Chương 359: The Army's War. Danger In The Horizon.

Danger In The Horizon.

The group, led by Flor and the others, finally arrived at the battle location. Due to the ridiculous size of the battlefield, they couldn't help Liu Shu against the Corrupted World Tree's roots. However, that wasn't their objective. The giant army of people who arrived to help came to battle against the surface-based flora and fauna. As they walked inside, there was a small problem. They all noticed that the noxious fumes created by the conflict between Liu Shu and the Corrupted World Tree were damaging them.

Looking at their system, there was a constant debuff on them. [You've been affected by <Corrupted Land>. You'll be losing 56 Phoer Body Shards per second.] While it didn't look like much, once you did the numbers, it was a terrifying amount of constant damage received per hour—201, 600 Phoer Body Shards, or two cores per hour. An average human at Level 30 had 6 Phoer body Cores! So, even if they just stood in place for four hours doing nothing, they would die almost guaranteed.

Seeing this debuff, the army commanders started giving out orders.

"Form groups of 100 people with one large area passive healer! There should be enough healers to create enough groups. The healers in those groups shouldn't use their Aether Mana and Anima Energy to treat outsiders; instead, they should focus on gentle but constant healing. Counteract the <Corrupted Land> effect!" Groups were swiftly rearranged. Having a proportion around one healer per twenty people, there could be more than one per squad.

However, the healer chosen for that position would focus on that constant healing and do nothing more. The single-target healing would fall onto the shoulders of the rest. Plus, self-healing was a skill that most people had some of. Therefore, the burden was not that high. Regardless, the <Corrupted Land> debuff would make their incursions limited. Galia approached Flor at this moment and spoke.

"I understand that you are worried about Lady Liu Shu. However, you shouldn't force the matter. I think that doing two-hour attacks and retreating to rest is the best course of action. We have more than two weeks, and if we exhaust ourselves in the first, it will, in turn, place Lady Liu Shu in danger. Flor glanced at Galia and spoke faintly.

"Have you checked Liu Shu's corruption rate?" Galia glanced at the mission, and her expression changed. [Corruption Rate: 23%] Flor noticed her expression and sighed.

"It has slowed down after reaching the 20% mark. However, what if it suddenly accelerates again? The two-week mark might be the absolute limit beyond Liu Shu's ability to recover fully. If we don't deal with this Corrupted World Tree in a week, I won't forgive myself." Galia didn't answer this time around. Then, she spoke.

"We should leave an eight-hour rest at night to sleep. For the rest of the sixteen hours, we should do three 2 hour incursions and use the rest to rest. That is the absolute limit, taking into account the quality of the people participating. Of course, higher-level people could go on for longer. Still, everyone below Level 50 should follow those directives to have a uniform front. What do you think? There are Level 24s with us, and those people don't even have a single core worth of Phoer reserves."

Flor remembered that there were Level 24s participating and was dazed.

"Right… Those Level 24s can only receive so much healing before their own metabolism starts treating healing as a harmful source and become injured." Her eyebrows faintly creased.

"Then, aren't those people holding the others back? How about those people enter for one hour and then leave, while the rest continue for two hours? This way, the Level 24s will have an extra 3 hours of rest, which should compensate for their lower strength without getting in the way of the Second Energy Cycle people." Galia pondered and nodded, agreeing with their tactic.

Although the numbers they spoke about were before Liu Shu's domain-wide effects came into play, it was good to make plans with the raw stats, just in case there was a problem with the buffs later on. With that in mind, they went to work immediately and started explaining their plans to the army commanders so that they could organize them from top to bottom. It was much more efficient than shouting the order aloud to everyone and having people confused.

Liu Shu could observe the group of people organizing and entering the place. Seeing their frowning expressions, she curiously listened for a few moments before understanding.

'Helping them will have a great effect… I should create a resting place for them close to the frontline so that they don't need to run back and forth so much.' While the army was preparing, they felt Liu Shu's presence manifesting in front of them, two hundred meters away from the frontline.

"<Curse Devouring>." Liu Shu's roots underground split open, pouring out large amounts of pure <Cerulean Bloodsap>. Almost instantly, the greyish dead land changed color to a healthy brown color. Once the people reached that zone, they received a notification. Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings. [<Corrupted Land> is no longer effective!] Flor's eyes widened slightly, and she simultaneously felt a pang of pain in her heart.

Checking the Corruption meter, she noticed that it had jumped half a percent. The deadline had also accelerated by 50 minutes. Of course, she knew that during the entire battle, it would eventually become worth it. However, she still felt like her dear darling shouldn't be suffering like this! Her eyes looking at the <Dark Aether Swamp> became even more brutal as she shouted.

