Death… And Me

Chapter 3650: Priorities

"Hum?" Kentucky looked down, and noticed that the branch they were stepping on turning dark. No, to be more specific, just a tiny area, a circle around their feet, was doing that. The rest of the branch was normal.

Tiny spots of light then came from the borders of the circles, gathering at the center of the circles where everyone was stepping. "Looks nice..."

They walked, and everywhere they stepped, a circular area appeared right under them, with the tiny white spots appearing and gathering. Once they left that area, the branch returned to normal. They didn’t give any sense of danger. Instead, those effects looked a lot like the effects on the enormous leaves, like constelations and stars gathering.

Anywhere they stepped, the same thing happened, so it wasn’t like they could avoid it anyway. Since it didn’t seem dangerous, they decided to ignore it for now.

They moved head, as the branches themselves were also many kilometers long. Looking through the gaps in the leaves, they could see the places where the branches broke through the palace’s ceiling. The Astral Tree didn’t take the Starlight Energy from the projections only. It also gathered the Starlight Energy from the outside through its leaves.

They started walking, but their confidence increased, and they began to run. At the same time, they recovered their energy, using that moment of respite. It still took them another forty or so minutes, but they ultimately arrived at one of the Flower Crystal Pods.

It pulsated with that white snow energy, very similar to Light Element, but it was Starlight Energy inside. "It hasn’t riped yet."

Celis felt the energy inside. "But it sure is near it. The energy is trying to expand, which most likely means the pod’s ripening."

"Can we absorb the energy inside as it is?" Kentucky asked on the side.

Celis moved to the pod, touching it. "Not gonna happen. This is not something we can break, and not an iota of Starlight Energy is leaking out."

"So, basically, we wait, is it?" Roan observed.

"I guess so..." Celis nodded. He couldn’t see another way. Trying to remove the pod from the tree wasn’t a good idea either since they needed it to rip.

Rean then remembered. "Royer mentioned that they would rip once we arrived at the top, didn’t he? How did he know that if he hasn’t got to this place?"

"He probably asked the other experts who were with him last time and made it to the top," Rifindio commented. "He did mention he wasn’t the only one back then, remember?"

"Oh, that’s right..." Rean had forgotten that for a second. It totally made sense since Royer knew them.

That reminded him. He turned his head down, looking in the direction the other group was coming from. They were still far away, so he had to look at the area where the celestial bodies’ projections were falling to know where they were at the moment. "They sure are managing to climb this Astral Tree up."

"Hey, look!" Celis pointed somewhere else, this time on the ground. In the distance, a new shower of celestial bodies began to fall on a different area. This one, however, was even bigger than when the twins’ group entered the Astral Tree range. "Seems like some other group just arrived."

*Crack...*

*Tsss...*

At that moment, the Crystal Pod behind them cracked. Then, the crack spread into five different lines while a white mist came out of it.

"What a waste!" Celis immediately changed back into his World Swallowing Cedar form and began to absorb that mist. It was just a tiny, tiny fraction of the Starlight Energy inside the pod, but he couldn’t help it.

It looked quite funny. Celis was a very big tree himself, but standing on that branch, he looked nothing more than a little sprout; such was the difference in size between him and the Astral Tree.

The twins and Kentucky could feel the Starlight Energy being shared through the four’s connection, a very pure one. "This is nice stuff!"

They didn’t do as Celis did, though. They just looked as the pod opened, revealing a big fruit inside. The fruit was crystalline white and was almost as big as Kentucky’s body. "Can it even enter a Spatial Ring?" Rean couldn’t help but wonder.

The size wasn’t really the problem, but the ridiculous amount of energy contained inside. It might actually destabilize the Spatial Space inside the Spatial Rings, breaking apart and causing everything inside to be lost. The Starlight Stones they got in the past couldn’t hold a candle to that fruit.

Roan didn’t waste time. He approached and tried to pluck the fruit out. Leaving it here would be of no use to them.

"I’ll help!" Rean and Kentucky quickly joined.

Roan tried to pull the fruit out with Kentucky, one on each side, while Rean used his Intent Sword to cut the stem holding the fruit.

*Swish!*

*Clang!*

Yet, Rean failed miserably. His Intent Sword couldn’t do as much as a scratch on the stem that held the fruit. He narrowed his eyes, and this time, he went all out. Sky Energy, Red Lightning, everything.

*Swish!*

*Clang!*

Nothing! He couldn’t cause any damage at all!

"This is bullshit!" Rean complained, canceling his Intent Sword.

Roan and Kentucky let go of the fruit, looking at it with pensive expressions.

"Should we cut the fruit into several parts, then?" Kentucky asked. "The fruit itself seemed pretty soft."

Roan thought the same. "Let’s give it a try."

Rean and Roan quickly attacked the plant, trying to cut it... to no avail. Yes, it was very soft, but it didn’t mean it was weak. The peel of the fruit stretched inwards, but it did not break. In fact, it felt it would be a lot harder to piece the fruit than the stem holding it.

Celis finally finished absorbing the leaked Starlight Energy, changing to his humanoid form. "You felt it, too. We absolutely can’t give up." He then pointed outwards. "Look around; several of these fruits are ripening. We have to take all of them!"

Rifindio raised his hand. "Can you at least absorb the energy inside, Celis?"

Celis looked at him, then back at the fruit. He tried to do that, and surprisingly, it worked. "Well, I’ll be damned. The ripe fruit doesn’t block the extraction of Starlight Energy. You just can’t take the fruit itself from the tree."

Roan made his decision. "We will try to take the fruits away. However, if it doesn’t work, this Golden Palace should still be open for another eight years or so, and we have no lack of Divine Energy Stones." They did acquire plenty of Spatial Rings, after all. "We will cultivate right here and make use of as much Starlight Energy as possible."

"Agreed!" Rean, Celis, and Kentucky accepted. For them, that was priority number one, not the palace.