Chapter 424 – Fishing in the Star River, Disaster Beast Descends

Within the Bloodtree Forest, the earth-shattering tremors gradually subsided.

From the perspective of the Wind King’s Wings, the spread of new greenery had ceased. Many lush, towering trees, having lost their sustaining power, rapidly withered and decayed with a series of soft “pfft” sounds.

In the blink of an eye, tree after tree vanished into the wind.

Even in areas untouched by the Treant Forest, the crimson leaves of the great trees fell one by one. The blood-red veins that had crept up the trunks began to recede, returning to the earth and dissolving into the world.

Before long, numerous blood trees started to wither, their crimson leaves carpeting the ground.

The once-impenetrably dense Bloodtree Forest, where not a sliver of sunlight could pierce through, had thinned out by nearly half after this battle. Many blood trees continued to wither steadily, and Mu Yuan estimated that the majority of them here would eventually decay completely.

However…

The crimson mist hanging over the forest would also dissipate entirely, leaving behind only faint traces of the Foul Crimson Mist.

The marks left by the Treant Forest had not completely vanished either.

The land here was rich, and some of the greened trees, though drained of vitality, had not fully withered and still stood tall, rooted firmly in the earth. In many areas, tender shoots broke through the soil—these were not the work of the treants but naturally evolving plants of the world.

“After clearing the Bloodtree Forest and implementing some management here, this area could become a first-class cultivation zone in time. Even now, rare or even excellent grade materials can be found within the Bloodtree Forest, though most carry some negative effects, making their value relatively low.”

…

In Tianyuan City, the residents paid no mind to the recent earthquake or the deafening roars that had erupted in the western part of the city.

They went about their business as usual—some heading out to the streets, others to work—with few showing any signs of panic.

Compared to the previous monster sieges, this? It was nothing.

Everyone here had experienced far grander scenes.

On the rooftop of a tavern, the Golden Grand Duke gazed toward the distant horizon, having maintained this posture for a long time.

“Grand Duke…”

The Guard Commander couldn’t help but speak up.

The Golden Grand Duke said, “The battle is over. It seems Tianyuan City has repelled the invading plant-type monsters.”

He found this outcome perfectly normal.

After all, Tianyuan City had been rooted in the Ten Directions Island Region for a long time. Having established itself so firmly, it naturally possessed the capability to resist monster overlords. It was unlikely that the city would fall just because he had arrived.

The illusion of imminent danger had stemmed mainly from the earlier ‘crimson giant mushroom,’ which appeared terrifying and eerie, sending shivers down his spine.

For Legendary Realm experts like them, destroying a single blood tree hundreds of meters tall was not difficult. Destroying a few, a dozen, or even several dozen was still manageable. But what if there were more?

In the blink of an eye earlier, hundreds of massive blood trees had sprouted.

Plant-type powerhouses, once rooted in the earth, were notoriously endless.

If an army of crimson trees were to advance toward his own Golden City, how would he handle it?

He would struggle to cope. The most effective approach would be to deal with it preemptively, preventing any strange entities from approaching his city.

As for what exactly had transpired in Tianyuan City moments ago, he couldn’t quite discern.

However, given their considerable distance, some margin of error in judgment was to be expected.”In any case, Tianyuan City’s ability to repel the overlord of this domain is good news for us as well. Otherwise, if the monsters from this domain were to march into the Shenluo Great Domain, the Gem Principality and our Golden Principality would be the first to bear the brunt.”

“However, it would be even more ideal if Tianyuan City and the monster overlord were locked in a stalemate, with Tianyuan City at a slight disadvantage.”

He did not wish for Tianyuan City to fall, but he also did not want it to become too powerful.

If Tianyuan City were at a disadvantage but still capable of holding off the enemy, the benefits their Golden Principality could reap would increase significantly.

To achieve this, he needed to thoroughly investigate the combat strength comparison between Tianyuan City and the overlord of this domain. Only then could he maximize his gains in subsequent negotiations and transactions.

The Golden Grand Duke believed that, given the current situation, Tianyuan City would need their Golden Principality.

…

“Lord, the Golden Grand Duke and his entourage have bid farewell and left our Tianyuan City.”

