945 The Artificial World Tree
“Purify.” Lifa cast high-level purification magic onto her landing ground. The surrounding suffocating atmosphere gradually became fresher, and the intimidating aura faded.
p
‘What’s wrong with this place? The last time Nell and Oceanid investigated, this Unknown Continent wasn’t enveloped in an aura like this. Did the Ruvoid Avatar do something here to cause this phenomenon? I must investigate immediately.’ Lifa knew that the Ruvoid God Avatars had carried out their sinister plans for this world.
She immediately went to explore deeper into the continent’s deepest regions to uncover the truth. The enemy’s scheme had to be destroyed before Elysia left the time chamber. Everyone knew Elysia would be sad because of the tragedy, so everyone asked Elysia to practice closed-door cultivation.
The heinous massacre had occurred. Everyone was struggling to stop the destruction and the undead aggression.
“What tower is that?” Lifa noticed a tower like a pagoda that was buried thirteen meters underground. A vortex of suffocating energy radiated from there and spread throughout the entire region.
*Swoosh* *Swoosh* *Bam!*
Thousands of seeds were shot into the sky by hundreds of high-level plant monsters around the underground tower of darkness. These seeds exploded and filled the dim, hazy sky with red flames.
“The audacity of the plants. You dare to attack your ancestor when we come without malice? Or, you have been led astray by the temptation of the accursed?” Lifa and the two little calamity beasts came out of the sea of the fire unharmed, thanks to her barrier.
However, she felt a little sad because the plant race in the forbidden land had become half as corrupted as the accursed.
The high-level plants couldn’t speak the language of other sentient beings, but all shouted in plant language to the Goddess in the sky. They wanted the divine to get out because her presence wasn’t needed.
“The Ruvoid Avatars want to trigger something here, eh? I see… They want to make their version of the Tree of Life, the corrupted World Tree. Unfortunately, we will be stopping their plans since you weren’t the only one speeding things up.” Lifa narrowed her eyes when she noticed a mysterious tree on the ground above the tower.
That tree exuded a strange yet familiar feeling. She was sure it would not bring anything good if she allowed it to grow big here with the nourishment of the dark curse and the surrounding living creatures.
“Roar!” Several gigantic mutated beasts rushed toward the intruder in a fury. They didn’t expect a Goddess-level being to come here to ruin their paradise land, but they wouldn’t let that happen.
“You enjoy a temporary power boost, and it is oblivious that you will be used as nourishment fertilizer when the corrupted World Tree matures.” Lifa sighed and spread her arms. “Almighty push.”
*Fwoosh!* *Boom!*
A ferocious gravitational force suddenly surged, creating a mighty wave that knocked the surrounding gigantic mutated beasts away.
“Gio, Cherub, exterminate the corrupted. I will do something to that underground tower.” Lifa gave her orders.
“Roar!” Gio and Cherub roared with fighting passion. They would go rampage here without worrying about anything.
Their bodies were enveloped by a thick, dense red light. Their forms enlarged and transformed into their proud original forms.
*Boom!*
A violent impact shook the land as the tyrannical earth dragon landed on the ground. Gio manipulates the earth with his four legs to cause a powerful earthquake.
*Swoosh!* *Rumble!*
The extreme thunderstorm enveloped the whole region as the four-winged void dragon appeared within the clouds.
Cherub controlled the four elements in the sky, then fired a deadly dragon’s black fire breath at the gigantic mutated beasts.
*Fwoosh!*
The black fire, crimson lightning, extreme hail, and windstorm soon hit the mutated beasts and the corrupted plants.
*Boom!*
A powerful earthquake rocked the land once more, crumbling the land into devastation and ravaging the terrain.
The corrupted plants and mutated beasts struggled to survive. Still, in the end, they were buried underground, crushed by the severe impact of the subsequent earthquakes.
“Roar!”
“Graa!”
“Screech!”
The high-level mutated beasts and corrupted plants popped out from the ground, enveloped in immeasurable rage and hatred. They survived Gio and Cherub’s opening attack, suffering only moderate injuries.
‘They are alive and well intentioned. Let’s destroy them ASAP.’ Gio stared at the black dragon in the sky, speaking via telepathy.
‘I crave violence and destruction! Let’s raze the continent to ashes and we can go to the other three forbidden continents!’ Cherub flapped his four wings wide, about to release another high-level magic attack.
“The little pets should behave themselves before me.” A gruff voice boomed from above the sky. A humanoid entity descended from behind the clouds of calamity, glaring intently at the two colossal ancient dragons that had just destroyed the central region of the Unknown Continent.
She slapped empty air, releasing tremendous pressure on the two calamity beasts.
*Bam!* *Bam!*
The Cherub fell to the ground instantly, and Gio was rooted to the ground, unable to move.
“I know you are the one behind the phenomenon of change in forbidden lands. Do you think you will succeed?” Lifa appeared out of thin air, hitting the Ruvoid Avatar with a supersonic blast.
The Ruvoid Avatar stabilized herself in midair, unscathed by the surprise attack. However, she found herself impaled by many poison leaf blades. “Heh, cheap trick. If it was your past glory, you might be pretty scary, but you’re just a bud without a stem.”
“Hm, that might be true. My current power cannot rival your strength, but my proficiency in law manipulation would be too troublesome even if the Ruvoid God himself descended before me.” Lifa raised her finger, exploding a mysterious shadow that approached the corrupted World Tree.
