Chapter 202: What Have You Done to the God of Life

Hugging Seeing Ange's finger bone, the bald god-body kept sliding down, sliding and sliding and sliding, until it slipped off onto the ground.

But while the god-body fell, a small white ghost-soul did not fall; it broke free from the body and clung tightly to Seeing Ange's finger.

Seeing Ange felt it was a little strange — such a tiny thing could actually drive a god-body?

But it had clearly reached its limit too; clinging to Seeing Ange's finger, it noticed it was no longer glowing, couldn't help tilting its head back, conjured a finger, and poked the finger it was hugging.

Seeing Ange had no choice but to summon holy light and bathe it within.

Ha~ The little ghost-soul contentedly let out a breath, holding on firmly to Seeing Ange's finger.

Seeing Ange suddenly understood a little why it could drive the god-body — turns out it was the energy he had charged into it, and now it had clearly been used up, so it couldn't move anymore.

But it was already very impressive — you have to know, the god-body is a powerful frame that can clash head-on with bone-hard bodies, and it took that many punches against Seeing Ange before only two arms exploded.

Such a god-body, and the little ghost-soul could actually drive it? If he kept charging it with energy, could it keep driving the god-body to go clear wasteland and farm?

He'd try it later. Having made up his mind, Seeing Ange chopped off a small section of the cured World Tree branch and went out.

This was the diseased deadwood cut from the God of Life's body — he recognized it at a glance; newly grown World Tree branches don't have this kind of age to them.

"You really cured my wilt disease — how did you do it…" the God of Life said slowly.

Seeing Ange took out a bag of worm ash.

"Such intense vitality — maybe I can try it. Sell me these things, would you…" Even at a time like this, the God of Life still spoke in an unhurried tone.

Lord Nai Ge Li Si said hurriedly: "Yes, yes, no problem. Notify the elves below to lift the flight restriction, we'll fly straight to you."

"Flying is too slow. Come this way." The God of Life said leisurely, and as he spoke, the lush trees and flowers around them shrank back to both sides, revealing a path.

This shrinking back startled the little sapling — it thought the trees were wilting, and hurriedly waved its branches and leaves with all its might: strain — grow — strain — grow —. But sadly, its strength was no match for the God of Life, and the forest still parted.

Flying is still slow? Nai Ge Li Si and Andoni exchanged glances — could there be a teleportation array nearby?

Following the forest path forward, the further they walked, the denser the trees became, blocking out the space above, so everyone felt as if they had walked into a circular tunnel woven from branches and vines.

Walking and walking, they'd probably gone three or four kilometers, when the view ahead suddenly opened up, and they arrived at a vast platform.

This platform was like the branch of a giant tree, surrounded on all sides by dense foliage, sunlight filtering down through the leaves; the edge of the platform was thick white fog, and looking down from the edge, it seemed bottomless.

"Where is this? It seems like we're on top of a tree — the floor is all living wood." The undead horse stamped the ground a few times with its hooves.

The God of Life's voice rang out: "Don't stomp on me…"

"Uh, this is you? Sorry, sorry." The undead horse hurriedly apologized, patted the ground with its hooves to smooth out its hoofprints.

"This is you? How did we end up on your body? What happened? We clearly just walked into the forest not long ago, still over a thousand kilometers from you." Nai Ge Li Si was shocked, and Andoni turned his head to look back at the passage behind them in astonishment.

But where was the passage behind them? Inside was just a giant tree hollow, visible at a glance.

"I temporarily set up a spatial passage. Come this way." No sooner had he finished speaking than a little elf drifted over, flew a circle around Seeing Ange and the others, then flew off in a certain direction.

Nai Ge Li Si and Andoni were utterly shocked — but what shocked them was not the teleportation of over a thousand kilometers. For the dignified God of Life, even teleporting them to another plane on the spot wouldn't be anything worth being surprised about.

What shocked them was that the entire process was utterly silent; they felt nothing at all, yet completed a spatial transfer, as if they had merely walked a few kilometers themselves — that was the most terrifying part.

Even strong ones of their level couldn't detect the spatial transition; ordinary people, even if they walked through that passage, would only think they'd walked a few kilometers, never knowing they were already a thousand miles away.

Walking along in constant shock, a branch suddenly hung down ahead, with a ripe, sweet-smelling fruit hanging from its tip.

Lightning instinctively licked its lips — it had eaten this kind of fruit before. Although it only got the flesh last time, with all the seeds scooped out, that sweetness had stayed in its memory.

Actually, when it was little, it could eat this kind of fruit from time to time too, but back then it didn't think anything of it. It wasn't until it broke off its horn and left, wandering the human world for years, tasting every hardship, that it suddenly tasted this sweetness again — those memories were especially vivid.

