Chapter 38: The Aberrant Immortal Tree

The legendary "immortal crane" now appeared grotesque and terrifying. Its blood-stained white feathers were matted and disheveled, and the putrid stench radiating from its body mingled with the delicate fragrance of the immortal tree, creating a nauseating combination. With its eyes tightly shut, it stood on one leg beneath the tree, lost in slumber.

Standing tall behind it was an immortal tree that blotted out the sky. Its roots plunged deep into the earth, piercing through the solid ground and spreading across the entire summit. Scattered among these roots were countless corpses of zombies and mutated animals. Every root writhed incessantly, acting like human blood vessels, pulsing with the flow of nutrients. It was this "immortal tree" that was consuming the corpses.

Li Ye frowned, hunkered down in the dense woods. From this tree, he sensed a long-absent aura of danger.

"No wonder there weren't many zombies in this zoo; it turns out they all came here to provide experience points for the tree."

He muttered to himself, showing no regard for the mutated crane-like creature before him. Just then, a powerful, pungent gust of wind swept through, dispersing the sickening smell of carrion.

"Whoosh—"

The crane-like mutant, which had been sleeping, had awakened!

Li Ye retreated further into the shadows, watching the mountaintop vigilantly. He saw the creature stretch its wings and open its eyes. Its slender neck turned as it scanned the surroundings. Finding nothing out of the ordinary, it spread its wings and took flight, riding the wind along the massive trunk. It did not fly high, merely circling the tree.

"Skree—"

A shrill, piercing crane cry erupted from its throat, echoing over the immortal tree.

The tree that blotted out the sky suddenly shuddered violently, and the mass of roots on the ground began to writhe more rapidly. A plump, succulent immortal fruit, roughly the size of a basketball, crystallized on a low-hanging branch.

The crane’s wings beat faster, its eyes filled with a human-like delight as it opened its sharp beak to snatch the fruit. At that very moment, the corners of Li Ye’s mouth curled upward, and he raised his right arm slightly.

The crane-like mutant continued to circle at low altitude, tossing its neck back and opening its beak; the immortal fruit was about to drop right in.

From the bushes not far below it, a human-shaped flash suddenly darted out. It was Li Ye, propelled like a cannonball by his "Candlelight Lure" ability.

Mid-air, Li Ye opened his palm, and a large orange-red hand condensed from the void. Right in the center of its palm was the immortal fruit, just inches from the mutant's beak.

It was a classic case of snatching food from the crane’s very mouth!

The orange-red hand vanished in a flash. Before the mutant could even react, the fruit was already in Li Ye’s grasp.

The towering immortal tree shuddered again, its dense branches rubbing together to produce a continuous "rustling" sound.

"Caw!!"

The crane turned sharply toward the tiny human, letting out a shrill cry of fury. The entire Lingxiu Mountain was its territory! And now, a puny insect dared to steal food from its beak!

Worse, this tiny insect was now brazenly shoving the fruit into his own mouth!

A sonic boom rang out as the crane dived toward Li Ye with astonishing speed. While contentedly absorbing the fruit into his body, Li Ye raised his left arm and muttered to himself:

"Being too full isn't good either; need to exercise to digest it."

The golden seal on his left arm flared with brilliant light, and a key-shaped longsword appeared in his hand. The blade was peculiar, formed of three spiraling strands.

Li Ye hovered in mid-air, fueled by the overflowing sense of power within his body. Like a god wielding a brush, he slashed out a magnificent, sweeping wave of sword energy.

The two forces collided rapidly. The crane could only tilt its body, barely dodging the heaven-defying strike. However, the residual energy of the slash sheared off more than half of the feathers from its wings.

The sword energy met no further resistance, driving straight toward the towering immortal tree. In an instant, countless thick roots shot up from the ground to intercept the blow. The branches also elongated with eerie speed, coordinating with the roots from the ground to form a solid wooden shield just before the sword energy could strike the trunk.

Even so, after a violent "boom," the seemingly sturdy shield shattered, and the sword energy slammed into the tree’s trunk. But the energy had clearly been depleted, leaving only a shallow dent in the bark.

Li Ye was not disappointed. He observed the tree’s "actions" calmly, a look of confirmation in his eyes.

*It seems the Dongming Military Region had quite a hard time subduing this monster tree in my previous life.*

Because the Dongming Military Region had guarded this tree so strictly in his past life, the outside world had no specific or accurate information about it. Li Ye had only known that they had found a legendary immortal tree on Lingxiu Mountain in the Jiangning Zoo; nothing more.

This was exactly why he had unleashed that strike. His goal from the start had been to test the limits of this mutated immortal tree.

As for the crane? In his eyes, it had already become a Second-Order Blood Crystal Essence.

But the crane’s intelligence was clearly not high. After a direct encounter with that strike, it still attacked toward Li Ye. Flapping its wings, which now had few white feathers left, its speed had dropped by nearly forty percent.

The crane opened its sharp beak and let out a piercing cry that cut through the red mist and echoed across the entire Lingxiu Mountain. Even the chimpanzees at the foot of the mountain were so terrified that they prostrated themselves on the ground. This was a demonic sound capable of making most living things tremble!

Facing the source of the sound, Li Ye waved his hand, and a thick sound-insulating barrier appeared around his ears. But the shrill cry instantly shattered the barrier into countless tiny cracks. Li Ye frowned, and the longsword in his left hand dissipated.

His right arm swept downward, and an invisible guillotine descended from above the crane’s head, slicing straight through its slender neck. With just this one blow, the crane was split in two, and its shrill screech ceased abruptly.

"Whoosh—"

Li Ye finally let out a long breath. He hated noise; in the apocalypse, it meant exposure, attracting enemies, and courting death.

Li Ye landed on the ground, extracted the Blood Crystal Essence from the back of the crane’s head, and tossed it into his "Treasure Vault." He then turned to look at the sky-blocking immortal tree.

From the dent carved by his sword energy, strands of scarlet-green liquid were already seeping out. Just as Li Ye stepped toward the tree, a massive, rumbling disturbance erupted once more. The countless thick roots on the ground were now surrounding him like a swarm of pythons.

Li Ye stood his ground, as if he were at the center of a sea of serpents!

"Stop struggling. Wouldn't it be better to just honestly produce immortal fruit for me?"

Li Ye shook his head helplessly, his tone sounding like a seasoned manipulator. The immortal tree clearly did not understand him. Thousands of roots, as thick as giant pythons, sprang up and hammered toward him!