Chapter 804: The Eternal Forest
Soon, the greenery amongst the red began to get clearer, and Lin Li finally saw the branch that was being shrouded in a faint green-colored l.u.s.ter. It was a branch that was roughly the length of a human arm and about only two fingers thick. There were several smaller branches at the top, with seven fresh green leaves growing on the branch. It was full of life, and anyone would be able to sense the intense vitality in it with just one glance.
Lin Li walked towards the branch of the Tree of Eternity, and stopped to take a deep breath. He could not detect the hot flames at all, and he instead felt a wave of fresh and natural scent that wafted up to his nose and spread to his lungs. After just one deep breath, Lin Li felt as if his body had been cleansed inside out. Every pore of his seemed to have been refreshed; that was a feeling that Lin Li had never experienced with the Tree of Eternity. Clearly, the branch of the Tree of Eternity was full of vitality, just like he had expected.
Unfortunately, the branch of the Tree of Eternity did not belong to him, and he couldn’t use it to revive the Seed of Eternity! Lin Li sighed secretly, and calmed himself down before observing the branch of the Tree of Eternity carefully again. Lin Li had never seen the real Tree of Eternity, which was cared for by the High Elves who were perfectionists, and he had no idea how beautiful it was back then. Staring at the branch of the Tree of Eternity in front of him now, he felt like it was the most indisputably perfect work of art in the world, even though it was only an insignificant branch.
The branch of the Tree of Eternity was green like emerald, and it was also exuding a faint green glow, with no spots or flaws at all. The entire branch was smooth and felt a little crystal-clear. However, layers of cloud-shaped patterns could be seen on the branch through the faint green glow, making it look even more mysterious. The smaller branches were evenly distributed around the main branch, with an appropriate distance between each other. A slight s.h.i.+ft would seem absurd, and the entire arrangement was extremely pleasing to the eye. There were seven tender green leaves scattered on the twigs, continuously exuding fresh and intense vitality.
At this moment, Lin Li did not even dare to reach out, fearing that a slight touch would damage the beautiful piece of art. After a long time, Lin Li finally snapped out of his trance and stopped being mesmerized by the beautiful artwork. Instead, he grabbed the branch of the Tree of Eternity relentlessly, and turned around to fly towards Rogge without admiring it further.
“You took such a long time to collect a branch. I really don’t know how you obtained the power that you have now,” Nefa grumbled in dissatisfaction. In fact, he was purely just expressing his displeasure with Rogge.
Lin Li ignored Nefa, and simply handed the branch of the Tree of Eternity to Rogge respectfully. Of course, he had secretly decided to s.n.a.t.c.h the branch of the Tree of Eternity back from Nefa after Rogge handed it to Nefa.
“Okay, Felic, it’s time to talk about our matters next. After the battle begins, you have to be more careful. I may not have the energy to take care of you anymore,” Rogge said to Lin Li concernedly after he grabbed the branch of the Tree of Eternity.
“Don’t worry, High Priest, I’ll pay attention to it,” Lin Li said with a nod. He actually didn’t feel that Rogge’s words had hurt his self-esteem. After all, with Lin Li’s current abilities, he couldn’t stand strong in such a high-level battle even though he had a certain status in Anril. It would be an impressive feat for him not to become Rogge’s burden.
Rogge held onto the branch of the Tree of Eternity, and did not immediately give it to Nefa. Instead, he walked to the pa.s.sage to the fire Elemental World and placed it on the ground gently. Lin Li found it to be a little strange at first, but when he saw that Nefa was remaining silent, he immediately understood that the two of them should have had a discussion when he was collecting the branch of the Tree of Eternity. Although Lin Li wasn’t informed, he didn’t find there to be anything wrong with it, because he saw himself as an insignificant figure in the battle. Hence, he felt that it would be fine for him not to know about some things.
However, Rogge clearly did not forget about Lin Li. After putting the branch of the Tree of Eternity away, he stood up, but did not turn around. Instead, he said to Lin Li, “Mine and Nefa’s powers alone are not enough for us to fight the Flame Dragon Lothar. Hence, we’ll need the help of the branch of the Tree of Eternity. After the Flame Dragon Lothar enters this world, I hope we’ll be able to suppress his power.”
Lin Li suddenly realized that Rogge simply wanted to set a trap using the branch of the Tree of Eternity. After all, the Flame Dragon Lothar’s fire Elemental Power was a little destructive in nature, and using the power of the branch of the Tree of Eternity would provide some restrictive effects. However, regardless of the effects, they could only pin some hope on it, like Rogge mentioned. No one could control it to make it come true.
After explaining it to Lin Li, Rogge remained silent, and stood near the branch of the Tree of Eternity where he extended his arms and began chanting a long spell which didn’t sound like a language that Lin Li recognized. However, he felt a strange sense of familiarity.
Lin Li couldn’t understand the meaning of the characters that made up the spell, but he could clearly sense the pure and immense Divine Power in every word that Rogge chanted. Lin Li suddenly thought about the Holy Light Magic that he had learned from Rosario at the Brilliance Shrine, only to realize that the spell Rogge was chanting seemed to be rather similar to the prayer Rosario chanted when he performed the Holy Light Magic. It was no wonder he found it familiar.
Despite having discovered the reason for the sense of familiarity that he felt, Lin Li got even more curious. Rogge was the first high priest of the Darkness Shrine, and he definitely had unparalleled accomplishments in Dark Magic. However, his ability to make the Dark Force contain pure light attribute was indeed a little incredible. Although Lin Li also knew that the relations.h.i.+p between the Brilliance Shrine and the Darkness Shrine was not as hostile as most people thought, he also realized that light and darkness were interdependent. Light would make darkness more intense, while darkness would allow light to look even brighter. However, darkness was still darkness, and light was light. Even though Lin Li had created the Light and Darkness Domain, the two powers were still distinct and separate. Why did Rogge allow the Dark Force to contain the attributes of light?
