Chapter 82: Nearly Slashed to Death by Wild Sword Swings (Two and a Half Chapters)

Without realizing it, Seeing Ange's magic had improved again — he could now cast first-tier magic with both hands at the same time….

Why is it still first-tier! Didn't you say he'd improved!?

That's right, he has improved — his mana recovery speed has improved again! Nai Ge Li Si spat a mouthful of blood on the spot after hearing that, if it could still spit blood.

But it wasn't absolute either; his magic tier was limited by his mana. If he cast with the right-hand Locke's Hand, the mana would briefly pool in the Mourning Hand Bone, allowing him to cast second-tier magic.

So Seeing Ange could now cast second-tier magic with Locke's Hand, and if the spells cast were Purify, Clear Complexion, or Rain — due to proficiency, the effect would be optimized, reaching the power of fourth-tier magic.

Fourth tier was a threshold for mages; once crossed, one could call oneself an intermediate mage.

But Seeing Ange achieved this effect with second-tier magic — fourth-tier power, second-tier mana cost, max-tier mana recovery. If anyone was unlucky enough to exchange magic blasts with him, they'd find themselves facing a human-shaped fourth-tier magic shotgun… though that shotgun's Rain spell was meant for watering fields.

Finding Seeing Ange was like seeing a granary. Luther's restless heart finally calmed down. He found a random spot to rest for a bit, when suddenly he heard a flurry of hurried footsteps.

He turned his head — the little zombie was spreading its arms wide, balancing its posture like wings, charging straight down the slope into the valley, legs flying so fast they were almost leaving afterimages.

Reaching the edge of the rift, the little zombie let out a loud "Ao!" toward Seeing Ange, holding something high in its hand — a wraith gripped tightly in its grasp.

Seeing Ange had the angel skeleton fly back: "Got it, go reincarnate." With that, he called out to Nai Ge Li Si in his heart.

After Seeing Ange armored the wraith warrior onto himself, the little zombie said it wanted one too. He'd originally planned to armor a black warrior onto it, but after some negotiation, Nai Ge Li Si said it knew the boss on the other side and it wouldn't do to poach his subordinate, so the little zombie didn't get armored. These past few days it had been running off on its own, saying it would catch wraiths.

"Wraiths aren't that easy to catch — wild wraiths are ferocious, and the little zombie's soul isn't strong, yet it wants to catch wra—" Nai Ge Li Si cursed and complained as it flew back, muttering in disbelief the whole way, until it saw the wraith in the little zombie's hand.

"You really caught one? How did you catch it? Isn't this wraith's soul stronger than yours?" Nai Ge Li Si was shocked — the wraith in the little zombie's hand clearly had a stronger soul than the little zombie. How did it 'catch' it?

"Ao!" The little zombie threw a couple of punches in demonstration.

"…Injure it first, then catch it — that works too? Its soul is stronger than yours and you still beat it, impressive." Nai Ge Li Si was speechless.

It was indeed a method, but in the undead system, a strong soul usually meant strong power. A wraith with a stronger soul actually being injured by a little zombie with a weaker soul — really… were all the freaks around Seeing Ange like this?

"Then hurry up, while it's still dazed from being beaten — reincarnate it quick." A crowd of them swarmed into the cave where the Reincarnation Altar stood.

Although the soul flame consumption had been a bit high lately, there was still enough to activate the Reincarnation Altar — and it kept coming in steadily.

Every moment, he could feel two points in the soul network — Lisa and Ock — continuously delivering soul flame into his soul. What was stranger was that Silver Coin's point also had some; though not a constant stream, whenever it came, it came with great fervor, as if performing some kind of ritual.

Adding the new believers from Demon Valley, the daily new soul flame alone stayed around two thousand five hundred — enough for him to cast one Quick-Death Aura once, with a little left over, more than enough to activate the Reincarnation Altar.

Nai Ge Li Si said to Seeing Ange: "You do it, I'll teach you. Your spiritual power and elemental control are freakishly strong, and your soul strength is high too — you're simply the best candidate to preside over the Reincarnation Altar. Forget reincarnating a wraith warrior, even reincarnating a lich or undead would have a very high success rate. In the future, anyone who wants to die can just come to you."

Different people presiding over the Reincarnation Altar had vastly different success rates — anywhere from twenty percent to eighty percent. Living people turning into liches had a higher success rate; undead turning into black warriors had a much lower one. But no matter which, there had never been a hundred percent success.

