"Wo Ri, isn’t this my Golden Ancient Tree Avatar?"
Although it was only a projection of the past challengers in the Sky Tower and not a real incarnation, the appearance and aura it emitted were exactly the same as his own avatar. It was definitely his own Golden Ancient Tree Avatar that had been banished by the Nightmare’s Will.
Lin Xiao had not expected to see his long-lost Golden Ancient Tree Avatar here. Seeing it within the Sky Tower meant that it, too, had taken part in the evolutionary journey, and seeing it on the thirty-third floor of the Sky Tower indicated that it had made it very far during its time there.
But now the question was, how to deal with his own Golden Ancient Tree Avatar?
Clearly, his Golden Ancient Tree Avatar seemed to have encountered some fortuitous opportunity he was unaware of; it appeared far stronger than when it had been banished. To think that when he first achieved the Golden Ancient Tree Avatar, its essence was not much different from that of the Tree of Life, yet at this moment the essence of this Golden Ancient Tree seemed much stronger than the Tree of Life by far.
A peculiar aura spread throughout the entire fighting space from the center of the ancient tree. Although he didn’t feel anything unusual while inside the aura, he didn’t need to be a genius to know this wasn’t just for show.
He had the intention to avoid it, but there was nowhere to hide, and he suspected that this was not the full extent of the ancient tree’s aura; it was simply limited by the size of the fighting space.
The Golden Ancient Tree Avatar fully revealed itself; the aura that covered the entire fighting space suddenly changed, transforming from harmless to a life-draining aura.
It was like the life-draining talent of the specters of death from the thirtieth level, but it affected all enemies within the entire range of the aura, completely unavoidable and undefendable.
Of course, because it was an all-encompassing field drain, the individual life-draining effect was far less potent than the specters of death, but it was a relentless and inescapable force, requiring sheer endurance.
Since the projection couldn’t communicate or even have its own consciousness, Lin Xiao did not waste words; he instantly flashed across several hundred meters of space to appear at the center of the Golden Ancient Tree’s trunk, swinging his sword at the golden-bodied tree.
A crisp "clang" rang out, and golden sparks flew.
The Time Lock didn’t affect the Ancient Tree Avatar’s life-draining aura; this was a passive field skill that, once activated, wouldn’t be interrupted even if the avatar were to be knocked unconscious.
In an instant of ten seconds, Lin Xiao boosted himself with Time Acceleration, slashing nearly fifty times at an overachieving rate within one second of the outside world.
When the time bubble from Time Lock disappeared one second later, the damage from the fifty slashes exploded simultaneously, blasting a giant gap in the Golden Ancient Tree’s trunk, wide enough to fit a small building, at the principal part of its waist.
The Golden Ancient Tree’s branches flailed wildly as a mass of golden light rapidly sketched out a golden light figure, pointing a finger down at Lin Xiao.
Indescribable Life Force converged within the range of the Golden Ancient Tree’s field, forming into strands of sparkling golden light chains that flew towards Lin Xiao. They wove back and forth in midair, creating a massive golden net that locked in space, slowing his movements.
Meanwhile, boundless Life Force within the field gathered at the Golden Ancient Tree’s wound. The explosively opened gap was visibly healing at a shocking rate, regrowing two to three meters in just one second.
Without hesitation, Lin Xiao entered an invincible state through Time Roaming, reappearing at the resealing gap, where he unleashed more wild bursts of attacks as Time Lock froze the surrounding injuries.
One second later, another massive gap exploded in the tree’s waist, and before the debris could fly away, he used Time Roaming again to move to the edge of the explosion and unleashed another burst of attacks.
He could use Time Roaming at level 4 ten times a day and Time Acceleration at level 3 three times a day. Without hesitation, Lin Xiao used all ten opportunities to burst forth maniacally, severing the waist of the Golden Ancient Tree Avatar before its ultra-fast regeneration could take effect.
It is worth noting that during the ten Time Lock bursts, he slashed nearly four hundred times, triggering Time Lock six times in total.
Although the one-percent chance of triggering Time Lock overlapped significantly with the additional Time Lock from Time Roaming, there were also a few unoverlapped instances, which granted him over a hundred additional attacks. Only one more Time Lock was triggered amid these extra attacks; the rest did not induce another Time Lock.
This is the terrifying nature of this tactic. In theory, as long as one has enough Attack Speed to reach over a hundred slashes within ten seconds of a time bubble or even more, Time Lock’s one-percent chance would eventually trigger. This probability depends on the number of attacks, and with enough speed and volume, it will always happen. Theoretically, with good luck, it can trigger indefinitely.
In the future, he might be able to achieve the feat of landing tens of thousands of attacks within a one-second Time Lock, that’s when the true terror of the Time Talent would be unleashed.
Although the Time Talent was considered a bug even now, Lin Xiao’s means were too meager, and his own combat power was not strong either, nowhere near enough to unleash the full horror of this bug-like talent.
Actually, Lin Xiao was quite curious about one thing: wasn’t his Golden Ancient Tree only Rank 3? How could it be so huge and powerful?
