Chapter 583 The Last Light

Chapter 583: The Final Light

Su Bai had never seen such a large light door before, but the unique sense of connection with this door convinced him that it was undoubtedly the entrance to the Mist Shop.

However, unlike the last time when part of the Mist City Lord’s power was drawn into the Mist Shop, this time they were set on devouring the entire Weird Tree. Such a door indeed made the process of devouring more efficient.

Su Bai instinctively glanced at the other players traveling with him, only to find the flower-adorned female eerie, A Yao, standing beside Chi Yan and the others. She seemed to have dosed the other players with something, leaving them frozen like stone statues.

They clearly hadn’t noticed the appearance of the massive light door, nor were they aware of what was happening here.

Indeed, although Su Bai had summoned multiple puzzle pieces in front of these players without concealment, he couldn’t let them learn more about the Mist Shop or matters related to the “door.”

As for the branches of “It,” the moment they touched the edge of the light door, they were instantly pulled in, completely disintegrated into pure Red Moon energy through the Mist Shop’s devouring.

Su Bai could hear the Weird Tree’s raspy screams, but the sound was rapidly weakening.

As more branches were drawn into the light door, the Weird Tree left behind grew increasingly withered. The more power the shop door devoured, the weaker the tree's remaining strength became.

The branches, barely holding together, began to collapse and fall off. The color of the bark quickly faded, revealing a dry, grayish-white texture.

“Boom—!”

Finally, with a boom, the massive but completely rotted canopy broke apart and began to fall heavily backward.

By now, the falling canopy was little more than a hollow shell, with very little power left inside. Little Huo, who had been restraining its urge to feed, could no longer hold back. Flames surged up like a predatory beast, lunging at the collapsing canopy and engulfing it entirely in an instant.

The moment Little Huo dug in, Su Bai’s face grew even paler.

Wu Heng, standing beside him, noticed the change in Su Bai and cast a glance at the blue flame, a dangerous glint flickering in his eyes.

At this point, the Mist Shop’s door had devoured most of the power, and the blue flame consumed the remaining canopy. The leftover branches could barely hold together, struggling even to maintain the shape of a trunk.

Even Su Bai’s vision had fully returned, meaning the giant tree no longer had enough strength to sustain all of this. The light barrier that had separated them from the outside world was now riddled with cracks, and at the very top, a piece had completely shattered, revealing the familiar silhouette of the Red Moon hanging silently in the eternal night sky of the nightmare world.

This should’ve been the end. But a dry, fragmented voice croaked once more—

「You’re wrong…」 The voice came in broken fragments, like an echo bouncing off ruins, so weak it was almost inaudible.

「You guessed wrong…」

「I truly… from the collapse of civilization…」

「preserved… the last light…」

The voice seemed to be the Weird Tree's last words, squeezed from its shattered roots—broken and unclear, yet carrying an obsession that was hard to ignore.

As its voice faded, the branches that had seemed unusual to Su Bai from the very beginning also changed. The branches, once tightly intertwined, lost all support, loosening completely and drooping onto the barren ground.

This let Su Bai see clearly what those branches had been tightly wrapped around. In the deepest part of that entanglement, a tiny sapling stood still.

A sapling less than half a person’s height, its leaves, once a tender green, were mostly yellowed and curled, yet a faint green still clung to the tips of its branches.

It was alive.

It was a truly, genuinely alive sapling!

All those branches were tangled for one reason—to protect… to cradle this last life?

「She… pure… life… before… collapse…」

Was it born before civilization collapsed?

Su Bai stared, surprised, at the fragile yet still living sapling. That Weird Tree had actually kept alive a living sapling in the nightmare world… under the Red Moon.

Even so, Su Bai would not waver in his judgment of “It.” That existence once called the “Mother Tree of Life” in the distant past might have tried to protect something at some point, but the destruction and devouring it caused were too great. It had taken countless lives—the “fruits” hanging from its branches included not only players but also the people of lost civilizations.

It no longer deserved to be called the “Mother Tree.”

「It… entrusted…」

「Is… yours… surely…」

All the branches crumbled to dust in the wind. The light barrier above had shattered, revealing the full sky.

On the barren land, only the little sapling trembling remained.

“Does it mean for me to take this sapling?”

The Mist Shop’s door had vanished, but Su Bai was still unsure about “It’s” final words.

He hesitated, and then, suddenly, a red shadow crept out from behind him.

It was a Blood Vine sent out by Blood Epiphyllum.

The slender, flexible vine slithered silently past Su Bai’s shoulder, stretching forward and reaching straight toward the small sapling.

Just as Su Bai wondered what Blood Epiphyllum intended to do, he saw the Blood Vine stop in front of the sapling, cautiously reaching out to touch it.

Su Bai remembered that Blood Epiphyllum had agreed to leave with him because the last blade of green grass by her side had withered. But that grass had accompanied her for at most a few decades—how many long years had the Weird Tree guarded this sapling?

Perhaps sensing the approach of another eerie entity, the sapling trembled, and a thin layer of light appeared around it—very similar to the barrier the Weird Tree had created.

But this barrier was too fragile. The Blood Vine only gave it a gentle touch, and it shattered instantly, its fragments like broken glass dissipating into specks of light in the air.

The sapling startled, trembling again, but soon realized the Blood Vine had no intention of attacking. It simply lowered itself, gently brushing against its leaves with a motion almost tender, as if tickling.

The sapling swayed once more, but this time, it wasn’t out of defense or fear. Instead, it responded quietly, almost coquettishly—one small leaf curled up and wrapped around the tip of the Blood Vine, like a newborn chick just out of its shell.

“Looks like Little Flower likes this little thing?” Su Bai looked at Wu Heng with some helplessness, as if seeking help from the other adult in the family on behalf of his child.

“Too weak.” Wu Heng’s red eyes fell on the sapling, his voice cold. He frowned, as if dissatisfied with having such a nearly powerless presence among the puzzle pieces.

But after turning to see Su Bai’s expression, he cleared his throat and softened his tone: “Still, that light barrier it just released… is very similar to the Weird Tree’s ability. Maybe it’ll be useful in the future.”

“Crack—!”

Before Su Bai could say anything, the last light barrier shattered completely. In that moment, the barrier that had enveloped everyone was fully removed, and the surrounding scene changed.

The dark, towering buildings of the hospital emerged one by one, their outlines slowly taking shape under the Red Moon and the night sky.

It was Hospital No. 666.