Lightning-Struck Tree? Powerful Fruits! (Please Follow and Bookmark)

A horse could be run to death looking at a mountain; the same truth applied to wolves.

That mountain looked close, but after actually running there, Xu Yang discovered it was at least forty kilometers from Newborn Valley!

Standing at the foot of the mountain, Xu Yang lightly caught his breath.

The fur on his body kept him warm, but it also prevented heat from escaping. He was burning up now.

So, without the slightest concern, he stuck out his tongue to cool himself down.

He looked up at the massive mountain range. Unlike the range beside Newborn Valley, this one was not shrouded in so much cloud and mist; he could see the peaks at a glance. Although Xu Yang considered himself quite strong now, he would rather take the long way here to explore the map than investigate the mountain range so close at hand.

There was no other reason. That mountain range did not feel like a good place.

Suddenly.

Xu Yang caught the scent of a carnivore. It was not a wolf's scent, and he searched through his scent memory with all his might.

A bear!

There are bears here? This smells a little different from an ordinary bear's musk. It carries a faint fragrance...

Xu Yang was completely baffled.

Wasn't that nonsense? How could a bear smell fragrant?!

Bold in skill and courage, Xu Yang's curiosity as an intelligent creature was piqued. He could not help jogging in the direction the scent drifted from.

"Rumble~~~"

Before lightning flashed, thunder had already roared. The sky seemed to be torn apart by an invisible giant hand, while dark clouds pressed down like a collapsing city.

Raindrops as large as beans began to fall, smashing viciously into the ground and splashing up clumps of mud. Rain struck the leaves with a crackling patter.

Damn it, damn it.

Xu Yang could not help lamenting inwardly. He had just been about to look for that bear, yet the rain had chosen this exact moment to come down!

Whoosh! Whoosh!

His muscles surged as he ran at full speed!

Xu Yang's sturdy body smashed through the curtain of rain, turning it into sheets of water mist!

One could not stay beneath a tree during a thunderstorm. Xu Yang strictly followed that rule, so his route avoided all trees taller than ten meters as much as possible.

Suddenly, a bolt of lightning tore across the sky.

"Crack-boom~~~"

Like the spear of a thunder god, it connected heaven and earth, striking a large tree roughly seven kilometers away from Xu Yang!

Fuck, it's for real?

Though it was quite far away, Xu Yang still jumped in fright. The might of heaven and earth was still far too overwhelming for him.

Less than two seconds later, another bolt of lightning came down.

The absurd part was that it struck the very same tree again!

Could this world have heavenly tribulations? Is this a cultivation world?!

Xu Yang stood in the rain and watched from afar.

The third bolt, the fourth...

The longer he watched, the more alarmed he became. No matter how the lightning struck, that huge tree simply would not fall!

Good grief.

Xu Yang was stunned. This was a confrontation between a living being and heaven and earth.

"Roar~~~"

Just as Xu Yang was spacing out, a roar came from the distance. It was a bear's roar!

Coming back to his senses, he carefully identified the direction and realized it was coming from the Lightning-Struck Tree. His heartbeat quickened slightly as an inexplicable urge surged through him.

A faint fragrance drifted into his nose through the rain.

Suppressing the agitation in his body that wanted to rush toward the Lightning-Struck Tree at all costs, Xu Yang felt somewhat uneasy. He was already at the Apprentice Fifth Order, so he still had this much self-control.

A fragrance spreading through the rain was highly abnormal. And the fact that it could tempt him was even more abnormal.

Should I go take a look?

Xu Yang struggled inwardly. Reason told him not to join the excitement, but in the dark, he felt that he would regret missing this...

This contradictory feeling was enough to drive a wolf mad.

I'll just take one look...

In the end, curiosity prevailed. Xu Yang found himself a reason to go.

A seven-kilometer mountain path would certainly be extremely far for a human.

But now that Xu Yang had become a wolf, it took him only about five minutes to reach the base of a cliff five hundred meters from the Lightning-Struck Tree.

This is...

Xu Yang was utterly shaken!

This was a huge tree nearly twenty meters tall. Yet what horrified Xu Yang was not its height, but the three fruits in its canopy.

He blinked hard and looked again.

There really were three fruits!

Even after being struck by more than a dozen bolts of lightning, they remained tender enough to seem ready to drip with juice! Each of the three fruits emitted a faint glow, as though inlaid with stars, standing in sharp contrast to the surrounding branches that had been scorched black by lightning.

They hung from the treetop like gemstones meticulously carved by nature, dazzling and brilliant.

Xu Yang's heartbeat accelerated. Even from five hundred meters away, he could still sense the powerful energy contained within those fruits. Not only had they not been destroyed by the lightning, they seemed to have absorbed energy from it and become even more vibrant with life.

This was the second time Xu Yang had encountered something extraordinary, but it far exceeded the shock the Killer Vine had given him before!

Licking his dry lips, Xu Yang's eyes gleamed with desire.

To refuse a gift from heaven was to invite punishment!

These three fruits might be a not small opportunity for him...

According to fantasy novels, powerful heavenly treasures like these usually have powerful guardian beasts, right?

His line of sight cautiously swept back and forth across the trunk and canopy, but he found no hidden demonic beast.

"Roar~~~~"

Suddenly, a beastly roar came from the opposite side of the Lightning-Struck Tree!

A huge brown bear sat quietly there. Its upper body emerged from behind the Lightning-Struck Tree, its gaze fixed warily on him. This brown bear was the one that had roared earlier. It was enormous, with well-developed muscles, and looked exceptionally ferocious.

Xu Yang's gaze sharpened. From this brown bear, he caught an aura unlike that of other wild beasts. Its bear musk actually carried a faint fragrance.

It was it?!

Seeing that Xu Yang made no move, the brown bear nodded in satisfaction before withdrawing its exposed body. It seemed quite pleased with Xu Yang's tact.

One bear and one wolf sat facing each other across the Lightning-Struck Tree. Of course, both remained several hundred meters away from it.

After roughly half an hour, the dark clouds gradually dispersed, and the intervals between lightning strikes grew longer and longer.

Finally, nearly a minute had passed since the last bolt of lightning.

"Roar~~~"

The brown bear was the first to rise onto its hind legs. Visible intelligent delight flashed through its bell-sized eyes.

Xu Yang copied it and stood up as well, letting out a long howl toward the sky!

"Awoo—"

As if in response, a piercing cry that could split metal and stone rang down from the sky where the dark clouds had dispersed!

"Screech—"

A golden bird with a wingspan exceeding ten meters swooped down, circling in the air roughly two hundred meters above Xu Yang and the brown bear.

Its feathers glittered with golden light, and its bearing was extraordinary.

Another extraordinary animal.

Xu Yang's heart flickered, and he immediately judged the golden bird's strength.

The three sides stood in balance.

Second by second, time passed. A trace of impatience appeared in the brown bear's eyes. After thinking briefly, it suddenly opened its mouth.

"Roar—"

However, different species could not understand one another's language...

Neither Xu Yang nor the golden bird in the sky understood what the brown bear meant.

The golden bird even mistook the brown bear's roar for provocation and responded with another shriek sharp enough to pierce eardrums!