Without the Reincarnation Altar, a living person turning into a lich had a terrifyingly low success rate. With some auxiliary materials, it could be raised a bit, but it was hard to exceed fifty percent.

Why had Filin presided over Lich City for so many years, yet the number of liches could still be counted on one hand? Even when Klein Ge wanted to reincarnate, he didn't dare guarantee it — the success rate was just too low.

But Seeing Ange's situation was too special. Nai Ge Li Si had never seen anyone with spiritual power as high as his — even the old Jian Gu Luo Ke might not have been this high.

Jian Gu Luo Ke was the Lord of Mourning, his soul overwhelmingly powerful, second only to a sovereign — but could his spiritual power have been as freakish as Seeing Ange's?

And the Reincarnation Altar precisely required powerful spiritual power and precise control. Control need not be mentioned — Seeing Ange had been using magic to pollinate crops for over a thousand years; having him thread a needle with the pollination spell would be effortless.

With these conditions, Seeing Ange should be able to reach an eighty percent success rate for living people reincarnating into liches, and around sixty for undead reincarnating into black warriors.

The Reincarnation Altar activated, the wraith was thrown in. Six stone pillars shot out beams of light that struck the wraith; its spirit body reorganized under the altar's power, rapidly becoming solid.

A materialized wraith stood dumbfounded on the altar.

After a long, drawn-out branding and armoring process, the little zombie finally armored the wraith warrior onto itself. After adjustment, two extra… hoes appeared on the little zombie's hands — handle-less hoes fitted over its hands like a pair of claws.

Nai Ge Li Si couldn't bear to watch. Why hoes? Had it been led astray by Seeing Ange!!!

The angel skeleton had seen Seeing Ange's armoring earlier without much reaction, but now seeing the little zombie's armoring, it was indignant — it ran over, pointed at the little zombie, and let out an "Ao!" at Seeing Ange.

Before Seeing Ange could respond, the little zombie ran over, thumped its own chest: "Ao!"

With that, it was about to run out again, ready to catch more wraiths. The angel skeleton followed it out too, but in no time at all, both came back dejected — it had gotten windy outside.

……

Luther held it in until everyone was done and the Reincarnation Altar had stopped, then he pointed at the teleportation array beside them and said: "I just remembered when I heard about the World Tree — it was the teleportation array. Silver Coin told us about it."

Earlier outside, when Nai Ge Li Si mentioned the World Tree to him, Luther had felt like he'd heard that name recently, but for the moment couldn't recall where. It wasn't until he saw the teleportation array that he remembered.

Silver Coin had taken the initiative, collecting a lot of ironware, rope, tools, daily goods and the like, continuously transmitting them to the small teleportation array in Bingcheng.

The projection array was too expensive to use, so they could only slowly transmit through the small teleportation array, like ants moving house.

During the transmission, Silver Coin had mentioned the name World Tree.

This was how Silver Coin had put it: "Those elves have gone crazy. They say the World Tree has sprouted, and they're demanding humans hand over the World Tree sapling, or they'll launch a holy war. Right now the whole world is looking for the World Tree."

"Oh right, do you guys want a World Tree branch? Just anonymously connect to the elves' teleportation array, and they'll give you a sick branch for free. If you can Heal the World Tree, you'll gain the elves' friendship — I've already claimed one."

Anna said: "We don't know how to cure a sick tree, what would we want it for?"

"As a decoration, of course! A withered World Tree branch as a decoration on the table — the whole class goes up several levels. If you have some business to discuss, just lead someone into the room and it'll stun them on the spot. They see I'm so wealthy and powerful I can use a World Tree as decoration — won't they just obediently fall in line?"

Anna was stunned by this advanced business thinking, and couldn't help asking: "What if the other party doesn't recognize the World Tree?"

Silver Coin scoffed: "Doesn't even recognize the World Tree — what qualifications does he have to do business with me? If he didn't recognize it before, that's understandable, but now the elves have made such a huge commotion, and someone still doesn't recognize it — that person definitely isn't a merchant."

Anna was full of admiration, but she still refused: "Forget it, I'm not doing business, and I can't cure diseases. It'd be a waste of teleportation array space — I don't want it. For us, no matter how luxurious a decoration, it's not as useful as a shovel."

Silver Coin nodded approvingly — this was a person who clearly knew what she wanted, not bewitched by vanity.

