Ascension of the Sylvan Cosmos.

Chapter 81. Defensive Wall

Since that day, two weeks have passed. 

During those two weeks, Liu Shu focused entirely on building the walls around her. Because she wanted to leave space for the rest of the buildings, she decided to place the walls near the limit of her vision, around 100 meters from the center. This would leave her with enough area to work with. 

Liu Shu was doubtful about the thickness and height of the wall. 'What would be best? With the <Mother Of Thousand Flower Field> defensive building 60 meters from me and the wall at 100 meters, can it even attack those on the other side?'

While building the root net for the wall, Liu Shu divided some of her attention and controlled the defensive building. A patch of the flower bed awakened, and the tubular flowers aimed at a 45º angle. Then, Liu Shu sent a pulse of energy for them to shoot. 

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! 

Several sounds of the flowers firing were heard, and Liu Shu observed the trajectory of the attack. The attack overcame the wall area and landed a bit further away from the limits of her 140-meter vision. 

This frustrated Liu Shu since she couldn't see the effects of the attack on the ground. If the seeds weren't strong enough to at least penetrate the ground, how could they even harm the creatures with hides as strong as rocks and metal? 

She moved the flowers' head upward, at around a 60º angle, and then she shot again. 

The same sound echoed around, garnering the attention of the Rose Fairies. Some of them were curious about what their World Tree was doing. 

The seeds arched upward, and Liu Shu followed them with her senses. They were quick, and as they fell, our World Tree was delighted to see that they would crater within her vision range. 

Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam! 

The seeds impacted the ground like a heavy downpour, creating small holes that penetrated deep into the ground. 'Ohhhh! Strong! So… If I adjust their angle a bit higher, I can control more or less where they will fall. Nice~. This solves the problem of the wall hindering <Mother Of Thousand Flower Field>'s vision!'

With that in mind, Liu Shu began test firing and calculating the height that the wall could be without bothering the further attacks the plants could do, which was the 45º angle attack. 

At that inclination, the seeds would travel furthest. 'Flor!'

Flor was startled as the working World Tree communicated with her. Because of all the energies, Liu Shu forgot to control her call, which made the Rose Fairy Queen jump in fright. "W-What happened!? Is there something wrong!? An attack!?"

Liu Shu was too focused to care about Flor's words and asked. 'How far did the furthest seeds land? Can you check for me?'

Flor looked at the World Tree with a sigh. "How do I calculate that?"

Liu Shu didn't know, so she answered. 'Who knows? Can't you find a way?'

Flor blinked a few times and rubbed her forehead. 'Let's see… The distance to the flower field is 60 meters, right? I'll go with that distance and try to estimate the distance. First… Let's find the furthest seed impact.'

Flor's wings buzzed as she went in the direction Liu Shu attacked. As she passed through, she curiously looked at the trees that were close. 

Liu Shu was in a groove-like area, which meant that she was surrounded by trees. While they were normal trees, all living beings had Phoer, and therefore, the system could analyze them. 

To her surprise, the Phoer of most of the trees around Liu Shu was slowly falling. They were all at eighty to seventy percent, the healthiest being the few Level 9s that were still in their nineties Phoer Body Shard-reserve-wise. 

This made her confused. 'What is happening? I should ask Liu Shu.' After a while, she noticed the furthest hole created by one of those seeds and nodded. 'Well, this is it, so… taking into account the previous reference… Around 160 meters?' 

Flor flew back and forth a few times to make sure and then returned to Liu Shu's side. "Little one, the furthest seed I found was around 160 meters away." 

Liu Shu sent a happy message back. 'Thank you, Flor!' 

Flor smiled and asked. "Little one, before you continue to work, I want to ask about something."

Liu Shu paused her thoughts and gazed at Flor. 'What's wrong?'

Flor frowned. "You see, the trees around you are getting sick or something. All trees near the 150-meter mark are losing Phoer Body Shards and are at around eighty percent of their reserves. Are you also feeling bad or something? Is there something strange in the ground?"

Liu Shu giggled. 'Don't worry, Flor. That's my doing!' 

Flor blinked repeatedly. "What? What do you mean?"

Liu Shu explained. "Well, my roots have reached around 140 meters from here, so I'm convincing every tree to be polite and come under my rule, or else I'll uproot them~. Hmph, hmph. There are two rebel ones that I'm currently fighting while building the wall. After all, they are in the way of my wall!"

Flor asked with a stutter. "But Liu Shu, they can't really move out of the way now, can they?"

Liu Shu spoke with a tone that suggested Flor had a screw loose in her head or something. 'How could a tree move? I just asked them to be assimilated into the wall! They refused and even attacked my wall root net! How dare they do something like that?"

