Reinforcements from Supreme Hall!

"Floyd!" someone exclaimed, their eyes lighting up.

"Shut up! If one of us is going to die, don't drag the rest of us into it! What if you alert the tree?" another immediately hissed in a lowered voice.

The one called Floyd approached the Supreme Hall students, but he didn't rush to free them from the tree's grasp. Instead, he took out a cluster of energy crystals, divided it into several portions, and fed them to the students.

"Regain your strength, and then I'll take you away. Once you break free, the tree creature will quickly notice, so we have to act fast!" Floyd said in a hoarse voice.

"Father, what exactly is this tree creature? How can it be so powerful?" the young man who had previously inquired about the Red Fortress from Maxwell asked.

It turned out Floyd was his father, which explained why he was so willing to use missiles from the fighter jet, as if they cost nothing at all.

Floyd explained, "As far as we know, this tree was personally planted by Lady Aileen."

"Lady Aileen?!" The young people's eyes widened, and their mouths dropped open in shock.

Floyd continued: "You might not know, but over a hundred years ago, the Red Fortress was built by her when she was still a Tier 3 Evolver. However, due to deliberate targeting by her enemies, the Red Fortress was overrun by zombies. Facing such a situation, Aileen had no choice but to flee alone.

"She spent a year in secluded cultivation and eventually became a Tier 6 King, returning to kill her adversaries and reclaim the Red Fortress. At that time, the fortress was completely overrun by zombies, but Lady Aileen still planted a tree inside the castle. We never imagined that this tree would become a problem today. If it weren't for your urgent distress signal, we wouldn't have thought that the Red Fortress could be so dangerous that you couldn't handle it on your own."

Hearing this, the young people finally understood.

Maxwell also realized why these young students were sent here for training—it was believed to be relatively safe. The Red Fortress was just a bit overrun with zombies, and though more secluded, it seemed a fitting challenge for training.

Who could have imagined that the tree planted back then would now grow awry and turn into a monstrous tree creature?

Without this giant tree, the Red Fortress as a training destination would indeed have posed no real danger to them. There were only two mutated zombies inside; without the tree creature, if those zombies were disturbed, they would likely have chased them out of the fortress. But with their group of five and a highly mobile helicopter, they could have chosen to flee if they couldn't fight.

"Lady Aileen? The chairperson? Could she be some prominent figure within the alliance?" Maxwell couldn't help but speculate.

A tree planted a hundred years ago that grew into a monster, the kind even missiles couldn't harm, must mean that this Aileen was quite extraordinary. It was said that she was a Tier 6 King a century ago—she must be even more formidable now!

Maxwell pondered, considering that her evolver abilities must be related to nature.

"However, she must be a person full of justice. A hundred years ago, she built the Red Fortress to protect women, and after it was overtaken, she came back to plant a large tree to protect her now-zombified comrades… quite interesting," Maxwell thought to himself, guessing all sorts of things.

"Perhaps the reason the fighter jet didn't launch missiles directly into the Red Fortress was also due to concerns about destroying the fortress, which would be difficult to explain to Aileen," Maxwell thought.

...

"Floyd, this tree creature is very powerful; how are we going to escape?" asked one of the young people.

"There's no good method right now; it seems we can only try to break through, and if that doesn't work, we might have to resort to combat. Afterward, I'll go and apologize to Chairperson Aileen," Floyd responded.

Floyd explained, "Take action? How do we inflict damage when even missiles have no effect on it?"

Aubrey was somewhat puzzled.

"It might be powerful, but in the end, it is still a tree, and this tree was personally planted by Lady Aileen, so its strengths and weaknesses are very pronounced. Completely destroying it is not as difficult as it seems—we just need to find its core, the heart of the tree creature. Destroying that heart will do the job. Moreover, this tree appears to be at least Tier 6, but that's just its surface level. If we take a tactical approach, even a Tier 2 Evolver who is skilled in stealth would be sufficient to locate the heart."

After saying this, Floyd added, "The heart of the tree is the life source of the tree creature. Drinking from the tree heart is greatly beneficial for humans, even allowing someone like me to advance by one or two tiers. However, I would not choose this route unless absolutely necessary, as I'm not sure if it would offend Lady Aileen."

Hearing this, Maxwell's mind raced.

He himself wasn't skilled in stealth, but he had female zombies! And they were more useful than any stealth ability—this tree creature simply did not attack female zombies.

Perhaps this limitation was something Aileen had set when planting the tree.

Unexpectedly, this turned out to be advantageous for Maxwell.

"The life source of the tree creature, huh? Sounds interesting," Maxwell chuckled as he stroked his chin.

...

Inside the palace, the young people had about ten minutes to recover before Floyd said, "Are you ready? In a moment, I'll cut the branches to create an opening for you. You must move quickly, don't look back, and once you're a kilometer away from the tree creature, you'll be safe. Do you understand?"

The students from Supreme Hall nodded seriously.

At that moment, the fighter jet in the sky launched another missile.

As the missile soared, Floyd also drew a knife, and with swift cuts, quickly severed the branches that had entwined the young people.

"Quick!" he urged.

Once freed, the young people quickly jumped out of the palace and began to climb down the tree.

At the same time, the Level 8 zombie that had been motionless by the window at the back of the palace suddenly stood up and began searching along the trunk, section by section, aiming for the heart of the tree creature.

On the ground, the Level 7 zombie under Maxwell's command started to search around the base of the tree creature.

"Could it be there?" Maxwell speculated.

Important things are usually heavily guarded, and for the tree creature, that meant the red vines!

Maxwell directed the Level 8 zombie towards the area where the vines were concentrated.

"You go too, be careful not to be spotted by those people," he instructed, tossing a knife he had acquired earlier from opening a chest to the Tier 1 female zombie.

The Tier 1 female zombie caught the knife and quickly ran towards the tree creature.

Maxwell no longer focused on how the escape plan of the Supreme Hall's group was progressing; all his attention was now on the light screen before him.