Chapter 306: The Heavenly God Fruit Ripens

Seeing Lu Yu leave straight away without looking back, the man's face was full of helplessness and unwillingness; he could only turn around sullenly and walk back to the branch president's office on the second floor with somewhat heavy steps.

As soon as he entered, he recounted everything that had just happened to the middle-aged man in full, meticulous detail.

"Did you not mention to him that I have a deal here worth hundreds of thousands of points that I wanted to have a good chat with him about?" The middle-aged man narrowed his eyes slightly, a trace of displeasure showing in his gaze.

"I mentioned it, President." The man replied hurriedly, his tone carrying a hint of anxiety, "I told him the moment I could, but he didn't even give me a sliver of room for consideration and rejected it directly."

"President." The man raised his eyes cautiously, stealing a glance at the middle-aged man, his face full of grievance.

"I really did my absolute best, but that Su Luo is simply impervious to reason. If you don't believe me, President, you can just ask anyone; everyone present at the time saw it."

In an instant, the atmosphere in the room fell silent, as if the air itself had solidified.

The middle-aged man's complexion grew increasingly gloomy, like the sky before a storm.

After a long while, the middle-aged man finally spoke slowly, saying coldly: "Understood, get out."

"Yes, yes." The man bowed busily and retreated cautiously, not forgetting to pull the door shut gently, fearing that even the slightest sound might anger the president.

"This Su Luo really has a stubborn temper." Qi Yuangu's tone was icy, as if he were squeezing the words through his teeth, "No wonder he could cause such a stir in Yanshi City."

"How about I go give him a taste of trouble?" Gu Pingzhong, standing to the side, volunteered, a flash of ruthlessness in his eyes.

Qi Yuangu frowned slightly, pondered for a moment, then slowly waved his hand and said: "Forget it, leave him be; he's just a guy who doesn't know what's good for him."

The Branch manipulating the Arena behind the scenes was long since no secret in the circle of C-Class Awakened. Anyone with a bit of insight could see through the tricks behind the events in Yanshi City at a glance.

This was originally a tacit, mutually beneficial arrangement, but this Su Luo insisted on acting high and mighty, putting on an air of being the only sober one among the drunk—if he wasn't a freak, what was he?

And his appearance here this time was surely just a coincidence; he had come to pick up a package and might leave tomorrow.

"By the way." Qi Yuangu seemed to suddenly remember something important and asked hurriedly, "Has that guy Wang Deye not returned yet?"

"No." Gu Pingzhong shook his head helplessly, "Not just him; those few Martial Artists who went with him haven't returned either."

"That is a bit strange." Qi Yuangu slowly stood up from his chair, paced to the floor-to-ceiling window, looked down at the scenery below, and muttered to himself, "I remember clearly that they set off at the crack of dawn; it's already evening now, why haven't they returned?"

"Could it be... that something happened?" A look of gravity appeared on Gu Ping Zhong's face.

"That's unlikely, isn't it?" Qi Yuangu instinctively dismissed this speculation.

Wang Deye's strength was not considered top-tier among those few people.

However, he had several loyal Pulse Refining Realm Martial Artists protecting him closely, his own ability was quite special, and he carried two or three Special Items on him; even if he really encountered danger, escaping shouldn't be a big problem.

Unless he suddenly encountered a siege by several C-Class Awakened.

"I also think it's unlikely." Gu Ping Zhong nodded in agreement, but his brows remained tightly furrowed, "But if he really did have an accident, our plan three days from now will likely be severely affected."

"Hmm." Qi Yuangu grunted, feeling a faint sense of worry in his heart.

One had to know that in three days, the Heavenly God Fruit would be ripe.

This time, the number of Heavenly God Fruits was over ten.

According to the Association's regulations, each Heavenly God Fruit was worth fifty thousand points; calculated this way, ten Heavenly God Fruits would be five hundred thousand points!

However, wanting to pick these Heavenly God Fruits was no easy task.

First, the Heavenly Divine Tree grew in the depths of the Wasteland, where Fierce Beasts ran rampant and Elite-level Fierce Beasts were not uncommon.

Moreover, the closer one got to the Heavenly Divine Tree, the greater the number of Elite-level Fierce Beasts.

The reason was simple: for Awakened, the Heavenly God Fruit was a supreme treasure for increasing Mental Power, and it held an irresistible attraction for those powerful Elite-level Fierce Beasts as well.

Therefore, to successfully pick the fruit, one had to first pass the hurdle of the Fierce Beasts.

Second, this Heavenly Divine Tree was not an ordinary tree, but one that had mutated.

Not only was its trunk as hard as iron, but it would also launch surprise attacks from underground using its roots; the speed was so fast that even a C-Class Awakened would be hit if they were the slightest bit careless.

In years past, many people and Fierce Beasts had been careless and approached within a hundred meters of the Heavenly Divine Tree, only to have their bodies instantly pierced by the roots, their entire essence and blood becoming nutrients for the Heavenly Divine Tree.

Later, both humans and Fierce Beasts learned to be smart and would steer clear from far away upon seeing such a tree.

Yet, the Heavenly Divine Tree bore enticing Heavenly God Fruits, attracting humans and Fierce Beasts to risk coming.

Approaching the fruit was only the first step; wanting to actually pick the fruit was the real challenge.

Because this tree would use the fruit to influence a person's Spirit, making it difficult to succeed easily. It wasn't just the Heavenly God Fruit; other similar fruits also had this situation.

Therefore, when picking, the picker had to face both the attacks of Fierce Beasts and the obstruction of the Heavenly Divine Tree.

The latter type of attack was unavoidable unless one chose to give up picking. The former, however, could be lured away by human intervention.

Wang Deye's role was reflected here; to be precise, it was the Pulse Refining Realm Martial Artists he controlled.

They could be used as cannon fodder to attract the attacks of Elite-level Fierce Beasts, while others took the opportunity to pick the fruit and use teleportation items to leave quickly.

Thus, if Wang Deye had an accident, who would lure away the attention of the Elite-level Fierce Beasts three days from now to buy them precious time for picking?

Qi Yuangu's previous attempt to win over Lu Yu was precisely for this purpose, but unfortunately, Lu Yu didn't buy it at all.

"Let's do this." Qi Yuangu quickly came up with a countermeasure, "If he hasn't returned by noon tomorrow, I will go ask Ji Wanqing to see where exactly he went."

"That's all we can do." Gu Ping Zhong nodded; perhaps they were overthinking it, and maybe Wang Deye was just delayed on the road.

Lu Yu arrived at the previous shadow, cautiously confirmed that no one was following, and then slowly restored his appearance to its original state.

He moved his body, stretched his limbs, and recalling what had happened just as he left the Awakened Association, he couldn't help but let out a cold laugh.

A deal worth hundreds of thousands of points? Even if this were true, given the selfish and profit-seeking nature of that bunch of C-Class Awakened in Yongan City, how much benefit would he actually get in the end?

If things went wrong, he might even end up as their scapegoat. Moreover, for the time being, he was in more urgent need of Experience Value than Potential Points to improve himself.

After returning to the lounge, Lu Yu opened the package; inside was a white box with a combination lock and an instruction manual.

Lu Yu did not rush to open the box, but instead read the manual carefully first.

The manual stated very clearly that this combination box had a self-destruct program; if the wrong password was entered three times in a row, the contents inside would be automatically destroyed.

Besides this, the manual also specifically warned that if the item in the box was to be consumed by someone without True Qi in their body, the dosage should only be one-eighth.

A little less, and it might not be absorbed, making it a waste to eat; a little more, and the probability of an accident would increase exponentially.