What to do!

What am I supposed to do!

The despair and anxiety were making Yake’s already unwell body even worse. His skin was starting to crack and his scales were falling off. His vision was blurring. Everything was spiraling out of control. Tilian had done his best to help him recover, but to little effect. Tilian told Yake that all of these symptoms stemmed from his anxiety, and unless he could calm down, his condition would only worsen.

"Calm down! How on earth am I meant to calm down!"

The frail Black Dragon coughed harshly, blood streaming steadily from his mouth. His once overwhelming vitality seemed to be draining from his body, making him look like an old dragon.

"I know you are worried about the war, Your Majesty, but in my opinion, there is still a chance." Tilian said.

"A chance? My dear friend Tilian! Tell me quickly, what should I do!" Yake implored impatiently, stretching out a claw to grab Tilian, but hesitating at the last second to merely brace him gently.

"The solution still depends on the Emperor of Hell, Rongka. Given the current situation, I guess Rongka is delighted. He enjoys chaos, and all manner of unexpected events. If you tell Rongka that you are helpless to win, that Long Yi is about to unify the world, and that the only gateway to Hell that could connect to Rongka will be destroyed by Long Yi, I think Rongka will never allow this to happen." Tilian slowly explained.

"Right! You make sense! I... I’ll go and beg him right now!"

Yake struggled to rise, turning and stumbling away.

Tilian watched Yake’s retreating figure, his eyes flickering with indecipherable emotions.

Before long, Yake returned. From the looks of it, he even seemed to move with eased steps!

"It turned out exactly as you predicted, my best friend Tilian! Rongka is quite interested in this matter, and he has decided to send us a great gift!"

Yake excitedly announced.

"What gift?"

Tilian queried.

"This one!" Yake fished out a massive seed from his private space. The seed was entirely pitch black, as though constructed from metal. Yet beneath its metallic-like surface, countless agonized human faces were emerging.

"The fruit of the Hell Tree!" 𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂

Yake declared loudly.

The Hell Tree is an unknown entity in Hell, but something Rongka specifically created for the Human Realm. Identifying that this war could prove extremely challenging, he decided to manufacture an object to tackle Long Yi. The Hell Tree thus became his masterpiece.

Once its seed is planted, the Hell Tree will madly draw nutrients and energy from its surroundings to grow. If nutrients are insufficient, it will drain the life force of any living being within the range of its roots to aid growth. The land where the Hell Tree is planted would receive a severe curse, suffering from a great loss of life force and energy.

A fully-grown Hell Tree stands about a hundred meters tall, and its canopy can exceed a diameter of five hundred meters. The foliage of the Hell Tree moves freely like a living creature.

But what characterizes the Hell Tree most is its immunity to energy!

This means that when the White Dragon’s Dragon Breath strikes the Hell Tree, not only will its energy be instantly absorbed, leaving the Hell Tree intact, the tree will actually thrive from the gained energy!

This is the ultimate weapon Rongka gave to Yake!

However!

This is not the most terrifying attribute of the Hell Tree!

Although the Hell Tree can’t move, as long as its roots extend to a location, it can reproduce a new Hell Tree there. Theoretically, given enough nutrients, the roots of the Hell Tree could spread into any corner of the continent!

In other words, Yake could gradually advance the Hell Tree and, under its cover, conquer the entire world!

How could he not be excited!

When Tillian heard this, his brow furrowed slightly.

"Your Majesty, if the Hell Tree is this powerful, leaving a curse on the land, won’t it affect us?"

"Nonsense! The ones affected will be Long Yi’s group! Once we unify the world, cut down all the Hell Trees! What could possibly be left!" Yake exclaimed with mad laughter.

Tilian gazed at the massive fruit in Yake’s hand, evidently not exactly thrilled as Yake.

However, Yake could not wait any longer.

One day, at the front line, Yake planted the seed of the Hell Tree into the ground. Everyone watched in awe as a gigantic tree sprouted from the earth. The Black Dragon spat multiple Dragon Breaths at the Hell Tree, which greedily absorbed the energy, eventually transforming into a towering monstrosity!

Each leaf on the tree was larger than the biggest dragon scale, shimmering with a metallic glow. On each leaf was a face twisting in agony that let out mournful cries when the wind blew, rustling the leaves.

When the giant tree was fully grown, Nim, the Celestial Clan warrior who was doing odd jobs within Long Yi’s legion, immediately sensed the overwhelming aura of Hell permeating the environment.

Of course, "overwhelming" referred to him. The typical Dragon Rider would not have sensed anything. Among Long Yi’s legion, the only other members who could sense it were the Dandi sisters. As natives of Hell, they were acutely sensitive to these fluctuations of hellish energy.

