Chapter 290: It, the New God of Life

"Is... is it really burning?" Ma Disi muttered, dazed.

He had calculated that the elves could never bring themselves to cut down the tree, but he hadn't expected some inexplicable fellow to suddenly pop up and burn it down. The opponent had originally intended to chop it, but after a dense barrage of explosive fireballs swept over, the tree was set ablaze.

Is the Tree of Life really that easy to burn? If it were, it would have been burned down countless times over the past ninety thousand years.

Yet, the Tree of Life not only failed to resist, it seemed to be accelerating the combustion. For a trunk several kilometers in diameter, if it were truly to burn, it would take at least ten days or half a month to reach the core.

But now, in less than half a day, the Tree of Life had already become a giant torch.

The elves not only failed to stop it, but their Queen even stood on the side of this fellow, blocking his attacks. Not only could his vines not touch anyone, but even the mantis insects he sent out were shredded before the formation.

And the insect tide he relied on most couldn't even get close to the enemy; they inexplicably collapsed and died all around. The few that managed to charge forward were all blasted into powder under the enemy's soul impact.

What is wrong with this world? What is wrong with these elves? Your god is being burned by someone!

Ma Disi wailed in his heart—he had to wail. With the Tree of Life burning, Ma Disi, who was parasitic upon it, burned even more fiercely. The vines attached to the surface had already been burned away, forcing him to retreat into the interior and root system of the Tree of Life.

Whether it was because they heard his wailing or not, the elves gathered around, shouting loudly to put out the fire, and even sternly ordered Ang to stop.

Ang did indeed stop, then quickly pulled out his gear: dozens of Titan giants, over a dozen undead archmages, and a whole bunch of Sword Saint angels—a clear stance that he was ready to fight.

Then he stomped his foot—King's Arrival—and all the skeletons nearby that had been gnawed down to nothing but bone climbed back up.

No one knew exactly how many animals were in the forest, but the total was certainly more than the elves. They hadn't managed to escape and had almost all become food for the insects, with only their skeletons remaining.

These skeletons were certainly more numerous than the elves present, so in turn, the elves were surrounded.

Despite this, the elves remained unyielding, organizing themselves to charge. They could not accept their god burning there.

The voice of the God of Life suddenly rang out: "Ang, let the little sapling out."

Ang blinked, pulled out the little sapling, and placed it on his head. He hadn't wanted to let the little sapling out—it was too dangerous—but since this was the God of Life's request, he would just have to be careful.

As soon as the little sapling came out, it saw the raging torch and was immediately terrified, waving its leaves and sending out intense information: *Push—grow—push—grow—*

"Thank you, little one, I can feel your life force," the Tree of Life said slowly. One could clearly feel the amusement in its words.

The little sapling stood there holding its leaves, stunned. This giant torch could "talk."

Subsequently, the voice of the Tree of Life rang out in the hearts of all the elves: "From this day forward, it is the new God of Life."

For the vast majority of the elves, this was the first time they had heard the God of Life's voice, yet no one doubted its authenticity, because the feeling the voice brought them was exactly the same as the feeling of a breeze blowing when they were playing on the treetops as children.

The elves looked at each other, unable to help but lower the weapons in their hands. They dared not point their weapons at their own god.

With Ang standing there with the little sapling on his head, the elves dared not make another move. How could they fight now? Ma Disi's last shred of hope was shattered.

"Madman, madman! I'm not playing with you anymore. Burn it, burn this stupid tree to death, I'll go find something else to parasitize!" Ma Disi's frantic voice rang out.

A god who had lived for ninety thousand years was willing to burn himself just to take him down together?

Faced with such a crazy method, Ma Disi had no other preparations; he could only run.

Just as the root filaments of the parasitic vine detached from the Tree of Life and began to burrow deep into the ground, Ang suddenly pulled out He Mo Er.

He Mo Er blinked its blank eyes, looking around, confused. It didn't know why Ang had suddenly pulled it out.

"Clear the insects," Ang said.

"Oh." He Mo Er realized. It arched its body, and two scales bulged on its back, revealing the cicada membrane underneath. As the membrane vibrated at high speed, a hissing, ultra-high-frequency sound spread out.

After a dozen breaths, the earth surged, and countless insects continuously crawled out from the soil, crawling or flying toward He Mo Er.

"Hiss, so many insects? Ku Ba Da, with so many insects, even if we burn this place to white ground, we might not be able to clean them all up. If even a few are left, they'll soon breed a whole bunch again. How annoying," Lord Nai Ge shouted in lingering fear.

Seeing the dense swarm of insects crawling out, the elves felt their scalps go numb. Could this forest still be saved? If they weren't cleaned up completely, would they crawl up at night and gnaw them to death?

He Mo Er kept emitting the summoning sound, calling the insects up, and then opened its giant mouth to wait. Every insect that crawled over was chewed up by it, one by one.

As a fellow insect god, it had an innate restraint over insects. If Ma Disi were still there, he could interfere, but now that Ma Disi had run away, all the insects nearby obeyed its commands.

