Chapter 442: Are You That Famous?

The God of Life moved with exceptional speed through the forest; though its body wobbled as it walked and its steps were not large, each step caused the plants beneath its feet to assist its motion, as if gliding, and it soon arrived before Ang.

The sapling vigorously waved its true leaves: whoosh—long—whoosh—long—

The God of Life smiled broadly, and a green leaf sprouted atop its head in perfect accompaniment.

Nagelis flew over excitedly and plucked off the green leaf.

It had once been ignorant of value, but now it realized that even a single leaf falling from the God of Life was a treasure.

The God of Life didn't seem particularly concerned, playing with the sapling as it asked, "Looking for me?"

Ang nodded and said, "Tree hollow, transfer."

The God of Life froze, clearly not understanding Ang's words.

Nagelis also didn't understand: "What tree hollow?"

Ang scratched his head, organized his vocabulary, and said, "Divine body, tree hollow, to the tree." As he said "to the tree," Ang pointed at the God of Life.

"Oh, you mean that thing? You still remember something so far back? Yes, yes, tree hollow." Nagelis immediately spun around and turned to the God of Life.

"A few years ago, we were chasing that Divine Body, and you grabbed it, then led us to yourself—we passed through a dark passage woven from trees, and transferred onto you. Do you remember?"

The God of Life spoke slowly: "Old age… I remember."

Nagelis nearly stumbled into the trap of that drawn-out pause—remember or not, why emphasize "old age"?

It grumbled: "So can you open a tree hollow and transfer our people over?"

"No, too far," said the God of Life.

Ang nodded, indicating he understood, placed the sapling on his head, and turned to leave.

"That's it? Don't go, don't go, stay and play a bit longer." The God of Life resembled an elderly human whose grandchild was being taken away—Nagelis almost shed a tear of sympathy.

In the past, the God of Life was so calm—speaking slowly, never speaking unless asked, even the elves' priests praying daily received no response. Now it was asking Ang to play longer…

Ang nodded and began playing in the forest with the sapling on his head. What was there to play with in the forest? Of course, collecting seeds.

The God of Life walked beside them, occasionally teasing the sapling, which responded enthusiastically, occasionally emitting: whoosh—whoosh—oh—whoosh—whoosh—information, as if communicating in some manner.

This was the second being capable of communicating with the sapling. Though the sapling daily urged everyone to "grow hard," it couldn't understand others' speech—only Ang could communicate with it, and now the God of Life was the second.

Nagelis asked curiously: "What are you saying?"

The God of Life replied: "I'm teaching it the experience of life."

Nagelis was astonished: "Experience of growing a World Tree?"

How could it teach such experience? It couldn't even coax a World Tree to sprout—surely Ang knew more about this.

The God of Life shook its head: "The experience of life—all of it."

"Pfft—you're not afraid of bursting it?" Nagelis nearly spat blood.

The World Tree lived a hundred thousand years, witnessing countless lives grow—how vast was the scale of such experience? Would the sapling be overwhelmed before learning even a fraction?

The God of Life was startled: "Burst? Knowledge never bursts anything. Besides, it's stronger than I am—it can contain all life."

"Stronger than you?" Nagelis stared at the sapling in the pot, no bigger than a sprout, utterly unable to associate it with strength.

Ang painstakingly collected seeds. Seeing how difficult it was for him, the God of Life casually pulled out a handful—more complete than what Ang had gathered himself.

Ang silently looked at his own collection, then at what the God of Life offered, and sat down on the ground to sort them.

Peaceful time passed swiftly—suddenly, a tremendous roar echoed, and a giant tree toppled in the distance.

The God of Life tilted its head, listening for a moment: "Some strange thing is cutting down trees."

"Strange thing? What strange thing?" Nagelis asked.

The God of Life replied: "I don't know. The trees say, 'Don't recognize it.'" Then it went back to teasing the sapling.

"Uh, cutting trees—you're not going to stop it?" Nagelis couldn't help asking, seeing how unconcerned it was.

The God of Life, seeing someone destroy the forest, wouldn't intervene?

"It's part of nature. Beavers chew through trees to build homes—no need to interfere with beavers," the God of Life said slowly.

True—if the God of Life intervened every time someone cut trees, would it also stop animals from eating grass? Predators from eating herbivores? Elves from eating Life Fruits?