“Don’t be overconfident, you deteriorated Goddess avatar. But we were surprised that you hid Elysia from our surveillance. Are you afraid we will hurt your baby girl again?” Ruvoid Avatar was feeling a little irritated that her objective had been discovered. She couldn’t secure the Artificial World Tree before defeating this troublesome Goddess.
“You should be worried for yourself since you are not the only one who is good at strategy. I didn’t expect you to try to take over the world law by creating an artificial World Tree, but that plan has failed.” Lifa snapped her fingers.
A formation she had just placed around the corrupted World Tree activated, causing the tree to rot and vanish into ashes.
The Ruvoid Avatar widened its eyes in shock because her objective had disappeared. The World Tree she had cultivated in the past few days with so many resources and sacrifices was destroyed instantly. She gasped and stared at the green-haired Goddess with an intimidating blood-red gaze. “You, you, you, I will kill you!”
*Swoosh!*
The Ruvoid Avatar shot up with lightning speed, hitting Lifa with a force of curse.
*Bam!* *Shatter!*
Lifa’s barrier shattered into pieces. She crossed her arms in front to minimize the impact.
“Kuh, then, I’ll accompany you to dance. State your code number now, or I might forget about you later.” Lifa activated the anti-curse field and then healed her injured arms.
I am Number Four, the Executioner. Your group has become arrogant after defeating Numbers Two, Three, and Eight. Elysia or her master might have a chance to meet with fierce strength, but not you.” Number Four disappeared into thin air and immediately reappeared behind her opponent.
*Pew*
“!?” Lifa threw her body aside as fast as she could to dodge. The void slash barely grazed her hair.
*Boom!*
Lifa was counterattacked, but Number Four wasn’t a vegetarian either. Each clash tore the Unknown Continent to pieces, obliterating some of the unfortunate creatures that happened to be devoured in the collision between the two divine magic laws.
When the immortals fight, the ones who would suffer are the mortals. Gio and Cherub fled from the battlefield, watching from a safe distance.
“Rawr.” A particular injured mutated beast growled.
*Bonk*
Gio whacked the noisy mutated beast with his tail, asking the others to be quiet. He and Cherub had lost any reason to rampage and destroy the territory because their opponent could finally behave.
Because of the last tremendous blast, the mutated beasts were sober and could think clearly about who the boss was there. So, no one dared to challenge the two super-class calamity beasts.
Although, the real reason was that the mutated beasts had been freed from the influence of the corrupted World Tree. Unfortunately, the corrupted plants weren’t so lucky since the cursed tower was still there.
Lifa’s battle against Number Four had taken nearly an hour, but Lifa suddenly backed away and took a safe distance. “I think that’s enough. I don’t want to fight with you anymore. My objective has been achieved.”
“Where has your pride and pride gone? You want to go, but will I let you?” Number Four frowned. She felt something was wrong here.
She was smart, but her opponents weren’t inferior either. She outsmarted her opponent several times, but it happened the other way around. The two parties suffered minor injuries from that short battle and were still far from annihilating the opponent.
“Your friend, probably Number Nine, has taken back that underground cursed tower. I haven’t checked what it is, but I will be at a disadvantage if you cooperate. I want to go, and you can’t stop me.” Lifa flew towards Gio and Cherub.
“Stop right there! Ugh!?” Number Four spat out a mouthful of black blood. Her core was contaminated by a strange poison that ruined her transformation. She was soon melting into a formless mass of black liquid.
“Number Nine is much weaker than all of you, but the one who will beat you won’t be me. That’s all from me, farewell.” Lifa took the giant earth dragon and black dragon away to the far north with a flash of teleportation.
Number Four repaired the damage and removed the poison. She took Elysia’s form immediately, then angrily shouted at the sky. “How dare you to run like a btch, green tree! Argh, hateful!”
One of their plans on the Unknown Continent had failed. It was frustrating because everything was happening right under her nose. The Executioner failed to execute her opponent even after almost an hour of fighting.
*Kaboom!*
“Useless!” Number Four vented her anger on the corrupted plants and the surrounding ground. Not a single living being in the Unknown Continent’s central region survived her wrath.
“Number Four, please calm yourself down. The plan went ahead even though one of our master’s grand plans was thwarted. You are marked with a strange marker, and it becomes dense after you remove the poison in your core with curse energy.” Number Nine held Number Four from behind, trying to calm the angry one.
“Marker? What marker? I can’t feel it. Don’t you dare to speak nonsense, Number Nine.” Number Four was silent for a moment, confused by the revelation.
“Look at your core. There is a rune that you can see, but can’t detect. That Goddess of Life is the master of all runes and formations. Someone powerful from their side will immediately hunt you down.” Number Nine announced in a panic.
“Heh, let them come at me. I’m not afraid. After Number One, I am still the undefeated, the Executioner. Elysia was the biggest threat, but she was beyond weak on several specs. They were trying to play into our plans. Let’s see who would win.” Number Four grinned widely.
Elysia and the Goddess of Light disappeared from the world. Still, the so-called divine group scattered to various places to deal with the undead attacks. The future clashes would be even more interesting because Number One had started to make her move.
With that thought in mind, Number Four and Number Nine left the Unknown Continent. They needed to do several things to do considering that Elysia’s divine group was currently overwhelmed by the revived heroes, undead, and demonic beings.