"If someone really planted it, then surely whoever did it couldn't have been someone from this world?"
Xia Le smiled. "You guessed right."
"That person really wasn't native to this world."
Madara narrowed his eyes slightly, as though he had guessed something.
But he didn't care. Instead, he burst out laughing.
"What do those legends have to do with us?"
"All I know is that if you have no other tricks left, you're going to lose here today!"
"And our contest will end right here!"
As his words fell, Madara's expression abruptly turned cold, and he slammed his hands together.
The God Tree behind him shuddered. Thick branches sprouted from it, rapidly extending toward Xia Le.
Xia Le's pupils contracted, and he darted aside, but the branches were incredibly fast. In an instant, they forked again, becoming thousands of branches that formed a net.
Whoosh!
Almost instantly, they surrounded him on every side.
Then they jerked tight, wrapping Xia Le up like a tightly bound parcel.
Immediately afterward, a tremendous suction surged through them, as though trying to devour all the energy in his body.
"So this is the God Tree's power?"
Xia Le murmured.
Without question, Madara had fully summoned the God Tree. Although this wasn't the actual tree itself, it possessed the same power.
At that moment, even the natural energy inside his body was being rapidly devoured.
Of course, it was being drained far more slowly than chakra.
The frightening thing was that the more energy the God Tree absorbed, the stronger it became.
"Honestly!"
Soon, Xia Le began to laugh.
Veins bulged along his arms as his strength erupted. He forced the branches binding him apart, then clapped his palms together.
"Sage Art: Almighty Push!"
A savage repulsive force spread outward, blasting the surrounding branches apart