……

After Luther finished speaking, Nai Ge Li Si and Seeing Ange exchanged a glance. In Seeing Ange's eye sockets, the soul fire flared up for a moment.

Silver Coin on the material plane had just finished showing off his World Tree branch decoration to a former colleague when he received a bolt-from-the-blue message: "Lord Seeing Ange wants my World Tree branch?"

"He does." Seeing Ange touched the symbol belonging to Silver Coin and spoke through soul.

Perhaps he hadn't controlled the intensity of his soul — the mental intent made Silver Coin's head buzz, and he hurriedly replied: "Yes, yes, yes — Lord Seeing Ange, please wait a moment, I'll teleport it over right away."

"Send it here." Seeing Ange said, sending Silver Coin a new teleportation array marker.

The vast majority of teleportation arrays didn't have coordinate maps or anything like that. They interconnected mostly through markers. Without a marker, you'd need to know the precise coordinates of a particular teleportation array — searching aimlessly, the odds of finding another teleportation array were vanishingly small.

"Yes, my lord." Silver Coin replied respectfully.

Cutting the connection, Silver Coin took a regretful glance at the World Tree branch on the table. Just as he'd said, the thing had no real practical function, but its uses weren't small — possessing it represented having at least one teleportation array, a symbol of strength and credibility. Business partners seeing it could feel that much more at ease.

Under equal conditions, others would certainly choose to cooperate with a merchant who possessed a World Tree branch and a teleportation array.

But what could be done? Lord Seeing Ange wanted it, so they could only grit their teeth and part with it.

Hurriedly packed and teleported.

After the transfer, Seeing Ange had him receive it, then sent over a potted sapling: "Returning your sapling."

Took your branch, returned your sapling — fair exchange.

But Yinbi was bleeding money: "M… my lord, this is a sapling of the World Tree?"

"Yes."

Yinbi only felt the flowerpot seemed to be burning, burning so hot he nearly lost his grip and knocked it over — this was a scorching-hot sapling.

……

With the newly acquired branch inserted into the essence liquid, repeating the same method, Seeing Ange obtained another new fruit; hollowing out the fruit, he got over a thousand seeds.

The useless fruit was tossed aside casually, but before it hit the ground, a 'horse' appeared ghost-like before the fruit, snatched it in its mouth, and ran.

"Hey, leave some for me!" Luther was a step too slow, cursing as he chased after it.

When he caught up to Lightning, he saw it had already bitten off half the fruit, then was spitting at the other half.

"Hey, Lord Nai Ge, come, let's saw this horse's horn off together, I'm furious." Having known each other less than an afternoon, Lightning had successfully enraged the Sword Saint as well — if there were such a skill as 'aggro-pulling,' this horse would absolutely be max level.

……

Three days later, Yinbi, carrying his newly bought general store box, arrived before the elves' Green Leaf City, at the border between human and elven territories.

Because of the elves' unusual movements, within just a dozen or so days, a temporary little town had spontaneously formed here. All manner of buildings and tents sprouted up like bamboo shoots after rain; merchants, mercenaries, assassins, spies, slave traders, information brokers — all kinds crowded this little town.

The elves were happy to see it, because only in such a chaotic situation could humans fail to unite their front, unable to speak with one voice. The elves even dispatched troops to station directly at the town's gate — anyone with intelligence to offer them, once verified, could receive a reward.

But this also caused the town's gate to be packed with people every day. The elves were too beautiful — whether or not they had intelligence, people came just to feast their eyes.

"Excuse me, please let me through, let me pass." Yinbi struggled through the crowd, unable to push past the lecherous old men in front of him for the longest time.

"Get lost, what's with the shoving, damn goblin — can a goblin like you even look at elves? You can't even reach." The man in front, shoved and irritated, cursed and shoved back with his backside.

"I need to get through, I need to find the elves, I have good news." Yinbi shoved hard, shoved hard.

Nobody believed him: "A stingy goblin merchant — since when did you switch trades to selling information?"

"Don't bother trying to do business. These past days, the goblins thrown out are too many to count. The elves only want news about the World Tree — don't waste your effort."

Well, not only did he fail to push through, he got pushed back out by others. Turning around, he felt something was off on his body, reached into his chest to feel — good grief, the coin pouch was gone.

"Damned thieves." Yinbi cursed through gritted teeth. Who would have thought that coming to Green Leaf City, he wasn't slashed or captured, but blocked by a bunch of lecherous old men, and lost his coin pouch to boot.

