A World Worth Protecting

The first Dharmic Artifact Wang Baole took out was the weird fly-whisk!

The impressiveness of the fly-whisk was apparent the moment it was taken out. It charged directly towards a puppet cultivator in front of it, its whisk fibers straightening and stiffening as it pierced forward.

It produced a loud boom, and it was futile regardless of how hard the cultivator tried to activate his spells—which were in the form of the tree leaf—for the fly-whisk directly disregarded them. The fly-whisk pierced right through the cultivator’s chest and nailed the cultivator onto the tree. After that, its whisk fibers spread open and extended, charging towards the other puppets.

In the blink of an eye, tens of puppets were nailed to the tree by the fly-whisk.

Seeing that it was effective, Wang Baole was pleasantly surprised. However, just as the feelings of surprise arose, Wang Baole was instantly driven crazy again; the fly-whisk that was extremely sturdy just before had collapsed limply in a short time. Even its power was significantly decreased…

That gave all the cultivators who were nailed onto the tree a chance to break free. However, not all of them could successfully do so, as there were about eight female cultivators who weren’t able to escape no matter how they struggled. The whisk fibers that were nailed onto them didn’t soften but became tougher instead…

This fly-whisk is perverted! With that thought arising in his head, the whisk fibers that softened immediately retracted from the male cultivators, before spreading open once again towards all the female cultivators standing around. Instantly, at least thirty female cultivators were nailed by it. The fly-whisk seemed to want to extend its fibers further, but it was unable to, no matter how much it desired to do so.

Noticing what was happening, Wang Baole felt disgusted towards the fly-whisk, despite being in a state of crisis. However, the effect of the fly-whisk was greatly beneficial to him. As the surrounding puppets neared with a roar and prepared to attack Wang Baole, he turned and resisted the puppets by activating his spells, retreating as he fought on.

As the loud boom reverberated, Wang Baole’s Flash, Heated Burst, and Cloud Finger continuously struck out. With the complementation of speed, the noise continuously echoed around, and the puppets were unable to get a hold of Wang Baole at that moment.

On the one hand, Wang Baole was physically tough, and on the other, he had a repository of spells at his disposal. Most importantly, he seemed to have an unlimited number of Dharmic treasures which he tossed out continuously. Of them, there was an ordinary looking umbrella that was not only fast but extremely wretched, piercing anyone in its path the moment it was taken out.

What’s more, there was also a flying sword that was behaving like a lunatic the moment it flew out. No matter who it saw, it would try to hack him. If not for Wang Baole’s quick reflexes, he would have also been attacked the moment he took the flying sword out.

On the other hand, the continuous struggling by the female puppet cultivators had allowed them to break free from the fly-whisk. The fly-whisk swiftly returned to Wang Baole, who caught hold of it and used it to sweep the surroundings.

It was completely powerless in the face of the male cultivators. Its soft, gentle whisk fibers simply unwillingly swept past them. However, when it came to the female cultivators, all the whisk fibers became astonishingly stiff, and also carried a force that far exceeded that of an ordinary Dharmic Artifact. The force with which it landed on their bodies made Wang Baole frightened just by looking at it.

However, that was not what made Wang Baole feel most bizarre. The large seal brought him even more surprise!

The large seal looked impressive after it had been enhanced by Wang Baole using the Armament Sand. However, it behaved like a spring after being thrown out, deflecting off others once contact was made.

It behaved the same way after Wang Baole had tossed it out. It flew off right away when others punched it, disappearing out of sight. However, as Wang Baole was battling another puppet cultivator, with his forceful punch causing his opponent to be pushed backward, the large seal suddenly landed from the skies. It crashed loudly and strongly on the cultivator, directly crushing the cultivator to pieces, before rebounding towards the sky again…

It behaved that way continuously as if it had some kind of consciousness. Every time it sensed that Wang Baole was about to defeat his opponent, it would arrive in a hurry, crushing the enemy!

This seal works by bullying the weak, fearing the powerful, and also targeting its enemies specifically? Wang Baole was bewildered at what he saw. He laughed bitterly, at the same time sighed in his heart that his opponents were all puppet cultivators. Otherwise, if they had some level of consciousness, they would definitely be threatened by his Dharmic treasures.

However, just as Wang Baole was leveraging on the advantage of his Dharmic treasures, and nearing the borders of the forest, a deafening boom suddenly erupted!

