Liu Shu had a headache about these people. 'Why are they so aggressive? If you find something that you can't injure, isn't the first instinct to just run?'
She understood this very dearly that time when the Corrupted World Tree almost infected her. That's also why she never antagonized Warlya before she was stronger than her. She even refrained from invading cities and other locations until she was sure that her strength was overwhelming enough.
'Hm… What to do, what to do…'
While Liu Shu wiggled her roots in thought, Tornak's lizard-like face was full of shock. He couldn't believe that one of his strongest attacks was only able to move the dirt below the roots and reveal a large mass of them.
Grumval, the Cave Titan Frog, spoke with a solemn tone. "Tornak, retreat! If those roots attack you, there is nothing you can do!"
Previously, he was also underestimating the roots. But when Tornak attacked, there was something the others still hadn't registered.
In that small time, Liu Shu's roots grabbed all four of them without leaving them a chance to resist and threw them outside the range of the explosion. The precision, strength, and speed that the roots needed to do that were so high that if used lethally, they wouldn't be able even to resist.
Lunavi ignored both Tornak and Grumval, flying over to the roots with an anxious face. "A-Are you okay? Did he hurt you?"
Liu Shu glanced over and couldn't help but squeal in happiness in her mind. 'Kya! This fairy is so cute! I want to hug her and squeeze her gently!'
Due to the fairy species successfully mixing with some type of axolotl amphibian variant, the fairy's humanoid face was axolotl-like. Her mouth was larger than usual, with relatively thin lips, and her eyes were small, far apart, and beady. The proportions made her look as if an axolotl had decided to become a cute girl while still retaining some of its dorky features.
Unable to hold back, Liu Shu moved her roots and patted her head again. 'Good baby, I am okay~. Do not worry!'
She didn't communicate with it, but her roots seem to be reassuring her. The Mistveil Fairy blushed a bit, happily receiving the headpats from the softer-than-expected root.
Vyrella was an intelligent woman. Even if her pride blinded her due to her ability to peer into the future, she could easily deduce that these roots were trying their best not to hurt them. Therefore, she lost much of her fear of them. "Being who controls these roots, I compel you to become our subordinate. Clearly, you are not willing to see us hurt, so you must want to join us but are unable to communicate. Help us govern the Divine Beast Forest, and we will allow you to reside there."
Even if she could string things together well, that didn't mean that her thought process could go beyond certain boundaries. Tied down by her unusually swollen pride, her words sounded so absurd to Liu Shu that she almost believed her sharp sound-capturing organs failed to register the words correctly.
Confused, she glanced at the exotic and unique Newt woman. 'Was she born with too much monster blood? Is that why her thought process seems to be lacking?'
Our World Tree didn't want to shed blood because she could afford the luxury called mercy. The people here were so weak that if she killed them, she would be losing Experience Points, or at best, gaining 0 or 1 points per kill.
With that in mind, Liu Shu went back to Ceperet for a second. After all, these people would not be moving anytime soon after her appearance.
"Flor! FlooOooOooOoor! FlorFlorFlorFlorFlo—"
"I listened to you the first time, stop!"
A certain Flower Fairy snapped lightly, but her red eyes were clearly showing pamperedness at our World Tree's antics. 'It has been a while since she did this silly thing. She is so annoyingly cute, haha.'
Liu Shu giggled and extended her roots to hug Flor. "Mom! I encountered a bunch of Low-level intelligent races in Nualis, and I want to communicate with them. But I fear that the second they hear my voice, all of them will overreach, and I might get someone killed. What can I do?"
Flor softly caressed the roots around her, her face thoughtful. "Hm… You can't control the power behind your voice?"
She and the others had noticed this change. When Liu Shu spoke, it was something that was imposing, to say the least. Each of her words mixed with the space around her, vibrating and echoing ethereally. There was an innate sense of gentleness and, at the same time, strength behind each syllable.
Honestly, Flor was quite sure that if Liu Shu wanted, she could kill people below Level 75 with just her voice.
Hearing her words, Liu Shu spoke with a bit of a depressed tone. "I can control it a bit… but Nualis is just too far away, so I am not accustomed. If I want to transform my energy over there, I still lack practice."
"I see… Hm?" Flor tilted her head and asked. "How far can Nualis be? Is it on another continent?"
Liu Shu metaphorically blinked twice. "Um… Mom, Nualis is our neighboring planet."