At this moment, Rogge had already stopped chanting. He seemed to have sensed Lin Li’s confusion. Although the battle was about to begin soon, he still continued to patiently explain to him, “The ignorant ones often think that light and darkness are stark opposites, while those who have a deep understanding of the two forces would understand that the extreme of Darkness was light, and vice versa. Hence, the Brilliance Shrine and Darkness Shrine have never thought of completely destroying each other even though they have always been at odds. That’s because the ones who truly understand the ultimate power of the two will understand that the two forces are each other’s most intimate companion!”
“The extreme of darkness is light, and the extreme of light is darkness…” Lin Li repeated quietly. All of a sudden, something seemed to have shattered in his mind, and a strange sense of enlightenment suddenly appeared.
In the beginning, Lin Li used the power of Holy Light and Gloomy Dark to create the Light and Darkness Domain using the nomological power of ice as an intermediary to maintain the coexistence of light and darkness. At that juncture, Lin Li was probably like the ignorant ones who had thought of the power of Light and Darkness as two opposing forces.
Afterwards, Lin Li stopped bothering about the laws of ice after he gained some enlightenment about the Rules of light and darkness. At this point, he had a certain understanding of the interdependence between light and darkness. Not only was there no conflict, they could even strengthen each other. That gave rise to the lethal Light and Darkness Sword.
However, at this stage, Lin Li still could not make a breakthrough in the field of Light and Darkness magic, even though he had read the Light Bible in the Brilliance Shrine where he learned about Holy Light Magic from Rosario, and also read the Darkness scripture in the Darkness Shrine and learned about Dark Magic from Sendros. However, Lin Li could only feel that he had a deeper grasp of the power of Light and Darkness—he still did not achieve a real breakthrough in the field of Light and Darkness magic. That was also the very reason that Lin Li had been stagnating at the peak of level-23. It seemed that there was an invisible barrier that was preventing him from crossing the threshold to level-24.
Rogge’s words might seem inexplicable and ridiculous to some people, but Lin Li felt that his simple sentence was the key to his breakthrough to the next realm. However, although it sounded simple, it was still difficult to execute it. If he really wanted to break through using those words, he wouldn’t be able to do so within a short period of time.
Nefa, who was being idle and waiting at the side, could tell that Lin Li was actually enlightened by Rogge’s words even though he was feeling disdainful towards him. He had no choice but to admit that the young mage Lin Li was extremely talented in magic, so much that he actually felt jealous. Recalling that he had plotted against Lin Li previously, he felt a little regretful, but he thought about the Flame Dragon Lothar, and stopped regretting his decision because he felt that Lin Li might not necessarily survive encountering the Flame Dragon Lothar.
Sensing that Lin Li seemed to have had a moment of epiphany at this moment, Rogge smiled with gratification and relief. However, he also felt a little regretful because if they were in a different environment, Lin Li would perhaps be able to break through the Legendary-realm with his epiphany. Unfortunately, it was not the time for him to feel emotional, because they were about to face the Flame Dragon Lothar anytime soon. Lin Li’s att.i.tude would actually bring him even more lethal dangers. Rogge could only hope that Lin Li would gain more enlightenment! Rogge sighed, but did not stop stimulating the branch of the Tree of Eternity.
The slender branch of the Tree of Eternity on the ground quickly began to grow countless hair-like roots from the cut that was made at the bottom, which roots then plunged into the red lava on the ground continuously. If it had been an ordinary plant, it would have been burned into ashes by the high temperature before it even touched the lava. However, the roots of the branch of the Tree of Eternity not only plunged into the lava fearlessly, it also caused the lava to turn into a hard, black rock as if it had lost its heat. The hard, black rock was then crushed under the power of the roots and turned back into black soil. With the growth of the branch of the Tree of Eternity, the process continued, and it soon expanded to the surrounding areas, creating a large fertile ground.
The branch of the Tree of Eternity which was initially slender also expanded like a balloon during the process. The main branch became a thick trunk, and the smaller branches also became longer and thicker, giving rise to more twigs and smaller branches which subsequently turned into sprouts. The sprouts could be seen spreading outwards at a visible speed, and their color slowly turned from light green to emerald. The leaves had also formed a huge crown in the blink of an eye.
With the continuous expansion of the black soil, the roots that originally grew from the branch of the Tree of Eternity suddenly emerged from the ground one after another, and quickly became thicker. There were more branches and sprouts, and the branch gradually turned into a buff tree. The lava on the ground of the red fire Elemental World had turned into black soil, and redness in the s.p.a.ce was quickly devoured and replaced by green. Within just a brief moment, a dense forest was formed, exuding vitality that filled the entire area. The aura of the fire Elemental World seemed to be unable to penetrate the world of greenery, either.
At this moment, Lin Li had already snapped out of his trance; he was well aware that he could no longer allow himself to continue to feel at ease. Otherwise, he might not even know how he died. However, after sobering up, Lin Li was already facing a whole different world, and he could not help but be shocked as he observed everything in the surroundings. He almost thought that he had arrived in another world.
The forest in front of him was not inferior to the Emerald Forest that was inhabited by the elves. In fact, it was much more beautiful; its only flaw was that there were no birds in the forest. Otherwise, it would be a beautiful and amazing paradise that offered a perfect scenery.