Shadows spread within the City Lord’s Mansion, and before anyone noticed, a graceful figure stood there.

Sophia pulled down her hood, pinched the corners of her black robe as if lifting the hem of a skirt, and gave a slight bow.

After appearing, she eagerly asked, “Shall I continue following them? It’s quite easy, caw. The two Legendary Realm experts with the Golden Grand Duke wouldn’t even notice my presence, caw.”

“Just send a few Black Crows to follow them. It doesn’t matter if they lose track, as long as the areas around Tianyuan City and Mine No. 3 remain secure.”

Around Mine No. 3, battles erupted from time to time.

Tianyuan City, however, remained peaceful, as the enemy was still far from attacking here.

Nevertheless, the Jackal Fang had once sent a Legendary Realm squad to launch a surprise attack on Tianyuan City, though it ended in failure. The Black Crow Clan and the Great Serpent Clan could also employ such diversionary tactics.

In his view, the Black Crow Clan’s methods of concealment and surprise attacks were far more sophisticated than those of the Jackal Fang.

If the Black Crow Clan were to launch a surprise attack on Tianyuan City, relying solely on the ‘Reconnaissance Skyeye’ would not be safe enough.

Tianyuan City could not afford to gamble. He had to ensure the city was 100% secure. Even a 0.01% risk, if it materialized, would spell disaster for the city.

Sophia was the second line of defense.

The Black Crow Clan excelled at concealing themselves in black mist and using Black Crows to move stealthily. Coincidentally, Sophia was also highly skilled in these areas.

However, as of now, Sophia’s crows and the Black Crow Clan’s crows had not yet confronted each other directly.

Countless invisible Black Crows flitted about inside and outside Tianyuan City, their blood-red eyes observing every passerby and everything that moved.

…

Around the same time.

Within the Black Crow Clan.

The Black Crow High Priest snorted coldly. “I never expected the Great Serpent Clan to request the Great Serpent Master to take action.” This way, after all our efforts, we’ve ended up paving the way for the Great Serpent Clan.”

An Elder consoled him, “This Tianyuan City is not easy to deal with. Having the Great Serpent intervene does make things more secure. Otherwise, relying solely on us and the Blood Tree King, we might not be able to handle Tianyuan City. Even if we could, the losses would likely be significant.”

The High Priest was well aware of this.

Otherwise, he would have fought the Great Serpent Clan for the leadership position at all costs. The Black Crow Clan had their own backer as well—Lord Night Crow!

The High Priest now had only one hope: that the human Tianyuan City would be strong enough to require the Great Serpent to personally intervene for its destruction.Otherwise, if the Bloodtree Forest’s expansion and the joint efforts of their two great clans were enough to bring down Tianyuan City, wouldn’t he have handed over the throne of the Great Domain’s ruler to the Great Serpent High Priest for nothing?

“Tianyuan City, oh Tianyuan City, you must hold on for this High Priest.”

…

Within the Great Serpent Clan.

The Great Serpent High Priest said respectfully, “By my estimation, it has been two or three hours since the Blood Tree King activated its method. By now, the Bloodtree Forest should have spread to the outskirts of Tianyuan City and is likely engaging in battle with the city.”

He wasn’t entirely clear on the specifics.

However, two or three hours ago, clan scouts had reported the emergence of tremors.

After that, the scouts lost contact.

Every single scout they had dispatched to the areas around Tianyuan City had lost contact, one after another.

“Tianyuan City’s reconnaissance methods are extremely advanced. Even the Legendary Realm expert from Jackal Fang failed in their surprise attack. It’s only natural that our Great Serpent Clan’s scouts couldn’t evade the humans’ watchful eyes.”If it were the elite scouts of the Black Crow Clan, they might have been able to bring back some information under Tianyuan City’s strict guard, but alas…”

Still, it wasn’t a major concern.

As long as he knew that the Blood Tree King had activated its special method, that was enough.

Even without seeing the scene firsthand, he could roughly estimate the situation.

“Tianyuan City is not to be underestimated. The expansion of the Bloodtree Forest alone… probably still can’t inflict substantial damage on Tianyuan City.”

