Only I Am A Reader

The five palms that looked like soft soil shook as someone started to rise from under them, making everyone wonder if this would be the end of the Azure Tree's prank. A large fraction of the onlookers felt like they no longer cared about the result, all they wished about was just for it to show up faster!

Swaaa…

Swaying up under the collective gazes, five Azure threads danced with the wind, swirling around themselves as sections appeared all over them. However, the more they swirled, the more they seemed to inflate.

'Hold…'

The suspense of the Azure Tree's show didn't catch up to Leo who was completely sure of such a static piece of information like this, but that didn't mean that he could be completely relaxed knowing what would be coming soon.

The slow inflated swirling went on for minutes. As if they were bad quality balloons that were being blown up by a short-breathed child, no one could tell when they would finally reach their full capacity.

"This is it."

Caught up in his edged excitement, one of the onlookers who clearly knew about the Azure Tree's behavior unconsciously spoke up, accurately pinpointing the moment of truth! At this point, the original thin threads had swelled up to fill the entire palm, as long as they didn't pop up at the moment…!

Pop!

"It's a blank after all?"

A loud bang could be heard, as everyone's expectations went down to the ground. However, they quickly realized that they had been tricked.

Thud!

A small sapphire branch fell to the ground, exposing the Azure Tree's successful attempt at tricking one of their senses! In reality, the five blue balloons were all safe and sound on the top of the shriveled hands' palms, having finally stopped swirling and swelling.

Naturally, only those who had incomplete information had been tricked. Although records holding the full results of an Azure Tree's life cycle observation were scarce, they accurately recorded every single prank the tree had to offer, this was but its most classic one!

Fwaa…

Within seconds following the act that caused a lot of eyes to almost escape their sockets, the numerous segments created by the swirling suddenly unfurled, letting out what seemed to be a piece of cotton candy!

"It's real!"

This was it! The appearance of the cloud manifestation stage was the same as confirming that this Azure Tree had truly born fruit this time around! Even when they wanted to keep it to themselves, a few ended up announcing the result to the crowd.

Tap! Tap! Tap! Tap…

Frenzied steps could be quickly heard as the whole crowd was suddenly pushed forward in the race to obtain the limited five prizes! As all segments were opened up, all five fruits now looked more like tiny miniature clouds, worthy of their title as 'Sky Fruits'!

Roaaaaaar!

However, as everyone's eyes grew red in excitement, a terrifying roar came swooping down from the sky!

"Wha-wha… Wha… What is that?!"

Something very large was flying just a few dozen meters away from the Azure Tree's crown!

"Is that a monster?"

With monster attacks and cracks becoming a very natural occurrence, it wasn't too hard for most onlookers to guess what the large thing was. Unfortunately, that didn't mean that they could easily deal with it just by knowing so…

"Was there ever someone that big?!"

The majority was still frantically trying to climb up the Azure Tree as if unaware of the threat approaching their end point, but the more sensible and unconfident ones stayed on the ground, helplessly observing the invader being so close to stealing one of their worlds' finest products!

Roaaaaar!

As if insistent on making everyone aware of its existence, the large creature screamed once more. Spreading its gigantic emerald wings as green 'drool' dropped down from its mouth, its scales shining maliciously…

Even for the ones who attended the Mount Hua Sword Conference and survived in the end, the sight of this one monster brought them an indescribable amount of fear incomparable to the one imposed on them by the legions of flying monsters!

"Ahhhhh"

Suddenly, a scream rose from the midst of the crowd who chose to stand their ground. A large drop of green 'drool' had fallen on the body of a Martial Artist, instantly dissolving his skin, flesh, and bones as he let out his last breath…

"Vile monster!"

Everyone was almost driven to fear by the sheer sight of the Peak Martial Artist's demise, but one of the powerhouses above the Transcendent stage soon moved. His fiery red beard shook as he drove a fire pillar out of his spear!

Krooaaaaar!

Like a being standing on top of the food chain, the dark green creature didn't bother itself to look down at its attacker as it moved to dodge. Although it couldn't completely avoid the flame due to its large body, only the edge of its wings seemed to suffer some damage as a few scales fell to the ground.

"Look out!"

Dropping down from the distance, even these few drops were enough to crush a 1st rate Martial Artist to death!

"Was this what gave you the uneasiness…?"

Even as a member of the four pillars of the Heavenly Strength Society, Cheon Jeong stood frozen in place like the rest, staring at the being that simply shrugged a true master's attack just like that. She was finally experiencing the true uneasiness that Leo was speaking of for herself…

"It should be."

Looking at the sky that seemed to threaten falling down under the pressure of the mighty creature, Leo felt his nerves cool down to the sub-zero level. What he had been waiting for had come.

'The first true crisis.'

Murim's very First Calamity, the Emerald Poison Dragon, had finally made an appearance. The monster that truly crushed the Martial Community for the first was here.

Groaaaaaar!

Even as the Sky Fruits were just before the fearsome creature's mouth, no one could clearly think of their first move as it stated its dominance…