One person: Senior brother Zhang Zhiwei, the Celestial Master begged me to descend the mountain.

The outskirts of Nathan Island are covered in primeval forests.

The humid sea breeze was blocked by layers upon layers of giant broad-leaved forests, the air thick with a strange stench of rotting leaves and exotic plants. There were no roads here, or rather, every inch of this land might lie beneath the remains of the previous explorers.

"Uncle-Master, are we really not going to find a place to rest?"

Zhang Chulan trudged through the muddy humus layer, waving his hand to shoo away the large, spotted mosquitoes, muttering with a pained expression:

"That slap felt good, but this is unfamiliar territory, and going into the woods at night... isn't that a bit too reckless?"

Walking at the front, Zhang Taichu had his hands tucked into his sleeves, his steps so light that he didn't even leave footprints in the mud. He didn't even turn his head; his voice drifted over lazily:

"What are you resting for?"

"How could you sleep in a dock that reeks of flies?"

"Besides..."

Zhang Taichu stopped, turned his head, and looked through the dense canopy of trees at the faint light visible deep within the island:

"This woods is quite lively. Since we're here, how can we show our politeness if we don't greet the host first?"

Wang Zhenqiu, holding a tablet computer, excitedly approached, the screen's glow casting an eerie light on his face.

"Zhang Chulan, you're such an amateur."

"Nathan Island is now in battle royale mode. According to the rules, only those who hold the Golden Branch are qualified to challenge for the throne. The various factions on the island are now fighting tooth and nail, and this forest... is full of prey and hunters."

"Look."

Wang Zhenqiu pointed to the trunk of an ancient tree next to him.

A broken javelin was stuck there, with a few bits of fresh flesh still hanging from the shaft, and dark red blood trickling down the bark, not yet congealed.

"That's how you say hello."

Zhang Chulan's lips twitched. Just as he was about to speak, Feng Baobao, who had been silently munching on a cucumber at the back, suddenly stopped.

Click.

She took the last bite of cucumber, and her usually calm eyes suddenly turned to a bush on her left, her nostrils twitching twice.

"They're here."

Feng Baobao mumbled something indistinctly.

Before he could finish speaking...

rustling --

The once-dead bushes suddenly began to shake violently, as if a frightened wild beast was fleeing madly.

Immediately afterwards, a series of hurried and disordered footsteps, accompanied by heavy breathing, rapidly approached.

"She's over there! Don't let her get away!!"

"That woman is seriously injured! Chase her!!"

A cacophony of curses and excited, sinister laughter echoed from the depths of the forest. It was a hodgepodge of multiple languages, but the murderous intent and greed it contained were universal.

Crash!

The bushes in front were suddenly knocked aside.

A small, thin figure stumbled out.

She was a girl who looked only seventeen or eighteen years old.

Her robes had been torn to shreds by thorns and blades, and her once fair skin was covered with crisscrossing wounds. Blood mixed with dirt made her look like a demon crawling out of a pool of blood.

She was barefoot, leaving a bloody footprint on the ground with every step she took.

Even in her disheveled state, she still held her hands tightly to her chest, clutching a broken, withered tree branch that emitted a faint golden glow.

Upon seeing Zhang Taichu and the others suddenly appear ahead, a hint of despair flashed across the girl's originally terrified eyes.

There was an ambush ahead and pursuers behind.

"cough……"

The girl stumbled and tripped over a bare tree root, falling heavily to the ground and rolling all the way to Zhang Taichu's feet.

The golden branch slipped from his hand and rolled into the muddy water beside him.

"My...Golden Bough..."

The girl let out a hoarse cry of sorrow, struggling to crawl over and pick it up, but because she was exhausted, her fingers dug into the soil, and she couldn't support herself.

Whoosh!Whoosh!Whoosh!

Several dark figures, like vultures hunting their prey, swooped down from the treetops above, forming a fan shape to surround Zhang Taichu and his companions, along with the girl on the ground.

These five or six people were dressed in various ways. Some wore leather armor similar to that of the Middle Ages, some wore cloaks covered with runes, and some held all sorts of weapons. Some even had eerie green flames dancing on their fingertips.

This is another force active on Nathan Island – Paradise.

A group of madmen consisting of psychopaths, serial killers, and dark sorcerers.

"Hehehe... Running away? Why did you stop running?"

The leader, a gaunt man with sunken eyes, licked his lips, the dagger in his hand twirling deftly between his fingers. His cloudy eyes were fixed greedily on the girl on the ground, then glanced at Zhang Taichu and the others standing nearby, before letting out a piercing, eerie laugh:

"Oh, there was an unexpected bonus?"

"A few tourists from the East?"

"They look so delicate and fair-skinned... Perfect, I'm tired from chasing them, I'll use you few as a sacrifice for my precious dagger."

This group of people had clearly lost their minds in the killing, and they didn't think about why these people dared to appear here in the middle of the night, nor did they notice Zhang Taichu's excessively calm eyes.

In their eyes, everyone except the girl with the golden branch was a lamb to the slaughter.

"Do it! Kill the man, leave the woman alive!"

The gaunt man grinned maliciously, giving no chance to explain, and waved his arm.

call--

The two black-robed mages standing behind him immediately raised their staffs and chanted obscure incantations.

Two dark green spheres of acid material materialized out of thin air, carrying a nauseating, corrosive odor, and whistled as they splashed towards Zhang Taichu and the girl on the ground.

Before the acid even hit the ground, any vegetation that came into contact with even a tiny bit would immediately emit hissing white smoke and wither and turn black instantly.

Zhang Chulan frowned, and golden light was about to emanate from his body.

But then he saw a figure moving even faster than him.

