The Star Absorbing Tree

"Up the tree!"

Gu Qijue, who had been prepared for this, let out a long roar. The Twin Dragons behind him, crackling with thunder, shot through the air and swept across the area in an instant, shredding every branch and tendril blocking their way up. Then they carried everyone onto the true towering giant tree at the fastest speed they could manage.

Gu Qijue guessed that once they climbed the Star Tree, they might not be attacked.

With so many Star Fruits in sight, it was worth taking the risk.

His instincts told him so.

These fruits might be the key to survival.

And sure enough.

After he led everyone up the tree, the branches stopped attacking them.

Awoo! Roar, roar, roar—

In the blink of an eye, just as Gu Qijue and the others climbed onto the Star Tree, the endless monsters gathered outside threw back their heads and howled. Like a torrent of steel, they rumbled toward the tree.

Thwack—

But more than a hundred thousand sharp branches burst from the trunk, dancing like demons. They stabbed, strangled, and swept through the horde. Any monster struck by a branch turned into a dried corpse in an instant.

Even knowing the Star Tree would attack them, the endless Mutated Creatures, already devoid of reason, charged forward with bloodshot eyes, one after another, only to be slaughtered.

Whoosh! Whoosh—

Faced with the branches' attacks, the Aberrant Creatures, Evil Seed-tier creatures, and Calamity-tier creatures had little trouble breaking through and climbing onto the Star Tree. They pulled out their sacks at top speed and began picking fruit.

Thump, thump, thump—

As batch after batch of Mutated Creatures were sucked dry, the heartbeat coming from inside the Star Tree grew loud enough for everyone to hear, not just Gu Qijue.

Below Evil Seed-tier, the Mutated Creatures had all lost their reason under the stimulation of the fruit's overwhelming fragrance. Like a rising tide, they charged at the Star Tree, only to be slaughtered and drained dry.

The bodies soon piled up like mountains.

One meter, two meters, three meters, four meters, ten meters—

The piles of dried corpses around the Star Tree were horrifying beyond words.

Those who managed to break through were almost all Evil Seed-tier creatures, Calamity-tier creatures, or Aberrant Creatures.

"Pick the fruit quickly! This tree is strange. Don't put the fruit in your sacks—throw it all to me!"

After climbing the tree, Gu Qijue rushed straight toward the branch with the most fruit and began frantically collecting it into the space between his brows.

Hearing him, everyone tossed aside their sacks without hesitation. Following his instructions, they picked the fruit and hurled it toward him with all their strength.

And so, this scene unfolded.

Every fruit that came near Gu Qijue vanished strangely.

The Aberrant Creatures, Evil Seeds, and Calamity-tier creatures picking fruit nearby gaped in astonishment. Their sacks were already full, yet they had collected fewer than a hundred fruits each.

"Black Dragon Emperor, want to work together?"

"Black Dragon Emperor, I'm sure you've noticed how strange this tree is. It could become our greatest threat. Shall we cooperate?"

"Black Dragon Emperor, I'm willing to follow you. This tree gives me a sense of utter dread."

They, too, could feel how strange the tree beneath their feet was. Ever since climbing it, they had felt as though an immensely evil eye were watching them like prey.

Seeing Gu Qijue collect Star Fruits without limit had made them eager to join him.

At that moment, the bloodbath unfolding in the center of Yun City was being broadcast live across the country and the world.

"My god! Do those monsters charging in like a tidal wave really not fear death?"

"Good grief! They charge in and get cut down in waves. Is that tree helping us humans clear the monsters from Star Blue Continent?"

"That tree is terrifying! My god, the Dragon Person up there is so powerful. How is he making the nearby fruits vanish out of thin air?"

"Good heavens! Those monsters are just throwing their lives away! What kind of tree is that?"

The Hidden Dragon Empire's livestream had more than seven million viewers, while the World United Network's livestream had over five million viewers from abroad.

Everyone watching was stunned and horrified by the images on screen.

They all wondered whether the tree was helping humanity clear the Mutated Creatures from the land.

They had no idea that this kind of tree was humanity's greatest threat of extinction.

The thumping heartbeat grew louder and louder until, at last, it resounded across the world like the pounding of war drums.

Gu Qijue's heart raced as he listened. His instincts told him that if he didn't leave soon, his life would be in danger.

But he couldn't bring himself to leave.

He had only picked thirty or forty thousand fruits. It wasn't enough.

"Throw the fruits you've picked to me, too! This tree makes me feel like disaster is about to strike. We have to pick them all as quickly as possible!"

Still shaken, Gu Qijue answered the Aberrant Creatures and Mutated Creatures who had asked to work with him.

"Good! We'll leave them all in your hands."

At his words, hundreds and even thousands of Aberrant Creatures and Mutated Creatures tossed their sacks toward Gu Qijue, then picked fruit as quickly as they could and threw it to him.

An overwhelming sense of urgency hung over everyone, impossible to shake.

There were four or five thousand people on the tree. Though they were monsters, their picking was extremely efficient.

The fruits in the space between Gu Qijue's brows kept piling up...

Seventy thousand... eighty thousand, ninety thousand, a hundred thousand, a hundred and ten thousand, a hundred and twenty thousand...

On the ground, the dried monster corpses had piled up thirty or forty meters high.

But endless monsters were still surging forward.

Like countless addicts who hadn't touched drugs in ages, suddenly faced with a stash.

It was even worse than that.

Even Gu Qijue, frantically collecting fruit on the tree, couldn't help feeling shaken.

In just a few minutes, several million Mutated Creatures had been drained dry...

What was this tree trying to do?

The thunderous heartbeat in his ears boomed like war drums across a battlefield, echoing throughout the world.

Gu Qijue devoured the Star Fruits as he collected them into the space between his brows.

The effects of these Star Fruits were nothing like the Mutated Fruits from yesterday.

One fruit was worth dozens or even hundreds of Mutated Fruits.

Deep in the Yun River.

Old Turtle stood on the surface of the water, repeatedly using his shell to divine the future.

A moment later, he spat out a mouthful of blood.

Horrified, he cried, "Good heavens, the Star Absorbing Tree! It's the Star Absorbing Tree... If we can't destroy them, the life force of this planet will eventually be drained away!!!"

He didn't know how he had divined that it was the Star Absorbing Tree. It was a kind of ancestral memory he had gained after evolving.

"Let me divine again and see who can stop the Star Absorbing Tree from spreading across this planet!"

Old Turtle burned his essence blood once more to divine and make his prediction.

A moment later, he spat out another mouthful of blood, then rushed toward Jianglin City, the city next to Yun City.

He had divined the answer: the one on this planet who could stop the Star Absorbing Tree from destroying Star Blue Continent was in Jianglin City.

As its name suggested, the Star Absorbing Tree fed on the life force of stars.

When a planet's life force ran out, it would become a dead star.

At that time, Star Absorbing Trees had appeared in other cities across the Hidden Dragon Empire, too. They were each only six or seven hundred meters tall, and had also drawn countless monsters to be slaughtered.

But compared with the one in Yun City, they were nothing.