"Up the tree!"
Gu Qijue, who was already prepared, let out a long howl, the twin dragons on his back swallowed thunder and shot out, instantly sweeping away and crushing all the branches and tendrils obstructing their climb, then led everyone up this truly towering giant tree at lightning speed.
Gu Qijue speculated that once they ascended this Star Giant Tree, they might not be attacked.
Faced with so many Star Fruits, they had to give it their all.
Instinct told him.
These fruits might be the key to survival.
Indeed.
After he led everyone up the tree, those branches did indeed stop attacking them.
Aoow! Roar, roar, roar, roar——
No sooner said than done, as Gu Qijue and others ascended the Star Tree, countless monsters outside gathered together and roared at the sky like an iron flood, rumbling towards the Star Tree.
Pfft——
But tens of thousands of sharp branches emerging from the trunk moved like a dance of demons, piercing, shredding, sweeping; any monster injured by the branches instantly turned into a dried corpse.
Yet even facing the attack of the Star Tree, countless berserk mutated creatures, having lost sanity, still rushed forward with crimson eyes, only to be shredded continuously.
Whoosh! Whoosh——
Facing the branch slaughter, deceitful mutant creatures, Evil Seed Level creatures, Disaster Level creatures, easily broke through, climbed the Star Tree, and took out sacks to pick the fruits at top speed.
Boom boom boom——
As batch after batch of mutated creatures got sucked into dried corpses, the heartbeat from within the Star Tree no longer was only audible to Gu Qijue.
The mutated creatures below Evil Seed Level, driven mad by the pervasive fragrance of the fruit, lost all reason, rushing like tides towards the Star Tree only to be shredded and sucked dry.
The corpses quickly piled into mountains.
One meter, two meters, three meters, four meters, ten meters——
Outside the Star Tree, the heap of dried corpses could only be described as terrifying.
Those who broke through were generally Evil Seed Level, Disaster Level, or deceitful mutated creatures.
"Quick, pick! This tree is very strange, don’t put the fruits in sacks, throw them all to me."
Upon climbing the tree, Gu Qijue dashed towards the branch with the most fruits and urgently activated his mind space to reap madly.
Hearing this, without hesitation, everyone dropped their sacks and, according to Gu Qijue’s instructions, tossed the picked fruits towards him.
Thus, this scene unfolded.
Any fruit near Gu Qijue eerily vanished without a trace.
The deceitful mutant creatures, Evil Seed Level, Disaster Level creatures also picking, were left dumbfounded, their sacks filled but containing less than a hundred.
"Black Dragon Emperor, how about collaborating?"
"Black Dragon Emperor, surely you’ve noticed, this tree is very strange and may become our greatest threat, how about collaboration?"
"Black Dragon Emperor, I’m willing to follow you, this tree feels like a great terror to me."
They felt the strange nature of the tree as soon as they climbed it, like an extremely evil eye staring at them as prey.
Seeing Gu Qijue’s limitless collection of Star Fruits was truly tempting.
At this moment, Cloud City Center was broadcasting a scene like a battlefield of hell to the entire nation, worldwide.
"Oh my god! Are those monstrous tides really fearless of death?"
"Hiss!!! Rushing up wave after wave only to be harvested, is that tree helping humanity by clearing the monsters on Star Blue Continent?"
"What a terrifying tree, oh heavens, the Dragon-man on it is so fierce, how is he collecting fruits out of thin air?"
"Oh heavens! Those creatures are just offering their lives! What kind of tree is that exactly?"
In the Hidden Dragon Empire’s live broadcast room, over seven hundred thousand people were watching, and within the world union network’s room, over five hundred thousand foreigners were tuning in.
All were struck by the shock and horror of the broadcast images.
They were all wondering if this tree was aiding humanity by clearing the mutated creatures on land.
But little did they know, this tree was humanity’s greatest existential threat.
The booming heartbeat grew louder, eventually resembling the sound of war drums echoing through the heavens and earth.
Gu Qijue’s own heartbeat hastened upon hearing it, intuition told him he would be in danger if he didn’t leave soon.
Yet he was reluctant.
Having picked only thirty-forty thousand fruits was too little.
"You guys throw the fruits you pick to me too, this tree gives me the sense of a catastrophic threat, we must pick swiftly!"
Gu Qijue, heart pounding fearfully, responded to those wanting to collaborate with him, deceitful mutant creatures, and mutated creatures.
"Alright! We’ll have you take care of all of them."
Upon hearing this, hundreds to thousands of deceitful mutant creatures, mutated creatures tossed their sacks towards Gu Qijue and then picked and threw towards him at top speed.
An overwhelming sense of urgency filled everyone’s hearts, lingering involuntarily.
On this tree, there were in total four to five thousand people and monsters picking, making efficiency extremely high.
The fruits inside Gu Qijue’s mind space constantly increased...
Seventy thousand, eighty thousand, ninety thousand, one hundred thousand, one hundred ten thousand, one hundred twenty thousand...
On earth, the dried monster corpses piled up thirty to forty meters high.
But endless monsters still rushed forward relentlessly.
Like countless addicts who hadn’t had a fix for a long time, now encountering heroin.
Even more severely.
Gu Qijue, frantically collecting fruits, couldn’t help but be shocked.
In just a few minutes, tens of millions of mutated creatures got sucked dry...
What exactly does this tree intend?
The roaring heartbeat beside the ears echoed endlessly through the heavens like war drums.
While devouring the Star Fruits, Gu Qijue stored them in his mind space.
The effect of these Star Fruits was incomparable to yesterday’s mutated fruits.
One consumed equaled dozens or hundreds of mutated fruits.
Deep in Yunjiang.
The old turtle stood on the water, constantly using its shell to divine.
A moment later, it suddenly coughed up blood in shock,
wide-eyed, exclaiming: "Dear me, Star-Sucking Tree, it’s actually a Star-Sucking Tree... If they’re not destroyed, the vitality of this planet will eventually be exhausted!!!"
How it discerned that it was a Star-Sucking Tree was unknown, it was something it inherited from its evolution.
"Let me divine once more who on this planet can hinder the spread of the Star-Sucking Tree!"
Burning its vital blood again, the old turtle divined and simulated.
Moments later, coughing up another mouthful of blood, it rushed towards Jianglin City next to Cloud City.
It divined that the one who can stop the Star-Sucking Tree’s destruction of Star Blue Continent is in Jianglin City.
As the name suggests, the Star-Sucking Tree specializes in absorbing the life force of stars.
If a star’s life force is exhausted, it becomes a dead star.
At this time, in various major cities of the Hidden Dragon Empire, although other cities also had Star-Sucking Trees appearing, they only reached a height of six-seven hundred meters, attracting countless monsters for slaughter.
But compared to Cloud City, the difference was vast.
———
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