On the ship, the President’s Wife, as if sensing something, exuded anxiety from every fiber of her being.

“Monica, how goes it? That Yang Buchen hasn’t succeeded in his bidding yet, has he? “

Monica, whose hair had grown somewhat withered from long days drifting on the sea, shook her head.

“As of this moment, he is still the guest of Room 201. That Yang Buchen is human; I suppose he has little chance of being recognized by the room in that capacity… However… “

The seven or eight people inside the cabin all knew what Monica was insinuating. Over five minutes had passed since Yang Buchen entered, and he hadn’t retreated in failure yet!

This caused those who had expected an instant outcome, like a beauty contest, to have their hearts hanging in suspense.

Ian stood up and paced back and forth.

“That damned Wapi… “

“He’s already dead. “

Ian rushed in front of the speaker, grabbing the big man by his shoulders with both hands.

“Dead, and that makes it all better? All the Radiance bills are locked inside that damn warehouse of his that fell into the hotel! That cursed thing! If only he’d been willing to talk things out properly, instead of looking down on newcomers and throwing the first punch! “

“Now look what’s happened—the bastard he pissed off came straight out of the Lost Illusion Company, and the guy spouts measures of Zero-Time sequence like he’s scattering beans! “

“Enough! “

Wager, the guild master, snapped in irritation.

The few people in the cabin turned their eyes to Wager, whose hair was combed diagonally backward.

“Wapi’s dead. Don’t talk about him anymore. “

Wager knew Ian just didn’t have the guts to curse at him to his face. After all, it was Wager who made the call to throw that “glowing-eyed weirdo” into the hotel.

“We need to have a good discussion here—once the bidding ends, we figure out how to get rid of that whole bunch at the hotel. There’s no way we’re letting them keep bidding on the Third Layer. “

“Then I’m afraid that’ll have to rely on you yourself, Guild Master. “

Wager frowned. True, he had once sought the Blood-line Circuit—said to hold great power—but ever since he acquired the key to this hotel, he had re-Manifested his own new Bloodline Resonance Statue to gather Radiance faster. Even so, he’d only just reached the Third Ring…

“Our Travelers’ Guild, only your statue has awakened to the third ring. If you start syncing with the Blood-line Circuit now, you should be able to regenerate ‘Stellar Yuan’ quickly. Then that most dangerous weapon Yang Buchen holds won’t be a guaranteed fatal injury for you. “

“Void Zero Chrono Weapon… “

A glint of scrutiny flickered in Wager’s gaze.

“Something’s wrong! ” Monika’s startled cry snapped Wager from his reverie about that incredible weapon.

The woman looked at Wager in panic: “Yang Buchen has something that can counter the ‘Phoenix Scorch Scar’! “

“How can this be! “

Everyone in the cabin scrambled to their feet in panic.

…..

Whoosh… Crackle… Sizzle…

The miniature black hole devoured the surging flames from the phoenix’s explosion, forming a spiraling vortex of distortion within the room.

“You bastard, stop that thing in your hand right now! “

Yang Zicang watched in astonishment as the miniature black hole, with a radius of less than thirty centimeters, created localized low pressure in the room. The searing phoenix feathers were already being drawn toward the vortex like a drain, pulled relentlessly into its core.

The flame phoenix fought with all its might. Golden emerald feathers drifted helplessly, cascading into the energy vortex that loomed ever closer, never to return.

Yang Zicang looked down, weighing the slightly hot gardening shears in his hand. A realization dawned on him why Bai Yuan had been carrying such an odd item all along.

This is what the room was prepared for.

Because the dreamfire core being drained from opposite side faintly flickered with the appearance of tree stumps.

Yang Zicang stepped forward, the garden shears in his hand glimmering with illusory flames.

“Stop! ” the Phoenix cried out.

The instant the Gravitational Arc Light dissipated, a muffled thud sounded, and all the flames not yet devoured retracted to form a pillar of tree trunk bearing a fire totem.

Yang Zicang looked around—the walls, the ceiling, even the floor—where the phoenix-mapped flame patterns had turned charred black, much like marks left behind by actual roots.

Yang Zicang let out a scoffing breath. “You tell me: how did you get yourself tangled up with a phoenix? “

Ahead, on the blazing totem of the igneous tree stump, two elliptical bark pores oscillated like eye sockets fixing onto Yang Zicang.

It emitted a wooden crackle laced with fire roaring, “Hah! Though I’ve been forced to reveal my true form, at least you’ve gifted me a new beginning. “

Click,6V4.

Just as Yang Zicang was about to speak, the cross intersections of the char-black root marks spreading across the wall suddenly lit up a warm red glow.

Several fire totems burst out from the floor and walls, each totem pillar blazing with flames shaped like catalpa leaves.

“Going for the old trick again? ” Yang Zicang snorted coldly. “You ought to know that move has limited effect on me by now. “

“Who told you that? Open your eyes—this ismy true body!I’ll make you submit with utter conviction! “

The Phoenix’s voice suddenly resounded again, like an ancient bell, its noble markings manifesting on the flaming pillar ahead.