Fortunately, the general store box was clutched in his arms, with an anti-theft strap — those damned thieves couldn't get at it, otherwise it would have been gone too.

He found a secluded corner, opened the general store, took out a round ball from inside, then returned to the town entrance and tossed it into the crowd of lecherous old men. The ball burst open in a cloud of powder, smearing onto those people.

"So itchy, so itchy, #￥#(@ so itchy." The surrounding crowd screamed and scattered in all directions.

"Itch you all to death, ptooey." After the powder cloud dispersed, Yinbi sauntered leisurely to the elves' tent: "Hello, I wish to request an audience with Her Majesty the Elven Queen, I have news about the World Tree."

The leading elf glanced at him and said: "We don't buy things."

Indeed, quite a few money-mad goblins had come to hawk all sorts of products at them, making them unable to even work in peace — goblins did have quite a few things that genuinely appealed to them.

"I have news about the World Tree."

"Liars get hanged from a tree, they might die." The elf threatened. At first there were quite a few brazen fellows who used fake intelligence to deceive people, but after a few were hanged, no one dared try it again.

"I have news about the World Tree."

No matter how the elves questioned him, Yinbi firmly repeated this one sentence, and finally he was brought into Green Leaf City.

"I have news about the World Tree, I must see the Queen, I won't speak unless I see the Queen."

"I have news about the World Tree, I must see the Queen, you can't make this call."

"I have news about the World Tree, I must see the Queen, if it's fake you can hang me."

Under his unremitting insistence, an elven priestess used magic to probe his forehead, and only then was he allowed to see Gai La De.

"You insisted on seeing me — I hope the intelligence you bring is worth my audience." Gai La De said solemnly.

Some brazen fellows really did use every method to cheat, to bluff, all just to see Gai La De once, not even fearing death. Facing such fanatics, Gai La De had gotten a bit scared herself, hoping the goblin before her wasn't that sort.

Who knew Yinbi would directly close his eyes and declare loudly: "Your Majesty, if I have brought news of the World Tree, what can I obtain? No — what can my master obtain?"

"Your master? Who is it?" Gai La De asked. Yinbi voluntarily closing his eyes added a touch of goodwill toward him — at least it showed this goblin didn't have those impure motives.

"I can't tell you now." Yinbi answered loudly.

Gai La De pondered for a moment, then said slowly: "If your master is not an evil person, then he shall gain the friendship of the elven race."

"Uh, Your Majesty, I don't quite get it — what is the friendship of the elven race? Buying things, does it come with a discount?" When Yinbi said 'discount,' he deliberately put on a flippant tone — this was a negotiation tactic, to let the other party sense his disdain for the 'offer.'

The friendship of the elves? Can you eat it? In business, the most annoying thing is this kind of vague return — what if the other party's 'friendship' is just treating you to a few meals?

Gai La De clearly didn't have as many petty calculations as the goblin, and said with some annoyance: "To gain the friendship of the elven race — whoever dares to make an enemy of him makes an enemy of the elven race. He and his descendants shall receive the elven race's protection; no one may harm him. Even if he dies and his clan is destroyed, the elven race will not betray the friendship."

Yinbi was so shocked his eyes flew wide open. Hey — so THAT was what 'friendship' meant. A friendship not betrayed even by death and clan destruction — this promise was far too solemn.

But Yinbi didn't let it go to his head, and continued asking: "What is 'evil'? Defined by you, by humans, or by the Church of Light?"

"Of course it is defined by the World Tree." Gai La De said as a matter of course.

"Very well, please Your Majesty swear an oath in the name of the World Tree."

For the sake of the World Tree's news, Gai La De swore an oath in the name of the World Tree. The World Tree was the god of the elven race — this was a divine oath, with absolute binding force.

Only now did Yinbi finally breathe a sigh of relief. Don't be fooled by his brazenness — with one bottle of essence liquid he'd dare to subvert a Light Cultivator, with one sapling he'd dare to hoodwink the Elven Queen — but throughout the process his entire heart had been hanging in suspense.

"I don't have news about the World Tree…."

"You! Scoundrel!" The nearby elven guards angrily drew their swords and rushed out, intending to hack this goblin who had made a fool of their queen into pieces.

Yinbi was scared out of his wits, and blurted urgently: "I brought the World Tree sapling, I brought the sapling!"