“However, it’s enough to tie up Tianyuan City for a while, draw their attention, and keep them from acting freely.”

The Great Serpent High Priest said respectfully, “My lord, our plan can begin now.”

…

Tianyuan City remained calm as ever.

Outside the city, with the aid of the Reconnaissance Skyeye and Sophia’s crows, the defense corps managed to capture one, two, three, or even four scouts at regular intervals.

Scouts were caught one after another, seemingly without end.

Sophia herself caught a few minor scouts in the outer regions of the Bloodtree Forest.

At this moment,

The blood mist above the Bloodtree Forest was gradually thinning, but in the core area of the forest, at the site of the Blood Tree King’s remains, the blood mist was growing increasingly dense, as if the mist from other regions had converged here.

A condensed blood cloud was slowly forming.

Blood droplets began to fall, soon turning into a torrential downpour of blood rain.

The blood rain hit the ground, splashing up puddles everywhere. Red streams and rivers gushed and flowed, and faintly, some rare treasures began to emerge.

At the center of the blood rain’s descent stood a towering tree over a thousand meters tall.

It was none other than Tree Spirit Grandma.

By now, the other tree beings had withdrawn their consciousness, and the bodies extended through the network had long since disintegrated. Only Tree Spirit Grandma remained, using her life seed to manifest an Incarnation, as if her true self had descended and taken root in this land.

Her body had grown several hundred meters taller compared to a few hours ago.

Her leaves shimmered with specks of blood-red light, and the green foliage bore translucent crimson patterns that spread like human blood vessels.

Unlike the Blood Tree King, she did not grow countless blood-red eyes, oozing pustules, or grotesquely twisted branches.

From a distance, her changes seemed minimal.

But upon closer inspection, one could detect a hint of… eeriness.

Beneath her lush canopy, numerous blood-red fruits were hidden. These fruits were enormous and pulsed like beating hearts, as if something were being nurtured within them.Suddenly, a blood-red fruit swollen to several meters in diameter thudded to the ground.

Brownish-red arms pierced through the fruit from within, gripping the torn edges and violently ripping the entire fruit apart.

A slender figure over ten meters tall rose from the shattered fruit.

It resembled a human female, with distinct curves visible even through the mucus covering its body.

Its eyes were crimson, its hair like tangled roots, and after the mucus sloughed off, its skin revealed concentric blood-red patterns resembling tree rings.

Its fingers were sharp as whittled wooden spikes, while budding wood sprouts spread across its back, gradually forming a pair of brownish-red wings.

「Bloodwood Nymph」

「Note ①: A mutated form of Forest Guardians, shedding their previous cumbersome bodies to possess high mobility and flight capability while retaining formidable strength and resilience.」

「Note ②: Born from Tree Spirit Grandma’s absorption of blood essence, Bloodwood Nymphs exhibit superior potential and permanent existence.」

「Note ③: Compared to Forest Guardians, Bloodwood Nymphs have extremely poor absorption efficiency for terrestrial and vitality energies, excelling only in absorbing flesh and blood. They also develop side effects like bloodlust.」

The thousand-meter-tall tree remained rooted, continuously absorbing nature’s bounty.

Its evolution was not yet complete.

Meanwhile, the war intensified.

Most of Tianyuan City’s outposts and mines had strategically withdrawn, leaving only Mine No. 3, Wolfhead Mountain Fortress, along with the Soul Shrine and Southern Mine—two outposts in close proximity to the city.

The feline, firelion, avian, and multi-limbed tribes had retreated to Mine No. 3 at maximum speed.

Only one external outpost remained for both the elves and giants.

These strongholds now faced relentless assaults from monster tides.

At this stage, Legendary Realm monsters appeared less frequently, having lost the element of surprise, yet the monster tides grew increasingly ferocious.

Wave after wave surged past Outpost No. 3, advancing southward.

The fastest-moving tide had already reached Wolfhead Mountain Fortress.

Wolfhead Mountain Fortress commenced combat.

