Online Game: Crazy Skeleton-Chapter 1697 - 1480: The Magical Withered Tree (Two-in-One)_2

Chapter 1697: Chapter 1480: The Magical Withered Tree (Two-in-One)_2

"Don’t think it’s that simple. If you had an excavator, I might still hold out a bit of hope. But with just this newbie hoe of yours? Not a chance!"

Qing Qi was starting to back out, unwilling to waste any more time here, and advised, "How about we follow the river downstream? Maybe it’ll narrow further along?"

"No need. This dirt path doesn’t extend downward. The breach point should be right here."

Su Ran had already made up his mind and wasn’t going to change it easily. He tried to dig a channel to connect the river water to the dirt path. But much to his surprise, the lush green grassland wouldn’t yield to digging, cutting off that line of action immediately.

"I’ll head downstream and take a look. Who knows? There might actually be some hope."

Qing Qi didn’t argue with Su Ran. She started to walk downstream along the river, but not before turning back to shout at him, "Overturning Water, I’ll message you in a bit!"

"Alright, stay safe."

Su Ran knew Qing Qi couldn’t be of much help to him here, so he let her do as she pleased.

"The soil and the human-eating fish counteract each other. How can I get them to clash further?"

Staring at the inconspicuous dirt path beneath his feet, Su Ran fell deep into thought. Clearly, tossing soil at the fish with his hands wasn’t a feasible move. He had to find the key to breaking through the obstacle!

However, one thing did seem odd: The river water could obviously dissolve this soil, so why did it terrify the human-eating fish to such an extent?

What hidden secrets lay within this soil?

Su Ran felt like he was trapped in a vicious cycle, his thoughts circling back to square one after thinking for half a day, with no breakthrough in sight. But then, as his gaze swept across the vast, lush grassland, his eyes lit up and a sudden realization hit him.

If the lush grass represents the power of life, then this barren soil must symbolize death. It seems that the human-eating fish aren’t afraid of the soil itself but rather terrified of the death aura it exudes!

Wait a second!

That withered tree!

Su Ran was instantly energized. Without sparing a thought for anything else, he bolted in the direction of the withered tree. He’d suspected before that the tree’s existence had significance. It couldn’t just be a decorative element. If even the soil carried the aura of death, then the withered tree must certainly be even more potent!

What’s more, the height of the withered tree was just right. It could absolutely span the river, making it a potential bridge. Plus, with the tree’s suppression of the human-eating fish, crossing over it would be completely safe!

Realizing this, Su Ran’s lingering doubts vanished in an instant. It felt as if a fog had cleared, and his mood improved dramatically. Before putting this theory into practice, however, he wouldn’t inform Qing Qi—failing afterward would just be too embarrassing.

Standing before the withered tree, Su Ran had no intention of being polite. He started digging immediately. With his level-eight mining skill, uprooting this dried-out tree shouldn’t be too difficult!

As it turned out, the withered tree didn’t put up much of a fight. In less than ten minutes, a loud "thud" rang out as its trunk came crashing down, flattening a portion of the green grasslands.

The moment the lush grass came into contact with the tree, it began to wither at a visible pace. The vibrant green shade faded into yellow, aging as if centuries passed in mere moments.

The accelerated transition from life to death left Su Ran introspective, though he felt powerless to change the phenomenon.

Not even industrial-grade herbicides could achieve effects this potent. If this tree were brought into the real world, it would make a killer weeding tool...

Luckily, being a skeleton—an Undead—meant the death aura of the withered tree posed no threat to Su Ran. No matter how menacing it was, it had no effect on him!

Once the grass had all been eradicated, Su Ran gave the withered tree a solid bump with his pelvis. A miracle occurred.

The enormous withered tree vanished into thin air as if by magic, leaving only the now-yellowed grass as evidence of its prior existence.

"Ha! Good thing my bladder pouch is roomy enough—no need to stress about transport!"

Su Ran chuckled to himself. This was one of his natural, exclusive advantages. Other players could envy all they wanted—they couldn’t replicate it. The skeleton race might be weak overall, but they had their unique merits. I’m a skeleton, and I’m proud!

