Shen Feng looked at the towering trees that pierced the clouds, not even knowing how tall the tree was. Out of curiosity, he began to climb. When he reached the very top, he discovered he was already high in the sky. The height here was at least one hundred and fifty meters. The surroundings were a dense expanse of forests, and in the distance, he could see the deep sea.
"If such a tall tree could be cut down to make a long table, it would be magnificent. It's a pity that besides me, perhaps no one else can reach here," Shen Feng muttered to himself.
Standing at the top of the ancient tree, Shen Feng couldn't help but indulge in wild thoughts. If he could cut down this tree and make furniture, it would definitely break the Guinness World Record. However, it was impossible for ordinary people to venture deep into the banyan forest. Once discovered, the only outcome would be being ensnared by vines and captured.
As Shen Feng quietly waited for the moon to reach its zenith, the branch he was sitting on suddenly began to sway. This was clearly the canopy area, but the branches in the center shifted to the sides, revealing the trunk.
Shen Feng was startled by this sight and quickly grabbed the branch beneath him, staring intently at the base of the trunk.
Moonlight streamed through the open area at the top of the canopy, illuminating the trunk. At this moment, a slit opened on the trunk, and a round object emerged from the slit. This object had no organs but had many holes.
After the sphere appeared at the top of the trunk, it bathed in the moonlight. Gas seemed to be exchanged through the holes, as if the sphere was inhaling and exhaling moonlight.
"Holy cow, this is really a monster! It's learned to cultivate. Am I dreaming?" Shen Feng couldn't help but rub his eyes, completely unable to comprehend what he was seeing. If this was the true form of the mutated banyan tree, then it was truly bizarre.
However, Shen Feng quickly realized that this sphere was likely the core part of the mutated plant. At this moment, the sphere was exposed to the outside, and it was the perfect time to kill it. If he missed this opportunity, he wouldn't get another.
Thus, Shen Feng leaped up, countless wind blades condensing around him, descending from the sky, ready to split the sphere on the trunk.
As Shen Feng descended, he pulled out his dagger and instantly slashed down. The sphere had a diameter of about eighty centimeters and was covered in holes. However, the sphere was incredibly hard. After a single slash, it only managed to scratch the surface of the sphere.
Fortunately, Shen Feng still had his endless wind blades. The wind blades also descended instantly, and the sound of "ding ding dang dang" echoed incessantly. No matter how hard the sphere's shell was, it was still shattered by the wind blades. After all five thousand wind blades were fired, the sphere's surface was pitted and instantly crumbled.
Shen Feng's series of actions were completed in an instant. The mutated plant had not yet reacted. After the sphere's surface was shattered, a passage was revealed on the trunk. Inside the sphere was a giant tree burl, which began to descend, pulled by a root.
"Damn it, it's this thing again. I didn't expect it to get smarter and add defenses to its vulnerable body." Seeing the tree burl trying to escape, Shen Feng quickly prepared to pursue, condensing wind blades in his hand and shooting them out instantly.
Unfortunately, the passage closed instantly. The wind blades struck the trunk, penetrating twenty centimeters before dissipating.
Shen Feng had thought his sneak attack was foolproof, so he was very confident. He never expected that his full-force strike would only shatter the hard outer shell of the tree burl, achieving nothing else. Instead, it had alerted the tree burl, allowing it to escape.
At the same time, the numerous branches of the canopy instantly closed, trapping Shen Feng, who was standing on the trunk, within the thick foliage. It was pitch black all around, and the banyan tree's attack began. Countless vines suddenly appeared in the air, attacking the area where Shen Feng was. Shen Feng dodged frantically, only to find that the surroundings were densely packed with vines, making it impossible to avoid them all.
"What the hell, how did these vines pinpoint my location? This is completely abnormal!" Shen Feng couldn't maneuver effectively in the dark and narrow space. Escaping the banyan tree's canopy was the most important thing now. He didn't have time to consider the banyan tree's attack method and unleashed "As Swift As The Wind."
"Boom," Shen Feng stomped hard on the trunk, and his speed erupted at that moment. His speed surpassed the speed of sound in an instant. The trunk shook violently. The originally dark top of the trunk was broken through by Shen Feng's body, and moonlight mixed with starlight shone down from the sky.
Leaves fluttered down, and Shen Feng burst out from the top of the trunk. The huge air current blew away all the fragile leaves. After leaving the canopy, Shen Feng used "Water Walking," allowing the airflow to support his body as he slowly descended.
Upon landing, countless vines still coiled towards him. With no other choice, Shen Feng used "As Swift As The Wind" to dodge the surrounding attacks with extreme speed. When he reached the base of the giant tree, he took out his lighter and quickly ignited the gasoline.
In an instant, a raging fire erupted below the towering tree. Shen Feng quickly moved away from the base of the tree to avoid being caught in the flames.
Swollen areas appeared on the upper part of the banyan tree, then burst open, and clear water flowed down from the tree. The mutated banyan tree's method of extinguishing fire was this simple: store enough water within its body and pour it out when it detected flames.
"Boom," when the water landed in the flames, it did not extinguish them. Instead, it caused the gasoline on the ground to float, and the fire spread further.
Shen Feng hid to the side, originally planning to dodge the vine attacks. For mutated plants, their attack methods were generally very simple, mostly growing vines on their bodies and then using them to ensnare others.
