Chapter 816: The Devil Tree King

A swarm of black dots emerged from the world tree's body—what seemed to be a whole host of black beetles.

The world tree lived in symbiosis with a large number of bugs and insects, who lived off the tree's sap and the pests that tried to harm it. When the world tree was in trouble, they were its first line of defense.

If the devil trees were like commoners and soldiers, then the black beetles were the imperial guards.

They were present in large numbers and had speed and agility far surpassing the devil trees'. The beetles that emerged from the world tree would be able to devour all the devil trees in the world if they wanted to.

The swarm looked like a storm of black clouds. Each beetle was the size of a human and looked fierce and sinister.

"[Lunar Apostasy]!" Sun Mengmeng's entire bow was blazing. She launched her arrows straight into the air, which exploded among the clouds and formed a black moon, which shot down rays of moonlight. on the descending beetles.

The beetles burst apart into black fireballs and fell from the sky like an endless rain of black. The smell of charred flesh filled the air with a sharp tang.

A large beetle emerged from the black flames. It was larger than the others, and its carapace glinted with metallic light.

Three arrows filled with black flame left Sun Mengmeng's hand.

"[Lunarflame Shot: Pierce]!" The three blackflame arrows corkscrewed around each other, trailing light and heat as they struck the beetle directly in a conflagration of darkness, piercing through its carapace and drilling a small hole in the world tree's bark, though the world tree's regeneration quickly healed it.

There were many symbiotic bugs that the world tree sustained, almost an ecosystem in its own right. Sun Mengmeng had just dealt with one group when another one appeared in even greater quantities, like a black storm poised to overwhelm the entire world.

"[Netherworld's Torrential Flame]!" A frightening fan of flames poured out from Sun Mengmeng's bow,

The flames arced in the air and fell toward the battlefield in a waterfall. They scoured the bugs from the sky and even the devil trees on the ground; half the world seemed to be alight.

The devil tree king roared in outrage as the entire world shook. The ground cracked, and thick roots emerged like gigantic dragons. Compared to these roots, Zhou Ying's ebony dragons were minuscule in comparison.

As the ground continued to quake and the terrain transformed, the devil trees on the ground stumbled and fell. Huge roots slammed down toward Sun Mengmeng.

"[Lunarflame Shot: Ninefold Phantasmagoria]." Sun Mengmeng launched another attack in mid-air as she propelled herself backwards. Her surroundings began to burn with dark flames. Nine purplish-black phoenixes rose up around her and clashed against the thick roots. As the black flames exploded, the roots were flung back.

The flames formed a black rose in the air, which burst apart and intensified the flames all around them. The tree roots were obliterated, as were the devil trees on the ground below them. Blistering heat swept over the battlefield, melting boulders and turning the ground into lava.

The world tree let out a shrill scream. Its crown of leaves shook wildly, and the face that appeared on its bark made an enraged expression. It had been many long years since any lifeform had dealt it so much damage.

"[Lunarflame Shot]!" As Sun Mengmeng channeled her anger into her flames, her fire-attuned genetic energy reached new heights. Black flames erupted from her very body, and the ground beneath her began to melt.

She drew her bow taut. The black flames that had gathered around her condensed into an arrow of pure black. Behind Sun Mengmeng appeared a black sun, one which gave off piercing light. The temperature of the battlefield ratcheted up.

With black flames coursing through her body, Sun Mengmeng compressed the arrow she was forming once and again, packing in more and more heat until it reached a critical threshold.

The arrow was pitch-black and limned by a layer of black flame that seemed to have transformed into plasma. The shadow of a golden bird emerged before the black sun to Sun Mengmeng's back. Black flame flowed through its body like lava.

Its eyes were piercing; as it spread its wings wide and cawed, the blackflame arrow shot out of Sun Mengmeng's bow, transforming into a beam of light, moving so quickly that it bypassed the constraints of time and space, as though it could pierce everything and anything.

The arrow caused no earth-shattering explosion. It was plain and ordinary, and no sound marked its advance. It flew across the battlefield, which ignited with black flames behind it.

Thick roots emerged from the world tree and wove themselves into a wall that blocked Sun Mengmeng's arrow. Heat heralded the arrow's appearance; even before it struck the wall of roots, black scorch marks were appearing on the roots' surface.

As the arrow drew closer and closer, those marks began to spread and grow darker.

The thick roots might as well have been papier mache—the arrow pierced through the root barrier almost instantly.

Considering how fast the arrow was, the world tree was unable to prepare another defense in time. The arrow struck the world tree's bark directly, piercing it whole and causing the hole left behind to erupt into flames. A wave of heat followed the arrow, swallowing up heaven and earth.

The hole the arrow left in its wake was the size of half a city. The world tree began to tilt, and then to fall—but right before it could do so, thick roots emerged from the ground and propped it up.

Given the world tree's superior regenerative abilities, it should have been able to recover from the wound in the blink of an eye, but the world tree was unable to do so this time. The hole in its trunk was too large, too gaping, and the ridiculous heat packed into the arrow had all but cauterized the wound.

If not for the roots that were holding it up, the world tree would have collapsed. It had lived in the world for so long that it had lost track of time, and it would be no exaggeration to call it the most ancient tree the world knew. All its enemies had perished with the passing of time and age, and it had all but forgotten how to deal with such dangerous foes...