With practiced ease, Su Ran returned to the riverbank and pulled the withered tree back out. But now came the problem: How could he position such a long tree to span the entire river?

"No time to overthink. Just toss it in and see what happens!"

Su Ran didn’t want to waste time. He summoned the Iron-blood Sand Puppet along with ten skeleton warriors to work together and push the withered tree into the river.

In an instant, it was as if cold water had been poured into a boiling pot of oil—the river erupted. The water couldn’t withstand the tree’s death aura and began to evaporate en masse. Steam billowed upward, creating a spectacular scene.

Soon after, the river started to darken. The human-eating fish and even the water pythons were out of luck. They thrashed about in the water, further muddying it, but before long, they flipped belly-up, floating lifelessly on the surface.

Even the water pythons couldn’t resist the invading death aura. They lasted slightly longer than the fish but eventually followed the same fate, their massive bodies draping across the water... or rather, resembling some long, coiled rope. Ugh.

As time passed, the water level of the river dropped steadily. Su Ran, having seen enough, calmly waited for the outcome with an expression of indifference.

In his opinion, decimating the entire population of human-eating fish within such a short time—and taking out even a Dark Gold BOSS—included, meant there was nothing surprising about evaporating an entire river.

After the time it would take to brew a pot of tea, the river finally ran dry. The withered tree remained unchanged, surrounded by hundreds of dead fish and two massive python corpses. The sight was so tragic that Su Ran silently observed a three-second moment of mourning for them.

Then, he jumped down, hurried over to the withered tree, and stored it back into his pelvis. This was a treasure, and he suspected it might come in handy for upcoming scenarios. Not only that, but he also didn’t waste the dead fish and pythons—they all got stashed away.

No helping it. With a storage space so massive, he could afford the extravagance.

When Su Ran finally reached the other side of the river, he was surprised to see Qing Qi already waiting for him there.

"Overturning Water, I told you we should go downstream and you didn’t listen. Regretting it now, huh?"

Qing Qi grinned and teased, "Believe it or not, there wasn’t even a trickle of water downstream, let alone human-eating fish. But you... wait, where’d all the water here go?"

She hadn’t even finished speaking when she noticed the scene not far ahead and exclaimed in astonishment, "Overturning Water, what happened here? Was this your doing?"

"How could I pull off something like this? It’s all thanks to that withered tree. It’s all because of it that things turned out this way."

Su Ran told the truth. Otherwise, if he suddenly pulled a massive withered tree from his pelvis in a later encounter, it would be pretty hard to explain.

"Withered tree? Don’t tell me—you actually dug up that tree we saw earlier?"

Qing Qi’s eyes gleamed with doubt. That massive tree—how on earth had he managed to carry it?

"What, like there’s another withered tree around here?"

"Then how’d you transport it?"

"A true master never reveals their methods. Ancient wisdom says: The unspeakable loses its magic once spoken."

Su Ran nonchalantly pulled off a humblebrag, clearly in a good mood. He continued, "Ancient wisdom also says: Time is life, and wasting time is slow suicide. Let’s go—the treasure coordinates are just ahead."

"Eh, no big secret worth keeping. Even if you told me, I wouldn’t care to listen!"

Qing Qi rolled her eyes at Su Ran, feeling like he was smugly showing off after striking it lucky. Then, as if she remembered something, she pressed him, "By the way, what happened to those two Dark Gold water pythons? You’re not hiding them as well, are you?"

"Here are their corpses. Just bit the dust—still fresh."

Su Ran pulled out the two dead pythons and tossed them onto the ground with a grin. "Don’t give me that look. I didn’t have the ability to kill them myself. It was all thanks to that withered tree, which poisoned both the human-eating fish and the pythons."

"Hiss..."

Qing Qi sucked in a sharp breath. The facts were right in front of her, leaving her no choice but to believe. Just as she was about to say something, a deafening explosion boomed in the distance.

"Let’s go check it out!"