234 Return to Capital

First in History!

The sense of achievement was inexplicably pleasant. Leon, who had a part of this achievement felt emotionally proud. 

Who would utterly understand how difficult it had been for the tree spirit to elevate to the World Tree level in this barren world? 

No one could also understand what the tree spirit was feeling either. It had lived underground all its life, not know what sunlight even was in its entire life, but the moment the first ray of sunlight shined upon, it felt like it an incomplete puzzle that just received its missing piece, completing it.

If it knew there was such a thing so close to it and it was only separated by a few hundred feet of earth, it would have long dug its way through to the surface.

Nevertheless, living underground all its life, the moment rose to the surface, it also rose to the peak of life!

The World Tree Tribulation lightning destroyed its body but also remolded it and elevated its spirit. 

Right now, if Leon were to talk to it, he would be surprised to find out that they would finally be able to hold a conversation. 

While the people prostrated to it, they had the illusion of the tree spirit standing tall and lofty while looking up at the sun.

Hm?

The tree spirit suddenly looked towards the west as if it had discovered something. After a moment, there were some shuffling movements in the earth before the World Tree rose to its full 10000ft above ground level. 

It had pulled itself out of the underground and burrowed its tree roots back into the earth. 

Its action also happened to partly cover up the subterranean space with its enormity, but this would still not stop people from coming to visit the monstrosity that appeared out of nowhere. 

If they come close enough, they would also be able to see the empty void of the subterranean space through the gaps where sunlight shone through.

The World Tree was demonstrating its authority and the Elder Tree in the west shivered in subservience to the World Tree's rule.

Endless amount of sunlight was absorbed before spirit energy began billowing out of from the World Tree. 

A comfortable and pleasant washed over everyone as their pores opened and tried to greedily devour the newfound energy in the atmosphere.

The palace guards were surprised, while some with quicker wits directly sat down in meditation and began practicing the breathing technique. 

Lilith blinked for a moment before she reacted the same way, although she appeared to be practicing a different technique.

Leon trained his eyes on her as he sneakily studied her technique. 

With his observant eyes, sharp ears, and divine sense, he could feel Lilith absorbing the spirit energy, but she did not store it in the energy center in her glabella. 

Instead, she stored it in her pore after she refined the energy. 

While everyone was lost in their own worlds, absorbing the spirit energy that started perforating the air, Leon did a quick inspection of himself.

Within his sea of consciousness, the elemental seeds seemed to have made some progress in its merge. 

Knowing that it was only a matter of a few days before the merge is complete after doing a quick calculation, a burden in his heart was lifted.

Disregarding the fact that not being able to do what he used to be able to do was an inconvenience to him, the fact that he could refine pills without relying on earthly fire was a bigger problem. 

'Just a few more days…' Leon silently noted.

His elemental seed commenced its own fusion when the five-element cycle was completed. This should be due to his Five Element Body, but when it did not take that long to form his Five Element Body when he reached initial success.

Was it taking longer for his elemental seeds to merge due to the presence of a 6th element, the lightning seed? 

After the merge is completed, would his soul become the Five Element Soul—No, Six Element Soul? And how would this benefit him? Would he gain some immunity to elemental damages to his soul? 

Leon was amused by his own thoughts. He was not sure, but time will tell.

"Oh?" 

His attention suddenly turned to one of the palace guards and rubbed his chin.

"Not bad, already broken through to the next layer."

Given time, the spirit energy produced by the World Tree would spread across the continent, but the source of it all would always be the densest. 

Right now, this place could be considered a holy land of cultivation. It wasn't on the same density level of the Divine Realm, but maybe one day, it will.

Should he establish his own sect here? He was a prince and could indeed command the kingdom's forces, but it might not be a bad idea to set up his own power of influence.

Once the thought appeared, it stuck to him like glue. 

Perhaps, in the future when they reach great success in their cultivation, he would take the loyal ones with him to wage war on the villainous Divine Kings back in the Divine Realm.

Leon's eyes glinted. 

Every time he thought of the traitorous subordinates and the vile Divine Kings that returned gratitude with malice, he would get flashbacks of his dying father and his heart would be set aflame with great fury.

While rage burned inside him, no changes were seen on the surface. He was gradually learning to control his anger, despite occasional outbursts.

He tried not to think about it and move on.

