“Miss, that guy's in the tree!”

Purple Iris swept her gaze around and instantly locked onto his position.

The dark silhouette stood on the branch of a huge, pitch-black tree, looking down at the two of them with no expression.

She couldn't fathom how he'd dodged a King Level strike, but it didn't matter.

Just as she prepared to attack again, he moved first.

His entire body melted into a stream of dark-green energy, his outline turning translucent as he merged with the withered tree beneath him.

Bai Cheng frowned; only now did she notice the tree was unnaturally thick, standing out starkly in the Dark Forest.

“Crack—” rotten twigs crumbled, the ground trembling slightly.

The next moment, several hulking figures rose from the shadows.

They were human-shaped but woven from twisted vines, dark-green energy threads coiled at every joint, eyes hollow yet glowing as if driven by a single will.

Oddly, though they looked like puppets, both women sensed unmistakable life inside them.

Rustle—

More and more puppets emerged, surrounding them.

“This is...,” Bai Cheng narrowed her eyes.

“A Life Warlock,” Purple Iris said grimly.

Violet flame licked her fingertip. “These aren't dead things; they're plants force-fed life energy—yet the aura... they were likely living people once.”

Before she finished, the foremost wooden puppet lunged.

Its vine-arm whipped like a flail, the shock-wave tearing the ground.

Purple Iris flashed sideways, raising a violet-flame shield, but the arm pierced the fire and shot straight for Bai Cheng's face.

Flash! A blade gleamed, severing the vines mid-air.

“Miss, watch out!”

“They're so fast!”

Yet the cut vines writhed on the ground, re-attaching in moments.

Purple Iris's strike had failed?

Her attacks carried soul damage; even undead would perish.

But these puppets wouldn't die.

Bai Cheng stepped back, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with her. “They're draining the forest's life to heal!”

“Hmph, I just need to find the caster.” Purple Iris snorted, unconcerned.

Back when she'd been Guardian Level, this might have been troublesome.

She'd lacked wide-area skills; in the Dark Forest, Chi Yan would have handled this better.

But now she wasn't Guardian Level—she was King Level.

An instant later her Domain erupted outward.

Wherever the violent force swept, puppets were ground to dust.

Even if they couldn't die, re-forming from such shattering would take time.

Under this indiscriminate barrage, the #1 channel special Survivors—wherever he hid—would be hit.

“Boom—”

The moment her Domain bloomed, the Dark Forest blazed an eerie violet.

Twisted vine puppets dissolved, yet the dark-green threads slithered into the soil like living snakes.

“Underground?” Bai Cheng murmured.

Before the words left her mouth, dozens of huge vines burst through the earth.

Veined like blood-vessels, their tips split into fanged maws—ten times fiercer than before.

Purple Iris's pupils shrank.

Energy inside her Domain was being dragged toward the giant tree.

Its bark had turned fully jade-green, the trunk studded with human-shaped bulges—most from the puppets she'd just crushed.

At the very center stood the vanished Special Channel Survivors.

All surrounding vegetation withered, streaming their life into the colossal tree.

Now fully fused with the trunk, and having absorbed both puppets and forest vitality, his ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) power had peaked.

A terrifying shock-wave rolled out; Bai Cheng felt crushing pressure.

Even Purple Iris's brow knit tight.

“King Level... he actually reached it.”

No wonder, learning she was King Level, he hadn't fled—he'd had this trump card.

On the rough trunk his ugly face emerged, grinning hideously.

“Today... you stay here forever!”

With those words a bizarre force erupted, racing outward.

The soil under Bai Cheng turned viscous; roots wriggled, plants surged—everything went berserk. “His Domain,” Purple Iris said, releasing her own to clash.

Feeling her anomalies fade, Bai Cheng looked at her companion.

She hadn't expected a King Level opponent on this trip.

But she was no longer the girl who had to risk everything.

She still had Qing Niao—second-stage King, stronger than Purple Iris.

With backup, this enemy would die.

Yet on Purple Iris's face she saw not worry but excitement.

To her, this was a rare chance.

Fighting an equal would hone experience, push her strength higher.

Qing Niao had already reached second stage—how could she lag behind?

“Miss, do you trust me?”

Feeling Bai Cheng's gaze, she stared at the colossal tree without turning.

“He's only King because the forest propped him up. I'm certain—”

She didn't finish; Bai Cheng answered first.

“Purple Iris, I believe in you.”

“Then cut loose,” Bai Cheng said. “Don't worry about me—go kill him!”

Purple Iris smiled in reply.

She stepped forward, right hand settling on her hilt, body dropping into a drawing stance as she gathered power.

Miss, I won't let you down.

She thought.

The next second, both of them moved at once!