To confirm this, Nim specifically asked the Dandi sisters for verification. Although Nim is a Celestial Clan warrior and theoretically is quite different from the Dandi sisters of Hell, within this tight-knit group, everyone gets along very well. In particular, Nim fits in very well with everyone. He’s seen as a polite and decent young man, so naturally, there aren’t any conflicts.

Once Nim received confirmation from the Dandi sisters, he immediately set out to find Long Yi beyond the city walls.

At that moment, Long Yi was studying the condition of the newly bred Lumberjack Crabs in the farm outside the city. After a series of improvements, Long Yi successfully changed the missile tube on the back of the Lumberjack Crabs to twin-linked without causing them undue strain. With one set of missiles being unloaded while another set was being prepared, the rate of artillery fire was significantly increased.

Since the last major defection from the Black Dragon Empire, the White Dragon Empire had taken in many of its scientists, some of whom were top experts. Long Yi had learned a lot of useful knowledge from them. The breeding speed of the Lumberjack Crabs improved dramatically. The amount of eggs these creatures could lay was already exceptionally high. After simple breeding, the number of Lumberjack Crabs could only be described as astonishing.

The Sea Clan was continually supplying seafood to the land, providing an ample food source for these rapidly propagating creatures.

Then, Nim appeared.

"Brother Long, there might be a big problem."

Nim landed, folding his wings, and whispered to Long Yi.

"A problem? How big?"

Long Yi glanced around and pulled Nim aside to speak quietly.

"I just sensed an astonishing shift in power from Hell, coming from the direction of the battlefield. I guess that the Black Dragon Empire must have come up with some new scheme."

Nim whispered.

"They have more powerful warriors?"

"I don’t know, but if it were a warrior, this level of power fluctuation would undoubtedly attract the attention of the laws of the Human Realm. However, the fluctuation I felt seemed to be coming from beneath the ground."

"Underground? Underground monsters?"

While Long Yi was still puzzled, the Emperor’s envoy arrived. Long Yi, along with Nim of Dandi 233, hurriedly entered the Imperial Palace and saw an image being projected onto the large crystal screen behind Kirei’s desk.

The image showed a tree, incredibly large and constantly emitting visible dark energy from its leaves. Some ill-defined details of the image showed the faces of human beings on the leaves, and the dark energy was actually being exhaled from their mouths!

"What the hell is this thing?" Long Yi’s eyebrows knitted together.

"This is the information just relayed to us by our spies. The object is called the Hell Tree, a creation of Rongka specifically designed to counter us." said Kirei.

"Just a tree?" Long Yi scrutinized it from all angles. "The thing looks uncomfortable."

"It’s not just uncomfortable to look at. This thing was made to be our nemesis."

Kirei handed over a piece of paper with ink still wet on it.

Spies from the White Dragon Empire were deeply embedded within the Black Dragon Empire, some said to hold high ranks. They had a special method for transmitting information, which was directly received by Kirei.

"Infinite root growth... absorbing Dragon Power... cursing the land... Damn it! Is Yake planning on giving up this land? If this cursed tree spreads uncontrollably, it would drain the entire world!" Long Yi started swearing.

"This thing, it looks a lot like the Blood-sucking Trees in Hell." Dandi said suddenly.

"Yeah, now that you mention it, it sure does. I’ve seen it in the Hell Guide." Nim nodded.

"I’ve seen the real thing." Dandi233 said.

Nim chuckled awkwardly, scratching his head without saying anything further.

There was a type of Blood-sucking Tree in Hell, a seemingly ordinary plant. However, sharp mouths were hidden within its leaf blades. If any creature came near, the leaves would fly towards it, sucking all the blood and flesh from its prey. Then, the leaves would decay, turning into nutrients which would be absorbed by the root system of the Blood-sucking Tree.

While the attributes appeared to have nothing in common with the Hell Tree they were currently observing, the overall appearance of the trunk and leaf blades appeared quite similar.

"So, it’s possible that Rongka created the Hell Tree through some modifications to the Blood-sucking Tree?" Long Yi asked.

"That might be the case." Dandi233 answered.

"And if so?"

"If the Hell Tree is a modification of the Blood-sucking Tree, then we can be certain that one method will definitely be effective against it."

"Is there any way we can confirm this?" asked Long Yi.

"Hell’s Blood-sucking Trees have a symbiotic relationship with a creature called the Blood Leech. The leech eggs even hide inside the seeds of the Blood-sucking Tree. If we can find traces of leeches in the vicinity, then we can pretty much confirm it." said Dandi233.

"Blood Leeches? You mentioned before that blood leeches are the natural predators of Dark Cloud Toads." stated Long Yi.

"That’s correct. If we do find the leeches, perhaps we can kill two birds with one stone." Dandi233 proposed. (To be continued. If you like this novel, please visit qidian.com to vote for it, your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users please visit m.qidian.com for reading.)