Chương 708: Cleanup.

Every single powerhouse that didn't belong to the Golden Sap Empire was currently extremely tense. They had felt many auras before, and the one emanating from Liu Shu felt boundless. Only <Second Ascension> powerhouses had given them such an unfathomable feeling before, which made their hearts tighten. Among all of them, Darius was naturally the one who felt the worst.

Compared to the scattered aura naturally emanating from her, the concentrated gaze of the World Tree made him and his other Star Lord level powerhouses feel ridiculously small. Darius, knowing that the World Tree was glancing at him, spoke with difficulty.

"World Tree Heavenly Willow, why are you interfering? I am not damaging your domain in any way. With my addition, won't your domain become more prosperous?" Not wanting to be silently judged, he raised his voice through energy and allowed it to boom out around the entire Golden Sap City. Upon hearing his words, Flor and the others looked at him with pity and disdain. Clearly, he had not yet processed what was truly happening and the significance of their previous words. Liu Shu heard him and smiled coldly.

"Benefits? Profits? It seems that my previous words were not clear enough. Little Hall, throw them out. I don't want you to get hurt." Darius and the others felt a bunch of roots coil around their arms and legs, dragging them and throwing them out of their windows. The 20 people flew out quickly and, thanks to the height of the Town Hall, didn't hit any other building.

"Darius of the <Shattered Ring>, you have not understood my previous words. Probably not only you, but Cassian, Selene, Aurelius, Virelya, and the others don't as well. Let me make it clear, so that there are no misunderstandings." Darius and the others controlled their bodies, stopping mid-air and looking up at the gargantuan World Tree. Their faces were solemn, knowing that they might have to fight their way out.

"First of all…" Liu Shu spoke, manifesting gargantuan roots with glowing blue veins above the atmosphere.

"... Your ships, constantly observing me and trying to poke around my domain, are quite annoying." The roots in the sky moved at terrifying speed for their size, coiling around all 27 merchant ships in the air. Cassian and the others became pale, many of them shouting for her to stop.

"Do not get agitated. I am not going to destroy them, just keep them controlled. After all, I want all of you to know that, without my authority, you can't escape." Liu Shu spoke plainly, her voice echoing throughout her domain effortlessly. Darius was about to feel calm when Liu Shu continued.

"Of course, this particular ship won't have the same luck. I will… confiscate it." Even mortals below could see the giant root in the sky swinging, throwing something down quite swiftly. The several-kilometer-long merchant ship fell like a giant meteor, but as everyone felt that it would crash into Golden Sap City, Liu Shu made her second move. Part of her canopy materialized, and the ship crashed there, losing all its momentum as it got entangled in Liu Shu's branches.

Darius shouted, his eyes full of anger and fear.

"You! Why are you involving the innocents in the ship!? Lady World Tree, stop it!"

"Now, I am not merciless. I know who is guilty and who is not. So, stop screaming like a shrew and trying to put me in a bad light. It won't work." Her words instantly silenced Darius. Liu Shu looked at the ship and spoke.

"The people here are, for the most part, not guilty of your greed and stupidity. Therefore, I will give them a second chance, like I so often do. Who is the person with the most authority other than Darius Kainthar?" Darius interrupted.

"There is no one with more authority than me, Lady Heavenly Willow. As I said to Lady Flor, I am not someone you can touch." Another voice echoed in the Golden Sap City; it was Virelya.

"Lady Heavenly Willow, Lord Darius is someone with quite a bit of authority back in the Shattered Ring. I do recommend negotiating." Liu Shu looked down and laughed.

"You, who targeted my daughter-in-law, actually dare to speak up? Virelya, the only reason you are alive is that what you did was inherently harmless and a good lesson for my subjects. Nothing else. You were just lucky. So, before that luck disappears, shut up. Otherwise, I won't be able to resist and slaughter you together with all those who dared break my rules." Virelya's matte-black skin turned slightly greyish as she paled, not daring to open her mouth again.

She had noticed that when Liu Shu spoke, there was a sense of dread around her as if she would be killed in the next second. Liu Shu looked around, noticing that there were a few people who wanted to jump to speak.

"I will clarify to all of you, new merchants: don't speak. This is not a suggestion; it is my order. Shut up, don't interfere, and whoever dares to open their mouths after causing so much upheaval in my domain, I will directly rip off their lips and feed them to my forests. Today, it is Darius's judgment day, with me as the judge, jury, and executor." Darius's face became ugly as he shouted.

"You are being a tyrant, Heavenly Willow! Do you think your subjects will agree with your methods!?" This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version. Liu Shu laughed, her pleasant and natural laughter echoing like a natural melody.

"Oh, Darius. Here is the clarification that I was going to make earlier." Then, she spoke, her tone turning extremely cold.

"In my Golden Sap Empire, I am LAW. In my Golden Sap Empire, I am the singular authority. If I say you are guilty, then you are guilty! I've built this empire myself, step by step, taken care of it as if it were my own child, so don't you dare think that anyone can challenge me in whatever decision I make!" Darius's aura suddenly soared, the shockwave creating a massive wave of wind pressure.

"Heavenly Willow, do you think I am easy to bully?"

