Chapter 257: The Forest's Rank Promotion

The massive bronze dragon war soul suddenly shrank.

Rod, positioned beneath it, was like a vacuum cleaner, suddenly sucking the war soul into his body.

Kali stepped forward.

"How does it feel? Is anything wrong?"

"It feels better than ever before. A perfect ritual. I have never seen a mage as powerful as you."

The elf still wore a sour expression, paying no attention to his flattery.

"The ritual data and values I gave you are usually only used to fix war souls of humanoid size. Using a bronze dragon directly like yours has never happened before. It is best to check yourself carefully. Of course, I do not care; I just want the experimental data."

Miss Xiao Ke also walked over.

She spread her small palm, and five light-point-sized little butterflies, gathered from pale yellow spiritual light, flew out and slowly landed on Rod's body.

Immediately, it gave a feeling like bathing in spring breeze, nourishing the whole body.

【Spiritual Light Care】.

A native spiritual art Rod activated while surging on Miss Xiao Ke a few days ago.

Those spiritual light butterflies are a very rare type of natural spiritual light; even simple physical contact grants healing. Because of the attraction of 【Spiritual Light Care】, they keep Miss Xiao Ke company.

Rod felt even his spirit was healed.

There was a fresh feeling.

He suddenly thought of something, and while taking the shirt Miss Xiao Ke handed him, he whispered secretly into her deer ear:

"This move is good. You can use it when you can't take it anymore, to see if it restores stamina immediately."

"Get lost! Perverted dog!"

Miss Xiao Ke, her face red, punched him with a pink fist.

Kali frowned, watching the two of them whispering and touching, and felt a bit gloomy in her heart.

So she couldn't help but speak up to attract attention:

"By the way, the spiritual accumulation in this forest is very fast; it is about to be able to promote its rank."

Rod was stunned: "A forest can promote its rank?"

He really did not know that.

He did know the spiritual accumulation was fast, after all, he had spent a lot of growth spiritual on the forest's trees.

And the girls in the forest benefited from this, accelerating their growth in spiritual or mana accumulation to varying degrees.

Speaking of this, one must mention the greatness of the Molar Earrings again.

Two days ago, the girls who assisted Rod in digesting spiritual energy all made good progress.

Tally and Pan Ni reached the peak of the sixth rank together, with the seventh rank within reach.

Miss Xiao Ke even jumped a whole major rank, reaching the mid-stage of the fifth rank.

Amy and Vivian, both seventh-rank, had larger spiritual accumulation capacities; neither changed rank, but the growth was certainly significant.

"Elven techniques; you humans, who take pleasure in destroying nature, naturally would not know."

Kali snorted coldly, "Also, otherwise, what do you think those spell components I sent you to buy were for?"

Rod already liked the elf's foul mouth and paid no attention at all.

Instead, he felt a little touched in his heart.

"For my forest, you actually spent so much money. What should I do if I am a bit touched?"

"For you? Heh. I told you before: elven spiritual energy and mana are closely related to nature. I intend to use the ritual to promote Windwall Forest's rank to advance to the seventh rank."

Kali said coldly.

There was one more thing she did not say.

After living in Windwall Forest for this period, for some reason, she felt a hint of fear toward the high-pressure, authoritarian elven elders.

Using Windwall Forest's rank promotion this time was to secure a back road for herself.

Even if she might be expelled by the elven elders later, having returned her mana to the nature of the Emerald Court, there would still be her back road in Windwall Forest.

As for whether the forest warden here agrees...

Just look at his eyes stealing glances at thighs and breasts; this guy would be delighted if I stayed here.

Thinking of this...

Kali's mood improved, and a rhythmic humming sound came from her throat.

Rat Girl Number Thirteen, who had been following behind her, had very strong hearing and heard the humming.

She also looked confused and tried to hum along.

"Do not imitate!" the elf scolded.

The humming sound stopped abruptly.

Rod laughed: "Do not be so fierce. Number Thirteen has no soul; she is not even as good as a child."

"No one understands how souls are generated. A healthy body and spirit might just be able to nurture one. I must teach her from a young age... There are many ritual sites for forest rank promotion, and they take a lot of time; it is a good opportunity for practice. You come over every day to learn when you have free time, understand?"

"Okay, okay, okay, Teacher Kali."

The ritual was settled.

Rod naturally went to entertain the guests.

Miss Xiao Ke did not like such scenes and took Little Little Bangde and the big squirrel Cui Qian back into the forest.

Kali remained in place; even after the ritual ended, she still needed to record.

When they arrived at Henry Farm...

Cat Girl Chloé, the mage Doris, and Pan Ni were sitting around a table.

Beside them were the just-purified ghoul servants, clumsily brewing black tea.

Doris and Kouyi both twitched the corners of their eyes at the black tea in front of them, neither daring to pick it up and drink.

The ghouls had been purified, sure, but the rotting flesh and blood flakes on their bodies hadn't been cleaned off, and bits kept dropping into the black tea with a crunch.

And the moment Pan Ni saw her master, she excitedly stood up, her face full of agitation.

"Master!"

Oh no, master smells so good~ I can't hold it in~~~

Rod nodded.

"Miss Kouyi, Miss Doris, sorry to keep you waiting."

Doris glanced behind him and saw no girl had followed, and immediately felt a bit disappointed.

Can't embarrass this guy in a crowded place. But having a female ghoul works too, I suppose.

"You two seem to have come from Deep Water City as well. How was it? Was the journey alright?"

After Rod had exchanged greetings with the two ladies.

He sat in the seat Pan Ni had just vacated, while Pan Ni stood respectfully behind him — if only she would stop staring at the back of Rod's neck.

"It was awful. Aetheron right now is far more chaotic than I imagined," said the cat-woman Kouyi.

"Like this — not long ago I ran into a group of Wendigo who had migrated over from Gem City, and they gave me a long litany of complaints about the heretical cults and civil war along the way."

He glanced at the terrible black tea in the cup.

And dumped it straight out.

Pan Ni lamented: "Ah—"

"Tally."

"Yes."

Hearing the summons, the succubus drifted gracefully up from the shadows onto the floor.

Today she was dressed as a mature older sister in a maid outfit, fair-skinned, with a strikingly beautiful face, her long golden hair neatly pinned up at the back of her head — looking very capable.

More importantly, the pair of peaks that remained impressively high even behind the thick, long maid dress.

Kouyi and Doris stared wide-eyed at the sight.

Then compared their own.

Hmph! Useless fat, that's all!

Looks like today Tally intends to stick to her maid persona.

She smiled gently, and with practiced ease disposed of everyone's cups of flake-filled black tea, then nimbly began brewing a fresh pot.

The more Doris watched, the more anxious she grew on Lily's behalf.

No more small talk either.

She bluntly took out that square crystal.

"I'll be straight with you, Mr. Rod — the Emerald Pod inside is from Lily to you, but as Lily's good friend, I can't stand your philandering. This crystal is a test I'm giving you; even a seventh-tier can't open it, remember! This has nothing to do with Lily — if you want to blame someone, blame me!"

(End of chapter)