National destiny: Starting with a coffin, building an aircraft carrier is broadcast live globally.

"call out!"

From the pile of ashes, a lithe figure soared into the sky!

That was... a glass falcon!

It is twice the size of the previous glass bird, with sharp edges on its feathers and a wide, powerful wingspan.

"Hey——!"

The cry of the glass falcon was completely different from the little sparrow's forest melody; it was a vibrant battle song!

Its eyes locked onto the swarm of beetles, and it swooped down like a streak of blue lightning, flashing past the beetle tide.

Not just by relying on their beaks,

Its claws are also a pair of sharp weapons.

"Oh ho!"

Completely forgetting the fear he had once felt being dominated by leaves, Ivan swung his axe at another tree covered in beetles.

"This guy looks much more exciting!"

"Is this morphological evolution? Selecting the desired form based on the speed and intensity of destruction... Boss, is it...?"

"It should be."

He answered arbitrarily.

The defense mechanism of this forest is actually a counter-attack system that becomes stronger when faced with a stronger opponent.

The slow, continuous consumption of death gave birth to small birds, while the violent, destructive impact rewarded him with a raptor.

This is practically an armory that manufactures "Guardians" to order according to customer needs!

"Again!"

Ivan had completely forgotten about the danger.

The way he looks at these trees now is like looking at rows of newly released free blind boxes, hoping to open an SSR!

"boom--"

As the leaves were battered by a rain of fire, new life was born from the ashes.

This time it was a bright red azalea, its cry clear and resonant, with a particularly penetrating quality.

"pretty!"

Nathan jotted something down in his notebook, "Oh, different striking points and forces produce different birds..."

"...You intellectuals are such a hassle."

Ivan muttered to himself.

But this time he figured it out!

"You all go together, it'll be faster that way," Ren Yi ordered.

The group split up, and the bear unleashed a powerful blow on a tree that had been half-eaten.

A bald eagle with a wingspan of over two meters leaped from the ashes.

It roared as it charged into the swarm of insects, its claws tearing open two vacuum zones. Ivan whistled with pride.

Nathan, not to be outdone, was not to be outdone.

He turned and emptied the magazine at the selected target.

From that pile of ashes, a night owl rose into the air. Ignoring the beetles crawling on the ground, it instead darted among the tree trunks, devouring the creatures that were feasting.

Nathan defiantly blew away the non-existent gunpowder smoke from the muzzle of his gun.

"cut......"

Ivan retorted, "The eagle is far more efficient than your pathetic bird!"

As the two looked at each other...

The race to destroy trees and save the forest has officially begun.

They each targeted trees damaged by beetles, and the forest was soon filled with a continuous series of crashing, cracking, and gunshots...

Trees kept falling.

Meanwhile, various colorful birds also emerged from the ashes: peregrine falcons, vultures, hawks, sparrowhawks, owls...

Ivan produced a golden eagle and was showing it off to Nathan, who then produced an eagle owl.

Trailing their magnificent tail feathers, they almost intertwined into a giant neon net in mid-air. The already dazzling, translucent, luminous leaves and branches refracted the light, transforming the tranquil and eerie forest into a natural punk disco scene! (Nightjar)

The chirping of insects and the calls of birds rose and fell in a reverberant chorus as swarms of beetles were harvested by these splendid hunters.

Aurora held Little Nine in her arms, tending to the wounds of the two running around.

Renyi stood lazily at ease, watching them work happily.

Why are these two arguing?

[To be honest, the eagle that the Russian competitor created is really big; one swipe of its talons and a whole bunch of black bugs would die.]

[The explorer's purple night owl is pretty good too, its attack speed is maxed out.]

[Seriously, are you guys really openly comparing whose bird is more powerful in the comments? Is that even fair?]

[How can you drive on this lousy road? The car wheel almost ran over my face!]

[Where are the moderators? Shouldn't they shut down a bunch of them? Oh, I forgot... ⊂(˃̶͈̀ε ˂̶͈́ ⊂ ) Nobody's doing anything about this! I think...]

[Thinking about it is forbidden, even thinking about it is a sin!]

But this joyful competition didn't last long.

About half an hour,

Ivan leaned on the axe handle, panting heavily, while Nathan stiffly changed the magazine with his fingers.

The density of the glass-like birds flying in the sky was exaggerated; they swooped down, tore, and pecked at their prey as tirelessly as beetles.

Let's look at the ground again—

Those obsidian-like shells huddled together, stepping over the corpses of their companions as they continued to climb the tree.

One batch died, and two more batches emerged...

I took a few steps forward randomly and crushed several beetles that were crawling blindly.

The balance has been achieved.

At least the rate at which trees are dying has slowed down considerably, but the army of insects continues to swarm. If this continues, these few humans will have their night wasted for nothing.

"Let's go see where these bugs came from."

"Huh? Should we go in?"

Ivan leaned on the axe handle, his face filled with resentment.

He thought he could just cut down trees here!

"Or are you planning to spend the whole night watching birds have a team-building event?"

"Keep up."

The Light-Shattering Beetles appear to emerge from underground, but in fact, they are more concentrated in one direction. After birds became more efficient at eliminating the beetles, the swarms coming from that direction became much more noticeable.

The group headed in that direction.

Although I was standing on the ground, I could hear a crisp "crunch, crunch" sound under my feet...

That's the sound of a beetle being crushed!

Ivan was so disgusted by the sound that he got goosebumps.

The further you go, the more piercing the chirping of insects becomes, the buzzing so loud it makes your scalp tingle, and the light gets dimmer and dimmer.

Because there are fewer and fewer glass trees that can glow, large piles of ashes stand silently in the darkness.

"My God..."

About two hundred meters directly in front of them, there appeared a barren open space.

Not only is it barren...

Even the ground looked like it had been repeatedly plowed by something, covered with pits.

In the center of the open space was the outline of a giant tree...

It was so big that at first glance I thought it was a small mountain.

But when they got closer, they discovered that it was also a glass tree a thousand times larger than the other trees.

However... this tree is dead.

Dull and lacking any luster.

But for some reason, it did not turn to ashes like its other dead counterparts, but instead retained its tree form, standing silently in the darkness.

Countless light-splitting beetles crawled up and down its body, forming flowing black patterns that made one's scalp crawl.

"Are they protecting this tree?"

Ivan asked, the sound of crushing beetles under his feet making him feel uneasy.

"No, it's not about protection."

Nathan looked at the dark mass at the top of the tree trunk. "They were born from there, and they're nourishing it... Look there!"

At the fork in the branches where the trunk and crown meet, something is throbbing.

One strike after another, steady and powerful.

It appeared to be a heart-shaped object embedded in the tree trunk, with a surface that had the same obsidian texture as a beetle's shell, but beneath it, golden light flowed with each beat, and countless black 'vessels' extended from it, deeply rooted in the trunk of the giant tree.

This withered glass tree was its nest, its warm bed, its...dinner plate.