As the loud noise spread, the entire ground shook violently. The skies also trembled, with its dark clouds spreading and shrinking. The scene took Wang Baole by surprise. The ground beneath his feet caved in, and a large tree hand emerged from below!

Wang Baole screamed as he leaped into the air. His sense of danger was heightened to the maximum at that moment. The large tree hand was small compared to the one that destroyed his cruiser. However, to Wang Baole, it still seemed gigantic, as it was over a hundred feet tall. It emerged from the ground, charging towards Wang Baole as it tried to grab him!

It was extremely fast, and a frightening level of suppressive force was also given off it at the same time. The suppressive force was like an invisible hurricane, directly landing in Wang Baole’s mind. As a loud roar erupted, a tide was also formed, causing Wang Baole’s head to buzz with activity as he screamed in pain.

It was as if his body had to withstand an unbearably loud volume within a short period of time. The bones in his ears were on the brink of breaking into pieces, and his eardrums were about to burst. He bled from his orifices, his consciousness was being forcefully suppressed at that moment, and he instantly fell into a coma.

His physical body that had been thrown into the air was also out of control, being tightly grasped by the large hand that had emerged from the ground!

The large hand grabbed hold of Wang Baole’s body but didn’t squash it. It immediately encased him, swiftly circling Wang Baole’s body such that, in the blink of an eye, it was transformed into a tree cocoon connected to the hand before burrowing into the ground.

The emotionless puppet cultivators surrounding him stood motionless while watching the events unfold before them. They only turned their heads after the tree cocoon had been brought away. It was as if they were listening to orders, as they quickly turned around and charged towards Coulomb Basin.

As the cultivators left and the entire place returned to a state of peace, the tree hand that was supporting the sky was also lowered gradually, burrowing into the ground once again. As it disappeared, the surrounding black Cloud Fog began to grow thinner, dissipating completely in the time of a few breaths.

The force of the seal no longer existed over a large area. Sun rays from the outside shone in, and everything returned to normal.

Only a small area of black fog remained in the depths of Coulomb Basin. It seemed like that was the epicenter, where the seal was present every single moment.

Within the fog seal, a small tree with branches of varying thickness was surrounded by hundreds of thick, frightening giant trees. The small tree looked as if it was on the brink of death, severely damaged after having suffered severe injuries. Cracks were obvious on its surface, and not a single green leaf grew on it—it appeared as though its life was about to end.

However, if a mighty figure appeared and gazed upon the land, it could see that the underground roots of the small tree were extremely extensive, spanning over ten thousand feet like a maze!

The ten thousand feet long roots also contained thousands of smaller branching roots. Following their trajectory, one could see that they had already emerged from the ground, forming numerous towering giant trees!

Looking from a bird’s eye view of the entire area, one would be able to see that all the trees in the core region of Coulomb Basin were formed from the small tree’s roots!

The astoundingly large giant trees had not been documented in the Federation’s records since the Federation was established.

In the heart of the maze formed by the underground roots, hundreds of fruit-like cocoons were being grown in a space formed by the roots. Each of the cocoons was over tens of feet wide, densely covering the walls of the tree.

One could even see that three fruits were wriggling slowly, while the rest were motionless.

Within the three wriggling fruits were Wang Baole, Zhao Yameng, and Zhuo Yifan. In each of their respective fruits, they appeared just like they did at the exact moment they were captured. Their possessions were even intact. It seemed like they had lost their consciousness, as they stayed motionless with their eyes shut.

They were surrounded and soaked in a type of sticky fluid. There was also concentrated Spirit Qi emanating towards them and entering their bodies continuously from within the giant tree.

It was as if it was trying to assimilate them in that manner. Numerous branches that were like sharp spears grew in each of the fruits, integrating into their heads to connect them together.

It seemed like there was a bizarre existence trying to assimilate their physical bodies and erase their consciousness…

As an unknown period of time passed slowly, the trio was continuously having their consciousness erased while being assimilated. Zhuo Yifan and Zhao Yameng seemed to have fallen into a deep sleep from the start and didn’t react at all. However, for Wang Baole, his body vibrated several times. Even though he was not roused, a strange object seemed to have awakened within his body. Gradually, the Spirit Qi that had rushed into his body began to show signs of greed…

On the other hand, the giant tree still seemed ignorant of the kind of freak it was trying to assimilate…