Chapter 642: Man-eating Tree
With Bai Li around to support him, there was no way these people could run away. As such, they were all killed and fed to the Cinder Pine.
The hovercraft of the Fengli Organization had arrived after all that happened. They did not dare to use long-range support fire because they feared that they would disrupt Qin Feng. Qin Feng did not want them to come too—if things went south, the B-tiers could hijack the hovercraft and then they would have a hostage situation.
“Don’t be scared. We’re here to help!”
“Thank goodness… we’re saved!”
“Follow us.”
“Argh…!!! Don’t… Don’t hurt me…!! Huh? What… Um, well… We’re from Cinderclast City!”
“Yes, ma’am. Yes. We’re from the Fengli Organization. Come with us. There’s no need to worry now.”
After a few rounds of confusion, the people on the other hovercrafts were now rescued and brought onto their hovercraft.
Meanwhile, reinforcement from the Human Alliance too had arrived.
They were late—even later than the hovercraft. As such, they did not get to do any fighting. Still, even if they wanted to help Qin Feng to fight, they would not be able to do much anyway—Qin Feng was able to wipe out the whole group in minutes.
These people had other things in their minds right now—the Cinderclast Golems under the Cinder Pine.
Qin Feng, on the other hand, took Bai Li’s hand and retreated.
Even though he knew that feeding B-tiers to the tree would provide it with a great amount of nutrition, he did not think that it would grow so fast. Now, the thing was about five hundred meters tall!
Right now, the B-tiers that had newly arrived felt a tremendous presence from the Cinder Pine. It was so powerful that it was so difficult to breathe near it.
“Qin Feng, are you alright?” He Liming and the others walked toward Qin Feng.
They opted to care for Qin Feng instead of hunting the Cinderclast Golems right away for financial gains.
They also saw the weapon in Qin Feng’s hand. They saw that it could destroy B-tiers’ weapons and armor. As such, this thing must be quite powerful and valuable.
This thing… it could be a God Weapon.
“I’m fine. We need to retreat a bit further.” Qin Feng said.
“What’s wrong?”
“I have a bad feeling about the tree. Trust me.”
Three of them came early so that they could grab some hunts while they could. Now that they had hunted enough, there was no need to rush forward to hunt more. Besides, they understood what he meant by “bad feeling”—they too had felt a certain heavy, creeping presence from the Cinder Pine. As such, they backed away with Qin Feng.
As soon as they left the area, they could feel that the ground was shaking before lava started to burst wildly in the lava pool earlier.
Splash!!!!!!
A crimson red root burst out of the lava pool and flipped the soil around fiercely. This went on further and further, and before they knew it… Two-kilometer-wide of soil was completely flipped by the root, pulling the other greedy B-tiers in it.
“Ahhh! What’s going on??”
An ancient warrior cried out in confusion.
The ground continued to shake wildly as tree roots burst out of the soil. He wanted to jump away from it but several roots burst out from behind and grabbed him.
Booom!!
The ancient warrior unleashed his internal energy, intending to break away from them. The burst of his energy was so loud that even Qin Feng could hear it from afar.
He kept bursting forth his internal energy. Again and again.
“It’s Liu Ji!”
Fu Wenjue apparently knew who that was and wanted to head out to save him. However, before he was able to leap out, Qin Feng pulled his arm.
“Don’t. You won’t make it in time.”
He looked at where Liu Ji was again. The poor ancient warrior was now completely bound by the roots and being pulled toward the tree trunk. As he was pulled closer, a huge mouth opened up on the tree trunk!
“Gulp!”
Liu Ji was thrown straight into the tree’s mouth before it closed up completely. A minute later, the Cinder Pine did not grow taller, instead, its roots kept appearing more and more in the area, extending further and further.
This was so horrifying!
And it was not just Liu Ji. There were also other aptitude users that were trapped too. They thought that they could prey on some golems by arriving early. Instead, now they had become the prey.
“Qin Feng, should we ask for help from the A-tiers? This tree… this thing! It’s so horrifying!”
Qin Feng shook his head and switched on his communicator. “When will the Floating City arrive?”
“We’re en route, sir. We should be there in half an hour.”
“Good!”
Half an hour? Qin Feng could hold on for half an hour.
There was no change in his plans.
“Look! It’s moving!”
“Could it be that this tree is… an animal?”
Fu Wenjue and the others panicked when they saw it moving.
“Damn it!”
Qin Feng’s face turned grim.
The B-tiers that were running away were fleeing toward Cinderclast City. If they kept on going that way, Cinder Pine would reach Cinderclast City in under five minutes!
After all, the tree was very near the city. And it had grown humongous in size… and it was fast too.
“Don’t run in that direction! If you want to leave, turn to other directions!”
Qin Feng yelled out loudly.
Yet, the Cinder Pine was too huge. Even if they wanted to, they could not outrun the tree roots. Also, these people did not care to listen to Qin Feng too.
“Bai Li, do it!” Qin Feng ordered.
In an instant, Bai Li vanished into thin air. Yang Bei and the others felt a chill down their spines when they saw this. They could feel that Qin Feng was not exactly in a good mood.
“Governor Qin, please stay calm. There’s no need to kill one of our own!”
Qin Feng coldly replied, “I’m just helping them to flee. Not kill them.”
Well, that was the plan. There was no guarantee if these people would oblige though—these people might have some other insidious plan in mind.
If they were to run into Cinderclast City, the city walls could indeed stop the roots for a short moment. Then, these B-tiers could run away—leaving an entire city as distraction for the demonic tree.
Meanwhile, Bai Li’s dimensional rune was activated around these people. In a wink of an eye, they were all sent to five thousand meters away and not anywhere near Cinderclast City.
However, this was enough for them to be free of the Cinder Pine’s wrath. After seeing that they were safe, they retreated without hesitation.
Without its prey, the tree had stopped its movement. Its trunk and branches were shaking slowly in place, seemingly wondering where it should go next.
At the same time, Qin Feng had already put away his Verdant Emperor Saber and taken out a hand cannon.
“You all can leave now. I’ll distract the Cinder Pine.”
“No, Qin Feng! This is too dangerous!”
The three men’s faces turned grim after hearing this.
They knew just how powerful this prodigy was. However, the Cinder Pine was too dangerous and enigmatic. They could not imagine just what kind of danger lay ahead.
And if Qin Feng died here, it would be a huge loss to the Human Alliance.
Qin Feng was like any of them. To them, this young man could very well reach A-tier at any moment. In fact, he had a good chance of ascending to S-tier!
Yet, Qin Feng did not give them time to think. He loaded his cannon and fired.
Whooosh!
An ice cannon ball darted thousands of meters away, accompanied by a strand of white smoke, before landing on the Cinder Pine’s roots.
The Cinder Pine started to shake wildly as steam fumed off its roots. The tree now had made Qin Feng its new target.
Creak! Creaak!!
The Cinder Pine started to move again. This time it went straight toward Qin Feng.
Seeing hundreds and thousands of roots moving this way, even Fu Wenjue felt a chill creep down his spine.
Qin Feng fired another round of ice cannon ball at the Cinder Pine.
This would not hurt it one bit but it was enough to get its attention.
Thus, everyone kept looking at Qin Feng fire round after round of ice cannon balls at it, luring the tree away from civilization with great speed. They were so fast that even the drones could not keep up with them anymore!
In the skyscrapers, all the aptitude users had become quiet.
“He’s… a good governor.”
An E-tier opened his mouth. He came from one of the small colonies that were fused to become Cinderclast City today. After seeing what Qin Feng did for everyone, his eyes became teary red.