Chapter 808 World Tree's Reaction

The black tide of mechanical legions swarmed out, layer upon layer connecting together, covering the Sovereign Avatar, quickly combining and transforming into a giant mechanical deity, spanning the starry sky.

Han Xiao steered the massive High Lord machine, navigating the World Tree territory's galaxy, swiftly advancing towards the sparkling stars.

Before long, a planet entangled by roots appeared in his sights, growing ever closer.

Without a word, Han Xiao raised his palm, the center glowing with intense psionic light. In the next moment, a thick beam of light shot out, instantly piercing the planet like a light spear, as if a steel needle had skewered a meatball.

A gaping hole remained on the planet's surface, exposing its internal structure. The crust, asthenosphere, and core were clearly delineated, like a multi-layered cake.

Freezing for a moment, the planet suddenly collapsed inward towards the hole. The crust shattered, turning into molten flows, the asthenosphere surged violently, and the core's brightness soared. A powerful light burst forth from the center point, and the entire planet exploded, transforming into an expanding ball of light.

Han Xiao's machine stood motionless, its shields automatically blocking the intense shockwave of the planetary explosion. Arcs of electricity flashed, leaving it unscathed, as if surrounded by layers of energy hurricanes.

This time, he had come specifically to cause destruction, without the need for the carefulness of more than a decade ago. He wanted a grand display.

Instantly, the information-state alert network was triggered. Before long, the entire World Tree civilization knew about Han Xiao's sudden appearance and the unexpected situation of a destroyed planet.

Han Xiao hadn't gone far when the surrounding space fluctuated. Batch after batch of World Tree fleets arrived directly at the scene via the World Tree Express, firing without hesitation at the planet-sized High Lord machine before them.

Dense rain of light bombarded the High Lord's shields, but it was all sound and fury, stirring up only large patches of energy sparks, unable to break through the impregnable barrier.

Han Xiao raised his hand and squeezed, energy surging. He crushed pieces of warships with a backhand. Though surrounded by the fleet, it was as if he were the one surrounding all the enemies.

Soon, more World Tree fleets arrived on the battlefield via the World Tree territory's rapid arrival channels, joining the battle. More and more warships surrounded Han Xiao, concentrating their fire.

On the other side, in the Tree King's Palace, Ancestor Tree King and Arbiter Tree King were both monitoring Han Xiao's actions through the mind network, their expressions rather grave.

"Why did this guy suddenly come here?" Arbiter Tree King wondered. "Could he be planning to counter-attack our territory alone?"

"It looks like that's exactly what he's doing," Ancestor Tree King said, narrowing his eyes.

"Should we stop him?"

Ancestor Tree King shook his head firmly upon hearing this. "There's no need. He's difficult to deal with. Human-wave tactics are very inefficient. If we want to stop him, we don't know how many troops we'd have to commit, and we'd have to have some of the invading forces return to reinforce. That's exactly what he wants. He wants to distract us, indirectly hindering our invasion progress."

"Then what do we do? Just watch him cause destruction in our territory?"

"Since we can't stop him, then we won't. Let the Mother Tree retract the territory and move the headquarters. We'll just abandon this place to him."

Ancestor Tree King made a decisive decision without hesitation.

There was actually another way, which was to use the Tree God's descent, using a Beyond Grade A against a Beyond Grade A. However, after their last encounter, Ancestor Tree King felt that the incomplete Tree God's descent would be difficult to defeat Black Star, so he simply didn't waste the usage count and just left.

Thanks to the connection of the mind network and the unique Mother Tree mechanism, the World Tree civilization had a huge advantage: amazing execution. As soon as Ancestor Tree King gave the order, the vast World Tree territory immediately began to change.

Countless intricately intertwined World Tree roots vaguely appeared in the sky, slowly moving, as if being uprooted one after another. The "land" carrying the World Tree was the universe space within the territory. Usually, these roots were hidden, but now they all appeared.

One planet after another turned into liquid, all integrated into the World Tree's roots, which were then retracted. The spatial rifts in the outer space of the planets disappeared as well.

