Chapter 25: The Netherfruit Appears
The Berre brothers and Linley’s brothers advanced one after the other, striding forward in large steps. However, the four of them did not move quickly, cautiously observing their surroundings as they went.
“Boss, what do you think the Netherfruit that can greatly increase one’s power looks like?” Bebe’s eyes were full of curiosity as he transmitted mentally.
Linley was surveying the area. “The Netherfruit, the Netherfruit… maybe it looks like an ordinary fruit. Hmm, something doesn’t feel right!” Linley sniffed the air and caught an exceptionally peculiar, fresh scent. As he inhaled it, his mind instantly cleared, and even the gray mist that had been affecting his soul dissipated significantly.
“Boss, the gray mist ahead is much thinner,” Bebe said quickly.
Linley’s heart stirred. “It seems we’re close. Let’s go!”
He strode forward, and the Berre brothers did the same. Linley advanced about another hundred meters before noticing that the surrounding gray mist had completely vanished. “What kind of tree is that?” Linley couldn’t help but look toward the open center area ahead, where a low, sprawling tree with extremely dense branches stood.
The low tree had a trunk that would take two people to wrap their arms around, and it was less than thirty meters tall.
Yet this tree had countless branches, each one a hundred to two hundred meters long, with many smaller twigs extending from them. As a result, this single low tree covered a radius of several hundred meters in front of them.
“Boss, look! What’s that?” Bebe exclaimed.
Linley’s pupils contracted.
On a large branch above the tree’s canopy, nestled among the leaves, was a fruit slightly larger than a fist. It was nearly spherical, with a purple skin that was crystal clear, shimmering with flowing light and dazzling brilliance. It also faintly emitted a hazy mist.
“Such a refreshing scent.” Linley took a deep breath, his mind growing even clearer, and his soul felt wonderfully at ease. “This… is the Netherfruit?”
Linley glanced at the Berre brothers beside him. Berre’s eyes were gleaming as he stared at the Netherfruit. But Berre didn’t rush forward recklessly. Instead, he called out, “Linley, that’s the Netherfruit! But I must warn you. The Netherfruit isn’t so easy to pick. The guardian serpent spirit of the Netherfruit hasn’t appeared yet.”
Berre had experienced the process of picking the Netherfruit countless years ago. He clearly knew the danger!
Linley also understood…
The Netherfruit might seem to be sitting there, but if someone charged in blindly, they’d surely be in trouble.
“Boss, I’ll go,” Bebe said confidently, ready to dash forward.
“Bebe, hold on,” Linley barked.
“Huh?” Bebe looked at him.
“Let’s observe first!” Linley carefully scanned the surroundings. Suddenly—
“Rustle, rustle…”
The leaves and branches of the Netherfruit tree, which spread out widely, began to tremble as if stirred by the wind. The sound broke the surrounding silence. At the same time, green energy light began to glow on the leaves and branches covering the hundreds of meters. Gradually…
Palm-sized green snakes formed on the leaves, one after another.
“So many!” Bebe gasped.
Though he wasn’t afraid of these green snakes, seeing so many made his scalp tingle. Linley couldn’t help but narrow his eyes… With just a glance, the number of green snakes was in the thousands. Dense clusters of green snakes appeared all over the tree.
“This is just the appetizer,” Berre said coldly.
“Serpent spirit, come out now,” Berre called out loudly. “What? Do you want me to come over so you can ambush me?”
Linley and Bebe were startled.
Serpent spirit? Weren’t these green snakes the serpent spirit?
“Haha! I didn’t expect you to know about me!” A crisp, sinister voice came from within the tree’s trunk. “How boring. I wanted to have a bit more fun with you. Now you’re making me show myself… No surprise at all.” As the voice echoed, the Netherfruit tree gradually revealed its true form!
Linley, Bebe, and Bulon couldn’t help but feel a jolt of fear.
A massive green snake, as thick as an arm and nearly ten meters long, slowly emerged from the tree’s trunk. This giant green serpent coiled around the trunk, its head raised high, its cold, purple-glowing eyes scanning Linley, Berre, and the other two in the distance.
Those serpent eyes were a piercing purple!
Linley and Bebe couldn’t help but squint, unwilling to meet the giant green snake’s gaze.
“Linley, what we need to do now is… under the obstruction of these countless green snakes and that serpent spirit, seize the Netherfruit,” Berre said flatly. “Let me remind you—the serpent spirit can also control the Netherfruit tree to hinder and entangle you. Alright… whoever gets the Netherfruit keeps it.”
With that, Berre’s body began to emit a faint yellow light.
“Earth divine power?” Linley frowned.
Bebe, however, licked his lips excitedly. “Boss, watch me get that Netherfruit! Those little green snakes are nothing in my eyes. The Netherfruit… I’ll definitely get it!” Bebe produced the divine-gem dagger in his hand and carefully watched Berre.
Berre was clearly gathering his strength—
“Hah!”
With a sudden roar, the yellow light on Berre’s body concentrated on his right leg. He lifted his leg and then stomped hard on the ground. “Boom!” The earth let out a terrifying rumble as the yellow light surged from his leg into the ground.
Strangely, the ground beneath Berre’s feet remained completely undamaged.
“Pulse transmission, explosion?” Linley guessed the profound mystery behind this move, though he couldn’t replicate it yet. He immediately looked toward the tree ahead.
“Boom!” “Boom!” “Boom!” “Boom!”…
A series of violent explosions erupted beneath the tree, which spanned hundreds of meters. Large craters appeared in the rocky ground, sending shattered stones flying in all directions. The smaller branches and leaves of the Netherfruit tree were snapped and flung away, and countless green snakes scrambled to dodge.
