Gu Ding arrived near the demon tree, and the next day, Hake silently appeared in the surrounding area.
In no time at all, Hake found the traces Gu Ding had left behind, and the two reunited.
"Are the others not here yet?" Hake had not expected to be the second to arrive.
"No. The mutant beasts and tribes in this forest have been acting strangely lately. It has probably affected their journeys to some extent." Gu Ding had roughly guessed the reason.
"I also discovered something on my way here." Hake sent him another voice transmission. "Some natives in the surrounding area are setting up an encirclement, possibly to keep others from entering. I had to circle around half the area and come in through an unguarded route."
"There was no one here when I arrived yesterday. Those guys must have only just gotten here." Gu Ding had not expected the native tribes to get involved in this matter either. After a brief silence, he turned to Hake. "Since you came here, you must already know about the Creation Blood Fruit, right?"
"Yeah, I heard about it, so I knew quite a few people would come here." Hake nodded, then asked somewhat doubtfully, "Captain, have you been waiting here this whole time without making a move?"
"No, I'm waiting for the others." Gu Ding shook his head with a smile.
"With your strength, Captain, it shouldn't be much of a problem to strike first and seize one or two fruits, should it?" Hake did not understand why Gu Ding had not acted first.
"Seizing one or two wouldn't be a problem, but there are more than just one or two people in our Pirate Crew who haven't broken through to Saint King yet." Gu Ding smiled helplessly. "And once I