However, neither Outpost No. 3 nor Wolfhead Mountain Fortress felt pressured by these tides. Without Legendary Realm monsters or war engines charging forth, no amount of waves could breach the defenses—they would inevitably be worn down over time.

“But my intuition tells me the enemy is scheming something in the shadows.”

“Isloria, any clues yet?”

Mu Yuan didn’t ask directly, instead sending a non-intrusive message.

At that moment, Isloria was casting spells within the Epic Mage Tower.

Kneeling on a hexagram-engraved platform, her star-adorned skirt spilling across the floor, she held a fishing rod-like staff from whose tip dangled a shimmering stardust pendant, swaying gently.

Before her floated a translucent, vast starry river, celestial bodies drifting along mysterious trajectories.

The stardust pendant hanging from her staff dipped slightly into this cosmic flow.

She could see countless star fragments dancing within.

The fragments were innumerable, each tracing faint trails that crisscrossed into a dense, chaotic web, making it nearly impossible to discern which thread held the destined revelation she sought.Isloria had been sitting alone here for several hours.

She remained as still as a stone sculpture, yet the starlight pendant swayed continuously without any wind.

At a certain moment, a flash of azure meteor suddenly appeared in Isloria’s eyes.

She began to murmur like a jammed old radio.

“Calamity… from the earth… serpent’s shell… the end…”

She wasn’t performing divination or prophecy.

She never believed in prophecies; what she sought was the mechanism of fate. Through fate deduction, she aimed to discover and seize the enemy’s weaknesses.

In this process, the Blood Tree King, the Bloodtree Forest, scouts from the Great Serpent Clan and Black Crow Clan, and monster legends all served as her preliminary information sources.

As information gradually accumulated, the chaotic and disordered web in her eyes became increasingly clear.

“Underground.”

“Very close now! Only a few hundred kilometers away!The enemy also possessed anti-divination measures, preventing Isloria from precise positioning.

At most, she could grasp this thread of fate to perform slight interference, though she herself didn’t know whether this interference would be effective.

However, by this point the range had been significantly narrowed.

Mu Yuan ordered the roots of the Treant Forest to spread underground as a protective measure.

The Black Crow took off, rapidly scouting the target area.

The Reconnaissance Skyeye enveloped the surrounding twenty kilometers of the target region, leaving nothing hidden.

Dolai flew out from Mine No. 3 and threw the Space-Tearing Seal, extending its space-rending power underground.

Simultaneously,

In the Great Serpent Clan, the High Priest frowned. “Our weapon can no longer advance. It gets detected no matter which direction it takes.”

An Elder said, “At this distance, the weapon is already quite close to Tianyuan City. Why not break through the ground and advance directly? It might reach Tianyuan City in just over ten minutes. The humans won’t have time to find countermeasures.”

The High Priest thought for a moment and nodded. “You’re right. Let’s do that. Moving underground is indeed too slow.”

East of Wolfhead Mountain Fortress, approximately over a hundred kilometers away.

“BOOM——!!!”

The earth shook violently, the entire ground surface undulating like waves.

A mountain peak suddenly exploded.

Massive rocks went flying, dust soaring into the sky.

Amid the billowing dust, a giant serpent’s shadow slowly emerged.

At first glance, this giant serpent shadow didn’t seem much different from previous giant serpent war weapons – just more ferocious, more refined, more vivid.

But upon closer inspection, one could see that the giant serpent emerging from the shattered mountain…

was enormously, tremendously huge.

The Monster Overlord’s war weapons came in several specifications levels.

Twenty-meter class, forty-meter class, sixty-meter class.

And the reserve eighty-meter class and hundred-meter class.

But now, the appearing giant serpent was as massive as a mountain range, with many rolling hills appearing as small as toy rockeries beside it.

The giant serpent began advancing while spewing clouds and mist.

Wherever it passed, rivers were cut off and mountains collapsed.

It moved in a straight line, treating everything before it as nonexistent.

Such a super-giant war weapon had already transcended the category of ordinary weapons.

Mu Yuan had seen information about such terrifying weapons in the materials distributed by the Pioneer Group.

They had an alternative name.

—Calamity Beasts.

Meaning that wherever they appeared, disaster followed.

(End of Chapter)