The curly-haired young man immediately stopped in his tracks. He froze and glanced toward the nameless young man, who had turned and was now walking toward Arkana.
Driven by curiosity, Kairav strained to eavesdrop on their conversation.
"I found this tree yesterday while exploring this place. It seems to have a pull of magical energy. Can you sense the presence of the tree spirit hiding inside it?" asked the nameless young man in a flat tone, his dark eyes fixed on the towering mountain pine.
The young prince also couldn't resist the allure of the tree's magical energy. His feet began to move toward it, his gaze locked onto the lush branches and needles of the pine.
Slowly, the prince closed his eyes and gently placed his palm on the tree's trunk.
A sudden cool breeze appeared, and every needle on the tree began to sway as though they were the ones blowing the wind.
"There's definitely a Danyang spirit guarding this place, but she's trapped, imprisoned by black magic," Arkana said, his eyes still closed.
"Black magic…" echoed the nameless young man, his expression unreadable. "Only people from the Midnight Melody Tribe could do something like this."
"We'll know for sure once we ask her ourselves."
As soon as Prince Arkana said this, a faint green light mixed with black mist emanated from the mountain pine. Kairav and his two friends, watching from a distance, were immediately taken aback by the sight.
"Hey, Bro, what's he doing?" Gavin whispered to Kairav. The young man in question could only shake his head, his eyes never leaving the scene.
"Can you free her?" Casildo asked Arkana.
The young prince nodded. "I'll try," he said, stepping back from the tree.
The prince closed his eyes again and began to invoke the radiant energy of his green peacock spirit using the Radiant Soulforge Awakening technique.
From the darkened sky, bathed in waves of colorful light, green energy from the Cosmic Resonance Radiation shot down to the ground, piercing deep into the Lushterra and then slipping into the prince's skin, infusing his body with power.
The light, visible only to the three in the room, slowly evaporated into the green mist that enveloped Prince Arkana.
The green peacock totem on his back began to unfurl its beautiful tail, and in the blink of an eye, a majestic green peacock spirit emerged from his body, soaring into the air with a resonating cry.
Squawks!
Casildo suddenly walked over to Kairav, flashing his signature cocky grin. "Bro, can you see that peacock spirit?"
The curly-haired young man looked around frantically. "Where?"
Casildo's eyes went wide. "Are you blind again?! Nameless young man! The Failed Product's eyes are messed up again!" The burly young man groaned.
But the nameless young man, hearing Casildo's complaint, only glanced briefly at them before turning away, showing no interest in what he heard.
"Don't mess with me! There's no peacock spirit. Even my two friends here don't see it," Kairav snapped, irritated.
"It's natural for them not to see it. Only astral conjurers can see each other's animal spirits!" Casildo explained, pointing at Baron and Gavin, who were staring at each other in confusion.
"But you!" Casildo continued, poking Kairav in the forehead. "You're baffling! How come you can sometimes see them and sometimes not? Are you nightblind or something?"
Kairav angrily swatted Casildo's hand away. "Your eyes are the ones that are messed up! Because you're an ancient fossil—fifty years old!"
Casildo nodded his head sarcastically, holding back his annoyance. "Okay, if I'm a living fossil, then he's an unidentified prehistoric relic!" he quipped, pointing at the nameless young man, who was watching their childish bickering with a blank expression.
Kairav slid closer to Casildo. "How old is he anyway?" he whispered, his curiosity piqued.
Casildo grinned mischievously, shrugged, and started walking away. "Why don't you ask him yourself if you've got the guts?" he teased.
"You bastard!" Kairav muttered.
"Can you act a little more mature?" the nameless young man scolded Casildo as he approached.
"Why? I'm just trying to entertain myself by messing with him," Casildo responded dismissively.
The nameless young man turned his gaze toward Arkana, who seemed visibly frustrated by the interruption. "Just keep going. Ignore this useless fool."
Casildo was about to defend himself, but Prince Arkana cut him off first.
"If this idiot opens his useless mouth again, we'll just offer him as a sacrifice to the mountain!" the prince snapped, conjuring a glowing green orb above his right palm.
[Ethereal Sylvan Burst]
As the glowing orb appeared, the peacock spirit slowly fanned out its tail like a blooming flower. Bright green beams of light began to shine from every feather of its intricate pattern. One after another, bursts of green light exploded from the roots of the plants covering the area.
The light flowed like water, spreading toward the final plant—the mountain pine—slowly infusing it with the green energy. From the very tips of its roots, the light wrapped around the tree until it completely enveloped it, and then, as if from within, the light exploded.
Boom!
But the tree remained intact, not a single needle fell from its branches. The green glow gradually faded, revealing a bright white crack in the tree's trunk, from which a figure began to emerge.
The three young men, who had been unable to see the earlier events, could only gape in amazement as a female figure suddenly appeared from within the mountain pine.
"From her appearance, she must be a Danyang spirit, one of the legendary tree spirits of Sovereign's Mainland," Gavin whispered to his friends.
Kairav nodded, focusing on the female figure adorned with a crown of leaves, her entire body made of wood.
The Danyang walked toward Prince Arkana and, upon reaching him, kneeled in deep respect. "Thank you for freeing me from this black magic prison," she said in a soft, melodic voice.
"Stand, there is something I wish to ask you," Prince Arkana said.
The tree spirit nodded and rose to her feet.
"Who imprisoned you with this black magic?" he asked.
"About ten years ago, two people came to this forest. One was a man, the other a woman. I don't know exactly who they were, but I did see the spirit of a black dragon serpent and a cuckoo bird during our fight."
Casildo sneered. "As expected, those bastards were from the Midnight Melody Tribe and the Darkconian Empire."
The prince continued his questioning. "What did they do here?"
"They wanted to make me and the spirit of the banyan tree their slaves. We refused, and as a result, we were forced into a fierce battle. In the end, we both lost." The tree spirit's face grew somber.
"I was imprisoned in this tree, and the banyan tree spirit was corrupted into an evil creature by their black magic. They did the same thing hundreds of years ago to Dwarapala, the guardian of the stepped pyramid buried within this mountain."
"So, the ruins we found earlier really are a stepped pyramid?" Kairav asked, his brow furrowed.
The spirit nodded. "Yes, hundreds of years ago, someone built a stepped pyramid on this mountain, with the first and second terraces buried inside and the third terrace above ground."
"Since then, after the pyramid was completed, Dwarapala began capturing hunters or climbers on this mountain under the influence of black magic."
"He took them into the pyramid, but I'm not sure for what purpose," she continued. "But he suddenly stopped when the person who turned him into an evil creature stopped coming to the mountain. And that was hundreds of years ago."
"Do you know who that person was?" Arkana asked.
The Danyang fell silent for a moment, hesitating. "I'm not sure. It was so long ago. But the man resembled the one who imprisoned me ten years ago—they both were around fifty years old and could control a dragon serpent spirit."
"Did he carry a large black sword?" the nameless young man interjected.
The tree spirit nodded confidently. "Yes."
Prince Arkana turned to the nameless young man. "Do you know him?"
"Ardika Amartya," he replied calmly, though his eyes betrayed a deep, burning anger.