"Yes. <Stop>." Darius froze, and then Liu Shu materialized a single branch and swung it with her raw physical strength. She timed it perfectly, and the instant the time-stop ceased, the Willow's branch had covered tens of kilometers in a single instant and landed. BOOM! Darius felt as if he were a mortal who had been hit by a speeding metal wall. His bones collapsed, his skull cracked, and his eyes flashed white before a sense of speed and weightlessness enveloped him.

Darius's figure streaked across the sky, crashing against a distant barren mountain. A giant explosion of dirt occurred, accompanied by a blood-red number that only the top-level experts noticed. [-51, 870, 000, 000]! (518, 700)! (5. 1)! Cassian and the others widened their eyes in fright. A Level 195 with A+ Tier <Physique> and fully equipped with A+ Tier equipment had a little over 11 Phoer Body Stars of vitality.

Liu Shu's single strike, which she didn't hold back, straight up silenced half of such a powerhouse's life! Indifferent to the horrifying damage she just caused, Liu Shu manifested a root inside the mountain, latched around Darius, and threw him back toward Golden Sap City. The man, like a grey-colored streak of light, flew back and smashed against part of Liu Shu's manifested body. BANG! [-11, 170, 000, 000]! (111, 700)! (1. 1)!

The impact was brutal, silencing yet another Phoer Body Star from his essence reserves.

"Now, this is just the beginning." Liu Shu's voice cut through the eerie silence, and at that moment, all merchant fleets understood one thing.

'We've been allowed to play as we wanted, not because they had no other option, but because the Heavenly Willow didn't bother with them.' Holding Dariuse's limp body with one of her roots, Liu Shu stated.

"From now on, I will give you a single option to redeem yourselves." Liu Shu's voice felt like salvation for all those who had resigned themselves to death.

"This goes to everyone in your merchant fleets. The first option is simple: Leave." She added.

"Of course, Darius's group does not apply to this option." She would not make it difficult. After all, most of them had barely stayed within her rules. Therefore, she would have had no problem allowing them to leave regardless of what intelligence they had gathered. Either way, with the insectoids in her midst, Liu Shu knew that she would soon be known and that her <Open Coordinate> would belong to her.

"I won't stop those who want to leave. Of course, the precondition is that you didn't commit any crime within my Golden Sap Empire. Only a year has passed since you arrived, and over 99. 99% of you have behaved properly. There are a few, though, who will meet punishment. To those, I say one simple thing. Surrender. The more you resist, the worse the punishment will be." With her Level 150 strength, Liu Shu's stats in a non-buffed state were all over 2. 4 million.

After all her buffs were applied to her body, they soared beyond 5. 6 million. With an average of 1. 6 million stats for A Tier Level 190 creatures with an 85% Cycle Completion Rate, Liu Shu's current strength was bluntly despairing. As a World Tree, she could fight creatures with more stats than herself. So, anyone who failed to match or surpass her numbers was absolutely no threat to her.

"Now, for the second option." Liu Shu's voice echoed calmly, as if she didn't just slap a Level 190+ half-dead.

"You can continue doing business as before. I don't care if you suppress locals with proper means, as that's just nature itself. The strong suppress the weak. However, my Empire does not follow the law of the jungle. It follows my law, and I want to see it fulfilled. No sketchy interpretations of my words, but intelligent and proper interpretations. When in doubt, you can ask about it in any government office."

As she spoke, Liu Shu flung Darius down, roots stretching from the ground to tie not only him but all the Star Lords that accompanied him. Those 20-odd people became terrified.

"L-Lady Heavenly Willow, have mercy!"

"We know our mistake! We won't dare do anything similar in the future!"

"It was all Lord Darius's idea! We were forced along!" Liu Shu didn't care about their pleas, and her roots threw them to the sky. Once they reached Liu Shu's canopy level, around 250 kilometers into the air, she materialized her branches and rained an attack on them.

"<Stop>." Once more, all 20 people froze, and this time, her branches flashed around them during the frozen time. After it was done, she spoke.

"<Temporal Fracture>." BOOM! [Congratulations! You've defeated <Level 184 Shattered Ring Human>. You've gained 72, 889 Experience Points!] [Congratulations! You've defeated… [Congratulations! You've defeated… … All of them were killed, Darius included." Beyond what I said, there is one more benefit, though." Liu Shu continued, ignoring the messages and the terrified merchants around her domain." When you prove your loyalty enough, I'll naturally bless you. Many of you fulfill that condition, and since I am making a statement, I will naturally give away these blessings. Oh, one thing, you are prohibited from saying what these blessings are. If you do, you will be eternally deprived of them." The next second, those who had converted, many low-level people, and even some high-level people, including Selene and Aurelius, felt their System go haywire with messages. [Congratulations! You've gained <Ingenuity Blessing>!] [Congratulations! You've gained buffs from <Title: Tempest Of Chaos>!] [Congratulations! You've gained buffs from <Title: True Ruler World Tree>!] [Congratulations! You've gained buffs from <Talent: Otherworldly Rune and Nature Empire>!] [Congratulations!... [Congratulations!... [Congratulations!... [Congratulations!... … Every person who received these messages stood there, petrified, feeling their bodies quite literally transform in real time, ascending to some kind of higher-being state. Selene's eyes trembled as she read the buffs." Branches in the sky… What is this?"