Why is my territory in a 2D anime art style?

Chapter 132 The Red Treant

A few days later, news of the He couple's disappearance spread again in a small circle.

The reason this news spread to a small circle was naturally because the shop Xu Rong left behind had been closed for many days, and gradually everyone realized that the He couple had disappeared.

Not only the He family, but also the families of the ten members of He Yuan's team, all discovered that their family members had not returned for a long time.

As a result, many people turned their attention to the assets Xu Rong left behind in the Dongcheng Commercial Street.

This is a considerable fortune, and it would be a lie to say that no one is interested in it!

Unfortunately, after all this got out, the management of the East City Commercial Street, which was the subordinate force of the Second City Lord, had already taken action and sealed off the He family's shops.

If the He family couple does not appear within a certain time limit, according to the rules, the city will eventually be taken over by the Second City Lord's forces.

Although Sui An was envious, he had no reason to fraudulently claim the assets.

Fortunately, he also had a stable income. After the crisis in the He family completely dissipated, Sui An's territory officially got back on track.

After the Ice Mist Tide ended, he opened the Rift repeatedly during the Blood Moon Night, passing through it safely three times in a row with almost no disturbance.

"Xiao Anzi, do you think the rift today will suddenly become exceptionally powerful like last time?"

Erhu leaned against the railing of the fort, curiously looking around.

After Zheng Xifeng's reminder, Sui An now consciously observes the differences in each crack, but he finds that due to the different number and level of the cracks in the previous three cracks, it is difficult to judge whether their strength has increased significantly.

However, if we only consider the source stones harvested from the source beasts, there is indeed an increase each time, although the increase is not much each time, but it is still around 10%.

"It's hard to say, but now I have no territory within a 20-kilometer radius around me, and I have to bear all the burden of the rifts by myself."

Erhu glanced at Sui An, who showed no sign of tension, and teased, "Are you complaining that finally no one is stealing your Source Beast?"

"Hey, you can't argue with that!"

"Buzz~"

Four days later, the fourth rift of this round appeared again near Sui An's territory.

"To the south!" Fang Si pointed quickly to a spot not far to the south, about seven or eight hundred meters away from the territory, where starlight was shining.

Sui An picked up his binoculars and began to look. The crack in the distance had already opened up to about four meters high, and it was even slowly creeping upwards.

"The scale has really increased dramatically!"

"It seems the experience of those who came before us was indeed useful. This crack is probably quite large, possibly comparable to the fourth crack last month!"

Before the enormous rift, one tall figure after another pierced through the starlight and slowly appeared in Sui An's field of vision.

It was a strange monster, four meters tall, with a slightly humanoid shape. Its body was covered with reddish-brown bark riddled with grooves, and its trunk was thick. Dense red branches and leaves grew on its head and shoulders, which looked like flames burning under the starlight.

On the head-like limbs, one could vaguely see the facial features of a human face, which, although somewhat rough, were complete and intact.

Its arms are twisted, strong branches with rough bark and six wooden fingers branching out from the ends; its legs are two giant, thick roots standing side by side.

"Tree people?"

Sui An almost blurted out what he saw through the telescope. This was the first time he had ever seen such a scene in this world, but such an image was quite common in movies and TV shows in his previous life.

Upon hearing Sui An's call, Erhu was immediately stunned: "What kind of source beast is a tree-man?"

He seemed to have never seen the erhu before either. He tried to look at the crack, but it was a little too far away to see clearly.

Fang Si frowned slightly, as if searching his memory, but he didn't seem to have heard of such a title before.

Sui An quickly realized what was going on and hurriedly explained, "Uh, I meant it looks like the kind of tree-man from old-world novels. This kind of source beast isn't listed in the low-to-mid-level source beast encyclopedia that Brother Zhen gave me!"

"You'll see soon enough, they're like some kind of giant red tree that has come to life!"

"Really?" Erhu asked expectantly, and everyone looked into the distance.

This rift was filled with these unknown tree-men, and they were almost all the same height.

However, although this tree-man was tall, about four meters high, its movements were even slower than the rock golem from before.

It was only a distance of seven or eight hundred meters, but it took them two minutes to gradually come into view.

Erhu exclaimed in surprise, "It really does look like a human-shaped tree!"

