Thousand Mountain Valley

World of Terra

When the hundreds of ships containing Sacred Kings and Fate Dominion Realm experts from every faction of the world got outside the Thousand Mountain Valley, they saw thousands of plant-like things en masse, waiting for them right at the entrance.

"What are those things?"

"Don't underestimate them. I can't read the cultivation realm of those things but I can tell they're powerful," some of the observant Sacred Kings muttered as they watched the thousands of plant-like things from the deck of their ships.

"They kinda resemble a young willow tree," another one of the Sacred Kings said.

"You're right."

"Still... what are those things? Is the immortal responsible for them?"

"I guess it can only be the immortal. The reports said that everything from the entrance to the outer part of the Thousand Mountain Valley had been killed off. The fact that those things are alive and staying guard at the entrance in large numbers meant that they have either escaped from the immortal's eyes, the immortal overlooked them, or they are allies with the immortal itself."

"The last one is more reasonable. There's no way an immortal would miss their presence especially since they are gathered like that in large numbers. It also doesn't make sense for the immoral to overlook them if it killed everything from the entrance to the outer part of the Thousand Mountain Valley. I mean, if it killed everybody else, why leave them alive specifically?"

"I agree. Whatever it is, they are surely related to the immortal somehow. The immortal launched a surprise attack on us earlier and now these things are here, guarding the entrance. There's definitely a connection between the two."

While the Sacred Kings on the other ships were discussing, the Law God Sect's ship that was leading all the other ships also had a discussion of their own.

"Let's call those things Willow Tree Saplings for now since they resemble a young Willow Tree. Grandmaster Yi Shi, what do you think of them? Do you think they are related to the immortal?" the supreme commander of the Law God Sect asked the blind and frail old man.

The old man looked at the entrance of the Thousand Mountain Valley with his empty eye sockets as he nodded his head.

"Those things are exuding divinity in them. Only a god or immortal can produce that type of divinity. Since there's only one immortal here, they are most likely part of the immortal," said Grandmaster Yi Shi.

Even though he was blind, he had the best eyesight among all of them. He could see things that none of them couldn't due to his thousands of years of experience and his eyes... which were now gone.

"I see. Thank you for that information, Grandmaster Yi Shi," the supreme commander said in awe. As expected of the oldest person in the entire world and the former Divine Eyes.

After talking to the grandmaster, he started formulating plans on how to get past the Willow Tree Saplings. Since they were on a flying ship, they could just avoid them and fly over the mountains and continue flying until they get to the immortal. There was a problem with that though. The Willow Tree Saplings might surround them later on when they finally fight the immortal if they were left alone.

He couldn't have that. Since they had the firepower to eliminate them, then they should.

"Pass my commands...!" the supreme commander said after he had formulated a plan. They turned on the formations on every ship and his words were passed to all of them.

...

Inside the Thousand Mountain Valley, the Immortal Willow Tree placed some of its awareness inside one of the saplings so it could see what the ants were up to closely.

It then saw hundreds of flying ships, flying overhead them.

Before the Willow Tree Saplings could react...

BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM

The hundreds of flying ships bombarded them with flame-type supreme arts, causing explosions everywhere, destroying and burning the saplings in the process.

There was nothing the saplings could do in the massacre but let themselves be destroyed.

Enraged, the Immortal Willow Tree's main body moved its branches. They dug deep to the ground and traveled under it as it planned on getting the ships unaware. It might be angry but it still maintained its rationality so it wouldn't needlessly make a bad choice and suffer.

After that, hundreds of thousands of its seeds fell on the ground. A similar number of Willow Tree Saplings emerged from the ground where the seeds had fallen.

The Immortal Willow Tree planned on destroying the flying ships and force the ants outside. Then, it would command the saplings to eliminate them when they were no longer under the safety of their ships.

For now, it let the saplings standby. As long as the ships were there, they would only get similar results as before.

...

Inside the ships, everyone was solemn.

Although they had eliminated the hundreds of Willow Tree Saplings, they didn't cheer or relax. It might seem like they had eliminated the saplings very easily but that was far from the truth. They used most of their strength in those supreme arts but even so, there were a lot of saplings that didn't die right away. Some even managed to travel for several miles before dying off.

One had to keep in mind that those supreme arts came from the Sacred Kings. Any other creature would've been instantly vaporized by it. Yet those things... they were too tough.

As Willow Tree Saplings, they should be weak to fire yet they were so durable. If a fire had that trouble eliminating them, then other elemental supreme arts would have a harder time. Moreover, only less than half of the Sacred Kings could use fire-type supreme arts.

Thankfully, there were only thousands of them. If there were more, their supreme arts wouldn't be able to cover and eliminate all of the saplings.

The supreme commander looked over his subordinates as he went deep in thought.

Right at that moment, they heard the ground rumble loudly.

Everyone in their respective ship went over their ship's railings to look down and see what was going on in the ground.

Before they could get a clear look below.

BOOOOOOM!

A deafening explosion could be heard near them.

Six of the ships had been pierced through by a huge branch, causing their ships to explode. The strong, wind blast of the resulting explosions knocked the weaker cultivators to the ground in the nearby ships.

That was the World of Terra's first casualty of the war.