[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-path-of-dragons":3,"chapter-path-of-dragons-path-of-dragons-chapter-1185":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"english","Path of Dragons",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},1685278,2151,"Book 13: Chapter 48: Inspiration","path-of-dragons-chapter-1185",1185,"\u003Cp>Path of Dragons\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The branches of Elijah’s soul spread out for nearly half a mile. If he let it drop, even for a second, the plants would perish. So he had learned over the past couple of months’ worth of work.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His initial joy at seeing the grass flourish had quickly faded when he realized that, once converted, each plant had a shelf life that could only be extended through the use of his Mantle of Authority. The structure he’d created worked in tandem with the web of fungal hyphae stretching between the branches, and without either of those factors, the grass quickly died.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And yet, there was hope amidst that disappointment, and it came from the simple fact that, if he kept his mantle going for a few days, the grass adapted to its environment. Once that happened, it could survive indefinitely.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>So, Elijah incorporated that into his routine, and slowly, he converted the plants to his purposes. Maintaining his Mantle of Authority wasn’t easy, but he’d long since passed the point where he would fail in the face of such a simple difficulty. He endured the hardship and gradually put his stamp on the world.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It took nearly six months to convert the entirety of Druhmor.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>By that point, Elijah had been working on the project for close to four years, and that wasn’t even considering the time it had taken him to reach the site. Or to cultivate. Altogether, he’d been on Gorveth for at least six years. Maybe seven or eight, depending on how accurate his accounting of time proved to be.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Upon first arrival, he’d imagined that he would quickly find his way home. Maybe he would return at the last minute, only to save everyone by conquering the last Primal Realms. He would be a hero, and one who saved the entire world.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But that hadn’t happened.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If humanity had risen to the occasion and saved Earth from excisement, they’d done it on their own. Elijah wasn’t even a bystander.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The impotence of his situation frustrated him, which led him to work even harder, if only because it distracted him from his troubled thoughts. From the fact that he had no idea if his family and friends were even still alive. So long as he kept busy, he managed to keep himself from dwelling on it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>So, busy, he kept.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Perhaps that was one of the reasons he’d so quickly latched onto such a monumental endeavor.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Either way, he was committed to the task, and he didn’t intend to let up until it was complete.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He focused on the grass, weaving together thousands of elements into a singular whole. Doing so was no easy feat, and over the past few years, Elijah had learned more about plant cultivation than he’d ever imagined. He still didn’t think he could rival Nerthus, but he’d come a long way, and in a relatively short time.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Hopefully, the spryggent would be proud of his progress.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Finally, he finished the conversion – and with that last plant, the entirety of Druhmor had been transformed. He still needed to bathe the area in his mantle for a few more days, but after everything, Elijah couldn’t help but feel a deep sense of accomplishment.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He still had a long way to go before he completed the task, but he’d laid incredibly strong foundations. Hopefully, it would be enough.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Four days later, he returned to the tent and rested for a while. He couldn’t completely relax, largely because monsters periodically attacked. They never got further than the Abyssal Moat, but if allowed, they would certainly rip apart the fruits of his labor.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Thankfully, he only had to respond to one such invasion, and he did so before the thing did any lasting damage.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Once he dealt with that, he returned to the center of the grove and, again, consulted his notes. For years, he’d watched Nerthus tend to the Hartwood Grove. The spryggent was an absolute magician when it came to enhancing the vitality and ethereal density through the growth of the island’s fauna.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>For the longest time, Elijah had only vaguely understood what was going on, but now, he recognized the truth. Nerthus had been growing ritual circles. They weren’t obvious because they blended in with everything else, but in hindsight, Elijah saw them for what they were.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And even with his locus inactive – hopefully because he was cut off from Earth, rather than the very real possibility that Earth as he knew it no longer existed – he could remember every last detail. So, over the past few years, he’d spent a good amount of time recreating those designs in his notebook.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He’d made plenty of mistakes, but in the end, he managed to figure things out.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At least as far as he could tell.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Now, it was time to put those lessons to good use.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His previous efforts were almost exclusively meant to purge the corruption from the atmosphere or the soil. Now, he needed to manipulate the ambient vitality and ethera. The latter was already thick. Almost as dense as in the center of the Hartwood Grove. But Elijah wanted more.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>To that end, he dove into his task. Now that the corruption was gone, he could force other plants to grow. It wasn’t easy, and it required quite a lot of power. It also meant spending days forcing them to take root by bathing them in a combination of his Mantle of Authority and Blessing of the Grove.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But by that point, Elijah had grown accustomed to the tediousness of his brand of horticulture. In fact, he took solace in it in a way he couldn’t really explain. Recovering a barren land came with a deep sense of purpose that he’d never really felt before.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>So, even if the task was onerous, Elijah didn’t see it that way. It was an opportunity to perform a blessed labor that he instinctively embraced with his whole heart.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And Druhmor bloomed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>First, it was only a few plants here and there, but with every passing week, Elijah added a little more vitality to it. That was when he discovered that his rings served another function – they kept the vitality contained, preventing it from seeping out into the atmosphere.