A howl echoed as a rumbling tremor emanated from deep within the Big Tree Cave.
Even the Tree Transformations at the edge of the Big Tree Cave staggered from the shaking.
Fear crept onto their faces.
"The Cave Demon!"
The pitch-black Big Tree Cave was impossible to see in, let alone spot the creatures lurking in its depths.
The leader gritted his teeth and ordered the Tree Transformations to carry the Block into the Big Tree Cave.
Inside the Big Tree Cave, Mo Ling once again saw the familiar, ring-like tree roots. The Tree Transformations carried the Block, carefully making their way down.
It was exactly the same.
The internal structure of the Big Tree Cave hadn't changed at all. It was just missing the creatures that had been embedded in the roots.
Glowing mushrooms still covered the entire Big Tree Cave, their faint fluorescence illuminating the path downward.
These mushrooms looked completely normal, with no twisted stems or strange biological remains.
None of those bizarre, rampant creatures suddenly sprang out from the corners.
Everything was so quiet.
The Tree Transformations' expressions revealed their inner struggle. They were both drawn to and terrified of the Big Tree Cave.
They continually marveled at the wondrous sights within the cave while simultaneously remaining on high alert.
Long ago, all newborn Tree Transformations would dazedly make their way into the depths of the Big Tree Cave. It was their fate.
Even now, the Big Tree Cave held a strange allure for them.
"Be careful! We've reached the area where the Cave Demons appear!" the leader warned.
The Tree Transformations had clearly studied their natural predators, knowing their territories and habits.
Hearing the leader's words, all the Tree Transformations braced themselves.
The leader stood tall and said gravely, "According to the plan. Now... who will be the warrior?"
Hearing this, Mo Ling was suddenly struck with a bad feeling.
"I will!"
"I will!"
The Tree Transformations scrambled to raise their hands. The leader chose one of them.
The chosen Tree Transformation walked up to the Block and touched it longingly.
Then, he bid farewell to his comrades and walked down along the roots alone.
'Bait!'
Mo Ling once again marveled at the Tree Transformations' willingness to face death.
In that moment, the small Tree Warrior seemed immense.
The warrior hadn't gone far before the familiar tremor returned.
A dark brown creature burst into Mo Ling's field of view.
Like a tadpole, the creature had an enormous head devoid of facial features, with a short tail dragging behind it.
The creature shot through the walls of the Big Tree Cave at high speed, the hard material as yielding as liquid to it.
It burrowed to the Tree Warrior's side, then suddenly burst through the wall and leaped out.
Only then did Mo Ling get a clear look at the creature's true appearance.
It turned out that while burrowing, the creature had been in a state of high-speed rotation.
It used the screw plates on its body to bore deep into the cave wall like a drill.
The spinning only stopped once it burst out of the wall.
The enormous head was merely an illusion created by the rotation.
The creature's actual body was just a small, slender section, like a centipede. When the spinning stopped, the short, segmented limbs on its body became clearly visible.
After emerging from the wall, the creature retracted its screw plates like an umbrella closing.
Its short, segmented limbs dug firmly into the root, and it charged swiftly toward the Tree Warrior.
The warrior's eyes went wide, and he stood frozen in terror.
"The Cave Demon has appeared!" the Tree Transformations cried out in alarm.
'So this is a Cave Demon. What a peculiar life form.'
Mo Ling targeted the Cave Demon and instantly stripped its short limbs away, along with the section of root they were gripping.
The Cave Demon, still in its high-speed charge, suddenly lost its footing. It collapsed with a wail on the ground in front of the warrior.
Seeing this, the Tree Transformations cheered once more.
The Tree Warrior, emboldened, raised his weapon and knocked the Cave Demon off the root.
This sight excited the Tree Transformations even more.
However, as it fell, the Cave Demon spread its screw plates. A long, drawn-out howl, as if from a horn, emanated from the plates and echoed throughout the Big Tree Cave.
In response to the howl, answering cries began to rise from all around. The enraged roars of countless Cave Demons reverberated through the Big Tree Cave.
The terrifying sound silenced the Tree Transformations' cheers.
After the roars ended, the entire Big Tree Cave fell into a dead silence.
Mo Ling watched warily, his expression grave.
He couldn't see anything, but he could feel a series of dull tremors coming from below.
'Something's getting closer!'
Suddenly, a Black Shadow flickered in his vision.
'More Cave Demons!'
The tremors grew more intense. Cracks began to appear in the cave walls, and a dense swarm of Cave Demons filled Mo Ling's view.
'So many?'
From his perspective, the cave walls were nearly filled with Cave Demons. They zipped back and forth within, carving out twisted paths.
Although the Tree Transformations couldn't see what was happening inside the walls, they could all feel the violent shaking.
They huddled trembling around the Block, raising their weapons to defend themselves.
Mo Ling didn't remain idle. He began to activate his teleportation ability, targeting the Cave Demons inside the walls.
His teleportation grew faster and faster. The Cave Demons were torn to shreds before they could even reach the inner surface of the wall.
Mo Ling even repurposed the pieces of flesh he had stripped away, teleporting them directly inside the bodies of other Cave Demons.
The Cave Demons that had been burrowing normally would suddenly stop dead in their tracks, paralyzed in agony as blood seeped from their bodies.
Even the occasional straggler that managed to break through the wall was already riddled with holes.
Although the Tree Transformations were all trembling, they showed no mercy when attacking the Cave Demons.
These wounded Cave Demons quickly fell under the Tree Transformations' assault.
Soon, the number of Cave Demons began to dwindle. The Tree Transformations sensed this and put even more effort into finishing them off.
But Mo Ling felt that something was wrong.
'Why are the tremors getting stronger?'
With so many Cave Demons eliminated, the tremors should have been weakening, but Mo Ling felt things were only getting more unstable.
The violent tremors even knocked over the Tree Transformations carrying the Block, sending it tumbling onto the tree roots.
'Why does this scene look so familiar?'
Sure enough, the tremors intensified. The Block was shaken further and further down, beginning to slide faster and faster along the roots.
"The holy relic!"
The Tree Transformations quickly formed a barrier to stop the Block from sliding, but their small bodies could barely stay upright amidst the shaking.
The Tree Transformations who tried to block it were knocked aside. Before their despairing eyes, the Block shot off the end of the root and plummeted into the depths of the Big Tree Cave.
'Here we go again.'
Mo Ling was even more despairing. This wasn't the first time this had happened.
'Am I going to fall back again?'
As he fell, Mo Ling's view kept shifting, and he finally got a clear look at the source of the tremors.
Behind the wall of the Big Tree Cave, many Cave Demons had joined forces. They had carved out a huge cavity, then spread their screw plates and pressed against each other.
The threads on their screw plates interlocked, allowing their rotation speed to increase. The Cave Demons formed a cluster and rhythmically struck the cave wall with their high-speed spinning plates.
Even though he could see the source of the tremors, Mo Ling was now powerless to do anything about them.
The speed of his descent was still increasing.