Flor froze her gentle caresses for a second, and then finally registered in her mind what she had just heard. With a trembling hand, she reached out to the side and picked up her favorite teacup, slurping loudly. "Haa… Delicious."
Liu Shu was baffled and spoke aloud, unconvinced. "Wait! I am sure that there was no teacup there! This time I even checked around! Where did it come from!?"
Ignoring Liu Shu's ramblings, Flor sighed and rubbed her own chest lightly. "Love, you can't just throw around information like this. When did you even arrive at Nualis? No… How did you arrive there already? Hasn't it been just a few years?"
To understand space better, Flor had been studying some of the basic astronomy books Liu Shu had written and placed in the library. Therefore, she understood orbits and their relative movement. From her knowledge, the distance to Nualis could be as close as 64 million kilometers, or as far as 450 million kilometers. So, her head couldn't really come around on how Liu Shu was able to extend a root across such a long distance and anchor it on another planet.
Liu Shu, realizing that she had not explained entirely the way she moved through space, made a small recap. To address anchoring problems, she explained how she created spatial gates anchored relatively to other points in space around them. In this manner, they not only moved together with but also followed the rotation of Nualis or any other object she had selected as the anchoring coordinates.
Flor's head hurt a bit, but her intelligence was truly great after becoming an S-Tier being. So, she quickly caught onto her daughter's shenanigans.
"Alright, so you are now in a standoff with an army of low-level people who intend to basically suicide charge into a forest you've buffed with your blessings, right?"
"Yeah! How do I convince them to leave when they are so hell-bent on following ahead?"
Flor took another sip, this time a more relaxed one. "Hm…" Her fingers gently caressed the root of her baby girl, and then she answered. "How about this: instead of speaking to all of them, use a root to split open a nearby mountain with no life. That should make them understand that you are much stronger than they could ever hope to surpass, right?"
Liu Shu pondered, and Flor smiled. "If they had
"That's… Ah! What are they doing!? Are they stupid? Don't charge inside you silly peopleeee!"
Flor felt Liu Shu's presence disappear, the roots around her softening. Even then, she didn't lose her grip on them. With a tender smile, Flor kissed the roots and kept them in her arms as she worked on some documents. "Silly girl. Wouldn't it all be solved if you just killed those troublesome leaders? Well, I can't really recommend that since she is trying her best not to kill, can I?"
Meanwhile, back in Nualis, Tornak and Vyrella noticed the lack of reaction from the roots, so they discussed it among themselves. Lunavi always tried her best to convince them otherwise, but her previous actions made them ignore her best efforts to prevent it.
When Liu Shu came back, she heard Vyrella shout, her beautifully crafted staff rising high. "Warriors of the Sea and Mountains, we are here to overcome the only challenge our races have yet to accomplish. Long gone are the years when people thought of the Divine Beast Forest as an untouchable location! With our very hands, we will shape this place and make it ours! Charge!"
"CHARGE!"
"CHARGE!"
"CHARGE!"
Liu Shu observed the surroundings, the shouts of the army of over 50,000 people making the earth quake. However, before they could even feel the rush of motivation and adrenaline, Liu Shu was annoyed and angered.
The earth quaked, and the Divine Beast Forest whined in fear as the ruler's anger surged all around them. 'Enough is enough!'
Vyrella and the others felt the soil tremble, and soon, an earthquake powerful enough to make them lose balance swept them.
"What is happening!?"
"Why does it feel as if the Divine Beast Forest is shuddering in fear?"
"Over there! I can see a strange mound!"
Lunavi sighed and spoke, her face full of sadness. "You've angered 'Her'. Now, it is time for us to pay for it."
Tornak and everyone else glanced over, only to see the floor split open, a gargantuan root soaring high up beyond the tall trees.
Liu Shu's root rose above a deserted rocky mountain nearby, looking like the arm of a god, and then, it descended.
The fall did not appear fast due to the dimensions involved in the movement. However, once the root landed on top of the rocky mountain, it just collapsed.
Like a sand castle crushed by a giant rock, the mountain crumbled, rocks and debris flying into the sky from the sheer energy of the attack. Around the mountain, the air visibly compressed and expanded outward.
It took a few seconds, but the people from the army were finally struck by the shockwave of Liu Shu's attack.
BOOM!
The sound was as loud as a thunderclap right by their ear. Everyone covered their heads and screamed in pain, the violent winds sweeping some of them off their feet a moment later.
Vyrella and Tornak looked over, their faces showing sheer terror. They now understood that they had kicked a steel plate.