Chapter 126. Unstoppable World Tree.

The several Level 10s to 19s in the surroundings got active as soon as Liu Shu's aura skyrocketed. While the <Mind Echo> sent their brains into a daze, they could recover fast enough to see their leader being smacked flying by an ethereal branch. 

The shock was not over as Liu Shu's voice boomed out in the surroundings as she activated the <Living Wood City> skill.

Her buildings, which still had people inside because there were high levels, became alive and active. 

A Level 12 grabbed her head, looked around, and asked. "Hurian! W-What happened? Who was the one who made such a powerful wide-area mental attack?" The woman was inside one of Liu Shu's houses when she asked her partner the question.

Looking back, her eyes widened when she saw her Level 8 partner flat on the floor, his eyes bleeding and his chest not moving. He was clearly dead. "HURIAN!" 

She wanted to rush over when Liu Shu's declaration reached her. "The World Tree!?" Looking between the man and the door, the woman decided to go outside to check things out. However, it was too late.

She opened the door and walked out, seeing the complete chaos going on outside. But as soon as she did so, a vine shot out from inside the house, latching on around her waist. "Huh?"

Then, the vines pulled her body inside with terrifying strength. "Ahhh!" 

While she was Level 12, higher than the house's Level 10, the house was very high-tier. After Liu Shu leveled up and completed her <Energy Cycle>, the structures evolved with her. Additionally, their wood had some of Liu Shu's bark properties, making their sturdiness incredible. 

So, once the vine latched around the woman's waist, escaping was not possible. "W-Wait! HELP! GUH!?"

Several vines and roots coiled around her neck, squeezing and blocking her airway and blood circulation. The Level 12 struggled, but she was too immobilized to do anything. Her face became redder and swollen, her vision blurred, and her heart and mind were messy and full of fear. 

Eventually, her body stopped struggling, and she fainted, being killed by the house shortly after. 

Events similar to this one occurred all over the town as the entire city became a giant living organism following Liu Shu's orders to massacre everyone. 

Liu Shu ignored all the system messages that popped into her vision as she carried on her own massacre with her skill. "DIE!" 

<Weeping Willow's Aether Barrage> was unleashed, and Liu Shu summoned several phantasmal branches around her. Their range was 120 meters, more than enough to attack everything on the inner side of the town.

The group of Level 10+ people rushed forward en masse. There were around 110 Level 10+ people in the town, while a large part of the remaining 40 had returned to the Void Witherwood main settlement to take care of it. 

Liu Shu's first <Mind Echo> attack had not managed to kill a single Level 10+. However, it left most of them disoriented. Only Level 15 and above could quickly snap out of their daze.

Therefore, of the 110, more than 25 of them who remained inside or near Liu Shu's houses were instantly killed as soon as the World Tree activated the <Living Wood City> skill.

Then, of the remaining 85, around 68 were close-ranged specialists, while 17 were long-ranged. 

Aeliana, one of Malachai's closest aids, shouted. "Attack the World Tree! Be careful with those see-through branches. They were strong enough to send Leader flying, so don't greet them frontally!"

Liu Shu saw the attacks coming her way, but she completely ignored them and focused on the ones closing in. 

BANG!

[-120]

BANG!

[-90]

BANG!

[-113]

BANG!

[-50]

The projectiles of different attributes exploded against her trunk, creating small holes. Each attack shaved off around 100 Phoer Body Shards. With her 103,000 Phoer Body Shards, they would need to land a few hundred more to make her feel it. 

"YOU DARE COME INTO MY DOMAIN!? UNWORTHY OF LIFE!"

Her branches swung at everyone within 120 meters, ripping the air apart with the power they carried.

"WEAK!"

BOOM! 

[-21,540]! 

A Level 16 man had half of his bones instantly broken as he spun backward. 

"UNWORTHY OF LIFE!"

BOOM! 

[-18,540]! 

A Level 14 woman's legs were ripped off as the branch swept horizontally. 

"PATHETIC BEINGS!"

BOOM! 

[-24,730]! 

Another Level 14 woman's head exploded in a shower of gore, instantly being slaughtered. 

"DIE!"

BOOM! 

[-21,540]! 

The Level 15 man's waist was broken together with the spine, paralyzing his body from the waist down.

"ALL OF YOU DIE!"

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! 

Aeliana's face paled when seeing the results of the World Tree's attacks. It felt like a giant was swatting flies that were nothing but an annoyance. 'A-Are all World Trees this insane!?' 

Her branches moved around in blurs, and each time they landed on a person who was trying to close the distance between them, a burst of blood would occur, followed by someone being flung away, flying like an insect. 

The World Tree's almost 700 Physique Points were unstoppable. Even Malachai had around 300 Physique points, so the rest who hadn't even reached the Level 20 sub-cycle were much weaker. 

"Don't go alone! Go in groups and defend against the attack with your combined strength!" While Aeiliana shouted orders, she looked toward the direction Malachai flew to and saw him standing up with an ugly expression. "Leader!" 

'At least the leader could resist the World Tree's attacks!'

But right as her face brightened and that thought crossed her mind, Malachai coughed a few times, spitting blood with each cough. 

If before she was slightly pale, now Aeliana felt like all her blood was draining from her face. 'IMPOSSIBLE! One attack from a Level 10 is making a Level 20 spit blood!?' 

Malachai looked toward the World Tree with a twisted expression. "Since you've chosen to die young, then do so. Your materials are good enough for compensation!"