Ma Disi was shocked. An insect god? Why was there another insect god?

"No, I can't let it destroy all the insect eggs. At least leave me one or two, otherwise I'll have to start cultivating from scratch." Ma Disi, who had burrowed deep underground, had no choice but to drill back toward the surface.

Insects all had lineages; the ones cultivated by each insect controller were different. Some bred fast, some had strong combat power, some could fly, some could crawl. If a whole series of insects died out, it wouldn't be easy to cultivate the same ones again.

An insect controller always kept a few useful types of insects in their pocket, expanding their numbers when needed.

However, as he crawled and crawled, reaching the area of the Tree of Life's roots and attempting to parasitize the Tree of Life again, a very speechless voice suddenly rang out in his consciousness: "Do you think I'm easy to bully, is that it?"

Ma Disi was horrified to find that his body was out of control, dragged from the soil by a powerful force, violently, forcefully, and abruptly pulled out of the ground.

The God of Life was the most formidable existence in this plane; it had survived for over ninety thousand years and protected the entire Elf Forest.

Last time, that god-body grown from a seed had fled into the forest and was casually swatted to death by it. In its eyes, an ordinary god was no stronger than an average person.

However, all things in the world have their mutual reinforcements and restraints. It had been momentarily careless, allowing Ma Disi to parasitize it. The reason it couldn't do anything to Ma Disi was because they had already merged into one; all force applied to Ma Disi would simultaneously be applied to it.

It couldn't eliminate Ma Disi while in the parasitic state because it couldn't eliminate itself.

But Ang didn't say a word and just started chopping the tree, and he really did chop it—the trunk was burned into a giant torch, with only the root system underground remaining.

Under these circumstances, parasitism no longer had much meaning, so Ma Disi detached from the parasitic state. The moment he detached, the God of Life was effectively freed.

Detaching was easy; it was only because of a lack of attention that he had been quietly parasitized before. Now that the God of Life was on guard, he actually still thought about parasitizing it again? Did he think the God of Life was easy to bully?

The God of Life was speechless and directly plucked him out from deep underground.

Just like that, he was hung in mid-air, all the vines retracting into a ball, like a vine sphere.

The insects had been plucked out, so it was time to extinguish the fire; after all, chopping the tree was only to catch the insects.

There was once a bird that loved to find insects to eat on trees infested with them. After eating the insects, the tree would stop being infested and could grow again.

But sometimes, if it pecked too hard, the insects wouldn't be eaten up, but the tree would be pecked to death. Ang was not that kind of bird; he just wanted to save the Tree of Life. If he couldn't save it, he would still have to chop the insects.

"Extinguish the fire!" Ang shouted loudly.

It wasn't easy to set it on fire, but it was even more difficult to extinguish it.

La Mo waved his staff and quickly chanted a spell: "Ghosts slumbering deep in the earth, slumbering earth spirits, obey my summons, rise!"

The ground rumbled and trembled, and clumps of mud wrapped in black smoke rose up, turning into mud monsters that squirmed toward the Tree of Life, *splat*, slapping onto the tree.

Where the mud covered, the flames were instantly isolated and could no longer burn.

It wasn't just La Mo; the dozen or so Night Watchers also kept casting spells. The mud monsters rushed forward one after another to the burning parts of the trunk, covering an area of several thousand square meters.

But after a while, La Mo and the other undead mages fell into despair. Several thousand square meters seemed like a large area, but for a giant tree with a diameter of several kilometers, it was just an inconspicuous little patch.

"This won't work. If the tree burns out, the mud might not even cover a tenth of it," La Mo said.

"Let us do it! Elf mages, assemble!" Xia Mala said.

"Yes!" Hundreds of elf mages gathered. At the same time, more elves stood on the periphery, and following Xia Mala's order, they mobilized the elements.

The lifespan of elves was too long. Even the least talented elves, including elf archers or hunters, could master some low-level magic within their nearly thousand-year lifespan.

These low-level spells were useless, but their own spiritual power could serve to mobilize elements. With a large number of elves working together, they could mobilize a massive amount of elements from afar to the vicinity.

In spellcasting, elements were the foundation. Without elements, no matter how powerful the spiritual power or how high the magic level, it was meaningless.

With the assistance of a large number of elves, the water elements nearby quickly became increasingly dense, the humidity so high that water could be squeezed out with a pinch.

Hundreds of elf mages, led by Xia Mala, chanted loudly.

The water elements condensed into raindrops, pouring down *whoosh, whoosh, whoosh* onto the torch-like Tree of Life, hissing with bursts of white smoke.

These white fumes rose up, and after drifting into the air, they condensed back into raindrops and poured down again.

Cycling back and forth like this, the water elements kept moving between the air and the torch, carrying away a massive amount of heat and evaporating a huge amount of water vapor, isolating as much air as possible.

The giant torch was thus slowly, slowly extinguished.