"We have absolutely no idea what characteristics or level this thing has, so Xiao An, you'd better be careful."

Sui An nodded. He had already raised the Thousand Wind Barrier, and the sword star in the sky shone brightly. Since he didn't know what kind of source beast it was, he chose to test it first.

He glanced at the tree-man who had stepped into the 300-meter range, and white dots quietly appeared on the detection projection.

"They're all level three source beasts!"

Hearing Sui An's voice, the unknown shadow in everyone's hearts eased considerably. It was just a level three source beast; even if it had a unique appearance, it wouldn't be that strong.

The giant flaming sword fell towards the group of giant treants who had just stepped into its attack range, and everyone witnessed the treants' abilities for the first time.

As soon as the sword of fire was formed, the dozen or so treants at the front suddenly stopped in perfect unison, and their originally thick thighs suddenly extended many roots that actually burrowed into the ground.

Then they raised their wooden arms, and six thick fingers began to grow wildly. The fingers of these tree-men intertwined and in a very short time formed a huge natural wooden canopy, surrounded by countless red branches and leaves.

The sword of fire pierced the roof as if it were cutting into incredibly tough wood. The point of contact was scorched by the high temperature, withered rapidly, and finally became extremely fragile, allowing the sword of fire to penetrate it, piercing through most of it.

Even so, the wooden roof did not collapse.

The power of the Flame Sword gradually dissipated, transforming into a firebird that soared everywhere. The intense heat instantly scorched the wooden sheds, leaving them charred and withered, revealing huge holes—the places where the carbonized limbs had broken off.

But miraculously, the entire wooden shed was not set on fire, not even a spark of flame appeared.

The tree-like figures below seem to provide endless energy, supporting the roof above so that it doesn't collapse completely, and they are constantly generating new branches to replace the parts that have been burned to charcoal, slowly repairing the entire greenhouse.

"This is the first time I've ever seen a group of Source Beasts neutralize your greatsword attack like this!"

Erhu could hardly believe it. After all, even a level 4 ice crystal giant would have parts of its body melted, yet these level 3 source beasts, which looked like pieces of wood, could actually withstand such a fire attack.

"Don't they have any source energy on their bodies? How come there isn't even any Sin Flame?"

Sui An was also somewhat incredulous. This was his trump card, and it had been so easily countered?

He gazed thoughtfully at the red rooftop in the distance.

"Could the red leaves and trunk be a source beast formed from some kind of tree with fire resistance?"

Soon, he noticed something else: the dozen or so tree figures that had built the sheds did not stand up again; they all closed their eyes, as if they had already been planted in the ground.

Moreover, the tree trunk has turned somewhat grayish, no longer as deep as it was at the beginning, as if it has lost its energy.

But these points of light still exist on the projection, indicating that they are not dead!

Instead, the tree-men behind them kept passing over them and walking towards their territory from under the shed.

"What is this? Sacrificing the older generation to protect the younger generation?"

Sui An was speechless, but he already had a hunch: "It seems to be an irreversible effect."

He summoned a flaming sword again, this time choosing the higher-temperature [Fire Phoenix] mode. Since the Sin Flame had no flammable materials, he would try to burn them with a higher-temperature flame.

This time, Sui An did not target the prepared treants, but instead threw the giant flaming sword towards the edge of the maximum attack range.

Sure enough, the newly arrived tree people started building sheds as usual, but behind the old sheds were tree people walking normally.

The sword struck down, and the two treants, unable to dodge in time, had their torsos and even their arms, which were trying to defend themselves, cleaved in two by the flaming sword.

A giant fire phoenix materialized and, with a cry, soared backward. This time, without the shield of the massive tree canopy formed by the combined efforts of the tree people, these tree people tried to take root and survive, but it was too late.

Dozens of treants, struck by the fire phoenix, collapsed one after another, their leaves withering and turning to charcoal instantly. The massive tree trunks even glowed with fire, finally igniting in the flames.

Sui An's expression finally eased. Since the Fire Phoenix could ignite the Treant, it wasn't a particularly troublesome Origin Beast; it just consumed more energy.

Although the flames stopped burning quickly, the white dots on the detection projection had already disappeared, seemingly indicating that they had lost their lives.