It wanted to eat.

The thought had just arisen when a white figure pounced over, hugged the fruit, and yanked it down.

The little angel hugged the fruit, scurried back to Seeing Ange, and held it up high with both hands.

Seeing Ange had just taken it when Lightning quickly came over: "My lord, you only want the seeds inside, right? Can I have the rest?"

Seeing Ange shook his head: "Not opening it now." Saying that, he stuffed it into the Resting Palace.

Soon, everyone followed a spiral staircase formed by twisted giant branches downward, entering a hollow tree cavity, like the hollow at the center of a dead tree with its middle rotted out — except this one was several hundred times larger, like a giant pit.

They quickly reached the bottom. The material of the ground told everyone this was still inside the World Tree's main trunk; around them were semi-independent hollows, piled full of all sorts of things.

The God of Life's voice rang out: "I don't know how to price your things. Here are items others have lost over tens of thousands of years, or that living beings have offered to me. I don't know which have value — pick whatever you want, or take them all, it's fine. I don't know — are the things here enough to trade for the powder that cured my wilt disease?"

Nai Ge Li Si and Andoni were already dumbfounded, and upon hearing this, they stammered in reply: "Enough… enough. The things here…"

"Angel's Staff, Pope's Scepter, Holy Spirit Badge, Holy Knight Badge, Sacred Codex…"

"Flame Dragon Stone, War God's Hammer, Steel Demon God Heart…"

"Archmage's Notes, Truth Mage's Notes, Sword Saint's Manuals — others have them by the copy, you have them by the pile…"

"Boundless Crystals, cores of spatial artifacts — five bags here. Astral Gems, void positioning stones — one bag…"

"Adamantine, mithril, magic copper, magic crystals, Lei Mu — any magical material I know of, you have it all here…"

After taking stock of the items around them, Nai Ge Li Si and Andoni were so shaken they couldn't speak. Greatly stimulated, they retreated, took several deep breaths to calm themselves, then said in anguish: "They're all treasures, but why are so many broken! So many are broken!"

"Broken? Maybe they were left too long — some things have been here for tens of thousands of years. The ones with poor materials have all turned to powder." The God of Life replied unhurriedly.

"Pfft, tens of thousands of years… You, couldn't you set up a constant barrier or seal them?" Nai Ge Li Si was so heartbroken he could barely speak.

Whether it was the Pope's Scepter or the Steel Demon God Heart, they were all genuine. From the insignia on the Pope's Scepter, Andoni even recognized it as the one that had been continuously used from the First Pope all the way to Pope the Fifth — already saturated with holy power, its might boundless.

But now it lay there like a piece of rotten wood, carelessly placed, with no power to be sensed at all.

The Steel Demon God Heart was the same — covered in rust, its internal structural parts rusted into a lump, unable to turn.

Extraordinary items like these, even if thrown in a mud pit, wouldn't decay so quickly; three to five hundred years wouldn't be enough to corrode them.

But the problem was, the Pope's Scepter had already been lost four thousand years ago.

These were already considered the better ones. Some items made from biological tissue — pearl necklaces, dragon-tooth bracelets, dragon-scale armor and the like — had long since turned to powder under the erosion of time, no longer recognizable in their original form, like that lump of ash in the corner.

"Oh, that's ashes. I picked up a set of angel bones seventy thousand years ago — I didn't expect them to have already turned to ash."

Seventy thousand years… So even holy remains turn to ash in the end. Given enough time, even weapons forged by gods cannot withstand entropy.

All the man-made objects had already broken beyond recognition. And to Nai Ge Li Si's anguished questioning, the God of Life merely replied calmly: "This is part of nature; there's no need to interfere with it. It's no use to me anyway."

"So, is there anything of value here? Anything that can be traded for the powder? If not, I'll have the elves go look for what you need." The God of Life said unhurriedly.

Lord Nai Ge Li Si glanced at Seeing Ange, and Seeing Ange nodded and began transferring the worm ash outward.

Lord Nai Ge Li Si hurriedly said, "Whether it's valuable or not is another matter — you treat yourself first, hurry up, don't dawdle over there. What if your consciousness dissipates halfway through? That would be trouble."

"Alright…"

Seeing Ange transferred over a dozen tons of worm ash out, and Lord Nai Ge Li Si called a halt with some heartache: "Is this enough? These things are already out of print — every bit used is a bit less. Enough to cure you is enough; any more would be wasted."

Seeing Ange's jaw moved, about to say something, but was interrupted by the voice of the God of Life: "A bit more — this much can't even be sprinkled in a ring around my feet."

Hearing such words, and then thinking of the World Tree's enormous size — just the trunk's diameter is measured in kilometers — to sprinkle it all around its feet, emptying Seeing Ange's entire fortune probably still wouldn't be enough.

