Rubble Wastes.
On this land where sunlight never seems to reach, desolation and ruin are eternal themes. Everywhere the eye landed were shattered walls and gray-black rubble;
not even a weed could be seen growing.
Little Ka remembered the King's orders and set off riding on Peachy’s back.
Its task was to search this lifeless land for any plant that might still be alive.
With the summer Magical Tides approaching, the undead wandering the plains had grown unusually restless. From time to time clusters of chaotic mana would gather out of thin air in the ruins like ghostly flames, drawing hordes of undead like moths to a flame to fight over them.
Peachy snuffled and trudged along the ruins with a slow, steady gait, tramping through everything and completely ignoring the agitated undead.
Soon, following clues provided by the Poison-stinger Wasp scouts, they reached a ravine rumored to emit strange lights — the very end of the Rubble Wastes.
Theoretically, if one passed through this ravine and continued forward, traversing the dangerous Poison Fog Valley and the lethal Death Swamp, they would reach the Gore wastes where the Stone Descendants lived.
“Clack clack, Peachy, wait here.”
Through the hazy poison fog, Little Ka spotted a faint glow at the bottom of the ravine that seemed to be getting closer.
Before long, some strange trees that emitted a phosphorescent glow became clearly visible to it.
“Clack clack!”
Trees! The glowing trees unique to the Dark Realm!
Little Ka cried out with joy and tried to land on a branch that looked thick enough to hold it.
But just as it approached, a terrifying “hiss” sounded from among the tree’s leaves.
The next instant, a massive serpent covered in glowing scales lunged out from the shadowed branches, opening its gaping maw to bite Little Ka.
“Clack!” Startled by the serpent’s attack, Little Ka flapped its wings desperately and barely climbed out of range, narrowly escaping the fatal strike.
“Clack clack! Bad snake!”
“Peachy! Help!”
It flew back up to fetch reinforcements.
The glowing giant snake proudly flicked its crimson tongue, coiled on the branch, arrogant that it had successfully scared off a “winged creature.”
But it hadn’t been proud for more than a few seconds before the poison mist above tore open and a huge shadow plunged straight down.
“Thud!!!”
The heavy impact made the entire ravine tremble. In the dust, before the serpent could retreat to its nest, it saw a gigantic boar exhaling cold white mist approaching with heavy steps.
Riding on the back of that massive creature was the little one it had just driven away.
Oh no... the serpent’s mind emptied into a single thought.
This is the end.
In an instant, a bone-chilling cold swept through. The poor glowing serpent didn’t even have time to struggle before Peachy’s frosty breath froze it into a crystal-clear serpent-shaped ice sculpture.
With several cracking sounds, it shattered into pieces scattered across the ground.
Peachy snuffled, ambled over, nudged the frozen chunks of snake meat with her nose, and then began to chew heartily without any manners, clearly delighted at the food delivered to her door.
After a few bites, she seemed to remember something, lifted her head, and with icy-blue eyes looked beseechingly at Little Ka.
“Big brother, eat.”
Little Ka stared at the frozen serpent meat that was several times larger than its entire body and shook its head quickly.
“Pack it up and take it back, let the King taste it.”
Peachy obediently stopped eating, then carefully uprooted the healthiest-looking glowing tree with her tusks and nose, and held it gently in her mouth.
With Little Ka’s help, she also struggled to load the frozen serpent meat onto her broad back.
The two of them circled the ravine, found a gentle path, returned to the Rubble Wastes, and headed back toward the Graystone Bulwark.
When Little Ka and Peachy returned to the monster army’s camp outside the Graystone Bulwark with their spoils, Chen Yu had just finished training and the abyssal black hole inside his gel had slowly shrunk until it vanished entirely.
His attribute panel had undergone an astonishing change.
——
Race: Sage Slime
Rank: Silver Lv.8 [EXP: 78/90]
Cultivation: Qi Training Lv.9 [Spiritual Energy: 90/90]
Life Status: Flourishing [HP: 80,000/80,000]
……
——
Chen Yu felt the mana in his body so full it could not increase further.
