Hell’s Handbook

were looking at a galaxy.

“Are these…the fruits of the Tree of Life?” Chu Yi stared in shock.
But he soon felt that he must have guessed wrongly, because each orb was as large as a knoll.
If these were the fruits they were looking for, then plucking them was a problem in itself.

“I’m afraid they are.” Su Jin’s lips twitched.
The Tree of Life was so ridiculously huge, even its fruit was humongous.
Besides, even if they managed to pluck the fruits and bring them back, how were they supposed to feed it to Kano Mai and Yang Mo?

Su Jin used the Demon Lord’s Eye skill on one of the bright orbs and got information on it immediately.
Just as Chu Yi had guessed, these bright orbs were the fruit of the Tree of Life.

“Fruit of the Tree of Life.
It contains the essence of vitality and can be used in a million and one ways! Status: Unripe”

“Oh?” Su Jin raised an eyebrow at the word ‘unripe’.
If these orbs were unripe fruit, that meant that there were ripe ones somewhere else.

They started walking around to observe the various fruits they could see and finally found the difference.
Even though every fruit gave off light, the light was a different color, and each color corresponded to a different size of fruit.

“There are green ones, yellow ones and purple ones.
The green ones are the largest, followed by the yellow ones, and the purple ones are only as big as an earthen pot.
In short, the smaller the fruit, the riper it is!” said Su Jin after checking all three types he could see.
The smallest purple one was almost ripe.

“In that case, a fully ripened fruit would probably be around the same size as a normal fruit,” said Chu Yi.

Su Jin nodded.
“The riper the fruit, the higher up it is.
We have to keep going up.”

“Let’s go then!” Chu Yi swung his arms like he was warming up, then he exerted force into his legs and shot upwards like a rocket to hop from one fruit to the next.
He was treating the fruits like a trampoline.

Su Jin followed his example and they used the fruits to move upwards.
They quickly reached another thick layer of leaves and had to find gaps between the leaves to continue upwards again.

“This has got to be the highest point of the tree, right?” blurted Chu Yi immediately after they made it out of the leaves.
He went into a daze as he stared at the view around him because it was simply too shocking.

“Are we in…outer space?” Su Jin was equally lost for words.
It was rather cold up here and they could see the stars.
The orbs they could see in the distance weren’t fruits but actual planets.

“But if we’re in outer space, why aren’t we having any difficulty breathing?” asked Chu Yi quizzically.
He didn’t know much about outer space but he had some basic general knowledge.

Su Jin pondered this question for a while, then said, “Perhaps the Tree of Life makes a difference.
Trees give off oxygen, after all! We’re surrounded by the Tree of Life, so it makes sense for us to still have sufficient oxygen to breathe.”

Chu Yi nodded, then looked around.
His eyes suddenly lit up and he tugged at Su Jin.
“Brother Su! Those things over there…those must be the ripe fruits, right?!”

Su Jin turned to see several red orbs floating in the distance and immediately checked on them with his skill.
Chu Yi was right.
Those were indeed the ripe fruits of the Tree of Life.

“Bingo!” Su Jin nodded and they immediately dashed towards the fruits.
But the moment they came near to one, the fruit floated away from them.

“Why are they able to move?” Su Jin didn’t expect that to happen.
But unlike the unripe fruits they saw earlier, these ripe ones weren’t attached to the tree by a much longer and thinner stem, so they looked as though they were just floating about randomly and were thus able to move away with ease.

“Let me try!” said Chu Yi.
He got himself into a half-squat position and adjusted his breathing pattern.
Su Jin watched as a gust of wind formed around Chu Yi’s body.

“Go!” Chu Yi gave a low shout as he thrust his hands out, sending the gust of wind towards one of the fruits.

But just before the wind could reach the fruit, Chu Yi heard something shooting towards him, so he quickly moved aside.
He turned back and saw that the place where he was standing earlier was filled with several large wooden splinters.

“Watch out!” Su Jin saw those splinters and immediately became wary of his surroundings, but couldn’t find where this sudden attack had come from.

“Was it…the Tree itself?” Chu Yi was the victim, so he had a better idea of what happened.

Su Jin narrowed his eyes as he traced the splinters’ trajectory based on the angle at which they had stabbed into the ground.
He soon found the source of the splinters.
Some thorns were sticking out of the Tree of Life’s branch.

“It’s really the Tree of Life protecting its own fruit!” Su Jin sighed.
He had guessed as much, since it made sense for such a majestic source of life to be sentient to a certain extent.

Just then, Su Jin noticed something from the corner of his eye.
It looked like a human’s face, but it was covered by the tree bark.

Su Jin used his Boning Knife to cut some of the bark away and froze when he saw that face clearly.
That face belonged to Prince Charming!