587 Right On Time
People began flying onto the tiny island from different directions and they were all traveling in groups. In this ancient place, it would be rare to spot a warrior on their own since they would likely be killed if they ran into a group of warriors with the same interests.
In the beginning, there were people who did not even know about the Long Live Tree and tried to grab the fruit recklessly. Their end was predictable — their bodies were punctured by red light one after the other, leaving nothing behind. Only. it was not until later when they began to recognize that it was the Long Live Tree that the people stopped dying.
It was indeed Tai Shichong, one of the top three young sword master who recognized it.
He and the other few people were standing on flat ground a few hundred meters away as they stared at the tree. He said, "This Long Live Tree already has spirit intelligence, its power should be just as powerful as the Demon Beast King. Even if we all join forces, we'll be killed by the tree still. So we can only wait... wait until the fruit matures and falls down from the tree before we can pick it up. According to our observations, the tree would stop its attacks once the fruit falls to the ground. Still, we can't afford to piss it off just in case."
The Long Live Tree was the descendant of the Immortal Tree. It was able to get to the Sea of Souls Realm master-level warrior, unlike the Immortal Tree which could directly evolve to beast king level battling power after forming its spirit intelligence. After accumulating hundreds of years worth of experience, it could also achieve the Demi Beast King level which would make it powerful enough to kill any master-level warrior.
"Unfortunately, this Long Live Tree has already been formed and is with intelligence. If it was only a seedling, we could just bring it back and nurture it at home. I heard that even a normal person who spends a long time by the tree would have their life extended to two hundred years or more. If it's a warrior, then they would be able to keep all the poison out, and their training would increase by an unbelievable speed, which also makes it a great item for training," Tai Shichong said to one of the twin brothers.
The other twin brother replied, "Don't even try to think about it. Even without intelligence, we wouldn't be able to do anything to it. This is the Savage Ruin Ancient Area which is a part of the Undead Tree. If you try to do something to its children, I guarantee you that you'll never be able to make it out of here alive. The root of the Immortal Tree would take up more than half of this entire area."
A lot of people did not know it, but there were actually immortal trees just like the legends they lived in this ancient place as well.
"Hehe, this Long Live Fruit should belong to me." A very old looking elder in black robes walked out from the forest. His eyes were filled with desire and greed.
Tai Shichong glanced at him. "I'm afraid that you won't have what it takes."
"You're one of the top young sword artists Tai Shichong, right? You do have the power for it but you're still lacking something. Go back and train a little longer before coming back to fight me." The elder did not seem to be impressed by Tai Shichong.
"Oh? So, you have the confidence to win me?"
Tai Shichong had a sharp look in his eyes that was hiding a killing intent.
The elder in black did not seem to want to fight Tai Shichong as he he suggested, "There are too many people here, and a lot of them trying to get involved so how about this? Lets you and I try to get rid of them first?"
Hearing his suggestion, Tai Shichong looked around — it was true that there were more and more people around the tree. From the dozens of people before, there were almost one hundred of them. With this speed of people coming in, even he could not be a hundred percent confident that he would be able to get the Long Live Fruit, making the elder's suggestion very intriguing to him.
"I'll take care of this area."
The elder did not care for Tai Shichong and jumped at the four that were closest to him. "If you don't want to die, piss off now or I'll kill you all."
Not many people there knew the elder so no one would listen to him. Seeing him jumping toward them the four people scattered and attacked the elder in unison.
"He dares attack us?! Kill him!"
"We aren't that weak at all!"
They were four brothers with the leader having the Seas of Souls Realm master-level power. The other three were all at the top spirit warrior level. Perhaps, they would not be that powerful when the four were separated but with their decades of brotherhood between them, their power combined would double... possibly even triple!. There were a couple of Sea of Souls Realm master-level warriors who had died in their hands as well.
"Haha!"
The elder laughed threw out a claw attack and the sky was instantly filled with black claw shadows which formed a massive black beast. It roared as it attacked with its front claw.
"Bastard! Let's take him on!"
The four did not expect the elder to be this powerful. All four of them had been beaten and slightly wounded.
"Gold Formation Array!" The leader of the four screamed.
Swoosh! Swoosh!
The four's bodies shifted and formed a square with the leader at the front. Their zhen yuan emanated from their body and merged into one before eventually forming a golden, angry-looking king kong.
"Combined Attack Secret Art!"
"Die!"
The elder in black had enough confidence in himself and merely waved his palm - the black evil beast that was formed by black claw shadows roared as it attacked the angry looking king kong with its massive body.
"Piss off!"
The leader of the top four reached out with his right hand and launched an aerial attack. The angry king kong was like a part of him as it reached out with its right hand as well.
Boom!
A loud boom sounded, and the black evil beast that was formed by claw shadows dispersed. However, the four were not doing well as well as they were all puking blood after the angry king kong disappeared as well.
"This guy is too powerful, let's go!"
The four were not the kind of people who were plain reckless. They saw that their top attacks would not leave a mark on the elder, so they rushed to the forest. Within two blinks of the eye, they disappeared.
