Old Bean Pretends to Be a Tree Again

"You didn't do anything? What do you mean?" Shannon asked. "Wasn't it you who broke the Array Core?"

Grace looked completely baffled. "I contacted the Alliance Leader and made it to the Spirit Tree Forest, but my Beanie just flat out refused to absorb any more power from the Spirit Tree. I practically begged it, but it wouldn't budge! Then suddenly, you told me you were safe."

"So you're saying the Spirit Tree at the Array Core is still there?"

"Yeah! Perfectly fine."

"That's impossible!" Shannon was totally confused. "If the Array Core wasn't broken, I couldn't have escaped!"

"Isn't there any other possibility? Like a loophole in the Array?"

"No way!" Shannon said firmly. "The only way the Array completely disappears is if the Array Core is broken."

Grace: "Well, that's pretty weird... Could it be because of my Beanie tree?"

It wasn't just the Array Core—how did she get out of the Spirit Tree Enclosure too?

It had to be Beanie's doing!

"You keep going on about Beanie, Beanie—where is it? How come I've never seen it?" Shannon asked.

"It's... a Parasitic Bean. It's inside my body," Grace said.

"Really?" Shannon eyed her suspiciously. "Can you get its Magic Vine out? I want to see it."

Grace nodded, entered her Sanctum, and asked Beanie to extend its Magic Vine.

Once inside, she noticed Beanie had sprouted a few more leaves, looked a bit chubbier, and even greener than before.

Clearly, that pound of Celestial Spirit Jade was doing wonders for it.

Grace asked it to stretch its Magic Vine out of the Sanctum so Shannon could see.

But Old Bean decided to play tree again.

It struck a very elegant pose, but didn't move an inch.

Grace had no choice but to go out and tell Shannon, "That guy's asleep—no matter what I do, I can't wake him up."

Shannon had no choice but to give up.

Since commoners aren't allowed to own Spirit Trees, Grace didn't tell her that Beanie was actually a First Spirit Tree sapling...

"By the way, what about Leon Zane, Evan Xiao, and the others?" Grace asked.

"To keep up appearances, we pretended to leave for the Vermilion Kingdom two days ago. General Evan Xiao and Emperor Henry have already left."

"What about Leon Zane?"

"He... escaped when the Array was triggered. No idea where he went, he hasn't contacted me at all."

"What? That Leon Zane is unbelievable!" Grace said, fuming. "How could he ditch you and run off by himself?"

"I think he probably ran into something himself..."

"You're still defending him! He'd better never show his face again. If he does, I'll make him regret it!"

Shannon sighed.

In fact, when the Array trapped him, he reverted to his true form and escaped.

Originally, he meant to go get help to rescue her.

But unexpectedly, he never came back, and no one knows where he is now.

Although Leon Zane's cultivation has gone up a bit, it'll still take him a few days to regain human form.

His cultivation is nowhere near Evan Xiao's, and after turning back into his true form, he can't fully hide his dragon aura.

Who knows, maybe he'll get snatched up by some powerful person again, just like last time...

But Shannon couldn't share this worry with Grace.

......

"Shannon, what are you planning next?" Grace asked. "Why don't we go back to the Vermilion Kingdom together?"

Shannon shook her head. "I'm staying here to wait for my cousin."

"How about this? I'll send Cutie Pie to look for him." Grace said, pulling Cutie Pie out of her Sanctum.

Shannon's eyes lit up. She thought His Highness had already left, but turns out he came back!

"Awesome, thanks so much!" Shannon said.