Chapter 918. Deadly Petal’s True Strength.

Chapter 918: Chapter 918. Deadly Petal’s True Strength.

In the <Petal Pearl Solar System>, the people in charge were feeling incredibly energetic. They had managed to finally push back and recover many of their previously lost Solar Systems. Sadly, since it was Deadly Petal who conquered them, the worlds had been completely terraformed, and almost nothing from the past was left.

Still, that didn’t mean that the new worlds were desolate. Quite the opposite, actually.

In terms of environment, the current worlds were several times healthier than before. Be it flora, fauna, resources, minerals... the worlds that Deadly Petal conquered seemed to have regained their vitality from before technology razed the world and even went further, evolving everything to a point where naturally grown Level 200+ beasts appeared in the wild.

So, if they were indignant because their previous worlds were completely overhauled, they had that right. However, if someone tried to objectively assess the situation, they would say that it was a much better world than before in everything but civilization level.

Which, by the way, was supplied by Deadly Petal’s population because they were accustomed to rebuilding worlds that had gone through her... reforms.

Either way, the new resources came in handy with their advance, facilitating many of their tactics and earning them decent resources. Moreover, the cities Deadly Petal’s civilization built were incredibly advanced.

Since most decently sized and long empires knew not to massacre civilians, they didn’t go ballistic on those who surrendered. As for those who didn’t, well, the <Sky Meteor Empire> was not forgiving to the empire that had cleaned them up in the past.

Either way, after pushing for several decades, they managed to recover what Deadly Petal had gained over five centuries and then some more. It was no wonder they all felt like heroes of their empire.

At least, that was their feeling until recently.

"The Golden Sap Empire appeared?"

"That’s great news! I heard that Deadly Petal attacked her in the past. If she snuck up here, it is clearly to take revenge."

"Is it good? I mean, yeah, Deadly Petal might get done by Lady Heavenly Willow. However, we won’t be able to get the rest of her territory. Moreover, there might be a chance that the Heavenly Willow will look our way next."

"That would be a strategic failure, no? There are at least three layers of Solar Systems between their current location and the edge of the Golden Sap Empire. Most of those belong to the Covenant as well."

Their discussion continued, but no one ever thought that Liu Shu would’ve crossed several light-years of distance just to make sure that Deadly Petal didn’t die and became her ally.

And, strategically, that was a wise decision. Deadly Petal might not have incredible fighting power, but she was at a level where she could at least bear Liu Shu’s assault.

She didn’t even have a slim chance of winning, but she was strong enough to put up some resistance in her advance.

If you added her peculiar and exotic Biomancy, her addition alone was objectively 10 times more worth it than annexing the Sky Meteor Empire.

Either way, their attack on Deadly Petal’s last few Solar Systems continued. They didn’t care if Liu Shu was here or not. If they got one more Solar System, it would be worth it.

However, as they were advancing, something strange began to happen.

At first, the war was similar, and Deadly Petal’s attacks and defense remained the same. Their starships managed to push Deadly Petal’s remaining army, and they even managed to pick off some starships from time to time.

However, around six months after Liu Shu first arrived, Deadly Petal suddenly changed.

How did Liu Shu’s buffs work on World Trees? The way they worked was that everything within Liu Shu’s area of influence would be buffed. So, if she was only in touch with a root, that root would be buffed. If she was in contact with a quarter of the World Tree’s territory, then it would work only on that quarter.

There was only one exception.

When Liu Shu’s buffs influenced the core of the World Tree—meaning, her main body—the blessing would spread absolutely everywhere with one caveat. Until Liu Shu took over the entire World Tree’s domain, her blessings would need to flow through the World Tree’s rootnet using the Energy Cycle Completion.

In short:

Affect main body → blessings spread, taking the World Tree’s energy cycle completion into account.

Directly affect an area → blessings spread with full force.

As for how other World Tree buffs functioned on Liu Shu, it was not that simple because Liu Shu was far too strong a vessel. She was, after all, not a World Tree. Her species was that of a Universal Tree.

Therefore, unlike her buffs, the other World Trees could only affect the area under their domain’s influence. Which, by the way, was already quite crazy because there were over 80 World Trees near her home world, which gave her many small but stacking buffs.

And since Liu Shu wanted to help Deadly Petal as fast as possible, she had rushed to her core world and enveloped her within her domain.

