Divine Convenience Store-Chapter 607: Cleared
The rapier sank to the hilt. For a second, nothing happened.
Then, the back of the massive Hive-Tree exploded as the Lightning Amethyst Disciples with Xu Ming's lead also unleashed their strikes.
A shockwave of physical force blasted entirely through the thick trunk, blowing a hole before rippling outwards, cutting the tree down.
A system panel immediately flashed before Lin Mo's eyes.
[Entity Destroyed: Viridescent Hive-Tree]
[Eastern Reinforcement Camp: Offline.]
[Threat Level reduced.]
[A path to the Area Boss has opened]
The thick, life force-filled vines that had anchored it to the ground, along with its roots, snapped like over-tensioned cables, whipping wildly through the air before curling inward, dead and gray.
With a thunderous crash that sent a cloud of green dust billowing across the encampment, the Hive-Tree collapsed into a heap of splintered wood with the Viridescent Energy and lifeforce evaporating into the atmosphere.
Life-Seeds that were being cultivated inside it also shriveled up and rolled out like wooden balls that had already lost their vitality. The tall Dyshanti that were raging at the corpse of the Vyrnethi had also perished against the force that took down the tree.
Wu Meiyu's cultivation also shot up to the late Foundation Establishment Stage as the sliver of Viridescent Energy was absorbed by her body. The same happened to the Lightning Amethyst Sect disciples. All of them seemed to advance at least one minor realm from their share of experience points, taking down the Hive-Tree and the tall Dyshanti.
Meanwhile, the loss of the Hive-Tree and possibly the leader of the Vyshanti in the area had an immediate catastrophic effect on the surrounding enemy forces.
The Dyshanti Drones, previously moving with a semblance of coordinated malice, suddenly staggered.
Without the overarching command structure of the Vyrnethi child Lin Mo had executed, and now severed their hope of reinforcement, the Lashers stared in senseless at what had happened.
And taking that opportunity, Liu Xiaoyu, the Rainbow Vanguard and the mercenary group pressed on.
Xu Ming and his fellow disciples also switched their targets. He ordered half of them to block the exits while the rest followed him to take down the scattered Dyshanti drones.
Lin Mo stepped out from behind the dissipating dust cloud, his armor suit retracting back into a silver cube and his weapon switched back to the mortal-grade sword.
He looked at Wu Meiyu, who was gracefully extracting her unadorned rapier from a thick chunk of shattered bark that had landed near her.
She was breathing heavily as a golden sheen seemed to linger on her skin. The residue of her compressed [Golden Dragon's Ascent].
He approached her, handing out a [Spirit Replenishing Candy], "Here, Meiyu. Great job. I'm now in awe of your royal family's cultivation technique."
"Certainly, you jest. Compared to the techniques of large sects, ours is certainly lacking. Just barely enough to govern a mortal kingdom. And it's tied to our bloodline." Wu Meiyu popped the candy in her mouth before sitting down to recover.
"It is uniquely suited for this environment, nonetheless," Lin Mo reassured her as his gaze swept across the clearing. He stood closer to her, protecting her from stray Dyshanti that might target her current vulnerable state. "Now I'm curious as to the true capabilities of your Golden Dragon. Your royal brother tried intimidating me with that, too, right?"
Wu Meiyu let out a soft, melodic laugh, the tension bleeding from her shoulders. "Indeed. He had more mastery than me with our cultivation technique. I am only considered to be his rival to the throne due to other officials not in his favor throwing their support to me."
"I don't think that's entirely the case, though. You're pretty capable yourself, Your Highness."
"I knew you'd say that. Regardless, it doesn't matter anymore. I'm part of your store now." Wu Meiyu smiled as she took a glance at his back before continuing to focus on sucking the candy in her mouth. Her spiritual energy gradually replenished.
Meanwhile, the remaining Lashers, those who recovered from their shock, started panicking. They tried to crack their whips to rally the Dyshanti Drones, but their control over them started loosening. Some became sluggish that even the weakest Spirit Condensation Stage cultivator among the mercenaries could take them down with ease. A few even escaped their control and began attacking them.
And from them, it became a rather comfortable cleanup.
Liu Xiaoyu was at the forefront. Every time her crude iron mace would swing, a sickening 'crunch' would resound, sending vine-wrapped bodies flying like broken toys. 𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦
The Viridescent Lashers started running away from her. Some even attempted to cast a spell, something that surprised the others since it was the first time they showed something different other than whipping the Dyshanti slaves.
