Card Apprentice Daily Log

Date: Unspecified

Time: Unspecified

Location: Myriad Realms, Realm Of True Evil, Shell Island

It was as if Lady Luck were on my side day. I could be more happy about divining which coordinates I should be teleported to in the Realm of True Evil.

The only option neither I, Hive Spirit or Scar had considered happened: the array formation was broken from outside by giant white roots descending into the Shell Island from the shell above.

The reason we didn’t consider it was because whoever tried to break the subspace of the array from outside would be dragged into the array. However, the roots somehow were able to break that condition of the Macro Samsara Array Formation.

“Master, my hatchlings.”

Scar urgently called out, realizing that the roots were not here to break the Array Formation but to catch Truevil hatchlings in the absence of adult Truevils.

“Go, kill it. I have no use for it.”

Unlike the Cloud Prowler, the Truevils seemed to know more about the giant shell even though they had only moved here recently.

According to their memories, the shell belonged to a young adult Star Turtle. They seem to be born once a century and leave the realm and head into the stars after laying eggs in the lava covering most of the planet.

They had no idea if they were native to this realm or not, because they had never observed a Star Turtle returning from the stars.

But they knew this particular Star Turtle seemed to have died because of a giant parasite that infested its shell and drained its strength and vitality, ultimately killing it.

As a result, it couldn’t head into the stars with its kind and chose to die alone in a secluded corner of the planet, far from the breeding site of the Star Turtles, because it didn’t want other newborns to be infected by the same parasite and suffer a similar fate as it.

And that parasite was continuing to occupy the shell even after the death of the Star Turtle, creating the massive forest on the back of the shell and maybe even the island under the shell.

Star Turtle, I searched the entire Myriad Realm race records, and that name wasn’t mentioned anywhere. Which wasn’t surprising, considering that not much about the Realm of True Evil was mentioned in the Infinity Library or anywhere, for that matter.

As I mulled over this, Scar tore off the roots that were aiming for the hatchlings. Seeing her return, the roots seemed to stop coming out and retreat into the shell, patching up the hole on their way back with oddly shaped luminous pearls.

Now I knew how the entire underside of the turtle shell was covered in luminous pearls acting as a source of light for the Shell island. The shell seemed capable of producing a liquid bone-like substance in response to the parasites or invaders that would enter the shell. This liquid bone would swallow the invaders and solidify into luminous pearls. The parasite was using that mechanism to patch up the shell after every hunt.

The parasite was tricky; it would not come out of the shell no matter what and only use the roots and trees to hunt. Scar and the other Truevils were occasionally harassed by it. But they were Truevils. They didn’t get tired. In turn, the parasite wasted most of its stored energy and ended up exhausted and stopped looking for trouble with the Truevils, allowing Scar and her slaves to annex it and take control of the Shell Island.

Scar roared at the shell in warning before returning to my side. I looked at the shell for a while and shook my head because even my soul pupils could not spot it. All I saw was a network of roots running all over the giant shell. It was the same as I saw from above the shell.

Suddenly, it crossed my mind that maybe the Truevils’ guess was right. It was the parasite that was responsible for the Shell Island, like it was for the giant forest above the shell. Only, it was using the skill etched in the shell to maintain and sustain the Shell Island instead of personally tending to it like it did with the forest above the shell.

That would explain why the vegetation in Shell Island did not showcase the gigantism mutation in their soul pathways. Also, why weren’t they being controlled by the parasite as the vegetation of the forest above was.

Considering the intelligence the parasite had already shown, I would not be surprised if that were to be true.

Now the question was, how do I get rid of the parasite and claim the shell for myself?

However, just then, I heard a noise like something massive was tearing its way through the lava and heading our way.

Soon, I received a warning from Cloud Prowler. I immediately used Hive Spirit to view its perspective and saw a wave of hundreds of thousands of Truevils swimming over in this direction in unison and harmony, like a school of flying fishes, which was not only unnatural but simply impossible.

There were several hundred miles between us, but I knew that for an adult Truevil, it would take more than a couple of minutes to cover that distance swimming.

As I wondered what I should do, Scar hurriedly gathered the hatchlings. She, too, was just as shocked by seeing so many Truevils coming together. In her long lifespan, she had seen such an occurrence only once, when the Mulias Royal Family tried to invade their realm.

However, even then, they didn’t maintain the same harmony and discipline as the school of Truevils swimming towards us.

I asked Cloud Prowler to go get a closer look. However, as it teleported to the clouds above the school of Truevils, it was immediately attacked by numerous Truevils that shot out of the lava, aiming right at the cloud it was hiding in.