When she did, Liu Shu held nothing back. First, she used <Recolocation> and moved the seven <Temples> into Deadly Petal’s world. After that, she summoned the fruits that Deadly Petal could ingest.

Then, Liu Shu unleashed absolutely every buff she could muster on her.

(Author Note: It has been a while... So enjoy the absolute LIST of buffs that Liu Shu can give someone with a single gesture after meeting them for the first time.)

[Congratulations! You’ve received a blessing from <Temple: Ingenuity Blessing>.]

[Congratulations! You’ve received a blessing from <Temple: Mortal Growth Blessing>.]

[You’ve acquired <Title: Mortal Growth Touched>!]

[Congratulations! You’ve received a blessing from <Temple: Realm Blessing>.]

[You’ve acquired <Title: Realm Touched>!]

[Congratulations! You’ve received a blessing from <Temple: Fatebrushing Blessing>.]

[Congratulations! You’ve received a blessing from <Temple: Eternity Blessing>.]

[Congratulations! You’ve received a blessing from <Temple: Faith Blessing>.]

[Congratulations! You’ve received a blessing from <Temple: Order Blessing>.]

[Congratulations! You’ve received a blessing from <Title: Divine Arborarchy Leader>.]

[Congratulations! You’ve received a blessing from <Title: One With The Stars>.]

[Congratulations! You’ve received a blessing from <Title: Tempest Of Chaos>.]

[Congratulations! You’ve received a blessing from <Title: Songs Of Chaos>.]

[Congratulations! You’ve received a blessing from <Title: Sprouts of Chaos>.]

[Congratulations! You’ve received a blessing from <Title: Embers of Chaos>.]

[Congratulations! You’ve received a blessing from <Title: Veil of Chaos>.]

[Congratulations! You’ve received a blessing from <Title: Shadows of Chaos>.]

[Congratulations! You’ve received a blessing from <Title: Being of Eternity>.]

[Congratulations! You’ve received a blessing from <Talent: Interstellar Rune Array Lignified Arborarchy>.]

[Congratulations! You’ve received a blessing from <Talent: Touch Of The World>.]

[Congratulations! You’ve received a blessing from <Talent: Eternity Strand>.]

[Congratulations! You’ve received a blessing from <Passive Skill: Time Source>.]

[Congratulations! You’ve received a blessing from <Passive Skill: Well Of Souls And Enchantment>.]

[Congratulations! You’ve received a blessing from <Passive Skill: World Saint Bloodsap>.]

[Congratulations! You’ve received a blessing from eating <Core-Rank Breakthrough Berry (S- Rank)>.]

[Congratulations! You’ve received a blessing from eating <Core-Rank Resonant Berry (S- Rank)>.]

[Congratulations! You’ve received a blessing from eating <Core-Rank Refinement Berry (S- Rank)>.]

[Congratulations! You’ve received a blessing from eating <Core-Rank Affinity Berry (S- Rank)>.]

[Congratulations! You’ve received a blessing from eating <Core-Rank Palace Berry (S- Rank)>.]

[Congratulations! You’ve received a blessing from eating <Core-Rank Energy Cycle Berry (S- Rank)>.]

[Congratulations! You’ve received a blessing from eating <Core-Rank Cerulean Bloodfruit (S- Rank)>.]

[Congratulations! You’ve received a blessing from eating <Core-Rank Elemental Lord Fruit (S- Rank)>.]

[Congratulations! You’ve received a blessing from eating <Core-Rank Focus Fruit (S- Rank)>.]

[Congratulations! You’ve received a blessing from eating <Core-Rank Ascension Berry (S- Rank)>.]

***

Those were all the blessings that Liu Shu could currently muster up alone, and that affected others to a certain degree.

Deadly Petal froze. Did she know that many of these blessings existed? She did. It was public knowledge that the Golden Sap Empire had quite a few blessings.

Did people believe that all the blessings came from Liu Shu alone? At first, that was the case. However, when it was revealed that other World Trees lived in Liu Shu’s domain, and that later, the <Chaos> titles had disappeared, people speculated that the list of titles originated from the group of World Trees gathered in her domain.

Deadly Petal did as well. As a World Tree herself, even if Liu Shu was exceptional, having this many blessings she could impart ALONE was ridiculous.

But here she was, having been surprise-fed a few fruits radiating ridiculous auras and, a second later, receiving Liu Shu’s entire arsenal of buffs.