It only intervened now because the elves had erred; before, when they hadn't, it didn't even stop them from restricting its seeds. To it, extinction was part of nature—it had witnessed countless plant and animal extinctions over its hundred-thousand-year life.

Besides, this forest wasn't under its protection. If someone dared cut down trees Ang had planted, Ang would already be charging forward with his scythe.

Boom! Another giant tree fell. The God of Life tilted its head.

Not long after, boom—another tree fell. Almost one per minute, ancient trees hundreds or thousands of years old crashed down—efficiency was too high.

The God of Life finally couldn't bear it anymore, stepping forward and sprinting toward the distance: "This isn't part of nature…"

Ang and the others hurried after it, soon seeing what was cutting the trees: a massive logging construct, its right hand a giant claw, its left a giant saw blade, operated by goblins.

The claw gripped the trunk, the blade spun at high speed, and with a single cut—ssssss—it severed the tree.

Around the logging construct hovered airships and flying vehicles, dragging the felled trees, trimming them into logs, cutting them into equal lengths, then hauling them to the other side of the mountain range.

"It's the Mage Alliance," said Nagelis.

The God of Life moved faster; by the time Ang and the others saw the logging construct, it had already reached the goblins.

The goblins spotted it and immediately sounded the alarm; weapons of unknown nature on the airships and flying vehicles targeted it.

"Stop! Stop! Unknown entity, halt your approach!" A booming voice rang out from one of the flying vehicles.

The God of Life continued walking, speaking slowly: "You destroy the forest… leave…"

Before it finished speaking, a hiss—fire erupted from the front vehicle, blasting violently against the God of Life.

The fire column, ignited by some unknown substance, clung like adhesive to the God of Life's body and burned fiercely, quickly reducing it to ash.

"Uh… no way, Old Tree? Old Tree? Are you alright?" Nagelis couldn't believe its eyes—the God of Life had been burned to ash by a single fire column?

A tree beside Nagelis cracked with a pop, revealing a face: "That's some fierce flame…"

"Phew, scared me half to death. How did you get so weak? Even this flame can hurt you?" Nagelis sighed in relief, then began mocking.

Though it knew Old Tree had no true body in this world—only a treekeeper—it couldn't be compared to the God of Life in the main plane, whom even the Undying King avoided.

But watching it turn to ash, Nagelis still couldn't help worrying—thankfully, it was unharmed.

Ang picked up the Death Scythe.

Pop—crack—the tree split open, and the God of Life emerged as a tree-kin, stopping Ang: "Let me handle this. I want to teach the sapling some combat methods of the World Tree."

The tree-kin swung its branches, emitting enthusiastic signals: whoosh—long—whoosh—long—

As it swung, trees, grasses, and vines throughout the forest released something—the entire forest became shrouded in mist.

The mist quickly enveloped the whole forest, including the distant goblin loggers, who grew alert and donned their helmets.

Each goblin wore a fully sealed helmet, with crystal panels covering the eye area; according to Du Luo, this was a helmet allowing breathing underwater.

Meaning, even if the mist were poisonous, they wouldn't inhale it.

Too bad they faced the God of Life. Soon, every goblin felt their skin mold over, white mycelium sprouting across their bodies, limbs stiffening, unable to move or cry out.

The mist cleared. The airships and flying vehicles remained where they stood, but inside each cockpit now lay dozens of goblin corpses, entirely covered in mycelium.

"Ku Bada! So all those green mists you released on the elves were just to scare them off? This trick is monstrous! Anything alive entering that mist dies of mold?" Nagelis shuddered violently, imagining a copper dragon covered in mycelium, instinctively pulling away from the God of Life, fearing it might spray mold onto itself.

Ku Bada—previously thought this old tree harmless, easy to bully—never imagined it could be this terrifying when serious?

"Living things?" The God of Life shook its head.

When Nagelis dragged out the goblin corpses, it understood why—the bodies were shattered, bones pulverized. Now, not only living things, but dead things entering the mist would also mold.

No wonder the Undying King avoided it—a hundred-thousand-year-old super-tree was truly not to be trifled with.

Old Tree didn't care that it had frightened Nagelis—it was already teasing the sapling: "Did you learn?"

