Chapter 267: Plant Deathmatch Arena
One month later, in northern Huaxia.
Under Bai Mo's command, a large quantity of prepared medicinal liquid was poured from helicopters onto this vast orchard. Spanning over a thousand hectares, every apple tree in the orchard began to grow at an insane pace after coming into contact with the liquid.
Every day thereafter, he would have people evenly scatter the medicinal liquid across this land, ensuring these apple trees, locked in a brutal life-and-death struggle for survival, had more than enough nourishment to continue their fight.
The medicinal liquid contained a portion of spirit fluid extracted from biochemical reactors, along with various other spirit material extracts, and of course, a trace amount of a special concoction personally prepared by Bai Mo.
They desperately vied for nutrients and territory. The medicinal liquid, like the most delicious poison, stimulated their uncontrolled growth. Soon, living space in the orchard became severely insufficient.
Initially, it was the root systems. The roots of each fruit tree, rapidly growing under the induction of the medicinal liquid, gradually intertwined with those of their neighbors.
However, this was just the beginning. After another week, the gaps between the canopies had also narrowed to almost nothing, so much so that the staff responsible for spraying the liquid from the air each day could only let it fall onto the surface of the leaves, leaving it to slowly drip to the ground over time.
Every one of them had been strictly warned never to enter the orchard from the ground. For this thousand-hectare area, Bai Mo even deployed ten thousand fully armed soldiers to guard it, preventing anyone from accidentally straying in and ruining his plan.
Coupled with the four avatars he himself placed, the security measures for this experiment were truly formidable.
"Everyone else asks for the strongest guards they can get. This is the first time in years I've seen someone make this kind of request."
Although there were some grumbles, this was indeed a direct order from above. No matter how much doubt the reviewing officer harbored, he could only steadfastly carry it out.
"Boss, do you know what they're up to in there? I've got a bad feeling about this." In the outer defense camp, a resting soldier asked his squad leader.
"Everyone knows something's off in there, but don't meddle too much in the affairs of the big shots. Remember military discipline, obey orders, don't run in there yourself, and don't let anyone else go in, or nobody can save you."
"Understood, mission definitely accomplished!"
"We're stationed here for half a year, and the subsidy is calculated as if we're on the front lines. Cherish it."
The speed of evolution in the ocean was no slower than on land; in fact, it was even faster. Due to brutal survival competition, every creature evolved with all its might, or else its fate was to be surpassed and killed by a natural enemy, or surpassed by its former food and starve to death.
This also led to the invading Sea Race becoming stronger with each wave, putting increasing pressure on coastal defense forces. Hence the squad leader's words.
After days of continuous watering, the entire apple forest was completely unrecognizable.
Now, no matter from what angle, the branches and leaves were so dense that they blocked all sight, a green canopy completely obscuring the land.
The apple trees that had survived until now had all undergone multiple mutations, and the battle was further escalating into a white-hot frenzy.
Especially with Bai Mo controlling the radius of the medicinal liquid, and continuously shrinking the apple orchard's size from the outside, the deathmatch arena was reduced to half its original area, further intensifying the struggle in the core region.
The people on the surface couldn't perceive the cruelty of this plant arena. Moreover, Bai Mo had specifically requested ordinary people this time, so they couldn't use observation Spirit Arts to know the true situation inside.
These originally instinct-driven ordinary apple trees had, under various complex influences, developed rudimentary intelligence. Their meager wisdom guided them: only by killing all enemies on the field could they earn the right to live.
The struggles of plants are not as earth-shattering as those of animals; they often quietly engage in unseen battles, and the process is exceptionally slow.
Unable to move themselves, plants can only rely on continuous growth to strangle their enemies. When only a few dominant powers remain, it becomes a protracted war of attrition.
There's no such thing as a surprise comeback; victory can only be achieved through overwhelming force.
This kind of battle can be understood as a Red Alert game where you can only build structures. Each player can only extend their structures, building attack structures next to enemy structures, gradually encroaching.
By the time the final four emerged, nearly five months had passed, and the arena's area had shrunk to only one-twentieth of its original size, or fifty hectares.
The four surviving trees at this point each possessed the qualification to form a forest on their own, like banyan trees, densely dominating this entire piece of land.
Under normal circumstances, such a situation would be impossible for ordinary apple trees. The reason, of course, lay in the astronomical cost of medicinal liquid invested over these past few months.
In nearly five months, the value of the medicinal liquid alone exceeded three billion Huaxia yuan. To cultivate this final monstrous tree, Bai Mo had spared no expense.
Three billion Huaxia yuan of wealth would be enough to forcefully propel ten, or even eight, low-level ability users with ordinary aptitude like Ning Yan Huo to the advanced Life Field Stage, making them influential figures.
Bai Mo continued to entice them toward the center by controlling the medicinal liquid's dispersal location, speeding up the contest for the final victor.
To achieve victory, they had to seize as much nourishment and resources as quickly as possible. Ordinary soil simply could not sustain such monsters.
The mutated fruit trees could only maintain their high-intensity combat by vying for the excessively rich nutrients within the medicinal liquid.
According to his estimation, the final survivor would be a colossal entity covering an area of over twenty hectares, and it would also possess a certain degree of intelligence.
Such a relatively simple operation as cultivating apple tree "gu" (a type of poisonous creature/plant) naturally didn't require Bai Mo's main body to constantly supervise it. He only observed the apple orchard for two or three days before returning to the core of the VR network, continuing to harvest new ideas from all corners of the world, leaving a few avatars locally just in case.
These ingenious ideas from others were also a significant source supporting the explosive growth of his power.
Just like this project, named "Fruit of Sin" by Bai Mo, many of its creative elements originally came from several different individuals.
He consolidated these ideas, then added his own elements, and with the endless resources at his disposal, drove the realization of this massive plan.
Unfortunately, after his martial path advanced to the Dharma Body realm, even a wisp of his projection became too powerful. The tempering effect of VR network combat once again diminished, reducing to less than one-tenth of its original benefit, becoming a negligible gain. His martial path progress once again stagnated.
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