However, after igniting the gasoline, Shen Feng suddenly discovered that the surrounding vines were no longer attacking him. Instead, they were constantly moving towards the direction of the flames, seemingly trying to extinguish them, but eventually, even the vines were ignited.
Shen Feng stood at a distance, watching this scene unfold, and a guess suddenly formed in his mind: "Could it be that the banyan tree's method of predation relies on temperature and light? With the appearance of flames, both light and temperature are most prominent where the gasoline ignited. Thus, these vines all shifted their attention?"
To verify his guess, Shen Feng deliberately approached the vines to see if they would attack him at this moment. As a result, even when Shen Feng touched the vines, they still moved towards the direction where the flames appeared.
Although it had just rained in the forest, it seemed unlikely to cause a fire, but the flames ignited by the gasoline were not easily extinguished. Under the continuous burning of the flames, the towering tree began to sway. The outer bark of the giant banyan tree was almost completely burned, emitting crackling sounds.
However, at this moment, the surrounding banyan trees seemed to have received instructions, and they extended their vines and roots, as if welcoming something. As the giant banyan tree swayed more violently, a slit opened at fifty meters on the trunk, and the tree burl, its defenses broken, rolled out. As it fell, it was caught by vines and then disappeared into the forest.
Shen Feng was shocked by this scene. Previously, whether it was the plant heart in Yuzhou or the century plant in Australia, the tree burl could not leave its body. Once it left, it would die instantly. At most, the plant heart could regenerate, but the century plant could not do this. Yet, at this moment, the tree burl in the banyan tree could actively transfer when it saw its main body in danger, which was truly outrageous.
"Right, didn't Taruts say that banyan trees are plants that form a forest from a single tree? So, its main body is this entire forest. No matter where the tree burl goes, it can quickly find a carrier. This is troublesome. I can't burn down the entire forest, can I? Even if I wanted to burn it, I don't have that much gasoline!" Shen Feng thought with distress.
Meanwhile, Yue Hengyi, standing on the distant volcano peak, saw the fire and felt that Shen Feng had likely succeeded. He couldn't help but take out a wax apple from the side, take a bite, and begin to comment: "My friend Shen Feng, you can absolutely trust him. He does what he says! Now the flames are burning fiercely, and the mutated plant is definitely going to be burned to death."
Yue Hengyi, with nothing else to do and no other entertainment, brought many fruits to the volcano to watch the battle. Although he didn't know the specific situation, he could tell the general idea from the flames. The appearance of flames meant that Shen Feng's arson plan had also succeeded.
Beside Yue Hengyi sat Taruts, who was not as optimistic. He had been using his abilities and had confirmed the location of the mutated plant's main body.
"This is not good. This mutated plant is still constantly escaping. I'm afraid it will be difficult for Mr. Shen to burn this thing to death!" Taruts shook his head helplessly.
Yue Hengyi looked at the distant flames. The fire had already climbed to the top along the bark of the giant banyan tree, and even the canopy, over a hundred meters high, was ignited. Logically, no matter what kind of mutated plant it was, it should have been burned to death by now. However, Taruts said the mutated plant had escaped, which made things uncertain.
"It's a pity my abilities can't help much. If it were mutated animals, no matter how many came, I could successfully suppress them. But for mutated plants, I don't have that ability!" Yue Hengyi said with some helplessness.
After speaking, Yue Hengyi picked up a star fruit from the plate and began to taste it.
While Yue Hengyi and Taruts were watching, they were speculating about Shen Feng's situation. Shen Feng, on the other hand, felt he was in a predicament. The two weaknesses of the mutated plant were its fear of fire and its inability to move freely. Now that the mutated banyan tree had solved both of these issues, Shen Feng felt helpless as he couldn't exploit the mutated plant's weaknesses.
Shen Feng stood beside the raging burning giant tree. The surrounding forest was not affected. Thus, a barrel of gasoline only burned down one giant tree. Although the largest tree in the banyan forest had been destroyed, for a forest spanning over a hundred kilometers, this damage was too slight, not even a scratch.
"Rumble," the burning towering tree slowly fell, crushing countless small trees. The flames were about to spread, but at this moment, the banyan trees in the forest began to spray out their stored water, gradually extinguishing the fire.
Seeing this scene, Shen Feng immediately wanted to retreat. It seemed that the fire attack could not destroy the mutated banyan tree. He would just lie low for a couple more days and then leave decisively.
Just as Shen Feng was thinking this, a flash of light suddenly caught his eye. Upon closer inspection, he saw that at the base of the fallen banyan tree, there was a reflection of light.
Shen Feng felt it was strange. He walked closer and saw a dark stone lying at the base of the giant banyan tree. It had many patterns, which were bubble patterns formed when it entered the atmosphere. This was actually a meteorite.
This meteorite was only the size of a football, egg-shaped, and surrounded by roots. It could be seen that this enormous tree had grown above the meteorite, which indicated that the appearance of the mutated plant was indeed related to the meteorite.
"A loss in the east, a gain in the west!" Shen Feng's heart was filled with excitement. This mutated banyan tree, covering a vast area, was likely influenced by the meteorite. A football-sized meteorite could at least help him cultivate a thousand ability users!
Although he failed to kill the mutated plant, Shen Feng's objective had been achieved – he had successfully found the meteorite. In this gain and loss, Shen Feng didn't know whether to be happy or sad.