Chapter 1076: Golden Mulberry

The corkscrewing energies shook the entire world of blazing sun. Even the solar king himself was unable to control the unbridled energies.

Dark red flames flared. Burning boulders were sent flying into the air. The fire giant was pierced cleanly through by the ridiculously concentrated energy, and that energy struck the furnace at its back.

"No!" the solar king roared.

The furnace cracked, and the damage that occurred to it was directly reflected on the world of blazing sun.

A crack likewise appeared on the surface of the world of blazing sun. As the corkscrewing energies continued to remain in contact with the furnace, that crack began to propagate, on and on.

The ground shook. Pillars of dark red flame rose all over the world, burning madly. Lava seeped out of the cracks in the ground. The corkscrewing energies dealt heavy damage to the foundation of the entire world.

What the fire giant carried on its back was precisely the proof of kingship, which was intimately connected to the world of blazing sun. If the proof of kingship were to suffer heavy damage, so would the world itself.

Fortunately, the proof of kingship was astonishingly sturdy. As the core of the world of blazing sun, it was able to remain intact despite Fang Yi's supercharged attack.

The furnace flew hundreds of miles through the air before smashing into a mountain range, toppling it whole. The intense heat surrounding it melted the mountains down.

The solar king breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that the proof of kingship had survived without being destroyed.

Fang Yi's attack unleashed such devastating energy that the solar king half-thought that the proof of kingship was done for.

The fire giant was obliterated by the corkscrewing energies. Dark red flame seeped out of the furnace's crack, reforging the fire giant anew.

Li Feng's eyes widened. "What?!"

The solar king laughed. "Haha, you didn't think this could happen, did you? Have you forgotten how this giant was forged to begin with?"

The solar king explained, "After witnessing the king of black fog and the king of keys, I couldn't help but wonder if I too could manifest a will of the world in reality, or to combine it with some other living form. Although the outcome of my experiments isn't what I hoped to achieve, I did end up with a particularly strong weapon."

The solar king smiled. "It's not an existence on par with the king of black fog or the king of keys, but it does share some of the same attributes: chiefly among them that, as long as the proof of kingship isn't destroyed, the fire giant can regenerate indefinitely."

Li Feng's eyes grew wide.

"The fire giant is the avatar of the will of the world. In other words, as long as this world isn't destroyed, neither will be the fire giant! However, once you destroy my world, even if you kill me, the king of chaos won't be able to get any benefits from doing so. Will you nevertheless attempt to kill the giant, or will you leave now? Make your choice."

The solar king was truly frightened by Fang Yi's attack.

It had almost destroyed the world of blazing sun the first time. If Fang Yi were to launch the same attack once again, who knew what would happen?

And even if both of these superior kings were taken care of, who knew how many subordinates the king of chaos would keep sending out? The solar king's only choice was to make the two combatants realize their uphill struggle and quit early.

Meanwhile, after the solar king's initial attack when the three hunters arrived, Zhou Ying had been sent flying, badly injured. However, her immense vitality restored her near-immediately.

An outburst of green light shielded Zhou Ying. Her hair grew long enough to reach her legs, turning into a green the color of sparkling jade. The vitality radiating from her was visible to the naked eye. She seemed to have become one with the land.

Motes of green light fluttered around her like fireflies. Every action she made brimmed with life.

Within moments, Zhou Ying had recovered from her injuries.

She felt a sudden thirst, a resonance. She lifted her head to see a golden mulberry tree, one that rose directly into the clouds. Its golden leaves gave off a blinding light. Each leaf was metallic, lustrous, like a miniature sun.

This was precisely the golden mulberry tree that Zhou Ying, Li Feng, and Fang Yi had sensed upon first arriving in the world.

The leaves of the golden mulberry tree shook, transmitting its desire for Zhou Ying.

Zhou Ying finally understood why she had seen the golden mulberry tree immediately upon arriving in this world.

She was filled with a desire to consume the golden mulberry tree at a genetic level, as though it were the most delicious food she would ever consume.

No, it went beyond even that—this was a desire facilitated by her very cells, her entire body, a resonance of energy. The golden mulberry tree was an exceptional lifeform among the three thousand worlds, and it too wanted to devour the concentrated energy of life that seeped from Zhou Ying's body.

Zhou Ying's energy was derived from wood sprites, and the wood sprites' desire and thirst for exceptional plant life was reflected in her very blood.

A wood sprite who encountered the golden mulberry tree might have chosen a path of symbiosis, but Zhou Ying was no pure wood sprite. Her power simply derived from them.

The evolution of her framework from the spiritual body of a wood sprite to a divine body thereof meant that she could no longer live in symbiosis with any plant matter, and the golden mulberry tree certainly wouldn't choose to live in symbiosis with a half-wood sprite, either.

As a result, Zhou Ying and the golden mulberry tree could only be enemies.

Countless golden birds made of energy hovered around the golden mulberry tree, like clouds heralding a golden dawn. Each was made of such concentrated energy that they took on solid form.

The ground quaked as the golden mulberry tree sent thick roots toward Zhou Ying, who leapt back to avoid their attack.

The golden birds flocked toward Zhou Ying in a golden tide.

"[Avatar of the Fae: Earthbound Prison]!" Zhou Ying released all her stored energy at once, causing the ground to quake as thousands of jade-green wood dragons rushed out of the earth.

However, the situation seemed particularly unfavorable to Zhou Ying, as though the golden mulberry tree's existence was naturally at odds with Zhou Ying.

Most important was the environment. The earth of the world of blazing sun was eminently unsuited for ordinary plants. Even with Zhou Ying's overwhelming vitality, each wood dragon she summoned was only thirty meters thick. Under ordinary circumstances, she was able to summon wood dragons that were three hundred meters thick.

Secondly, the birds of golden energy were particularly strong against her wood dragon constructs. A straightforward confrontation between the golden birds and her wood dragons saw the wood dragons faltering against the golden birds almost immediately...