Stop hiding and holding back. Use whatever methods you have; it’s time to fight for your life.”
Sang Fu of the Black Fox tribe, her face ashen, spoke, regardless of whether the other’s answers were true or false. For her, the situation was unprecedentedly critical.
She had heard about the Forest Guardians, none were easy to handle, let alone a whole group.
In fact, none of the Holy Daughter substitutes lied this time, confirming the steadfast belief of the High Priest, that Jenny was indeed chosen by the Dark Night Mother Goddess, the Tree Guardians were summoned by her aura.
“Engraving blood runes and implanting beast cores on the Holy Daughter substitutes— you shameless scoundrels, daring to cheat in such a sacred ceremony as the Blood Moon Trial!”
This time, Kolebas was finally able to let go of the anxiety that had been hanging over her.
Before she could rejoice for long, she saw the lowly tactics displayed by the other Holy Daughter substitutes, infuriating her so much that she burst into a fierce scolding at the High Priest Mothers standing on the other side.
The tribal High Priest Mothers did not respond to her, each frowning and glaring darkly into the Dark Night Forbidden Forest.
“High Priest, that’s almost enough; your Holy Daughter is fine,” seeing her continuing to be upset, Luci-Lucy walked over and tugged at Kolebas, urging her to quickly look towards the Forbidden Forest.
Otherwise, they would miss the end of the battle.
Inside the Dark Night Forbidden Forest, the Tree Guardians summoned one wave after another, outnumbering the remaining Holy Daughter substitutes.
With the strong support of the Tree Guardians, Jenny initiated a massacre, the Holy Daughter substitutes fell one after another, and at that moment, no preparation was of any use.