“The Phoenix once alighted upon my branches! I was set ablaze, yet reborn with vitality! This is I—the legend of the Phoenix-Perching Tree! “

The flames within the entire space suddenly became magnificent.

The burning totem pillar revealed its charred wood true form. It was indeedpaulownia—a Phoenix-perchingpaulownia, pitch-black as charcoal yet still burning with golden-red flames.

The scoreboard immediately flipped, the count reaching 7V4, but it didn’t stop, flipping again: 8V4!

A shadow of unease flickered in Yang Zicang’s heart. He approached in three strides, two steps, one, staring at the monster whose form had solidified, more and more resembling a truepaulowniatree.

This time, the monster did not attack him, but merely presented the story of his life’s journey.

This imposed a tremendous resistance on Yang Zicang, who thought to raise scissors in his hand, as if he had no right to do so at this moment… Soon, he figured it out: because he hadn’t won a crushing lead in the score, he couldn’t make a move unless the opponent did first.

“Yo! So being perched upon by the Phoenix is your greatest claim to fame? “

The young man looked at the clear, scorched talon imprint on the largest horizontal outgrowth, and couldn’t help but admit, even the patterned traces of the claws were exceptionally elegant and refined.

“And I grew from a seed into a towering tree! “

9V4！

The veins bulged on Yang Zicang’s temples.

• ｛Distributor February. Di’an anticipates the gestation of this brilliant radiance of mine.｝

Damn it! Yang Zicang silently counted the remaining stories he could still pull out, however he figured it, things were getting extremely dangerous now!

“I, too, have experiences worth recording! “

The young man glared viciously at the half-human-high sycamore trunk and said, “It took me only a little over twenty hours of real-world time to rise from a weakling into someone ranked among the top in theOld Fate Track! That was the turning point of my fate! “

Click! 9 to 5—his scoreboard flickered.

Yang Zicang breathed a sigh of relief. This experience counted!

“I must refute that! ” The flame howled from within the crevice of the trunk.

Yang Zicang immediately raised the gardening scissors in his hand and pointed them at the wooden stump. “I advise you not to give me an opening. “

“Ha… I can’t be bothered to observe your petty formalities. “

“That rebuttal of yours last time is worth examining too, along with your phony experience about the phoenix. You were just parroting their legendary influence—what does that have to do with you?! “

The wooden stump immediately swallowed the roar of flames that had been about to spew from its crevice. Its eyes swept over the check-in nameplate of the tenant, still leading by a wide margin. This put it in a passable mood.

“The legend of thePhoenix-dwelling treeis no less than that of the phoenix itself, for it belongs to a part of the phoenix’s story. Even if you had managed to refute me earlier, things wouldn’t be any better than they are now. Hmph, retreat. You won’t succeed here. It’s already a win for you to have witnessed the true Phoenix-Scar—this is a deep-seated secret of mine. “

Yang Buchen gritted his teeth. Who would care about the secret of a tree stump?

All the unevenly scattered eyes on the Phoenix-dwelling tree blazed with smug pride. It greatly admired the expressions of those who dared to challenge this room, only to retreat in utter defeat.

A human being defeated by a scorched tree—that was an event rarely seen in the entire history of both humanity and theplanes tree.

“Get lost, human. You’ve already lost. “

“I still have a story to tell. “

“You stubborn bastard, you won’t give up until you’re dead, will you?! Are you about to ramble on about your rotten experiences escaping from the claws of wild beasts again? Other than beavers, no beast’s deeds are even worth putting on the table as bargaining chips! “

The enraged Phoenix-dwelling tree was about to unleash its heat again, but seeingYangzi-cang’raise the scissors along with its rising temperature, it hurriedly suppressed its intention to attack.

This stump had very few of its remaining notches left.

Yangzi-cang glanced at the scoreboard and said, “Although the phoenix revealing its trunk just now counts as your ‘New Beginning’ tale, it’s also a turning point of my own. “

“You crap-machine, what the hell are you babbling about? “

Has this just-occurred turning point failed to raise my score because that piece of wood rasped it out first?!

Damn it, that log is taking advantage of knowing more rules here. It snatched the “True Body of the Fire Phoenix” turning point story and blurted it out the instant it could.

But not entirely hopeless…

“From just now until this moment, this planetree hasn’t bothered attacking me. That should count as a ‘new beginning,’ shouldn’t it!” Yang Zicang declared loudly.

｛I feel that level of effort might not be sufficient.｝

That doesn’t constitute a powerful enough “New Beginning.“

“Aah, you monkey who’s climbed down from the tree, trying to use my own affairs to pull a fast one on me!” Hearing those words, the Phoenix-Perching Tree let out a piercing shriek. “Take a look!“

Behind Yang Zicang, a pillar burst into blazing brilliance with a totemic flare.

“This is thereal‘Beginning’ for everything here! Shoo-rya!“