Death... and me

Chapter 3652: Another One

The previous group looked around. As the branches themselves were enormous, they didn’t really know which side the twins’ group moved to initially. However, as small as Celis might look compared to the Astral Tree, his real form stood out in the distance, following one of the branches. It’s just that you had to know what you were looking for from the start. They saw the twins’ group climbing earlier, so they looked for them now and found Celis.

Those guys didn’t move straight away, though. They were low in Divine Energy Reserves after all the trouble they had to arrive at this place. Since the twins’ group wasn’t here, trying to cause trouble for them either, they had no need to go after them.

Their leader, a Demon Beast called Jiantulo, looked down below. "There is another group coming, and considering the mob we were part of before getting to this region, more experts should arrive in this region in the following weeks or months."

"Indeed," one of his companions agreed, a Spirit by the name of Sancri. "Still, you need to be at a certain distance from the Astral Tree to see it. Quite a few of those groups are likely missing this tree altogether. Nonetheless, we better recover fast and move on. We need to find the portal."

Had Royer been here, he would have recognized Sancri. He was also part of Universe F956, and he had been with Royer when they first found this Astral Tree. The difference was that Sancri managed to reach the branches, and Royer didn’t. Thus, he knew the tree had a portal to the next region or maybe a portal that could skip quite a few of them.

"What about those guys?" Someone else pointed in the twins’ group direction. They were quite far away, and it would take this group a while to get there.

Jiantulo thought for a moment and shook his head. "I’m surprised they managed to survive all the way up here with that dangerous climbing method of them. Yet, instead of using their distance advantage to find a way into the next portal, they stopped to use the Starlight Fruits. They have their priorities wrong. What matters here is the Celestial Realm, nothing else."

Sancri warned. "Those Starlight Fruits are truly valuable, though."

"Yeah, but can you pluck it?" Jiantulo looked at him.

Sancri felt bitter. No, he couldn’t. He failed last time, and he already told his group about that problem. "Perhaps Runriu?"

Runriu was another Demon Beast in their group, to be more specific, a member of the Void Saw Shark Race. In its true form, the saw that naturally grows on his race has a spatial property capable of severing pretty much anything. It’s basically Runriu’s race innate ability.

Runriu shook his head in response. "Not gonna happen. I have no lack of riches, and Starlight Energy is of no use to me. I want to find the portal."

Jiantulo nodded, checking the next group that was climbing the tree. "Let’s recover for thirty minutes, and then we will press forward. We already lost two of our companions on this Astral Tree, and I don’t want to lose anyone else because of meaningless fights."

They saw the twins’ group earlier, but they weren’t exactly close to each other, so their Divine Senses didn’t reach the twins’ group. That said, they didn’t know the twins’ group’s cultivations. Thus, in their minds, everyone there was in the Peak Stage of the Divinity Realm or close to it. Attacking them would give them no benefits. Besides, the twins didn’t make their lives harder anyway, so why go after more enemies?

Thirty minutes quickly passed, and Jiantulo’s group began to move again. They selected a different branch of the tens of thousands around, and obviously, a different one from the branch the twins’ group was standing, making their way up.

Kentucky, who had an eye open for this group in the distance, slightly nodded. "They left. It doesn’t seem like they care about us."

"Good," that was music to everyone’s ears. "Let’s hope no one else will try anything either."

Turns out Jiantulo was right. As the third group climbed the tree, more groups began to appear, and Kentucky noticed other areas where the shower of celestial bodies started to fall. "We truly wasted a lot of time in that dark region... So many already caught up to us here."

The third group behind Jiantulo did the same thing, ignoring the twins’ group and climbing further up now that they left the celestial bodies shower behind.

At the base of the trunk, two groups got there at the same time. Because they were occupying the same area, the intensity of the shower increased, making both sides mad. Each blamed the other for making things difficult for them and that the other should leave.

Of course, who would want to give ground to the other competitors? Thus, both groups began to climb together. Were it not for the celestial bodies’ shower, they probably would have started a fight against each other already. They just didn’t have time to care about the other group.

After four days, the twins’ group could now see seven different groups in total, four approaching the tree and three climbing it. Naturally, it was easily noticeable by the different shower areas. They could even tell more or less how many experts were in each group due to how intense the showers were.

Two weeks went by in that fashion, and the twins’ group was completely ignored. Well, truth be told, most of the groups didn’t even notice the twins’ group was there in one of the branches, cultivating. After all, they didn’t see when Rean and the others climbed the tree, so how would they know they were still there? In everyone’s eyes, all other groups definitely continued to climb to look for the portal. Even if they didn’t know about the portal, they simply did the same as the previous groups, considering the possibility of one existing.

There were, of course, some groups who tried to pluck the fruits but quickly gave up and continued to climb once they failed to do it. That also told those who noticed the twins’ group why they were standing still, as everyone else could absorb the starlight energy in the fruits but not bring the fruits with them. They found the twins’ group’s decision idiotic, as always.

It goes without saying that not everyone succeeded in reaching the branch area. In fact, less than half of them did. Rean, Roan, Kentucky, and Celis, and slightly Rifindio. This is a super overpowered group, and they had such difficulty arriving here, let alone the others.

Every time one of the celestial bodies’ showers stopped on the way to the tree or on the way up, it was obvious the experts calling them died there.

Then, on the third day after the first month of cultivation, Rifindio’s eyes jolted open, and he looked at one of the celestial bodies’ shower halfway up to the trunk. "Guys, another one appeared."

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