Chapter 286: Adding Fuel to the Fire

The Poison Shells had been modified by Kamiyu, with a Delayed Implosion Bullet glued onto each one using 502 adhesive.

As a Magic Bullet, the Delayed Implosion Bullet could be used either as an item or as a Skill. It could function as a landmine or a timed bomb.

Now, Kamiyu remotely manipulated the Delayed Implosion Bullets, detonating them to set off the Poison Shells.

The thousands of Poison Shells encircling the Fear Emperor Tree, along with the 200 Poison Shells inside the Fear Emperor Tree’s hollow, exploded simultaneously.

A deep, overlapping echo of “BOOM!” reverberated as the highly toxic liquid from the exploding Poison Shells scattered across the entire land.

Environmentalists might accuse Kamiyu of polluting the environment? Kamiyu was purifying the world.

Just one drop, one milliliter, of the toxic substance inside a Poison Shell could inflict an abnormal status on a level 48 Dungeon Boss Aberrant Beast. Each Poison Shell contained 1000 milliliters of the toxic substance. Now, triggered by the Delayed Implosion Bullets acting as detonators, they tormented the Fear Emperor to the brink of death.

Kamiyu never thought that spending one or two thousand Poison Shells could destroy the Fear Emperor. During the previous battle against the three hundred thousand Fruit Ability Users, the Artillery Position had already fired at least tens of thousands of Poison Shells, thoroughly humiliating the Fear Emperor.

The main purpose of this operation was to humiliate the Fear Emperor and shatter its illusion of revival. You want to revive? Even before reviving, Kamiyu was tormenting it to the point of agony. And after reviving? She would torture it even more, making its existence worse than death.

However, Kamiyu did not yet know that Mephisto had prophesied that if her operation succeeded, it would completely cut off the Fear Emperor’s opportunity to increase its power. This was because Kamiyu was poisoning the roots of the Fear Emperor Tree, which was fundamentally different from the previous indiscriminate bombardment.

The toxic substance continuously seeped into the soil, melting any Tree Roots it touched, like a terrifying mutated virus, completely destroying all of the Fear Emperor’s roots.

The poison kept seeping, continuously rotting the roots of the Fear Emperor Tree. Now, the offensive and defensive positions had reversed. The longer time dragged on, the more advantageous it was for Kamiyu. Already, 80% of the roots had been contaminated by the poison.

Kamiyu could not see the roots; she only saw the surface world. With her naked eye, she witnessed the dense, robust Tree Canopy begin to shrink. The originally lush branches and leaves of the canopy started turning yellow and black, withering and falling. The Fear Emperor, like someone losing all their hair overnight, instantly became Baldy.

And this was happening in the core area, the Tree Trunk region with the densest energy. In other parts of the Tree Realm, far from the core, which originally blocked out the sky, sunlight began to break through. Many people grinding in Instance Dungeons, seeing sunlight and shadows appear on the ground, initially thought it was dawn. Looking up, they realized branches and leaves were starting to fall.

A team member grinding in a dungeon said, “The leaves are falling. Could it be that Lady Kamiyu has succeeded?”

“What ‘could it be’? It looks like success,” another member stated with certainty.

“That’s great. Let’s speed up our dungeon grinding and go back to celebrate properly with Lady Kamiyu,” the Captain said.

“Hell yeah.”

Meanwhile, inside the Fear Emperor Tree Hollow, the situation was even more disastrous due to Kamiyu’s Poison Shells. If not for his Golden Body Skill, Jack would have likely been instantly killed by the poison the moment it hit.

The surrounding wood was pitted and corroded by the venom, emitting a sour, rotting stench.

Jack heard the Fear Emperor’s curses and resentful cries: “I’ll kill you, Kamiyu,” “Kamiyu, I’ll never let you go, even in death,” “Gwah, it hurts, it hurts so much, what kind of poison is this,” “I can’t breathe,” “I’m in agony.”

Jack remarked, “Good thing I drank the Mind-Steadying Potion beforehand, or I’d really be driven mad by these echoes of hatred.”

Meanwhile, Mephisto excitedly said, “Such delicious hatred, I’m going to feast now, hehehehe hahahaha. Although I can’t consume the full hatred of the tens-of-millions tier, tasting the high-quality, emperor-level hatred is still quite satisfying. Emperor-level hatred—this feeling is truly delicious.”

“Keep going, keep attacking it. It’s paralyzed now and can’t withstand your attacks. Go and strike it, so I can absorb more hatred.” Having tasted the sweetness, Mephisto urged Jack to attack the Fear Emperor.

Jack pondered whether to heed Mephisto’s words. The Poison Shell could only paralyze the Fear Emperor, putting it in an abnormal state. Without further attacks, they couldn’t continue weakening it. This time, Mephisto made sense. Even if he was being manipulated, Jack wouldn’t regret it. At this moment, he could do more for Kamiyu.

So, like a madman, Jack wildly swung his fists inside the Fear Emperor’s chamber, using fire attribute attacks that were especially effective against wood—the Endless Flame Gauntlets—to ramp up the pressure on the Fear Emperor.

“Kyah!” Jack shouted as he threw punches. “Ha, haha, ha.” He even swung his fists rhythmically, each strike delivering a fire attribute attack and accumulating fire attribute damage, preparing for the Hellfire Fist.

Poisoned and burned—it couldn’t get any better.

“Gwah,” “Wah-oh-oh-oh,” “It’s hot, so hot, it’s burning me to death.” Compared to poison attacks, the Fear Emperor feared fire attribute attacks even more, causing the entire tree to tremble.

If Mephisto could absorb hatred, then Kamiyu, lying on the ground, could also absorb Hatred Power. Her octahedral crystal glowed and heated up once again, absorbing the wails and hatred emanating from underground.

“Wah, so scary.” Kamiyu was frightened by the immense Hatred Power and quickly took out her necklace crystal, letting it float freely in the air.

The Hatred Power was so strong that Kamiyu didn’t dare touch it directly, allowing the octahedral crystal to hover in the air. Beams of orange swirling light shot up from the ground, all converging into the octahedral crystal.

Kamiyu wasn’t just watching the show either. Her mischievous side resurfaced as she pulled out the Barrett Chaos Voice, calculated the angle, and inserted the muzzle into the soft soil.

“This soil is too hard; let’s loosen the Fear Emperor’s bones,” Kamiyu spouted nonsense. Since when do trees have bones?

Kamiyu intended to use the Super-Phase Energy Cannon to sever the Fear Emperor’s roots. She steadied the Barrett Sniper Rifle—this time, no aiming was needed; she just had to pull the trigger.

Load: Thunderstorm Bullet. Select: Frenzied Lightning Arrow. Stack: Armor-Piercing Bullet.

Select Core Skill: Super-Phase Energy Cannon.

A powerful beam of electro-optical particle cannon shot diagonally into the earth. Within its range, everything melted—soil, tree roots, and unknown substances.

A power multiplier of over 3000 times cannot be moved, but one of over 1000 times can. For the first time, Kamiyu felt the benefit of having lower power.

“Next, start running.” Kamiyu now stacked the Rogue profession, with the Skill Fruit allowing simultaneous use of professions.

To cut the grass, one must remove the roots. Kamiyu excitedly imagined what would happen to a tree without roots.