The warmth of the Lamp instantly dispelled the chill on Shinji's body.
He shivered, came back to his senses, and realized that in that split second just now, he had suffered an attack from the Propagation Hegemon!
Any other creature would have died long ago.
Fortunately, Shinji was a Lampbearer and had the Lamp's protection.
Moreover, he was a Six Paths Level powerhouse; whether it was the strength of his body or his spiritual body, both exceeded the limits of normal creatures. So with just a momentary trance and a shiver, he slowly regained consciousness.
Whoosh!
Without hesitation, Shinji flew directly toward the Divine Tree.
He didn't feel complacent about blocking the Propagation Hegemon's strike because he knew very well that the attack just now was merely a hasty glance from the Propagation Hegemon after breaking through 'T33's spatial barrier. He couldn't even determine if that counted as an attack.
"The gap is so big..."
Landing on the Divine Tree, Shinji still had lingering fears.
He originally thought that after sealing the Divine Tree and advancing to Six Paths Level, the gap between himself and a Hegemon would narrow somewhat. Unexpectedly, an accidental contact nearly cost him his life.
Although he still hadn't given up on the plan to confront a Hegemon head-on, he had to admit that the current him simply didn't possess the ability to confront a Hegemon.
Looking up at the deep dome above his head, he confirmed once again that 'T33's spatial barrier had indeed been damaged.
Although unexpected, it was also reasonable.
Because even he hadn't anticipated that at the final moment of the Divine Tree nurturing the Chakra Fruit, it would absorb so much planetary energy in one go.
'T33', which was already overburdened, suddenly taking such a hit from the Divine Tree, naturally lost its spatial barrier.
Looking at the Chakra Fruit in his hand again, Shinji thought to himself: "There's no time; I must evacuate immediately!"
Right now was obviously not a good time to consume the Chakra Fruit, because the Propagation Hegemon outside the spatial barrier was invading 'T33'. If he delayed too long, Shinji worried he would be targeted by the Propagation Hegemon, thereby implicating the shinobi world.
Thus, he carefully stored the Chakra Fruit, then placed one hand on the Divine Tree, preparing to take the Divine Tree into his body and run away.
But just then, his expression changed drastically.
He discovered that the Divine Tree, which had just condensed a Chakra Fruit, was still continuously absorbing the planetary energy on 'T33'. Moreover, the absorption efficiency was even dozens of times faster than before. It didn't seem like absorbing at all; instead, it was more like 'T33' deliberately giving its energy to the Divine Tree.
"This..."
After confirming it wasn't his illusion, Shinji's expression became complex.
'T33' should possess some kind of will, and it clearly knew it was about to head toward destruction, so at the last moment, it transferred as much of its energy as possible to the Divine Tree.
Knowing this was 'T33's last helplessness, Shinji still couldn't help but sigh with emotion: "If there's a chance, I will avenge you!"
Subsequently, Shinji stood at the top of the Divine Tree, guarding the surroundings while evaluating the evacuation time.
Evacuating immediately was naturally the safest, but in doing so, the Divine Tree would miss out on a lot of planetary energy, and it would be difficult to find such an opportunity next time.
It must be known that Otsutsuki Kaguya and Otsutsuki Isshiki descending to the shinobi world to plant the Divine Tree took a full thousand years.
Within this thousand years, although a large part was the time taken for the juvenile Divine Tree to grow into a complete Divine Tree, absorbing planetary energy was also a very long process requiring a massive amount of time. After all, no one would hand over their energy willingly!
The reason Shinji accumulated enough energy to condense a Chakra Fruit within just a few months of planting the Divine Tree this time, besides the special situation of 'T33' allowing the Divine Tree to absorb more smoothly here, actually had another reason: the Divine Tree itself had accumulated quite a bit of energy.
Because after harvesting a Chakra Fruit, Otsutsuki Kaguya didn't retrieve the Divine Tree but continued to let the Divine Tree absorb the shinobi world's planetary energy until she gave birth to the brothers Otsutsuki Hagoromo and Otsutsuki Hamura.
This was also why the Great Toad Sage personally came forward to contact Kaguya's eldest son, Otsutsuki Hagoromo.
It was because if the Divine Tree continued to be allowed to absorb, the shinobi world's energy would be completely drained by the Divine Tree, eventually becoming a barren planet.
Otsutsuki Hagoromo, who later became the Sage of Six Paths, understood this, turned against his mother Otsutsuki Kaguya, and finally defeated Otsutsuki Kaguya, thus stopping the Divine Tree's absorption and splitting the Divine Tree into the Gedo Statue and the nine Tailed Beasts.
So when Shinji obtained the Ten-Tails, it inherently contained a massive amount of planetary energy absorbed and stored during the era of Otsutsuki Kaguya. The Chakra Fruit in Shinji's hand was successful thanks to the accumulation from Otsutsuki Kaguya's era plus the massive energy on 'T33'.
Therefore, if Shinji missed the precious opportunity of 'T33' actively offering planetary energy right now, then to gather enough energy to condense the next Chakra Fruit, who knew how long he would have to wait.
Standing at the top of the Divine Tree, Shinji looked around.
At this time, the sky had become completely gloomy. Looking around, everything was gray and hazy, making it somewhat difficult to distinguish up, down, left, and right.
The dome overhead became deeper, as if leading straight to the universe.
A suffocating, breathless force was rushing into 'T33' along the breach in the dome.
Shinji had seen this scene more than once, but each time it made him shudder!
And 'T33' seemed to have completely given up resisting the Propagation Hegemon, transferring the last unpolluted planetary energy to the Divine Tree in one go.
In just an instant, the flower bud at the top of the Divine Tree, which had withered because of condensing a Chakra Fruit just now, became plump again.
Shinji's eyes lit up immediately!
If planting the Divine Tree in 'T33' before was snatching food from the tiger's mouth, then at this moment, he could basically be considered to have moved the entire dining table away.
Counting the previous portion, almost seventy to eighty percent of the energy within 'T33' had been pocketed by his Divine Tree.
Rumble...
The Propagation Hegemon that had already invaded obviously noticed this too, and the entire dome rumbled due to its anger.
"Time to go!"
Shinji knew he couldn't delay any longer, so he immediately took the Divine Tree into his body.
Floating in the air, he looked around once, then glanced at the Propagation Hegemon hiding in the deep universe within the depths of the dome. Finally, using the Lamp, he opened a space-time gate and flashed away from 'T33'.
The next instant.
Shinji appeared in the 'Sixth Ring World'. Because he had delayed too long in 'T33', he had to confirm he hadn't been polluted by the Propagation Hegemon before returning to the shinobi world...