Sword Shatters Stars

Chapter 104 How did they manage to find me?

The giant tree, tens of meters tall, has dense foliage like a canopy.

It grows alone in a flat grassland.

That is indeed a bit strange.

Fang Yuan always responds to even the most whimsical but serious questions.

He looked at the barren ground around the tree and speculated:
"The tree is huge with extensive roots. It monopolizes all the nutrients in the surrounding area, and grass cannot survive."

"How strange, a lone tree, yet it's grown so big."

I casually surveyed the lush foliage, but saw no fruit, only a dark green trunk and a tree full of red leaves.

While twisting her hair, Zhao Youyue tilted her head to examine the branches and leaves, and said:

"Maybe it's a mutated plant beast that feeds on passing creatures?"

"Ha! It's doomed, it's been seen through!" He laughed heartily.

No sooner had he finished speaking than numerous roots suddenly sprouted from the ground!
Suddenly, the lush foliage fell down!
The tendrils, like whiskers, all came to life, coiling around Lin Xiufeng and his group's bodies, heads, faces, legs, and feet like serpents!

The roots that suddenly sprouted from the ground caught Lin Xiufeng and the others off guard, and as they lost control of their bodies, they were entangled by the thick roots!

The fallen leaves and tendrils entwined layer upon layer!
Accompanying this was a very rough, furious voice.

How did you find me?!

Zhao Youyue and the willful man's head and face were entangled and tightly bound by roots, making it impossible for them to speak.

Only the areas protected by armor felt somewhat better.

However, as the coils tightened, the armor made from the tiger-dragon scales shrank and deformed!
Lin Xiufeng and her group really wanted to protest, they were just saying it casually!

I just said it offhand!

How could it have come true?
Lin Xiufeng reacted immediately, channeling his Heavenly Martial Power throughout his body, and silently chanted:
'Break it off!'

In an instant, he exerted all his strength!
Unexpectedly, the entangled tree roots loosened, but immediately poured in even stronger force, tightening their grip on Lin Xiufeng even more!
The deformed armor looked like it was about to break the bones!

The giant tree-mutated beast was still roaring excitedly:

"How did you discover my disguise! Tell me! Tell me now—"

Lin Xiufeng and his group were all in pain from being strangled and unable to speak.

Suddenly, Lin Qiru spoke up: "If you want us to talk, then don't tie us up so tightly!"

The group of people were all speechless, and were secretly surprised that Lin Qiru could still speak.

"Oh right!" The giant tree-mutant beast actually relaxed a little, and then considerately asked, "Can you talk now?"

After a long while, there was no sound.

The giant tree-like mutated beast roared, "Why aren't you saying anything?!"

Lin Qiru said with difficulty:
"That's still too tight; they still can't speak."

"Oh, right!" The giant tree-mutant beast relaxed again, then asked, "Can you talk now?"

There was no response, so the giant tree relaxed its grip once more.

"Speak up! Even if we loosen the ropes, we can't hold you all down! Don't try to fool me!"

Lin Xiufeng knew it was impossible to loosen the restrictions any further, so she feigned weakness and said:

"Hey, sacred tree, you almost strangled us to death! We've just been freed, can't we catch our breath?"

Zhao Youyue quickly replied:

"Yeah, yeah! You're so powerful, we wouldn't dare lie to you even if we had a hundred lives!"

"Hmph! Humans are all cunning! I've been fooled before, and I will never trust you!" The giant tree mutated beast said firmly.

Lin Xiufeng said, "Divine Tree, you should know that humans are a mix of good and bad, with different personalities. Just like mutated beasts, some eat meat, some eat vegetables, they're not all the same!"

“…Oh right.” The giant tree-mutant beast suddenly remembered that the purpose of letting go wasn’t to talk about this, and immediately asked angrily, “How did you discover my disguise? Tell me!”

How could Lin Xiufeng dare to say it was a coincidence?
He'll be strangled to death soon.

Even if you make up an excuse, you'll still get strangled.

"Divine Tree! We are your believers! We have traveled thousands of miles to find you. Others call you a tree demon, a mutated beast, but in our eyes you are the embodiment of the power of heaven and earth, representing justice, the child of the earth!" "Why do you treat your believers this way! Are we not devout enough?"