Feng Baobao completely ignored the deadly acid flying towards her head. Like a child who had seen a new and interesting toy, she squatted down next to the blood-covered girl, put her face close to the girl's neck, and sniffed hard.

Sniff—sniff—

"Well……"

Feng Baobao's big eyes suddenly lit up. She turned her head, pointed at the girl on the ground, and said earnestly to Zhang Taichu:

"It really tastes just like that."

"It smells just like the tree in that photo..."

"It smells very good."

Upon hearing the words "it smells delicious," Zhang Taichu, who had been fiddling with his cuffs, paused slightly.

He glanced down at the girl who was staring in terror at the acid above her head, then at the green liquid that was about to be poured over his head.

"Tsk."

A hint of extreme impatience flashed across Zhang Taichu's brows.

I said…

Zhang Taichu slowly raised his eyelids. In his deep eyes, there was no emotional fluctuation, only a cold, lifeless stillness.

"You bunch of jugglers."

"Isn't he overestimating himself?"

boom!!

There was no action taken.

He didn't even take his hands out of his sleeves.

Just as those two blobs of corrosive acid were less than half a meter from Zhang Taichu's face...

A faint, gossamer-thin golden light suddenly appeared in front of him.

However, this golden light did not freeze like the usual Golden Light Mantra. Instead, the moment it appeared, it began to vibrate at an extremely terrifying high frequency!

The two blobs of acid collided with the golden light without spilling or exploding.

Instead, it rebounded at a speed ten times faster than it had come!

puff!puff!

Two muffled thuds.

The two black-robed mages, still in their spellcasting stances, didn't even have time to scream.

The acid they shot landed precisely on their own faces.

"Aaaaaaaahh ...

The next second, an extremely piercing scream tore through the night sky.

The two mages rolled wildly on the ground, their faces contorted in pain. Their facial muscles and bones dissolved rapidly under the dark green liquid, turning into pools of foul-smelling blood.

This happened too fast and too tragically.

The gaunt man and the other assassins, who were about to rush forward, abruptly stopped in their tracks.

They stared wide-eyed at their two companions who had turned into skeletons in seconds, and then at the young Taoist priest who was still standing there, not even a twitch of his clothes.

A chill that penetrated to the very core instantly shot from the soles of my feet straight to the top of my head.

"What...what is this...?"

The gaunt man's teeth began to chatter, and the dagger in his hand clattered to the ground.

"roll."

Zhang Taichu parted his lips slightly and uttered a light, airy word.

Upon hearing this, the group didn't dare utter a single word. With a scream, they scrambled into the woods, wishing their parents had fewer legs, and disappeared in the blink of an eye.

The woods returned to silence.

Only the two skeletons on the ground, still emitting white smoke, testify to what had just happened.

Zhang Taichu did not pursue them.

Killing too many of those kinds of trash would be too dirty for my hands.

He lowered his head and his gaze fell on the girl who was still lying on the ground.

At this moment, the girl was staring intently at Zhang Taichu with her golden eyes.

Her body was trembling violently.

It's not because of fear.

Rather, it's because of... resonance.

Just as Zhang Taichu released that wisp of golden light, she felt the divine tree seed within her body, which had been dormant and even somewhat withered, begin to throb violently like never before.

That throbbing carried a sense of jubilation, a longing, and even... a sense of submission.

It's like a child who has been lost for many years finally smelling the scent of their father.

"you……"

The girl opened her mouth, her voice hoarse and dry, a result of not having drunk water for several days.

She struggled to reach out, her small, blood-stained hand trembling as she grasped the hem of Zhang Taichu's spotless Taoist robe.

At this moment, she was no longer the high and mighty King Nathan.

It was just a drowning person grasping at the last straw.

"Save...save the sacred tree..."

The girl tilted her head back, tears welling up in her golden eyes, washing away the blood and grime from her face.

"I am...King Nathan."

"Please...save my tree..."

Upon hearing this, Zhang Chulan and Wang Zhenqiu exchanged a glance, both seeing the shock in each other's eyes.

You just randomly picked someone in the forest, and they turned out to be the king of this island?

This is too coincidental, right?

Zhang Taichu looked down at the fallen queen from his high position, his gaze cold and calm.

"Save the tree?"

Zhang Taichu's lips curled up slightly, forming a somewhat wicked arc.

He slowly squatted down, extended a finger, and gently lifted the girl's mud-covered chin, forcing her to look directly into his eyes.

"Girl, get your facts straight."

"I am neither a philanthropist nor your subject."

Zhang Taichu's voice was soft, but every word clearly penetrated the girl's ears:

"If I were to make the sale, the price would be very high."

The girl was stunned.

She looked at the mysterious and powerful Eastern man before her, gritted her teeth, and said with her last bit of strength:

"As long as we can drive Behemoth away... as long as we can save the Divine Tree..."

"I can give you the throne! I can give you everything on this island!"

"The throne?"

Zhang Taichu chuckled, released his grip, and stood up.

He didn't accept the ethereal crown, but instead strode into the mud and bent down to pick up the broken golden branch.

He weighed it in his hand, feeling the immense vitality it contained.

It's definitely a good product.

It smells exactly like Feng Baobao.

"I don't care about that kind of childish, broken throne."

Zhang Taichu turned around and casually tossed the golden branch, which had been fought over by countless people, back into the girl's arms.

He stood with his hands behind his back, looking up at the towering tree in the center of the island that emitted a faint glow even in the darkness, his voice carrying an undeniable air of dominance:

"Save that tree, okay."

"I can swat those flies for you too."

"but……"

Zhang Taichu lowered his head, his gaze fixed on the girl's hopeful eyes, and said, word by word:

"After it's done."

"The fruit on the tree..."

"It's mine."