Seeing the reaction of the Violet Mystic Life Tree, Lin Mu was concerned. He didn't know what had happened but knew that it must be big enough to cause the entire tree to act up.
"Did the barrier break or something?" Lin Mu couldn't help but wonder.
~Crack~
~THUD~THUD~THUD~
A few seconds later, he saw the Stalactite that were hanging from the roof collapse.
'I'm lucky it didn't start before and I manged to take the Hundred Year Old Essence Spring Stalactites with me or it might have ended up as a bad situation. I would have lost them all...' Lin Mu thought to himself.
He knew that waiting here would not be good and that he needed to act quick if he were to get any more benefits from the Violet Mystic Life Tree.
"At the very least I need to get a fruit from the tree..." Lin Mu muttered to himself before flying up.
He cut open a gap in the roots that were encapsulating the mine and continued onwards. And just like before the roots all healed and closed up within seconds of Lin Mu cutting them.
In fact, Lin Mu even thought that the speed of healing was a bit faster than before. Though he didn't have the time to confirm it right now. He needed to focus more on the situation at hand and see what was happening.
A couple of minutes later, Lin Mu reached the surface and appeared some distance from the Violet Mystic Life Tree. The crown of the tree was quite wide but Lin Mu was still some distance from it.
~BOOM~BOOM~BOOM~
It was at this time that he heard the explosions again. He looked over to its source and saw the reason behind it.
"They're attacking the barrier!" Lin Mu saw tens of cultivators surrounding the barrier.
They were using various means to attack the barrier, with fire balls, swords lights, fist imprints and beast shadows flying. A myriad of attacks mixed together, making it hard to tell what the attacks were at one point.
But that was not all, as Lin Mu noticed that there were also formations masters working on unraveling the array. They were situated at the back and were using their skills and tools to analyze the barrier.
"Half of these people aren't from the cultivators who were waiting around... Did their reinforcement arrive already?" Lin Mu was taken aback.
He was hoping that they would take longer to arrive, especially with the Leafless Dead forest turning into a Natural Befuddling array.
'No... with the formation masters they have, it makes sense that they must have figured out a way to overcome it.' Lin Mu thought to himself.
Lin Mu quickly hid himself, knowing that he couldn't be seen right now. Thankfully the illusory properties of the barrier were still functioning and the insides of the barrier couldn't be seen properly.
"Continue your attacks! We need to destabilize the array so the formation masters can find the flaws!" An elder shouted while attacking.
"It's working! We can sense the nodes!" The formation masters spoke after a few minutes.
But while the attacks were continuing, something else was happening at the ruined buildings where the cultivators had been camped.
A large Ship was now parked here, and several experts were guarding it. The ship was nearly five hundred meters long and could easily be considered a warship considering the dense amount of offensive formations that were placed on it.
"Tch~ The Grand Sky Pavilion is really too much. They brought their entire team to capture these ruins and the tree." A few cultivators were talking some distance away.
With how large the ship was, it could be seen by everyone since it towered over the collapsed buildings.
"What can we even do? They are one of the major powers of the middle Fort city. Even if we had called for help earlier, our elders need to travel a lot further." Another cultivator said in a frustrated tone.
~Sigh~
"We were simply told to wait and watch since the formation arrays were beyond us. But now it will all be for naught..."
"It's not like we can oppose the Grand Sky Pavilion's experts either. If we try that, we'll be dead before our support arrives. At least once our elders arrive, we might be able to argue for a share."
"Then there's that damned Leafless Dead forest too! How the hell did it turn into a Befuddling array?"
"Yeah, it sure as hell wasn't like that when we passed through it."
"Our elders are now delayed because of it too. Only the Grand Sky Pavilion managed to overcome it somehow..."
Similar conversations were going on in all the camps of the cultivators who had originally discovered the ruins. Most of them had instruction to wait for their elders or reinforcements to arrive. The only ones who didn't have this option were the itinerant cultivators who had stumbled upon this place.
They were in the worst situation and could only wait around helplessly, hoping for some random fortune to favor them.
But the appearance of the Grand Sky Pavilion had messed it all up. They had directly brought over their Grand Battleship, along with hundreds of experts and tens of elders, all ready to act for most situations.
They quickly suppressed the experts that were camping in the area, and warned them from acting out. They then swiftly acted and attacked the barrier that surrounded the Violet Mystic Life Tree.
Their attacks were strong, and made the entire barrier shake. But despite that, the barrier didn't collapse. The experts of the Grand Sky Pavilion didn't waver though and quickly adapted to it, relying on the work of their formation masters.
Lin Mu observed through all and knew that the Grand Sky Pavilion was taking this very seriously.
"Looks like I'll need to be sneaky." Lin Mu looked up at the tree and searched for a fruit.
He flew up at a great speed, and got to see the tree closely for the first time.