Flor asked. "S-Something like trying to survive?"

Liu Shu's voice reached Flor, and it had a strangely chilling tone to it. 'Survive? Trees around me survive if I want them to survive. I need to grow, and if they are in my way, their only end is becoming my fertilizer and helping me grow.'

Flor couldn't help but become silent. While Liu Shu was certainly an adorable and gentle being in general, she was also a World Tree. The species that probably killed most flora was not humans, Sylvans, or any other; it was World Trees. 

Of course, World Trees would spawn more Flora than they killed, but they were a race that destroyed the ecosystem around them and created a new one that suited them. The good thing about their actions was that while they did destroy the original ecosystem, they didn't upset the balance. A World Tree would assimilate their surroundings while changing them to their will.

For example, if a World Tree spawned in a volcanic area, because of the energies in those places, the World Tree would grow and gain affinity toward that certain area. The plants they grew later would all be beneficial for the ecosystem, and even if the World Tree was killed later, the flora they created would thrive and assimilate with the surrounding environment just fine.

In short, "destroying" was not the word for World Tree's actions; it was more of "adapting" or "shifting" the environment to accommodate their needs. 

Flor was slowly learning about World trees thanks to a few books she read with Ignatia in her free time, so she knew about these things. However, seeing Liu Shu so unbothered as she slaughtered creatures the Rose Fairies protected until recently was still a bit difficult to accept. 

She suddenly heard Liu Shu snorting. 'Oh? This one attacked me?'

Flor checked Liu Shu's Phoer and saw that it had been reduced by around 30 points. 

Crracck!

The sound of wood creaking and splitting entered her ears, and when she looked toward the origin of the sound, an explosion of dirt occurred in that area. 

BOOM!

The 12-meter-tall tree that was there burst into splinters as Liu Shu's characteristic blue-veined roots appeared from within the tree. The roots were ruthless as they coiled around the entire being and slowly yet systematically destroyed it and mixed it with the ground. 

If they were flesh creatures instead of plant life, the process would be gruesome, to say the least. 

'While it is not the first or second time I see it… Liu Shu is always brutal when fighting, isn't she?' Flor remembered how the World Tree always targeted the creature's weak points as if she had knowledge of all of them. 

What Flor didn't know was that World Tree's vision allowed them to see the places where the most Phoer Energy gathered inside the body, which were usually the most vulnerable points of a creature. 

The heart, the brain, and other similar cores were full of vitality, which was a result of Phoer Energy. 

This could be easily seen when a World Tree looked at a creature. 

Flor looked at the other tree that was in the way of Liu Shu's wall and asked. "Is that one going to suffer the same fate?"

Liu Shu pondered and sent several aggressive communications through her roots. 'Oh?' Liu Shu became delighted and commented. 'It seems that this one is a bit less stupid than the other tree, hehe. It surrendered to me~.'

Flor's lips twitched. 'Less stupid…' Still, she was curious as to what Liu Shu would do when the tree surrendered to her. 

So, for the next week, Flor observed how Liu Shu's energy and roots slowly surrounded the tree and created a wall with it in it. Moreover, she reshaped the tree and created a passage on top of the wall that went through it. 

Looking at that, Liu Shu got an idea. 'Can't I change that tree and use it as the base material for another defensive structure?' 

Seeing the perimeter of her growing Wall, she realized that she could probably grow tree-like beings for close-range attacks when creatures attacked her wall. 'Ohh! I can do that, and if I do that, I don't need to compromise the defense of the wall to add some offensive capabilities to it!'

While the idea of a Living Wall that attacked everything that came near it was neat, it compromised the durability of the building too much. The ability to move meant that it needed things similar to organs to move, and these couldn't be solid or strong. They would become weak points for the wall-like creature. 

So, by removing this feature and using all the energy and materials to harden the living wall instead, she could create a much sturdier defensive wall. 

To compensate for the lack of offense, she would need to build those tree-like structures at an appropriate distance. 'System, how do I calculate how many trees I need?'

[System Hint: You can use the formula for a circle perimeter and combine it with the attack range of each tree-like defensive structure. Then, you can use the System interface and create a simulation with attack ranges.]

Liu Shu hummed in her mind. 'I see! So… Taking into account that the tree defense structure will have around 40 meters of range… I need eight of them? Yes. Eight of them.' 

Liu Shu looked at that number with a heavy heart. 'Eight of them… That's a lot of branches from me…' An urge to throw a tantrum overcame her. 'I'm going to become bald! QAQ'