Glancing around, he began to feel slightly envious of the palace guards. Everyone was cultivating. He was the only one idle. 

"Aish, everyone is cultivating except me," Leon muttered with a slight complaint.

He could not cultivate spirit energy until he removes the pseudo-Grandmist Revolving Core from his glabella. He could only refine some more strands of pseudo-Grandmist energy.

After refining two strands, he stopped.

Perhaps, he was biting more than he can chew by intending to practice and learn so many areas of focus, but life was about learning. 

To live is to learn. If one is not learning, are they even living?

Noticing Elder Evergreen and his villagers have finished their worship, Leon took the initiative to talk.

"I intend to return to the Capital to grab and prepare a few things. Will you be following me back or staying here to set up a new village?"

"What do you mean—"

Elder Evergreen was confused by his question, but midway through asking, he realized why.

"Oh."

Elder Evergreen stared up at the towering World Tree and felt his mouth twitched. 

Their village was at the very top, but the staircase of vines leading up had been overstretched and snapped from the tree's rapid growth.

Having a home that is inaccessible was the same as not having a home, hence Leon's question. 

It wouldn't be difficult to find and set up accommodations for the few hundred 'Elven Spirits' back in the Capital, but they may not be ready to interact with the rest of human society with the language barrier between them.

"I'll stay and settle my fellow villagers down first. After I am done here, these old bones will be yours to command as promised." Elder Evergreen said with seriousness.

Leon was slightly surprised by the elder's words. 

As he slowly recalled, the elder did mention something like that. Although it did not transpire the way he expected, a promise was a promise. 

Leon found it ironic that the Elder had regained his freedom only to lose it again by subordinating himself to him. Nevertheless, this made the elder trustworthy and a man of his words.

He felt slightly awkward inwardly, but he calmly nodded, "En, that's fine with me."

After expending his two newly refined strands of energy to transmit a slightly bigger package of Gaian language to Elder Evergreen, he made some arrangements for some palace guards to stay back and accompany them.

If someone arrives, at least the palace guards would be able to explain and not be troubled by the language barrier.

As for possible conflicts, he believed Elder Evergreen would be able to resolve it. 

After a quick inquiry, he had learned that Elder Evergreen and his villagers had regained access to their cultivation again in their new forms, albeit with some wood element thrown into the mix.

Elder Evergreen was a Seeking Insight-Level Transcendent. He could deter many, if not all people with his powerful cultivation.

With peace of mind, Leon made his way back to the Capital with only half the palace guards. 

Lilith did not follow him and decided to stick with Elder Evergreen and his villagers. 

After receiving the basic language package from Leon, she figured the best way to digest the knowledge was to put it to practice. Likewise, Elder Evergreen also made vain attempts at conversing with her.

However, whether it was the Ancient language or the Gaian language, neither of the languages could be mastered in a single day even if Leon were to transmit the entire knowledge to them.

The two did not progress past the greeting stage and anything beyond that was just headache-inducing for the both of them. 

They decided to sit down and freshen up on their newfound knowledge before striking up another 'conversation'.

After Leon left, the Queen, along with Aria, Lynne, and the 2000 troops finally arrived at the scene.

The palace guards quickly filled them in briefly before a misunderstanding occurred between Elder Evergreens group and the Queen. 

They were disappointed to learn that they had just missed Leon.

"If you leave now, you might be able to catch up to his Highness, Your Majesty." A palace guard said respectfully to the Queen.

Aria and Lynne looked at each other before looking back at the Queen. Elizabeth nodded with a smile and said, "Go. Be quick."

She also missed her son dearly, but she was weighed down by responsibilities. 

She could not be away from the frontlines for too long. They were in the middle of a war and the World Tree had caused quite the stir. She had to stay back to control the situation.

But it was different for Aria and Lynne. Although she could use their assistance, it wasn't a must to have them by her side, so she granted them temporary leave to catch up with her son.

Watching the two ladies disappear into the horizon with slightly flushed faces, Elizabeth shook her head before her smile gradually faded. 

The palace guard mentioned the prince taking half the palace guards with him in their short briefing, but there was no mention of the captain and when she did a quick count, the numbers didn't add up. 

The strongest of their group fell in battle, perhaps? That's is very questionable. 

"Give me the full report. I want to hear everything that happened down there." While facing the palace guard, Elizabeth said with a cold and serious expression.