Chapter 500: Snake Tree Energy Entity
“Something bumped into my psychic field,” Lu Xi said seriously—but the other psychic users looked speechless at that explanation.
Although the threads of psychic power were invisible, it was quite common for them to bump into things. Most of the others felt that Lu Xi was overreacting a bit.
Out of respect for his high level—and the fact that he was Lu Weiyi’s younger brother—someone tried to smooth things over politely, saying it was probably just the tension of night watch.
But Xing Zhou, another psychic user who had also been trained by Lu Weiyi, thought differently. He stepped forward a few paces and asked, “What did it feel like?”
“It was like my psychic power… hit something…” Lu Xi could only describe it as strange, but couldn’t articulate it clearly.
“The feeling of colliding with an energy body,” Lu Weiyi lifted the tent flap and walked out, yawning. He frowned and looked in a certain direction.
In the middle of the crowd, a towering tree—about ten meters tall and several meters thick—stood like a being from another dimension. Its emerald-green branches extended small snakes that writhed and reached toward the nearby ability users, ready to bite at any moment.
Yet the ability users in the camp seemed completely unaware. Some were standing right next to the snake tree, some even overlapping with its trunk—like they existed in different, overlapping dimensions.
The giant snake head was smaller than the one they’d seen earlier in the jungle but clearly more intelligent. It slowly turned toward Lu Weiyi, baring its jagged teeth in a clown-like, unsettling grin.
After a day’s work, Ning Yuan and Li Zhuang walked over quickly—only to see Lu Weiyi glance at them casually before shifting his gaze toward the tree. “No more sleep. Everyone assemble. We’re heading out tonight.”
Ning Yuan gave him a puzzled look, exchanged glances with Li Zhuang, and then stood far from the snake tree to loudly call everyone to gather.
Once the people had cleared away from the tree, the snake head swayed over to Lu Weiyi. He summoned all his power and charged straight at it.
The impact from the energy clash sent those nearby flying. Dean, who was closest, was hurled away and didn’t get up for a while.
Under the powerful blow, the snake head’s form dimmed slightly, as though its energy was being drained.
Even though they couldn’t see the thing, both Li Zhuang and Ning Yuan could feel the impact from the collision of energies. “Bring over a crystal energy detector.”
“Yes,” someone responded, handing over a device.
When they opened the small monitor, it showed a cluster of standing energy users—and in front of Lu Weiyi, it revealed a tree-branch-shaped energy body. Unlike other signals that appeared as blobs, this one looked like an energy tree.
“What the hell is that?” Han Fei looked from the monitor to the empty space in front of him, disturbed by the contradiction—it was like seeing a ghost.
Ning Yuan and Li Zhuang ignored him. They ordered the remaining detectors to be brought over and launched attacks using their abilities as soon as the energy body moved.
But unlike Lu Weiyi, who hit his target every time, their attacks passed straight through the energy cluster without effect.
“Psychics, prepare to assist!” Ning Yuan called out, handing one of the detectors to Lu Xi.
Several military ability users moved into position near Lu Weiyi. Li Zhuang handed another detector to Eric, while smaller squads of psychic users in the team received monitors too, finally able to see the invisible enemy.
Perhaps it was Lu Weiyi’s constant successful strikes that gave them confidence, or maybe it was the sheer number of psychics present—but rows of them stepped forward, forming a wall between the threat and the other ability users.
It was the first time the typically support-focused psychics had taken a frontline role. The excitement of finally proving themselves was visible on their faces.
But when they attacked… it was completely ineffective.
Only those closest to Lu Weiyi and Eric managed to deal any real damage. The former were all trained directly by Lu Weiyi, while the latter had honed his abilities in life-or-death battles among corpses—developing a uniquely effective control over his power.
“Use weapons,” Lu Weiyi ordered sharply. His energy surged endlessly as he launched brute-force attacks again and again.
He tossed a rocket launcher from his spatial storage toward Ning Yuan’s group. Ning Yuan quickly distributed it, and they fired at the energy mass on the display.
It was close-range, and the heat wave from the blast scorched those nearby. The ground exploded into a crater—but the energy body was completely unaffected.
It seemed only psychic powers could harm it.
Realizing this, Lu Weiyi intensified his psychic output. His vast spiritual force formed a massive net, enveloping the entire snake tree. Countless condensed psychic energy spheres shot at the tree’s trunk, exploding on impact like bombs.
Booms rang out one after another, but to the naked eye, there was nothing there—only an invisible pressure that overwhelmed the weaker ability users.
