Mecha Star Wars.

Chapter 1486 The Burning Beast

In the early development of the Anemocracy, the orc civilization took the lead.

Their leading position and increasingly enlightened consciousness allowed them to naturally eliminate any potential threats to themselves.

The human race, which lagged behind the orcs but was gradually emerging, was the first to be affected.

At that time, the development of civilization was still in the primitive tribal era, and everything relied on instinctive intuition.

The orcs worship a beast god who resembles them and believe that their power comes from the beast god.

They despise and fear the weak humans, but as a valuable food reserve, they cannot be completely wiped out.

Then they had a brilliant idea: cut down the tree that nurtured human energy, preventing them from having the opportunity to grow their power and keeping them weak, wouldn't that solve the problem?
If time could be reversed, and these nobles who now control the fate of Crystal City could return to the past, they would surely dissuade their ignorant ancestors.

You must not cut down trees, you absolutely must not cut down trees.

But that's just a hypothetical.

The orcs defeated the humans with little effort and felled the obstructive tree.

But before they could even feel smug, the collapse of the beast soul slapped them hard in the face.

It was only then that they realized that the tree was not only the core of human energy, but also the core of beast soul energy.

"Ha! Now that their own interests are at stake, they're starting to feel the pain," Antonio sneered. "Too late!"

Lin Fan hadn't expected that the Annie Demon originally had a World Tree, but it was cut down by the orcs themselves in the early days.

Adrian was clearly also very disappointed, and slowly shook his head, saying helplessly.

"After realizing they had cut down the wrong tree, they tried to save it. But to make people despair, they first set the branches on fire, and after the whole tree was ablaze, they cut it off at the base..."

"Tsk tsk tsk!" Antonio clicked his tongue in schadenfreude. "This is the worst possible outcome for a tree. You've brought this upon yourselves."

“It’s not our fault. We’d like to settle accounts with them, but what can we do?” Adrian shrugged.

"Then how did the Burning Realm Beast replace the tree and become the core of the beast soul's operation?" Lin Fan asked, not wanting them to go off on a tangent.

“After the tree fell, the once abundant environment collapsed, but it did not completely disappear,” Adrian replied. “At first, the ancestors thought that the tree was not completely dead, but only damaged. As long as the roots were still in the soil and had not withered, it would sprout and grow again sooner or later.”

"The severed tree roots are still alive?" Lin Fan asked in surprise.

She had seen the World Tree in its sealed state, and she had also seen the World Tree contaminated by radiation. Both of them showed a tenacious vitality, but at least those trees were intact.

These burned and cut-down trees... can they still be of any use?
It's important to understand that the World Tree's information control and energy reserves are located in its trunk and branches, while its roots primarily serve as a network for deployment and transmission.

Once the main body is gone, it's like leaving only the network cable without the host computer. It seems good, but what's the point?
“Yes,” Adrian nodded. “Although I don’t know the principle behind it, the roots do indeed remain active. But to think that a new seedling could grow from those remnants is clearly wishful thinking.”

Lin Fan thought of the World Tree leaf on the Noah, which never grew long.

Compared to tree roots that merely serve as network cables, tree leaves containing energy are clearly more likely to regrow as new World Tree seedlings.

But what conditions are needed for it to grow?

Lin Fan tapped his temple with his finger, turning his thoughts back to the history of Annie Demon.

The ancient orcs burned all the leaves of the World Tree to ashes, making it fundamentally impossible for it to regrow. This is also proven from a practical perspective—otherwise, they wouldn't have placed all their hopes on the Burning Beast.

"Long afterward, the orcs of that time had long since perished, and no new shoots sprouted from the tree roots. Between life and death, generation after generation came and went. Those born and raised in the collapsed environment of the beast soul lost that sense of urgency. The tree roots that should have been the source of our power were once again ignored."

"What about the Burning Beast?" Antonio asked impatiently. "You've been talking for ages and haven't mentioned the Burning Beast at all!"