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That concentrated it further until, nearly a year later, the area had grown into a garden that wouldn’t have been out of place on Earth. It looked wild. Almost chaotic. But beneath the surface, Elijah had built a similar system to what Nerthus had grown in the Hartwood Grove. Roots and vines, flowers and bushes – they all worked together to form another set of runic circles that served to enhance the atmosphere.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Finally, as Elijah looked down on it, it began to feel like home.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And at last, he allowed himself to relax. The area shuddered slightly when he retracted his mantle, but it held firm. Even after a few more days – during which he rested – Elijah found the ambient vitality continuing to grow denser. It was only after a month that it leveled off.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Still, Elijah waited.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He watched.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And sure enough, his patience was rewarded when he discovered a mistake. It wasn’t difficult to fix it, but he knew good and well that if he’d already started the next stage of his plan, he’d never have had time to repair the problem.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That cycle continued for a few more weeks until he’d plugged all of the leaks, smoothed the inefficiencies, and corrected his mistakes. Only after he hadn’t found any for an entire month did he decide to move on to the next stage.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At the center of Druhmor stood the arch, and below that was a well. Elijah had long since filled it, using a full third of the Soil of Reclamation interspersed throughout a few tons of dirt harvested from nearby. He knelt next to it, resting his hand in the black dirt. It was moist and spongey.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But it wasn’t ready.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Without further ado, Elijah stepped into the center of the well and sat. After taking a deep breath, he summoned Blessing of the Grove. Fat drops of rain descended from on high, settling into the dirt. Then, he used Grove Conduit. No vitality or ethera responded, as had been the case since he’d entered Gorveth. But what it did do was soak the area in his signature. That, combined with his ongoing Mantle of Authority and Blessing of the Grove, worked to create a well of vitality that would hopefully be perfect for what he had planned.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As he meditated and maintained his spells, he reached down with Soul of the Wild and searched for dormant life like endospores or inactive actinobacteria. He found nothing, which shouldn’t have been possible. Even in the most desolate of landscapes, there should have been the inactive seeds of life.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But apparently, the abyss didn’t follow those rules.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Still, Elijah was prepared for that. Expected it, even. And he had a plan to fix it. Fortunately, his packrat nature came in handy, because he had quite a few cuttings and seeds in his Herbalist’s Pouch. He emptied the thing, burying everything. He even dumped his all-but-forgotten yeast starter into the soil before shifting forms and using Throne of Spores to spread everything out.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Then, he waited as the bacterial soup fermented. A few of the seeds took hold and started to grow, but Elijah forcefully halted them. Then, the bacteria reached them and began to rot, the process suffusing the soil with plenty of nutrients.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And all the while, Elijah continued to bathe the entire well in rain from Blessing of the Grove, flavor from Grove Conduit, and his Mantle of Authority.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>So much of what Elijah had to do depended on time. There was no easy way to infuse soil with vitality. He couldn’t just snap his fingers and make bacteria grow. But he could nudge it in the right direction, which was how he spent the next few weeks.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Finally, it was ready.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He reached into his Arcane Loop and retrieved his only seed of the Ancestral Tree. In truth, he’d forgotten he even had it until he’d begun to conceive of his plan. But now, everything hinged on its ability to grow.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He had prepared the soil. He had created the most optimal growing conditions he could muster. Long years had been spent on that endeavor. And now, the time had come to plant it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He scooped a handful of wet soil and set it aside. Gently, he placed that all-important seed in the small divot, then covered it. Closing his eyes, he cast Nature’s Design and focused every single leaf within his mind – all eighty-one of them – on guiding it to fruition.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At first, nothing happened.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Days passed, and the seed refused to sprout.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But then, after a little more than a week, a radicle broke through the outer shell. It grew downward, but more slowly than any plant Elijah had ever seen. That was good. That was what he wanted. He could have forced it to grow more quickly. His instincts told him to do just that. But that growth would be hollow.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It would work just fine back on Earth, but Elijah would not take any chances with this tree. It needed to grow strong and tall. Anything else would be a waste.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Weeks passed. Then months. And all the while, the radicle grew by fractions of an inch. As it did, it absorbed water and nutrients, funneling it into the seed. Vitality pulsed within, sharp and bright, whirling faster with every passing week.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Finally, a shoot emerged.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Elijah very nearly let out a cheer as he saw that tiny appendage that he hoped would one day grow into a mighty trunk. Like the radicle, the shoot grew slowly, but to Elijah’s immense pleasure, steadily.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As it did, he subtly manipulated its structure. He didn’t move things much. He didn’t need a power-absorbing tree like he’d grown near the Primal Realms. Instead, he wanted it to resemble its forebear. The original ancestral tree at the center of his grove.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But stronger.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Taller.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>More resilient.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It needed to be better in every way.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But to accomplish that, the nascent tree couldn’t be dragged into life. Rather, it had to stand on its own, lest its foundations prove weak. Elijah forged its environment, but it had to use the advantages he had provided.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He practically held his breath as the weeks passed into months. And then, when that first shoot emerged from the ground, Elijah felt tears falling down his cheeks.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At last, something had gone right. Finally, he’d found true hope.\u003C\u002Fp>",2135,"2026-06-06T13:41:01.983Z",1,"novelbin.me","3db7ae2c07e634c286790132add58a201d8b366615a2bd98bfa6328f5c749bca","path-of-dragons-chapter-1186","path-of-dragons-chapter-1184",1206,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fpath-of-dragons-cover.jpg"]