For Deadly Petal, the world just... changed.

It wasn’t even a matter of speech. Her Tiers got upgraded, her stats were massively boosted, her affinities shot up by hundreds of percent, her Energy Cycle improved somewhat, her regeneration shot up, her essence reserves thickened, and many more.

As a World Tree, the effect this had on her was ridiculous.

"...Was this the world you were always seeing?"

As the boost in stats and everything else flowed into her and was digested, Deadly Petal felt that she had been ignorant. When she fought with Liu Shu, when she told her that living together as World Trees was impossible... She felt that she had been an ignorant creature speaking to the one who could change all precognitions with a single gesture of her leaves.

Liu Shu giggled softly at her comment and answered in a soft and gentle voice. "No, Big Sis Petal. It is not the world I always see. It is the world I created."

Deadly Petal was silent for a few moments and then laughed. She couldn’t explain the feeling of change after receiving the blessings, but she knew what she needed to do now. "Honestly, I don’t need anything else. With just this, I alone am enough."

Her gaze shifted as she looked at one of her worlds at the front line. The fortresses and starships defending the line were suffering, and the enemy suppressed them with firepower, numbers, and even average strength.

However, there were deaths on the enemy’s side. Looking at the few corpses floating around, Deadly Petal spoke with her usual sneering tone. "You’ve been fighting me for centuries, and you still don’t learn that you can’t leave dead biological matter around me. Since you are underestimating me, I shall punish you. <Lord of Life Biomatter Cataclysm (S Rank Level MAX)>."

Her new ternary essences pulsed and soared, her aura ballooning with brutality never seen from her before. Her core, emitting energy like never before, poured a torrential amount of ternary essence, and it covered the distance to the Solar System in a matter of moments.

Once there, a true hellish environment began.

The dead individuals froze instead of continuing to float around. Once that happened, some knowledgeable people shouted a few orders and fired at them. After so long, they had studied most of Deadly Petal’s skills and had developed countermeasures.

Deadly Petal, though, was unfazed. Today, she was a very different World Tree than she had been just a few hours ago.

The corpses... bloomed.

They were like flesh flowers, dissolving into gorgeous yet terrifying, gigantic plant life. Usually, the countermeasures would unleash a fire or other similar elemental storm and kill most of the recently summoned creatures.

The army was so confident that some of them looked away... That was a mistake.

From the terrifying inferno that had appeared in the void, several vines flashed forward and coiled around several enemy soldiers, dragging them into the pyre. With a silent energy screech, plant maws manifested and devoured the fire and those dragged inside, growing endlessly like an endlessly blooming flower of man-eating monsters.

Every corpse.

Every dead being.

Every kill.

It all fed into Deadly Petal’s strongest skill and summoned monstrously strong creatures, buffed from all of Deadly Petal’s added stats.

"Wha—HELP!"

"W-Why didn’t they burn!?"

"A-AHH!"

Screams of agony, surprise, and fear spread around the battlefield as the Biomancer took control and used all life on the battlefield for her means.

It took two hours.

In just two hours, the advancing army on this flank was utterly annihilated by a snowballing process, showing why Deadly Petal had been named as such and why her methods terrified many in their current galaxy sector.

A Level 250+ World Tree did not reach their level through luck.

"This side... is finished."

Liu Shu blinked, somewhat confused. "What is finished?"

Deadly Petal answered nonchalantly. "The army attacking my Solar System. I’ve already defeated them."

Liu Shu was bewildered. After all, when they fought, Deadly Petal never really had the chance to use her most powerful skills. Yes, she used Liu Shu’s dead matter to boost her powers, which is why she managed to hold Liu Shu back for so long.

However, Liu Shu didn’t really find the resistance substantial enough back then to care much back then. So, our World Tree couldn’t help but ask. "U-Um... Where you losing on purpose?"

Deadly Petal answered with a confused tone. "Why would I do that?"

Liu Shu couldn’t help but respond awkwardly. "Ah. No. Nevermind. Good job... I guess? Um, so, do you need help?"

Deadly Petal chuckled, finding the confused Liu Shu cute. "Of course. The more help, the better."

Liu Shu agreed quickly and began whispering to Zaros. "Z-Zaros, be quick! Deadly Petal is stronger than we expected. At this rate, Big Sis Petal might end the war alone!"

Zaros almost tripped at the utterly unexpected news.