Star Gate

“Come, we head to the next ruin!” Li Hao marshaled the troops. “Send out your mental strength when we depart this place and do not let anyone approach. Those guys can’t figure out who is who, so they won’t dare draw near after a plant spirit gives the order!”

The redwood tree nodded. When the group left, it angrily pulsed, “Get out of here! No one is allowed to come near! This seat needs to recover. All those who dare enter within one thousand meters will die!”

The ancient castle immediately quieted down before someone responded inside, “Please don’t be angry, milord. We will not dare approach! Servants, seal off the surroundings so that no one disturbs the revered one!”

Li Hao had already left with his group aboard the earth driller.

……

Li Hao visited numerous ruins with the redwood on this day. All of the plant spirits they targeted lived by themselves and most were spirits from the wilderness. The redwood tree didn’t dare absorb more core origin after killing three plant spirits; its battle strength had almost recovered to peak condition. Li Hao wouldn’t be able to continue sheltering it if it took in more energy. It would burst through the personal domain to its doom.

Core origin was a resource that was difficult to store. Li Hao could only enclose some with his domain of the five elements, have the redwood compress it, then store it in Panther’s stomach. On this day, the dog constantly shook from trepidation as there was too much energy rattling in its body. If any of it destabilized and exploded, it would be blown to pieces as well, no matter how much its stomach could contain!

……

At the same time, Skystar City. The royal palace, underground.

The bramble rose abruptly took human form and looked around quizzically. The old Skystar King immediately awoke.

“Is something the matter, milord?”

“Something is wrong!” intoned the bramble rose. “The world seems to have loosened, or some other factor is at stake. There are numerous plant spirits on Skystar Island that fight over energy. But today, there seems to be more energy available. Why is that?”

It seemed that a batch of those fighting over energy had died? Surely not!

Although the bramble rose was confused, the old Skystar King’s thoughts didn’t veer in that direction.

“Milord,” he smiled. “Can it be that more energy is emanating from the mine? That means the second awakening is at hand! That one can’t control the flow of energy anymore.”

Is that so? But the bramble rose felt that it was more a decline in the fighting of the outside world. But being trapped in the ruins, it couldn’t sense much.

The rose was ill at ease and quickly said, “I’m going to take a look at Security. There were some ripples there last time…”

It hadn’t paid a visit despite the disturbance, in case its actions caused a misunderstanding. But now, it was hard to be at peace. Had changes occurred in the outside world? If large sums of plant spirits had died… that would be a great trouble. It meant that enormous changes had taken place.

A rose on a vine quickly threaded through space and appeared before a chaotic, shadowy barrier before long. The vine probed through the darkness, only to be met by a forceful presence on the other end. It was as if the might of heaven and earth had descended!

The little tree was alarmed on the other side and promptly called upon the imperial palace’s projection to crush the vine that was extended from the dark wall.

“Hmph!” A muffled grunt sounded on the other end!

……

The bramble vine immediately withdrew its tendril, but it was already in pieces. Rage brewed in its heart! That bastard! So it would seem that the golden coconut had recovered well. It was very strong and showed absolutely no mercy. The golden coconut crushed one of its vines as soon as it was visible! So it would seem that nothing had happened to it last time!

“Hmph!” came another soft snort. This would not stand. It had to go to the mine as soon as possible. As for these guys… I’ll take care of you one by one when I’m done!

It whirled around and sped through the air. Since the golden coconut still existed, there was no need to brashly head over. The bramble rose would be harmed by disordered core origin instead and might be further injured if the tree decided to attack. That course of action should be foregone.

It returned to the underground palace in a foul mood.

“Have your son contact the other places, this seat wishes to explore the mine. We can wait no longer!”

“Please be at ease, milord, I’ll have him prepare this as soon as possible,” the old Skystar King hastily said. “Then the golden coconut…”

“It’s a stubborn fool, there’s no need to pay any attention to it! It will be excluded from this operation and I’ll teach it a lesson once I’m fully recovered!” The rose temporarily set aside the power struggle in the outside world. Perhaps those guys had absorbed large sums of mysterious power stones lately and no longer fought over energy drifting through the world?

