NOVEL ONLINE FREE Chapter 40: The Forest Ranger's Ecological Crisis
The humus layer deep in the rainforest made a sticky sound underfoot. Tighnari crouched before a withered Sumeru Rose, his fingers tracing the spiderweb-like black veins on its leaves. Collei's hands trembled as she held the elemental vision telescope. "Master, there are three Withering Zones 300 meters northeast. The spread rate this time..."
"Four times faster than last week." The forest ranger put away the sample bottle, his ears twitching slightly with anxiety. He reached for the newly purchased **"Ecological Protection Blind Box"** at his waist, the Eremite merchant's enticing words echoing in his ears: **"Just 100,000 Mora, and dealing with the Withering will be as easy as cleaning mushroom spores!"**
The moment the blind box opened, an emerald light illuminated Collei's delighted face. "Is it an Aranara seed?"
"Worse than that." Tighnari took a step back. A red-and-white sphere popped open, and a Bulbasaur shook the sprouts on its back before suddenly spewing poison powder at the Withering Zone.
"Wait! That's not—" Tighnari's warning was cut off by the sound of vines slicing through the air. Thick tendrils crushed deadwood, sweeping through the Withering's black mist. Before Collei could fully form her Dendro arrow, the vines wrapped around her waist and lifted her into the air.
"Elemental energy will agitate it!" Tighnari shouted as the flower bud on Bulbasaur's back oozed an eerie purple light—the Withering's corruption had reversed through the vines, infecting its body.
When Ling Feng burst through the bushes, he saw this scene: Collei dangled ten meters in the air like a butterfly trapped in a spiderweb, Tighnari pinned the attacking vines with arrows, and Bulbasaur was shrouded in black-and-red mist, its tendrils covered in thorns.
"Catch!" Ling Feng threw the *Attack on Titan* ODM gear. The sound of gas jets startled the birds in the forest, and as the hooks lodged into an ancient tree, the Withering Zone let out a piercing screech. Bulbasaur's vines split into countless venomous snakes, and Ling Feng dodged through the whip-like shadows like he was dancing a deadly tango.
"Left!" Tighnari's arrow flew past Ling Feng's ear, pinning a lunging vine. Ling Feng seized the chance to cut the main vine trapping Collei, and as the girl fell, he caught her with the hook. The two crashed into the humus layer, Collei's hat landing perfectly on Bulbasaur's head.
An eerie silence fell over the forest. Bulbasaur tilted its head, examining the Inteyvat flower on Collei's hat. The bud on its back suddenly opened into a gaping maw and swallowed the nearest Withering Zone whole.
"Wait! You can't eat that—" Tighnari's voice cut off. Bulbasaur erupted in a brilliant evolution light, the black mist receding like a tide. When the light faded, a three-meter-tall Venusaur gently held Collei with its vines, the flower on its back blooming with purified moonlight.
In Tighnari's elemental vision, the Withering Zones shrank as if encountering a natural predator. Where Venusaur's vines reached, the leyline filth was devoured, and new sprouts emerged from the decayed soil.
"So this is ecological balance?" Ling Feng picked up the empty Poké Ball. "Letting Pokémon treat pollution as lunch?"
As night fell, Venusaur performed its new skills by the campsite: vines skewering mushrooms for roasting, Razor Leaf slicing Zaytun Peaches, and Solar Beam serving as a campfire. Collei diligently recorded in her notebook: **"16:23, consumed third Withering Zone, no adverse reactions observed..."**
"This is the seventh observation report today." Tighnari rubbed his temples. "You're more meticulous than tracking Fungus migrations."
Ling Feng fiddled with the flower on Venusaur's back and was suddenly sprayed with pollen. "Cough! Shouldn't it learn Sweet Scent or something?"
"More importantly," Tighnari held up the purified Withering residue, "the Akademiya declared three months ago that the Withering was irreversible, but its digestive system actually..."
The campfire crackled as Venusaur covered the sleeping Collei with leaves. The forest ranger's gaze flickered in the firelight. "Tomorrow, we'll take it to Pardis Dhyai. There's a Withering Zone even the sages have given up on."
When the morning dew dampened the experiment log, Tighnari discovered Venusaur's secret. Under the moonlight, the flower on its back was converting Withering toxins into glowing powder. Wherever the powder drifted, Starshrooms grew at a visible rate.
"It's not devouring," he murmured into the elemental lens. "It's reconstructing the leyline cycle..."
On the other side of the camp, Ling Feng frowned at Venusaur's Poké Ball. "System, are you sure this is a Pokémon and not the Devourer of Worlds?"
**[Notice: This worldline has automatically adapted to 'Dendro Venusaur Variant.']**
As the mechanical voice faded, the ball suddenly grew Aranara-style patterns. Moonlight filtered through the trees, revealing a faint image of Irminsul inside the ball.