Chapter 631: Getting the fruits
Sam observed similar incidents for the next few days, there are some groups that worked together. They shielded a few people for the first half and returned from there, the remaining small group shielded an even smaller group for a certain distance before returning and the last group shielded one person until he is a few steps away from the tree.
The last guy took the final punishment and plucked a fruit, before trying his best to escape
But this method is not extremely suitable. All the people who participated in the group have to elite and they also have to be good at fusion.
They took significant damage as they not only have to protect themselves, they have to shield others.
So, a group could at most take one fruit away and they would have to recover for a good ten days before they can even think of stepping foot in the valley again.
And god must know if the fruit will stay with them for these ten days, so they would sell it. Even though, it is not that valuable individually, the cost is significant.
After three days, Sam finally decided to give it a try.
The first thing he did is activate the lightning elemental fusion. His control over this is not as good as his fire elemental body or the light elemental body. But at least, he has the hundred percent fusion and he can try his best to deal with the current situation.
Sam has some ideas on how to proceed with this and for the first few meters it is actually quite easy, neither the gravity nor the lightning strikes made him fear. But after covering one-third, he finally started feeling resistance.
He proceeded to use this first method. As for Arman, he is also interested in fruits, but he could barely pluck one and he couldn't guarantee to get the remaining two. But Sam said he doesn't have to worry about that, so he focused on cultivating and his methods made every visitor of the valley sweat bullets.
He directly entered the valley and sat inside. Even though he is somewhat close to the entrance, sitting there for hours is not something anyone can do.
Arman is also trying to obtain the full fusion of his lightning element, but currently, he is around sixty to seventy percent. So, he decided to take this chance.
Coming back to Sam who is inside the one-third of the valley, he stood there for a second and closed his eyes as he slowly took his step.
His steps caused energy ripples from his body to all sides and some lightning strikes that are not strong enough are deflected.
The damage on him is reduced by half.
Sam didn't dodge and started moving with simple and small steps. He didn't even take large strides and even kept his eyes closed.
Due to the superiority of his lightning and complete fusion, Sam could even try to absorb a bit, but his body couldn't take too much of it, so he is using ripple style to his advantage and make the lightning divert and even the lightning that struck him.
He channeled that energy and let the ripples expel it from his body.
Even though his body could take the stress, the main strain is on his mental strength.
He has to concentrate to the extreme and the precision and timing should be impeccable.
At least, he is not using the ripple style too much at the moment, but the more distance he covered, the more energy and more ripples he has to create, and more strain would be placed on his mental strength.
He confidently moved forward and soon he reached the halfway point, but he didn't stop and just moved.
The ripples grew stronger and Sam didn't even change direction once. But after covering three-fourths his speed reduced. The lightning strikes are too dense and his mastery over the ripple style is not exactly sufficient to repel them like that.
He is suffering a bit and many spectators thought Sam is done for. But the man himself didn't think so.
Until now, other than the few initial steps, he didn't take much damage at all. In fact, he is almost in his top condition except for exhaustion of energy his body is well and good. He brute-forced for a while and when he is a few steps away from the tree, he used void style all of a sudden. He used it to channel a lightning strike and kicked the ground as he lunged forward and he directly came into contact with the tree.
Right beside the tree, there is not much lightning, in fact, it is almost like each tree is surrounded by a cage of lightning. The only lightning that will strike when they are in contact with the tree is the punishment for plucking a tree.
While Sam is walking around the tree closely and seemed to be inspecting, everyone was stunned by his last jump.
Even Praneeth who has a leisurely attitude all long was surprised. Because, when Sam used void style, not only a decent-sized crater appear, due to the lightning void blast and the surrounding lightning was all focused towards that point, giving Sam a small window of the gap to escape.
Even the lightning blocking the trees also fluctuated because of this and Sam used his fusion body taking minimum damage and touching the tree.
While many people are thinking that Sam is showing off by staying that much time near the tree, Sam has another thought completely.
He is using his observation technique with his feet and hands as he checked the tree's condition and the roots that are spread all over. There are five fruit trees here and they are growing quite well. Apart from that, Sam also noticed that there are small saplings nearby and they are also absorbing the lightning and growing.
Even though the growth rate is slow, the five trees occupied the most important spot of the valleys, so it is to be expected.
After carefully observing for some time, Sam started using his manipulation ability to loosen the soil. The lightning clouds started roaring as if they are warning Sam.
But Sam didn't stop, he made a few circles and by this time, the lightning punishment started to strike him.
He didn't stop or defend, he tried his best to expel most of it with the ripple style and started kicking the ground using the rest of the energy with Void style, only leaving third of the energy wreaking havoc in his body, but his lightning fusion body is reducing the damage as much as possible.
Meanwhile, the spectators are stunned. They didn't know why Sam is kicking the ground like that. If they could see what is happening, they would see the roots of the tree being exposed as the loosed soil dispersed to the side.
His kicks are extremely controlled even with the Void style and he didn't harm the roots.
The lightning punishment kept on striking and this caused the people to be confused. They didn't expect the lightning would strike Sam like that just because only when the fruit was stolen would the lightning react.
Soon, they came to an understanding, Sam is not just stealing the fruit; he is stealing the tree.
Once they thought of this, they couldn't calm down at all.
The tree Sam is stealing has twenty-one fruits and they are glowing with blue color lightning sparks, but in fact, they are transparent and the sparks are due to the lightning energy. They looked at those fruits with longing and many people started preparing their own schemes.
If Sam returned and with his weakened state, wouldn't the tree be all alone in the hands of an injured person? They became greedy.
Praneeth is looking at the rest of them and couldn't help but smile.
Because, Sam has asked him for something before they came here and that is, his safety. And now Praneeth who already agreed now understood clearly.
Sam's ambitions are too wild after all.
He immediately took out a special token and crushed it a faint blue light appeared from it and zoomed in a direction.
By this time, Sam finished clearing the soil and the roots are exposed.
The tree is not too thick and the roots didn't spread too much. He hugged the tree and grit his teeth as he pulled the tree out while gritting his teeth as he endured the barrage of lightning that targeted him like crazy.
He threw the tree into the divine dimension and immediately started running towards the entrance of the cave, but before that with a wave of his hand a fruit appeared and fell into the large hole Sam created to take the tree away and he ran to the entrance.
But unlike the people before the lightning punishment continuously rained on him as Sam used void style to kick the ground and appear at the entrance.
Only after he came out of the valley did the lightning stopped. He immediately deactivated the fusion and puked a mouthful of blood. He sprawled in the ground with exhaustion.
The shape of the valley has changed because of Sam.
There are many large craters and even the lightning strikes density was altered a bit.
As Sam was sighing in relief, he didn't seem to care about the people surrounding him at all and just smiled as he looked at them.