"Should've just left much earlier. Pft." The elder shook his head and looked over at Tai Shichong.
As one of the top three young sword masters, Tai Shichong's mastery of the sword was indeed impressive — he did not even take out his great sword but only pointed his index and middle fingers in the air. As he did this, massive shadows appeared from his sword like beams and shot out in every direction.
"Tai Shichong, don't push yourself too hard!"
There were other young martial geniuses who had come to the island. However, even with all of them combined, they would not be as powerful as Tai Shichong.
Tai Shichong replied coldly, "The treasure belongs to those with power. You guys are nobodies so you don't even have the right to be here. If you don't leave, I'll cut your heads off."
"Alright, I, Du Guming, will definitely remember this. My cousin will come knocking on your door someday." Their leader was actually one of the top warriors of the Sky Martial Region's cousin.
"Du Gujue!" Tai Shichong sneered, "Even if he came, it'll prove nothing. However, since you've dropped his name here, I'll leave you with something to show for it."
Du Gujue had only reached the Sea of Souls Realm a year ago. It was not that Tai Shijue was concerned about him since even martial geniuses would need time to grow. Without growth, they would just be martial geniuses with potential.
Swoosh!
Using a pointed finger as his sword, a beam of sharp sword qi sliced through Du Gujue's chest.
The latter's face went pale as blood splashed front his chest. "Tai Shichong, you are so arrogant, we'll wait and see!"
Tolerating the extreme pain, Du Gujue took a group of young warriors and left the island, leaving that one sentence drifting in the air.
"This Du Guming is stuck in his head! Using his cousin Du Gujue to scare us. Does he really think we can be scared that easily?"
The twin brother walked to stand right next to Tai Shichong who said, "Du Gujue is actually a very scary man. Give him time and it wouldn't be impossible for him to reach the top five young warriors. This is even more reason for me to get that Long Live Fruit. With it, I'll be 80 percent confident of reaching the peak of the Late Sea of Souls Realm so I can improve my combat prowess to the next level."
Amongst the young warriors of the Sky Martial Region, there were not many people who had managed to reach the Late Sea of Souls Realm, even for the top five young warriors. Still, martial geniuses naturally had the power to cross-realm battle despite their lower cultivation power which could still prove to be extremely horrifying.
Eventually, next to the tree, there were still a group of people left besides Tai Shichong and the elder. They were indeed the ones that were here first, and also happened to be the group of people who were watching the tree in the first place.
"Tian Yinsou, Tai Shichong, you two indeed have the power to deserve the fruit, but if they want us to leave, it'll be impossible."
Then, a group walked out with their leader being a bulky middle-aged man. His legs were long and his eyes were as sharp as blades. He held a thick bronze iron bar while the men behind him wielded simply weapons but despite that, all of them looked like powerful, human-shaped evil beasts.
"You recognize me?"
The elder's expression changed, it had been years since he traveled around so not many people should be able to recognize him.
"Unfortunately, I've seen a drawing of your face decades ago but it was a wanted post. Even after all these years, you haven't changed one bit."
Once one reached Sea of Souls Realm, the deterioration of their facial features would no longer be as pronounced. Decades of years would only seem like seven or eight years.
"I didn't expect your memory to be this good."
Tian Yinsou chuckled. Decades ago, he was wanted by a rank-5 martial school. It was for that reason that he had to stay out of people's sight for this long.
"A good memory doesn't mean you'll be powerful enough."
Swoosh!
Tian Yingsou crossed his claws, and a purple-black net-like claw light appeared.
"Break!"
The middle-aged man did not back out or escape but instead, he launched a counterattack.
Bang! Boom! Bang! Boom!
The purple-black claw light had been shattered completely.
"Powerful indeed. Here! Take another one of these from me!." Tian Yinsou had only used 80 percent of his power. When he was about to attack again, he suddenly sensed that there was ringing sound approaching.
"Eh? Someone else is coming?"
In the horizon, a massive silver ship the size of a human was seen approaching in flight at almost eight times the speed of sound..
"Yan Fengfeng!" Tai Shichong frowned.
The silver ship arrived above the island.
"It's the Long Live Tree!" Yan Fengfeng had recognized it immediately.
"Indeed!" Ye Chen had seemed the lady in red on the treasury island using it before. The branch of the tree looked like it was made by white jade since it was so smooth and flawless. Although this tree was the same, only its white fruit stood out.
"It seems like we're quite lucky." Hai Wuya laughed.
"Let's get down!"
Although the five was afraid of Tai Shichong, it was just a few concerns they had some concerns. If there was a great treasure that came between them, they would try everything to make each other leave.
The flying ship was lowered quickly. After waiting until it was dozens of meter from the ground, the five jumped off the ship and landed a hundred meters away from the tree.
Guan Qin was about to step forward before being pulled back by Hai Wuya. "Don't get close. Before the fruit falls, the tree will actively attack anyone who approaches. Once it's ready for harvest, it would mean that it has accumulated enough power that it would be impossible to predict the outcome of approaching it."