Chapter 172: The Ancient Tree of War Has Fallen

He couldn't take it anymore.

Chariot had just about reached his limit.

He desperately wanted to toss aside the Card in his hands and begin a new round of material enhancement, but the battle was so thrilling that he didn't want to miss this illustrated live broadcast.

Therefore, he could only endure the pointing and gossiping going on in the villa.

With the addition of the Funnels, the battle no longer held any suspense.

Although she didn't know if the enemy's four-digit Health Points were closer to 9999 or 1111, it didn't matter.

It wasn't that the Ancient Tree of War could be felled in a single strike, but with Steel Grass blocking in front, Lan Qingyou could calmly use the Funnels to chip away at its Health Points little by little.

It was the classic strategy known as 'Scrape Sha'.

The Ancient Tree of War was also relentless. It escalated from merely whipping its branches to wildly thrashing them about, and finally to growing explosive fruits on its crown to bombard the area. The entire process took less than thirty minutes.

To be honest, it looked like a breeze.

But this apparent ease was built on the foundation of Lan Qingyou downing a Mana Potion roughly every ten seconds.

After all, both operating the Funnels and sustaining flight consumed Mana Points.

Since she was controlling three Funnels simultaneously, Lan Qingyou even had to take occasional breaks to regenerate her Mana Points.

This meant that within those thirty minutes, Lan Qingyou had consumed nearly a hundred and eighty basic Mana Potions—amounting to almost eighteen hundred milliliters of liquid.

For context, a standard bottle of mineral water bought off the street was only five hundred and fifty milliliters.

It was the equivalent of Lan Qingyou chugging down about three and a fifth bottles of water in just half an hour.

Therefore...

The moment the Ancient Tree of War finally crashed to the ground, Lan Qingyou couldn't hold it in any longer. Suspended in mid-air, she completely abandoned her image and started throwing up.

"Squeak!"

"Chirp!"

The two little companions poked their heads out from her embrace, watching her with deep concern.

"Don't worry, my stomach just couldn't handle it,"

Lan Qingyou murmured to comfort the two little guys while pulling out her Card to snap a photo and send it to the group chat.

The High Priestess: "You took it down!"

The Star: "Yeah, it's finally dead."

The Hierophant: "What a grueling tug-of-war."

The Emperor: "But it was brilliant. I haven't seen such an exciting popcorn blockbuster in ages."

Wheel of Fortune: "You can't really call it a popcorn blockbuster. Popcorn movies are just flashy garbage with no substance that you forget the moment you look away."

The Emperor: "Oh, really? I always thought it just meant a movie with massive, epic scenes."

Chariot: "Quit rambling about nonsense. What about Steel Grass? How bad is the damage?"

Unlike the relaxed banter of the others, the previously mocked Chariot only cared about the current state of his 'masterpiece'.

The Tower: "It's fine. The damage rate is around ten percent, which perfectly meets the expected standards from the initial design phase. [Image attached]"

Lan Qingyou replied to the group after finishing her bout of nausea.

Seeing this, Chariot's eyes instantly lit up. "Look at that! Just look! That's what you call a master of steel! I told you it could definitely hold the line!"

Earlier, when everyone was discussing the battle, they had constantly questioned its durability, which Chariot took as a grave insult. However, since he wasn't physically there, only had photos to go by, and couldn't get any timely feedback from Lan Qingyou while she was fighting, he had been holding all his frustration inside.

Now that he heard Lan Qingyou confirm it met the design expectations, he absolutely had to strut out and gloat.

After all, as the only person actually present at the scene, Lan Qingyou possessed unquestionable authority on the matter.

The High Priestess: "Ah, right, right, right. You definitely said that."

The Sun: "Let's pivot to discussing how to handle the next three. After all, those three are grouped together."

The Star: "True. If we aren't careful, Steel Grass might end up getting ganged up on."

The Hierophant: "Two fists can't fight four hands. Looking at the earlier pictures, luring the monsters away in that terrain is going to be difficult."

Death: "I actually don't think it'll be hard. Just lure one of them to that open clearing by the corner of the stone house, and then deploy Steel Grass."

Judgement: "That area is way too small. It's nowhere near large enough for an ancient tree and a Grass unit to brawl in."

Seeing everyone ignore him entirely to discuss the next battle, Chariot opened his mouth but ultimately decided against saying anything.

Regardless, his abilities had been validated, and his dream had been realized. That was enough for him.

Tossing aside his previous displeasure, he enthusiastically joined the discussion.

Back on Lan Qingyou's end, after soothing her churning stomach, she stored away Steel Grass, landed beside the fallen Ancient Tree of War, and released a Rolling Blade Beast to start harvesting.

Having already dealt with the Ancient Treant of War previously, she didn't even need Little Spoon to step up this time. Lan Qingyou worked with exceptional proficiency.

However, she was left disappointed this time around.

Unlike the Ancient Treant of War, the Ancient Tree of War did not have a sapling growing inside its body.

It couldn't undergo a 'reincarnation' cycle like the Treant had.

Of course, it was also possible that this was simply because the Ancient Tree of War was too high-level.

Lan Qingyou reserved her judgment on the matter.

Though she felt a twinge of regret, she wasn't disheartened. Drops like that were purely a matter of luck; getting one was ideal, but walking away empty-handed wasn't a real loss.

After all, she still had a stone house waiting to be explored.

Guarded by four monsters of S-rank or higher, there was no way that place was ordinary.

But first, she still had to deal with the remaining three ancient trees, which presented quite the challenge.

Fortunately, her omnipotent group chat friends had already formulated a battle plan while she was dismantling the Ancient Tree of War.

It could be summed up in just a few words: environmental destruction and fire isolation.

Just by reading those keywords, Lan Qingyou could already guess the gist of the strategy without needing to comb through every single message in the chat.

The stone house sat at the top of a slope, and the three ancient trees were positioned there as well.

Therefore, she just needed to destroy the outer slope, lure them down to the clearing, and use fire to isolate them as far apart as possible. Then, she could take them down one by one.

It sounded simple enough in theory, but executing it would still be quite difficult.

The most critical factor was the stone house itself.

Destroying the outer slope inevitably carried the risk of damaging the stone house. Therefore, to be safe, Lan Qingyou decided that extinguishing the fire seemed to be a more reliable option.

In truth, putting out the fire wasn't difficult for her at all.

She just needed to throw down a dozen Frost Potions, and any flames would be completely snuffed out.

Once the path was clear, the three ancient trees charged straight down the slope toward her.

Even though they were all ancient trees, their varied specializations meant their movement speeds also differed slightly.

The Ancient Tree of Knowledge was the slowest, so Lan Qingyou immediately used fire to isolate it at the bottom of the slope.

Next was the Ancient Tree of Life, and finally the Ancient Tree of Wind.

Using the exact same tactic as before against the Ancient Tree of War, Steel Grass tanked the damage up front and ripped off the ancient trees' bark, while Lan Qingyou controlled the Funnels from the air to launch her assaults.

It was still 'Scrape Sha'—she would just slowly grind them down.

The only difference was that this time, she had to make a few extra trips to the fire isolation zones to ensure the flames burned even brighter.