Just as Lu Weiyi prepared a final, decisive strike, the massive energy form before him began to disintegrate into countless glowing particles, then vanished without a trace.
“It’s gone?” Lu Xi turned the monitor, scanning the area. It was empty again—as if nothing had ever happened.
Its disappearance was as strange as its appearance, leaving everyone even more confused.
Lu Weiyi absorbed a crystal core to replenish his energy, glancing toward the direction of the mutated plants.
“What was that thing?” Eric was the first to ask.
“Some kind of…” Lu Weiyi’s mind was still a mess, “energy entity.”
Without waiting for more questions, he turned and returned to the tent.
Most of the ice blocks inside had already melted, but the temperature was still just right.
Lu Weiyi leaned against the bedhead. Most of his energy had been depleted, but he didn’t immediately absorb the crystal core in his hand.
He could feel it—just a few more encounters like that, and he would be on the verge of leveling up. But the uncertainty of that process, combined with what he had just seen, left him more anxious than ever.
Lu Weiyi had seen that kind of energy entity in his previous life. But unlike the one just now, what had appeared before him then was a massive, pitch-black lion. It attacked Lu Weiyi the very first time it appeared.
At the time, Lu Weiyi had just reached SS-level in psychic power and couldn’t yet control it well. When he sensed something enter his bedroom, he instinctively launched a psychic counterattack. This provoked the lion. The invisible lion formed a blurry outline in front of him and launched an attack.
It was an energy-based attack that could transform into any type of ability. Surrounded by flying metal knives, Lu Weiyi lost control of his powers in his panic and clashed directly with the lion in a burst of energy.
The immense force destroyed the villa they had been living in. Lu Weiyi was dug out of the rubble unconscious and remained in a coma for several days. Afterward, Zhuang Mingxu tried to bring it up a few times but was silenced by the displeasure in Lu Weiyi’s eyes.
In his now-blurry memory, he vaguely recalled Zhuang Mingxu murmuring to himself: “Didn’t you love big lions as a kid? Why don’t you like them anymore now that you’re grown up?”
Lu Weiyi couldn’t remember if that was just a hallucination or if it had really happened. But he never saw that lion again.
Still, on some nights when Zhuang Mingxu wasn’t around, he could always feel something silently guarding him. It was an energy presence he was intimately familiar with—one that didn’t trigger his defenses and would vanish the moment his psychic energy swept over it.
As the first person to successfully ascend to SSS-level, Zhuang Mingxu had never spoken to outsiders about what that upgrade entailed. He had only once sighed and said it was a “mysterious state” entirely unlike any previous level—but had never gone into details with Lu Weiyi.
*
“Captain, what was that thing earlier?” Ning Yuan and Li Zhuang entered with a few other squad members and asked directly.
“It was a kind of energy body, most likely constructed from an ability user’s power,” Lu Weiyi explained, based on his own understanding.
“If it was constructed by an ability user, then why couldn’t we attack or even see it?” Li Zhuang asked sharply. Such an invisible and untouchable thing was extremely dangerous.
Lu Weiyi shook his head and delivered worse news: “I suspect the ability user behind it is actually SSS-level.”
“That energy body was sent out to scout,” he added. “Otherwise, it wouldn’t have just circled the temporary base without attacking.”
Even though they had prepared mentally, no one expected to suffer such a devastating blow in the first encounter. Now, everyone was uncertain about the next day’s operation.
“How’s the area scan going?” he asked.
“We sent helicopters to search for others, but haven’t received any feedback. According to our plan, fire-element users have already burned most of the surrounding vegetation. We should reach the objective by dawn.”
“Did the three wolves find signs of human activity?”
“Yes, just as you said—toward that mutated plant’s location. But we only found some old footprints, no signs of life.”
Lu Weiyi turned to Li Zhuang.
“Have the earth-element users fill all underground caverns and tunnels, forming a surround formation as they advance toward the mutated plant’s area.”
Lu Weiyi nodded and took the updated tactical map from Ning Yuan. He circled a specific area. “Tomorrow, deploy fighter jets for indiscriminate bombing in this region. Advance inward from the perimeter. Make sure the pilots are stationed at least a kilometer away.”
“Psychics should be ready to build mental shields at any time in case high-level users attack the jets.”
“After the bombing, all high-level ability users must prepare for combat. As for that mutated plant…”
His gaze unintentionally swept toward Taotao. Initially, he hadn’t wanted to involve Taotao—his energy reserves were already insufficient, and overuse could lead to unpredictable consequences.
But now, with new uncertainties, relying solely on their team to face an SSS-level ability user and an SS-level mutated plant would be sending them to their deaths.