"Don't rush, it's coming!" Adrian cursed under his breath and continued.

"Although it was a collapsed environment, it was still enough to support the needs of our ancestors who were ignorant about beast souls and did not use strong energy. Gradually, they discovered that this energy was emanating from the Beast God. From then on, the status of the Beast God, also known as the Burning Beast, was elevated again, becoming the supreme and unshakable existence of the Annie Demon."

"That was so long ago?" Antonio asked. "That Burning Beast supported you from primitive society to a level three civilization, and then it died and was treated like this... Good heavens! It's so pitiful to be the supreme ruler of you Annie Demons."

"No, no!" Adrian looked at Qian Sui nervously and quickly explained, "The current Burning Beasts are not the Burning Beasts of the past, but their descendants."

"Back then, there was far more than just one Burning Beast. It is said that there was more than one type of it."

"How come there's only one left?" Antonio pressed. "Did you kill them one by one after you've served your purpose?"

"I told you not to put the blame on me! I didn't even know where I was back then!" Adrian was a little exasperated, but he didn't dare to really lose his temper. "Our ancestors may have been reckless, but they wouldn't do something so short-sighted as to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs!"

“That’s not necessarily true,” Antonio said sarcastically.

Adrian tried hard to ignore him, and after letting out a long breath, he continued speaking to Lin Fan.

"Those World-Burning Beasts all died of old age naturally. It's just that people back then didn't have a sense of urgency. Although they were saddened by the deaths of the World-Burning Beasts, they were only saddened for a while."

"Because there are still enough alternative resources," Lin Fan said succinctly.

“Yes.” Adrian nodded. “Back then, there were many World-Burning Beasts. Whether there was one more or one less, it didn’t seem to make much difference.”

"When the crisis is truly realized, it is also the time when productivity explodes the most. Beast soul energy increases dramatically, but the environment becomes increasingly cramped due to the decrease in the number of Burning Beasts. Unfortunately, Burning Beasts do not easily reproduce..."

"Are you sure?" Antonio stirred things up again. "Is it possible that after you cut down the trees, the Burning Beasts lost their comfortable living environment, and because you kept stealing their energy, they became infertile?"

"..." Adrian wasn't angry this time. He paused for a moment before nodding and saying, "There is such a theory, but who can prove it? In any case, because of this situation, we made several attempts to artificially cultivate the Burning Beast and clone it, but unfortunately, they all ended in failure."

"What's the reason?" Lin Fan pressed. "Immature technology? Or some other reason?"

“There may be technical reasons, but over the years, even up to the third-level civilization, this attempt has never stopped, and it always ended due to the instability of synthetic materials.” Adrian frowned. “So the higher-ups have always suspected that the genes of the Burning Beasts have a protective mechanism, and only the original body and energy have stability. Synthetic ones won’t work.”

“This is probably a natural protective mechanism of living organisms,” Lin Fan glanced at Qian Sui out of the corner of his eye. “If genes can be edited and modified at will, then what is the point of the long process of biological evolution?”

"Perhaps," Adrian said ambiguously. "In any case, from a Level 1 civilization to a Level 2 civilization, the number of World-Burning Beasts has decreased. Until only one last survivor remains."

"Knowing that it's impossible to create new World-Burning Beasts, the only option is to extend their lifespan and increase their power thresholds. Fortunately, this technology isn't too difficult for our current civilization. That one lived longer than any other World-Burning Beast, and released more energy than any of them..."

“But it still died.” Antonio always knew how to spoil the mood.

“Yes,” Adrian sighed, “The health of the Burning Beast has been under constant monitoring. Its death is a process, and also the biggest crisis for Crystal City. Valerius has made comprehensive contingency plans for this.”

"In terms of the results, it was indeed a success. Very few people in the Annie Demon clan know that the Beast God who provided the environment for the Beast Soul to use, who is high above them, has been dead for a long time."

"Your so-called perfect contingency plan," Lin Fan frowned, "is to continue converting its corpse into energy?"