Instantly, countless starlight dimmed and eventually vanished. The originally prosperous and brilliant galaxy slowly became a dead and desolate universe. As the World Tree retracted one planet after another, the star field was rapidly returning to its original appearance: desolate, deserted, pitch black, and barren.

Han Xiao, who was slaughtering the World Tree fleet, also noticed the unusual changes in the universe. It was the first time he had seen the World Tree relocate its headquarters. He saw the World Tree roots manifesting in the sky, beginning to withdraw from their "rooted" state.

"They're planning to move as soon as they see me? That's really decisive."

Han Xiao was secretly surprised.

Without the rooted state, the World Tree Express couldn't be used. The World Tree fleet at the scene received the order and immediately ended the siege, quickly teleporting away during the last moments, planning to retreat.

Han Xiao crushed another group of fleets, suddenly had a thought, and abruptly activated the Tree God Character Summon Card.

*Whoosh-*

In the next moment, spatial rifts suddenly tore open around the High Lord, and roots abruptly shot out, sweeping through the fleet, swallowing batches of warships.

The roots he summoned with the Character Summon Card flowed with blue light, completely different from the green World Tree body!

"How can he also use the World Tree's power?!"

Ancestor Tree King, who had been watching, was suddenly stunned by this scene.

Could Black Star be a member of the World Tree? One of their own?!

No, how could that be possible!

At the same time, the Mother Tree's consciousness also reacted, and Ancestor Tree King sensed a surprised emotion from it.

The World Tree itself was also stunned, astonished that a life form not controlled by it possessed the same power as it.

Han Xiao was controlling the summoned roots, whipping at the fleet, feeling very novel and enjoying it. Suddenly having a large number of "tentacles," he finally experienced the Tree King's joy.

Just then, a mental fluctuation suddenly came, bringing Ancestor Tree King's shocked questioning.

"Black Star! How do you possess the power of the World Tree?!"

"Guess."

Han Xiao couldn't help but raise an eyebrow.

He had a whim to activate this Character Summon Card mainly to experiment and see if the roots he summoned were connected to the World Tree.

And after the attempt just now, he had confirmed that the roots generated by the Character Summon Card belonged to him and would not be controlled by the World Tree. They were like rootless wood born out of thin air.

Even if it devoured matter, it could only decompose it into energy to replenish its own consumption, unlike the World Tree, which preserved information-states and transformed them… and when the Character Summon Card's duration ended, these temporarily summoned roots would disintegrate on their own, along with everything they had devoured.

But in the eyes of outsiders, these blue roots originated from him, and their power was extremely similar to the World Tree's, but they were separate individuals, which couldn't help but make Ancestor Tree King's mind run wild.

At this moment, information about the explored universe's Resurrected Ones, Undying Ones, and other information flashed through his mind. Ancestor Tree King's eyes widened suddenly, feeling like he had found the truth.

"I understand! There's actually another World Tree in the universe, inside you!"

The Star Alliance's leaked information included Han Xiao's life story. Ancestor Tree King had always been surprised by the short time it took for Han Xiao to rise to power. At this moment, he felt enlightened and found an explanation.

The undying characteristics of those Undying Ones were so similar to the members of the World Tree. If those Undying Ones were actually members of another World Tree, then it would make sense. Black Star had been pretending that he had nothing to do with it, but in reality, he was making a fortune in silence. He was the mastermind!

"Two World Trees? You really dare to imagine things."

Han Xiao couldn't help but chuckle at Ancestor Tree King's imagination.

He was about to continue speaking, but just then, many space channels suddenly tore open around them. Authentic green World Tree roots stretched out, impatiently entangling Han Xiao's blue roots, like snakes entangled together, twisting into a braid, slowly wriggling, constantly squeezing, pulling, and sticking together.

Seeing this, Han Xiao's tone paused, and his expression suddenly became strange.

This scene, how did it look so much like a tongue kiss…

A little eye-searing…

The corner of Han Xiao's eye twitched. He even felt the World Tree's emotions from the intertwined roots, which were an extremely eager and longing thought, containing a desire to merge into one.