His Qi Training cultivation had reached Lv.9 and could not progress without a breakthrough. Unless he could find the Crown of Ignis and assemble the Two Treasures of Yin and Yang, his level would remain stuck.
His health was even more absurd — a full eighty thousand points.
Chen Yu suspected his current HP might rival those of the legendary monster lords.
And that was just from devouring some scattered undead roaming the plains.
His mind couldn’t help wandering;
if he could swallow an actual undead calamity, how exhilarating would that be?
He realized he was getting a bit inflated, even daring to covet an undead disaster.
By the time he snapped out of it, Little Ka and Peachy had already approached and dropped the glowing tree and the frozen serpent meat in front of him with a thump.
“King, tree.”
“And meat.”
Little Ka stepped forward and nudged the frozen serpent chunks with its head to show their haul, but it was too small to budge the hard ice blocks.
Chen Yu hopped over and curiously asked, “Where... did this meat come from?”
“Picked it off the tree.” Peachy drooled and snuffled in reply, simple and straightforward.
Chen Yu tried activating Abyssal Big Belly again and swallowed all the frozen serpent meat in one gulp.
The panel changed: maximum HP increased by thirty points.
Turns out the serpent meat was fairly nutritious.
Honestly, though, things directly consumed and digested by the black hole tasted like nothing — like drinking plain boiled water.
If only he could fry the meat on a stone slab until it sizzled, sprinkle a little salt and spices... it would probably be delicious.
Just imagining it almost made Chen Yu salivate.
But business first.
He hopped over to the fallen glowing tree. It still emitted a gentle glow, but its vitality had noticeably faded.
Perfect to try the Forest Sage’s new ability.
How to use it?
His little brain thought for a moment. Then he raised his gel hand, pointed sternly at the glowing tree, and said gravely:
“Transform!”
[Sage Enlightenment]
Instantly, the World Tree within him released a dazzling radiance. Natural power gathered into green bands of light that drifted out of the gel, gently wrapping the glowing tree.
The wilted tree seemed reborn;
its luminous veins shone brighter than ever.
Its roots came alive, stretching deep into the earth. The trunk creaked and began to twist and reshape, gradually carving the rough outline of a tree face. The formerly soft branches hardened and gained toughness, as if donning a wooden armor.
Within a dozen seconds, a glowing treant with the stout silhouette of a sturdy guardian stood before Chen Yu.
Leaves rustled atop its head, and it bowed respectfully to Chen Yu, as if saluting him.
Oh, it really can become a treant!
Chen Yu’s round eyes lit up instantly.
He examined more closely. The so-called “Natural Source” seemed to be the natural energy contained in the World Tree illusion inside him.
This energy could be used to cast, condensing into droplets of life.
These life droplets had powerful healing effects — as long as there was a breath left, they could bring someone back to life, and they could restore HP, functioning like an extra life bar.
The recovery from the Natural Source was relatively slow, requiring time to accumulate;
otherwise he’d truly become unbearably inflated.
Originally, the entire Dryad domain had fewer than thirty treants in total;
even if all of them transformed into Arcane Ancient Trees, it still wouldn’t be enough for a decent army.
But now things were better.
Enlightening a bronze-grade treant guardian like this consumed only about one-fifth of the World Tree’s source.
In other words, he could enlighten five such treants in a single day.
Although treants had strict environmental needs and a sage forest could only sustain a limited number of treants, at least the quantity of treant guardians was no longer a pressing worry.
However, turning each treant into a more powerful Arcane Ancient Tree and then upgrading them further still required large amounts of Ancient Resin.
Thinking this through, even if he emptied the Slime Kingdom’s treasury and converted all seized enchanted equipment and magical items into Gold Coins, it still wouldn’t be enough.
The Slime Kingdom... was still too poor.
