The Origins of Ring Tree Island (Part 1)

Uncle Kate looked at Luo Han's curious expression, smiled, and continued his explanation.

"Because the Divine Tree can desalinate seawater, the salt left behind after desalination either gathers into salt blocks on the seafloor...

"Or flows into the surrounding waters, making the salt concentration there extremely high."

"So there are actually very few Sea Kings in the surrounding waters! Salt-Eating Sharks generally live in the deep sea. They only come to the surface when they crave salt or when we disturb the salt blocks."

At this point, Uncle Kate's expression turned solemn.

"Salt-Eating Sharks rarely come up into shallow waters! Relatively speaking, that is. Every few days, they swim down to the seafloor to eat salt."

"So! We've always been injured while fighting Salt-Eating Sharks.

"Don't underestimate their small size. Because they are adapted to swimming in both deep and shallow waters, their skin has terrifying defenses, and they are incredibly strong.

"And that also makes Salt-Eating Sharks extremely fast, so every encounter becomes a fierce battle."

Uncle Kate looked at the pale green sea surface, his expression somewhat sorrowful. Even with his protection, members of the Hunting Squad still suffered injuries from time to time.

"Then we just need to focus on dealing with the Salt-Eating Sharks! And as long as we don't go out to sea, there's nothing they can do to us!"

Besides, they were still in this deep-sea area. It was not like on the seafloor, where they could maneuver around. Luo Han could not quite understand.

He voiced his question to Uncle Kate.

"Look behind you at Ring Tree Island. There aren't any other islands around it, right? And after extending outward for ten kilometers, the seafloor drops straight down."

Uncle Kate turned back toward Ring Tree Island, a look of amazement on his face.

Luo Han and the other Hunting Squad members also turned to look at Ring Tree Island!

"It really is! It's like a stone pillar thrusting out of the sea! How amazing! I never noticed that before!"

Rein cried out in amazement, visibly excited. This was clearly his first time hearing Uncle Kate talk about it too.

The other Hunting Squad members were also considering the shape of Ring Tree Island for the first time.

"It doesn't feel like an island... It's more like a..." Luo Han murmured as he looked toward Ring Tree Island.

Uncle Kate glanced at Luo Han upon hearing that. He had actually figured it out!

"A long time ago, there were no islands here. Then, a great tree emerged from the sea!

"Upon first touching sunlight, the tree began growing wildly. Within a few years, its roots and branches had spread across a radius of over a hundred kilometers.

"It had already formed a massive island over a thousand meters tall!"

At this point, Uncle Kate looked at everyone!

"This was the predecessor of Ring Tree Island. That great tree is the Divine Tree on the island today."

Luo Han asked, "Then where did the rock pillars around the Divine Tree come from? And why isn't Ring Tree Island this large now, Uncle Kate?"

Luo Han immediately asked his question! The other Hunting Squad members nodded in confusion as well.

"Haha! Let me continue."

Uncle Kate laughed heartily, then his expression became solemn.

"That wildly expanding great tree—the Divine Tree—began bearing a kind of fruit once it reached a span of a hundred kilometers! That was the Scale Fruit!

"Before that, the Divine Tree had always grown beneath the sea and had never borne fruit. No one knew that once the Scale Fruit ripened, it would spread an aura through its roots into the ocean, one that drove Sea Kings mad with obsession."

Uncle Kate spoke with lingering fear in his voice. It was easy to imagine what happened next.

"Because this place is close to the Calm Belt, the aura released by the Scale Fruit attracted countless large and Super Giant Sea Kings from the Calm Belt, ranging from three thousand meters long to tens of thousands of meters long.

"What followed was a frenzied struggle among the Sea Kings. Even the Divine Tree, with its body spanning over a hundred kilometers, crumbled before that world-destroying force."

"The Divine Tree was directly destroyed, leaving behind only the main trunk we see today. Its height was crushed straight down to the seafloor, and it was nearly uprooted and destroyed entirely."

Luo Han was somewhat stunned upon hearing this. The Divine Tree had been destroyed? Then how had Ring Tree Island come to be? And the moment it emerged above the sea and bore Scale Fruit, it would attract Super Giant Sea Kings.

How was it supposed to solve that problem? Luo Han even felt a little sorry for the Divine Tree! I just wanted to poke my head out and bask in the sun. As a great tree, is it wrong for me to photosynthesize? Is it wrong for me to get some sun?

You Sea Kings can eat my fruit if you want! But why do you have to torment me too?

Come to think of it, if the Divine Tree could speak, it surely had plenty it wanted to say!