By this point, it was already the afternoon of the second day. From the time Ang arrived at the Elf Forest until now, a full forty hours had passed.

"What a long battle," looking at the Tree of Life, which had burned into a charred stick, its surface black and scorched, only half remaining, and its canopy completely gone, Lord Nai Ge let out a sigh.

The elves were scattered and lying all over the ground, especially those mages, many of whom had exhausted their magic power and fallen asleep.

Gai La De, however, was in high spirits. Forty-plus hours without sleep was too easy and normal for a dragon hunter like her.

It was just that looking at the devastated forest, her expression was dim. Everyone could feel the grief on her face.

For the elves, this was absolutely a catastrophe. Looking down from the sky, within a diameter of one hundred kilometers centered on the World Tree, almost all plants and animals had been gnawed away, revealing the bare earth.

The total number of elves living in this area was as high as thirty thousand, but now only over ten thousand remained. Where those missing elves had gone, it went without saying.

Besides the elves, almost none of the other creatures in this area had survived. Those shadow leopards, white deer, apes, birds, beasts, insects, and fish were now just a pile of white bones.

Since the existence of the elf race, it seemed they had never suffered such a painful loss. In less than two days, over ten thousand elves had died. Gai La De's heart was broken.

"Your Majesty the Queen, please accept my condolences," Lord Nai Ge comforted weakly, flapping his wings.

Gai La De turned around, forced a smile, and pulled herself together to say: "Thank you, Lord Nai Ge, and thank you, Lord Ang. Thank you for coming to support us. The elf race will forever remember your help."

Lord Nai Ge hurriedly waved his hands and said: "No need, no need. We came to save the old tree, not to help you."

Black lines appeared on Gai La De's forehead. These words made one want to beat this brass dragon up.

Lord Nai Ge also realized he had been too blunt and hurriedly remedied it: "And to help you along the way."

Gai La De chuckled, not knowing what to say. It would have been better if Lord Nai Ge hadn't added that last sentence; adding it made her want to beat him up even more.

"What are your plans? In the current situation, you can't live here anymore. Do you have a place to move to?" Lord Nai Ge asked.

Gai La De smiled gently and said firmly: "Where the God of Life is, that is the home of the elves. We will build it up well."

"That's good. However, the old tree has burned into this state and won't recover for a while. You need to be prepared for a long-term struggle. If there's anything you need help with, just say so. Ang should be able to help quite a bit, right, Ang..." Lord Nai Ge turned his head as he spoke, but where was Ang's shadow?

"Ku Ba Da, this dead skeleton wouldn't..." An ominous premonition rose in his heart. Lord Nai Ge flew around the Tree of Life and found Ang not long after. This fellow was sowing seeds, with the little angel and little zombie following behind him, burying those seeds into the soil.

"Ku Ba Da, at a time like this, you're still thinking about planting things?" Lord Nai Ge scolded irritably.

Ang ignored him, stomped a footprint, and the little sapling on his head immediately waved its leaves enthusiastically.

One could see those newly planted seeds quickly sprouting tender buds and growing crazily.

Countless insects had been burned to ash and rolled into the air to be scattered; the ground had long been covered with a layer of insect ash.

The Tree of Life had been burned into a bare pole, and the ash it burned into also covered the ground, plus the rain used to extinguish the fire, soaking the earth thoroughly.

Within the range of the Fast Death Aura, countless plants grew like crazy. Gai La De was stunned by this magical scene, staring with wide eyes, looking at all this in disbelief.

A crack suddenly appeared on the charred surface of the half-burned Tree of Life, and a little green bud emerged from within.

"I understand." Lord Nai Ge slapped his waist muscle excitedly and said: "Life force! The growth of plants can stimulate the life force of the World Tree. If we plant the forest back, the Tree of Life can recover."

Gai La De's eyes lit up instantly.

Over the next few days, all the elves in the forest were mobilized. They collected plants from other places and transplanted them around the Tree of Life, restoring the vitality nearby at the fastest speed.

Under the powerful stimulation of a large number of plants, the withered Tree of Life sprouted countless tender buds, glowing with vibrant life.

However, slowly, the elves discovered that the Tree of Life was recovering, but the God of Life seemed to still not want to pay attention to the elves. No matter how Kai Auntie Auntie Auntie Lan Dai Er called to it, it didn't respond. Even when young elves playing on the tree fell off, it didn't care.

The only change was that it no longer drove the elves away, but let them return to live on the tree.

"Perhaps, it is time for us to redefine the relationship between the elves and the God of Life," Kai Auntie Auntie Auntie Lan Dai Er said earnestly.

In the Danhai Plane, Shazhou, Lord Nai Ge helplessly said to that piece of emerald tree core: "Are you really not going back to the Elf Forest? Are you really not going to care about that place? If the elves find out I kidnapped you, they'll come looking for trouble with me again."

A slow voice came from the tree core: "Not going back. I want to change the environment to grow in." ===== CHAPTER 291 =====