"Huh? Where have you heard of me?"

The giant tree was startled, searched its memory, and suddenly cried out:
"I know, I know! It's that despicable liar! He ran away, and he told you, didn't he? You know him, so you deserve to die!"

"He's dead!" Lin Xiufeng shouted, fearing that if he hesitated any longer, he wouldn't have a chance to speak.

"Huh? That conman is dead? How did he die?"

The giant tree was very curious, probably eager to know the fate of its long-held enemy.

"He tried to scam us, but a kind person exposed him. A large group of people rushed up and beat him to death, leaving him unrecognizable and a pile of mud!"

Lin Xiufeng had no choice but to tell a story.

"Hahaha! Good riddance! It died so well! Where's its corpse? I'm going to drain it dry and hang it on my body forever!"

The giant tree demon's petty nature instantly gave Lin Xiufeng a glimmer of hope.

He was about to speak when Zhao Youyue suddenly interrupted:
"If the sacred tree needs it, we'll bring it to you!"

"Alright! Go and bring his body here! I'll release them then!"

The giant tree readily agreed, however, it wasn't foolish enough not to offer any chips.

When Lin Xiufeng saw Zhao Youyue speak first, he knew something was wrong.

'Can you lie? If you can't, then don't say anything!'

At this point, the only recourse was to retaliate, and he rebuked Zhao Youyue, saying:
"Don't talk nonsense if you don't know the situation! That swindler has committed many evils. Many people hate him to the bone. They want to grind him to dust and scatter his ashes between heaven and earth. Where would you find him?"

"Crush your bones and scatter your ashes! You humans really do have quite a few good people! Good riddance! Did you scatter them?"

The giant tree asked curiously.

“Of course they were scattered! My other three companions were all there at the time, and each of them was crushed to pieces and their ashes were scattered. Only Xiao You, who is speaking, joined later. She heard that we were looking for the Divine Tree, and she longed to join us halfway through.”

Lin Xiufeng tried to make amends.

The giant tree happily pressed on, "Is what he said true? You three were all reduced to ashes?"

"Really! I even tossed it four times!"

He readily agreed.

"Why only four times?" The giant tree spirit felt the response was not very enthusiastic.

"There were too many people, all scrambling to throw the dust. Four times is already the most we've ever done," Lin Xiufeng quickly added.

"Yes, yes, there are a lot of people." The giant tree was satisfied, feeling that these people were indeed quite good.

Lin Xiufeng quickly added, "Great Child of the Earth! Symbol of the strongest power in the world, Tree of Life! We are your loyal believers! We have traveled thousands of miles to offer sacrifices to express our devout faith in you and to ask for your protection!"

"Protection? That's easy. I'll absorb you into my body, and you'll never be harmed again!"

The giant tree agreed readily, and Lin Xiufeng almost suspected that the mutated beast was pretending to be stupid and teasing him!

"Divine Tree, the protection that believers speak of is a request for you to grant us divine power so that we may become stronger."

Lin Xiufeng immediately offered an explanation.

"What?!" the giant tree roared angrily, "I'm already being lenient by not absorbing your Heavenly Martial Power! Why should I give you Heavenly Martial Power? Are you trying to lie to me?"

"Divine Tree, please calm your anger! We are too weak. With the heavenly power you have bestowed upon us, we can travel the world and use our strength to tell others how powerful the children of the earth and the followers of the Tree of Life are."

"In the future, more and more believers will bring you various mutated beasts as sacrifices. At that time, you will not have to wait idly for passing prey; you only need to bestow a portion of the power you gain upon your most devout believer's messenger—"

"If it's us, even more believers will come with offerings!"

Lin Xiufeng originally only wanted to get away, but now he has a little more ambition.

"Wait a minute, let me check the memories of the humans I absorbed before, I think I'm remembering something..."

The giant tree's words made everyone's hearts leap into their throats. After a moment, it suddenly uttered:
"Found it! You mean a Ponzi scheme? Using the principal of later investors to pay interest to earlier investors!"

She wanted to scold Lin Xiufeng for being so greedy!

The giant tree can access human memories; once exposed, everything will be over!

Lin Xiufeng was also startled. He never dreamed that this giant tree, which was so clumsy, could actually connect this matter with a Ponzi scheme!
(End of this chapter)