Chapter 371: Seal Was Shattered

Priam’s heart trembled. Countless branches began twisting and wrapping themselves around him.

’This is impossible! This Demon Tree belongs to the Immortal Race!’ Dandara said, completely stunned.

Priam didn’t quite understand the concept, but apparently, it was something incredibly rare—so rare that both he and Dandara had believed the tree was already dead.

’Time to run.’

Priam stored the tree’s central branch and activated his Celestial Battle Armor.

*BOOOM!*

With a punch from each fist, he tore through the twisted branches. The entire dark forest was illuminated by a dazzling golden light.

But...

Red pollen sprayed through the air like a storm.

Priam immediately realized the situation was worse than he had imagined. The pollen clung to his skin as if it were a living creature, sticking to him completely despite his active power.

Dandara, down on the ground, was also hit. However, it didn’t seem to cause any immediate harm.

*WOOOOOOOSH!*

Suddenly, more branches shot toward him. This time, they weren’t thin branches, but massive structures several meters thick. He also felt an aura of brutal fury emanating from the tree. It wanted to kill him at any cost.

*Sky-Rending Wind!*

With a precise, cutting wind strike, Priam tore open a path through the vegetation, finally escaping its grasp.

Almost instantly, countless roots burst from the ground, twisting through the air like monstrous serpents trying to devour him.

Activating his Elemental Physique, Priam turned into a blur, grabbed Dandara by the waist, and shot away.

*BOOM!*

Shockingly, the earth gave way, and the enormous tree rose into the air. Countless roots flew toward Priam like claws covering the sky.

The scene was bizarre and terrifying. The tree couldn’t fly freely or fully pursue them because it had to keep one main root connected to the ground.

Through that root, it absorbed the planet’s extremely high-level natural energy to fuel its attacks. That was precisely what made the power of this tree—and all natural life on the planet—so terrifying.

That Demon Tree could kill a Sage with extreme ease.

What shocked Priam even more was that, immediately after the first tree awakened, the others around it also began rising into the air, sending branches after him.

And that wasn’t all!

Coming from far away through the skies, Priam sensed countless Primordial Chaos Beasts approaching.

It was as if he had slapped their king’s mother right in the face! A full-scale mobilization had begun behind him.

The trees’ branches were incredibly fast. In the air, they looked like gigantic pillars shooting toward him.

They were considerably far behind, since Priam’s speed was terrifying. However, those branches seemed capable of growing indefinitely, maintaining a pace just as insane as his own. They were actually catching up to him.

*BOOOM!*

Priam struck from a distance, breaking the roots and slowing their advance. Another cloud of red pollen filled the air.

A strange, chilling scream echoed from the giant tree, reverberating across the horizon.

’They really want us dead...’ Priam saw thousands of Primordial Chaos Beasts drawing closer and closer, filling the sky and completely blocking out the sunlight.

What the hell was going on? All of this because of a single central branch?

Dandara’s face was pale. The red pollen that had hit her at the beginning was trying to invade her body deep inside.

Priam possessed an absurdly powerful physique, making it impossible for the pollen to enter his body even if he did nothing. Dandara, however, had to release all of her internal power to keep it out. Even so, she kept her mouth shut, not wanting to distract Priam.

At that moment...

’Oh!’

Priam remembered an important detail he had studied: the natural energy used to create wood had incredible defensive resistance, but it had one major weakness—fire.

Of course, it wasn’t an absolute vulnerability, but compared to any other element, fire could penetrate those defenses much more easily. It was like having a +200% damage bonus.

Without hesitation, Priam synthesized a Yang Enchantment Power Rune.

After activating it, he channeled a large portion of his Pyrix bloodline.

"Explode!"

Priam launched a small sphere of fire, but it was absurdly concentrated with the power of his bloodline.

*KBOOOOOOM!*

The sphere exploded in front of the sea of advancing branches. The trees let out that bizarre scream once again as their branches and roots instantly caught fire. Ash began raining from the sky.

Suddenly, space trembled. The massive army of Primordial Chaos Beasts was getting closer and closer.

Priam snorted, feeling an unprecedented sense of danger tighten around his chest.

He thought quickly. At times like this, his Transcendental Anima was incredibly useful.

He remembered that they had crossed a huge river along the way. That river was peculiar, possessing an unusual density of Yang mixed with the natural Yin of the water.

’We should be able to get there fast enough,’ Priam muttered inwardly.

No matter how insane Priam was, facing an army of thousands of Sage-level enemies head-on, reinforced by the support of the Demon Trees, would be pure madness.

He had been warned repeatedly to be extremely careful on that planet. After all, he was an invader there. If he unleashed his full power without restraint, it was entirely possible that all the Primordial Chaos Beasts on the planet would move toward him, making the situation even more chaotic and leaving him with no way out.

Back when he was only a Mage, a full-powered fight concentrated in one place would never have caused a disturbance on a planetary scale. Now, however, things were different: any entity at the Sage level would be able to notice him instantly.

Fortunately, after walking the line between life and death so many times, the more dangerous the situation became, the calmer he grew. In the face of danger, panic and fear wouldn’t save anyone—they would only hasten their own death. Priam had already turned keeping a clear mind under pressure into a deeply ingrained habit.

Within seconds, the river appeared before him.

It was a monumental body of water, stretching for hundreds of kilometers. The current roared fiercely, tinged with an earthy brown color.

With a concentrated snort, Priam manifested a colossal sphere of flames and compressed its power to the limit. He abruptly turned toward his pursuers and launched it into the air. The very next millisecond, he created a sphere of Wind-element energy and hurled it in the same direction, even faster.

The instant the two spheres of power collided, the elemental reaction was immediate: the explosion expanded, covering miles within a fraction of a second.

