Chapter 81

His actions drew attention; a man ran over from afar and shouted, “What are you doing? Don’t dig up the trees.”

“Huh? Dig up trees? No, no, no—I want to protect it. I’m building a mound around it, or the Wind of Rest will kill it,” Lu Se explained.

“Oh, no need to protect it. The Wind of Rest won’t kill it—it grew under that wind’s caress. There are many more trees over there.”

Following the man’s gesture, Lu Se ran over and found a sapling every few paces—some robust, some crooked—but none showed signs of having been battered by the Wind of Rest. Could Lisa have been right? Had Lord Ang tamed the Wind of Rest?

After running some distance, Lu Se finally saw what he could understand: several saplings surrounded by stone walls built from stacked rocks.

“There’s still the Wind of Rest, otherwise why build walls? Each sapling’s arrangement differs—could this be an experiment? Like Lord Ang’s control groups?” Lu Se murmured.

All his doubts ended when he saw a row of tree walls—far ahead, a green wall appeared on the horizon. As he drew closer, he saw a line of trees, each one man-high, spaced five or six meters apart, far more robust than any he’d seen before, and strangely shaped.

Normal trees grow upward, but these saplings had been pruned at the top—each stretched horizontally, with thick lateral branches and dense foliage, filling the gaps between trees and appearing like a wall from afar.

This growth pattern wasn’t like a tree—it was more like a shrub—but the leaves were unusually lush. It was bizarre.

Many people moved around the tree wall; one yellow figure flitting about stood out sharply.

“Lord Nai Ge!” Lu Se felt as if he’d found family, and flew over, bursting with questions.

“Oh, it’s Lu Se? What are you doing here? Good, come on, one, two, three—lift!” Nai Ge Li greeted him, then shouted to the others; together they lifted the tree between two others and transplanted it seven or eight meters away, forming a second row of tree walls.

Lu Se rushed over to help, lifting as he asked, “Lord Nai Ge, why move these trunks? Isn’t the tree wall meant to block the wind? Moving them defeats the purpose!”

“We’re studying the optimal wind-blocking arrangement. This damn tree doesn’t just block wind—it neutralizes the Wind of Rest’s destructive force. The wind passing through the gaps turns cool,” Nai Ge Li said with disdain.

It really blocks the Wind of Rest! Lu Se was stunned—his guess confirmed. What kind of damn tree was this? It was a divine tree!

“How isn’t it a damn tree? It needs one environment to sprout, another to grow. Too dense? No good. Too sparse? No good. Planting only it? No good. Watering? Useless. Fertilizing? Useless. It only thrives when nearby crops grow strong. Annoying as hell—I’m going mad. If it weren’t for surviving the Wind of Rest and blocking it a bit, I’d have ripped it out long ago.”

Lightning peeked out from behind a tree: “Dig it up! Dig it up! Dig it up~~~.”

“Hey, it’s Lightning! Hello! Wow, your horn’s grown so much!” Excited, Lu Se felt affection for anyone now—he lunged to hug Lightning, who sidestepped smoothly.

“Nice dodge!” Lu Se’s competitive spirit flared; his battle aura surged, accelerating him forward.

Last time, he’d been distracted because Li Youna rode it; this time, one-on-one, he soon grabbed the half-palm-long stub of its single horn and dragged it back.

“Hey, hey, let go, let go, or I’ll shock you!” Lightning struggled weakly, afraid to fight back.

Nai Ge Li burst into laughter: “Good! Good catch, Lu Se! Hold it tight—I’ll get a saw and cut off its horn. Kua Ba Da, now I know why its horn broke—I’m cutting it off right now!”

Nai Ge Li flew off excitedly to fetch the saw, but when he returned, Lightning was gone—Lu Se’s waist now bore a sack filled with beet roots.

Nai Ge Li cursed Lu Se bitterly, then used his stubby hands to prune excess branches from the saplings.

“Lord Nai Ge, don’t be angry—I’ll catch it again later. Please don’t cut the trees; you might kill them. By the way, you haven’t told me what kind of divine tree this is—how can it withstand the Wind of Rest?” Lu Se thought he’d angered the Huangtong Dragon and hurried to soothe him.

“Kill a tornado? I’m pruning it! You said you’d catch it again later. Trimming the branches makes it grow neater and faster—and no more seeds. Lord Ang said to try cuttings. Ha! If it works, the elves will go mad.” Nai Ge Li laughed heartily.

“Elves? Why would elves go mad?” Lu Se asked, confused.

“This is the World Tree. The elves can’t even sprout it from seeds, let alone cuttings. But it grows painfully slow at first, then becomes impossible to grow later. And after planting so many, not one has developed consciousness—no awareness at all. It can’t even be called a World Tree,” Nai Ge Li sighed.

“Elves? Wait—I’ve heard something about elves lately. Why would they go mad? Is this the legendary World Tree? Is it theirs? Isn’t it good to grow it?” Lu Se asked, baffled.

Nai Ge Li paused. Why had she always assumed the elves would go mad? Wasn’t growing the World Tree a good thing? Shouldn’t the elves be delighted to know it?

She realized—perhaps it was because, when she’d been a guest among the elves, their arrogance and reverence for the World Tree had shaped her perception. Those elves had scowled at anyone who approached the World Tree, let alone someone else growing it.

Thinking of this, Nai Ge Li’s mischievous streak surfaced. She whispered, “What if we sold these World Tree saplings to the elves? What do you think?”

Lu Se didn’t care what anyone thought—he had none of Nai Ge Li’s mischief. He only wanted to find Lord Ang: “Where is Lord Ang?”

“Growing vegetables. Where else? He’s overused the Rapid Death Aura too much—he’s drained. Now he’s growing vegetables the normal way.”

At the terraces of the Great Rift, an angelic skeleton carried Ang’s shoulder blades, floating slowly through the air. Ang stretched his arms wide, continuously casting Rain Spell; droplets sprayed from his palms like a garden sprinkler.

Lu Se’s face twisted: “This method is truly ‘normal’—is Lord Ang casting two spells simultaneously with both hands?”