Even the main trunk of the Netherfruit tree trembled, though the trunk and larger branches remained undamaged—clearly very tough. Only the smaller branches and leaves were affected.
Chaos!
The broken branches and scattered leaves threw the Netherfruit tree into disarray.
“Go!” Linley’s eyes lit up, and he shot forward like an arrow from a bow.
“Now’s the time!” Bebe charged out at the same moment.
But Berre was already a step ahead of Linley and Bebe, rushing forward at top speed. A yellow halo spread over Berre’s body, rippling continuously. With a determined look, he produced a pitch-black war blade in his hand.
“Haha…” The sinister laughter came from within the tree.
Suddenly—
“Whoosh!” “Whoosh!” “Whoosh!” “Whoosh!”…
Thousands of green snakes shot out like a rain of arrows from the dense leaves of the tree. This time, they all targeted Linley, Bebe, and Berre simultaneously. As for the purple-haired youth Bulon, he stood in the distance and didn’t charge forward.
Seeing the dense swarm of green snakes hurtling toward him, Linley had no choice but to go all out.
A yellow halo suddenly spread from Linley’s body, enveloping himself and Bebe in a hemispherical space with a diameter of fifteen meters. When the green snakes, like sharp arrows, entered the Blackstone Space, their speed plummeted drastically, becoming much slower.
Guided by the serpent spirit, the green snakes knew about the repulsive force of the Blackstone Space.
But if they didn’t enter the Blackstone Space, they couldn’t harm Linley. So they had no choice but to charge in.
“Haha, come bite me! All of you, come bite me!” Bebe roared loudly, charging ahead of Linley straight into the mass of green snakes. At the same time, Bebe’s body split into dozens of afterimages. The sounds of collisions, daggers piercing snake bodies, and claws tearing through snake flesh rang out in rapid succession!
Bebe pushed forward, and Linley, behind him, faced much less pressure.
Scattered green snakes came from all directions. Linley coldly swung the Mirage Sword, using the principles of wind-element laws to transform the sword into billions of sword shadows that filled the surrounding space. The sword shadows were ethereal, agile, and eerily fast, even causing the space to tremble slightly, restraining the green snakes.
“Sizzle, sizzle…”
The green snakes, slowed within the Blackstone Space, faced the Mirage Sword. With a dense series of sounds, countless snakes were instantly shredded by the thousands of sword strikes, turning into mush. Last time, Linley had no experience; this time, he was well-prepared and executed his moves with greater ease.
The dense swarm of over a thousand green snakes heading toward Linley was all struck.
Still, three snakes, only lightly injured, fearlessly continued their assault, trying to bite Linley.
“Hmph.” Linley instantly shifted the gravitational force.
The Blackstone Space’s gravity reversed downward!
The sudden change in gravity caught the three snakes off guard, causing them to plummet diagonally, unable to even reach Linley.
“Swish!” “Swish!” “Swish!” With three quick sword strikes, Linley killed the snakes that had fallen to the ground.
Sometimes, a sudden shift in gravity was highly effective.
“That Berre.” Linley glanced over and was secretly startled. The yellow halo around Berre’s body trembled continuously. When the mass of green snakes attacked, Berre let them swarm him. But once the snakes entered the halo, their bodies began to vibrate, and in an instant, they exploded into mush with a “bang.”
“Earth pulse, the unending life force, and earth element.” Linley could tell at a glance that Berre had fused these three profound mysteries.
Different profound mysteries, when fused, produced different effects.
Linley didn’t know that this was the best method Berre had devised over countless years of pondering how to deal with the green snakes—a technique he’d spent over a hundred million years perfecting. However, in terms of flight speed, Bebe, who didn’t need to worry about the green snakes at all, was a step faster than Berre. Bebe darted like lightning to the tree trunk.
“Haha, the Netherfruit is mine!” Bebe cheered as he reached out to grab the Netherfruit.
“Sizzle…”
A strange sound invaded Bebe’s mind, and he couldn’t help but feel dizzy.
Suddenly, the giant green serpent’s head emerged from the side. Opening its massive jaws, it lunged straight at Bebe. The serpent’s head shot out like lightning, and before the dazed Bebe could react, the giant green snake clamped its mouth around his head. The snake bit down with all its might—
“Crack!”
“Bebe!” Linley was horrified.
“Get lost!” Bebe roared, bursting out of the snake’s mouth.
But the giant green snake stared at Bebe in shock. A black object fell from its mouth, and Linley glanced over—it was a broken fang!
“The green snake bit Bebe and broke its tooth?” Linley was speechless.
While the giant green snake was entangled with Bebe, Berre darted toward the Netherfruit. But just as he was about to touch it, “Whoosh!” The Netherfruit tree bent sharply, dodging Berre’s grab. At the same time, countless branches, like arms, lashed out at Berre, wrapping around him.
Berre’s expression changed.
“Big brother!” The purple-haired youth Bulon, watching from afar, was alarmed. Berre roared in fury and swung his pitch-black war blade. A thunderous, low sound rang out as space trembled, even cracking. The blade slashed at the branches coiling around him.
At that moment—
“Swoosh!” Linley also darted toward the Netherfruit.
“Damn it!” Bebe roared and charged again.
“Roar!” The giant green snake, enraged, opened its massive mouth and sprayed a thick cloud of black poisonous mist at Linley and Bebe, enveloping them both.