Streams of authentic World Tree power continuously flowed into the blue roots along the intertwined roots, actively transmitting its own energy, as if eager to share good things. Furthermore, the World Tree was also reversely drawing out the power contained in the blue roots, seemingly wanting to achieve some kind of special "body fluid" exchange.

"It's treating the roots I summoned as a mate?!"

Han Xiao's eyes widened, stunned.

He thought that the authentic World Tree would be hostile to his blue copy, fighting to the death. He didn't expect that not only did they not fight, but the World Tree actually took the initiative to "communicate," without any hostility at all, and even very enthusiastically.

Could it be… because the authentic World Tree had always been a unique existence, lonely and bored, and now it finally discovered a similar species, so its mating instincts were ignited, and it was unbearably thirsty, with instinct taking over?!

‘The ancients did not deceive me, a mountain cannot contain two tigers, unless one is male and one is female.’

Han Xiao became interested and secretly marveled.

On the other side, Ancestor Tree King was completely stunned. As the Tree King, he could feel the Mother Tree's consciousness constantly transmitting joy and excitement, and even his gaze towards Han Xiao was affected.

Han Xiao, who should have been an enemy, actually became kind in his eyes, and he couldn't bring himself to feel hostile.

Damn it, we are about to fight to the death, why did Your Majesty surrender first?!

Ancestor Tree King quickly shook his head, shaking off the indirect influence of the Mother Tree's consciousness, and said in amazement, "What's going on?"

Han Xiao came back to his senses, smiled slyly, and said in a teasing tone, "Didn't you say there are two World Trees? Mine is male, and yours is female. Your female one saw my male one, and it doesn't work anymore~"

Ancestor Tree King was furious. "You're talking nonsense! Why doesn't the female one work when it sees the male one? Shouldn't it be the other way around?!"

"Huh, I didn't expect you to be a tough guy."

Han Xiao had a face full of black lines, turned his head to look at the desperately entangled blue and green roots, and suddenly smiled slyly again:

"This is too proactive. By the way, your Mother Tree is awesome!"

"…"

Although Ancestor Tree King didn't understand Han Xiao's teasing, he knew it wasn't a good thing when he heard it, and he inexplicably felt a pang of sadness, feeling that the green light on his body seemed even brighter.

He disconnected the mind communication, suppressed his annoyance, and ordered the troops to speed up their retreat with a calm face.

Before long, the World Tree finally retracted its headquarters. The fleets besieging Han Xiao either died or fled, and the World Tree roots, which were frantically seeking a mate, reluctantly retracted into the space channel. No matter how it teased, the blue roots summoned by Han Xiao with the Character Summon Card did not respond, which could be described as being unperturbed by temptations.

——In reality, this was because the blue roots were temporarily generated rootless wood, which were truly castrated versions of the ability, completely controlled by Han Xiao, without any self-awareness, and did not have this function.

Not long after, the time of the Tree God Character Summon Card also arrived. The blue roots shattered inch by inch, turning into light dust and dissipating, leaving only the High Lord alone, floating in the desolate universe.

The World Tree had abandoned its territory, and all the planets and individuals had returned to the Mother Tree, completely evacuating, as if Han Xiao had scared them so much that they didn't even want their headquarters and moved overnight… which was almost the case.

In a word, what prestige!

"Tsk, without realizing it, my deterrent power has become so strong."

Han Xiao shook his head and smiled.

If it were anyone else, they would probably be too embarrassed to run away directly. A civilization as large as theirs couldn't be scared away by him alone to the point where they didn't even want their old home. At the very least, they would have to send out enough troops for a big battle until they suffered heavy casualties and felt they couldn't hold on anymore before having a reasonable reason to retreat… but the World Tree just didn't care about that kind of thing. They left as soon as they said they would, not feeling embarrassed at all. He hadn't even had time to unleash his abilities yet. This kind of enemy was the most difficult to deal with.

"Although forcing the World Tree to move can cause them some trouble, it's a temporary solution, not a permanent one… but this trip wasn't a loss. I seem to have discovered some interesting things."

Han Xiao showed a playful smile. He didn't expect the Tree God Character Summon Card to have such a wonderful effect.

"I used it once now for an experiment. This Character Summon Card has three more uses left. It might have amazing effects at the right time."