He took out a scroll with runes inscribed and threw it upward. The scroll was consumed, and Malachai chanted. "BURN, WORLD TREE! <Scorched Earth Scroll>!" 

Liu Shu's senses became alert as she looked in Malachai's direction and saw a massive fireball appearing over there. "<Weeping Willow Aether Barrage>!" 

Instead of the close-range attack, she activated the long-range attacking method of the skill. Her Aether Mana and Anima Energy were consumed in the thousands, creating a dozen bluish thorns around her canopy. 

Then, as the fireball the size of a large carriage flew at her, the dozen 50-centimeter-long aether thorns streaked across the air and impacted against it. 

BOOM! 

A massive fire wave continued forward after the attack exploded, engulfing the World Tree in red flames. 

"AHHH!" 

[-500], [-500], [-500], [-500], [-500], [-500], [-500], [-500], [-500]... 

<Mind Echo> activated with Liu Shu's scream of pain, sending another wave outward that slammed into everyone's souls like a hammer. This time, it managed to kill all the people who had barely survived her previous attacks and those who were being attacked by her city. 

Malachai held his forehead out of pain for a few moments and then shouted. "ATTACK!" 

The remaining 40 or so people moved forward and aimed their weapons at the burning World Tree.

Meanwhile, Liu Shu was in extreme pain. Her entire trunk and canopy had caught fire, making her body constantly burn. 'It hurts! It hurts! It hurts! It hurts! It hurts!' 

Yet, it wasn't fear that consumed her mind but pure, unadulterated anger. 

"IT HURTS!"

With a shrill scream that felt like it came from deep within her soul, Liu Shu's aura exploded outward. 

The 40 people who had taken advantage and were approaching while Liu Shu burned felt a terrifying premonition and looked upward. 

From the flaming canopy, more than ten phantasmal branches thicker than ever before appeared, parting the flames from the air pressure they carried with them. 

The ten people who were targeted couldn't even mutter anything before the branches slammed at them from the sky. 

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! 

Malachai couldn't believe it. 'How can she react!? That scroll had a <Second Cycle E+ Tier> spell!' 

Liu Shu's Phoer Body Shards were at around 75,000 and fell around 500 points per second. 

Nevertheless, consumed by wrath, Liu Shu didn't even care as she swung her phantasmal and physical branches. 

BANG! BANG! BANG! 

The branches attacked everyone in the surroundings without caring about anything, leaving flaming trails behind them. The crazed and chaotic attacks constantly took one life after another. 

Aeiliana and the rest of the long-ranged attackers saw the same Aether Mana Thorns appearing in the smoke rising from the burning canopy. Their stomachs sunk somewhat, and Aeliana shouted, "DODGE!" 

All of them moved, but the thorns homed in on them, piercing through the air and impaling 9 out of the 17 long-ranged people. 

The nearly 10-centimeter holes in their chests were a death sentence. 

Aeiliana, who managed to dodge, was trembling in fear as she looked back at the flaming World Tree. 'Sacred?'

Aeiliana saw another wave of thorns coming her way, and she screamed a final lament. "MONSTER! YOU ARE A MONSTER, WORL-"

STAB!

Her head was thrown backward as the thorn pierced through her forehead, and an instant later, her vision went black forever. 

Malachai finally reached the World Tree's trunk again and released his most powerful attack, ignoring the flames that burned his skin. His face, accompanied by a maniacal laugh, was twisted in a smile. "LET'S DIE TOGETHER, WORLD TREE!" 

Liu Shu felt the two daggers deeply sinking into her trunk and sending a violent wave of energy through her body.

BANG! 

[-9,840]

With an explosive sound, a large part of her Phoer Body Shards were sliced off. However, it was far from enough to finish her off. Liu Shu had gained a natural 56% Physical resistance at Level 10, which made her body beyond sturdy. 

Malachai, who saw the damage number he inflicted, felt his smile cracking, followed by a pain that spread all around his body and the world shifting around him. 

BANG!

Liu Shu's branches struck him, cratering him into the earth 20 meters away. Then, the Sylvanium, Cognium, and Celestium branches fell like an executioner's blade from the sky. 

Malachai looked up while the sky was darkened by the falling branches and blanked out, his last thoughts being. 'I… lost?'

"DIE!" 

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! 

[Congratulations on defeating <Ceperet 20 Human Level (E Rank)>. You've gained 230 Experience Points.]

After seeing Malachai fail to take down Liu Shu, the remaining people wanted to flee. However, they were not fast enough. Moreover, with the <Living Wood City> active, those who managed to get away from Liu Shu's branch range were met with hungry creatures. 

On Liu Shu's side, the fire engulfing her stopped gradually as her sap acted like an anti-flammable substance. With her leaves and wood carbonized, Liu Shu eventually managed to snuff out the fire. 

However, her Phoer Body Shards were dangerously close to hitting zero.

Phoer Body Shards: 7,631/103,799

Feeling exhausted, Liu Shu had trouble staying awake, so she went to sleep while keeping herself alert in case anyone arrived. 'So… tired…' 

Her senses extended outward, and then, her conscience was swallowed by the darkness.

When Ignatia and the rest came outside, what they saw almost broke their hearts. The World Tree, once full of life and adorned with exuberant branches and flowers in its canopy, was now black, looking like a dying tree. 

Flor's heart twisted in pain, and as tears streamed down her face, she whispered. "Thank you, Liu Shu. I love you, little one. Now, rest. We will wait for you to awaken."