The tremor was slight, yet it made everyone's heart skip a beat.
Immediately afterward, an immensely deep boom came from the distant sea of trees.
The sound shook their very organs.
Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked in that direction.
Then they saw it.
At the center of that sea of trees, an ancient tree so enormous that words could not describe it was slowly moving.
Its trunk was as thick as a mountain, and its crown occupied almost half the sky.
The walls of trees that had trapped them earlier were mere trifles growing from its roots.
And now, one of its branches was extending.
As thick as a pillar holding up the heavens, the branch slowly emerged from the crown and reached toward them.
It seemed to move slowly, but every inch it extended spanned hundreds or thousands of meters.
That slowness was an illusion, a visual deception caused by its immense size.
What was even more horrifying lay beneath the ground.
Countless roots raced madly underground, making the earth rise and fall like waves.
Wherever those roots reached, they plunged deep, leaving some kind of mark.
And with every mark they planted, the sky over that area visibly darkened a little, and the air grew thick and cold.
"It's expanding its domain."
Cao Xianming's voice came over the radio. "Everywhere those roots sink in will become part of its Tree Sea Domain."
"It wants to use this opportunity to expand its domain and trap us inside again."
That was not even the most terrifying part.
The most terrifying part was what Cao Xianming said next. "It's locking onto us."
"This tree seems particularly fixated on us. It's pursuing us with almost complete disregard for the cost."
Those words pierced everyone's heart.
Why?
Why was that