But against Xiaoyu, it was still useless.
Even with her golden lightning, her strength was unmatched below the Nascent Soul Stage. And with that, her presence alone further crushed the demoralized enemies.
"Hah! Is this all you've got? Come on, you overgrown salads! Give me a real workout!" Liu Xiaoyu taunted, batting a leaping Drone out of the air.
To her left, Captain Zhao and the brightly colored Rainbow Vanguard moved in a tight formation.
They had forgone their swords in favor of tower shields and spiked maces purchased from Store Beacon. They started copying Liu Xiaoyu in pummeling the drones, enough that the life force contained within the vine would run out.
They advanced step by step to bulldoze the Drones into tight clusters, allowing the mercenaries and the Lightning Amethyst Sect disciples to flank and dispatch them with ruthless efficiency.
Xu Ming, who was leading his fellow disciples, started accruing experience in leadership. He's becoming more of a Young Sect Leader than a simple Young Master.
True to his word, the 'Thunder-Forge Stance' kept all their lightning qi internalized. Their muscles bulged with suppressed electrical energy, granting them explosive speed and reflexes. They dashed through the gaps in the Vanguard's shield wall, delivering palm strikes and elbow thrusts that shattered the Dyshanti's vine armor from the inside out.
In less than ten minutes, the clearing was dead silent, save for the heavy panting of the cultivators and the sound of dissolving corpses turning into motes of light.
Slivers of Viridescent Energy flowed into the victorious raid members, prompting a chorus of surprised gasps and relieved sighs as several more cultivators broke through their minor bottlenecks on the spot.
Suddenly, another window popped up in front of them. As it turned out, there was a bonus reward for taking down the Hive-Tree.
[Area 1 Eastern Reinforcement Hive-Tree Cleared.]
[Calculating Contribution...]
[Generating reward chest...]
In the center of the clearing, right where the massive stump of the Hive-Tree remained, an ornate chest materialized. Unlike the chests he had seen at the tower, this one was woven from pulsating life-vines that slowly parted like opening petals, revealing its contents to their eyes.
"How generous. On top of all the loot they left behind, they're also giving another chest." Lin Mo murmured, walking over with Wu Meiyu at his side.
Liu Xiaoyu, already bored with the lack of living targets, joined them with sparkling eyes, "Loot time! Open it, Boss! Let's see what this big tree dropped!"
Lin Mo tapped the edge of the chest. The system interface obligingly populated a list in his vision.
[Item Acquired: Viridescent Life-Core (High Earth-Grade)]
[Item Acquired: Tome of the Vyrnethi - Vol. 1 (Encrypted)]
[Item Acquired: 50x Viridescent Life-Seed]
[Item Acquired: 10,000 Dimension Essence]
[Item Acquired: Blueprint - Organic Nutrient Vat]
Reading all that, he couldn't help but become more intrigued. A tome and a blueprint. If Argent Covenant Anchor could drop those armor set pieces, this place drops racial secrets and even blueprints.
He reached out and picked up the book that was clearly made from leaves of some tree.
"An Organic Nutrient Vat. It's some kind of machine they're using to implant the Life-Seeds in the Dyshanti. The High Priest of the Poison Demon Cult and Venom Master Xun are going to salivate over this. They were just talking about needing a stable environment to cultivate their... unconventional assets. This is right at home to what their 'Institute of Forbidden Anatomy' requires to scale up operations."
Wu Meiyu peered at the blueprint, her analytical mind quickly assessing its value. "Indeed. It's quite different from what our alchemists and pillmasters use. If they can mass-produce specialized guardian beasts or even medicinal ingredients using these vats, it can create another avenue of convenient products for our stand against these Outer Realm invaders."
"Mhm. Great insight, Your Highness." Lin Mo grinned, tossing the blueprint and the translated Tome into his inventory. "We sell them the shovel, and we take a cut of the gold they dig up. As for these..."
He looked at the fifty Viridescent Life-Seeds and called for Captain Zhao, Xu Ming and the mercenary group leader. He handed it to them and let them decide the distribution between their groups.
There was more loot in the area but for now, he naturally wouldn't claim everything when he barely did anything.
Once they're finished cleaning up, Lin Mo marked the opened path to the Area 1 Boss before continuing on another path leading to the first Exit Zone.
He gathered enough information for now. As for clearing and resetting the Anchor Core, he'd leave them to the patrons. Once again, they have a store to open in the morning.
