Chapter 2334 The Warehouse
The next moment, a large number of Lickers surged in through the breached door!
The guards immediately unleashed their natural arrows, booming into the horde of Lickers.
Nanu watched in shock as figures emerged from behind the Lickers into the hall.
It was Fang Heng!
Although Nanu had suspected as much upon seeing the Lickers, the sight of Fang Heng appearing still sent a chill down his spine.
"Fang Heng! What is the meaning of this?!"
Fang Heng's gaze swept across the large warehouse. When he saw the familiar face of Nanu, a faint smile appeared on his face.
"So it's Elder Nanu."
Fang Heng spoke, causing the Licker horde to momentarily halt their attack. He shrugged and continued, "It's nothing. Elder Senzo didn't fulfill his promise to me, so I came to take a look. We're old acquaintances, you should understand me. If you're willing to hand over the branch of the sacred tree to me, I promise to leave immediately. It'll make things easier for everyone, don't you think?"
Nanu's forehead broke into a cold sweat as he replied, "Elder Senzo is still resisting the external enemies! Now is not the time to discuss these matters. Everything can wait until after the enemy retreats..."
Fang Heng shook his head dismissively and said, "Don't try to deceive me..."
Nanu, already weakened by previous injuries and likely comparable in strength to a newly appointed elder, wasn't in a position to cooperate. Seeing this, Fang Heng wasted no more time.
"Since you're unwilling to give it, I'll just take it myself!"
With a lazy wave of his hand, more Lickers surged forth from behind Fang Heng, accelerating towards the front.
Nanu gritted his teeth and loudly commanded, "Stop them!"
The Leaf tribe guards were filled with dread. From behind Fang Heng, swaths of Lickers burst out from the black fog surrounding the Great Hall, swiftly flooding into the entire warehouse domain!
There were easily thousands of them.
The mere twenty-odd Leaf tribe guards stood no chance against such numbers of Lickers!
Numerous arrows rained down on the Lickers. Those hit were merely injured and thrown back, while more Lickers charged forward relentlessly.
Elder Nanu also attempted to join the fray, firing several natural arrows at the Lickers.
But soon, he realized the grim truth.
They were completely outmatched!
Without the strength of the sacred tree to support them, they couldn't even handle these Lickers, let alone Fang Heng!
They could only huddle in a corner of the warehouse, watching helplessly as the swarm of Lickers took over the entire area.
"Don't come any closer!"
Nanu, knowing he couldn't defeat them, retreated to the back wall of the warehouse, glaring intensely at Fang Heng. He threatened in a stern voice, "If you take another step closer, I'll detonate the entire Great Hall. Others will come to investigate from outside, and everything you want will be buried under rubble!"
Fang Heng lifted his head, staring coldly at Nanu.
Threats?
There really were some fearless ones!
What to do?
Clearly, Nanu was stalling for time.
The Leaf tribe would soon realize something was wrong and return.
Reinforcements were probably already on their way.
There was no more time to waste.
Fang Heng quickly considered his options, his eyes narrowing to slits.
The vessel of sacrifice and the branch of the sacred tree shouldn't be this fragile, right?
A single detonation probably wouldn't cause any problems.
And if it did break...
He could just consider himself unlucky!
Nanu continued to glare at Fang Heng. Seeing a hint of mockery on Fang Heng's face, Nanu's expression changed drastically, "Stop! Don't come any closer..."
"Boom!!!!"
...
In the passage, Senzo hurriedly led a group of elders toward the direction of the sacred tree cultivation area.
Along the way, they swiftly cleared the pollution aura they encountered.
Upon completely clearing the pollution inside the passage, they entered the Great Hall of the sacred tree cultivation area and saw the situation clearly. The faces of everyone turned extremely grim.
The Great Hall's sacred tree cultivation area appeared to have endured a terrifying disaster.
In the center of the hall, where the sacred tree sapling had been, only a small, withered portion of roots remained.
Oh no!
The sacred tree sapling!
Upon seeing the dire situation, the Leaf Tribe members were horrified and quickly rushed forward to inspect the condition of the sacred tree.
The situation was extremely dire!
After examining for a moment, an elder's eyes filled with disbelief. He turned back to the group, his face suddenly aged as if decades had passed in an instant, and shook his head at everyone.
"The sacred tree sapling has completely withered," he reported, his tone reflecting the hopelessness of the situation.
Senzo stared at the small section of withered tree root before him, his fists clenched and his eyes burning red. Despite his usually composed demeanor, he could not control his emotions in the face of this tragedy.
"Who could have done this?"
Senzo's eyes gleamed with an intense, menacing light.
Tam Sangga and several others from the Wood tribe, who followed the Leaf tribe into the Great Hall, also felt a sense of doubt and suspicion upon witnessing the scene.
Wow.
Not only them, but even the sacred tree sapling of the Leaf tribe was destroyed?
Initially, Tam Sangga had some doubts about Senzo, but now witnessing this scene, he was somewhat convinced.
Seeing everything here was somewhat reminiscent of the scene in their Wood tribe habitat earlier.
The resemblance between what they see here and the earlier scene at their own Wood tribe habitat raises questions. Could it be the work of the same person?
"Boom!!!"
Amidst the confusion, a sudden tremor shook the ground beneath them, followed by a loud and intense explosion echoing from the far end of the passage.
Senzo swiftly turned his head towards the source.
It was the secret warehouse area!
The warehouse was equipped with safety mechanisms. In extreme circumstances, these mechanisms were designed to be detonated by the guardian elders themselves, causing the entire warehouse to collapse.
"Go! Check it out!"
Senzo immediately led his group toward the warehouse area to investigate.
Tam Sangga lowered his head in thought for a moment, then gestured to his subordinates, "Let's follow them, but be cautious."
Meanwhile, in the underground warehouse area not far away, a dazzling burst of holy light exploded with a bang!
The enormous shrapnel that covered the holy shield was instantly blasted away.
Fang Heng emerged from beneath layers of piled-up rubble, surveying his surroundings.
Nanu had not lied to him.
It really had been blown up.
The entire warehouse area, including the Great Hall, had mostly collapsed under the impact of the explosion.
Even the entrance had been completely blocked by fallen rocks.
If he hadn't timely activated the divine holy shield to block most of the impact at the critical moment of detonation, he would likely have been trapped under the rubble right now.
"Heh..."
Thought this would stop him?
Fang Heng shook his head and gestured with a wave of his hand.
"Search!"
The Licker horde swiftly emerged from the crevices of buried debris, condensing into flesh cocoons one after another, quickly reverting to their zombie forms. They began searching through the rubble left behind by the explosion, clearing away the shrapnel.
Soon enough, rows of in-game hints refreshed and appeared.
[Hint: The player's zombie clone (vine form) is clearing the rubble...]
[Hint: The player's zombie clone (vine form) has found a damaged Nature's Heart Crystal in the rubble...]
[Hint: The player's zombie clone (vine form) is clearing the rubble...]
[Hint: The player's zombie clone (vine form) has found the sacred tree's branch in the rubble...]