He needed Gold Coins — lots of Gold Coins!
Chen Yu hopped, eyes blazing as he stared toward the dark silhouette of the Bulwark’s inner wall in the distance.
He remembered that the vampires seemed wealthy;
they casually spent thousands of Gold Coins.
Although the Graystone Bulwark consisted of three city walls, only the outer and inner walls remained intact. The last wall had crumbled halfway from the long passage of time.
If he could break through that final inner wall, the prosperous Evernight Domain would be right before him.
Shiny Gold Coins waited ahead.
Chen Yu’s small eyes brightened. He was ready to order an all-out assault to topple this last bulwark when Beet vibrated her wings and flew over to land before him, bringing news from the front.
“King, the vampire envoy wants to see you, to negotiate.”
“The one who often comes to the fortress to trade.”
“Casimir?”
Could the vampires be at their breaking point and want to surrender?
That would be fine.
He glanced at the drizzly sky.
It had rained nonstop these past few days, and with the summer Magical Tide coming soon, he didn’t have time to waste continuing a prolonged conflict in the Dark Realm.
It was time to end this.
……
Time rewinds to half a day earlier.
Vampire castle, meeting hall.
Crimson velvet curtains were tightly drawn, blocking outside light. The ancestral portraits of vampire forebears hung on the walls, hidden from the candlelight, their gazes seeming to watch those below.
A long table sat in the center of the hall, surrounded by a dozen pale-faced, worried vampire elders, who were embroiled in heated argument.
“We still have the inner wall. The inner wall has more magic formations and a more complex structure;
it will certainly hold them back.”
“Foolish. Do you think any number of magic formations can stop those pitch-black artillery emplacements that rival ancient alchemical cannons?”
“What about a sneak attack? Send elite assassins to infiltrate their camp and destroy those emplacements...”
“Don’t be delusional. The Stone Descendants have clearly conspired with the monsters. I believe everyone here knows how formidable our old foes are.”
“Sneak assassin teams are a joke — walking into the trap!”
“……”
At the center of this fierce quarrel, Dunlan remained seated in the main chair, eyes closed in meditation, as if the surrounding heated debate meant nothing to him.
Casimir couldn’t help but steal glances at him.
He felt Dunlan had changed a great deal recently. Whether it was the colder temperament or the increasingly unfamiliar appearance, Dunlan’s demeanor while casting felt stranger and stranger.
The fate of the vampire clan must not rest on such a peculiar mage.
Casimir thought to himself that he had to do something, for the family and for himself, to find a possible way out.
While the elders still bickered, Casimir stood, the sound of his chair scraping unusually clear in the noisy hall.
“Everyone, quiet.”
“I have a plan.”
At those words, the arguing gradually subsided. All the vampire elders, including the once-closed-eyed Dunlan, opened their eyes and fixed their gazes on him.
Facing the crowd, Casimir smiled confidently and said, “I’ve negotiated face-to-face with those slimes before, so I know them a bit.”
“These creatures are ravenous for shiny Gold Coins and rare magical materials. With enough bargaining chips, perhaps I can attempt to broker a ceasefire and secure a dignified outcome for us.”
“Oh?” Dunlan showed interest.
“Are you sure those monsters will accept your negotiation?”
Of course... he wasn’t sure.
Casimir even felt that before he proposed talks, those slimes might throw him out.
But he had no choice. For the sake of tasty Life’s Blood and the vampire clan’s future, he had to go.
His smile didn’t waver. He laced his fingers and placed them on the table, projecting an odd aura of confidence.
“My dear Dunlan, rest assured.”
“If I could close the previous talks, this time will be no different. With enough capital, I will bring good news back to you.”
The vampire elders were moved;
even Dunlan nodded slightly.
“Excellent, Viscount Casimir, the fate of the clan rests in your hands.”
Casimir maintained his smile, made a ceremonial bow, and said with implication, “Dunlan, you will not be disappointed.”