"Third Energy Cycles, follow me!" Over 100 people rushed behind the Flower Fairy. These Third Energy Cycles were the leaders of the allied powers and some rogue powerhouses that had joined due to the tempting rewards of the missions. Between them, Verdantia, Cinderielle, Harmonixia, and even Tempestria joined. After the mini-war with Lyara, they redoubled their efforts and accumulated enough Experience Points to reach Level 50. Their current power was terrifyingly high. Verena was honestly stunned.

She didn't expect her daughter's growth rate to be so terrifying.

'The competition for the next head of the Liferoot family is going to occur in a few years, but it seems that it might get canceled. With a daughter this outstanding, how can those old fogies even dare complain?" To be honest, Verena was slightly confused. After all, Verdantia's and the rest weren't too high-tiered. However, their rate of advancement felt as if their stats were in the B Tier category or maybe even higher. In truth, these girls had raw stats belonging to D Tiers.

Even she, Verena, had a higher aptitude than Verdantia, having reached the C- Tier a few years ago.

'How can an average-tiered Sylvan Level Up so fast and with so few bottlenecks? Does being in a relationship with my adorable daughter-in-law have any effects regarding leveling?' She couldn't understand the mystery behind her daughter's strange talent. However, she wouldn't complain.

'Well, the stronger my baby is, the better~.' The 100 people quickly overcame the army charging ahead and reached the territory of the <Dark Aether Swamp>. The second they approached, the world became hostile to them. Trees, bushes, animals, and every single thing seemed to be filled with bloodthirstiness as they lunged at them like food-starved wild beasts. BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

The Level 50+ group became wood-chipping machines as their spells, weapons, and artifacts started flying around, tearing down every single life-form, stopping them from advancing forward. As they fought, Liu Shu's roots would emerge from the ground from time to time, entangling creatures, trees and helping them deal with the wild flora and fauna of the corrupted forest. Flor's face was particularly brutal as she, for the first time in her life, turned against "nature."

"Corrupted World Tree, you should've obediently laid down and waited until my Liu Shu dealt with you. Trying to corrupt her back means your only path is death! <Flower Fairy Elemental Barrage>!" Spatial, Earth, Nature, Light, and many other elements swirled around the overwhelming Level 50 Flower Fairy and blasted everything in front of her with giant explosions. They felt a large presence approaching from behind at this point, alerting some of them.

However, they soon recognized it as the gorgeous ruby-colored Arboreal Winged Serpent that created the terrifying fire tornado. Verena's eyes flashed and spoke as she waved her hand, summoning ten enormous tree men.

"Cast your spells, I'll protect you." The ruby-colored serpent glanced at Verena gratefully, and then her face turned cold. Fire Aether Essence flowed toward her in torrents, and soon, gargantuan fireballs started falling from the sky as if it were Doomsday. ROAAARR! Brutal roars came from the distance, and soon, the beasts that had been hiding at the core of the <Dark Aether Swamp> rushed forward. Their numbers were honestly terrifying, and their strength was well over what they expected.

Just in a simple glance, they could spot over 20 Third Energy Cycle monsters! You had to understand that this was just one part of the <Dark Aether Swamp>—the first wave, essentially. For it to have so many powerhouses was terrifying. They would be in trouble if the entire <Dark Aether Swamp> gathered! Thankfully, this battle was not just theirs. Liu Shu's roots were brutal in their attack, and their own army approaching from the back reached.

Soon, the entire place became a place of destruction as the army of monsters and intelligent species collided. With Liu Shu's buffs, the number of casualties were kept at a minimum, giving them an edge. Of course, the battle was far from easy. With this first collision, the battle for LiuShu's survival officially started. While they were fighting, something that some had predicted but many had overlooked happened.

"Lord Orin, are you sure?" A tall man with a burly figure and bullhorns at the side of his head snorted; he was a minotaur with a human top half and a bull lower half.

"Why not? They have foolishly attacked the <Dark Aether Swamp> with all their strength. What time is best other than now to attack?" The man by his side frowned, looking at some documents.

"But, Lord Orin. Lord Marlius and Lord Vaelin have told us not to mess with them! Our objective is to cross the <Wall Forest> and attack <Del Fro Province>'s World Tree. If we fight Tianlian Liu Shu, we might be too weakened to achieve conquest in our first attack."

"Ha!" Orin laughed derisively.

"Do you think that World Tree has enough resources to even make a dent in our army? We have over 80 <Third Energy Cycles> and 50, 000 <Second Energy Cycles>, many being over Level 40. She is nothing to fear; we go there and beat her down enough that the corruption from the Corrupted World Tree takes effect, and then we leave. How hard is that?" The man frowned and looked at Orin with an uneasy expression. He didn't have any proof, but he felt that this was a very bad idea. Still, he was nothing but an assistant.

He could only leave one sentence before Orin ordered departure: "Lord Orin, I still think that we should ignore it. The rest have ignored it and started crossing the Wall Forest." Orin shook his head and pointed forward with a giant greatsword.

"You worry too much. Depart! We will take down two World Trees during the next month and beat all the other groups!"