Luo Han spared a thought for the Divine Tree!

Then he continued listening to Uncle Kate.

Uncle Kate said, "After that, it was as if the Divine Tree suddenly gained intelligence! It began growing slowly, and it also gained another ability: the ability to desalinate seawater.

"After gaining this ability, the Divine Tree began releasing some of the minerals it absorbed from the seabed, forming a ring-shaped rock layer around itself to protect itself."

Uncle Kate marveled at the wonder of the sea! There was actually such an amazing creature as the Divine Tree.

"Afterward, the Divine Tree slowly grew toward the sea surface. After more than a hundred years, it reached sea level once more and bathed in sunlight.

"Strangely enough, the Divine Tree grew slowly while it was on the seafloor. But once it reached the surface, it suddenly began growing wildly, as though it had gained some mysterious power."

Luo Han could imagine the scene. The moment the Divine Tree emerged from the sea, it expanded at incredible speed as though time had been fast-forwarded.

He just did not know whether it would end up like before, destroyed by Sea Kings once again.

"But this time! The Divine Tree did not rapidly expand its body again. Instead, it used the power of that rapid growth to absorb minerals from the seabed.

"Then! The rock layers of Ring Tree Island that you see now were built layer by layer by the Divine Tree.

"Each layer is secured by the Divine Tree's roots, forming the current nine-layer structure of Ring Tree Island."

"Afterward, the fresh water produced by the Divine Tree's desalination of seawater was stored inside Ring Tree Island, while the salt and certain minerals were expelled outside the island, forming the seafloor we see today."

So this was how Ring Tree Island had formed. The rock encircling the Divine Tree had actually been built by the Divine Tree to protect itself!

Everyone's mouths hung slightly open as they stared at Ring Tree Island behind them, their eyes filled with shock.

Hehe! Uncle Kate smiled, recalling how he had reacted the same way when he first heard the old people on the island tell the story of Ring Tree Island's origins.

And the Divine Tree was even more miraculous than that!

"As the Divine Tree slowly grew, Ring Tree Island gradually expanded as well. Shipwrecks caused by storms brought some humans here, and that was how the island's current residents came to be.

"Gradually, the Divine Tree reached the time to bear fruit again."

This time, it probably had not been destroyed by Sea Kings, right? Everyone thought the same thing.

After all, Ring Tree Island's existence proved that the Divine Tree had survived this crisis. They just did not know how!

"Take a guess. Do you think Sea Kings attacked this time?" Uncle Kate asked with a smile as he looked at everyone's focused expressions.

Yes! No! Everyone made their guesses.

"Yes, right, Uncle Kate?" At that moment, Cole's rough voice came from nearby, startling everyone! Without anyone noticing, Cole had already moved close to the sea surface.

It seemed Cole had been drawn in by Uncle Kate's story as well and could not help asking!

"Haha!" Uncle Kate laughed loudly and continued.

"No, nothing happened! Not a single Sea King came.

"Because this time, the special aura of the ripe Scale Fruit was blocked by the rock layers surrounding the Divine Tree. And the Divine Tree's roots were all burrowed into those rock layers rather than exposed in the sea.

"So the aura did not leak into the ocean, and naturally, no Sea Kings came."

"Of course! That alone could not completely block the aura's attraction to Sea Kings. After all, the Scale Fruit's aura could still disperse into the air, just far less than it did in the ocean.

"It could still attract some Sea Kings that happened to surface.

"But the reason not a single Sea King came was because the Divine Tree desalinated seawater and expelled salt. As the Divine Tree grew larger, it expelled more and more salt, eventually raising the salinity of the waters around Ring Tree Island. Many marine creatures could not adapt and left these waters one after another, and the Sea Kings left with them."

"So after traveling such a great distance, the aura released by the Divine Tree's Scale Fruit became nearly undetectable. Naturally, it could not attract any Sea Kings."

So that was how it was. Could the Divine Tree really possess intelligence? Before bearing Scale Fruit, it had actually turned the surrounding waters into a highly saline sea, forcing the Sea Kings to leave because they could not adapt.

Luo Han wondered whether it was like the flower-shaped island Usopp had been sent to by Kuma, the one that specifically hunted Sea Kings.

Luo Han had his suspicions, and he felt a little uneasy. Would the Divine Tree fatten everyone up before eating them too?

Hmm! Probably not! After all, the Divine Tree on the island did not have a mouth or anything.

He should listen to what Uncle Kate had to say first. There was no need to scare himself.