The sapling responded enthusiastically: whoosh—hard—long—hard—long—

In the pot, a Holy Mushroom rapidly sprouted, its cap opening, releasing a flood of spores that fell to the ground, quickly sprouting, opening caps, and releasing more spores.

After several cycles, clusters of Holy Mushrooms grew densely around Ang's position—a bountiful harvest.

Ang forgot everything else, ordering the angel and the zombie to harvest the Holy Mushrooms.

Nagelis covered its face, unable to watch—Old Tree released a mist attack, but the sapling released Holy Mushrooms. Why had it become just like Ang—turning every skill into something to plant?

Old Tree saw nothing wrong, smiling broadly: "Hehe, learned, learned! So fast! Here, I'll teach you mutated spores."

Teaching and learning, they played happily. Ang seized the opportunity to collect all the logging constructs and airships into his divine realm, planning to send them to Du Luo for study.

Each flying vehicle carried a Null Sphere—Du Luo had high interest in such weapons.

But when he received the last few vehicles, the communication device on one suddenly activated: "Hello? Hello? Logging team, what happened? Are you hearing me? Why are all your Life Stones shattered? Logging team, logging team, what happened? Are you hearing me?"

The call continued until Ang shut down his divine realm.

"They have a lot of communicators—each flying vehicle has one, and even the two-seaters have one per seat. The range seems long—could these signals be coming from the Mage Ladder outside North Wind City?" Nagelis said.

Anthony had smaller communicators with longer range, but these couldn't be compared.

Anthony's were custom-made magical communicators—expensive to make and difficult to maintain. Ang and Nagelis had never wanted his devices, since Soul Calling was more convenient.

But the Mage Alliance's communicators were issued to everyone—two-seater vehicles had two, meaning these were standard-issue equipment.

Also, what was this "Life Stone" mentioned in the communicator? If it shattered, did the Mage Alliance already know these loggers were dead?

Suddenly, a soft rustling echoed through the forest. The God of Life immediately said: "Someone's coming. Powerful life force."

It extended branches to wrap everyone up, pressing them against a giant tree, rapidly growing until it fused Ang and the others with the trunk—outside, only a slightly thicker tree trunk was visible.

Soon, a human mage radiating a surging life force flew over the former logging site, scanning the area warily.

Ang sensed a wave of detection sweep over the tree they were in, but the God of Life concealed them with some unknown method.

Sensing the mage's surging life force, Nagelis whispered in the soul: "Strong mage—around Du Luo's level."

The human mage deemed the area safe, flung his cloak, and landed, immediately planting a staff into the ground.

The staff's tip glowed red; each pulse emitted a wave spreading outward—clearly a detection wave.

After planting the staff, the mage began inspecting the scene, speaking into the communicator: "Logging team missing. Their constructs gone. No signs of dragging or movement—likely stored in a space item."

"Found bodies. Uh—trouble." The mage wrapped his cloak around himself, covering every inch of skin.

"We found their bodies—their deaths were bizarre. Their entire bodies were covered in fur, the kind that's moldy. And it seems they were all wearing helmets, meaning the fungal filaments could penetrate through the skin."

"Me? I should be fine—I've kept my shield active the whole time, but just to be safe, I put on my battle armor," the sorcerer said into the communicator, apparently speaking to someone, though the voice on the other end was too faint to hear.

"The enemy must have fled—I've activated soul detection; no one can hide from my soul detection."

As he spoke, the sorcerer suddenly reached out toward the corpses on the ground. Purple light immediately surged from his hand, drawing up all the soul fragments from the bodies.

Nagelesis couldn't help speaking within the soul: "Bad—did you erase the souls just now, Old Tree? He can absorb souls—he can extract memories from the corpses' soul fragments, and then he'll know who killed them."

But no sooner had he spoken than Nagelesis sighed: "I forgot—they didn't even know how they died. All they saw was a white mist."

As Nagelesis finished speaking, the human sorcerer had already reviewed the memories in the soul fragments. He cried out in shock: "No! The Silence Mist—it's the Life God's Silence Mist! How could the Life God of the Divine Realm's Silence Mist appear here?"

Divine Realm? The Life God? The Silence Mist? Nagelesis's thoughts involuntarily turned to the Life God: Are you really that famous? Do even sorcerers here know you?