As the time bubble disappeared, more than five hundred slashes exploded in just a few seconds. The Golden Ancient Tree’s regenerative ability, strong as it was, could not fully heal within just those few seconds. The last supporting point of the main trunk holding up the tree shattered, and the large upper body of the tree came crashing down.
The condensed light figure shook violently and collapsed, with the vast net of light distorting and disappearing as well. The life-draining field did not vanish but was significantly weakened and no longer affected him. A large amount of Life Energy gathered on the broken trunk, regrowing once more.
At the same time, a large number of branches from the Tree of Light were condensed and inserted into the broken trunk of the Golden Ancient Tree that stretches hundreds of meters; an unending stream of life energy was being drawn, and the ancient tree was regrowing at a visible speed to the naked eye.
Lin Xiao realized this wouldn’t do, he strode forward to the ancient tree, using his hands and feet to climb onto the severed trunk and madly attacked, chopping at the growing branches, splinters flying everywhere.
The ancient tree continuously swung its branches to hit him, but regrettably, its strength had significantly diminished, and it could no longer deal with him.
Behind him, the ancient tree seemed to realize this too, and instead of attacking him, it focused entirely on drawing from the broken branches to recover, canceling even its life-draining field to regenerate with all its might.
One segment was chopped off, another grew back.
Another hacked off, yet another sprouted anew—it went on and on, and the situation had reached a stalemate.
Lin Xiao seemed indefatigable, continuing to chop at the trunk, but the ancient tree’s regeneration was faster than his chopping speed, soon recovering more than he could cut away.
But every several dozen or even a hundred attacks, a chance of just one percent for Time Lock would trigger, and in that instant, he unleashed a crazy burst.
Most of the time, luck was average and the ability couldn’t be triggered continuously, but sometimes good fortune allowed Time Lock to be triggered again during an outbreak, doing massive damage to the ancient tree after multiple accumulations, and so both sides remained deadlocked.
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Before he knew it, an hour had passed, and Lin Xiao had gained a profound understanding of why his Golden Ancient Tree Avatar had made it to the thirty-third stage and also knew why it stopped there.
If it weren’t for the crazy outbursts of Time Lock during ten instances of Time Roaming, none of the top elites he had encountered before could burst forth in an instant to cripple it, let alone kill it outright. Even under normal conditions, the Golden Ancient Tree Avatar could outlast most opponents by slowly sapping their strength, not to mention that it had various other means at its disposal, like the chain net he hadn’t used before.
The reason for stopping at the thirty-third stage was mainly that the Golden Ancient Tree Avatar lacked powerful explosive capabilities, after all, it wielded the Life Force, and while it was unbeatable at healing and recovery, it fell short in explosive power.
Lin Xiao’s initial burst of aggression directly crippled the Tree Avatar, rendering it unable to use its series of tactics, and from there, it was a battle of attrition.
Normally, Lin Xiao’s Black Hole Avatar certainly couldn’t outlast the Golden Ancient Tree Avatar, even if it was in a crippled state.
But he had luck on his side. The Time Lock Talent, although it only had a one percent chance, usually triggered only once, and didn’t activate many times in the course of a few hours. However, even a common person has lucky moments, and with enough triggers, a streak of good fortune was bound to happen.
Indeed, after persisting into the second half-hour, a normal attack triggered Time Lock, and during that Time Lock, his luck exploded, triggering two consecutive Time Locks. During the subsequent Time Lock, it triggered yet again, and once more.
This state had a special term—it was called ’Matryoshka.’
In an instant, he triggered seven layers of ’Matryoshka,’ and in those brief eleven seconds, he achieved what previously took ten instances of Time Roaming to accomplish, chopping off a major section of the Golden Ancient Tree, leaving only a golden stump.
Luckily, the Golden Ancient Tree was only at Rank 3 at the time; many of its wondrous aspects couldn’t manifest. If it were Rank 4 or 5 or even higher, it might have regrown immediately after being chopped down.
But there are no ifs in this world. If it had been Rank 4 or 5, Lin Xiao’s Avatar evolving to Rank 4 or 5 would have only been stronger.
After that, there was little need for further explanation—deprived of strategies, the Golden Ancient Tree Avatar was ultimately defeated by the Black Hole Avatar.
When the Golden Ancient Tree Avatar died and the sky once again filled with converging white light:
"Finally, some loot!"
Lin Xiao, with tears in his eyes, picked up the glowy loot to find a purple ray shining forth.
Eternal Tree Heart (Deep Purple): The core of the Eternal Tree, possessing a part of its remnant power.
Attributes: +100% Maximum Vitality, +100% Maximum Stamina, +300% Life Recovery Speed, +300% Stamina Recovery Speed.
Skills: Life Drain, converts 20% of damage inflicted into healing for life and stamina.
Evaluation: The Eternal Tree is a Tree of Miracles. Although the remaining core is no longer a miracle, it still holds substantial power.
In this world, the quality of loot dropped ranges from white, green, blue, purple, orange, to gold, comprising six tiers each with three sub-tiers: light purple, purple, and deep purple. This Eternal Tree Heart has mighty attributes; deep purple is just a step away from Orange Legend.