This attack cut off the treant formation, but the treants who came from below the shed had already moved the shed forward a large section.

"Fang Si, are you interested in going down and taking a look?" Erhu, who was standing to the side, was itching to go down. This kind of peculiar source beast was really too interesting. After being affected by the blood moon, most source beasts would go crazy and run wildly towards their territory.

This tree-man is quite interesting; he crossed over like building a wooden bridge, section by section, like constructing a canopy.

Fang Si did not rush to agree. He looked at Sui An, after all, he was the lord of the territory.

Fang Si's actions made Sui An feel a little secretly pleased!

It has to be Fang Si. Erhu is too familiar with him, so it's unlikely that he would treat him as a real boss.

"Go ahead, be careful!" Sui An raised the banner and gave everyone in the field a [Defend the City] buff. Erhu and Fang Si jumped over the wall and rushed over.

Meanwhile, Sui An took advantage of the arrival of more treants from behind and unleashed another Fire Phoenix attack from his third sword star. He now had three sword star totems, each with a 30-second cooldown. With proper control, he could cut off all of them.

He had already looked behind him through the binoculars. This time it was a single source beast, all of the same kind. So far, their movements were very orderly, and they did not seem to be spreading out to either side.

There wasn't even a Level 4.

Even if he wanted to use the elemental statues to attack now, he wouldn't be able to use them in the short term, because they really intended to build houses all the way here. At this scale, it would take at least two or three hundred statues to reach the attack range of the elemental statues.

He even felt that, being at the same level three, his elemental statue might not be very effective against this thing.

Fang Si and Erhu had arrived in front of the group of houses that had been built at the very front. As if sensing the arrival of the enemy, new branches suddenly grew from their arms, trying to capture the two of them.

But Fang Si's level 4 metallic energy is incredibly sharp, especially after changing his equipment, it has become even sharper.

He casually swung the straight sword in his hand, and the platinum-gold source energy transformed into the blade, cutting the branches into several pieces.

The light armor among the He family's spoils is a green set. Although its value is far less than the armor He Chong is wearing, its set effect is a rare source energy attribute amplification.

【Equipment Name】: Blade Light Armor 【Equipment Type】: Light Armor Set 【Equipment Level】: 4 【Equipment Quality】: Green 【Set Effect】: When you have at least three pieces of Blade Light Armor set, and you are a combat profession with metal elemental energy, you will gain the passive amplification effect: Sharp Metal.

锐金（3/4/5）：你的金属性源能锋利度提升10%/12%/14%。

The defensive effect of this equipment is just a basic attribute of ordinary green light armor, with nothing special about it, but the set effect greatly enhances its attributes.

It's no wonder that Xu Rong's team is so well-funded; Fang Si was incredibly envious when she saw it.

As for the leather armor on Erhu, it is not a set, but a five-piece set of level 4 green quality pieces consisting of a chest armor, pants, shoes, gloves, and helmet. Its main attribute is to increase speed and amplify the amplification effect of wind attribute energy.

It's much better than his original level 3 green armor.

Although the erhu was faster, it did not take the lead at this moment. Fang Si was wearing a set of light armor and had the blue-quality source energy skill [Alloy Body], which made him obviously stronger in combat and defense.

"break!"

With a low, deep shout, Fang Si's straight blade gleamed as he sliced ​​through the giant treant at the front. He was too short for the 4-meter-tall treant, so he chose to lower his stance.

The sturdy tree-man's two thighs had long since fused together and embedded themselves in the ground, becoming its entire torso. However, under Fang Si's strike, they were as brittle as ordinary wood and were easily sliced ​​apart.

"Wait a minute, isn't it supposed to be crispy?"

Fang Si was stunned. He originally thought that this thing could withstand Boss Sui's great fire sword, so it must have excellent defense, right?

But he quickly realized what was going on and hurriedly shouted, "Erhu, you try it. I reckon this thing has some immunity to fire, but its limbs aren't very sturdy."

Erhu had anticipated this as well. His blade, imbued with the breath of wind, struck the other end of Fang Si's blade. The two of them, one on the left and one on the right, completely severed the trunk of the large tree, which was so thick that it would take two people to encircle it.

"It is indeed very fragile, and it seems to only have fire resistance."