It was the classic combination of elements, designed to maximize fire’s destructive power.

**KBOOOOM!**

An ocean of flames erupted, consuming everything within a thousand-kilometer radius in the sky. It looked as though the planet’s very atmosphere had been set ablaze.

It was a devastating attack that drained all of Priam’s Ether in a single burst.

The entire planet trembled from the detonation as gigantic waves of scorching wind swallowed the skies in a terrifying spectacle.

The brutal impact forced the pursuers to halt their advance momentarily.

Taking advantage of the opening, Priam shot toward the river and dove in with everything he had.

As soon as they sank into the murky waters, Priam expanded his senses and detected a large aquatic creature swimming rapidly toward them.

It was a fish-shaped Mutant Beast, forty meters long. Upon spotting the two tiny figures, the beast opened its jaws wide and swallowed them whole.

"Control it!" Priam ordered hurriedly, manifesting spiritual toxin runes and injecting them into the creature’s insides.

Dandara swallowed hard and nodded. Without hesitation, she mobilized her power, created a simple contract rune, and forcibly subdued the fish.

"To the right!" Priam commanded sternly.

Dandara maneuvered the controlled fish in that direction. Just ahead, an even more colossal Mutant Beast emerged from the depths, charging forward with its jaws wide open.

Without wasting any time, Dandara sent the fish straight into the monster’s gaping maw. The giant beast devoured its prey purely on instinct, without even realizing what had just happened.

At that exact moment...

A terrifying pressure swept across the skies above the river. Sensing the overwhelming danger in the air, the colossal beast immediately dove down and buried itself in the mud of the riverbed, not daring to move a single muscle.

Dandara wrapped her legs around Priam’s waist, hugging him tightly from the front.

She was trembling subtly but constantly, catching Priam by surprise.

Above them, a terrifying army of creatures tore through the skies. The two remained absolutely motionless in the depths of the river, suppressing their auras with their techniques to the absolute limit.

"!"

At that moment... Priam understood the true reason for her trembling.

Dandara was in critical condition!

To control the Mutant Beast and conceal her presence, she had been forced to sacrifice her own internal defenses. The reddish pollen from the Demon Tree had deeply invaded her body.

’Damn it!’ Priam’s eyes widened. He had been so focused on the situation that he had forgotten about the strange pollen and hadn’t paid enough attention to her.

The flow of devastating auras continued passing over them in terrifying numbers. They were like countless locusts covering the horizon.

Priam couldn’t use any flashy technique without giving away their position. Trying to heal her in this situation seemed impossible.

However, the internal corruption in Dandara’s body was advancing rapidly, eating away at her organs and meridians with every passing second.

He thought desperately. How could he contain it without releasing even the slightest trace of energy?

’Elven Connection...’ Dandara’s voice echoed softly and brokenly directly in his mind.

Priam froze, staring at her face so close to his.

That was a technique from the Ancestral Art of the Cursed Elves of the Forest. Priam had studied it thoroughly in the past—although he could never use it because of the curse in his mother’s bloodline.

That was precisely why her race on her home planet had never accepted Seien’s marriage to Boey. The members of that species only bonded with one another because couples could use the Elven Connection.

The technique required genuine and intimate physical contact; through the temporary merging of their bloodlines, the couple could purify and heal any wound or deadly poison. It was a subtle, swift, and terrifyingly effective exchange—vital to the survival of that race in the forest.

Since there were so few of them, losing Seien to an outsider effectively meant condemning another elf to remain without a partner to heal with.

In their current situation, the Elven Connection was the perfect solution: subtle enough that it wouldn’t release any Ether fluctuations or conspicuous energy that could alert the enemies outside.

Priam had already passed the complete Ancestral Art on to Dandara before. They both possessed this bloodline and, theoretically, could use it. However, he knew that the ingrained curse was a huge obstacle that would certainly prevent the process from working.

He was about to warn her that his cursed bloodline would prevent the healing...

But he swallowed his words.

Dandara held his gaze. There was a hypnotic intensity and burning vulnerability in her irises. Slowly, she brought her face closer, shortening the distance until her warm breath brushed against his skin.

She stopped just a few millimeters from his lips. Her face was bright red, and her mouth trembled softly in a mixture of pain and desire.

Mere skin-to-skin contact was enough to heal moderate wounds. But to purge a deep invasion of the meridians... a much more intimate and complete union was required.

Dandara didn’t force the final contact. She waited. The technique required the intention to come from both sides in perfect synchronization. It was up to Priam to cross that final millimeter of his own free will.

Priam froze for a fraction of a second.

As he felt her condition worsening, carrying the guilt of not realizing in time that the Demon Tree was still alive, an uncontrollable flame began crackling in his chest.

’Wait... Isn’t my motto to live intensely? Why the hell am I hesitating?’

Priam realized that his body and soul yearned for it. He had never felt any repulsion toward Dandara. Besides, they both genuinely enjoyed each other’s presence.

Why was he afraid?

Priam finally had the chance to experience something pure and genuine—something he had never been able to experience throughout his entire existence.

The next second, something deep within his being ignited like a dormant volcano erupting catastrophically.

He swallowed hard.

That was why he was afraid.

Priam had kept his masculine desires and impulses chained deep within his mind for far too long.

It had been two entire lifetimes marked by isolation, torture, and suffering. That visceral desire had always existed within him; he had simply learned to brutally suppress it in order to survive.

Even he himself feared what would happen the moment he unleashed it all without restraint.

But now... faced with that woman who had clearly given herself to him, body and soul.

Priam would not dare retreat. His entire existence cried out for him to give her everything he had, without hesitation.

At that moment, the seal was shattered.

Surrendering to the desire he had suppressed for millennia, Priam gently moved forward.