That was a possibility too.

Li Hao had forced all factions to expend large sums of mysterious power stones lately. It was good news for the plant spirits.

……

The Ministry of Armed Forces, Administration, Examinations, and Foreign Relations soon received messages from the royal family expressing a desire to discuss a partnership. All parties were to meet at the mine as soon as possible. They needed to take advantage of Li Hao’s absence. Perhaps they could set the second awakening into motion before he returned, or just outright take the mine for themselves.

……

Near the City of Supernaturals.

Li Hao furrowed his brows after killing the fifth Immortal plant spirit and halted. He froze the expansion of his personal domain.

The jujube tree had gone into the storage ring and refused to come out. The redwood tree could not follow suit because its primary body was too powerful for a storage ring. It would accidentally break it and be lost in a spatial fissure. It was now in the form of a small tree and nervously glued to Li Hao’s body. The redwood was stronger than before!

Li Hao’s domain kept expanding and threatened to explode. The redwood would be in grave danger once it did.

“Why have you stopped… commander?” Countless thoughts rose in the redwood’s mind. Did Li Hao want to kill it? Did he think that it’d eaten too much? But it hadn’t absorbed much after killing the third plant spirit. The most it did was absorb what it expended in battle.

Li Hao shook his head and frowned slightly. “Can you sense… the change in ambient energy?”

“What?”

The young man’s frown deepened. “I said the ambient energy! The energy in the air is denser in this part of the land.”

“That’s normal,” the redwood quickly responded. “We normally take in energy from the air. Now that five of us are dead and the roots destroyed, they are unable to continue absorbing energy. That naturally causes a return in the energy levels of these surroundings.”

Li Hao frowned, saying after a moment, “We can’t keep killing anymore!”

The redwood blinked. Why not? It was mostly satiated as it were, but there were six more alive, including itself.

“The energy level has started rising again after only killing five…” Li Hao frowned. “This part of the world will see a rapid rise if this continues. That’s odd, does the world produce its own energy?”

“It does!” the redwood tree answered affirmatively. “The amount of energy in the world is constant. Once too many die, especially the powerful, energy seeps out if no one absorbs it. This is also when some hidden energy is stirred up.”

It, too, realized something with these words. “So… the commander means… the second awakening?” It asked slowly.

Li Hao sensed the energy in the surroundings and nodded with a frown. “I can sense a quick acceleration in the recovery rate around us. It probably has to do with us killing so many Arcanus and then five plant spirits. There might be an energy tide here soon if this continues, which will ignite the second awakening ahead of time.”

Damn it!

He’d sensed some differences in the air only just now and it was because he’d melded his five auras into the world that he sensed it. This was no longer a simple matter of whether or not the slaughter could continue. The key was, there was a large mine at Skystar City.

A lot of plant spirits had been in residence before, absorbing vast quantities of energy in the environment. Would changes develop once too many plant spirits died? The unfettered surge of unclaimed energy would cause a tidal wave in the mine. That would instantly give rise to the second awakening.

Li Hao was suddenly reminded of the first awakening. There hadn’t been much energy in the world then. A mine had suddenly exploded because too much energy had accumulated within it. There were likely no plant spirits inside that mine to help digest the building energy levels.

That created the first energy tide.

Li Hao remained rooted to the spot. “So this means that if plant spirits do not awaken or absorb any energy, or all choose to be unmoving, then the second awakening might arrive very quickly. The world itself has a natural recovery process!”

“That is the logic, but which among us would forgo absorbing energy after we awaken?” responded the redwood tree after some thought. “The commander knows how weak we are.”

Therefore, it was almost impossible to rely on plant spirits abstaining from the natural energy in the environment and permitting those levels to grow until a second awakening happened in due course.

Everyone would partake in what was around them! They needed it!

The little tree had rooted itself in the void to absorb from the environment around it. Everything in Silver Moon pulled on any energy they could lay hands on to recover. Someone else would take it away from them if they were a second slower!

etvolare’s Thoughts

Oh RIP. But tbh I like that there are consequences of one’s actions here.