"Then just sprinkle half of it, then." Lord Nai Ge Li Si said, wincing at the pain.

Seeing Ange didn't stop, continuing to transfer it out, until all the worm ash on hand was emptied clean. After this, his hands only had some extracted worm-ash liquid and essence worm-ash liquid left.

But he didn't feel the loss — he had already mastered the method of cultivating worms, and there were worm breeding stock left in the underground pit of the Resting Palace. As long as there was a suitable place, he could cultivate worms and continue burning ash.

The worm ash was lifted as if by an invisible hand; the bag holding them split open, and the worm ash inside gathered into a stream and drifted away.

The goods were handed over, and Lord Nai Ge Li Si picked out his reward with a clear conscience. However, it felt that everything here combined wasn't as valuable as that worm ash, because in its mind, worm ash was out of print.

Hermes was already dead, and there would never again be Worm Gods or Worm Tamers for them to kill. Who could have expected Seeing Ange had already kept breeding stock?

Man-made items were easily damaged, but those naturally formed things — like orichalcum, mithril, astral gems, and the like — were still perfectly preserved. After all, from the day they formed, their existence had been about as long as the entire plane itself.

"Five baskets of Boundless Crystals — take them all, it can't use them anyway. Astral gems — take them all, it can't use them anyway. Orichalcum and mithril — take them all, it can't use them anyway." Lord Nai Ge Li Si muttered to itself, its little claws never idle for a moment as it tossed the things to Seeing Ange.

"Do you want these weapons and equipment? They're already rotted like this — they don't have any power left." Lord Nai Ge Li Si said.

"Yes, yes, yes!" Andoni said urgently: "I know some artifact restoration experts. I'll take them back and have them restored, then auction them off as antiques, or bring them back to the Church to accumulate prestige. As a God-Chosen who recovered the Church's lost holy relics, becoming Pope of the Holy Church — that's perfectly reasonable, right?"

"Reasonable, reasonable." Lord Nai Ge Li Si said disdainfully, making to throw those holy relics over, which scared Andoni into sliding tackle over: "No trouble, my lord God of Knowledge — I'll pack them up myself."

Carefully packing up the holy relics, stuffing them into his own cloak.

After a bout of busywork, everyone had packed up everything of any value here at the World Tree, which slightly soothed Lord Nai Ge Li Si's heart. If it didn't strip it clean, it would feel it had lost out — mainly because many of the items were broken, and only those raw materials were useful.

Just then, the World Tree's voice slowly rang out, carrying a hint of weariness:

"I have already sprinkled the medicinal powder onto my roots, and I can immediately feel a steady stream of life force. It is revitalizing the vitality within me, healing the wilt disease of my branches. This makes me feel weary — I may need to slumber for a period of time to digest this life force. I won't be able to send you off."

"Fine, fine, go sleep then, we'll leave on our own. Oh right, let's pick a few more Life Fruits." Lord Nai Ge Li Si said. It seemed that unless it stripped the God of Life clean, it would never be done.

But the God of Life no longer responded — perhaps already asleep. Just finished speaking and already asleep? That sleep quality is too good, isn't it?

Everyone began scattering to pick Life Fruits. These were good stuff — inside were not only World Tree seeds, but the fruits themselves were rich in nutrition. Long-term consumption could prolong life; taken to the human world, who knew how much money they could fetch.

While picking, suddenly, a leaf fell down.

Leaves fell — rustle, rustle — a great many leaves came falling down. So the World Tree's so-called slumber actually caused leaf-fall?

Leaves drifted down all across the sky. Before long, the canopy became bare, leaving only branches and trunks, and the view instantly opened up.

Lord Nai Ge Li Si said regretfully: "If you're going to shed leaves, shed leaves — but the fruits too? Now there's nothing to pick. Seeing Ange…"

Lord Nai Ge Li Si called out to Seeing Ange, only to find Seeing Ange twisting his head to look outside the canopy. Following Seeing Ange's gaze, it saw only the furiously enraged Elf Queen Gai La De.

Besides her, there was the High Priestess Kai Lan Dai Er transformed into a giant eagle, countless two-headed chimera knights, over a dozen Elf Arcane Mages, one Truth Mage, three Elf archers treading the air…

Nearly all the Elves' powerful figures had appeared. They surrounded the canopy in a ring, glaring furiously at Seeing Ange and the others.

Gai La De's eyes were practically shooting fire, and she asked through gritted teeth: "What… have you done to the God of Life?"

Such a massive lineup made Lord Nai Ge Li Si's scalp go numb, and it asked in a trembling voice: "Don't tell me… the God of Life didn't tell you what was going to happen?"